Tales Of The Abysmal Plane (Zoë Martinique Short Stories) (The Zoë Martinique Investigation Series)

by Phaedra Weldon

  Only Joe couldn't see anything because he had a huge, bald, freak'n Symbiont standing in front of him.

  Archer, aka TC, aka Trench Coat, aka Azrael, was a tall fucker, because he chose his visible form to be so. He also liked the idea of looking like Vin Diesel because it "made the ladies take notice" way too often.

  When the three of them had decided to help Dags and go find the Wraith, Azrael took the mission to heart the hardest. He hated Ethereal anything. And when Zoë not only was betrayed by an Ethereal—but her father? Getting even became his personal vendetta. He related, as his own father had been betrayed by his oldest sister. So Azrael had plunged head-first into the fray to find the pages on his righteous mission.

  Joe cursed under his breath and shoved Azrael out of the way before giving commands into his mic. He looked to see one of the Asian men still on the ground as the others stood, pulled weapons from their coats, and turned in the direction of the vanishing car. It sped away, turned right down a road, and disappeared. He didn't even get a good look at the license plate! Joe spoke into his mic as he ran. "Dispatch, this is Halloran— we need a bus—" he gave out the address and stopped just long enough to flash his badge and tell people to stay back. One of them said he was a doctor, so Joe motioned him to take a look. He jogged a few feet down the road before Mastiff was in his ear.

  "They got the car, Halloran. About two blocks over. It hit a kid—"

  Joe stopped, out of breath, and bent down. A kid? Aw man—son of a —

  "—but the kid's just fine. Wow…I think those guys need some serious break time."

  "Wait," Joe straightened and started jogging back to where the suit was down and the bystander doctor was looking him over. Three other black and whites and an unmarked car pulled up. He heard the sound of a siren. The other suited men were long gone. "They hit a kid with a car, and the kid's fine?"

  "Apparently it never touched him, Halloran. But Mezziner's insisting the front end is all buckled up like it hit the side of a building."

  Joe sighed as he stopped and lowered his head. "Front of the car's mangled, but the kid's all right?"

  "Yeah. You're right. They need a break. I'm calling in events—" and Mastiff came jogging up beside him.

  Joe watched the EMT guys scramble from their van and converge on the downed businessmen. He knew what'd happened—something had gotten between the kid and the car—an immoveable object.

  Daniel.

  Azrael walked up from the side of the street, still dressed in his black shirt, jeans, and trench coat. No one seemed to notice him. And Joe knew if the First Born didn't want to be seen by humans, he wouldn't be. "Daniel's nearby."

  Joe nodded. "I know."

  "It means he has something. Some piece of information."

  "I know."

  "We have to find him."

  Joe turned and glared at the bald, muscled Abysmal creature and put his hands on his hips. "Well yeah, p'ssshhh, duh? But if you didn't notice—which you didn't—we're working here, Azzie. I've still got a job to do."

  "Do not," Azrael pointed at Joe's face. "Call me Azzie. That is not my name."

  "Well then what? TC? Archer? Trench Coat?" Joe arched his left eyebrow high on his forehead. "First Born? I don't freak'n care. We'll see Daniel when we're done." He turned back to face the direction the car had gone.

  Hit something unmoveable.

  With a sigh, he looked up at the buildings, his eyes scanning the rooftops. There weren't many in this part of town. He spotted Daniel, though—standing on top of the right corner building a block away. The only movement was the lower half of his duster blown by the wind. A duster…in this heat?

  The truth was, Daniel Frasier didn't dare show his face on the ground—not in the middle of a squad full of Atlanta Police. Daniel had been a detective not long ago. But his career had taken a left turn after being possessed by something called a Horror—created by his former girlfriend Zoë—and killed his Captain, Kenneth Cooper.

  What he was now?

  Not even Joe really understood it all.

  Now Daniel was a Revenant, a human host to a being known as a First Born, like Azrael. Daniel's First Born was Azrael's sister, Inanna. One of the more powerful of the Revenants still living in the Physical Plane. Joe and Rhonda often had discussed Daniel's decision to invite in the First Born. He'd been locked away in a mental institution, his mind unable to comprehend what his body had done, the murders he'd committed while possessed by the Horror.

