Council of Peacocks (30 page)

“Wisdom had an errand to run,” Elaine squared
her shoulders. “I don’t think we should take his not being here as
a bad thing. I’m sure he’ll show up as soon as he can. When he
does, we’ll make a plan to get them back.”

“How do you know he’s not back already?”

“Jessica says she can’t feel him. And like I
said, he expected to be away for quite some time.”

“And I take it you’re not at liberty to
discuss his little mission, are you?” Echo bit her tongue and shook
her head. “Typical. That man is never here when I need him. I don’t
know why I keep expecting that will change.”

“You’re more important to him than you
realize, Echo.” Elaine cleared her throat and put a hand on Echo’s
shoulder.

Echo's shoulders slumped and she sighed.
“Let’s get the four of you someplace safe. When Wisdom wants to
find us, he will.”

Echo flicked her wrist again and the portal
reappeared. David let Jessica and Todd go first. He motioned for
Elaine to follow them. She rolled her eyes and pointed him forward
by jutting forth her chin.

On the other side of the portal, he closed
his eyes to shake off the afterimages of bright light that stained
his retinas. To his left, something roared. He opened his eyes and
slowly realized what the sound was: ocean waves crashing against a
beach.

Eyes wide, he walked past Todd and Jessica to
the open-air windows. He took a deep breath of the salty air.
Although Dartmouth never got this warm, the scent reminded him of
home. Sweat poured freely down the back of his neck and ran in a
steady drizzle from his armpits to his elbows.

“Glad to feel moisture again,” he said. “I
felt like I was drinking sand the whole time we were
underground.”

“Nice, isn’t it?” Echo handed him a glass of
ice with a little iced tea thrown in for color. He drank it down
quickly, convinced it was the best iced tea he had ever tasted.
Then he put the glass against his cheek. He could almost see steam
rising up from where it caressed his hot flesh.

“It’s paradise,” he replied. She smiled in
response and put a comforting hand on his elbow. Then she handed
out drinks to the others. David turned back to watch the waves
crash against the beach and listened to the conversations around
him.

“What’s wrong with him?” Echo’s voice was
throaty and solid, full of command. Jessica rattled off a list of
various injuries. Several times Todd tried to speak for himself,
saying that Jessica was the one who needed to be looked after, but
she kept shushing him.

The windows looked out over a wooden porch to
the high crescent moon and millions of stars. It was bright enough
for him to see fairly far. At the right end of the porch, a
staircase ran down to a ten-foot wide patch of grass. At the edge
of the grass, greenery gave way to clean white sand. He looked up
and down the beach. It went on as far as he could see to left and
right. Off to the left he also saw a patch of forest with a thin
strip of grass separating it from the sand. A breeze blew over his
face and dried the perspiration on his cheek.

‘I have no idea where in the world I am,’ he
thought. ‘My life is so completely crazy. Earlier today I saw
psychic surgery in an underground city built by reptilians. Now I’m
standing at the edge of an unknown ocean. I barely know these
people. Hell, I don’t even know their last names. Home feels
incredibly far away.’

He lifted the glass to his lips. The ice
cubes were melting and he drank the build-up of water collecting in
the glass. ‘Strange to think I just left Dartmouth a few weeks ago.
Wonder how Mom’s doing. Is she even trying to look for me? Probably
not. She probably hopes I disappear until the police close the
case.’

His third murder.

It was easy to forget he was a killer.
Sometimes he went an entire day without the thought popping into
his head. Then a piece of an overheard conversation or a stray
fragrance would take him back. He would smell the burning flesh;
hear the screams of the gaggle of kids across the street. Worst of
all was when he remembered the feeling, the satisfaction he felt as
Dane Houghton rolled around on the grass trying to smother the fire
that ate him alive.

Thinking back, David fought to keep his lips
from curling back into the same smile he had worn as he had stared
past the orange and blue flames to watch flesh and bone melt. At
the time, he had not even known the boy’s name. He had heard it on
the television hours after the boy had stopped struggling.

***

Dane Houghton was nobody, not in David’s
life anyway. He was a 16-year-old high school student with a
part-time job delivering newspapers.

