Council of Peacocks (44 page)

He was still lost in thought twenty minutes
later when there was a knock at his door.

“Come in,” Wisdom smiled and looked at the
gilded clock on the wall. At least this was roughly on
schedule.

Josh and David walked in the door and the
smile on Wisdom’s face faltered. ‘
It was supposed to be
Jessica,’
he thought. Maybe this was a good thing. Maybe Josh
could bring about something Jessica had been unable to do.

“We know what you’re planning,” Josh said as
soon as he sat down. “The reason Jessica and Todd were in my room
was because they couldn’t help but read your thoughts. How exactly
do you plan on using us as weapons against the Council of Peacocks?
David and I haven’t even gone through your bloody training
program.”

“Though, from the sounds of it, I’m not sure
I want to anymore.” David squirmed in his seat. “You know, the
whole kill-a-person, win-a-prize thing. It’s a bit too
Hunger
Games
for my taste.”

Wisdom’s smile twisted slightly. “So I left
out a few details. You knew what you were getting into. Look, I’m
sorry things worked out this way. I would have preferred to
spoon-feed you some of the more delicate material. Despite what the
Council of Peacocks thinks, it is not healthy for the human mind to
take too much in at once. I could have lied to you. Hell, I could
jump through your bones and scramble your brains until you don’t
know if you’re skinning a man alive or knitting a sweater. But I
won’t.”

“Thanks,” David said. “That makes me feel a
whole lot better.”

“I could take the Council out on my own.
Possibly. Of course, with my power I’m not so good with the whole
calculated strikes. You don’t know much about me. Barely anything
at all, really. Suffice it to say I have more power at my disposal
than almost anyone on the planet. I’m not expecting you to be all
Navy Seal-like, nor am I expecting any mystical Neo-
Matrix
ninjas. I have a plan that will utilize the specific strengths each
of you have. You are more powerful than you realize. If everything
goes well, we’ll be in and out in half an hour with Propates’ head
in a bag.”

“And what if it goes badly?” David kept his
eyes on the floor. No matter how he tried, he could not raise the
courage to look Wisdom in the eyes.

Wisdom sighed. “Do you really need me to
answer that question? If it does not go well, we all die. Or I may
end up blasting Greece into space. Either case would be
unfortunate.”

“And what about your father? What if he shows
up again?”

Wisdom took a deep breath and turned his full
attention on Josh. The young man sank deep into the chair, pushed
back by the force of his stare. “My father will show up. Count on
that. Things will get messy, but I’ll take care of that. Still, it
might be best if you don’t mention my father again.”

“Wisdom?” David cleared his throat. “Who is
your father? Is he a demon? Does that make you sort of like
us?”

“You know, I’m fairly certain I just said
‘don’t mention my father again.’ Now, go get something to eat.
We’ll be leaving soon.”

***

While the building’s custodians cleaned up
the blood and shattered glass in his old room, Josh got settled in
a new one. As hard as he liked to think he was, he couldn’t bring
himself to stay even one more hour in that room. Every time he
looked at the dent in the wall, he thought of Jared. Thought of how
he’d thrown him back with the power of his mind.

Until that moment, a small part of him had
held onto the faint hope that he really wasn’t like the rest of the
freaks here. He'd forced himself to believe he was fundamentally
different from the others. Anomalies. It was just another word for
freak. Since the advent of comic books, every kid over the age of
six dreamed of being a superhero; but there was no mistaking Josh
for a superhero. He was not a savior. He was not the next step in
human evolution. He was a half-demon bastard. He was created by
evil to do evil things.

And now he could no longer deny it.

He looked out the window at the chaotic
streets below. The streets were so crowded it looked like beetles
swarming through metal canyons. He wondered how long it would take
to lose himself in that crowd. How long before Wisdom found him?
How long could he run from the Council of Peacocks and the
knowledge that his father had lied to him his whole life?

“Not long at all.” Saying the words aloud was
enough to dismiss all notion of running. He had to find out what
his father was doing with the Council of Peacocks.

