Council of Peacocks (33 page)

He was about to yell at them when something
strange happened.

Tommy never said what they did to him at
night. He just said it was bad. Josh assumed it was a sex thing.
That is what they taught in school: strangers can be bad and want
to touch your private parts. This was much weirder. It was like
they were playing doctor. One of them put a black shape that looked
like a briefcase on the bed and took out a bunch of needles. The
metal parts shone in the dark.

“
He’s not asleep,” one of the things said.
Josh thought the voice sounded familiar, too.

“
No problem.” Another one of the things
put a hand over Tommy’s body. Shadows deeper than darkness poured
out of the hand and covered all of Tommy’s body. There was a lot of
screaming. The bed bounced up and down. Josh held his breath. With
all this noise, Tommy’s parents would surely come in to see what
was going on.

But no one came.

Josh tried to step forward, but found he
couldn’t move. He looked down at his body. It seemed normal, but
his muscles refused to respond. It reminded him of the time last
Christmas when he had drunk a few of his dad’s beers and fallen
asleep on the floor. His body just would not listen to him.

‘
Move, I say!’
His body always did
what he told it to do, at least when he consciously told it to do
something. It was why he was good at sports. As soon as he made up
his mind, the sleepiness was gone from his body. Now he was really
mad.

He slammed the closet door closed. The three
creatures turned. Despite the darkness, he saw them very clearly.
He saw the way their wings hung limp at their sides, the way their
scaly skin gleamed under the nightlight. And he saw the way their
eyes glowed red in the dark.

“
You’re bad men and you need to go
away.”

“
Josh, what are you doing here?” one of
the creatures said. “This isn’t your concern.”

Josh snapped his fingers and the lights came
on. “He’s my friend and you aren’t going to hurt him anymore.”

The Edimmu nearest Tommy finished taking
blood while another knelt down beside Josh. It ruffled his hair and
smiled. “I know you like him, but don’t forget where you come from.
Let us finish up and we won’t have to tell your dad about this,
okay?”

Josh slapped the Edimmu’s hand away. The
creature cried out in pain.

“
Tell my father whatever you like, but you
are not going to bother my friend again. Don’t forget who I
am!”

***

Josh opened his eyes.

Jessica stared at him.

Josh stood too quickly and his knees gave out
beneath him. He fell forward limply, each slow breath he took the
only thing he could really feel. His head was spinning. He felt as
if a part of him was still outside his own body.

“What was it?” Garnet took a few steps toward
him. She reached out her arms as if to help support him, but Josh
shook his head and waved her away. “What did you see?”

“I don’t ... Oh God. I don’t know...” He
looked up at Garnet, took in her beauty, and for a moment her green
eyes seemed the most solid thing in the world. “What the hell am I,
Garnet?”

“Josh,” Jessica said. Her voice was weak.
When he looked back, her eyes were wide and rimmed with red. She
looked completely terrified. “We’ve got to finish. I can feel you
don’t have very many blocks left.”

Josh shook his head as he pushed himself back
to his feet. He heard people shout but did not know why. Then he
realized he was on the floor again. Todd and Garnet helped him get
back up and led him back to the chair.

“Maybe it’s best if we wait for Wisdom,”
Elaine said. She took a few steps toward Josh. He looked up and saw
that her hands were placed lightly on the sub-machine gun.

“That can’t be real,” he said. “It can’t be a
real memory.”

Josh didn’t realize he was still shaking his
head until Garnet rested the palm of her hand against his cheek.
There was such tenderness in the touch the remnants of his dignity
disappeared. He sobbed, confused and exhausted.

“Oh, Christ. That’s how the creature touched
me. The Edimmu. I knew it. It liked me. I…I think I might be going
into shock. I can’t feel my legs anymore. It knew my father.”

Jessica slipped off her wooden chair,
kneeling in front of him. She put a comforting hand on his knee. “I
saw it, too, Josh. It was real. I don’t understand it any more than
you, but I can tell you it really happened. Who exactly is your
father, Josh?”

