Dominion: Zoë Martinique Investigation, Book 6

by Phaedra Weldon

  Powers.

  Twelve of them.

  Rhonda stumbled through the back door and rolled down the steps. She righted herself, clutched at her stomach, and started running to the Powers.

  "Don't let her get past the barrier!" Joe yelled.

  Too late.

  The moment Rhonda was past Joe's new ward, Zacharel appeared. He no longer looked like Barry Stephens. In fact, he looked exactly like he had at the club where Manuel and I had fought him. Vanilla Ice in a white cassock. Ice Ice Baby meets The Matrix.

  But this version was close to seven feet tall. The Powers formed around him like some club-kid poster.

  "I don't get it," I said aloud. "What the hell is going on? And what did you do with Geist?"

  "What's going on is you have the Eidolons I need. I really wanted the banishing one—the one Adiran so stupidly gave you? But you let that one fall into the hands of a Cherubim. Not a good idea, Zoëtrope."

  I balled my hands into fists. I hated being called that. And he totally ignored my question about Geist.

  "Too bad about your friend—rumor has it Gabriel really did a number on him. Banished that Abysmal trash right out of him. Heard he went apeshit and tried to kill you." He smiled at me. "Your demon lover tried to kill you. Now that's front page news for the Ethereal Herald—and a wise lesson they should all learn, and will learn once I'm Seraphim."

  Ah ha! My dad was right. This nutter wanted to be king.

  I glanced over at Joe. He had a similar face on—the one where he smirks a whole lot. Inanna, can we fight them? I doubt he's going to believe we don't have the Eidolons.

  No. He won't believe you. He can feel them…and so do I.

  Whoa. I narrowed my eyes as Zacharel sort of droned on about his idea of how the Ethereal should be run. Wait…you can feel Eidolons?

  Yes. All of us can. You know this.

  So where are they?

  In the house.

  But we already looked in the house.

  Where did you look?

  I gave her a mental flash of what Daniel and I had done and what occurred. This worked so much better than having to retell the whole thing again.

  I also sensed she was…very happy. Inanna?

  We have to get rid of these pieces of Ethereal trash. Now.

  I agreed. I held up my hand. "Yo, ass-hat. Look, we don't have a lot of time and I don't fucking care what you think. I just want to know where Geist is."

  My interrupting him did not go over very well. He stopped his narcissistic diatribe, to which I was not paying attention, and glared at me. His eyes glowed white and he sort of grew a little. Like a blow-up doll.

  Not that I know what those are like, 'kay?

  "Things like you should not exist." It sounded very…upset.

  I looked past him, past the Powers standing around looking all tough and gang-like, and focused on Rhonda. She was there, standing behind the farthest car. If she was here, then where was Dags? Joe saw the two of them disappear together.

  If she hurt one hair on his head—

  She would never harm him, not on her own. But if she's being influenced by this Dominion…

  I didn't like the way that sounded, but I understood. He might hurt Dags to get to the Grimoire. But then, I had a lot of faith in a Familiar scorned.

  And Maureen Lafferty had a lot to be angry about.

  "Get out of here," I said. "Now. You're on private property."

  "Give me what I want."

  "I don't have what you want."

  "You had the Banishing Eidolon." Zacharel shifted his gaze from me to Joe. "And I know he possesses the Destruction Eidolon." He pointed at Joe. "Will you give it to me? Or should I hurt your woman?"

  Joe and I both looked confused. I said, "His woman?" and he said, "My woman?" at the same time.

  I was thinking he was referring to Rhonda since the two of them had been lovers once. But when he pointed at me and fired his finger, I was both surprised he thought I was Joe's and a bit shocked that whatever he'd hoped to do—didn't.

  I looked down at my bad Wraith-y self and looked. No. No wounds. Didn't even hurt. When I looked at him, ole Zacharel looked like he was going to have a coronary. Obviously he was upset that whatever he'd attempted failed.

  I smiled. "My turn."

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Zacharel did not stay to experience my vocal prowess. Instead, he disappeared, and the Powers charged at us before I could get a good breath in. My sword manifested in my hand, and I was whacking and hacking like old times. I thought it was a bit weird he left his undead army behind to fight Joe and me.

