Dominion: Zoë Martinique Investigation, Book 6 (21 page)

"Joe!" Mastiff yelled out.

I glanced around us. The Fetches were
gone, and my ears popped. A protective ward was back up—that much I
could tell with my own Abysmal senses. Joe had done it all by
himself—I'd never seen Mom do it alone. She'd always had Rhonda or
Jemmy. Was that why he was out cold? I ran my hands over his body,
looking for wounds, pieces of glass, flying debris—nothing. But he
wasn't moving.

A crash against the back door whipped
my head to the kitchen. One more smash like that and the door was
going to come down. I wanted to yell out at Mastiff to knock it off
and I'd unlock it—or undo whatever those Fetches had done to keep
it sealed. With them gone, everything was open again.

But they didn't know I was here. And I
didn't want to take a chance on Mastiff having one of those L-6
guns. Damn things were popping up everywhere. I looked around the
floor to make sure none of the little monsters was moving. That's
when I saw another of those circular patterns of things. Things
that seemed incongruous and unbroken.

It was like Mom's Veil—

Only this was Joe's. Everything had
dumped out of his Veil the moment he collapsed. I did a quick check
and grabbed all of it up. I didn't think there was anything
important—more than likely, as Mom said, it was just a huge mix of
things that he could strengthen his magic on.

But Mastiff was a damn good detective
and he'd notice these items didn't fit with the now
more…apocalyptic decor of the house.

I sat on my knees and looked around
me. I had all of it piled in my arms—but where was I going to put
it? There weren't any secret hiding places that whomever had
ransacked the place apparently didn't know about already. And I
could hear them getting ready to make another attempt at busting
down the door.

I couldn't carry all of this stuff
with me if I went incorporeal—and even if I tried it in solid form,
there was just too much for two arms. But I could make another Box
like TC showed me and hide it all in there. No one could get to it
but me.

Why not? What could it
hurt?

I had five seconds to do it. I dumped
all of the stuff on the floor and started visualizing a box of
metal all around the little pile. To my surprise, the dang thing
actually formed, and once I could see it and knew it was real, it
became something very solid.

Only…I didn't see a door.

Oh well.

I lifted the box up, imagined a shelf
on the Astral Plane. Imagine an Oreo chocolate-covered cookie.
There's chocolate, then filling, then chocolate. Think of the
filling as the Physical, the cookie as the Mental, and the
chocolate covering as the Astral. I was technically putting the box
in the cookie part.

…

That analogy really sucked
ass.

The door burst open, and I
instinctively flung myself over Joe to protect him as two officers
came in with guns drawn. Mastiff was right behind them.

"Joe!"

I heard and felt Mastiff's feet
beating on the hardwood, so I made sure I was incorporeal before I
sat up and then back. Mastiff was on the ground on his knees,
slipping his gun back into his holster. He touched Joe's neck, then
leaned in to put his ear to his partner's chest. After several
beats, he grabbed up his radio. "This is Detective George Mastiff.
I have an officer down at…"

I sat on my ass beside Joe and watched
as Mastiff ordered in an ambulance and then told officers to patrol
the perimeter to make sure the attacker wasn't still lurking
around.

Imagine my surprise when Mastiff
turned back around to look at Joe and said, "Zoë, I know you're
there. And you'd better tell me what the fuck just
happened."

Wait…how did he know I was there?
Could he see me? I didn't think he was all magic like Mom and Joe.
Maybe it was rubbing off on him the longer he associated himself
with us.

"Please, Zoë." He didn't look at me.
He was leaning over Joe, and started feeling the man's arms and
legs. When he found the long gashes on Joe's arm, he swore, and
pulled his handkerchief from his jacket pocket and wrapped it
around his partner's arm. "I need you tell me what happened so I
can make sure he gets the right treatment."

