The Colour of Death (42 page)

When they reached the indigo level, he turned to Kaidan.  “Are you going to do it?”

“Yes.”

He nodded.  “I’m glad.”

A frown.  “Why?”

“I want to look in your eyes when I die, Kaidan.  It’ll help knowing that even though I’m being murdered, it’s by someone whose life is even more screwed up than mine.  I want to watch you squirm when you think about what you’re letting you father do up there.  Christ, Kaidan, I understand why you killed those men in Portland.  I really do.  They were murderers and rapists — just like your father.  A part of you was rebelling, punishing him and avenging the women you care about in your life.  I can even understand you killing me.  I mean nothing to you.  But I can’t fathom why you’d let your father do what he’s going to do to Sorcha.”

Saying nothing, Kaidan led him into one of the rooms.  The amethyst plaque on the wall in front of Fox had already been engraved with the date, M for male and A for adult.  An eye-shaped lotus symbol indicated his indigo status.  He wondered if his name had already been written in the black ledger.  As he looked around the dimly lit empty space he felt a surge of anger.  What a depressing place to die, just to serve a psychopath’s delusional belief system.  How pathetic and pointless.

One of the Watchers passed Kaidan a silk garrote.  “Shall we hold him?”

Kaidan shook his head.  “It’s OK.  Dr. Fox is as good as dead.  Go up now and tell the Seer it’s done.  Then go down to the base of the tower.  The Seer will want some privacy.  I’ll join you when I’m finished here.”  Kaidan stared at Fox as he waited for the Watchers to leave.  “You only want to save Sorcha so you can have her for yourself.”

As Fox looked into the killer’s eyes he thought of his parents and his sister and how they had died just as senselessly as he was about to.  Thinking of them stoked his rage and helped focus his mind.  At this moment anger was so much more useful than paralyzing fear.  “I admit I have feelings for Sorcha,” Fox said.  “Why can’t you?  It’s not too late, Kaidan.  I know the pain you’re in, the conflict you feel, but you can still choose a different path.  Your father doesn’t care for you or any of his so-called Indigo Family.  He only cares for himself.  You’re nothing to him, Kaidan, and never have been.  He only needs you now to do his killing.  You’ll never be his heir because he intends to become his own heir.  His obsession with the Nephilim and the Grigori has got nothing to do with spirituality or showing people the way to a better place.  For all his talk about leadership and sacrifice, he is motivated by the oldest and most selfish instinct of all — to perpetuate himself, to cheat death and become immortal.”

With practiced ease Kaidan wound the garrote around his wrists and pulled it taut.  “Turn to the wall.”

Fox didn’t move.  “You know what I’m saying is true.”  He heard Sorcha cry out above and kept his eyes fixed on Kaidan’s, trying to access any last vestige of conscience the man might have.  “You can still save the angel, Kaidan.  At this moment, whatever you did in the past doesn’t matter.  All that matters, all that defines you, is what you do
now
.  You can choose to be either a victim of your past or the hero of your future.  You decide what happens now — no one else.  Do what you want with me, but save your sister.  Not for me but for you.  If you kill me you’ll lose no sleep but if you let your father destroy Sorcha — the angel you love, the only pure thing in your life — you’ll regret it for the rest of your days.  Trust me on this one thing.”

Suddenly, Kaidan smiled.  It was a rueful, gentle smile that changed his face completely.  For the first time Fox saw a resemblance to Sorcha and glimpsed the man he might have become.  In that small expression of humanity, however, Fox also realized there was going to be no reprieve for him or Sorcha.  “I’ve gone too far and my hands are too covered in blood to save the angel now,” Kaidan said.

“It’s
never
too late, Kaidan.”

“I fear it is for me.  And for you,” said Kaidan.  “I’ve no choice but to serve the demon because I’ve become one myself.”  As he stepped forward and raised the garrote, his smile faded and the humanity left his eyes.  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”  Watching Kaidan pull his arms apart to tighten the garrote, Fox tried pull his own hands apart.  But the silk tie wouldn’t break.  He hadn’t cut enough of the strands.

Chapter 64

Sorcha cried out and fought with what strength remained but with her hands tied it was impossible.  “We want to help you.  Let us help you,” the Wives soothed as they dragged her toward the bed.  She almost welcomed the rush of death echoes that engulfed her as her feet touched the lotus symbol on the floor.  The terrifying visions of souls being strangled, their cries of torment and the sense of dread emanating from the amethyst at least distracted her from her own fate.

