Dominion: Zoë Martinique Investigation, Book 6 (24 page)

"What was that about?" I watched them
leave. Daniel and I were the only ones left.

"Me." Daniel strolled to the open
sliding glass door. Cold wind moved into the living area. "They're
not sure what to think about this new thing."

"You mean you walking through
walls."

"Mmhm."

I moved to stand at the door beside
him. I was cold, but I was still wearing my father's coat. "Are
they being mean?"

"Mean?" He laughed as he looked down
at me at his side. "Zoë, this isn't high school."

"No. But I've discovered that adults
can be even meaner than kids. And you know you're kinda in a little
club that caters exclusively to being different. Only now you're
even more different than they are." I looked up at him. "Do they
resent it, or are they afraid of it?"

"They're afraid…" He licked his lips
and looked back through the glass at the view as if searching for
the right words. "They are afraid that this new power changes
things for Inanna. That she won't be able to contain the madness.
Which is just stupid, because nothing's happened to make them think
that."

"Then why do they?"

"I don't know." He turned to face me.
"Zoë, I…"

His blue eyes roamed my face and I
smiled up at him. "Let's go check on Joe and ask him if he knows
where the Eidolons are, see if he knows about a sixth one. I need
to make sure he's okay."

Daniel's face darkened just a bit, as
if a slight shadow passed over it. "You like Joe, don't
you."

It wasn't a question as much as it was
a comment. "Yes, I do, Daniel. I care a great deal for Joe. Joe's…"
What did I want to say about the surly cop? That he'd been there
with me since near the beginning? That he'd not shown utter disdain
for the supernatural, unlike another cop I knew? That Joe steadily
remained himself, loyal, and always a peacekeeper?

Or that his kiss, above all others,
still lingered on my lips?

"Joe's a good friend," I finally
answered, and put my hand on Daniel's chest, over his heart. I felt
it beat steadily, and realized that even though a creature of
immense power rested inside of him, he was still human. And he was
still just a man.

And he was still my Daniel.

He leaned down and kissed my forehead.
"You know, during the investigation into my conduct…after my
partner died, Joe was the only one who called and offered me help.
I ignored him…'cause I was still mad about Heather."

"He never spoke ill of you, Daniel." I
laughed. "Even though you called him a nutcase for believing in all
of this."

"Wow…was I wrong?" Daniel reached up
and touched my cheek. "Zoë, I am sorry I did the things I did. I'm
sorry I acted like an ass…that I never even stopped to consider any
other possibility beyond what I could see."

"Daniel—"

"No. I have to say this. Because I
didn't say it before. We moved apart because of me, not you. You
offered so much to me, and I fucked it up. I was still so hurt from
Heather's betrayal…I assumed you weren't a better person. I
suspected you were hiding something from me, and instead of
trusting you'd tell me when you could, I assumed a lot of stupid
shit." He took both of my hands in his and stood very close to me.
"I know, deep down, you and I won't ever be together again. I get
it, that you love Darren. And I'm…okay with that. And with what's
happened…I'm sorry. And I do hope that something can be done to
give him back his memories of you." He smiled. "You two deserve to
be happy."

My breath caught in my throat and my
eyes burned. Dear God, Daniel had never really apologized like
this…or if he had, I'd core-dumped it somewhere. Through his eyes,
I could see he meant the words he said. Even though I knew Inanna
was there with him. For the first time since this nightmare began,
I believed he really loved me.

He does.

I gasped at the sound of
Inanna's voice in my head.
Inanna…you love
him, too.

Yes, I do. And even though
I am a part of him, I am not in his thoughts as much as you
are.

I looked away.
Can he hear you talking to me?

No. I don't want him to.
But I want you to listen to me. Daniel doesn't want anything else
in this world except the chance to bring you and Dags together
again. He's been studying in his spare time, and he's been going
through the knowledge of every host I've ever had. We've gone
through what knowledge I brought with me to find a way to bring
Dags' memories back.

My heart skipped.
And?

There is a way. But he
won't share it with you yet. Not until he's sure. Because if he
broke your heart again, it would destroy him.

I don't deserve his
praise.

No, you don't.

Her words stung. I didn't have a
retort…she was right. I was just as much at fault for abandoning
him as he was for leaving me.

"She's talking to you. I can tell
because she's not answering me and you look upset." He took his
hand from mine and touched my cheek. "What is she
saying?"

"Nothing that I don't already know.
That she cares about you, and we both agreed to keep you
safe."

"Isn't that my line?" He put an arm
over my shoulder and turned me to the door. "Let's go see the
cranky cop."

Chapter Twenty-Four

I hate hospitals. But I think I've
said that before. They're just…wrong.

For me, they're wrong because I can
see the ghosts and Shades of the people who died in them. Before I
could Wraith in-body, they usually didn't show themselves all that
much unless I went out of body. Now…they're there whether I like it
or not.

Most of them don't notice me noticing
them. But when they do notice me, that's when it gets freaky,
because having talked to one or two? They stop seeing me as a human
and see me as I would look as Wraith. And, of course, religious
sensibilities start coming to the surface and poof—I'm a
demon.

Bully for me. *Wiggles fingers in the
air to be all spooky*

We checked in on Mom first. No change.
Jemmy was happy to see me, and the officer there didn't try and
take me into custody. I'm not even sure he knew the lady in the bed
was my mom. I do look a lot like my dad. Speaking of the old devil,
he was there. I could see him by Mom's bed. Jemmy didn't see him,
and I wasn't exactly sure I should tell her. He nodded to me when I
gave Mom a kiss on her forehead, but he didn't say anything. If
Daniel saw him, he didn't say. I hurried out of the room and into
Daniel's arms. This was hard, and he was there and it felt sooo
good to be held.

