"Yes. Joe and Azrael figured out where he'd put Morgan."
Something he said finally flagged. "You said Soul Cage—you mean that stone dragon statue Mom had?"
"The very one."
"But I broke it. I broke it to let Steve and Tim out."
"Joe remembered that. But it was in one piece again, back in Nona's house the whole time you were in the Abysmal Plane. No one could remember how it got back. But Rhonda took it and used it to actually lock a First Born inside."
"Joe broke it?"
"Azrael did."
"And Manuel and Morgan are okay?"
"Yeah…"
I watched him, and frowned. "So why are Jason and Umayma recovering?"
He stood abruptly and canted his head to the left. His eyes took on that distant look, and I knew he was talking to…someone else. Mephistopheles, maybe? Was it possible to talk at such a distance to a First Born? We were in Canada and Jason was in Georgia.
I stood, too—testing the waters. The room didn't spin, but lead weighed down my muscles. I felt as though I could sleep another week. "What is it?"
"Manuel's finished. We need to go."
Ah. Morgan, not Mephistopheles.
"Hey, you have to tell me about Jason—"
"And you have to tell me about the sketch the police showed you. But, I believe it's best we speak somewhere else. Preferably on the plane."
Plane? I followed him, feeling a bit light-headed. Damn, Danny-Boy—how much did you take?
Nick noticed—or maybe he already knew how I felt since he was Jason's blood-doll in emergencies—and kept his arm out for me to steady myself on. We walked through the hospital—and it looked and felt pretty much like the hospitals in the states.
Except I heard more French than English. Having been in most of the hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia, and their trauma units, I'd grown used to the slang and yelling so common in the emergency rooms of the city's most popular hospitals. Hell, for all I know, I was hearing the same kind of language here.
But it sounded nicer.
Tiny crystals of ice stung my face when we stepped outside. Bitter cold compared to the warmth of inside. I wasn't prepared. A limo waited. Nick bundled me inside and pulled a blanket up over my legs once the door was shut. The driver pulled into evening traffic as Nick flipped open a side door to reveal an electric kettle and coffee mugs. He poured hot milk from the kettle and then chocolate syrup into a mug, and after stirring, handed it to me. "It's not a hamburger, but it'll keep you warm and going 'til we get on the plane. Then we can get you a hamburger."
I took the mug's handle and blinked at him. "Nick, can you hear me? Hear my thoughts without Mephistopheles around?"
"Sometimes. Other times its garbled. As if you have an echo in there—" and he touched my left temple. "Zoë, what was it about the picture that upset you? If the police here have a sketch of someone that upset you—I see him as a threat."
I sipped the hot chocolate. It burned my tongue, but chocolately goodness made up for it. I reached over and opened the fridge. Small one-pint boxes of milk sat in a row in the door and I grabbed one, opened it, and poured some into the mug to cool it down. Nick waited patiently as I put the milk back and then sighed. Yeah, I was stalling.
I didn't want to admit it. Not to anyone but myself.
"Nick…you know I was raped, right?"
"Yes."
"That was the man who raped me."
"The one in Piedmont Park?" Nick sounded surprised.
I searched his face. "Nick, what is it? Why do you keep asking me about that picture?"
He leaned over and pulled a briefcase from a compartment between us. He opened it and pulled out a folder, but hesitated before he gave it to me. "Zoë, Joe gave Jason this before you and Daniel left for Canada. It's a composite sketch made from the only survivor of a rape attack near Piedmont Park. She and her boyfriend were walking home late. He was killed. She was also stabbed. The police have kept her survival a secret to protect her." He handed me the folder. "There hasn't been another attack since then. When I saw their sketch—" He sighed. "I knew it was him."
I took the folder and set the mug down in a holder to my right. The same man's face stared back at me. The markings were there—the facial tattoo. The sketch style was different. Different artist. But it was him. "What attack in Piedmont Park?"
"It happened the night after you and Manuel brought Zacharel in."
"Does this mean he followed me from Atlanta to Montreal?"
