Dominion: Zoë Martinique Investigation, Book 6 (10 page)

While it brewed, he turned
and leaned back against the counter edge. "Well, when the whole
house started shaking the way it did, I knew that was one of two
things. Either Rhonda was pitching a fit, or you were. And since
Rhonda was gone, had to be you. And you usually don't gather that
much power around you unless you are really,
really
pissed off."

I blinked. Me? I gather
power?

How the hell do I do that?

"And when I got to the room—you know
the rest. I was still off my feet a little when Azrael vanished
with you in his arms. So was your mother. That sergeant what's-his
ass wanted to arrest me for interfering and preventing them from
apprehending the planar."

"Planar?"

"It's what they call us,"
Azrael said between grapes. "They dubbed any of us who dwell mainly
on the Abysmal or the Ethereal Planes,
planars
."

"But they—I mean we—live on the
Physical Plane," I said with my arms out. "We think on the Mental,
and our souls inhabit the Astral."

"Now, that's my girl," Azreal said
with a shit-eating grin. "I honestly didn't think you were
listening to me during our little training sessions."

Before I became a temporary resident
of the Abysmal Plane, thanks to my father, I'd asked Azrael to
teach me how to be a better Wraith, meaning how to use my power and
help me understand better about the changes my body went through.
It used to be I had to slip out of my body to become the
Wraith.

And then it didn't, and I
could become the Wraith
inside
my body. And flying became a reality. Wings and
all.

"I was listening." Glare, glare. "But
Joe, they were wanting to apprehend TC? That would be
stupid."

"I'll say" The Phantasm munched a
grape.

"No, they were referring to you. You
and Dags are classified as planars."

Ruh-roh. "This doesn't sound
good."

"Now you know why I said
what I said." Azrael held a grape hostage between the index finger
and thumb of his right hand. "The fact they've
labeled
you, and Dags, and the other
Revenants, bothers me. Used to be there weren't labels because
everyone was on the same playing field. But ever since Nona took
over and this new council member stepped in to take over security
operations, it's been a little less inviting."

"What about Rhonda? Or even Mom." I
pointed at Joe. "Or you. You all do magic. Why haven't they
classified you?"

"They don't consider magic a threat."
Joe removed a cup and placed it in front of me. He changed the
K-Cups and started his own cup brewing. "We can be subdued by very
simple means. Bullets work pretty good. But we're classified as
human."

"I'm human."

"Are you?"

I…

Wow.

I'd never really thought about that. I
didn't know many humans who could do what I do.

Mental Note:
Oh, the humanity!

Sarcasm aside, this conversation made
me uncomfortable. "Keep going with the story."

Joe took his cup as it finished and
pulled a bowl of sugar to him. He fished a spoon from a drawer in
the counter by the Keurig. "Nona told that guy to can it and leave.
And just as he did, I got a call from Mastiff."

Azrael stood and pulled an unopened
carton of milk from the fridge. I noticed the side had been labeled
"Phanty" in black marker.

"Did Mastiff piss you off? That why
you quit the force?"

"You could say that. It seems they're
making Daniel the main person of interest for those murders in the
park, and the ones in Montreal. And since they positively ID'd him
as the guy staying at the bed-and-breakfast with you, they're
looking at you, too."

"Me? Why me?"

"Your involvement with
Daniel."

"But what about the guy in the
picture? He's the one who raped me. And he's a Power."

Joe looked pained as he grabbed the
milk from Azreal before the Phantasm could open it and drink out of
it. "I know, but that's not a piece of information I could go to
them with."

Once Joe was done with the carton,
Azrael took it back. "What made you quit?"

Even though the coffee was finished
and he stirred it, Joe didn't drink it immediately. "Because they
wanted me to set up a surveillance on Zoë. Set up a team to watch
her and grab Daniel when he showed up near her again."

"They wanted you to watch
me?"

"Yeah. And don't think because I quit
that they won't do it. They will." He stopped. "Come to think about
it…." He moved away from the counter and held out his hands, palms
up. Closing his eyes, he took in two deep breaths and started
humming.

I looked at Azrael as the hairs on the
back of my neck stood on end.

Azrael grinned.

Something popped near the TV, then it
sparked. After a few more seconds, Joe stopped humming, lowered his
arms, and opened his eyes. "I think I just shorted my cable
box."

"What were you doing?" I
sipped the coffee and winced.
Ooh…needs
sugar. Blech.

"I was zapping out a low-tier pulse of
magic—sort of like a EMP but on a more subtle level."

"That was not subtle." Azrael stuck
his pinky in his ear and wiggled it. "So, no bugs in here
yet."

"I agree with the 'yet'." Joe rubbed
at his face. "Give it time. And Zoë, I'm pretty sure your place has
plenty of bugs in it."

"Sneaky snoopers?" I set the sugar
down…'cause I'd sort of lost track of how many spoonfuls of sugar
I'd plopped in my coffee. "They've got them in my
apartment?"

Joe grinned. Why was he grinning at
me? "I'd forgotten you called them that," he said, as if reading my
question off my expression. Or he could have heard my thought?
After all, when I'd slipped out of body to become the Wraith, he
could hear me then.

"They could have them there, and
pointed here," Azrael said as he chewed the last grape. "But I'd
guarantee that zap would have given whomever is listening some
serious feedback. So—" He put his hands on the table. "—we need a
new base of operations."

Base of— "For what?"

"Come on, Zoë," Joe sipped his coffee.
Geez, he looked cute when he had bedhead. But then, Joe kinda
always had bedhead. Spiky hair. "You do realize we've got a lot of
fucked-up shit right now. Daniel's missing, Dags is missing,
Rhonda's missing, there's something creepy happening with the
Society, and your old rapist is a Power."