I was touched my father was there. But
it was just so…incongruous with what I knew of his previous
actions.

Wow. That sounded smart.

I still remembered what he said at Big
Trees. That he did what he did because he loved me.

Joe was on the same floor, and Daniel
and I walked hand-in-hand to the door. Just as I knocked, I heard
voices coming from inside—and they didn't sound happy. One of them
was a girl's voice.

I put my finger to my lip to indicate
to Daniel to be quiet as we leaned in and listened.

"…two did to me!"

"Look, just calm down," Joe said. "All
this yelling is just going to bring a nurse in here."

Who was in the room with
him?

"Fine. Then I can tell her you're a
witch and you shoot dead people up with drugs so they'll come back
to life. And that guy you had in there with me? Where's he? You two
still making zombies together?"

I gave Daniel the same WTF look he
gave me. Who was this chick, and what was she talking about? She
was right that Joe shot corpses with drugs, but I sort of figured
he hadn't done that in a while, since it was Lex who had mixed the
juice for him. And Lex had long passed. The only reason he had done
that was to check to make sure they really were dead and their
souls just hadn't gotten lost on the Astral Plane.

Apparently some street—and
prescription— drugs caused out of body experiences. When taking a
walk on the wild side really meant taking a walk out of body, Joe
championed getting them back where they belonged before the Medical
Examiner drained them and cut them open for autopsy.

'Cause once that happens…sorry, no
going back in. Yick.

"He's fine. Well, he was fine. And
he's the one who healed you enough so you could fit back into your
body."

"Fit back in…" There was a crash of
something. "Joe Halloran, how long was I dead before you fucking
brought me back?"

Uh oh. Daniel looked at me with a
question and pointed at the door. I nodded. Time for an
interception.

Was that the right word?

No…intervention. Ah, right.

Daniel pushed the door open first and
stepped in—just in time to catch a knife in his chest.

"Shit!" Joe said, and was up off the
bed to grab the girl's wrists.

I was behind Daniel when he staggered.
I took him by the arm. "Daniel?"

"I'm okay. It's really not a big deal.
I fed earlier, and this is a small knife. She just…well, that was a
surprise, you know?" He righted himself and pulled the knife out. I
came around the front to take a look and saw where it went in. More
into his shoulder. And as I watched, the wound sealed itself
up.

That's my Revenant!

"Daniel, you got your cuffs?" Joe said
as he fought the girl

It was sort of a funny sight. Both of
them were in those backless hospital gowns. He was holding her back
with her wrists and she was trying to kick him, one foot at a
time.

Daniel came up behind her, and grabbed
her arms out of Joe's hands, and pinned them behind her.

That's when I saw her face and
recognized her. "Tamera…Moultrie?"

She turned to me at the sound of her
name. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Wow, she's got a mouth on her." I
looked at Joe. He looked one–hundred-percent better, if not a
little winded after fending off Miss Potty Mouth. "You
okay?"

"I'm good. I just…wow, who put her on
the same floor as me?"

"Dunno." I nodded to the bed. "Sit. I
think Daniel's got her under control."

"I asked you a fucking question, you
moron," Tamera said as she tried to strike Daniel by kicking
backward at him. "You this asswipe's whore?"

I slapped her. Sorry…but I wasn't in
the mood. And then I did something I didn't do on purpose very
often.

I shifted.

Right in front of her. I let my wings
unfurl and I hoped my hair did its crazy octopus dance.

It had more than the desired
effect.

She fainted.

Plop.

Daniel lifted her up, set her in a
chair, and covered her in a blanket. He put himself just behind her
in case she woke up and decided to attack someone again.

I pointed at her and glared at
Joe.

"It's really not a good time…." he
started.

"Uh-uh. You tell us now. And then we
tell you how our day went. What the fuck was she talking about?
What the hell was she talking about, fitting back into her body?
Who did you say was fine?"

He didn't make an affirmative sound
that time. Instead, he sat back on his hospital bed and rubbed at
his face. "Look…remember when I woke you up in the
morgue?"

"Like it was yesterday."

"Remember how I said she was my
informant on the shipment of magic stones, and someone slipped her
something?" He gestured to Tamera Moultrie. "She ended up in the
morgue, and I needed more information after Charlie was
killed."

Joe pushed himself up onto the bed. He
looked kinda cute with the spikier-than-usual hair and the
not-so-flattering gown. I noticed then how hairy his forearms were.
Was his chest hairy, too? I don't like hairy. I don't want grass on
my playground.

Whoa. Ignore that.

"Cops found her body in Virginia
Highland near Murphy's. Not a mark on her. So I snuck in to hit her
with Lex's juice, to find out if she was walking and could tell me
anything else."

"And she was?" Daniel
asked.

"Well, see…" Joe gave me a lopsided
grin. "There was this kid who walked into the morgue and caught me
in the act. Funny thing about him was, he had these two women with
swords protecting him."

"Dags!" I put my hands to my heart.
"That's how you met him? I didn't know that. I just knew you two
seemed friendly when you made him bring me coffee at the
hospital."

"That's how we met. But here's the
thing." He glanced at Daniel and then back at me, and then pointed
at Tamera. "She wasn't astral walking. She was dead. And that juice
of Lex's actually brought her back into her body. Only, rigor had
already set in."

Oh gross. "You brought a soul back
into an already decaying body?"