Soul Cage (11 page)

"Well?"

"I'm working on
it."

"Why can't we just break
it?"

"No."

"You said Zoë broke
it."

"Look," Joe said as he
examined the base structure with his magic. "This thing is a work
of magical prowess. It's not just a statue. And inside isn't just
the usual empty space. Behind its facade rests an infinitesimal
universe of inter dimensional—"

Azriel grabbed the dragon
and dashed it against the closet frame. It smashed into several
large pieces.

The floor shook beneath
and Joe fell over on his backside. He and Azrael looked at one
another with wide eyes as the House alarms sounded.

The Phantasm held up his
right index finger. "I did
not
do that."

"You did
something
," he looked
down at the pieces and then felt another shake to the floor, half
expecting the thing to reform but it didn't. "Come on—I don't think
this has anything to do with the dragon."

The two of them ran out of
Rhonda's room and hurried down the stairs to the main lobby.
Employees and emergency teams moved back and forth, in and out of
the front door as the large chandelier swayed overhead. Joe grabbed
hold of one of the women. "What's happening?"

"Explosion below," she
said, breathless.

He noticed her face was
cut and she was covered in what looked like dry wall dust. She was
also wearing scrubs. "Oh fuck…in the medical wing?"

"Yes. We're working on
getting as many out as possible."

He let her go as someone
touched his own arm. It was Tel, one of the Revenants. He'd been
posted outside of Dags' room. He was disheveled and bleeding from
several cuts on his face. "Tel—what happened?"

But it was Loki, his First
Born that answered. "We heard a rumbling…and then the door to
Morgan's room blew outward into the hall. We moved out of its way
just before the door to Dags' room exploded out. I'm afraid Tel and
I were pulled away before we could get a good look at what
happened."

Dags' room? Joe looked at
Azrael who immediately vanished.

Fuck…fuckfuckfuck!
He didn't think about it this time…nor did he
care as he summoned that old familiar power that rested deep inside
of his chest. He ran to the stairwell, the one that lead down to
the lower floors. It was a good guess the elevator was out. People
poured out of the stairway as he waited impatiently, then dove into
the smoke, unconsciously setting up a barrier around himself to
keep the smoke out of his own lungs.

On the way down he rubbed
his hands together, wishing all the while on how to get everyone
out alive.

And how to stop whatever
was happening—from happening.

But the answer didn't come
to him as the stairs ended and he ran out into the medical
corridor. Smoke obscured everything so he had to go on memory. The
elevator would be to his right, Dags' room across the hall to the
left. He held out his right hand and a light appeared a few inches
away. "Nona! Jason?" he called out.

"Here!" came a voice in
the smoke, though he didn't recognize it.

Joe moved cautiously
forward, his other hand out to find the wall. It was hot to the
touch as he moved along it, using it as a guide. He found the
doorframe and peered around inside.

The room was surprisingly
clear of smoke—but that wasn't what made his jaw drop.

What he saw
did.

Rhonda stood in the center
of the room, debris suspended in mid air around her, her hands
raised upward. Standing to the right of her was Nona, her hands out
as well. Neither of them moved. It looked like a magical duel, but
both combatants had been frozen in mid-fire. Nona firing off a blue
white electrical string of energy at Rhonda, and Rhonda matching
with a red and black one.

"Looks like Obi-Wan verses
the Sith," Joe tried to wrap his head around what he was
seeing.

Jason lay on his right
side, facing the other wall, unmoving. But Joe could see blood
under him and on the back of his shirt. Umayma lay on the floor
just past him, also unmoving.

And Dags—

Well, that's what had Joe
a bit flummoxed.

Dags was on his knees in
the bed, dressed in just a pair of scrubs. Both of his hands were
up and light shot out of his palms. If Joe had to figure out the
scene, he'd think Dags was holding Nona and Rhonda in a battle snow
globe.

"I can't hold them
forever, Detective," Dags said, only it didn't really sound like
Dags. There was a strange echo in the voice that reminded him of
how a Revenant sounded when their First Born took control. "Do…what
I say to do. Use the physical plane as a stabilizing
force—basically freeze the molecules around them."

Joe understood the
direction—what his grandmother had once called basic Magical
physics used in order to stop time. Of course time wasn't really
stopped—it was more or less on pause.

The magical already
summoned, Joe dismissed the light and redirected his attention on
exactly what Dags said to do. His arms grew immediately heavier and
he broke out into a sweat. "Got it," he said through gritted teeth.
"Now what."

Dags lowered his arms and
stumbled off the bed. He landed on his knees but managed to pick
himself up. "Hold them…Detective…"

Detective…why is he
calling me by my rank?
"Dags…what the
hell…is going on…"

"Not Dags," he said in
that odd voice as he stumbled over to Nona and Rhonda. He stood
just outside the stillness Joe maintained and stared at Nona. Then
he looked at Rhonda before he half turned to look at Joe. "Listen
to me."

Perspiration rolled down
Joe's forehead and into his eyes. It moved down his back as his
arms shook. He held onto a turbine blade, preventing it from
spinning, but the blades were slicing into his hands. Pain began as
a slow throb, but it was getting louder.