"You can ex Rhonda out of that list.
I'm not rescuing her," I muttered. "Even if she is in
trouble."

"That's kinda cold." Joe looked hurt.
"She helped us get you out of the Throne."

I felt a flare of anger
burn up from my gut into my head. I was thinking,
this is what a hot flash felt
like
, as I was instantly covered in sweat.
But whatever it looked like physically made Joe take a step back
from me. "She used it to steal Darren from me, Joe. Or have you
forgotten?"

"Tone that down." Azrael
held up a hand. "We all know you're pissed off. And that was a
shitty thing for her to do. But you have to admit, it wasn't all
her. Geist had a hand in that, because he believes your
relationship with the
Grimoire
is a bad idea."

"I don't fucking care what some kind
of weird program thinks." I was getting really upset. And I thought
I deserved the right to. Damn it all. I was having a really
screwed-up year. And it wasn't getting any better. I mean…even my
vacation was ruined…and it wasn't even New Year's yet!

I grabbed my coffee and walked around
to the stools to sit beside Azrael. Joe stayed on the other side,
his mug in his hand. "Sorry."

"Eh, I'm used to it," Joe said, and
sipped more coffee. "So let's go backwards on that list. I'd
personally like to know why Nona lied to you about sending the
rapist after you."

I was sipping my own sugar-infused
coffee when he said that. Joe hadn't been with Azrael and me at the
park when Azrael explained to me that mom had been lying. So I
nearly choked. "Wait…how do you know that?"

"Because I confronted her before I
quit." He grabbed the counter with both hands.

"You okay?" Azrael narrowed his
eyes.

"It's this Orbital Veil," Joe said.
"It's going to take a few days to get used to it. I mean, it's
working and I'm getting the hang of it, but sometimes I move one
way and it moves the other."

I couldn't see all that stuff spinning
around him, but I could remember it moving about that room at the
Society House. The fact that he was right in front of the counter
made me wonder if what was in the Veil was somehow phasing through
the wood of the counter, the floor, and even the ceiling, depending
on the diameter of the circle.

Ooh. That sounded smart!

"So what did she say?" Azrael asked.
"Why did Nona lie like that about this rapist?"

Joe's phone rang. I sipped my coffee
and started listing out the priorities myself. The only problem
was, which one should I start on first? This rapist killing people?
Finding Dags? Or finding Daniel?

"Mastiff…"

At first I thought he was answering
his phone as Mastiff, but then I realized Mastiff was the one
calling. Mastiff was Joe's partner. They were assigned together
after Daniel went crazy, killed all those people, and killed his
captain—

I really hated that I kept thinking
about that.

"Look, you weren't there. You didn't
see what I saw. And I am not going to spy on Zoë just so you can
catch—"

When he stopped, Azrael and I looked
at each other, then at Joe. The former APD detective had one hell
of a look on his face.

"Joe?"

He held a hand up for me to be
quiet.

:P

"….and you're sure. You can see it's
him?"

That perked me up. Him who?

"Okay…yeah. But do it alone. My place.
And if I see any backup…yeah, right." He disconnected and looked
right at me. "They found Daniel."

Chapter Eleven

"What do you mean, they found Daniel?"
The question was out of my mouth before I realized I'd opened it. I
also noticed I was breathing heavy and my heart decided arrhythmia
was a good idea.

Joe looked…well, flummoxed. "Mastiff
wouldn't say. All he'd give me was 'you have to see this.' So, I'll
see it." He fixed me with a rather worried look. "You need to stay
hidden. I don't want him knowing you're here."

"And me?" TC looked disappointingly at
the empty bowl of grapes.

"You…well, you have to hide, too. But
I figured you'd want to know what it was he found."

"Of course I would. Inanna's my
sister." He turned and grinned at me. "So, should we be incorporeal
together?"

And that's pretty much what we did
when the doorbell rang twenty minutes later. In the interim, Joe
showered and cleaned up the apartment and stowed the empty grape
bowl and milk. He also put away my jacket before he glanced back at
us—me all Wraithy and gruesome looking—and TC, well, looking like
himself.

I made a mental note to ask him later
why I looked like this. I mean, why didn't I just do what he did
and go from solid to non-solid? How come my whole look changed? Not
that I minded looking like some comic-book form of someone's
nemesis…it was just weird.

Ebil bunneh slippers and
all.

Joe took in a deep breath and opened
the door. And, like he'd figured, six uniformed cops preceded a
very leery looking Mastiff into the apartment.

"You got a warrant?" Joe asked as he
slammed the door closed behind the intrusion.

Mastiff turned to face him inside the
hall, and TC and I watched the uniforms take up positions around
the living room.

"We're not here to look through your
place, Joe."

"Why the muscle?"

"Just…precaution."

"Get out."

"Joe, I need you to look
at—"

"Get out. Or you get them out. If you
don't have a warrant—and I know you don't have probable cause for
anything—then get out." He opened the door again and
pointed.

Mastiff looked ready to explode. His
jaw worked back and forth as he thought it over and then nodded to
the officers. They filed back out of the apartment.

"Sergeant." Mastiff approached the
last one out and slipped out the door. He whispered, but I could
hear him. "Stay close and keep an eye out. I doubt Frasier's made
it here yet. Martinique lives above this unit. Put two men on her
apartment. We got a warrant pending to search her
place."

"Yes, sir."

When he came back in, I bore a hole
into his face with my very angry stare. I wanted to Scream at him,
but figured that would just sort of complicate things. Asshole was
going to search my apartment? What the hell for?