Ceremony in Death (In Death #5)(58)

“One subject is a young woman, eighteen, very bright, and apparently very impressionable.”

“It’s an age for explorations.” Mira took out the tea steaming fragrantly in delicate china cups, offered one to Eve.

Eve would drink it, but she wouldn’t particularly like it. “I suppose. The subject has family. Close family. Though the father is out of the picture, there is extended family — grandparents, cousins, that kind of thing. She wasn’t — isn’t,” Eve corrected, “alone.”

Mira nodded. Eve had been alone, she thought, brutally alone.

“The subject had an interest in ancient religions and cultures, was studying same. Over the past year, she developed a certain interest in the occult.”

“Hmm. That’s also fairly typical. Youth often explores various creeds and beliefs in order to find and cement their own. The occult, with its mystique and its possibilities is very attractive.”

“She became involved in Satanism.”

“As a dabbler?”

Eve frowned. She’d expected Mira to show some surprise or disapproval. Instead, she was sipping tea with that slight attentive smile playing around her mouth. “If that means was she toying with it, I’d say she went deeper.”

“Initiated?”

“I’m not sure what that involves.”

“Depending on the sect, there would be slight variations. Broadly, it would entail a waiting period, the taking of vows, a physical mark on the body, generally on or near the genitalia. The initiate would be accepted into the coven with a ceremony. There would be an altar, a human one, probably female, within a circle. The princes of hell would be called while the initiate or initiates knelt. Symbolism would include flame, smoke, the ringing of a bell, graveyard dirt, preferably from an infant. They would be given water or wine mixed with urine to drink, then the high priest or priestess would mark the initiate with a ceremonial knife.”

“An athame.”

“Yes.” Mira smiled, as though pleased with a bright student. “And though it’s illegal, if the coven is able, they will then sacrifice a young goat. With some, the blood of the goat is mixed with wine and consumed. Once done, the coven engages in sex. The altar may be used by all or many. It would be considered both a duty and a pleasure.”

“Sounds like you’ve been there.”

“No, but I was allowed to observe a sabbat ceremony once. It was quite fascinating.”

“You don’t actually believe that stuff.” Stunned, Eve set the cup aside. “Calling up the devil.”

Mira lifted a smoothly arched brow. “I believe in good and evil, Eve, and I don’t by any means discount the likelihood of an ultimate good, or an ultimate evil. In my profession, and yours, we see too much of both to deny it.”

Humans committed evil, Eve thought. Evil was human. “But devil worship?”

“Those who choose to focus their lives — and shall we say souls — on this creed generally do so for its freedom, its structure, and its celebration of selfishness. Others are seduced by the promise of power. And many by the sex.”

“It was just sex.” That’s what Wineburg had said, had sobbed, Eve remembered, before he died.

“Your young woman, Eve, was likely drawn in first by the intellect. Satanism is centuries old, and like most pagan religions, predates Christianity. Why does it survive, and in some eras even prosper? It’s filled with secrets and sins and sex, its rites are mysterious and elaborate. She would have wondered, and coming from a close and likely sheltered homelife, was at an age ripe for rebellions against the status quo.”

“The ceremony you described was similar to one she described to me. But she had only begun to observe and she was sexually used. She was a virgin, and was, I suspect drugged.”

“I see. There are always sects that diverge from the established rules of law. Some can be dangerous.”

“She had blanks, time losses, and became almost slavishly devoted to two of the members. She backed away from her family and her studies. Until she witnessed the ritual murder of a child.”

“Human sacrifice is an old practice, and a deplorable one.” Mira sipped delicately. “If drugs were involved, it’s highly possible she was made an addict, dependent upon these people. That would explain the blanks. I take it the murder she witnessed shocked her away from the cult and its rituals.”

“She was terrified. She didn’t go to her family, didn’t report the incident. She ran to a witch.”

“A white witch? A Wiccan?”

Eve compressed her lips. “She did what I expect would be considered a religious one eighty. Started burning white candles instead of black. And she lived in terror, claimed that one of the membership could turn into a raven.”

“Shape-shifting.” Thoughtfully, Mira rose to program more tea. “Interesting.”

“She believed they would kill her, had killed someone close to her, though that death is for now officially listed under natural causes. I have no doubt they tormented her, found a way to play on her delusions and fears. I’m thinking some of that came from her own sense of guilt and shame.”

“You could be right. Emotions influence the intellect.”

“Just how much?” Eve demanded. “Enough for her to see things that weren’t there? Enough for her to run from an illusion into the path of an oncoming car and kill herself?”