At 19 David graduated high school and took a
job washing dishes at a fish and chips restaurant. It was
ludicrously hot as he walked home that day in late July. He had
changed his shirt after work, but it was hopeless; everything about
him reeked of wet garbage. His hair was thick from the oily air in
the kitchen. A pungent film coated his face and neck. So when the
kid walked by and told him to take a shower, David wasn’t feeling
particularly charitable.

It was tempting to think it was temporary
insanity, brush it off as a psychotic break. Only, he seemed
incapable of fooling himself. As comforting as it would have been
to believe otherwise, David was fully cognizant of his actions and
the consequences of what he planned to do. He knew it was wrong,
but he didn’t care. The voice of reason told him he should just
ignore the thin brown-haired kid. After all, David was the adult
now. The most he should have done was tell the kid to screw off.
Instead, he turned, slowly, and snapped his fingers.

Flame flashed over Dane’s t-shirt and jeans.
He waved his arms around, dropped his bundle of newspapers before
any of them caught fire, and then threw himself on the ground. It
was only then that David saw the group of kids getting off the bus.
The kids who pointed and screamed. The bus driver got out and
pushed all the children back on the bus. David barely paid
attention to them. He kept his eyes on the burning body, the boy he
set on fire.

The boy he killed for telling him to take a
shower.

***

“I’m not a monster.” He looked at the glass
in his hands and set it down. He felt sick to his stomach. The
smell of burning flesh was thick in his nostrils.

“Did you say something?”

He looked over his shoulder. Echo was just
putting the phone back in the cradle. He had not heard her speaking
on the phone. He realized he had been staring out at the sea for
longer than he had intended. He walked over to one of the beige
chairs in the living room and sat down before his legs gave out
beneath him. “Nothing,” he said. “Just talking to myself.”

She shrugged her shoulders and walked out of
the room.

***

He woke up to the smell of food. He didn’t
remember falling asleep in the chair. It wasn’t like him to nod off
like that, but he did feel better now.

Jessica and Todd were playing cards at a
circular table between the living room and the kitchen. Both seemed
stronger, somehow. It took several moments before David realized
they were no longer covered in bruises. Jessica’s shoulder bone was
back inside the flesh. He felt the back of his head and looked over
his own body. Except for the remnants of dried blood on his skin,
none of his wounds were visible. It appeared Echo was a talented
healer after all. Hearing muffled talking, he searched for the
source. Elaine sat at a mahogany desk at the far end of the living
room with a phone to one ear. She was writing notes with her right
hand, her voice rising occasionally in angry tones. David stood up
and walked over to his classmates.

“What’s going on?”

Todd placed a seven of diamonds over a seven
of clubs in a pile of cards on the table. “Crazy eights. Echo took
off again. I think Elaine’s calling Wisdom’s offices around the
world trying to track him down.”

“I hate you!” Jessica kicked a leg of the
table and picked up a card from the turned-over pile. “Shoot. I
can’t go. Are you happy?”

Todd smiled and laid down a three of
diamonds. “Very happy. Do you want to play, David?”

“No thanks,” he sat down at one of the other
two chairs around the round table. “Isn’t this kind of unfair? I
mean, with you guys being psychic and all? Can’t you tell what the
other one is going to play?”

Jessica rolled her eyes and picked up another
card. “It wouldn’t be much fun if we did that, now, would it?
Besides, all we would have to do is think of a whole bunch of cards
we don’t have and it would throw off the other person. Even if I
tried to cheat, I know Todd well enough to realize he wouldn’t
think about the cards he really has in his hands.”

“You know me that well, huh?” Todd laid down
a two of diamonds. Jessica kicked the table leg again and picked up
two more cards. “Echo rounded up a few servants somehow. A few of
them are cooking supper for us. She said she’d be back by the time
we’re on dessert.”

“Damn!”

They all looked away from the table and
stared at Elaine. She had slammed a fist against the wooden desk so
hard David was sure the desk was cracked somewhere. She was no
longer on the phone. He was about to ask her a question when she
got up from the desk and walked over to them.