Nick said softly, "I think so. We also know the police here—those two constables—have a positive ID of Daniel from the employees at that bed-and-breakfast."
"They said it was questionable."
"They're lying."
"Shit, they're going to think Daniel did this! But he doesn't look like the witness sketches."
"They think he has an accomplice. His record in Atlanta isn't a good one, Zoë. It's known you were dating each other. They suspect, just like the police back home, that Daniel's following you or you're protecting him. And if they come to the conclusion you're protecting him, then they'll follow you to find him."
"That's just eff'd up, Nick. That's stupid."
"We know it is, because we know the truth. But they don't. But we agree," he added, nodding to the sketch, "that we suspect he is following you. And we know that's your father's mark. We just don't know who's pulling his strings. A Dominion—" His brow hardened. "—or Adiran Martinique."
Chapter Five
We didn't say anything else until after we'd gone through airport security and safely fastened in our seats on Jason's private jet. Soft, rich leather chairs in beige and tan. Real wood tables and trim. A large flatscreen hung on the back wall. To the right of it was a door leading into a private bedroom and bath. No windows.
Nick ordered me a hamburger, rare. Greek potatoes, broccoli, and a soda, water, and sweet tea. Manuel jumped on board at the last minute and gave me a bear hug before he retired to the back room to sleep. There were three other people on the plane with us. The pilot, co-pilot, and attendant.
Once we were alone again, Nick unbuttoned his suit jacket and tossed it over a chair. We were at cruising altitude and the seatbelt sign was off. "Okay, now for the rough part, Zoë. Dags is missing."
I nearly choked on a swallow of water from a bottle the nice attendant had given me. When Nick tried to pat my back, I pushed his hand away. "You…you can't go blurting shit like that out, Nick. What the hell do you mean, he's missing?"
"I need to tell you from the beginning, okay?" He looked a bit upset. "It's been a really fucked-up three days." When he ran a hand through his hair, I felt a little sad I'd yelled at him.
Well.
Fuck.
Here I was trying to forget Dags and move on, and it looked like I was going to get pulled in to help find him.
•••
Nick wasted no time telling me everything that'd happened since Daniel and I left Atlanta.
"Jason was able to get Dags out of the Society House. And Manuel was fine before Jason asked him to stall Rhonda?" I was a bit calmer now, after having thrown back a seriously nasty shot of whiskey. Jason always had the best booze.
Nick nodded as he loosened his tie. He was starting to look more like the Ghoul I knew and loved. "Yeah. Mephistopheles was in contact with Morgan. They usually always are anyway." He pulled the tie completely off and tossed it on top of his jacket. "Then Jason and Dags were attacked in the garage of Jason's private residence by a Dominion."
"What?"
"Two Powers showed up first—and Jason took care of them. But when the Dominion appeared, he took out Jason. But it was Dags that defeated it."
"Dags defeated a Dominion?" I recalled the more recent altercation between myself and a Dominion in a nightclub with Manuel. It wasn't easy to fight one—much less defeat one. And I'd had to do it the hard way—including taking out most of the souls it'd been harvesting for judgment. "Where…were did the souls go?"
> "Didn't have any, as far as we could tell." He held up his hand. "Dags defeated the Dominion by using the Guardian's sword. He usually can't manifest that without the Familiars."
"So…the Familiars are back?"
"Your mom's sure they never left; they've always been there. Rhonda wrote something in that page that prevents the Familiars from manifesting to Dags or anyone else. We suspect she did it to prevent them from protecting him from her."
I nearly came off the seat at him. "Protecting him? This have to do with that Shadowed by a Dominion thing?"
Nick sat down in one of the chairs opposite mine. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "Listen carefully to me, Zoë. Rhonda's been acting a bit more…bugnuts than usual. We agreed not to run yours and Dags's personal life across the employees. But there were people at the Society House that knew you and he were an item to begin with. So when Dags started getting close to Rhonda while you were in the hospital, a lot of them started gossiping. And Dags apparently overheard some of it. When Rhonda found out about it, every employee that had contact with Dags was dismissed. When we went to question them…" He frowned. "They were gone."
