Dominion: Zoë Martinique Investigation, Book 6 (29 page)

"Like…" I leaned toward
her.

"Well, for starters, we'd have to get
into the book and put the page in at the front. And two…we'd have
to have a page of the book to write the spell on."

"Get into it…you mean, open it
up?"

"Yes, and I know Rhonda's never going
to agree to open it up so we can undo what she did."

"Opening it up isn't a problem.
Maureen can do that. She did it before, and took parts out when she
was killing Revenants."

Inanna's eyes widened. "That's right.
So she knows how."

"Do you know how to disconnect
her?"

"Her? Who? Maureen? You mean
disconnect her from Dags?"

"Yeah, 'cause she might ask for that.
If I remember Maureen well, she never wanted to be a part of him to
begin with." And I'd be a lot happier if I knew one of his former
girlfriends wasn't, like…up in him.

"I don't know. I'd have to see how the
spell worked to create the Familiars. I can't promise
anything."

"Just be ready. I think we can do
that…but I have no idea how to get a page from the
book."

"Exactly. And once again, Rhonda would
never help us."

"Fuck Rhonda," I said, and stood up.
"I really don't give a shit what happens to her at this point. I
mean…you do realize she had to have been the one to lower the wards
on the house, like Joe said."

"I know, Zoë." She stood and moved
over to the bed. "Does this mean you're going to stop moping, and
try to heal?"

I stopped pacing—not really realizing
I was pacing—and faced her. I chewed on my lower lip. "Inanna, what
if…what if I screw up…and someone else gets hurt? What happened to
Daniel was my fault—"

She rushed me at that moment, becoming
nothing more than a golden light. I froze as I felt the light wrap
itself around me, enfolding me, hugging me…the way my mom used to
when I was a little girl.

The way she did that night when Daddy
didn't come home and she started letting me sleep with
her.

I am with you, Zoë. And I was a part
of all of my hosts. Please…look inside. Not from the surface…but
let yourself feel Daniel the way I did. See him the way Nick sees
Romina through Mephistopheles. Please… he left you something even I
cannot see….

I couldn't stop myself if I wanted to.
The golden light became him and we were entwined with one another.
I could smell his aftershave, hear his laughter in my ears, and
feel the warmth of his skin against mine. It was if we were the
only creatures in the universe.

And all I could think about was how
sorry I was that I'd abandoned him.

"But you didn't,"
he said inside of me, against me, behind me, above
me—he was all of me.
"I abandoned you.
This is not a memory Inanna is creating. This is my message to you,
Zoëtrope. I always knew that raging part of me that wanted to
destroy you was just beneath the surface. And I never…never wanted
it to hurt you again. I was willing to love you from a distance. I
only regret we never made love, so keep this memory of me with you,
and know that I do not regret a single moment with you. I love you,
Zoë. And I want you to be happy."

I felt him move even deeper inside of
me and settle inside of my heart. I knew at that moment he would
never leave me. And that he was happy. And I was not
alone.

"It's…like a locket…inside of my
heart," I heard myself say.

The heart monitor came into focus as I
opened my eyes and I turned my head to see the brilliant ghostly
Shade of Eshe smiling down at me. She was still standing where
she'd always been. In the hospital room, at my side.

When she faded away I took a deep
breath inside the body in the bed. "Owww…."

Chapter Thirty

I was not in good shape. That
motherfucking Dominion had done a damn number on me, and then me
running through the woods and being beaten by a crazy
man….

Okay, not thinking about that. I had
Daniel where I wanted him in my heart, and I had a plan now. It
wasn't a fully formed one, but it was better than nothing. There
were three parts:

Get the hell out of the hospital, get
Dags back from Zacharel, and put the reboot page in the
book.

Mmhm. Chipper.

And as odd as it sounded, the hardest
part of that was going to be getting out of the hospital. I was
probably in the worst physical shape since…well, getting out of the
Abysmal Throne.

"You look terrible."

Barry Stephens appeared by the bed
where Eshe had been.

Geist.

"Yeah, well…" I shifted my head, and
it hurt. "I got in a fight with a Dominion."

"I heard." He tilted his head to the
right as he walked around the bed and looked at the foot. Then he
went to the door and opened it to pull my chart out of a wall slot.
He came back inside, flipping through it. "Concussion, cracked jaw,
cracked collarbone, broken left femur, three broken ribs, broken
ankle…"

Damn!

I didn't feel any of that…but then
again, I did have two drips feeding in through two
tubes.

"I do not believe you will be moving
soon." He waved his hand and the clipboard disappeared. I frowned
at that. Had Geist always been able to manipulate the Physical
Plane before? Maybe this was a new thing, or I just wasn't
remembering it right.

"Not unless I spontaneously heal." I
looked at him. He looked thoughtful. "You seen Joe?"

"He is downstairs. Recently released
from jail. He made bail."

Yay. He was going to be in a good
mood.

Something twisted deep inside of my
gut, followed by the most serious stomach growl I'd ever heard. "I
need food."

"I do not think solid food is on your
doctor's menu."

"Geist…" More growls. Yikes. "Why are
you here? I hope it's not to gloat?"

"No. I was thinking of the situation
as it stands now. You must do something to retrieve the
Guardian."

"Duh? Tell me something I
don't know. I'm a little idea-broke at the moment." I tried to
shift, and moved my shoulder. Owch!
Hey,
Inanna, how do Revenants usually recover from shit like
this?

No answer.

Inanna?

She was just here….

"Zoë." Geist put his hands
on the railing. "Do you think the Guardian would give up the
Grimoire
if you were in
trouble? If he knew you were in such bad shape? Or possibly
dying?"