I licked my lips and lifted myself off
the floor and debris to hover above him. If he heard my voice, I
wanted him to hear it above him, not beside him. People sometimes
got a little weirded out when a voice just pops out of thin air
beside them. "I think he exhausted himself."

Mastiff visibly looked relieved as his
shoulders slumped and he bent his head forward. "Thank you for
answering me. At least I know I'm not crazy." He looked around the
room. "Things are different. What happened?"

I gave him a
Reader's Digest
version
of the events, although I kept the more mental parts of it out,
like Joe and I thinking whoever took Mom's Eidolon used it to make
the Fetches regeneratable.

When I was done, Mastiff put his hands
on his thighs. "I'm going to have him taken to Emory University
Hospital, same as your mother. Once I know he's stable, I will let
you know. And then we're going to have a little talk."

"No…I can't do that."

"Zoë, I have one of those
guns."

"That's not exactly the way to gain my
trust, George."

He opened his mouth, and then closed
it. "Sorry…I'm just used to threatening to get my way."

"That's being a bully." I floated
behind him so I could get a better look at Joe. He looked so
freaking pale and vulnerable. But I'd felt his power. I had a small
taste of what he was capable of—and that was with a swirling vortex
of stuff tucked inside his astral aura. What was he capable of
without that?

What sucked was that I didn't really
have anyone to ask questions to. Rhonda was insane and kidnapped or
maybe helping the kidnappers, Mom was in a coma, and
Joe…

Joe wasn't moving. Something wrenched
in my gut when I looked at him, and I thought about how he'd been
bitten and drained when Lex had challenged Jason in that duel. Joe
had been so brave and recovered quickly for a human.

With no Symbiont, no Familiar, no
First Born.

I was thinking a lot about that
lately. Just as much as I was thinking about Dags and hoping he was
okay.

"We know Gibbons was written off as
dead, but we're forensically sure it's him killing and raping.
We've already confirmed it. But I don't know how that's
possible."

"I do…but I can't tell you, George.
Not yet. There's a lot going on underneath the surface of this. You
see a collection of rapes and homicides. I see the creatures
causing it. And listen to me very carefully—" I took in a deep
breath. "Daniel is not a part of this. If he's after anyone, it's
Karl Gibbons."

"Zoë, I know that." Mastiff stood when
we both heard the sound of sirens approaching. "But he's still
wanted for those deaths earlier this year, and the murder of
Captain Cooper."

I didn't answer. I knew that. And I
knew it was all my fault. "I'll try and keep him out of this,
okay?"

"Zoë, if you know where he is…"
Mastiff put his hands on his hips, the motion pushing back his suit
jacket to reveal his holster and weapon. "You've got to tell me. Is
he with Jason Lawrence? Is that playboy messed up in this
somehow?"

The ambulance pulled up into the yard.
I could see the red-and-white lights through the curtains lighting
up the night . I rose higher in the air and hovered just beneath
the ceiling. "Mastiff, you know what Jason is. I suggest you leave
him alone. He's not a part of this. If he's doing anything, it's
meant to help his kind."

"The killings have to stop, Zoë." He
was looking around at the ceiling, trying to get a bead on where I
was. His right hand slipped into his pocket. I didn't know if he
had one of L-6 guns in there, but I did not want to find
out.

My cue to leave. Joe would
be taken care of and I could check on him at the hospital when I
went to see Mom. Right now I wanted to track down whoever attacked
Mom and sent those crazy-freaky Fetches after us. But in order to
do that, I had to figure out
who
that was. My guess was something or someone hired
or overtaken or overshadowed by agents of the Seraphim.

Joe seemed to think they were
desperate if they were attacking witches like that. And it was
obvious they had help, because someone took down the ward to let
them in. But who?

As I sieved through the roof and into
the sky, I hovered over Little Five Points . I watched the
ambulance arrive, watched it take Joe away and still hovered above
until all that was left, once again, was a single black and white.
I must've been up there for hours, trying to sort out everything
and make my next move. I was alone doing this, for the first time
since all of this insanity started. Mom always said to ask
questions. Generate answers. Look for them if they weren't
there.

