At the taunting, Wisdom recovered. “Hello? Have you been watching this fight? That was you getting your ass kicked a moment ago. You know, the psychologists of this planet would have a lot to say about the way you carry on.” Wisdom pushed himself to his feet and brushed sand off his shoulders. “I mean, the sword speaks volumes. Over-compensating much? And I have to wonder, are you like this with everyone, or is it just me? Do all the Djinn get together over coffee and talk about who’s the biggest baddie of them all? Or maybe, and I’m just putting it out there, maybe the reason you kidnapped me all those years ago was because you realized how much of a disappointment you are. I’m guessing part of the reason you didn’t let me associate with the other Djinn is because they all knew what I’m just starting to realize now. You’re a loser. Just a big fat joke amongst the Djinn. Maybe you just wanted me around so you can point out my weaknesses as a diversion from your own inadequacies. It’s kind of like picking up a dog from the pound just so you can kick it when you have a bad day. When you think about it that way, it actually makes you kind of pathetic.”
The glare of hatred in the Djinn’s eyes was answer enough. Distracted by the small victory, Wisdom did not see the slab of molten lava until it was inches away from his face. The impact hammered him into the ground, even as his body instinctively absorbed the heat and flames. Before he could recover, the Djinn grabbed him by the right arm, just above the elbow. He lifted Wisdom high over his head and slammed him against the ground.
“When we get back to the Kaz, Akushula, be prepared to eat those words. I’m trying to save your life. Whether you want it saved or not. I will not leave you here on this planet to face what’s coming.”
Over and over the Djinn slammed him against the ground. It was far from subtle, but it was effective. All Wisdom could do was wait for an opening. Finally, his father threw him high in the air. The Djinn’s hands began to glow with subtle fire, but Wisdom took his moment. He called upon the power of Air, increasing the quantity of oxygen in the area around the Djinn. The gases responded to the flame and, for all intents and purposes, his father exploded. Pieces of the Djinn’s body showered the desert.
Wisdom took the opportunity to run. Something very wrong had happened. The Djinn was an elemental. Under the treaties of authority, as a creature of fire, his father should not have been able to manipulate elemental water as he did with the tsunami. It was physically impossible. And yet the old bastard had done it. Bloodied and confused, Wisdom’s consciousness leaked away like blood. His body flew on instinct to the one place, the one person he knew would make him safe. Then he collapsed.
***
“You almost had me there, old man,” Wisdom whispered. Thinking back on the fight was all that it took to convince Wisdom his instincts were correct. Someone was helping the Djinn. And the only hint of it was a distant gleam of something under the lightning. “I’m not usually a betting man, but I’d put money on that ‘thing’ being a gold ring. Looks like the alien is no longer just a problem for Josh. He and I are about to have words, as soon as I am whole again.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
David stared out at the ocean without really seeing it. His ears were ringing, a sound that seemed to bypass his eardrums altogether to buzz inside his head. His short time with the Anomalies told him what that meant: power.
“That’s the best I can do,” Todd said from the couch. He let his bloodied hands drop away from Josh’s head and slumped forward, his elbows resting against his knees.
“His skull wasn’t cracked, really, but it was pretty close,” Jessica said. She wiped sweat from her forehead. The two of them had once again combined their healing powers. Under normal circumstances, Jessica would barely feel the exertion; but these were hardly normal conditions. Despite her protests to the contrary, she was just a child and her little body could only deal with so much. “We stopped the bleeding and fused the bone.”
“So why doesn’t he wake up?” David moved away from the window and joined the others. His face was still pale and somber under his shock of red hair, his eyes moving too quickly.
Jessica looked up at David and narrowed her eyes. “Do I look like a doctor? I know nothing about head trauma. Maybe it’s all been too much for him. All this stuff about his connection to the Edimmu and now it turns out Elaine shot his mother. Maybe his mind just shut down. Maybe it won’t let him wake up until he’s processed it all.”
Sitting at the dining table, Garnet poured a glass of red wine – her third so far. “Well, I can’t speak for Josh, but I can say this is all too much for me. I can’t believe how ‘full circle’ this whole thing is. It’s like we stepped into the third act of a trilogy without all the Jedi and hobbits.”
Todd nodded. “Actually, you could kind of say we’re like the Jedi. And, you know, Jessica is basically a hobbit.”
Jessica kicked him in the shin and walked toward the bathroom.
Todd winced at the pain but kept smiling. He sat down at the table next to Garnet and leaned back in his chair. He folded his arms across his chest, the smile fading. “What can you tell us? Why did Wisdom want Josh’s father killed?”
For a moment Garnet said nothing. Then, after a large swig of her wine, she spoke. “Elaine was right about one thing. It really should come from Wisdom. But seeing as how he’s all coma-like and we’re being chased by reptoids from the center of the earth, what the heck. Josh’s father, well, he’s not exactly what you would call an innocent bystander. If he’s the one Elaine was told to kill in Lebanon, he works for the Canadian branch of an organization called Candleworks. They’re a quasi-military group whose sole purpose is to catalogue and eliminate non-humans on Earth. You already know about the Edimmu. There are a surprising number of other species on the planet. This group, Candleworks, was investigating Wisdom. They caused him some inconveniences. He wanted to send a message.”
