Council of Peacocks (31 page)

“Good,” she said. “You look better. I’ve
brought some company.”

David stood as Garnet and Jared walked into
the room. Behind them was someone he did not recognize, a blond man
about his own age who walked with his hands in his pockets.

‘That must be the new guy¸’ he thought.

“Hey, strangers.” Garnet walked forward and
put a hand on Elaine’s shoulder. “You all look like hell. Where are
the others?”

David’s mouth fell open. It was like a mirror
shattering, he thought. Just like that all the warmth and happiness
fell into sharp shards and clattered noisily on the floor. Jessica
dropped a forkful of cheesecake and got to her feet. She started to
run but slowed herself, walking briskly out of the room and down to
the bathroom.

“Oh,” Garnet let the word out like a balloon
deflating. “Little Amy. God.” She spun and faced Echo. “Jesus,
woman. You could have told us.”

Echo shrugged her shoulders and sat down in
Jessica’s seat. “Wasn’t my place. It was better for you to hear it
from one of your own.” She put the forkful of cheesecake in her
mouth and spoke as she chewed on it. “Look, I hate to rush you and
all, but you’ve got to decide where you want to go. Where you want
to hide out until Wisdom resurfaces.”

Garnet frowned. “Can’t we stay here?”

“No,” Echo ate another forkful of the cake
and then pushed the plate away. “There’s not enough room. And even
if there was, I’ve been involved in this too long. I can’t have the
Council of Peacocks after me.”

Garnet’s face went red but she kept her
silence.

Echo got up from the table. “Look, obviously
you all have some talking to do. Catch each other up on what’s been
going on. I am going to make myself scarce but I’ll be back again
in the morning. Let me know then where you want to go and I’ll drop
you off. There’s plenty of food and drink here. Be nice to
Courtney, she’s a doll really.”

“Wait!” David stood up, his fork clattering
against the plate. “You’re really not going to help us? Those
things could kill us. Don’t you care?”

Echo waved her hand and a circle of light
appeared. “I’ve already lost two homes because of this needless
drama. Now I have to stay in this little shack until I can find a
new home. I helped you because Wisdom asked me to. And as much as I
hate to admit it, I owe him. But now it is too serious for me to
stay in this little game. A suggestion, though? Elaine, I think it
is time to stop with the whole secrecy thing. Normally, Wisdom
would be upset with show and tell. Given the circumstances, I’m
sure he’ll understand.”

She looked down at the plate of cheesecake as
if deliberating. Then she picked up the plate and fork and walked
over to the portal. “You all enjoy your evening. Do your best not
to use any of your powers and I can pretty well guarantee the
Edimmu won’t track you here. You’ll be safe for now. See you in the
morning.”

With that, she stepped into the portal and
was gone.

David sat down slowly and stared at his
plate. Once again he had lost his appetite.

***

For several minutes no one said anything,
locked in their own heads. Then, Jessica walked back into the room.
Her eyes were red, but she had her chin firmly out and her jaw set.
She did not sit back at the table. Instead, she found a beige
over-stuffed chair and sat with her arms crossed.

It was Elaine who broke the silence.

“Tell me what happened in London.”

They all left the dining table and moved into
the living room proper. Josh introduced himself, which led into the
story of his kidnapping and how Wisdom had rescued him. Garnet took
up the story at this point, using security jargon that only Elaine
seemed to understand. She then told everyone about the attack in
London and how they managed to escape it alive. When she finished,
Todd and Elaine took turns relaying how Echo had rescued them
during the initial Edimmu attack in Toronto and the events in the
underground apartment. Neither of them talked at length about
Bethany, Amy or any of the other Anomalies, saying only that they
had been killed or stolen by shadows. David was thankful no one
pressed for any more details.

Their stories finished, they all sank into
silence, breathing air that sat heavily in their lungs. David
wished he had not drunk the wine.

“So what now?” Josh said. “Does Wisdom have
any secret hideouts? Some place we’ll be safe?”

Elaine nodded. “He’s got tons. Only problem
is they
are
secret. I have no idea where they are. I only
know of the offices he has around the world. We could go to any of
them, but we’d have to assume that the Council knows all about
them.”