I made a rude noise. "No. Sorry,
Geist. You of all people should know he's not that into me anymore.
He'd be more willing, I think, if Rhonda were in dire straits." I
watched him for a minute. "By the way, what the hell kind of
question is that? You want me to be in worse shape than what you
just rattled off?"

"No. I do not. I am simply attempting
to find a way to facilitate your finding the Guardian."

Mmhm… "Well, that's the
sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. Unfortunately, they took my
Eidolon. Gabriel did."

Geist's expression shifted into one of
that looked like anger and a bit of surprise. "She did?"

"Yeah. Got the Banishing stone. Zach
and his posse got the Creation one. Joe's got the Destruction
stone, and we have no idea where the other two are."

"I was not aware of that. I believed
they were in the Society House."

"No, not there."

"With Nona?"

"No, she doesn't have them, either.
Which is why she is in the hospital. We're not doing too good,
Geist. We're zero for two right now. I'm not sure how this is going
to get fixed." That pain came again, and I actually doubled up on
the bed which just triggered all kinds of hell all over my body.
IVs be damned, this hurt! I was starving. And it was a pretty
painful hunger.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah…why do you ask?"

"Because twice now you have shifted
from human to Wraith and back again. So I repeat, are you all
right?"

"I…I don't know." And there it was
again. This stabbing, awful, worse-than-a-period-cramp pain in my
gut. It felt kind of like hunger, but it was twenty-million times
worse. "Oh hell…I think something's wrong…"

"Perhaps I should get—"

But that was all I heard before I was
in the air and shifted. It was that fast. I hovered there, my claws
and bunny slippers out, but then I doubled over again and wrapped
my arms around my middle. Oh geez, this was fucking awful. But I
couldn't tell if the pain wracking my body was from hunger, or me
just throwing caution to the wind by shifting and moving with that
list of injuries Geist read off.

"You…" Geist's eyes were wide…again.
"You have a First Born…"

"Yeah, tell me about it—" Oh fuckin'
shit. That's right. Oh no…was that why I was so hungry? Was it the
Revenant part of me? Was it making not-nice with the Wraith part of
me? Was that why Inanna wasn't answering me?

Geist vanished the second the door
opened. I looked in that direction and saw Joe standing there, door
open, his eyes as big as goose eggs and his jaw open.

We stared at each other for a full
beat before he hissed, "Get down from up there! You're
hurt!"

"I'm hungry," I hissed back, but I did
lower myself to the bed. My wings folded on my back and then
vanished, but I didn't shift back to human. Oh no…I could see my
angry bunny slippers as I folded my legs under me and held my
stomach. "Oh, damn, I'm hungry. I need a burger or fries or
something…."

Joe shut the door and hesitantly came
closer. "Zoë, you need to un-Wraith, like, right now. If one of the
nurses comes in here and sees you like that—"

"Don't you think I know that?" I
hissed. Only it all sort of ran together. I was freaking out,
stressing out, and totally not happy.

The door opened again, and this time
Umayma and Jason stepped in. When they saw me, both of them did
what I'd call a Revenant-Out moment. Black eyes, slightly different
look, and, well…teeth.

"Get down this instant!" Umayma hissed
up at me, her voice dripping with that of the First Born
Freyja.

Jason moved to stand in
front of Joe as Mephistopheles spoke directly to me.
This was why we would never have agreed to such a
union.

What do you mean? Was
there a committee I didn't know about?

She bonded with you—made
you her First—we knew it the moment it happened, Zoë. And now
Inanna has powers we can't imagine, because no one has ever
thoroughly tested you.

That made me sound like a brood mare,
didn't it?

"Joe," Frejya/Umayma began. "Have you
heard Inanna filter through as I am coming through Umayma? Has she
taken control?"

"No. I just got here. Guys, what's
going on? Why does she look like that?"

"It's the combination of Wraith and
First Born," Mephistopheles/Jason said. "She's hungry. Very hungry.
I can sense it from here."

"Look, you all just need to get out of
my way." I heard myself speaking, but I didn't remember actually
preparing that threat. I was thinking it, yeah. Was that Inanna?
Hello? Are you in there?

It's…very difficult… came a small but
familiar voice.

How so? You were in
control in the park.

That was so brief…and I was still tied
to Daniel. But now it's so…overwhelming. My sorrow, plus your own…
Zoë…how do you live like this?

I felt even more exposed
than usual.
Inanna, what are they talking
about not agreeing to this?

"I'm afraid you have to come with us
to the Society House. There is a facility there to contain you and
to rectify this situation," Freyja/Umayma said.

"Rectify what?" Joe looked very
confused.

He didn't know! Of course
he
didn't know!

I needed to eat…but the truth was, I
didn't know what that would be. Was it my Wraith that wanted to
snack on a soul…or was it the Revenant that wanted a taste of human
blood? Both of them sounded like a lobster-with-butter dinner at
that moment. Mm….with a Sara Lee coconut cake for
desert….

Inanna's voice was small and very weak
but what she told me was… "NO FUCKING WAY!" I blurted out at
near-Scream capacity.

Everyone held their ears,
and Umayma pointed at me and then looked at Jason. "Do you see? She
cannot be allowed to have that kind of power. She's
always—
always
—been
the one to choose her hosts based on their ability to give her
strength. But this is the first time she's found one that has a
power she can manipulate." She took a step toward Jason. "You can't
really believe she tried to stop Daniel's young soul from feeding
off of a Wraith! She probably goaded him to do it!"

"That's a lie!"
Whoa…tone it down there, Wraith-pire.
I caught sight of Joe just behind Jason, and he
had his hands smashed against his head. Of all the people in the
world I didn't want to hurt, Joe was number one. I pointed at
Umayma. "I was there. I heard Inanna telling me to run, forbidding
me to allow Daniel to drink from me. It was my idea, not
Inanna's—and regardless of that, what you plan on doing is
despicable and I will not allow it."