  I realized why the moment one of the Powers I hacked got back up and healed before my eyes. Oh fuck—the bastard was using the Creation Eidolon to keep them alive just like he had the Fetches.

  Joe must've realized it at the same time, because a ward went up around him and I. I moved closer to him, and we stood back to back. "Creation Eidolon," he said.

  "Ya think?" I narrowed my eyes as I watched Rhonda get in one of the cars. It backed out of the property and drove away.

  Bitch.

  "Go search!"

  We watched as half of the Powers broke off and ran at the house. They bounced back when they hit Joe's ward, and started hacking at it with their weapons. "I need to get a good Scream in and blast that bastard."

  "Actually, I don't know if that'll work," Joe said. His voice sounded tight, and I noticed sweat on his brow and his neck.

  "You all right?"

  "There's a lot of energy in this ward—if I want to keep Doctor Ice and the Ice-ettes at bay over there. The only reason I can is the same reason I don't think your Scream will work on him."

  "What you think he's using the Eidolon on himself, too?"

  "Yes, I do. Because I saw it around Rhonda's neck. And he's anchored to her Veil—"

  "Which means she's the physical piece I'd need to Scream at." My shoulders slumped. If I blasted Zacharel, then the power of it would impact Rhonda, no matter where she was, because she was tethered to him.

  Not that I really cared if it did hurt her, but I was thinking of Joe's sensitivities.

  Fuck sensitivity. I was sick of this.

  What held me back was that if I did Scream Zacharel into oblivion, he'd just come right back. The Eidolon would have to be removed. "There's got to be a way to get them out of here so we can look for the Eidolons."

  The other Powers stood back with their weapons drawn, their attention focused on us.

  "Zoë," Joe said, "look at the tattoos."

  I did.

  I squeaked.

  "Those are my dad's markings!"

  "Yeah, but not just his. Look over there, that one's got a different mark. And the one in the back has one I've never seen."

  "These are all either stolen or orphaned Powers." I remembered what my dad said about Zacharel and his taking in Raz's remaining Powers. "They're all real tattoos. These are all Raziel's Powers. Remember what my dad said?"

  Joe started breathing hard as he answered. "Ah. Right."

  I took a long look at Joe. Exhaustion showed on his face again. He might be powerful, but he used it up like a sun going supernova. Well, he'd used my energy before. Time to juice him again. I put my right hand in his left. Immediately my own energy increased, and I realized I was taking his soul!

  SHIT!

  Wait—how had he used me before to power up the wards?

  I pulled my hand out of his and stared in horror as he collapsed on the ground.

  "That was really stupid," Zacharel said as he turned to face me now that there was nothing between us.

  Yeah, it was. But I wasn't in the mood. I brandished my sword, and the flames on it brightened. Zacharel manifested his own sword, and I recognized it from the club. The remaining Powers surrounded us as I yelled and charged forward. He blocked easily, and then swung around and nearly took my arm off. I took several steps back, my wings back-beating to keep me balanced.

  I stood a
nd waited this time. Offense wasn't going to work. I needed to be defense on this—

  And as if he were reading my mind, Zacharel swung his sword and came at me—and I mean came at me like Bruce Lee! He swung, I blocked, he spun around, and I blocked that. I ducked a two-handed swing and managed to land on my back, so then I kicked at his shin with my bunny slipper. To my surprise, it grabbed hold of his ankle with its whiskers and sunk its teeth into Zacharel's lower calf.

  He cried out—and I wondered if he felt pain because he was tied to Rhonda—and if Rhonda felt it, too. So, thinking about that, I urged that wee slipper to do its worse.

  Zacharel went down on his side, and that's when the Powers surged forward. I took in a deep breath and Screamed. They all dissolved like they should—

  And then seconds later reformed again.

  Mother…guppy. I was fucked. Ef You SEE Kay! Ed!

  Zacharel brought his sword down on my lower leg—

  —I couldn't remember that kind of pain. Ever. Agony froze my lower body as I lost the grip on my sword. It gave off one final flame and disappeared as my own body moved from Wraith to human. I brought my foot up to see the damage…

  But there wasn't a foot. There was just a bloody, stumpy ankle…

  My vision dimmed as I stared at the end of my ankle and my blood-soaked hands. Zacharel held up my foot and my now-gray and dying bunny slipper. "Zoë, you were never supposed to live, you know. Adiran was a fool to fall in love. He should have just stuck to the plan and left Nona. But he didn't…" He leaned down as he pointed the end of the sword at my heart. "Because he fell in love."