"What do you mean, 'gone'?"
"Just gone. Their houses cleaned out. Their accounts closed down. No forwarding address."
"Holy hell—how many people?"
"Four. After that started happening, anyone that did remember Dags and you being together kept their mouths shut. A few quit. But rumors still spread, and enough of them got to Dags so that he started questioning things—and this was before Jason took him off-site."
I smelled the food before the nice lady brought me the plate. The aroma of freshly grilled beef, tangy tomatoes, and spicy Greek potatoes—OMG! I joined Nick at a table and dug into my burger without even blinking. He wasn't eating. See…Ghouls ate things that weren't really dead yet. And if they were dead…they didn't cook them.
Gross.
After the third bite, I wiped my mouth and washed it down with a huge swallow of soda. "And that's when Jason took Dags out of the House?"
"Yeah. Dags confronted Jason that morning because he could suddenly hear Mephistopheles. Jason wanted to get him away from Rhonda so they could talk, and Manuel would do anything to piss Rhonda off."
I knew I loved that guy for a reason—and his First Born.
"That's when Rhonda really went apeshit. A technician found Manuel unresponsive in one of the archive rooms in the second basement. Of course, everyone's attention was focused on him and not on what she wanted—which was to get Dags back under her thumb. And what pissed Jason off more than anything was that Nona agreed with her."
"Mom agreed?" I said that around another huge bite of food, but I was careful not to spit food. Or I think I was. "You're kidding."
"No, I'm not. She and Jason fought about it at first, until she explained the seriousness of Rhonda's burgeoning powers. Rhonda declared you were behind all of this even though you were in Canada. She really made Nona mad. I think," he paused and held up a hand. "I don't know this for sure. But…"
"But?" I put the burger down. I hated buts.
"I think maybe she was desperate because she was losing control. Dags was remembering you—and he was doing it because of memories she hadn't destroyed. Memories of the Familiars, along with you and she." He shrugged. "I told Dags everything when they came to the condo. I didn't hold back. Jason wasn't happy with me, and Nona was furious. I didn't care. Having lost the love of my life…" He sighed. "I didn't want the same thing to happen. I knew how happy the two of you were—and I want you to be happy again. So Dags agreed to go back to the Society House, but with a gift to sort of appease Rhonda."
"Did it work?"
"I don't think she bought it. But then something happened, and Dags got sick. Rhonda stormed into the kitchen and threatened Jason and Nona with her mojo—" He grinned, and the expression was a little creepy. "And then something really awesome happened. Joe actually stopped her in her tracks."
My jaw dropped. Luckily I'd swallowed. "What? Joe stopped Rhonda…you mean stopped her from coming at Mom and Jason?"
"He stopped her magic. Just…shut it down."
Joe? Joe's magic stopped Rhonda's?
Nick continued. "Rhonda admitted Dags was sick, and Nona took over Dags's care. Had him brought to the infirmary, and locked Rhonda in her room."
"Oh, I bet that went over well."
"Not really. But that's when Joe started asking about that ugly dragon statue—the one Nona kept on her fireplace."
I knew the one. "What made him suddenly ask about that statue? Joe was there. He knew I broke that sucker—that night he rescued me from those body snatchers." That was also the night Joe'd kissed me—a kiss I realized I was never going to forget.
And I didn't want to.
"Nona asked Joe about it later and he said it just came to him. He kept seeing it in his dreams. And if you recall, it'd been sitting on Nona's mantel most of the year. I remember it there while you were missing."
"No…I broke it. It wasn't—" But then I had a very clear image of it sitting there that day Dags came back into my life, the day I'd tried magic and it nearly bit me in the ass.
He'd saved me from the Coyote Flame.
And the dragon had been there.
"Oh…this is eff'd up."
"Yeah. Joe went to Nona's and found it wasn't there. When he brought Tim to the House, the ghost said Rhonda had been at the shop a few days before, getting things. Joe got Nona to let Rhonda see Dags to get her out of her room, and Joe found it in her closet, Azrael broke it, and Morgan was released."