Dags spoke again in that
odd voice. "I can't let either of them die, Detective. Rhonda's
jealousy will be her own undoing, but right now, it's a window into
her power and something is using this. Nona suspects this—tell her
she's right. If you let go, Nona will die. Rhonda's power is far
stronger because of what is working through that
portal."

Joe frowned. "You mean…are
you saying Rhonda's possessed?"
Come on,
you can keep hold.
"I think…I think my
grip's slipping."

"Only a second, Detective.
Your power is the strongest of all, and yet you don't exercise it.
You'll have to summon Zoë back and work with Nona. It's the only
way you can destroy their power." He turned back to the stilled
combatants. "I'm going to work at keeping the
Grimoire
safe. Find us as soon as
you can."

"Wait…who are you if…if
you're not Dags?"

Dags said in a soft voice,
"Tell Nona she read the message right. Tell her Maureen says hi,"
and with that he ran forward into the stilled debris around Rhonda
and embraced her.

The turbine under Joe's
control exploded and he slammed against the wall behind him just
before the room went dark.

-11-

"Hey…" came a familiar
voice in that darkness. "I think he's waking up."

"Manuel?" Joe opened his
eyes.

The Revenant grinned back
at him. "Yeah…it's me. With Morgan. Whoa, take it easy. We're still
cleaning up the mess."

Mess was right. Joe pushed
himself up on his elbows to look around. He was on a gurney, low to
the ground, an IV stuck into his arm. Manuel was kneeling beside
him, dressed in set of pajamas as an army of ten or so men and
women in brown coveralls cleaned up.

Joe looked past them to
the other side of the room. Jason and Umayma were gone. So were
Rhonda and Dags. "Where's—"

"Joe?"

Nona hurried toward him
from the door and with Manuel's help, knelt down as well. She had a
band aid on her left temple and a smudge or two of something dark
on her face. Otherwise she looked fine.

"Nona what—"

"Shh," she put a hand on
his arm. "Just rest. You expended a lot more power than you're used
to, young man. I think your power might rival my own."

"But—where are Jason and
Umayma—hell where's Rhonda and Dags?"

She pursed her lips.
"Jason and Umayma are resting in main infirmary. I'm afraid Rhonda
used a bit of arcane on them, something she apparently swiped from
the
Grimoire
. But
they'll recover. As for Dags and Rhonda," Nona licked her lips. "I
was hoping you could tell me."

"No…" he shook his head.
He retold what he could remember of what he'd seen, and what Dags
said. "But I need you to tell me what was going on before I got
here?"

"I was letting her see
Dags like you wanted. But Dags wouldn't talk to her—in fact he
seemed angry. Rhonda got angry and accused us of turning him
against her," she sighed. "That's when she flipped out. Zapped
Jason and Umayma immediately and then came after me. I was about to
blast her ass into the wall when everything went dark and I woke up
on the floor with Lilly over me. They found you against the wall
and Rhonda and Dags gone."

Joe rubbed at his head
then ran his fingers through his hair. He felt the dust and debris
buried in it. "Where's Azrael? He was with me when we found the
dragon," he looked at Nona. "Are there more than one of those
ceramic nightmares?"

"I suppose. Truth is, I
don't ever remember putting it back in my house till you mentioned
it."

Okay that was fucking
weird. "I assume it freed Morgan?"

"Yes," Manuel
said.

"And no
Azrael?"

Nona shook her head. "No,
we haven't seen him."

Joe went back over what
Dags said to him. "Nona…I don't think that was Dags you were
talking to." He refocused on her. "It was Maureen."

"I know," Nona nodded. "I
mean I know now, I just wasn't sure before."

"Just before he went to
Rhonda he said I needed to summon Zoë home and work with you. And
then he said to tell you that Maureen said hi."

"She did it," Nona smiled
at Manuel. "Maureen broke through and took control. Which could
explain why Rhonda couldn't get back into the
Grimoire
. Manuel, tell Joe what
happened to you."

Joe looked at the young
man. "Was it Rhonda?"

"Yeah. She was in the
archive, and Mephistopheles said to keep her busy while they got
Dags off the grounds. I did, and then she came at me." He made a
face. "Only I didn't see Rhonda just before everything went dark. I
saw
him
."

"Him?"

"Zacharel. The Dominion
Zoë and I confronted at the club. He was there in the room with us
when she attacked."

Joe looked at Nona. "I
thought he was in holding."

"Not anymore. Apparently
what we were watching on the monitors was a shell that'd been
abandoned and left sitting there. It's dead."

"And the Dominion—" he
searched Manuel's face. "You think it's possessing
Rhonda."

"I think it's
with
her, but not
possessing her." Manuel said. "And if he is, and Dags is wherever
Rhonda is…"

Joe groaned softly as the
reality of what'd happened hit him. "Then
they
have the
Grimoire
."

-----------

To be continued in the next
Zoë Martinique Investigations, book 6. 

About The Author

Phaedra Weldon is a writer and mother
of one. Born in Pensacola, Florida, Phaedra was raised in the lush,
green southern tropic of Georgia. She grew up on southern ghost
stories told while eating marshmallows around campfires, or on the
back of pick-up trucks in the middle of cornfields on chilly
October nights. She worked as a Graphic Artist for over twenty
years in the publishing and sign industries until she became a full
time writer in 2009. Phaedra currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia
with her husband and daughter.

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