He was about to turn away from the window
when something caught his eye. A single Caucasian face in the
throbbing mess of people. It seemed to look directly at Josh. A
feeling trembled in his gut, the building of fear. Then he saw the
gold ring on the man’s left hand. There was a flash of light and
Josh dropped to his knees.

Memory washed over him, more forceful than
ever before.

***

“
I can’t control him anymore.”

Josh was sixteen years old, standing at the
top of the stairs eavesdropping on his father.

“
The subject is not open for debate,
Lucius.” His dad spoke in a hushed voice, but the anger behind the
words came across clearly. “He got into a fight at school today.
Nearly tore the arm of a kid right out of the socket. By the time I
got there, Josh was…I know I should have expected some differences.
… Yes, I know that, Lucius. I’m not an idiot. But I’m telling you,
he’s different. He’s not like the other ones….Whatever. Stop being
a prick. I’m bringing him to Propates tomorrow. There has to be
something….Look, I don’t care how it’s done. I need to have control
of this boy until the army’s ready. Even with the technological
help of our friend from away, without the muscle to…I am not
ranting. And I’m telling you because you’re putting too much
importance on the half-breeds. There’s only a hundred or so we know
about. Even if we take half of them, Wisdom will…Humph. There’s
really that many? Doesn’t matter. It’s still not enough to…I don’t
care how much demon is in him. There’s no way Josh could win that
type of war.”

For several minutes his father was silent.
Josh didn’t understand half of what his father was talking about.
By demon, did his father mean Wisdom? Or was he talking about the
Edimmu? Josh had seen the scaly reptoids only a few times in his
life. Most of those times were not pleasant. They’d tortured and
eventually killed one of his best friends. As a child, Josh vaguely
remembered several trips with his father to a meeting place
somewhere underground, a place filled with hundreds of Edimmu, some
with wings, others in almost human form. He remembered a lot of
grownup talk but he hadn’t paid any attention to what they were
actually saying at the time. Now he wished he had.

“
Fine,” his father continued. “I’ll send
him and his mother to Windsor. But this had better work, Lucius.
There’s too much at stake. With what’s coming, we can’t afford to
have the half-breeds fall into Wisdom’s hands….No, I don’t care
about that. We’re going to remake the world, turn it back to what
it should have been all along. I can’t let my personal feelings get
in the way. If Josh has to die, so be it.”

***

Josh felt nauseous and his head was swimming
and he felt nauseous. How could his father do that? For the last
several days he’d assumed the stranger with the gold ring worked
for his demon father. Now that he had all his memories back – and
this did, somehow, feel like the last of them – he saw his father
for what he really was: a single-minded man on a mission with no
concern for anyone hurt in the process. His father was a
monster.

Getting back to his feet, Josh looked back
out the window and searched for the man with the gold ring. He was
nowhere to be found.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Wisdom watched Echo pour a drink, studying
the moment. A picture in a scrapbook. He placed it beside the image
of the first time he saw her: a young woman carrying water back
from a stone well in a wood bucket. Back then, she wore the same
drab clothes as the other village women but there was something
about her that cried out to him. In the distance, snow-capped
mountains rose to pale blue sky. In that moment, Echo appeared as
distant and untouchable as those mountains. That’s why he took her.
Forcefully.

Centuries passed but he still saw her that
way. Untouchable. No matter what he did, she was beyond his
control. In those first years, he tried to force his way in. He
used power to prevent her from leaving, controlling her mind and
body. But she never submitted.

Years passed, centuries passed and old pains
dimmed. Their relationship changed. While she never forgave him, he
knew she had feelings for him. It wasn’t until he’d lost her that
he realized how much he loved her.

‘And I’m going to lose you again,’ he
thought. ‘No, not this time. This time it will be different. It has
to be different.’

“Echo, please don’t go.”

She shook her head and downed her drink.
“We’ve been over this. I’m going with you. Period. I want this to
be over. I need it to be over so I can get back to my life. That
won’t happen until Propates and his puppet army are taken out of
the picture. After that, I intend on spending a century developing
a truly excellent wine collection and enjoying my accumulated
wealth.”