  Some small, lucid part of Daniel had agreed to Inanna's covenant, and the two became one, her sheer force of will making him sane once again. But he wasn't human anymore, and he was changing every day, becoming more and more the creature the Abysmal essence of the First Born wanted him to be.

  Joe watched his old friend standing up there and said in a soft voice, "Vampire."

  ARRESTS were made as the man on the ground died from bullet wounds to the chest and neck. The area was blocked off, and the parent of the child nearly killed was a miserable mess. Joe and Mastiff reassured her everything was fine, and that the driver hit the building.

  Right.

  Mastiff handled the lies pretty well, and the reassurances, but once the two of them returned to Joe's truck, his partner let him have it.

  "It was him, wasn't it? He was there…somewhere around there. He saved that kid."

  Joe didn't say anything as he snapped his seatbelt and waited for Mastiff to do the same. The thin, dark-skinned male narrowed his eyes at Joe as he fell silent, but finally buckled up. The two said nothing on their way to the station. Joe just wanted to drop his partner off and go home.

  But when he pulled in and put the truck in park, Mastiff didn't get out. Instead he unbuckled and faced Joe. "He killed Cooper, Halloran."

  "He also killed a few other people, Mastiff."

  "Yes, but he was possessed then. He killed the Captain when he was normal again."

  Joe sighed. This was an old argument. And it was one he understood. Many of the guys at the precinct wanted Daniel caught, tried, and punished for Cooper's death.

  But no one…no one more than Daniel…wanted the exact same thing.

  Joe saw it in his old friend's eyes when he actually let himself talk about it. When he let his guard down, and Inanna wasn't protecting him from the memories. The First Born had linked with him, body and soul, and no one—especially not a group of petty mortals—would ever touch Daniel.

  I find myself wishing for the good old days. Joe shook his head. Too bad they're all gone. "George… He wasn't sane when he did that. And he wasn't trying to kill Cooper. He was trying to kill Zoë."

  "And that somehow makes it better? Justifies it?" He held up his hands. "Look, Zoë's one freaky lady—she's pretty as all get out—but freaky. And she's gone. Took off. No one's seen her. Probably to get away from Frasier. But wanting to kill her still doesn't make it right. It was the Captain, Joe. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

  Joe blinked a few times as he watched Mastiff. "Yeah. It does. And I think…before we say something we're going to regret…we should end it for the night. I'll start paperwork in the morning."

  Mastiff opened his mouth and then closed it. He grabbed his bag and his gun, and slid out of the truck. But before he shut the door, he turned to look at Joe. "He's a monster, Halloran. He's wrong. He's different. He turned on his own girlfriend—he'll turn on you, too." And with that parting shot, Mastiff closed the door and walked away.

  Joe put the truck in drive and pulled out.

  Three—two—one—

  Azrael appeared in the seat Mastiff just vacated. He made a face and looked down. "Seat's warm."

  "I'm on my way home, Azzie. What's wrong?"

  "I gave him the page. He does have something. Wants to meet at your place about one."

  Joe glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Is there something wrong with half an hour from now when I get home? Instead of after midnight?"

  The First Born shrugged. "Dunno. Ask him. Th
at's what he says. I'll be there too. You got any grapes?"

  Joe nodded. "In the fridge. Help yourself."

  Azrael grinned beneath his mirrored shades. "Don't mind if I do," and he vanished.

  Joe continued on down Ponce De Leon to the apartment he'd rented after moving out of Rhonda's condo.

  Daniel

  THE Botanica and Tea Shop on Euclid Avenue sat quietly under the late summer sky. The fruit trees planted around the lot's corners were in full green. The clematis on the back porch swayed in the breeze, its white flowers had bloomed and gone during spring. The smells of fresh mint teacakes wafted from the open back door. A box fan blew air out of the kitchen and into the heat of the night.

  He stood on the porch, in the shadows, watching through the window as Nona moved about the kitchen in silence. She didn't smile. She didn't laugh. She only looked down at her work, her mind on things beyond his comprehension.