Josh leaned back. “So what exactly is this
Council?”

“Yeah!” David leaned forward. “Echo’s right
about one thing. Stop playing around with the whole secret society
crap. Let’s lay it all on the line. What the hell is going on?”

Suddenly a crack of thunder shot through the
room and the lights went out. David held his breath. There was a
buzzing in his head, persistent but not painful this time.
Lightning flashed outside, slamming and slicing into the ocean.
Garnet found some candles and lit them each by touching the wick.
Wind blew in strongly off the ocean, making the flames flicker,
casting strange shadows around the room. David wished she would put
the candles out.

“That was just a coincidence, right?” Todd
rubbed his hands together, twisting in his seat as if trying to get
comfortable.

“Of course not,” Jessica was on her feet now.
“I know you can feel it, too, so let’s stop pretending. Something
is out there. I just don’t know what it is.”

She squinted her eyes and stared out at the
lightning. In the candlelight, it was hard to make out the
expression on her face. David stared at her. Lightning flashed
again and he got a clear look at her face. It was frozen in
horror.

“Oh my God! Wisdom!”

Even as she screamed, a dark shape flew in
from the ocean and slammed against the side of the house. Jessica
ran forward. Even though Todd tried to grab her and keep her back,
she climbed out through the open window and dropped out of sight.
Elaine followed, a blur of motion, and leapt headfirst out the
window. Heart pounding in his throat, David walked with the others
to the window and looked down. In the flashes of light he saw a
body in mangled red clothes lying on the grass at the foot of the
house. Jessica knelt at the body’s head, stroking it while Elaine
held two fingers against the man’s neck.

“It can’t be.” Garnet put her hands against
the side of her head. She looked like she was about to start
screaming.

David looked at the body again. In the dark
it was impossible to make out anything. He stared where he knew the
head was and waited for the next flash of lightning. When it came,
he recognized the features.

“David, come on!” Garnet yelled. “You have to
help. Elaine is motioning us to go down. I don’t think Wisdom’s
dead. Not yet anyway. Come on!”

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Is that the last of them?” Propates rubbed
the back of his neck and cursed under his breath. A cloud was
forming in his head. Since the Orpheans had invaded his bathroom,
he couldn’t shake the sensation he was being watched. Coupled with
the annoyance of letting Echo slip through his fingers, his
concentration was paying the price.

“Yes, sir,” the acolyte said as he shut the
door to the cell. They were moving from room to room in the
subbasement of the Thessaloniki headquarters checking on the
kidnapped Anomalies. Behind locked doors, drugs kept them sedated,
nearly comatose. “We took 35 of them alive. We believe three are
hiding somewhere in the old Edimmu city. Several were killed during
retraction.”

Propates sighed. “I would have preferred more
but we have enough to move forward.”

“This also proves Wisdom doesn’t know what
we’re planning.”

“Do you stuff your head with paper? Of course
Wisdom knows what we’re planning. He’s traveling through time,
idiot. He must have seen this coming.”

“But if he saw it coming, if he knew you were
going to take the Anomalies, why wasn’t he there to stop you?”

“Now that is a good question.” Propates
closed his eyes and put a hand against the wall. A shiver ran
through him – an echo at the bottom of his awareness. It called to
him, willing him to go to the Vulture Antechamber. “Retraction was
easy. Too easy, especially considering how much trouble Paeder
faced trying to retract just one Anomaly. If you knew Wisdom like I
do, you would realize he’s not one to give up. He let me have these
Anomalies for a reason. I just need to figure out what that reason
is.”

“Are we sending a team to retrieve the
others?”

“No.” Propates shook his head. “A storm is
brewing out there, spreading all across the ether.”

“Is it the Activation?” The acolyte said the
word ‘Activation’ with reverence and fear.

“Of course not. That’s still months away. But
time moves quickly. Have the ceremonial chamber and the tattoo
artists prepped within the hour. I want all these Anomalies taken
through the first phase of Eyeness by this time tomorrow.”