“But….”

“I’m serious. I don’t feel safe anymore. Not
when I’m away from you.”

Wisdom fought the tears in his eyes. It
wasn’t the first time he had heard this speech. The last time he'd
heard it, Echo ended up dead.

“Look,” Echo said. “About last night….”

“Please. Don’t.” Wisdom went over to her. He
used his eyes to caress her. “Just let it be what it was. There are
so many things I could apologize for, things I probably
should
apologize for. But I believe I’m well past seeking
redemption from anyone. I love you, Andromeda. You know that. And I
can sense how complicated your emotions are toward me. Just… be
careful today. I don’t think I can handle losing you again.”

Echo took a step back. “What do you mean
‘again.’?”

Wisdom shook his head. “Slip of the
tongue.”

“Wisdom, you don’t have slips of the tongue.
What aren’t you telling me?”

He reached out now and placed tender fingers
on her left cheek. “In many ways I’ve lost you many times. In other
ways I’ve never really had you. Maybe, if we get through this –
once we get through this – maybe we can start over. I’m not asking
you to forget the things I’ve done, but…”

Echo brushed his hand away. “No, you’re
right. I can’t forget. Maybe we should just get this over
with.”

Nodding to himself, Wisdom sighed. Last time
he had said different words but the result was the same: Echo
rejected him and he could not blame her.

***

Propates hated darkness, which, considering
what he could do, was extremely ironic. With the abilities at his
disposal he could travel around the world by jumping into shadows.
He could slip into people’s minds and bring their nightmares to
life. Still, Propates had spent far too many years huddled and
frightened in underground places escaping one enemy or another.
Wisdom, the Djinn, pagans, Christians, Jews, rival secret
societies: all had tried to eradicate Propates and his followers at
one point. During the decades of the Inquisition, membership in the
Council of Peacocks dwindled and those that remained cut themselves
off from the World Above. Then, around 1850, things had changed.
Aristocrats and debutants fell in love with the occult and magic
was reborn. The Council of Peacocks rose steadily out of the dark
places. Now he was finally ready to leave the shadows forever.

He wandered around the ceremonial room,
casually examining the equipment to making sure everything was in
place. Six stone tables engraved with gold runes encircled a
central dais. Beside each table lay a silver tray with several
gleaming, metallic surgical instruments and six vials of specially
prepared ink. Soon, the last of Wisdom’s precious Anomalies would
be strapped down and unconscious before him The process of Eyeness
would begin. He would make the demons divine.

The air above the central dais shimmered.
Suddenly the air rippled and tore open. A puddle of darkness
spilled out like Indian ink in oil. Splashes of purple and mauve
shot through the shifting black.

Propates went pale.

“I thought our negotiations had ended.”

A voice came out of the darkness. “Balance
has shifted again. The Judas was caught.”

“What about Josh?”

Propates looked over his shoulder. Richard
Wilkinson approached, wearing his ceremonial robes of turquoise
peacock feathers. Every inch of his clothes bore an artificial eye
looking out at the world.

“He’s alive,” the darkness said. “My son, the
idiot, is bringing him to you. Soon.”

Propates inhaled sharply. “But you
said….”

“I promised you he won’t interfere. I hold my
bargains. I will see to him. See to the children. Carla and Sanchez
are away on a mission for Asmodeus but the Orpheans have eyes
everywhere. Remember your deal with them.”

Inky blackness poured in reverse back through
the tear in space. The air shimmered again and was still.

“Should I try to contact our friend from
away?”

“No,” Propates hung his head. He put both
hands on the table beside him, leaning against it for support.
“Even if he would help us, which is doubtful, we want to avoid
bloodshed. We need them for our plan to work. Half the Anomalies we
took from Echo’s compound died in the process of Eyeness. Let’s not
waste the remaining ones.”

Richard hesitated for only a moment. “I’ll
double the guards.” He exited the room, leaving Propates alone.