"Which is why Manuel came with you to get him away from Rhonda."
Nick licked his lips. "Here's where it gets…weird. I wasn't there, so you'll have to get the story directly from Joe. But apparently Rhonda magically attacked your mom. There was an explosion. Joe made it to Dags's room and Dags had somehow stopped the battle in mid-attack."
Yeah…jaw on the floor again.
"Dags told Joe what to do—like how to take over the spell—and Joe did it. But then, according to Joe, Dags ran at Rhonda, grabbed her, and the two disappeared."
The hamburger turned to lead in my stomach as I grabbed my water and took a big swallow. I wanted another whiskey—but that would just make me throw up.
"Zoë?"
"He…he ran to Rhonda?"
Nick shook his head. "No, he didn't. Maureen did."
Blink.
Wha—?
"Maureen? Maureen Lafferty?" I rubbed at my face. "Wait…you either skipped a page or I blanked it out."
"Ask Joe when you see him, but he said Dags told him to get you back home and work with Nona." He sighed. "That was it. They vanished."
"And Maureen fits in how?"
"She was the one directing Dags. Joe thinks she was in control."
"And…there's a Dominion living in Rhonda's Veil."
"Yes. Rhonda'd been walking around talking to herself for a while. We figure she was talking to it."
I chewed on my lower lip. I'm a sap at heart. A softie. Weak and mushy on the inside. And knowing that Rhonda was being Overshadowed sparked a bit of hope in me at that moment. "How…how long has she been Shadowed?"
"Probably a week or so. That's how long Zacharel's been in custody. Since you and Manuel caught him."
That small glimmer of hope—that idea that Rhonda had done this to me and Dags because of an outside influence—exploded. Rhonda had the idea to take him away from me without any help from anyone else.
Except from Geist. And I refused to communicate with that bastard unless I had to.
I rubbed at my eyes. Needed to get myself together. "So, the assumption is that Ethereals have the Grimoire." And they have Dags. I couldn't help but remember my dad's words while I was in that Throne—of how he'd planned on killing Dags to get to the book.
"We don't think so."
I sat back. "You don't?"
"The Grimoire possesses the spell to destroy all
the Revenants." He held out his hand. "It's been three days. Nothing's happened."
"Maybe they're waiting—you know—being all evil villain and biding their time."
"You really think the Ethereals would wait to destroy one of the things they believe is preventing them from ruling the Inner Planes?"
He had a point. "So…what's going on? You think they can't open the Grimoire?"
"Not sure. They have Rhonda—and she's the only one who can. So why the delay?"
"No…" I shook my head. "She's not the only one who can open that book. Maureen can."
Nick looked confused. "Maureen?"
"Remember when she took Jason? And she had Dags in Between? She opened the book and took out the pages. She knows how to get into it."
"Holy shit…" He started to stand up, and then sat back down. "That's right. But I wonder if Maureen even remembers that."
I was thinking she did remember it. She just wasn't talking about it. If Maureen really was back, having not made an appearance since her role in that fiasco that got me locked into the Abysmal Throne, then I was pretty sure she wasn't going to bring up anything that'd dredge up bad memories of bad behavior. Yes, Maureen had been Overshadowed. Controlled.
But I was sure it still bothered her.
I felt it had while I took her place in Dags for those days.
Remembering that made me feel sad, and my appetite crashed. I pushed the food away.
Chapter Six
Jason was the first one out the door to meet the car when we pulled up in the drive of the Society House. He scooped me up into his arms and gave me a tight, breath-taking hug. He felt so good and comforting. "Geez…from the way Nick talked about you, I figured you were in bad shape."
"I'm a fast healer," Jason said as he gave me another squeeze.
It is good to see you're okay, Zoë.
"Thanks, Old Man," I said aloud. Since Jason could hear his First Born speak to me, I rarely tried to hide it. And after losing my voice for several months, I now spoke whenever I could. "It's good to be okay." When he put me on the ground again, I saw Mom step out from the side door near the garden.
Dominion: Zoë Martinique Investigation, Book 6 Page 3
