THE FIFTH VICTIM.

Beverly Barton.

To my precious niece, Ja'Net Horton, who is as beautiful inside as she is outside. I remember the first time I saw her when she was a little beauty of eight and I was dating her uncle. I knew then that I wanted a little girl who looked like her-blond curls, blue eyes, and sweet smile.

Prologue.

Dark. Cold. Predawn quiet. Wind whipped through the tall, ancient trees in the forest. Soon the sun would ascend over Scotsman's Bluff. He was prepared, ready to strike the moment the morning light hit the altar. Once the deed was done, once he had sacrificed the first victim, the ritual would begin anew. As soon as he tasted her sweet life's blood, he would no longer feel the winter's cold. Her blood would warm him, empower him, prepare him for the others who would lead him to the most important transposition of his life. All these years he had diligently searched for perfection, for the most powerful, all the while building his strength, bit by bit, with lesser mortals.

He gazed down at the naked girl tied to the wooden altar, her long blond hair flowing about her angelic face as the frigid wind caressed her luscious body. Her eyelids fluttered. Good. That meant the drug he'd given her was wearing off and she would be awake for the ceremony. He loved to see the look on their faces-the shock and horror-when they realized what was about to happen to them.

Flinging back his dark cape, he smiled. There was no need to hurry. He could take his time afterward, savor the kill for as long as he liked. No one in their right mind would be out in the woods at dawn in January. Only he and the girl.

He laid the ornately carved wooden case atop the girl's trembling body, opened it and removed the heavy sword, then placed the case on the ground. Gazing up at the sky, he waited.

She whimpered, but the gag in her mouth kept her from doing more. He glanced down at her, ran his hand over her naked b.r.e.a.s.t.s and lifted the sword toward the heavens.

A pale pink blush spread out over Scotsman's Bluff, only a hint of color in the dark sky.

"Soon, my little lamb. Soon."

Languidly, with tendrils of light reaching farther and farther into the sky, the sun welcomed the dawn of a new day. He jerked the gag from her mouth. She screamed. He brandished the sword and spoke the sacred words in an ancient tongue.

From the depths of h.e.l.l, hear me and do my bidding. Let this sacrifice please thee. I bid thee to accomplish my will and desire.

He brought the sword down, down, down. From throat to navel, he split her open. Her sightless eyes stared up at the towering treetops overhead.

He wiped the sword with a soft cloth and returned the weapon to its bed, then stuffed the bloodstained cloth into a plastic bag and dumped the bag into the case. With her blood still warm, he lowered his head until his lips touched the gaping wound. He licked, then sucked, filling his mouth with her blood and energizing himself with her life force before it escaped.

Genevieve Madoc woke with a start, sweat drenching her body, soaking her flannel gown. Her heart beat at a dangerously accelerated pace as she shot straight up in bed.

"Oh, G.o.d! Oh, G.o.d!" she moaned as she recalled her dream, a shadowy, terrifying vision of death.

Uncontrollable tremors racked her body. She hated these moments directly following a revelation, when she was weak and vulnerable. Drained of all energy, barely able to move. She fell backward; her head hit the pillow. She would call Jazzy for help once she regained enough strength to reach out to the nightstand for the telephone. But for now she would lie still and wait. And pray the images would not return. Sometimes the sight came to her in dreams, but just as often she experienced it while wide awake.

Rising from the handwoven rug in front of the fireplace, Drudwyn's keen eyes searched the darkness, seeking his mistress. He uttered a concerned whimper.

"I'll be all right," she told him, her voice a delicate whisper. Then she spoke to him telepathically, a.s.suring him that she was in no danger. The big, mixed-breed animal lumbered to the side of the bed, then slumped to the wooden floor. She sensed his mood and knew his protective instincts had automatically kicked in. The dog she had raised from a mongrel puppy considered himself her bodyguard. Like she, Drudwyn's heritage-the results of a wolf having mated with a German shepherd/Lab-mix mutt-made him unique. Her ancestry, comprised of Scots-Irish, English, and Cherokee might not be all that uncommon in these parts, but the gift of sight she had inherited from her grandmother was.

As she lay in bed, waiting for her strength to renew, she couldn't help thinking of the vision she'd had. Out there somewhere, a young woman had been murdered. Genny knew it as surely as she knew her own name. She had not seen the girl's face, only her flawless naked body and the huge sword that had sliced her open as if she were a ripe melon. Bile rose from Genny's stomach and burned a path up her esophagus to her throat.

No, please, I can't be sick. Not now. I don't have the strength to crawl out of bed. She willed the nausea under control.

Who could have committed such a heinous crime? What sort of monster would sacrifice a human being?

Her cousin Jacob had mentioned that there had been several animal sacrifices in the area-four since Thanksgiving. Had those been nothing more than a precursor to the killing of a human?

After she called Jazzy for help, she would call Jacob. It would be too late for him to do anything to help the woman, but as the county sheriff, it would be his job to investigate the murder.

