The Eighth Witch (44 page)

So this is what it feels like to die.
The thought drifted through his mind as his eyes flickered shut.
Not so bad really.

He pitched forwards and lay dead on the floor.

Jane glared up at Diana. “You bitch!” she said. It was trite, inadequate. But what do you say when you see a good man murdered before your eyes?

Diana walked across and pulled the knife from Lacey’s chest, wiping the blade on his jacket to clean it.

Carter lunged forwards, intending to grab the knife from her but Diana raised her hand and he was thrown through space, crashing against the wall of the barn. He slid down the wooden wall and sat there, stunned.

“Stay where you are, Rob.”
He heard Harry Bailey’s voice in his head.
“We can defeat her. Together we can defeat her.”

Carter stared across at his friend and colleague, but Bailey wasn’t even looking at him. He stayed where he was and made no attempt to move.

“So now we wait,” Diana said.
 

“Wait for what?” Jane said. Her voice shook. She was finding it difficult to come to terms with Ian Lacey’s sudden death. Tears were pressing out from her eyes but she fought them back, blinking hard. There was no way she would display any form of weakness.

The image of her two daughters flashed unbidden into her head and she tried to push them away, but they persisted, robbing her of her resolve. She looked across at Nyx who was gazing at her intently. “You’re doing this!” she shouted at the demon. “Leave my daughters out of it!”

Nyx smiled and the images in Jane’s head multiplied and became horrific. Emma and Amy lost in a nightmare forest of human bones while blood fell like rain from a leaden sky. The girls, screaming and writhing as creatures from the forest grabbed them and started stripping their flesh from their bodies. Emma lying dead, her sightless eyes staring at nothing. Amy pulling the flesh from Emma’s arm and ramming it into her own mouth, chewing noisily.
 

“Get out of my head!” Jane screamed at Nyx, who gazed back at her impassively.

Carter was staring at Diana who was standing in front of Laura and Holly, speaking softly. He could barely hear her, but the words had cadence, rhythm, and he realized the ritual had begun.
We’re running out of time,
he thought, but at the moment he couldn’t see any way they could stop her.

Carter checked his watch. It was five minutes to twelve. He looked across to Harry who appeared to be asleep, although his lips were moving, as if he were praying silently. Jane was sitting on the floor, her hand resting lightly on Ian Lacey’s arm, her eyes blank. Diana was stripping off her clothes, aided by Nyx who took the clothes as Diana shed them, folded them carefully and laid them on the table.

When she was totally naked Diana stepped into the middle of the floor and raised her arms. She began to sway from side to side, as if moving to music only she could hear. Nyx took a few paces away from her and stood with her head bowed, her eyes closed.

“I call upon the sisters Yardley. Rachel and Rebecca. Show yourselves to us. Come into the light so we can bestow the gift of everlasting life.” Diana intoned the words precisely. She picked up the knife from where she’d laid it on the floor and began to trace the outline of a pentagram in the air in front of her. When she had finished she took two steps towards Laura and Holly, holding the knife out in front of her.

“Take them down,” she said and motioned with the knife.

The ropes holding Laura to the crossbeam fell away as if they’d been cut. Laura fell forwards but Nyx moved forwards before she could hit the floor. She lowered Laura to the ground, laying her on her back and spreading her legs.

“Rachel Yardley, I offer you this sacrifice, so that you will return and enter me,” Diana intoned.

Nyx took one of the Christ effigies from the table and laid it between Laura’s legs. Laura Sallis lay there unable to move, her eyes searching for and finding Carter’s.
 

“Help me!”
Carter heard the words in his head. Laura’s lips hadn’t moved.

Next Diana stood in front of Holly Ireland, waved the knife and again the ropes fell away. Nyx moved quickly and within seconds Holly was spread out on the floor next to Laura.

“Rob, do something,” Jane said. “Before it’s too late.”

Diana spun around, glared at Jane and made the same zipping motion across her lips that had rendered Laura speechless. Jane threw her hand to her mouth as her lips bonded together.

