Dominion: Zoë Martinique Investigation, Book 6 (3 page)

But that wasn't why I was starting to
lose it.

Not by a long shot.

"Zoë?" Nick leaned in close. "Honey,
talk to me. Do you know him?"

I was nodding before he even finished
asking.

"Is he the one who attacked you in the
park?" Carter asked.

I shook my head, and then I nodded. I
hadn't realized my cheeks were wet until Nick was shoving tissues
into the hand he'd been holding.

That man had attacked me, but not this
time. I looked directly into Nick's eyes, but couldn't speak. I
couldn't tell these people the truth of what else I'd seen in that
drawing. The stylized mark along the man's left cheek.

The mark of a Power.

And it wasn't that this rapist and
murderer had been recruited by a Virtue to fight.

It was that I remembered the
mark.

I'd stared at it that night as that
man ripped and tore me apart.

It was too much, and I felt
overwhelmed.

I'd been raped, and murdered, by a
Power, over ten years ago. And if what I'd learned was true, a
Virtue, a being of Ethereal essence had controlled that
Power.

The mark…was my dad's.

Chapter Four

I think…since that night…I
hadn't really stopped to consider everything that'd happened to me.
The years I spent using my ability to slip out of my body seemed
like happy ones. The years before then were…more of a blur. I
didn't know back then that my mom had placed a spell on me. Hell, I
didn't even know she was a witch. At the age of twelve, I was using
a different first letter to go with the –
itch
part.

She'd done this to keep me hidden from
others—namely her own uncle, Domas.

I believe she knew my dad was dead
when they made love the night they conceived me. I also believe she
loved him, and wanted to give him the child he'd always wanted. And
she had.

Me.

But when he disappeared, when he left
on my fourth birthday and never came back, I think it broke her
heart more than it broke my own. The realization that he'd chosen
his new life over her. And me.

And then it became her obsession to
keep me away from them.

Until that night.

I'd lived in what I believed was
relative obscurity until the night I witnessed TC murder William
Tanaka. The First Born—an unknown entity to me at that time—had
changed me.

And I had changed him.

All that time, the Society had their
little puppet watching me.

Rhonda Orly.

She'd betrayed me then, and then she'd
betrayed me again after I forgave her, and taken the man I loved
with no thought to my feelings. Or his.

None of this prepared me
for the nausea, the sheer anger and hatred that pulsed through ever
fiber of
what the hell
I was experiencing at that moment when I realized the
disgusting betrayal of my own father.

This was worse than locking me in that
damn egg.

He'd sacrificed my soul on the altar
of his selfishness. He'd used one of his Powers…to rape and kill
his own daughter?

"Zoë?"

"Miss Martinique?"

Nick's voice. Constable Carter's
voice. They were all background noise mingling with the hum of
energy around me. I was close…so close to shifting. To exposing
what I really was at that moment. To break out and hunt down that
bastard in the Ethereal Plane. And when I found him, I
would—

"Ow!"

I grabbed at my upper arm and
refocused on Nick. He'd pinched me!

Not. Now.

!!!

I
heard
him in my head. Or I was hoping
it was him. It sounded like him. All I did was glare until he
reached up and reminded me of the tissues I'd been clutching in my
hand. I wiped my face and stared at him. I didn't nod, but he knew
I got it.

No Wraithing out. Not now.

Constable Carter cleared his throat.
"Miss Martinique—was this or wasn't this the man who attacked
you?"

I took in a deep breath before I
answered him. "I never saw his face. So, I don't know if that's
him."

"But joo have see him
before,
oui
?" Mae
said as she took the piece of paper back from me. I'd nearly
crumbled into a paper wad. She straightened it out on her
lap.

Do I tell them? The truth? Did they
already know about my own rape? It'd been easy for Daniel and
Detective Joe Halloran to find the report—why not these guys? They
knew about my mom, and about the Society. Funny they didn't bring
up the fact she'd been a burlesque dancer. They usually loved
that.

Nick turned and looked at the doctor.
"Doctor Bergeron, is it possible to have the constables seen out?
I'm sure they can continue their investigations at another time? My
fiancé is obviously upset, and it is my opinion that her health is
much more important than their case at the moment."

A sly smile pulled at the doctor's
lips and he stepped back. "Constables, I must ask you to leave, and
conduct your business at a later time."

"I'm afraid you have no authority,"
Carter said, and stepped closer to the bed. "It's obvious Miss
Martinique has seen this man. And I intend to find out
where."

I'd only seen Nick in action a handful
of times. As a Ghoul, he possessed a lot of strengths and a few
powers given to him by Mephistopheles' Abysmal blood. He winked at
me before he stood and got in Carter's face. I mean they were
face-to-face. And Nick wasn't a small man.

Carter was pretty tall,
too.

Nothing was said, and Mae
finally stood. She came to her partner's shoulder, which meant
she'd be shorter than me. She looked from Nick to Carter and then
back again. "
Qu'est-ce qui se
passe
?"

Carter stepped back and looked at Mae.
He had a slight dreamy quality to his stare, but other than that he
seemed fine. "Nothing, Mae. We can come back later." He nodded to
the doctor and left the room.

Mae gave Nick a wide berth as she
picked up her case and followed her partner.

Doctor Bergeron gave a soft
chuckle as he stepped up to the bed. "I have been waiting on
someone to do that to that damn prick for three years. Ever since
he made constable, he's been a horse's ass." He smiled then. "Ms.
Martinique, you 'ave no visible bruising or marks on your body.
Luckily, the man they are looking for didn't get to joo. Or my
colleague
Monsieur
Lambert would be examining joo. But…" He checked the folder
he'd kept tucked into the crook of his arm. "Your blood is
dangerously anemic. Have you suffered any drastic blood loss
recently?"

