Council of Peacocks (27 page)

The guard’s legs
still twitched, but he was dead. Paeder sensed the life leaking out
like air from a tire with a slow leak. When the legs stopped
twitching, he dropped the corpse. He brought his hand up to his
nose and smiled. He could smell the sweat and cologne of the dead
man, but that was not what excited him. It was the scent of
death.

He walked towards
the elevator. He put his hands against the metal and used his new
powers to dissolve the cohesive bonds that kept solid objects
solid. The sensation danced over his skin like an orgasm. It
continued to build until the metal turned to rust and flaked away.
This was the power of decay, the third level of Eyeness. Most
humans could not carry this power for long – their bodies gave out
long before their will did – but Paeder did not care about that. He
would survive long enough to retrieve the boy. He would drag the
boy back by the hair if necessary. And once the Council was done
with him, Josh Wilkinson would die.

He slammed the side
of his fist into the rusty metal. It shattered like brittle ice.
The actual car was somewhere above him. As long as he kept the
power off, it was not going anywhere. He leapt into the shaft,
grabbed the nearest set of wires and started to
climb.

***

As soon as the
plates and silverware were in place, Josh had Garnet dump a pot
full of water over the burning knife block. The air was now thick
with smoke, although it was too dark to see any of the black
clouds. Josh and Garnet hid behind an industrial-sized steel
fridge. Jared curled up in a nearby corner. Josh could hear the
crinkle of the kid’s jeans as he rocked back and
forth.

Garnet peeked past
the fridge. “My God. I can feel him now.”

“
Just stick to the
plan.” Josh put a hand on her bare arm and drew her back to their
hiding spot.

“
The demon is
angry,” Jared said. Jared smacked his head against the wall with a
soft thud.

“
Stop that,” Garnet
said. There was no heat in her voice, no sense of worry, either.
But it was enough. Jared stopped.

The weight of the
fire extinguisher grew heavy in Josh’s hands but he didn’t dare set
it down.

“
Are you sure it
will come in here?” Garnet whispered close to his
ear.

Josh nodded. “If
there was any doubt before, the smell of smoke will solve that. Now
hush. Let’s not speak until…”

“
It’s gone,” Jared
said.

“
What’s
gone?”

“
The demon. I can’t
feel it anymore.”

Josh rose to his
feet, pins and needles shooting through his
legs.

“
Garnet?”

“
I can’t feel it
either,” she said. “One moment it was there, this pool of
pestilence, moving through space. Then it was gone. I can’t feel
the taint anymore.”

Josh shifted his
weight and listened. “I can. It’s coming.”

Click.

Garnet gulped in
air. Then there was absolute silence.

Josh held his
breath and listened.
His
head buzzed, like a sudden hangover pounding in his
skull.

Tap tap
tap.

‘
That’s the door
being pushed all the way open,’ he thought. Then he heard a series
of clicks and ringing vibrations
.
‘A fork being thrown against a spoon and tumbling into a
plate.’

Then
nothing.

Silence.

Eventually, he
detected a third pattern of breathing. Deep and solid. Despite his
blindness, the sounds gave him a perfect visual of where the demon
was.

‘
Almost there. Just
a few more steps
.’

***

Paeder couldn’t
help it. His eyes lit up and he fought not to burst out
laughing.

‘
Utensils on the
floor? This is the man that slaughtered my family?’ After the forty
or so armed guards, he felt like he had stumbled upon a child
trying to catch their pet dog in a fancy mousetrap. The only thing
that kept him focused was the memory of his mother’s dead body,
vacant eyes in a cold skull.

The Third Level of
Eyeness also allowed him to see without light. He was in a kitchen
big enough for a restaurant. Metal pots and pans hung from the
ceiling over three of the islands. The walls were filled with
cupboards.

‘
Reminds me of our
place in the Laurentians,’ he thought. He sniffed at the air. Smoke
masked the stench of sweat and fear making it difficult to pin down
locations.

‘
Hide all you want.
I’ll still find you.’

He crept forward,
dropping to all fours. ‘There. I can hear them breathing.’ The
sound came from the left. ‘If I concentrate just a little
harder…’

He heard something
like wind in the air. He turned just in time to see the thing
flying through the air. He caught it with both hands and called up
the power of decay. It shot through his hands before he recognized
what the object was. The area around his fingers melted, creating
quick holes in the pressurized steel container. He did not have
time to curse before the fire extinguisher
exploded.

***

As soon as he threw
the fire extinguisher, Josh moved.

“
Garnet,
now!”

Behind him, Garnet
held up one of Jared’s sneakers and set it on fire. The flash of
light was blinding but this time he was prepared for it. He closed
his eyes and rushed to where he’d thrown the fire
extinguisher.

The explosion took
him by surprise. It threw him back several feet. Luckily, he was
far enough away not to be hurt. The blast lasted only a second.
Afterwards, there was an eternity of screams. The demon held hands
over his foam-covered face, metal shards sticking out of its upper
body.

Before the demon
could focus beyond his pain, Josh kicked and shattered its kneecap.
The demon fell, still holding its face. Josh slammed both his fists
down on the back of its head. It hit the floor face-first; metal
shards dug deeper into its body.