  This woman had been ripped from her body months ago, imprisoned in a puppet made of flesh, and then sheltered inside a younger woman's body. And still—she survived. He was amazed by this.

  She is kin to Domas, came Inanna's voice inside his head. He wasn't sure if he would ever really get used to having another living thing inside of him. It is right she should be strong willed. Their daughter also possesses this strength. It's what will make the Phantasm flourish.

  "She's not going to stay there," Daniel said softly, and forcefully. "She can't stay there. I won't allow it."

  We've talked about this at length. If you remove her from the egg, then the planes will cross. There must be balance.

  "Then someone else can take her place," he said. "She doesn't belong there."

  Inanna didn't answer. He knew his First Born didn't agree with the plan to rescue Zoë. But she wasn't going to stop them either. Daniel was still so new to it all. Finding out what Zoë was, what she had done to him—with the Horror—though not her fault. About Rhonda and Nona and magic, and about Trench Coat, Joe, Jason…and Dags.

  Darren McConnell.

  The name caused an unpleasant mixture of emotions to well up inside of him. His stomach churned. His heart rate increased. And his anger—

  Don't. You haven't learned to control the power yet.

  "Shush," he said softly, but kindly. He knew Inanna was happy with her choice of hosts. She was content with him, but she was also wary.

  We're not alone.

  "I know."

  He'd heard her footsteps on the grass outside, as she'd come around the house, stepping out the front door in a pretext of leaving. Her car, a Volkswagen Beetle, was parked across the street, out of sight. She'd cloaked herself again—a subtle power she'd learned from the Grimoire.

  "You're getting bold," she said. "If she sees you, she'll fight you."

  Daniel turned, nodding, his hands shoved into the pockets of his brown duster. His hair brushed over his forehead as he took her in, his Abysmal eyes could see her in the dark as well as the day. He no longer needed his glasses. "Good evening, Rhonda."

  She looked tired. Waves of exhaustion—mental as well as physical—brushed against his senses. He knew without asking that she'd spent the day working in the shop with Nona, taking care of customers. Now she would travel home to her compound and care for Dags. Up until a month ago, she and Nona had kept him in the house here, but he'd been moved.

  "For his protection," Rhonda had told him.

  No. Dags has been moved so that he and his comrades couldn't get to him.

  Stella Rosenberg, Dags' landlady and sometimes lover, was taking them to court to be Dags' guardian. Time was growing short. They had to reassemble the pages.

  "I'm not worried about Nona. She's doing what she thinks is best."

  Rhonda beckoned him with a nod of her head to come to her. She moved down the slope of the yard into Jemmy's copse of trees separating the two houses. Jemmy also had chosen a side, and she and Nona hadn't spoken in several months. Fireflies flickered in the darker parts of the tiny forest. Daniel saw a chipmunk start and dash into a small hole beneath a stone of granite, a natural occurrence on the land.

  That stone connected to the stone beneath, which connected to the stone to the east.

  Stone Mountain.

  Rhonda sat on the jutting rock, making her hip level with Daniel. She wore a gray tank top with black shorts, Crocs. Her hair, now touching her shoulder, the roots revealing her redder, natural color. "Like I told Azrael and Joe—I'm not that convinced Nona's working against us."

  "She told us herself," Daniel said, as he knelt before her and looked up. "She would choose that Zoë remain the Phantasm, as her Adiran wished it. She loves him, and she'll follow him anywhere, Rhonda. I know it bothers you that she's been so easily swayed—"

  "No," she hissed and then looked around, though her gaze constantly returned to the light inside the Botanica kitchen. "I don't buy it. She was against any of this happening to Zoë to begin with. She created that spell to hide her daughter's power—the one that took it from her again. She wanted to stop whatever it was Adiran and Domas had been doing."

  "Domas," Inanna sneered within Daniel, surfacing, her voice harmonizing with his. Daniel stepped back inside and allowed his demon to come forward, knowing this also changed his appearance somewhat. Subtle. But enough that seeing it in the mirror had been enough to make him shudder. "A fool. Believing that anything in the Ethereal would agree to make a deal with him. They have one thing on their mind, Miss Orly," she said, her voice steely within his own. "Domination."