“So,” Todd said, slowly nodding. “Wisdom really isn’t human, is he?”
Garnet looked at him over the rim of her wine glass. “Did you hit your head? Of course he isn’t human. Hell, technically we’re not even human. You know that. I don’t know all the details. I was new at the time and Wisdom only gave me limited information. From what I gather, this group Candleworks was investigating the same kind of events Wisdom was. Meaning us. I think there was some sort of recruiting competition, like Candleworks wanted the Anomalies to work for them. Obviously, Wisdom wanted them for himself. I’m not sure exactly. That we’ll have to ask the big guy.”
“So if he’s not human, what is he?” David bit his nails, his eyes darting quickly between Garnet and Todd.
Garnet took a sip of wine and held it in her mouth for a long time. She chewed the wine, a physical manifestation of the thoughts running through her mind.
“I don’t know if there’s a name for what he is. I know he’s very old. From what I’ve learned, he’s from…somewhere else. Some people, mostly his enemies, have called him a demon, but I don’t think he is. He’s not inherently evil and he’s not out to steal souls. But he’s definitely not some sort of angelic presence here to save us from ourselves, either. I do know that there is no one else like him on this planet. That’s part of the reason he has so many enemies. Most people that know about him want him to go away. A few others seem to think they can use him for their own purposes.”
“Excellent,” David said sarcastically. “Clear as mud. You should go into politics. What does all this have to do with me? With us?”
“Long story.” Garnet took another drink of wine. “Wisdom’s fed us a few different stories, about who we are and why we are. About a year after they’re recruited, Newbies are told a story about evolution and how the human genome is affected by background radiation, forcing it to adapt. Stuff like that. It’s all complete crap. Well, maybe not complete crap from a scientific standpoint, but it has nothing to do with us. About year three you hear a slightly different story. That’s the one everyone here has heard.”
“You mean
that wasn’t true, either?” Jessica came back into the room and stood in front of Garnet with her hands in her pockets. “That stuff about our parents?”
“What about our parents?” David had a flashback to something Elaine had said earlier. “Elaine said something about how I didn’t know as much about my parents as I thought. Are you saying my parents did something to me?”
“No.”
David jumped at the sound of Elaine’s voice.
They all turned to look at her. She stood at the top of the stairway. The submachine gun was no longer strapped across her front.
“Elaine…” Garnet started to stand.
“Sit down, Garnet,” she said. “I’ll tell them. There are things even you don’t know, so you might get it wrong. I’ll tell you the truth. Wisdom might skin me alive if – no, when – he gets up, but I think you’re right. We can’t afford to play by the same rules anymore. David, your parents didn’t do anything to you, not in the way you are thinking. The truth is the people you call your parents aren’t really your true parents at all.”
“What?” David felt something wash through his body. It was hard to breathe, but he could not pinpoint the emotion. “Of course they are. I…”
“If you want the truth, shut up and listen! Your mother did give birth to you, physically, but you weren’t conceived like a normal child. Like a human child. Oh, I know that look. You’re wondering how they could have kept something like that from you. The reason they kept it from you is because they have no idea. They have no clue that you are anything other than their child.
“This part Garnet knows already. There are forces in this world some would call demons. For all I know, that’s exactly what they are. Some call them Nephilim, but it's doubtful they are the creatures from myth. Today, they’re normally called Orpheans. How they got that name is a story for another day. They live in a dark twisted place called the Black Sea and they do not want to stay there. Their only pleasure in life is to screw with people’s heads. Make them do bad things. But they like to do it in sneaky ways. See, if it’s obvious that an external force created all the havoc on earth, people would rally together and fight them. Like they did in the Middle Ages. So they only appear for certain people. Usually, weak people. Crazy people. Sometimes they just drive them nuts, make them see and hear things that just drive them over the edge. And sometimes, thankfully not all that often, they step into the world and do secret things themselves.
“If each of you asked your parents, they would all have this one story in common. They would all remember a very vivid dream where they changed into monsters and had really incredible sex. If you don’t believe me, ask them. Although, being all parent-like, they might not want to discuss their sexual fantasies with you. What these demon-things do, the Orpheans, is kind of take possession of the human body and…”
“You have got to be kidding.”
“No David, I’m not kidding. And don’t interrupt me again. They slip into human bodies and take over. They do weird, violent, fetish-type stuff that is meant to be anything but pleasurable. It usually leaves the victims so physically messed up they can’t have sex for months. Naturally, this type of sex with all the blood and decadence doesn’t normally result in pregnancy. Every once in a while, though, accidents happen and – voila! We have an Anomaly.”
“But,” Jessica chewed the fingernail on her thumb, her eyes focused on something no one else could see. “But don’t these things know they created children? And, if they did, wouldn’t they keep in contact or something? Try to, I don’t know, use them or take custody or something.”
