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BEVERLY BARTON
THE FIFTH
VICTIM
Copyright
This novel is entirely a work of fiction.
The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
AVON
A division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
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London SE1 9GF
First published in the U.S.A by Kensington Publishing Corp.
New York, NY, 2003
Copyright © Beverly Barton 2003
Beverly Barton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9781847560636
Ebook Edition © May 2012 ISBN: 9780007287413 Version: 2018-05-29
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 a sweet smile.
Table of Contents
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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