What will you tell him? Genny asked herself. If you explain that you've had another vision, only this one far more gruesome than any you've had before, he'll understand. He's your blood-kin. He won't dismiss your vision as nothing more than a dream.

Fifteen minutes later, Genny forced herself to ease to the edge of the bed. She lifted the telephone receiver and dialed Jazzy's number. The phone rang five times before a harsh voice answered.

"Who the h.e.l.l's calling at this unG.o.dly hour?"

"Jazzy?"

"Genny, is that you?"

"Yes. Please-"

"I'm on my way. Just stay put."

"Thank you."

The moment she heard the dial tone, Genny punched in Jacob's home phone number. He picked up on the second ring. Always an early riser, as was she, her cousin was probably in the middle of preparing his breakfast.

"Butler here," he said, his voice gruff and deeply baritone.

"Jacob, it's Genny. Please, come to my house...now."

"What's wrong?"

"I've had a dream...one of my visions."

"Are you all right?"

"No, but I will be. I've called Jazzy. She'll be here soon. But I must tell you..." Her voice suddenly failed her.

"Tell me what?"

She cleared her throat. "Someone has been murdered. A young woman. I'm sure you'll find her body in Cedar Tree Forest, not far from here. I saw...through the killer's eyes ...I saw-" She sucked in a deep breath. "He watched the sunrise over Scotsman's Bluff."

"Are you sure, Genny? Are you positive it wasn't just a nightmare?"

"I'm positive. It's too late to save her, but you can find her body and perhaps find some evidence of who killed her-if you can get there soon. I think I can guide you to the exact spot."

"Ah, s.h.i.t..." Jacob murmured under his breath.

"Jacob?"

"Hmm?"

"He tied her to an altar of some sort and sacrificed her. I-I think he drank her blood."

"G.o.d d.a.m.n son of a b.i.t.c.h!"

Chapter 1.

FBI Special Agent Teri Nash glanced at the fax in her hand. A letter and a photograph. While waiting for Dallas to shower and shave, she'd sat down at his cluttered desk in the corner of the living room. The fax had come in while she'd been relaxing with a gin-and-tonic. Dallas and she hadn't dated in several years, and she was actually involved with a profiler at the Bureau, but she still considered Dallas a good friend. Since his niece's death eight months ago, she'd tried to keep tabs on her old lover. Although he'd handled Brooke's brutal murder as he did everything else-with little emotion and iron control-she'd seen past his steely facade to the pain beneath. Once he'd returned to FBI headquarters in D.C. after Brooke's funeral, he'd begun a personal search for any information that might lead him to his niece's killer. Using the Bureau's vast resources for unofficial use had become a bone of contention between Dallas and the a.s.sistant director of the Criminal Investigation Division. Although Dallas and Tom Rutherford disliked each other personally, Tom had allowed Dallas a lot of slack. Teri wondered for how much longer?

She read the fax for the third time. The message was in response to a letter Dallas had sent out to local law enforcement officials nationwide. This was the seventh such response in the past few months, but she had a sinking feeling that this was the one he'd been waiting for ever since Brooke's murder. Teri didn't want to look at the faxed photo again. Once had been more than enough. It wouldn't be easy forgetting the sight of the young blond girl with her body sliced wide open. Teri shivered.

The sheriff of Cherokee County, Tennessee, had reported what appeared to be a sacrificial killing in his county early this morning. The details of her death were practically identical to those of Brooke's horrific murder in Mobile, Alabama, in May of last year.

As Teri finished scanning the information again, she shook her head and sighed. The minute Dallas saw this fax, he'd be off and running. On some sentimental, protective level, she wished she could just dump the fax in the garbage and pretend it didn't exist. Even though her love affair with her fellow agent had been short-lived and had ended three years ago, she still had strong feelings for him. The poor guy had been through enough, had followed too many dead-end leads these past few months. She hated to see him go off on another wild-goose chase, searching for an elusive serial killer. That is, if there was a serial killer. Dallas had come up with his own theory that there was a barbaric serial killer on the loose. Besides, she wasn't sure how many more vacation days he could take before he used them all up. Or how much longer Rutherford would put up with Dallas's absenteeism.

Dallas Sloan, his dark blond hair damp from his shower, emerged from the bathroom adjacent to the small bedroom in his three-room efficiency apartment. Teri sucked in a deep breath. d.a.m.n, the guy still took her breath away. Wearing nothing but his white briefs, he exposed his tall, lean body for her perusal. A dusting of brown hair covered his legs and arms and created a V over the center of his muscular chest. Teri forced her gaze from his body to his face. He grinned at her. Wickedly.

"Just enjoying the scenery," she told him. "Not buying the property."

"What have you got in your hand?" he asked as he stared point-blank at the fax.

"This?" She held up the two sheets of paper as if they were a trophy. "It's a fax."