Diana turned away from them and started speaking again.

“Rebecca Yardley, I offer you this sacrifice, so that you will return and enter me,” she said.

“They’re not coming,” Harry Bailey said suddenly. He was still lying on his side, but his eyes were open wide. He was staring at Diana. “I’ve blocked them.”

“No,” she said. “You’re lying. You haven’t got the power to stop them.” But as she stared back at him something behind her eyes changed. She turned to Nyx. “Kill him,” she said savagely.

The demon moved towards Bailey, but as Nyx stepped forwards Carter sprung to his feet and barreled into her, knocking her to the ground. Nyx rolled away from Carter and stood upright, the beauty slipping away to be replaced with a face that was half human, half dog. The mouth opened to reveal row upon row of savage fangs. The growl that issued from the demon’s huge mouth was ear-splitting. She leapt forwards but as she moved Bailey swung his legs, catching her across the ankles and sending her tumbling to the floor.

Jane was on her feet. She sprinted across to the table, grabbed the scissors and threw herself on top of Nyx, raising the scissors above her head and plunging them deep into the demon’s eye.

Diana raised her hand towards Jane and Harry Bailey called, “Now, Rob, now!”

The psychic pulse produced by the combined minds of Carter and Bailey knocked Diana off her feet.
 

Beneath her Jane could feel Nyx’s body start to wither, to collapse in on itself like a deflating balloon.

Diana was on her knees, getting slowly to her feet. “I’ll crush you,” she hissed. “All of you! This is my destiny. You won’t stop me.”

“But we will, Diana.”

From out of the shadows stepped Rachel and Rebecca Yardley.

“We will stop you, and our sisters will stop you.”

For the first time fear registered in Diana’s eyes. “You won’t,” she said. “You can’t.”

“But we can.” From behind the Yardley sisters another woman emerged. Dressed totally in white, with long hair flowing down to her waist, the woman stepped forwards.

“Mother? How? I don’t understand,” Diana said, not comprehending what she was seeing, but even as she spoke her body was beginning to change, to swell. The slim, attractive body grew distended, gross. Faces started to appear, pressing out from the skin of her belly, faces that stretched the skin, making it split and bleed. Women’s faces all mouthing the word, “No!”

Diana screamed as her stomach finally burst open and, as she fell backwards onto the ground, each of the Yardley sisters rose from her body. One by one they stood, shoulder to shoulder, with Rachel and Rebecca. Alice, Elizabeth, Megan, Ruth and Elinor, the seven Yardley sisters, all of whom stood there and stared down sadly at the dead, broken body of Diana, the eighth witch.

As Carter, Bailey and Jane looked on, the Yardley sisters appeared to shimmer in the light of the barn. Gradually they began to fade from sight and, as they slipped away, the body of Diana crumbled to four-hundred-year-old dust, dispersing and mingling with the dirty straw that covered the floor of the barn.

Epilogue

Thirty-six hours after the incident at Pett’s farm, Annie Ryder sat alone in her kitchen, watching the minute hand of her clock sweep round the dial. She still had a houseful of guests—Laura, Carter, Bailey, Jane and Holly—and, so far, no one had surfaced. Much the same as yesterday.

They had arrived back at her place at about three a.m., shattered and silent. Nobody except Carter wanting to talk about the events at the farm, preferring instead to take themselves off to bed. Laura and Holly looked particularly worn out and traumatized after their ordeal. Harry Bailey looked exhausted but otherwise seemed quite alert. Jane Talbot just looked bone-weary. Annie and Rob Carter sat and he told her everything that had happened. Finally she went to bed and cried silently until dawn broke.

When she crawled out of bed at midday she prepared a number of cold cuts and various salads, and throughout the rest of the day she would find one or another of them in the kitchen, helping themselves to the food. The rest of the time they mostly stayed in bed.

Leaving them to sleep off the exhaustion, she had taken herself off to see Adam Chapman, to try to explain what had happened to Penny but he didn’t want to hear. He was in denial, refusing to believe what she was telling him about his wife. Eventually he snapped and virtually threw her out of the house. She’d try again later when everyone had gone.

