Dominion: Zoë Martinique Investigation, Book 6 (32 page)

Geist appeared as I struggled to right
myself. "Need a little help there? Can't do it all on your own, can
you? Not as strong as you thought you were?"

He reached down and offered me his
hand, but when I took it, it felt…warm. Too warm. And I knew for a
fact Geist, when corporeal, felt like a normal human. I also knew
he never used contractions. But him as Barry had used them on
several occasions. I got as far as my knees before I looked up into
Barry's face—

—
and I realized, too late,
this was
not
Geist.

It never had been.

His eyes glowed gold and
his smile creeped me the hell out. "I didn't believe Rhonda when
she said you'd come back here. And when you brought the witch? Even
better. But what I want to know is
why
you came back."

Zacharel.

I pulled my hand free and took two
steps back. I glanced up at the window I'd shattered. Rhonda stared
down at us, her arms crossed over her chest. If Zacharel was down
here…was he still in her Veil or was he all here? The answer was
important to me. "Hiding in her Veil still, Zach old bean?" I said
with a smile as I shifted back to Wraith. I felt Inanna surge
forward with me, and together we watched his reaction.

There was a slight one, a raising of
the brow. So he hadn't thought we'd figure it out.

"Smarter than I thought, Zoë, but
what's with the eyes? And the teeth? Is this more of your heritage
showing through? More of your mutt status?"

Mutt status?

Have you ever wondered why
there are mixtures of Abysmals and humans? Of Symbionts and humans?
But so very few mixtures of Ethereal and human? It's because we've
never thought of the Physical Plane and its beings as anything
other than kin in some way. Ethereals believe the mingling of the
two is…reprehensible, because it makes half-breeds.

Well, that's effed up.
They made Irins, Watchers, Giants, by bedding mortal women. What
the hell makes that different than what you do?

There was a dramatic pause,
and then,
Because the previous Seraphim
believed what her husband believed: that we're all equal and can
learn from another.

Wait…what?

Previous Seraphim?

Her?

Husband?

What. The.
Hell
?

"Zoë!"

That was Joe's voice. I guess he
finally registered the crash of glass upstairs. Shit, he was
running toward us. "Joe! Stay back! Rhonda's upstairs! And this—" I
nodded to the image of Barry's Evil Twin "—is Zacharel."

Joe stopped, and I saw him in my
peripheral vision look up at the window I'd fallen out of. Well,
more like sailed through. I didn't look to see if Rhonda was still
there. I was much more freaked out because this was a Dominion, and
even though Frejya claimed I now had the power of a First Choir, I
wasn't sold on it. The only power I'd ever had against a Dominion
was my Scream.

A filmy wall abruptly appeared between
Barry and me. He frowned and then sort of…squished up, twisted, and
dissolved. It reminded me of a morphing software.

Rhonda screamed.

I turned to look at Joe. He had his
hands up and they were glowing. "Joe…"

"She's in the house because I didn't
build it against human energy. Somehow the Dominion manifested
outside of the house and got you outside."

"Rhonda used her magic to shove me out
the window."

"Damn. I put a new ward over the house
with an addendum, so to speak. It shoved him back where he's
lodged."

"You mean he's back in Rhonda's Veil
and that's why she's screaming? Because your ward's putt'n the hurt
on him?"

"And her."

Several cars careened up the driveway
and threw gravel up as men and women in leather and carrying
weapons jumped out.

Powers.

Twelve of them.

Rhonda stumbled through the back door
and rolled down the steps. She righted herself, clutched at her
stomach, and started running to the Powers.

"Don't let her get past the barrier!"
Joe yelled.

Too late.

The moment Rhonda was past
Joe's new ward, Zacharel appeared. He no longer looked like Barry
Stephens. In fact, he looked exactly like he had at the club where
Manuel and I had fought him. Vanilla Ice in a white cassock. Ice
Ice Baby meets
The
Matrix
.

But this version was close to seven
feet tall. The Powers formed around him like some club-kid
poster.

"I don't get it," I said aloud. "What
the hell is going on? And what did you do with Geist?"

"What's going on is you have the
Eidolons I need. I really wanted the banishing one—the one Adiran
so stupidly gave you? But you let that one fall into the hands of a
Cherubim. Not a good idea, Zoëtrope."

I balled my hands into fists. I hated
being called that. And he totally ignored my question about
Geist.

"Too bad about your
friend—rumor has it Gabriel really did a number on him. Banished
that Abysmal trash right out of him. Heard he went apeshit and
tried to kill you." He smiled at me. "Your demon lover tried to
kill you. Now that's front page news for the Ethereal
Herald
—and a wise lesson
they should all learn, and will learn once I'm
Seraphim."

Ah ha! My dad was right. This nutter
wanted to be king.

I glanced over at Joe. He
had a similar face on—the one where he smirks a whole lot.
Inanna, can we fight them? I doubt he's going to
believe we don't have the Eidolons.

No. He won't believe you.
He can feel them…and so do I.

Whoa. I narrowed my eyes as
Zacharel sort of droned on about his idea of how the Ethereal
should be run.
Wait…you can feel
Eidolons?

Yes. All of us can. You
know this.

So where are
they?

In the house.

But we already looked in
the house.

Where did you
look?

I gave her a mental flash of what
Daniel and I had done and what occurred. This worked so much better
than having to retell the whole thing again.

I also sensed she was…very
happy.
Inanna?

We have to get rid of
these pieces of Ethereal trash. Now.

I agreed. I held up my hand. "Yo,
ass-hat. Look, we don't have a lot of time and I don't fucking care
what you think. I just want to know where Geist is."