  Something dark appeared in the middle of Zacharel's chest as I stared at him. It moved and twisted, reminding me of something burrowing a hole. A few seconds later, when Zacharel didn't skewer me with his sword, I recognized the thing in his chest was another sword.

  It was black, as if carved from obsidian. And it was routing out a really big hole in Zacharel's chest.

  The Dominion silently screamed and vanished. My dead bunny hit the ground beside me.

  I lay on my side, staring at it. I shivered as I shakily reached out to pet its furry little head…

  "Zoë? Zoë? Talk to me."

  It was TC's voice. He was there beside me, and I felt his hand on my shoulder. "My bunny…"

  "Oh, damn it, Azrael," another voice said. "How do we fix this?"

  "I don't know. We have to get her out of here—"

  "Joe," I said as their faces dimmed. Oh God…I lost my foot…the mother fucker HACKED OFF MY FOOT! "Get Joe…help Joe…"

  "Honey," TC said as he lifted me in his arms, "you mean Halloran? He's not here, Zoë. Joe's not here."

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Ever have one of those dreams that's so horrific and so frightening that when you wake up, you're so relieved it was just a dream you wanna go down on one knee and scream, "Thank ya, Jesus!"?

  I've had plenty.

  Unfortunately, this wasn't one of them.

  I know I floated for a long time, sort of shifting in and out of happy talk. You know the kind of talk we all get when we're so drunk or doped up on meds we're out of our mind? Usually the memory is the first thing to go there. Not me. I remembered too much of it.

  And what felt like years was, in reality, a few days. Three, to be precise.

  It was New Year's Eve when I opened my eyes. I already knew I wasn't in a regular hospital. It was too clean, too upscale, and too…techy. This was a room in the infirmary of the Society House. I was half-propped up on a mound of pillows, my left arm in a sort of brace with a zillion tubes running out of it and my right index finger decorated by a clamp.

  I stared at the missing lump at the end of the bed for a long time.

  And the crazy thing was…the missing foot itched.

  Zoë?

  At the sound of her voice, I got angry. Like—really angry. I blamed her for this. She was this all-powerful First Born and together we're supposed to have First Choir powers. So why was my foot gone?

  Yeah, it was all her fault.

  Zoë, please? Talk to me?

  I stared at my foot.

  Okay, then I'll talk to you. I felt the absence of something when she appeared beside the bed, again in her Eshe persona. She gripped the railing on the bed (which now made sense to have up since, you know, I was missing a foot and might fall out) and I felt her eyes on me. "I know you're mad at me. Bonded like this, there's very little you and I can keep from each other. But I—"

  "Where's Joe?"

  I shifted my gaze from my missing foot to her face.

  She looked worried. I did not like that look. "I don't know. I didn't see what happened to him after you damaged his soul."

  Great. More guilt. I was such a fuck-up. "I don't understand what happened with that. I mean, he touched me before and used me as a battery. Why did it work in the reverse when I touched him?"

  "You just answered it. He touched you with his receiving hand. Joe works off of an instinct inherent in most natural Witches."

  "Natural?"

  "He's the son of a Witch who was the daughter of a Witch who was the daughter of a Witch. The lineage goes on and on. Usually the sex of the natural alternates. Because Joe was born a boy, his mother and father didn't give him the training he really needed to harness and control what he does, because they didn't think he'd been born into the legacy."

  "But he was."

  "Yes. He told Daniel this just a few days ago." Her expression fell and I saw very real sadness etched into her face. "There's been so much loss and sadness, Zoë."

  "You said you didn't know where Joe is—but you have an idea."

  "I suspect Zacharel took him, same as with Dags. He knows Joe has the Destruction Eidolon, so I'm a little afraid he's going to…"

  Oh, snap. I pushed myself up on the bed. My foot itched like a muther. "You think Zacharel's going to torture him to get to it."