She wasn’t surprised when Carter came down to the kitchen, his hair still damp from the shower. Yesterday he had shown few ill-effects from the previous night’s ordeal, but had kept to his room to keep from disturbing the others.

“I just had a call from Crozier,” he said. “They released Martin from the secure unit this morning.”

“So, he’s okay now?” Annie said.

“He doesn’t remember a thing about it. He’s fine.” He poured himself a coffee and gradually, one by one, the others came down to join them.

Harry Bailey still limping but not as badly, Jane, brighter now, her scrubbed skin glowing in the morning light. Laura and Holly still looked washed out and Holly had crammed a beanie hat on her head to hide her ruined hair. Both women had dark circles under their eyes, and the eyes themselves looked haunted, as if they had witnessed much that had burned itself into their memories. Annie stared guardedly at each of them in turn and knew that neither of them would ever look at the world in the same way again.

“I’m going to miss Ian. He was a good man,” Annie said.

“We all will, Annie,” Carter said. “And yes, he was. I rang Matt this morning and told him what happened.”

“How did he take it?”

“Badly. The police will investigate of course, but my guess is that, once they’ve spoken to Crozier, the case will be swept under the carpet. One thing Matt did say though was that Ian was like a father to him, so we’re not the only ones who are going to miss him.”

“Very sad,” Annie said.

Jane leaned across to Harry Bailey and said quietly, “You never explained how you knew Rachel and Rebecca Yardley wouldn’t be summoned by Diana. You told her you blocked them. More subterfuge?”

“Half and half, Jane. The sisters came to me when I was in the barn. I think my experience with them was similar to Rob’s. They told me they didn’t want to return. I just helped them with a blocking spell I learned in Haiti. But Rob must take some of the credit here. His projection of Diana’s mother, Elinor, was the masterstroke that weakened Diana enough for her to lose control of the rest of the sisters. They were just waiting for their chance to break free of her. Rob gave them the opportunity.”

Carter smiled. “It was a gamble,” he said. “I worked on the premise that Diana wouldn’t really remember what Elinor actually looked like. It was nearly four hundred years since Elinor died after all. The image I projected into Diana’s mind was drawn from a few sources. Primarily I was using the twins, combined with the woodcut of Elinor in the book Harry got from the British Library. I put the images together and used that. I just thank God it worked.”

“But I didn’t see Diana’s mother,” Laura said. “I couldn’t work out why she suddenly went to pieces like that.”

“Neither you nor Holly are psychic. I’m surprised you could see Rachel and Rebecca,” Jane said.

“I didn’t see them,” Holly said shakily. “I just laid there watching all hell break loose, wondering what in God’s name was going on.”

“Me too,” Laura said. “I had my eyes closed through most of it. I thought I was going to die.” A single tear rolled down her cheek.

Bailey got to his feet. “Well, I’m heading off. I have to be debriefed by Simon. That’s if you’re ready, Jane.”

“I’m ready, Harry. I want to see my girls,” she said.
 

Holly also got to her feet. “I’ll be going too,” she said. “Thanks for letting me stay, Annie.”
 

Annie stood and hugged her. “You don’t have to go, you know. If you need more time…” she said.

“Thank you, Annie. But I do have to go. If I don’t try and get my life back to some kind of normality I might just possibly go mad.”

Pulling Holly closer to her, she whispered in her ear, “I think you’re very brave.” She stepped back and adjusted Holly’s beanie hat. “And don’t worry. It’ll grow back.”

“Yeah,” Holly said. “I know it will.” And then more determinedly, “I know it will.” She kissed Annie’s cheek and headed up the stairs.

“And you, Rob? Are you going too?” Annie said.
 

Carter nodded. “But I won’t leave it so long this time. Those hills are calling me. I’ll come back for a proper holiday soon.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Annie said, wrapping her arms around him and holding on tight. “And make it right with Jane. She loves you and you love her. Don’t let the chance of happiness slip away.”