Elaine pulled Jessica back and put her palm
on Josh’s forehead. “Enough. Look at him. Garnet, get some
blankets. The linen closet is at the end of the hall by the spare
room. Hurry. David, I need your help.”

Josh felt David throw his arm over his
shoulder, leading him off the chair to a couch. Josh stared at the
floor, unable to concentrate on anything. He heard voices, but they
made no sense. Everything was distant and secondary, like moving
through a dream. His knees buckled and then Elaine was beside him,
helping him. Then his head fell backwards and the world just
stopped.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Josh stared at the ceiling with open vacant
eyes.

Todd paced back and forth by the windows. “We
can’t just leave him like this.”

Elaine rolled her head back, stretching out
her neck. “Well, I can’t let her play around in his head anymore.
Look what she’s done already?”

“Hey, you’re the one who said we couldn’t
afford the luxury of amnesia, remember?” Todd spoke with
uncharacteristic anger. “Well, Jessica has unlocked something
poison in his head. If she doesn’t get it all the way out, who
knows what will happen.”

“Christ. David, can you go wait outside the
spare room? Let me know if Wisdom wakes.”

David ran a hand through his hair and
nodded.

Elaine looked around the room and grunted
with annoyance. “Has anyone seen Jared? Jessica, can you look for
him? When was the last time anyone saw him?”

Jessica closed her eyes. “He’s fine. I can
feel him down on the beach.”

“What the hell is he doing wandering
off?”

Jessica shrugged. “He’s a total dork. Who
knows why he does the things he does? I’ll be right back.” She
walked out on the patio and headed down the wooden steps.

Elaine turned to Todd. “I made a mistake,
Todd. What if he’s somehow connected to the Edimmu? If he’s our
enemy…”

Todd backed away from her. “You can’t shoot
him, Elaine. Look at him! Does he look like a threat?”

“Looks can be deceiving. You don’t look like
a threat either, but I’ve seen what you can do. I’m not promising
anything. I know you think I’m a hard ass but you don’t know how
dangerous the Edimmu are.”

“I don’t? Jesus. I was thrown around by a few
of them this morning, remember? I lost my best friend.” He stopped
and gasped. Then he hung his head and continued in a very quiet
voice. “I lost my best friend to them, watched three of them
slaughter and abduct others I care for. I know they’re dangerous.
Whatever Josh is, whoever he knows, he’s not one of them. I am
psychic, you know. I can tell that much.”

Elaine bit the corner of her lower lip. “I’m
sorry, Todd, but you don’t really have a clue. No matter what they
did to you today, they represent something a whole lot worse than
that. You say you can trust him, so we’ll go with that for now. But
if he or anyone else crosses Wisdom, you have to know I’ll kill
him. Like it or not, it may be the best thing.”

Todd cocked his head to one side and rubbed
his nose. “You know, Ms. Ryerson told us we’re some kind of
monster, all us Anomalies. Freaks. So how are we any different than
him? Do you plan on killing us, too?”

Elaine stared back at him. The expression on
her face drained the rest of the blood from Todd’s face.

“Do whatever you want,” she said as she left
the room. “Just don’t expect me to watch.”

***

Hours later, Josh sat up, conscious again.
Garnet was holding his hand, smiling down at him. Jessica ran over
to him and stood beside her.

“How are you feeling?” Garnet realized she
was still holding his hand and went slightly red. She slid her hand
back to her lap.

“Like I was hit repeatedly with a tire iron.”
Josh laughed softly, unconvincingly, and put a hand to his head. “I
just wish that was the worst of it. Truth is, I know we have to
finish. We all need to find out what else I’m blocking. Jessica,
can you do your magic while I’m lying down?”

Jessica nodded and sat on the edge of the
couch by his feet.

“Good. That way I won’t have far to fall if I
faint.”

Everyone smiled at that. No one laughed.

“Okay,” Jessica closed her eyes. “The Edimmu
acted like they knew your father. Why don’t we start there? Start
going through your memories of your father.”

Josh closed his eyes and lay back down. It
was easy to bring a picture of his father to mind.

***

The first moment: his dad in a three-piece
suit walking beside him. Josh was six years old, riding a bike. His
father held one of the handlebars to help keep him stable. This is
how he saw his father: a tall, strong man, always smiling and with
love in his eyes.