My interrupting him did not go over
very well. He stopped his narcissistic diatribe, to which I was not
paying attention, and glared at me. His eyes glowed white and he
sort of grew a little. Like a blow-up doll.

Not that I know what those are like,
'kay?

"Things like you should not exist." It
sounded very…upset.

I looked past him, past the Powers
standing around looking all tough and gang-like, and focused on
Rhonda. She was there, standing behind the farthest car. If she was
here, then where was Dags? Joe saw the two of them disappear
together.

If she hurt one hair on his
head—

She would never harm him,
not on her own. But if she's being influenced by this
Dominion…

I didn't like the way that
sounded, but I understood. He might hurt Dags to get to the
Grimoire
. But then, I had
a lot of faith in a Familiar scorned.

And Maureen Lafferty had a lot to be
angry about.

"Get out of here," I said. "Now.
You're on private property."

"Give me what I want."

"I don't have what you
want."

"You had the Banishing Eidolon."
Zacharel shifted his gaze from me to Joe. "And I know he possesses
the Destruction Eidolon." He pointed at Joe. "Will you give it to
me? Or should I hurt your woman?"

Joe and I both looked confused. I
said, "His woman?" and he said, "My woman?" at the same
time.

I was thinking he was referring to
Rhonda since the two of them had been lovers once. But when he
pointed at me and fired his finger, I was both surprised he thought
I was Joe's and a bit shocked that whatever he'd hoped to
do—didn't.

I looked down at my bad Wraith-y self
and looked. No. No wounds. Didn't even hurt. When I looked at him,
ole Zacharel looked like he was going to have a coronary. Obviously
he was upset that whatever he'd attempted failed.

I smiled. "My turn."

Chapter Thirty-Four

Zacharel did not stay to experience my
vocal prowess. Instead, he disappeared, and the Powers charged at
us before I could get a good breath in. My sword manifested in my
hand, and I was whacking and hacking like old times. I thought it
was a bit weird he left his undead army behind to fight Joe and
me.

I realized why the moment one of the
Powers I hacked got back up and healed before my eyes. Oh fuck—the
bastard was using the Creation Eidolon to keep them alive just like
he had the Fetches.

Joe must've realized it at the same
time, because a ward went up around him and I. I moved closer to
him, and we stood back to back. "Creation Eidolon," he
said.

"Ya think?" I narrowed my eyes as I
watched Rhonda get in one of the cars. It backed out of the
property and drove away.

Bitch.

"Go search!"

We watched as half of the Powers broke
off and ran at the house. They bounced back when they hit Joe's
ward, and started hacking at it with their weapons. "I need to get
a good Scream in and blast that bastard."

"Actually, I don't know if that'll
work," Joe said. His voice sounded tight, and I noticed sweat on
his brow and his neck.

"You all right?"

"There's a lot of energy in this
ward—if I want to keep Doctor Ice and the Ice-ettes at bay over
there. The only reason I can is the same reason I don't think your
Scream will work on him."

"What you think he's using the Eidolon
on himself, too?"

"Yes, I do. Because I saw it around
Rhonda's neck. And he's anchored to her Veil—"

"Which means she's the
physical piece I'd need to Scream at." My shoulders slumped. If I
blasted Zacharel, then the power of it would impact Rhonda, no
matter where she was,
because
she was tethered to him.

Not that I really cared if it did hurt
her, but I was thinking of Joe's sensitivities.

Fuck sensitivity. I was sick of
this.

What held me back was that if I did
Scream Zacharel into oblivion, he'd just come right back. The
Eidolon would have to be removed. "There's got to be a way to get
them out of here so we can look for the Eidolons."

The other Powers stood back with their
weapons drawn, their attention focused on us.

"Zoë," Joe said, "look at the
tattoos."

I did.

I squeaked.

"Those are my dad's
markings!"

"Yeah, but not just his. Look over
there, that one's got a different mark. And the one in the back has
one I've never seen."

"These are all either stolen or
orphaned Powers." I remembered what my dad said about Zacharel and
his taking in Raz's remaining Powers. "They're all real tattoos.
These are all Raziel's Powers. Remember what my dad
said?"

Joe started breathing hard as he
answered. "Ah. Right."

I took a long look at Joe. Exhaustion
showed on his face again. He might be powerful, but he used it up
like a sun going supernova. Well, he'd used my energy before. Time
to juice him again. I put my right hand in his left. Immediately my
own energy increased, and I realized I was taking his
soul!

SHIT!

Wait—how had he used me before to
power up the wards?

I pulled my hand out of his and stared
in horror as he collapsed on the ground.

"That was really stupid," Zacharel
said as he turned to face me now that there was nothing between
us.

Yeah, it was. But I wasn't in the
mood. I brandished my sword, and the flames on it brightened.
Zacharel manifested his own sword, and I recognized it from the
club. The remaining Powers surrounded us as I yelled and charged
forward. He blocked easily, and then swung around and nearly took
my arm off. I took several steps back, my wings back-beating to
keep me balanced.

I stood and waited this time. Offense
wasn't going to work. I needed to be defense on this—

And as if he were reading my mind,
Zacharel swung his sword and came at me—and I mean came at me like
Bruce Lee! He swung, I blocked, he spun around, and I blocked that.
I ducked a two-handed swing and managed to land on my back, so then
I kicked at his shin with my bunny slipper. To my surprise, it
grabbed hold of his ankle with its whiskers and sunk its teeth into
Zacharel's lower calf.