Faces of Fear by Graham Masterton

know, has always been notorious for its black magic and its sorcery, and for its witches.”
    â€œHe went to see
witches
?”
    â€œWho else, in Thessaly? The Greeks say that these women have the power to ‘draw down the moon’ – to use all the evil aspects of lunar forces to bring poverty and confusion to anybody they want. All they ask in return is a regular supply of living flesh, human or animal. It said in the
Illustrated London News
that after his return from Greece, John Vane was seen in the company of a tall woman dressed entirely in black, her identity unknown.”
    â€œYou surely don’t think that—”
    â€œ
They’re cloaked in black, Marcus
! That’s what it says in the books! Cloaked in black, with teeth like razors, and they live for ever, if you keep on feeding them!”
    He stared at Marcus desperately, gripping the arms of his chair. He appeared to be incapable of saying any more.
    After a long, rigid silence, the plump nurse came up and touched Marcus’s shoulder. “I think it’s time to go now. He does get rather tired, when he talks about the old days, don’t you, Duncan?”
    Marcus walked across the thickly-shingled driveway and climbed the steps to the front door. Hastings House was huge, with crenellated battlements, and turrets, and spires. Its west wall was overgrown with ivy, as though somebody had casually thrown a huge green blanket over it. Marcus pulled the doorbell and waited.
    After a very long time, a thirtyish man in a mustard-coloured tweed waistcoat and brown corduroys appeared from around the side of the house, accompanied bytwo slavering bull terriers. He was very pale, with an almond-shaped head and slicked-back hair.
    â€œCan I help?” he asked, briskly, as if he wasn’t at all interested in doing any such thing.
    â€œI don’t know,” said Marcus. “I’m looking for Mr Gordon Vane.”
    â€œI’m Gordon Vane. You don’t have any kind of appointment, do you?”
    â€œNo, I don’t. But I’m afraid that I’ve lost my dog.”
    â€œI can’t see what that has to do with me.”
    â€œIt ran into your woods, I’m afraid. I was wondering if you’d seen it. It’s a Sealyham cross.”
    Gordon Vane shook his head. “If it’s gone into
those
woods, I doubt if you’ll ever see it again.”
    â€œI was wondering, if you hadn’t seen it, whether I could go and look for it.”
    â€œOut of the question, I’m afraid.”
    â€œI wouldn’t do any damage.”
    â€œThat’s not the point. Those woods are very marshy in places, and really quite dangerous.”
    â€œThey don’t
look
dangerous,” Marcus persisted.
    â€œWell, I’m afraid they are, and if anything were to happen to you, we’re not insured. If you leave me your telephone number, I’ll let you know if your dog turns up.”
    â€œI saw somebody else in the woods,” said Marcus.
    Gordon Vane had been patting his dogs, but now he sharply looked up. “You saw somebody? Who?”
    â€œI don’t know … somebody very tall. Enormously tall, and all dressed in black.”
    Gordon Vane stared at Marcus as if he could see right through his eyes into his brain. Then, without a word, he took a gold mechanical pencil out of his waistcoat pocket, along with a visiting-card, and said, “Here. Your telephone number.”
    He stood and watched as Marcus walked away, his feet scrunching on the shingle. Marcus wasn’t sure if he had done the right thing by pretending to have lost a dog. Maybe he shouldn’t have alerted the Vanes at all. But he couldn’t think of any other way of flushing out Duncan Greenleaf’s “terrible black creature”. If the Vanes thought that there was a stray dog wandering in the woods, and that there was the strong possibility that its owner might be wandering in the woods, too,