I shook my head, dismissing Daniel's
little version of a pop and drop with my veins. Usually I don't lie
very well. But I was mad beyond my own ability to control. "No. I'm
anemic."

"
Oui
. You 'ave a pre-existing
condition. I would like for you to stay another twenty-four hours
so that we can stabilize—"

"No." I shook my head and sat up as I
yanked the heart monitor off my finger and started to remove the
tape from my arm where the IV was held in place. "I want to leave.
Now."

"Wait, wait, wait." The doctor reached
out and grabbed my wrist. "Please allow me to call a nurse so that
you can be properly discharged?"

I agreed. I was pretty used to taking
tubes out of my arms, but I liked this Bergeron. After he left to
find a nurse, I pulled my knees up into my chest to and wrapped my
skinny-ass arms around them. I wasn't holding it together very
well.

Nick sat down beside me again and held
me. All of me. He waited while I had myself a good old-fashioned
cry. At some point during my tirade, the nurse came in and shut the
machines off, removed the IV, and placed a Band-Aid over the little
hole.

I'd had the ugly-cry so I knew I
looked bad. Swollen eyes, lips, face. I started
hiccupping.

Great.

Nick never asked me what it was I'd
seen, or why I was so upset. Not while I had my pity-party or even
while I dressed in the clothes he'd brought me, although he had
turned away to give me privacy. I didn't want him to leave. I
didn't want to be alone in that room.

Finally, when I had on the jeans,
sweater, boots, and jacket—although sans underwear 'cause I just
didn't want any—I folded the bag up. "Nick…"

He turned and gave me a slight bow. So
very…adorable. "Zoë." He came near and looked me up and down. "The
Old Man's getting good at picking sizes."

"I didn't know you were calling
Mephistopheles that now." Old Man was the name Jason, the First
Born's host, usually called him.

"Seems fitting, I think. I like Jason.
He was a good choice." He frowned. "What was it in that picture
that frightened you so badly, Zoë? You did recognize him, but you
and I know you were in that park because of Daniel, not the man in
that picture."

"
We
were in that park because of a
trio of Powers that attacked us," I said in Daniel's defense. I'd
noted the slight hint of resentment in Nick's voice. Which was new.
"Daniel was wounded and lost blood. He had to heal."

"Then it's true—he did drink from
you." Nick lowered his shoulders. "We thought Azrael was wrong. We
hoped he was."

I knew what he was hinting at. I'd had
the same worry when he'd needed blood. Even Inanna had doubts at
the time. "Did it change him? Do you know for sure? I wasn't
sure…about him drinking from me. Mephistopheles had said once that
my blood was different, like Dags's—" I stopped. Damn it. Why was
it that saying his name was still so damn painful? I took in a
quick breath. "But I've fed Jason before with no side
effects."

Nick seemed to understand. "True, but
the First Borns are pretty sure your blood's properties have been
altered since your physical stay in the Abysmal Plane. Jason's body
is already well advanced into the state of Revenant, but Daniel's
body isn't, and with Inanna present inside of his very DNA,
Mephistopheles is certain if he drank, then it had worked some sort
of change. Inanna's not answering any of the First Borns' calls.
And Daniel hasn't been seen."

Without a brush, I didn't have a way
to untangle my hair. And I needed something physical to do besides
pace. I started running my fingers through it so I could somehow
braid it back from my face. "How did you know where to
come?"

"Azrael and Geist contacted Nona. All
they said at first was you'd been attacked by Powers and needed
help. Then, while on the plane, I got the message from Jason that
there was a possibility Daniel drank from you." He came closer and,
to my surprise, produced a brush from his coat. "Let me do that. I
used to…brush Romina's hair. And I can braid."

Romina. The host Mephistopheles had
bonded with when Nickolas fell in love.

"Where's Jason?" I sat on the bed as
he brushed my hair and deftly got out some of the snarls my mom
loved to complain about. "Did you come alone?"

"Manuel is here—he's investigating the
park where you were attacked. A Dominion was traced to this area.
Jason is…recuperating"

I turned abruptly, Nick pulling my
hair. "Recuperating? What happened? Is he okay?"

"He and Umayma will be
okay—"

"Umayma? What the hell
happened?"

Nick pursed his lips and lowered his
arms. I turned to face him, my hair half braided.

"Zoë…Rhonda attacked Manuel. Jason
took Dags off the Society grounds and Manuel intervened to keep
Rhonda occupied. But then she—it—the Dominion that's Shadowing
her—locked Morgan's soul in one of those Soul Cages—"

I held up my hand, my brain unable to
process any of this. "Whoa…start over. Rhonda is being Shadowed by
a Dominion? Shadowed? You mean possessed?"

"No. Shadowed."

"Not the same thing?"

"In this case, no." He licked his
lips. "Manuel and Morgan sensed it. It's not inside of her, per se,
but it's hovering over her. Joe and Nona suspect it's hiding in her
Orbital Veil."

I knew what that was.
Rhonda had copied the spell to access her own Veil from the
Grimoire
before she'd
fused it to Dags's soul. "Yeah, that's that pocket of space she
makes things disappear in. How did a Dominion get in there? I
didn't even know it was possible."

Nick shifted. He looked
uncomfortable.

"What is it?"

"The Dominion that's there is the one
you and Manuel fought after Christmas. The one called
Zacharel."

"What?" Any tears I had left
evaporated. I sat straight up and felt like I'd missed a shitload
of episodes. "But—he was locked in the dungeon, wasn't he? I didn't
think Ethereal possessed human bodies."