It was dark, but that dimness was shot through with flashes and pulses of energy like red lightning. They didn't brighten the darkness so much as slice through it. Angry. Hungry. And it wasn't silent. Almost below the level of awareness was a rustling sound, a kind of rhythmic whispering that rose and fell, sometimes intense and sometimes fading.
It's him, Miranda realized. He's everywhere.
No, it only seems that way. His energy is scattered, diffused. He thought she'd be an easy target, but he was wrong. Here — look. There's Bonnie.
Miranda looked where he indicated, and saw in a far corner of the darkness what appeared to be a small, crystal cocoon. It was opaque, hiding what lay within, but it gleamed, the red tendrils of Harrison's frustrated anger glancing off it harmlessly.
Like a diamond, Bishop observed. She imagined the hardest substance she knew and hid herself within it. You taught her well, love.
Miranda wasn't at all sure this was anything of her teaching, but there wasn't time to think about it.
Go to her, Bishop said. Be ready. When I have Harrison contained, help her free herself. It will take all three of us to throw him out — and all the way to hell.
Thought was deed here; Miranda found herself kneeling by the crystal cocoon. She put one hand on the cool, polished hardness of one of the facets, and turned her head to watch as Bishop stalked the killer.
She thought later how odd it was that so much of what happened was visible to her, but decided in the end that it was only the human mind's way of understanding, interpreting the pure electrical impulses of the brain as images.
It was fascinating. And terrifying.
Bishop, the one she knew best, was wholly visible to her, lithe and powerful as he moved through the darkness, his spirit luminous with energy and purpose. Harrison, his energy diffused as Bishop had said, was at first only the red lightning flashing through the darkness, scarlet tongues of flame that began licking at Bishop as his threat was sensed and understood. Then the flames became brighter and hotter as Harrison concentrated his attack on Bishop, circling him, seeking a weakness in his defenses.
Without even being consciously aware of it, Miranda sent more of her energy through to Bishop, knowing without having to think about it that the attack was a deadly danger not because Harrison was stronger but because Bishop was intent on fighting — not on defending himself.
Again and again the flames circled and probed, darting in to reach for Bishop. He seemed to sense every attempt a bare second before it was made, eluding the threads of energy with an almost mocking ease. Miranda could hear the angry hiss of energy as Harrison was thwarted, and just as she realized that Bishop was deliberately baiting his adversary, Harrison abruptly took on a ghostly human shape and launched himself at Bishop with a roar of insane rage.
Miranda waited only long enough to see the two spirits literally locked together in a struggle so fierce and powerful that threads of white hot and angry red energy arced from them continuously. She quickly turned back to the crystal cocoon and sent an urgent summons.
Bonnie? It's all right, sweetie, we're here. Come out.
Heartbeats passed, seconds during which Miranda had the fearful awareness that Bishop's struggle was taking a toll on him even with her energy bolstering his; Harrison wanted to live again, and that was a drive so primal it made him almost too strong to fight.
Almost.
Abruptly, the crystal cocoon vanished and Bonnie was there, pale and frightened, but calm, just as she had been when another killer had held her hostage.
Tell me what to do, Randy.
Miranda took her hand, connecting them as they had never before been connected in their lives. Concentrate. We need all your will, all your determination to be rid of this bastard.
I hate him. Bonnie's spirit was surprisingly strong. He killed Mama and Daddy and Kara. I want to destroy him, Randy. I. . . want. . . him . . . gone!
Miranda felt those emotions, that utter determination, flow through her, the energy sharp and powerful as it coursed in a dynamic surge through the link to Bishop.
Miranda saw Harrison's spirit weaken, saw his frustrated rage, heard his howl of wild protest as Bishop's hands closed around his throat with new power.
This time, Bishop told him with relentless certainty, I'll send you straight to hell.
To Seth and his father, silently watching, the struggle was no less dramatic for being utterly silent. Bishop and Miranda held hands, their free hands touching Bonnie, their eyes closed. And slowly, as the minutes ticked past, things started to happen. Their faces drained of color. Their bodies seemed to sway.
Seth shifted uneasily and whispered, "Do you feel that?"
His father nodded and held up his arm. The fine brown hairs stood straight out from the skin. "And there's a hum," he murmured. "I can feel it more than hear it. Like — "
"Current," Seth said. "Electrical current."
They watched intently for another full minute. And then, abruptly, Miranda and Bishop caught their breath and opened their eyes.
Colin and Seth both jumped, and at the same moment the room's door slammed shut with a bang.
"He's gone," Miranda murmured. "This time for good."
"Jesus," Colin said.
"Did it work?" Seth demanded.
He was answered when Bonnie blinked and murmured shakily, "Has anybody got an aspirin?"
Seth more or less launched himself at her, his relief overwhelming, but his father's attention was on the two standing on the other side of the bed.
They held on to each other, barely able to keep on their feet and clearly on the point of exhaustion, their faces drawn and weary but also quietly triumphant. They looked like two people who had literally fought a war and emerged in some way stronger and more complete.
But there was something else, one more thing that drew Colin's gaze and held it in a fascination that was only partly clinical. "I guess," he said, "there's always a cost, isn't there? A scar earned in battle."
Miranda blinked at him, then looked up at Bishop. She was only a little startled by what she saw, and reached to touch his left temple, where a vivid streak of white hair had appeared.
"Family trait," he said.
EPILOGUE
Monday, January 24
"Well," Tony said, "in case we needed it, we have verification that MacBride's car has the right set of tires, that he ran ads looking for 'willing hands for light work' up until he got involved with the town government ten years ago and then apparently found some of his victims among those answering town and county ads, that both the knife and handcuffs we found in Ramsay's car can be traced to him, along with the ash in that cigar box — which came out of his own personal crematorium — and that the hairs we found out at the old mill-house belonged to him."
"Nice to know," Alex responded gravely, "that good old-fashioned police work can accomplish so much." He was grateful to Tony; the very talkative and humorous agent had kept his mind engaged during the past days — and off a loss he still wasn't ready to face.
"Isn't it?" Tony buffed his fingernails on his shirt.
Accepting his role as straight man, Alex continued. "Of course, given that we also have more than thirty jars holding various body parts, seventeen years' worth of meticulous files detailing every atrocity, and MacBride's journal in which he waxed grotesquely poetic, I'd say everything else is pretty much superfluous."