The second moment: the hotel room in
Lebanon. Josh sat on the floor flipping through the channels on the
television. His mother lay on one of the twin beds reading an
Agatha Christie novel. His father shaved in the adjoining washroom.
He was the type of guy women liked to look at: square jaw, blunt
nose and high cheekbones. His hair was darker than Josh’s. It could
only be called blond in the summer when the sun brought out its
highlights.

The room was small with no air conditioning.
One of the windows was open. A slight breeze brought in the smell
of spices from the restaurant across the street.

“
You sure you don’t want to go shopping?”
His father’s voice was deep. He raised his voice to be heard over
the running water in the bathroom sink and the babble of voices
from the television.

“
I’m fine here, doll,” Mother said. “Five
hours of shopping is enough for one day. Just go to your little
seminar thing. Josh and I will be fine here.”

“
I’m bored,” Josh said.

“
Kid, you’re always bored.” His father
wiped the remnants of shaving cream from his face with a white
towel.

“
Am not. It just sucks here.”

“
Josh, you have a ton of books to read,”
his mother said. She didn’t look up from the mystery novel, but
Josh still had the impression that she was looking right at him.
“Let your father do his thing. When he gets back we can go out for
supper, okay?”

Josh groaned and rolled his eyes. Maybe
that’s why he saw the flash of light out of the corner of his eyes.
He got up on his knees and looked out the window. There it was
again. Across the street on the rooftop, something shone, like a
mirror reflecting the sun.

“
What’s that?” He got to feet and walked
toward the window.

“
What’s what?” His mother flipped the page
on her book. She still didn’t look up.

“
On the roof over there. It’s like
someone’s sending signals with a mirror.”

Then the memory slowed down: a videotape
played frame by frame. Disjointed still images linked together in
the illusion of movement. Every second was an independent moment in
time. He saw his mother lift her eyes from the book and turn to the
window. He saw his father run out of the bathroom, razor still in
hand, eyes wide in disbelief. Then he saw someone move out of the
shadows on the roof, a very large gun in hand.

***

Josh gasped and sat up.

Jessica stared back at him, shaking her head.
“Josh, that can’t be right.”

“Oh, I think it is very right.” He pushed her
away from him and walked toward the stairs. His legs felt like
rubber. With each step he worried he would lose his footing and
trip over his own feet. But he couldn’t let that happen. This
wasn’t the time for weakness. He was vaguely aware of people
shouting behind him, but it seemed very far away. The only thing in
his mind was the memory of that face on the rooftop and the gun
pointed in his direction.

He kicked in the door to Wisdom’s room. In a
heartbeat, Elaine rose from where she sat on the bed, her
submachine gun pointed at Josh’s head. Her expression wavered from
anger to relief and settled into worry. She cocked the gun and did
not lower it.

“Back away, Josh,” she said. The worry on her
face escalated into anger.

“You shot my mother.” Josh took a step
forward.

Elaine repeatedly pulled the trigger of the
gun. Josh saw the mounting horror on her face as each pull of the
trigger had the same effect. Nothing. The gun refused to fire.

With his left hand, he pushed the weapon out
of the way. With his right hand, he grabbed Elaine by the throat,
lifting her off the ground.

“You shot my mother,” he repeated. “Why?”

He stared up into her eyes as her face grew
redder and redder. She was choking. The look in her eyes was
definitely not fear for her life. Now there was only rage in her
expression.

“Josh, let her down!” Todd was in the doorway
behind him. “You’re killing her.”

Josh did not take his eyes away from her to
acknowledge Todd. “I can still hear her screaming. The bullet
nearly tore her arm off. And the way my father howled. We thought
she was going to die.”

“Josh, I won’t warn you again!”

Josh flexed his shoulder muscles, his fingers
digging a little deeper into Elaine’s neck. Then there was a sharp
pain in his chest followed by a blow to his nose. He dropped
Elaine, his head swimming in bursts of heat. Before he could shake
the pain away, something slammed into his head and he fell into a
dark place.