“Rabbits scream?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Rose said. “Startles predators.”
I moved around the snowbank, wary. “I’m not the one who was attacking there.”
“No,” Rose said. “Hm.”
I saw the rabbit lying there, on its side, breathing fast.
I thought about using June, then settled for using my boot instead. “I know it’s not your fault, bunny. Sorry I have to do this.”
I stomped on its head full strength, twice, then backed away, scuffing my boot in the snow and slush.
“Graymalkin, Paddock,” Rose said.
“Hm?”
“Macbeth. Twelfth grade English?”
“I didn’t take twelfth grade English.”
“Act one. The three witches call out an invocation. They call out the names of Graymalkin and Paddock.”
“Demons?”
“No. A cat and a toad.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Humans paying obeisance to animals. Back then, the natural order was that god ruled over all things, the king served just under god, all the way down the line to the lowest order of mankind, but mankind was given dominion over the earth, power over the animals.”
“Right, okay,” I said.
“But the witches, well, it’s a sign that they’re something twisted and wrong, that they reverse the natural order of things. Animals on top, and the king brought low, as in Macbeth’s case.”
“You think that’s what’s happening?”
“Yeah.”
“And Dowght is at the center of it.”
“Has to be.”
“Interesting,” I said.
“Not the word I’d use for it. A rabbit just tried to hamstring you.”
I glanced up and around, taking in the crows.
Were more looking at me than before?
The caws had stopped.
I’d had feelings like this before. Where my instincts told me nothing good was coming.
I bent down and picked up the rabbit with gloved hands.
“Blake?”
Crows took flight, a handful at a time. This time, they didn’t just settle down on the closest branch. They were flying around me, keeping a certain distance.
Coordinating. Lovely.
“And here we go,” I said.
“Blake?”
“I saw this on TV, a bit ago,” I said. I gripped the rabbit in both hands, one hand around the ribcage, the other at the base of the ribs. The mangled head drizzled blood on me.
“What the fuck are you doing, Blake?”
I squeezed, forcing the contents of the rabbit’s lower body down.
The rabbit’s internal organs burst from its anus with explosive force. They landed in a single mess on the driveway, steaming.
The first birds descended, swooping down. I ducked low, shielding my head and face, and stomped on the organs, hard.
Turning around, I used my boot to drag them on the surface of the driveway.
When I’d turned a complete circle, returning the tattered remains, blood and rabbit shit to the point where they’d landed, I straightened.
The birds were veering off before they reached me.
“A circle,” Rose said.
“Like repelling like,” I said. “Blood, fur, shit, freshly sacrificed life… holy fuck, I’m glad that worked.”
“We’re still in a bad spot,” Rose observed. “You can’t leave the circle.”
“No,” I said, “Suppose not.”
The fluttering of wings filled the air.
“I’m open to ideas,” I said. “Maybe using June? Freeze them out?”
“I’m not sure we can freeze them before we freeze ourselves,” Rose said. “They have feathers, you don’t.”
“I guess,” I said. “I’ve got a hell of a lot more body mass.”
“They’ll just fly away and keep watch. We need to address the source of the problem.”
“Source?”
“Imp!” Rose shouted. Her voice rang out. “I, Rose Thorburn, bid you to announce yourself!”
The tone of the fluttering changed.
“My line has dealt with others of your kind. Announce yourself, or be diminished! You are not so strong you can ignore me!”
I heard a growl behind me and turned. A dog, so thin I could see its ribs sticking out.
A cat appeared at the edge of a gutter.
More dogs appeared on the fringes.
And, after the birds collected for a moment, then parted, the Imp made its appearance.
Two feet tall, proportioned like a baby, it was lipless, its mangled double row of fangs exposed. The eyes were pale, like a blind man’s, the skin somewhere between ashy gray and black.
“Pauz, of the fifth choir, feral and foul,” he said, in a deeper voice that didn’t fit his frame.
Oddly cute, in a fucked up way.
“You hear what I said about Macbeth?” Rose asked.
“Uh huh.”
“Want to help take down a king?”