  "Yes. I do. Joe may be a Witch, but he's still very vulnerable. Zacharel has Rhonda, and she knows Joe's weaknesses."

  "I'm not sure he has any."

  "He has one." Inanna/Eshe looked directly at me. "You."

  My face grew hot. "I'm not having this conversation right now because I am not his weakness."

  "Why do you do that? Why do you deny others' feelings for you as well as deny yours for them?"

  "I don't have those kinds of feelings for Joe Halloran." I felt like I was protesting a little too much. And a little too loud. "No matter what, we have to find Dags and Joe now. We have to end this."

  "I want it all to end. I want to set things right."

  Something tickled on the edge of my senses. Sort of like one of those annoying niggles. Ever get those? I do. It's like when you stand at the front door and look around—and you just know you've forgotten something, but you can't for the life of you remember what.

  Until you're already halfway down the road. It's the feeling that something isn't right. Or maybe it is. Or something's trying to tell me something but I'm too stupid to hear it.

  "Inanna, how can this ever be put right? And why in the hell was Zacharel talking smack about my dad? It just feels like I have holes missing…" I saw my missing foot again. Or the space there. "What am I gonna do? I can't walk, Inanna."

  "I take the blame for this, Zoë. It's my fault. My full responsibility."

  My heart plummeted. It was my fault. I was stupid enough to take on a Dominion, having had success once before. I knew the deck was stacked against us. The Eidolon changed the stakes and gave Zacharel the edge. I should have grabbed Joe and did that teleporting thing out of there—even if I did have to drag him through the Abysmal for a second.

  "No…"

  "Zoë, it is my fault. Because I made it happen."

  Wha—? I frowned at her. "You made it possible for him to hack my foot? I don't see it. He was too powerful."

  "No. He's not. Not really. The Eidolons are not little Gods, Zoë. They're not invincible. They're pieces of a muc
h larger mistake. Their creation was supposed to…" She hung her head.

  I scratched my head. "I'm not following."

  Her head snapped up, and she vanished. I think your visitor should answer your questions. And please, Zoë. Listen to him.

  The door opened before I could figure out why she'd gone all cryptic.

  TC stepped in, posh in his trench coat, black jeans, and combat boots. He held the door open as another figure strolled in behind him.

  Adiran Martinique.

  "What the fucking hell?"

  TC gave me a crooked smile as he bent down to kiss my forehead. If I hadn't have been so freaked out, I'd have smacked him. "Yeah, she's your daughter, all right."

  "There's a good deal of Nona in there as well," Dad said as he came around the foot of the bed and stood to my right. My gaze tracked him all the way around, and I made ready to shift and scramble his ass if I needed to.

  "Your damned coat cost Daniel's life." I'd been thinking that all along. If I hadn't have been weak, I could have prevented Gabriel from putting that damned necklace on Daniel's neck—and he'd be alive still.

  It could have all been prevented.

  So, why didn't I believe that?

  "Damn it, kid. I didn't think you'd try and shift with that thing on you. I told you I made it from essence. It was Ethereal in nature. The only reason it didn't kill you is because you're half mine."

  "I don't claim you."

  "I'll always claim you, Zoëtrope."

  "Stop calling me that."

  "Then stop acting like a four-year-old."

  I raised my monitor-clamped finger and pointed it at him. "See? That's the only age you can remember, because guess what—you were fucking gone for anything after that. Yeah…skipped town. Out the door. And then you came back and shut me up in that—"

  "Will you stop bringing that up?" Dad shouted at me. And it wasn't some maniacal freako shouting. This actually sounded like what I believed a father shouting at his kid would sound like. It's what the neighbors' dad had sounded like.

  Regardless of why, I stopped talking.

  Dad moved away and put his hand to the back of his head, then he returned to the bed and leaned over it. "Did it ever occur to you that I put you in that damn Throne because it was the safest place for you? Weren't you listening when I said that in the preserve, Zoë? Everything I have done, I have done to protect you and your mother. That Eidolon was supposed to banish all existence of your power from you. But I was too stupid to tell your mother what it was I was doing—so she hid it away from you. I thought keeping her in the dark was actually helping. What I didn't realize…" he gave a long sigh "…was that it was pushing her further and further away. Until I lost her in the arms of that bloodsucker."