“
It’s not dead!”
Jared screamed.

A bloodied hand
reached out and grabbed Josh’s ankle. It clawed at him, trying to
drag him off his feet. But Josh was lucky. He leapt free of the
hand and landed near a block of knives. He grabbed the two largest
blades and spun around. That’s when he caught his first good look
at the face of the demon.

“
You!” he said.
When he'd heard there was a demon coming, he'd imagined horns and
scales. He didn’t expect to see one of the Redford
twins.

The demon smiled
back at him.
“You killed
me mumsy. I’m going to make you scream.”

An oily tentacle
darker than the shadows reached out from the demon’s hands and
grabbed Josh by the throat. Josh screamed. Searing pain burned into
his neck as the tentacles tightened. He was vaguely aware of Garnet
throwing something she’d set on fire, but it was hard to
concentrate.

‘
Have to move or
I’m dead,’
he thought. He
slid his fingers under the bottom edge of the tentacle and
concentrated. Nothing happened. He focused harder, ignoring the
howl of pain as the corrosive ropes burned his skin. Then his mind
was clear. There was nothing in the world but
silence.

In his mind’s eye,
the smoke and pain parted. A figure appeared dressed in a tuxedo
woven from living maggots and writhing beetles. Wet intestines
wrapped around its neck and waist, crafting a mockery of bowtie and
cummerbund. But it was the face that struck Josh the most: the dull
grey slate of a powered-down television cracked open in scales and
oily boils, lips like wet tar and beautiful blue eyes that were far
too familiar.

‘
Ah.’
the creature
said in his mind
. ‘Now
there’s my boy.’

Josh howled, filled
with terror. His hands broke through the tentacle. He fell to the
floor, gagging and struggling for breath. Something flew over his
head – a flaming shoe. It hit the demon in the
chest.

“
Josh! Look
out!”

He didn’t have time
to react to Garnet’s warning. Something solid grabbed him by the
throat again. With a grunt, he kicked out as hard as he could.
Luckily, his foot connected with something and the grip around his
neck broke free. He shook the blackness from his eyes in time to
see the demon holding its left knee.

All the Redford
twin’s clothes and hair were on fire. Still, it would not
fall.

‘
How the hell am I
going to beat this thing?’ Even as the thought came to mind, the
demon pointed at him. Another tentacle of darkness shot out toward
him.

“
No.” Josh held his
hands out. As soon as he said the word, the tentacle stopped
moving. It hung in the air, twitching, dripping shadows, but it did
not move forward. Josh looked the demon in the
eye.

“
You killed my best
friend. Tortured my girlfriend. Making me angry was the worst
decision of your life.” Something pulsed in his mind. Then it
jumped forward and wrapped around the demon. With a violent jerk
and a loud snap, the demon’s head twisted clockwise and up. Then,
wide-eyed, it fell.

Paeder Ferris was
dead before he hit the floor.

Josh stared down at
the body.
‘What the hell
have I done?’

***

The building came
back to life with a series of whirls and hums. The kitchen
overflowed with light. Josh blinked several times, forcing his eyes
to adjust. Garnet came forward and knelt beside the Redford
twin.

“
He’s dead,” she
said. “No more demon thoughts. Would you agree,
Jared?”

Jared stood up from
where he had been hiding – behind one of the islands – and nodded.
He was crying. Somehow, he looked more frightened now than before
the demon attack.

Garnet rose and
stood in front of Josh. “That was pretty hard-core there, Mr.
Wilkinson. I didn’t know you were capable of
that.”

Josh shook his
head. He could not look her in the eyes. “I’m not sure that was
me.”

Garnet raised her
eyebrows. “Then who was it?”

Josh remembered the
man in his mind, the creature in a living tuxedo. For a moment it
felt like the creature had taken control of his body. “You wouldn’t
believe me. You’d think I was crazy.”

“
Whatever. It
worked. We’re alive. That’s all that matters now. You knew him from
somewhere, didn’t you?”

“
He’s one of the
psychos from Quebec, the ones Wisdom rescued me
from.”

“
That’s funny.”
Garnet examined the wounds around Josh’s neck.

“
Weird is an
understatement.” Josh stepped back away from her prying eyes and
fingers. Then she gave him a look that froze him in
place.

“
No, not funny as
in weird, funny as in ridiculous. You think Wisdom rescued you?
That’s flippin’ hilarious.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Garnet, you should
be nice to him. He might kill you, too.”

“
Hey! I’m not going
to…”

“
Just kidding.”
Jared broke out into a bright smile. He danced over to the demon’s
body and kicked it in the head.

Josh went pale.
“You know, Jared, you’re a very troubled kid. What do you mean,
Garnet? He did rescue me. If it wasn’t for him, those freaks would
have killed me.”

Garnet laughed, but
there was no humor in it. “Honey, if it wasn’t for Wisdom, freaks
like that probably wouldn’t exist. Don’t get me wrong. I love the
big guy – as much as you can love someone like that – but there’s
so much about him you don’t know. There’s even a bit I don’t know
about him. The parts I do know help me to realize he never rescues
anyone. He might recruit you, but saving you was the last thing on
his mind.”