"l.u.s.ting after my body is one thing, honey, but reading my mail is something else altogether." Dallas rummaged around in his closet, pulled out a pair of well-worn jeans, put them on, then removed a cream knit sweater from the chest of drawers and yanked it down over his head. "Who's the fax from?"

Teri walked over to where he'd sat on the bed and was putting on his socks. "It's from Sheriff Jacob Butler in Cherokee County, Tennessee."

Dallas slid his feet into his boots, tied the laces, and then glanced up at Teri. "Is it about-"

"He's had what appears to be a sacrificial killing in his county." Teri held out the fax. "This morning."

Dallas grabbed the papers out of her hand, scanned them quickly, then cursed under his breath. "I need to call him-now." Dallas stood. "Look, honey, why don't you go on and meet the others. If this is what it appears to be, I'll be taking a flight out tonight for Tennessee."

Teri grabbed his arm. "Are you sure you want to do this again? So far, none of the reports you've received turned out to be-"

"This is different. I can tell the similarities to Brooke's death are obvious just from the fax."

"Even so, with all the old reports on sacrificial killings you've compiled, none of the victims had even one thing in common, nothing to link any of them to one specific killer, other than they were all sacrificed."

"There's a link," Dallas said. "We just haven't figured it out yet. Linc only started work on a profile for me last week, and since he's doing it on his own time and trying to keep Rutherford off his back, it'll take time."

"Do you have any vacation or sick days left?" She knew better than to continue arguing with a man who couldn't be persuaded.

"Three."

"And what if this killing turns out to be the one you've been waiting for, a new piece of the puzzle?"

"I'll take a leave of absence."

"Yeah, that's what I figured."

"I can count on you and Linc, can't I?"

"Unofficially."

Dallas kissed her. No pa.s.sion. Just a thank-you gesture. "You don't have to wait around. Go ahead and leave now. I'll call you on your cell phone if I take a flight out tonight."

Teri caressed his cheek. "I hope this is the one."

He didn't bother walking her to the door, so she let herself out, then paused in the doorway. She sighed. He'd already forgotten all about her. He picked up the telephone and dialed the 865 area code and then the number for the sheriff's office.

"Yes, this is Special Agent Dallas Sloan, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I'd like to speak to Sheriff Butler."

Teri eased the door closed, walked up the hall and down the flight of stairs to the first floor of the apartment building. There's nothing for you here, she told herself. Hoping Dallas would change his mind and want something permanent with her was nothing but a pipe dream. She had to remove those last fragments of hope-otherwise her relationship with Linc would never work out the way she wanted it to.

"It's gonna snow. I feel it in my bones," Sally Talbot said as she tossed another log into the cast-iron potbellied stove.

"The weatherman on TV said sleet and rain," Ludie Smith corrected. "Who should I listen to-your old bones or an educated man who knows all about c.u.mulus clouds and dew points and heat indexes?"

"I swear, Ludie, ever since you took that adult education cla.s.s at the junior college last fall, you done gone and got all uppity on me."

"Me uppity?" With large, expressive black eyes, Ludie glared at Sally. "You're the one who's been acting like rich folks ever since Jazzy had that white siding put on the outside of this shack of yours."

"Are you calling my house a shack? What do you call that place of yours-a palace?"

"I call it a cottage," Ludie replied. "That's what I call it. A cottage. Like one of them pretty little places you see on calendars and in the movies about the English countryside before World War Two."

"Now what would an old Cherokee squaw from the hills of Tennessee know about the English countryside? Besides, your house ain't no cottage. It's a four-room, wooden sharecropper's shack, the same as mine."

"Well, Miss Know-It-All, I know as much about the English countryside as you do. And who are you? Just a crazy old white heifer from the Tennessee hills."

Jazzy Talbot stood in the doorway that separated her aunt Sally's kitchen from the living room where Sally and her best friend Ludie stood arguing together as they'd done as far back as Jazzy could remember. Any outsiders listening to the two old women would swear they hated each other, when in actuality the exact opposite was true. Ludie and Sally had been friends all their lives, but neither would ever admit how much they truly loved each other. Their favorite form of entertainment seemed to be debating a wide variety of subjects-everything from the weather to the proper way to cook collard greens.

Jazzy cleared her throat. Both women hushed immediately and turned to face her. Rawboned, with big hands and feet, Sally stood nearly six feet tall, possessed a shock of short white hair and ice blue eyes. With black eyes and steel gray hair, Ludie, on the other hand, was barely five feet tall and round as a b.u.t.terball. Jazzy had no idea exactly how old either woman was, but her best guess would be that her aunt and Ludie had both pa.s.sed their seventieth birthday.

"How long you been here?" Sally asked, a broad smile on her face.

"Just got here. Didn't you hear the Jeep?"

"She was too busy caterwauling," Ludie said. "She thinks it's gonna snow, but the weatherman said plainly that-"

"It's going to sleet and ice over first, then snow," Jazzy said.