First, the Wives placed her right foot into one of the loops and tied her ankle to the plinth, then they looped her left.  Once both ankles were secured they cut the tie on her wrists and bound each hand separately so she lay on her back, spread-eagled like the Vitruvian man.  Zara and Deva began loosening Sorcha’s white robe, opening the front and rolling it back.  Then they cut away her underwear so the lower part of her body was totally naked and exposed.  All the time the Seer watched with a detached, inscrutable look on his face.  She pulled against the ties, but the more she struggled, the more the silk bit into her flesh.  She looked at Zara, suddenly remembering her from a more innocent time, from before she had known what her father’s Great Work really entailed.

“Help me,” she screamed at her.  “We were friends once.  I remember now.  Don’t let this happen.  He’s my father, Zara.  This is wrong.”

“The Seer is father to all the Indigo Family.  He’s a father to us all,” Zara said, replacing her gag and tightening it.  “Now be silent.”

“Calm yourself,” said Deva, stroking her forehead.  “The Seer’s very skilled.  Don’t fight him.  Surrender to him, enjoy it.”

One of the Watchers suddenly appeared in the room, touched his forehead and addressed the Seer.  “Kaidan instructed me to tell you it’s done.  Dr. Fox is dead.”

Her father nodded slowly, savoring the news.  “Good.  Now leave us.”

The shocking, final realization that Nathan was gone brought tears of disbelief and despair to Sorcha’s eyes.  She suddenly realized how much he had meant to her.  Up till now she had harbored the faint hope that, as they had once helped each other as children, Kaidan might somehow help her and spare Fox.  But it was not to be.  Fox was dead.  Hope was dead.  All was lost.

When the Watcher left, the heavily pregnant Maria began to disrobe the Seer and Sorcha saw the tattoos on his taut, muscular back.  She looked away when Maria removed his loincloth, still not believing this could be happening — still unable to accept what he was going to do.  “How can we help you?” Maria asked, caressing his body.  “How can we best make you ready for your task?”

Delaney looked at the Wives, then at Sorcha.  His expression hardened and a hungry gleam appeared in his eyes.  He clapped his hands and the lamps went out so the only illumination in the chamber came from the candles circling the perimeter and an eerie glow, rising like violet mist from the amethyst symbol on the floor, where the light on the lower level permeated the translucent gemstone.  “Go,” he said.  “I won’t need your help.”

Sorcha watched the three women obediently file out, willing them to look at her, willing them to come to their senses and help her.  But not one glanced at her as they disappeared down the stairs.  Finally, she looked down at her exposed, spread-eagled body and her father silhouetted against the candlelight.  In the violet glow his own aura appeared faint and she could barely see his features.  When he stepped toward her, she involuntarily recoiled.  As she did so, her bound hands pressed hard against the amethyst, summoning an unholy chorus of death echoes.  As she watched the Seer across the violet gemstone, she could see, hear, feel and smell the imprinted death memories of all those who had died in the tower, swirling in the violet mist around him.  It seemed to her then, watching him stride through the sea of damned souls, that he was more than just a demon.  He was the devil himself, summoning her to hell.

When he reached the plinth, he stopped and studied her.  In the candlelight his face appeared hard and angular and she noticed that his breathing was different, heavier, as if he had been running.  She realized that the death echoes were arousing him.  He climbed onto the plinth and kneeled between her legs.  As he lowered himself, her skin crawled as if a hundred insects were marching over her body.  She pulled so hard at the ties that she could feel the silk cut into her skin.  Gripping the edge of the plinth to pull away from him, she sensed more death echoes — legions of them.  How many people had been strangled in the tower to fill the Seer’s gallery of lost souls?  As she braced herself for the rape, she wished she was one of them.  Death seemed infinitely preferable to this.

Suddenly, she stopped struggling and froze.  Among the echoes she noticed one that was more defined — more recent — than the others.  She couldn’t see him clearly in the violet gloom but she instantly knew it was Fox.  He was pulling at a garrote around his neck in the death throes of strangulation.  Immediately she recognized him, she wished again that she might die, so she could join him.  As she stared at Fox, she realized that Delaney was studying her face.  Slowly he turned and looked over his shoulder in the direction of her gaze.