“There was an attack at the London offices,”
Elaine said. She moved toward the remaining chair, then decided
against it. She paced back and forth between the mahogany desk and
the table. “Not an Edimmu, they say, but definitely not human. It
killed twenty-seven guards and almost got Garnet, Jared and the new
guy.”

“What new guy?” Jessica put down the eight of
clubs and mouthed the word ‘Spades’. Her face broke out in a smug
little smile. In response, Todd stuck his tongue out at her.

“Another Anomaly Wisdom picked up. That’s not
important right now. Where the hell is Echo?”

Todd shook his head and laid down a five of
spades. Before his hand was fully withdrawn, Jessica laid down the
Queen of Spades and started laughing. “Burn, baby!”

“Can you stop the damn card game?” Elaine
stopped pacing and put her hands on her hips. “People died,
remember? Garnet could be next if we don’t get her out of
there.”

Todd raised his eyebrows and scratched his
scalp. Then he started picking up a series of cards from the deck.
“Garnet can take care of herself, remember? You said the same thing
to me about two months ago when we had that conversation about her
wardrobe.”

Jessica put her cards down and looked back
and forth between Todd and Elaine. “You had a conversation about
the clothes she wears?”

“No, we didn’t.” Elaine pointed a finger at
Todd. “We had no such conversation, understand? And I know she can
take care of herself. This is different. People died. I should have
been there instead of…whatever.” She sat down at the fourth chair,
resting her elbows on the table.. “I can’t believe this is
happening. I should have retired by now. Where the hell is
Echo?”

She got up from the table and started pacing
again.

A woman with light brown skin walked out of
the kitchen. She was dressed in a blue blouse with a white skirt
that hung to her knees. She was lightly tanned and blond. Seeing
her reminded David of Annisa and Roma and what their absence
meant.

“Supper is ready,” the servant said. She
glared at them, taking in the large patches of dried blood and dirt
marks over their skin and clothes. “You may want to freshen up
first. The bathroom is down the hall to the left.” When she said
“you may want to freshen up” she lowered her head and stared each
of them squarely in the eyes. The way she said it did not sound
like a suggestion. Even though he was not hungry and had no
intention of eating, David was on his feet quickly. Jessica and
Todd both laid their cards down and headed toward the bathrooms as
well. Even Elaine stood in line to wash her face and hands.

David surprised himself by eating two
servings of the turkey and mashed potatoes. It reminded him of
happy times, Christmas and Thanksgivings before he knew he was
different. Before his parents realized he was different. He drank a
few glasses of white wine and ended up in a conversation with Todd
about which Radiohead album was the best. Jessica asked for wine
once. The servant, Courtney, put a glass of apple juice in front of
her. Then she stood, arms crossed, waiting for Jessica to say
something else. Jessica stared back, but only for a moment. Then
she said, “Thank you,” and took a sip from the apple juice.

Elaine barely looked up from her plate. David
tried to involve her in the conversation. When she admitted she did
not know who Radiohead was, he realized it was hopeless. No matter
how hard he tried, though, he could not keep his eyes from straying
over to her throughout the meal. He was glad she kept her eyes on
her plate. He didn’t want her to realize how often he stared at
her.

When they finished talking about Radiohead,
they talked movies. Not long after that, Courtney brought them each
a plate of thick cherry cheesecake with hazelnut ice cream. As soon
as she left the room, Jessica got up from her seat, walked over to
Todd and picked up his 1/4 full wine glass. She lifted the glass to
her lips and then froze when they all heard someone clear their
throat. They turned to see Courtney standing in the doorway between
the kitchen and the living room, arms crossed with one eyebrow
raised. She stayed like that until Jessica, slowly, put the wine
glass back in place and returned to her seat. Once Courtney
disappeared into the kitchen, Todd and David broke out laughing.
Elaine put her hand over her mouth, barely hiding the smile while
she very studiously looked at the ceiling. Jessica did not look
amused.

They were deep into a discussion about
The
Lord of the Rings
when Echo walked in on them.