The acolyte nodded, bowed and scampered off.
Propates steeled his nerves and headed for the Vulture
Antechamber.

***

“We have to get him upstairs,” Elaine said.
“Spare room.”

Josh nodded. “I know where it is.” He grabbed
Wisdom’s ankles while Elaine took the shoulders. They carried him
up wooden steps. Before they reached the top, Josh’s hands and arms
were covered in warm blood, his shirt smeared.

They set him down on the queen-sized bed in
the spare room. Josh grimaced as Wisdom’s blood splattered the
light flowery sheets and pillowcases. Garnet pushed Josh aside and
helped Elaine strip the remnants of the mangled suit from Wisdom’s
body. He looked away. In the dark it was difficult to tell the
flaps of cloth from flaps of loose skin.

“Go,” Elaine said over her shoulder.

He knew the remark was aimed at him. He left
the room. The door closed firmly behind him. For a moment he stood
completely still. His head buzzed with too many thoughts.

‘Where will we go if Wisdom dies?’ His chest
constricted and his heart pounded so fiercely it was difficult to
breathe. ‘How long would it be before the Council of Peacocks and
their Edimmu henchmen finally captured the rest of us? I don’t
think I could take being captured again.’

“Stop it,” he whispered. He forced himself to
take deep breaths, panting like a woman in labor. Josh pushed
himself to his feet and steadied his nerves. Careful to avoid the
red, wet smudges of blood on the steps, he walked downstairs and
looked around the living room.

In the candlelight the group of strangers
looked intimidating. He heard something dripping and realized it
was him. Wisdom’s blood fell from his hands and torso, creating
tiny puddles around him. A quick look at the light beige furniture
told him it was not safe to sit anywhere, at least not until after
a thorough shower. Aware that everyone was watching him, he walked
over to the only other person in the room he knew. Jared sat at a
card table with an overweight brown-haired man and a prepubescent
girl. His physical presence was a welcome moral support.

For the better part of an hour no one said
anything. From time to time a maternal-looking blond woman entered
from the kitchen with hors d’oeurves and glasses of iced tea. No
one ate and most barely drank. Then the door to the spare room
opened and Garnet walked down to the bottom of the stairs. Although
she was not crying, her eyes were completely bloodshot and her
lower lip trembled. The maternal servant, Courtney, walked over to
Garnet and spoke in a low voice Josh could not hear. Garnet slowly
nodded her head, then straightened her blouse and walked into the
living room.

“He’ll live,” she said. “His wounds are
healing remarkably quickly. He hasn’t woken up yet. There’s no way
to tell when he will.”

“Let’s let him sleep tonight.” This came from
Elaine, who stood at the top of the stairs. Several people jumped
as she spoke. Even Josh had not heard her approach. “He should be
fine by then.”

“What happened to him?” Jessica sat on the
edge of a chair, her hands close to her mouth as if she was going
to bite her nails. Then she looked at the hands, closed her mouth
and put them firmly on the sides of the chair.

“I think that would be best left for him to
say.” Elaine rubbed the back of her neck, turned and headed back
into the spare room.

***

David’s eyes settled on Elaine as she
appeared. He wanted her to look at him but she did not. She seemed
to peruse everything in the room except him. Bags seemed to grow
suddenly under her eyes, although it was more likely David had
decided not to see them until that moment. He wanted to comfort
her. The realization made him cringe.

‘That’s a joke,’ he thought. ‘Me comfort her?
She’s far more confident and powerful than I’ll ever be.’

He shook his head and walked quickly to the
window. He needed to feel the breeze against his skin. He crossed
his arms and hung his head. He was not aware that he was crying
until the tears hit his lips.

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s okay. You’ve had a rough few days,
haven’t you?”

Garnet.

He wanted to open his eyes, to see a friendly
face, but keeping his eyes closed was the only thing preventing his
tears from flowing freely. Any hope he had of maintaining a degree
of masculinity was gone now. Even Jessica, the child, had shown the
grace to leave the room for her breakdown. Knowing he was
outclassed by a 12-year-old was bad enough. Realizing that everyone
was watching his breakdown made it all the worse.