Then he too saw Fox’s death echo and smiled.

Regan Delaney had been worried about tonight, concerned that, like Kaidan, he would be unable to perform the sex act and impregnate Sorcha.  But he now realized this wasn’t about sex but the ultimate aphrodisiac:  power.  The Wives had offered to assist him but he didn’t need their stimulation:  the tower and its death echoes were all he needed to boost his potency.  In this chamber, touching the lotus symbol of Sahasrara, the seventh chakra, and sensing the spirits channeled by the amethyst made him feel like a god.  Seeing Fox’s spirit in its violet glow only added to his arousal.

“We can see you, Dr. Fox,” he said.  “In a matter of moments I’ll leave my body and join you — if only fleetingly.”

Fox’s spirit moved closer to the bed.  Then Delaney was sure he heard it speak.  “Please don’t do this,” it was saying.  The voice stunned Delaney.  He glanced at Sorcha and could see from her shocked expression that she too had heard it.  The astral bond between Fox and Sorcha must be strong to make him plead for her even after death.  A fresh surge of power and rapturous excitement coursed through him.  The fact that Fox’s astral self had communicated with him not only vindicated everything he was doing but also proved he was getting close.  He peered into the violet twilight and gloated, “I told you you’d be more than just an echo.”  He turned back to Sorcha, all fears of not being able to impregnate her gone.  “Now he can watch while I take the next step to immortality.”

As he pushed himself between Sorcha’s legs he felt something touch his shoulder.  Twisting around he felt Fox’s astral body standing over him and was surprised who close it had come.  Then it spoke again.

“You’re right,” the spirit said, adopting a strange pose.  “I am more than an echo.”  Then a very physical hand shot out and struck Delaney so hard that he instantly lost consciousness.”

Chapter 65

According to Fox’s sensei, there were two ways to render someone unconscious with a single blow.  The first required strength:  if you hit someone’s chin hard enough with the heel of your hand, their neck was unable to absorb the impact, their brain shifted in the skull and they dropped like a stone.  The second was more reliable but required precision and involved hitting the carotid sinus in the neck, which regulated blood pressure.  When pressed hard, the carotid helped reduce blood pressure but excessive pressure, such as a sharp, targeted blow, could cause a blackout.  As a doctor, Fox preferred the latter technique — although he hadn’t tried either before today.

As he watched Delaney’s naked body slide to the floor, and considered Kaidan’s crumpled frame on the level below, Fox vowed to buy his sensei a bottle of his favorite imported sake, Tentaka, the next time he saw him.  Bending to Sorcha, Fox gently covered her nakedness then cut the silk ties on her wrists and ankles with the dagger-like shard of glass he had gleaned from the broken window in the preparation suite.  Then he pulled her to her feet and removed her gag.  All the time her eyes watched him, wide and wondering, as if she couldn’t believe he was there.

She reached for him and held him tight.  “I hoped you weren’t a death echo when I couldn’t sense your suffering.  I still can’t believe you survived and came back for me.”

“Of course I came back for you,” he whispered.  “Come.  Let’s get out of here before they come around.”  He pulled her to the door and led her down the steps.

“What happened with Kaidan?” she said.  “Where is he?”

As they passed the indigo level he pointed to one of the rooms.  “Out cold, like your father.”

“How?”

As they descended through the blue and green levels, he raised the shard of glass he had taken from the broken window.  “I told you I took out an insurance policy.  Luckily the hem in these robes is thick enough to conceal a sliver of glass.”

She smiled, understanding.  “When you fell down the stairs earlier, you did it on purpose.  You were cutting the silk tie on your wrists.”

“Just a few threads so I could pull it apart when I needed to.  I knew I’d only get one chance so I waited for when Kaidan was alone and had his hands occupied.  Then I focused on my target and hit him.  Hard.”  Fox made it sound easy but it had almost ended in disaster.  When Kaidan had spread his arms to tighten the garrote Fox had tugged his wrist tie but it hadn’t broken and for one sickening second he thought he hadn’t cut enough threads.  It had taken two more tugs to free his hands.  When he’d landed his blow, however, Kaidan had collapsed like a rag doll.  To extend the blackout, he had tied the garrote around Kaidan’s neck, using the knot to keep pressure on the carotid.