Dominion: Zoë Martinique Investigation, Book 6 (22 page)

His expression shifted from anger to
incredulous surprise. "You…hate me that much?"

"What the hell do you think?" The
pager announced a STAT as a trauma team rushed by the door. "We
have to talk and here is not the place."

"I'm not leaving Nona—"

I shifted instantly, my wings unable
to unfurl to their full width because of the size of the room. The
machine alarms went off as I exerted a little power. No, I wasn't
going to put my mom in danger, but I was going to get him out of
there.

He looked at the beeping boxes in
panic. "Okay—where?"

"Find me. If you don't, I'll have Joe
put a ward on this room even you can't break through." I shot
straight up through the ceiling and didn't stop until I was high
above the hospital. So…where to meet with the father from
hell?

I picked a small park I'd visited a
few times called Big Trees. The entrance to the walk was in the
parking lot of the courthouse for Sandy Springs. Pretty odd place
for something as cool as it was. It had a manmade creek and several
paths. It wasn't so dense I couldn't poof out of there if I needed
to. Private and open at the same time.

I chose a relatively private little
nook, complete with dead tree benches fixed a
semicircle.

"Zoë." Dad sounded a little tired when
he said my name. He appeared less than a second after I landed.
"You can't really think everything I've done wasn't for your own
good?"

I hit him. I didn't mean to. But my
hand was up and striking the side of his face so hard and so fast,
I couldn't stop it.

I don't think I expected him to
react—but he did. He shifted into the more Ethereal look I was
accustomed to and came after me with his hands. But I was still
full Wraith and I was pissed…off. Everything happening to me
coalesced into that single moment as I took a deep breath and
opened my mouth to Scream at him.

I didn't try to stop him as he grabbed
my upper arms. I knew the moment the first sound came out, he'd
dissolve into a million bits of ass.

"Zoë! Please! I did what I did because
I love you!"

My breath caught in my throat. He
shook me once, and I stared at him. Even though he stood before me
in his Ethereal form, his face remained human. He had light brown
eyes. Topaz.

Like my own.

I did what I did because I
love you!

He'd never told me that before. He
might have when I was young, before he left us, but since he'd
returned to my life—

He shifted back to his human
appearance, and my own body followed along. Unfortunately, since
I'd spent most of the day as Wraith, I didn't have a coat. I stood
in front of him, wide-eyed and shivering.

When he removed his coat and stepped
toward me with it, who could blame me when I stepped
back?

"Zoë…" He actually smiled. "You're
cold. And you don't have the power to manifest thought into
physical being as I do. Please take this so we can talk and you
won't freeze?"

I stared at the coat. My dad's
coat.

A year ago, I would have given
anything to have him offer me something. Anything. A young girl
starving for the return of her father. But now…

"Is it going to do something to
me?"

He arched his eyebrows. "Keep you
warm?"

When I still hesitated, he lowered his
arms holding the coat. "I don't blame you for mistrusting me, Zoë.
I deserve that. And even if I explained my motives to you—motives
you're unaware of and the reasons behind them—it wouldn't change
the way you feel about me right now. I've come to live with that.
It's not easy…but for now, I can accept it."

The whole thing felt so surreal. I was
standing here in the woods with my father. An Ethereal Virtue. In
layman's terms, an Angel.

I needed answers. I believed he could
give them to me.

So I took the coat from him and put it
over my shoulders. And to my surprise, the only thing it did was
stop me from shivering.

"Now." He rubbed his hands together
and sighed. "Shall we sit so we can talk?"

I took a bench on the farthest end of
the semicircle. He sat on the other end. It wasn't so great a
distance we had to yell, and it was far enough away I had a good
angle of escape. I licked my lips and pushed my flyaway hair behind
my ears. I really should have braided it this morning. The question
I intended to ask was not the one I blurted out. "Mom told me she
was responsible for what happened to me…and to Barry Stephens that
day. Did you know I was raped, Dad." I looked tried to see his
face. "Did you even care?"

Chapter Twenty-Two

He didn't look away, but focused fully
on me. "Yes I knew. And you have to believe your mother. No one
sent a Power to rape or kill you, Zoë."

"But Mom—"

"Your mother blames herself for what
happened. And no matter how many times I try to convince her
otherwise, she refuses to listen."

"But he's back. The man who raped me
and killed Barry is raping and killing again." I pointed at him.
"And he's wearing your mark!"

"No, he's not. He's got a
tattoo."

I—um— "Say what?"

Dad pursed his lips. "Zoë, the man who
raped you is dead, but the body of that man is occupied by a Power.
Only I did not create him. I have seen him, and I was informed he'd
modified his mark to resemble my own. In fact, most of that
Virtue's Powers have modified their marks."

"Whose Powers are they, and why would
they do that?" I wasn't going to say I believed him, but it was an
explanation I hadn't thought about before.

"The Virtue was Raziel. The one you
destroyed. And when he was obliterated, his Powers were left
orphaned. Several of them came to me and asked if they could be a
part of my army—and I refused, because I never approved of Raziel's
behavior."

"So they all decided to make
themselves look like they belonged under your command."

He nodded slowly. "Yes. And they've
committed heinous acts under my name. Right now, my army is out
destroying them when they can." Dad reached out his
hand.

I looked at it, and then looked at
him. "I just can't."

"I understand." He returned his hand
to his knee. "But I need you to listen to what I'm going to tell
you about that night." He took in a deep breath. "First off, I
never intended Nona to use the Eidolon the way she did. She took my
instructions and ripped them up—she was still very angry at me. But
sealing your power so young was the right thing to do. It kept you
hidden and safe, which was what I always wanted.