  Rhonda hesitated only slightly, but enough that Daniel recognized it. Inanna still frightened her. After all, it'd been Inanna that had first consumed him in her haste to find the pages in the Grimoire that held the spell to destroy them. During that instant, he'd attacked them, attacked Jason/Mephistopheles. But Inanna had only wanted to scare them away.

  To protect them.

  "Nona Martinique isn't like that. She's—she's not doing this to purposefully seal her own daughter in place."

  "She holds the Grimoire as her own," Inanna said.

  "She's taking care of him."

  "She won't allow us to arrange the pages."

  Rhonda looked down. "She says it could kill him. And if he dies, then the Grimoire is free. And open. And vulnerable."

  "Bullshit," Daniel interjected, his voice changing. "We need him to help us, Rhonda. We need the magic he possesses in that book to get Zoë back."

  She frowned at him. "You don't know that kind of knowledge exists in those pages."

  "No—" he pointed to the house. "Because she won't let us look. She knows our weaknesses, Rhonda. She knows what we can and can't do." He shifted on his knee. "Have you been paying attention at all to Azrael?"

  She narrowed her eyes. A car passed by, the bass of its woofers vibrating the ground. "No…what is it?"

  "Take a good look at him, Rhonda. He's weakening. His ability to go corporeal is lessening. He can barely stay solid when he needs to. He's pale. His power is directly tied to hers—they're linked in a way that I don't even—" he sighed. "I don't want to think about. Even though it was something that happened before she and I—"

  Rhonda put her hand to her face. "You think…you think she's dying?"

  "I don't know," he hissed. "But we need to get her out." He licked his lips and glanced back.

  "What?" Rhonda leaned closer. "Don't you go tight-lipped on me, Detective Frasier. There's something else here. What is it?"

  "I'm meeting with Joe and Azrael later. They know I have this," he reached inside his jacket to the breast pocket and retrieved a folded piece of parchment sealed in a plastic bag.

  Rhonda held up a trembling hand. "Is that—"

  He nodded and held it out to her. "It's a page. I found it on the mountain in Albuquerque. Damn near fried myself getting to it. But it's intact. No damage."

  She reached out with trembling hands and took it, holding it as if it were a priceless relic. After turning it over, she reached out with her
left hand, the receiving hand. It disappeared for a few seconds until she pulled another plastic bag from thin air and lowered it to her lap. He'd seen her use the Veil on occasion, and it still amazed him that by reciting a simple spell from the Grimoire, she'd been able to convert a small piece of her aura into a place to hide things.

  This only testified to the power inside that damned book.

  The bag she'd pulled was filled with pages like the one he'd given her. She carefully opened the single page bag and removed the paper. Daniel took the plastic as she placed the page inside of the larger bag and began to count. The pages were all blank. This worried Daniel, but Rhonda assured him that the content would appear again once things were set to rights.

  "Seventeen pages, Daniel. Seventeen facilities for him. Things missing. Memories mixed with spells. How to speak. How to walk. How to understand. But is this enough? Is this all?"

  "We won't know until you put them all back together, in order," he said softly, and then looked at the ground, his head bowed. "We have to bring him back. He can't live—he can't live like this."

  "I'm surprised you care, Daniel," Rhonda carefully resealed the bag and, with her right hand, hid them inside her Veil again. "About Darren."

  "I don't," he said quickly, as he looked at her. "He stole her from me, when I couldn't do anything about what had happened to me," he said. Then stopped himself.

  No. I can see your memory, Daniel. Inanna's own voice was chiding. You rejected her when you saw what she did with Charlie Holmes' soul. You pulled away. She'd been in the act of doing a good thing. And you—

  "I know," he nearly yelled. "I get it," he said in a quieter tone.

  "Inanna talking to you?"

  He nodded. "It's not Dags' fault. But I can't like him. I never will. I'm looking for these pages for her, Rhonda. To bring Zoë back."

  "She loves Dags, Daniel," Rhonda said softly. "I—I don't like it either."

  "Because you love him."

  She sighed. "I can't stop myself. I try. I mean, I know he loves her. Has loved her from the moment they met. But because I love him, I want him put back together."