Elaine shook her head. “They can’t exactly take custody. They’re in a different dimension, remember? They’re not really physical in the same way we are. And they can’t take you back to where they come from for the same reason. As far as I understand it, they know what they’ve done and that’s good enough for them. They’ve put a bit more chaos into the world. They probably figure having a bunch of kids running around that can kill at will and blow things up with their mind is about as evil as you can get. Truth to tell, God only knows what you guys would become if Wisdom just let you wander around on your own.”
David laughed, his body shaking as he held his head. “This is too much. I mean, demons? There is no way that’s the reason. I mean, there has to be another explanation. There just has to be. There’s no such thing as demons anyway, so…”
“Listen up, pretty boy,” Elaine said. “I don’t really give a hoot if you believe me or not. What I’ve told you is the truth. You’re all hybrids: part-demon, part-human. That’s how you can do the things you can do. The reason you exist is to do evil things. That’s the truth. Now you can choose to accept it or you can make up some other story that will help you sleep at night. It won’t change a goddamn thing. Each one of you was born a monster, made for one thing and one thing only. Wisdom wants to help you, for reasons I cannot even begin to understand. If you let him, he’ll show you a different way.”
“What about me?” Everyone turned, surprised to hear Josh’s voice. He sat up on the couch holding a hand to his head. His eyes were unfocused but looked in the direction of Elaine. “What about my father? My human father. Does he know what I am?”
Elaine shrugged. Then she shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t see how he could, but working for Candleworks, maybe he figured it out.”
Jessica walked back to the couch. “Josh, your father must have known something, right? Those Edimmu seemed to know him and all, but…Oh. Wait.”
Jessica’s face went lax and pale. She stared at Josh, her left eye twitching.
Josh stared at Jessica. The two held their stare for some time, as if they were holding their own silent conversation. It was Josh who finally spoke.
“Maybe the Edimmu were talking about my other father.”
Jessica nodded. “The one who wasn’t human.”
“So these demons are in cahoots with the Edimmu?” Todd asked. “I thought you said they were two separate things.”
“They are,” Elaine said. “As far as I know, they have nothing to do with each other. The Edimmu are just sort of hired muscle the Council of Peacocks uses to do their dirty work.”
Josh rubbed his head. “Maybe this Council of Peacocks is aligned with these demons in some way. And if you don’t know what the connection is, either Wisdom didn’t tell you or he has not figured it out yet.”
Garnet walked over to Elaine. “Which is it? Is Wisdom keeping something this big from us?”
“Why don’t you just ask me?”
Wisdom walked down the stairs. He wore a white sheet draped around his body in a quasi-toga. It left several of his bruises and cuts across his body very visible. Perhaps it was the hunched-over weary way in which he was standing, but he looked the very image of a gladiator.
“Wisdom!” Elaine rushed over to him, arms outstretched in an offer of support. Wisdom shook his head and waved her away.
“It’s okay, Elaine. I’m fine. Believe it or not, I’ve been worse than this. Things are progressing faster than expected. I need to get you up to speed quickly. So ask me whatever you want. I’ll tell you whatever you need to know. But as soon as that sun comes up, we’re heading to Greece.”
“Greece?” Elaine said the word as if it had never crossed her lips before.
“Yes, Greece. It’s a country. In the Mediterranean. Maybe you’ve heard of it. And no, I don’t know of any connection between the Council and the demons. I didn’t think anybody on the planet knew about the Orpheans except Candleworks and the few I’ve told. If they are working together, something very bad must be in the works. Garnet, why don’t you make us some coffee? Elaine, can you see if there are any decent clothes here I can put on? I’m far from modest, but parts of me are showing that seem to be making Jessica sick to her stomach.”
Before either Elaine or Garnet could move, a circle of light appeared by the windows, bringing everyone to a standstill. When Echo stepped out of the circ
le, the temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. There was a wild look in her eyes.
“Wisdom, we have to move,” she said. “Your father is coming.”
***
“When did I get that?” Josh couldn’t stop staring at his hands. There was a small cylindrical bulge on his palm, like a piece of skin that had been pinched together and had not fallen back into place yet. He rubbed it, but it did not move. Was it a sign? Did the others have similar marks? He forced his head up to look at the others in the room. They all looked so normal. He couldn’t pick out anything about them that screamed ‘monster’. But they were demonspawn, things created for the sole purpose of increasing evil in the world.
He thought back to the creature who had come to him back in London: the one in the maggot suit. Was that thing an Orphean? If so, was that his father?
“Get what?”
Josh looked up and found Wisdom staring at him.
“It’s probably nothing,” he said. “Just this thing on my hand.”
Wisdom glanced at Elaine. “Damn it. You said he’d been checked.”
Elaine ran to Josh, grabbed his hand, and held it up to her face. “How the hell did we miss this? I swear I’ve never seen this before.”
“It’s probably been there since he was taken,” Wisdom said. “We don’t have time to deal with it now. Echo, close that portal already. You need to open another one. I’m still not strong enough.”
Council of Peacocks Page 27