"But somehow a Virtue discovered what
you were—what hid beneath the magic of the Eidolon. That Virtue
created a Power to watch you and wait for the moment to kill
you."

"But why? Why would anyone want me
dead?"

He held up his hand. "You have Nona's
lack of patience, Zoëtrope."

"I hate it when you—"

"Deal with it. And listen." He winked
before he continued. "That night, your mother had one of her
feelings—that something terrible was going to happen. She sent
Karl, one of her dearest friends and a former employee, out to keep
an eye on you. What she didn't know, because Karl kept the mark
hidden under makeup, was that he was the Power created to kill
you."

My jaw fell open. Oh no—oh fuck. "Mom
didn't realize she'd sent an assassin to kill me."

"No. So it took advantage of the
situation when you and that boy went to Piedmont Park. Barry's
death was a tragedy and something no one could predict. When Nona
got the call and Karl disappeared, she realized what'd happened.
But it was too late."

"And that's why she said it was her
fault. So…" I leaned toward him. "Then I wasn't attacked in order
to break the spell. That happened by accident."

"Yes. The Power possessing Karl
failed. You didn't die. Instead, you came into your full Irin
power. The police did catch him a while later when he was shot, but
he didn't stay dead for long, and he escaped. He's been traveling
around doing petty crimes here and there. It wasn't until the other
orphaned Powers called him back that he started raping and killing
again."

"I don't understand why, though. Who
ordered him to do that?"

"Zacharel. Remember, Dominions can
control the Powers we make if they want. And once Zach started
getting stupid ideas, he gathered up all of Raz's orphans and
started ordering them out there."

I sat in silence for a few minutes,
not really sure what else I wanted to ask.

"Zoë, to answer the other question I'm
sure is burning you inside—we do not have the Guardian."

"You don't?"

His brows arched again. "No, we
don't."

No?

My turn to frown. "Of course, the
Seraphim has him."

"No, we don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No, we don't."

"Yes…you do."

He held up his hands. "Zoë—stop. The
First Choir does not have the Guardian."

"First Choir?"

"Think of them as…" he shrugged as he
leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. "The generals of
the Ethereal, Zoë. Three Choirs, all in order of their abilities,
their place, and their obedience. The Seraphim and the Cherubim
upon the Throne is the First Choir."

"Cherubim? I've heard of Virtues,
Powers, and Dominions, but Cherubim?"

"They are something you do not want to
mess with, Zoë. I'm not even sure there's an Abysmal Equivalent.
They have never possessed a human soul, and live exclusively in the
Ethereal Plane to guard the Seraphim." Dad turned his head to the
right. "They do not have possession of the Guardian—although the
Seraphim desires it above all else, to the point of
obsession."

"Yeah…so where do you fall into that
hierarchy?"

"Second Choir has Virtue. Dominion,
Virtue, then Power. You already know this though, since we are the
ones who take care of the hassles in the Physical Plane. The First
Choir can't manifest here—" he shrugged "—and affect anything. They
can show up as spirits or Shades, but they will never be
tangible."

"So they use you."

"And like I said, they use the Powers
we create."

This was the most information my
father had ever given out to me. Most of the time when I'd seen
him, he'd been trying to manipulate me into something. So… "Why are
you telling me this?"

"You need to know."

"I needed to know this a lot
sooner."

"Were you willing to listen if I'd
tried sooner?"

Ah…there he was. My father the
ass-hat. "I see. So…you're saying neither the First Choir nor the
Seraphim have Dags or Rhonda. Do the Second Choir?"

This time he looked away. "No…and
yes."

"Damn it. What does that
mean?"

"It means we're a plane divided, Zoë."
He seemed to sink further into the bench as he rubbed his face with
his hand, his elbows still on his knees. "My dream to close the
Abysmal Plane ended when you didn't resonate. The truth was, I
didn't think you would."

!!!

"So why put me in that fucking
Throne?"

"To make sure the Seraphim didn't put
one of his damn Cherubim in there." He looked at me and clasped his
hands together. "There is a lot you don't know, Zoë. A lot your
mother never told you, because I've never told her. There are plots
and betrayals so vast and deceitful the name Machiavelli doesn't
even come close to describing them."

"So you used me…like a cork? To stop
the Seraphim?"

He laughed. He freakin' laughed! "You
get your humor from your mom. And I've always loved it." He sat up
and put his hands on his knees. "You asked me questions, and I have
given you honest answers, Zoë."

I moved closer to the middle bench.
"Does someone else in the Second Choir have him?"

Adiran looked torn as he gazed at me.
I knew he wasn't really seeing me. He was thinking. Then, "Yes." He
put his hands up. "But you can't interfere, do you understand? We
are doing what we can to get them back—"

"Oh, yeah, right. You want Dags so you
can rip that book out of him and kill him."

"Zoë, that book should
never have been created in the Physical Plane to begin with." His
voice rose just a smidgen. "And to think some damn megalomaniac
witch dares to fuse it to the soul of a Guardian? In fact, to
the
only
Guardian
to be born in a century? She should be punished for all eternity
for causing so much turmoil."

He was mad. But not at me.

He was mad…at Rhonda!

Holy hell.

I took in a deep breath and held up my
hands. "Look, Dad…" I called him that to defuse his anger, not
because I thought any differently about him. "For once, I agree
with you. I'm pissed as hell at her for everything. But it's done,
and I can't and won't just stand by and let you and your damn
Seraphim murder the man I love just get some old book
back."