What creature could a Seraphim
control, that could control magic and pack a wallop to knock out a
witch like my mom? The truth was—nothing. Or nothing I could think
of. Common sense says the only person that could get the jump on
Mom would be someone she knew and trusted. And right now that was a
very short list.

Well, there was one person.
One individual she still trusted. The one creature in the whole
universe
I
didn't
trust. Someone I really wanted to hate more than hate
itself.

But I couldn't.

So I'd gotten used to the feeling of
extremely disliking him.

And that would be none other than
Adiran Martinique.

My father.

Chapter Twenty-One

I'd never tried to find my father. He
always seemed to find me. So looking for him on purpose…well, that
was a grab bag full of nothing. I honestly didn't know where to
start. I could ask TC, but he'd warn me against it and then refuse
to tell me how. Mom and Joe weren't on the ask list, seeing as they
were both unconscious. Dags…

Again my heart lurched inside of my
chest when I thought of him. He'd been missing only a few days, but
the anxiety I felt about him lingered since the moment I realized
he no longer loved me. No longer remembered me. I'll admit Mom and
Jason's testimony that he'd been having memories return—images in
his head associated with Rhonda that involved me—did give me a
slight feeling of hope.

But I think I stopped being a dreamer
the moment I lost him. The moment I'd been betrayed again…by
someone I trusted. Seemed I wasn't meant to have anyone in my life
I could trust.

Well, enough of that pity-party. I had
to find old Pop and wring some answers out of him.

So I spent most of the early morning
flitting about town, looking in all the wrong places. I checked the
halfway house in Between, then I went to the Society House and
hovered in the air for a while. Nothing. I spent time in Piedmont
Park, then back to Grant Park where Geist had led me to
Tamera—

Thinking of Tamera made me think of
Mom in the hospital. It was the one place I hadn't checked. Was it
possible he was there? The image of their wedding rings in Joe's
hands spurred me in the direction of the hospital. The sun had just
crested the top of the trees when I slipped inside. I remained
incorporeal until I reached Mom's room. Jemmy wasn't
there.

A young man dressed in a tan peacoat,
dark jeans, and boots sat at her side, his hand in hers. His hair
was dark and combed back from his face to brush the collar of his
coat.

He lifted his head when I entered the
room, then turned to his right so I could see his
profile.

Adiran Martinique.

But this wasn't the powerful, arrogant
image I'd watched from inside the Abysmal Throne. In fact, he
looked more human than he ever had.

I landed on my slippers. They
transformed into black boots as the rest of me shifted into a more
presentable human appearance. It felt like I was in control of the
transformation for the first time.

"Hello, Zoëtrope."

I rolled my eyes. "I really wish you
wouldn't call me that."

"I gave you that name." He looked back
at Mom. "Nona wasn't as excited about it as I was. I had to
convince her it would fit you."

I approached the bed, but avoided
looking at Mom. I couldn't. If I did, I'd break down. And at that
moment I needed to be as bitchy as I could. "What are you doing
here?"

"I'm keeping a watch over my wife. Of
course I have to do it when that damned bloodsucker isn't here."
His jaw clenched as he kept his gaze on Mom. "She's my wife, and I
can't keep him out."

"He took care of her when you
abandoned us."

Dad was up on his feet and facing me
eye to eye. I realized where I got my height. "You may be my
daughter, but you don't know me, Zoë—"

"I don't fucking
want
to know you!" I
hissed at him, my voice so very close to an hysterical scream. "You
don't deserve her and you sure as shit don't get to call me your
daughter anymore,
Virtue
." I looked at this beautiful
man with an overwhelming sensation of hate. It washed over me,
coming from behind like a tidal wave. He blinked and took a step
back, nearly stumbling over the chair he'd sat in.