Dominion: Zoë Martinique Investigation, Book 6 (4 page)

"Dungeon?" Nick laughed softly. "Yes.
He was in the brig, but just the shell. Dominions can possess
bodies when they want to touch the physical or when they need to
physically interact. To manifest takes a lot of energy. He'd
slipped out of that body after he was held there—"

"And slipped into her Veil." Being
possessed absolves the possessed victim of responsibility—as with
Daniel. I couldn't blame him for the deaths he'd caused because of
my Horror. "So…this Dominion used her to attack a Revenant? And not
just any Revenant—but the one that helped defeat him in that
club?"

"Yes. Joe and Azrael figured out where
he'd put Morgan."

Something he said finally flagged.
"You said Soul Cage—you mean that stone dragon statue Mom
had?"

"The very one."

"But I broke it. I broke it to let
Steve and Tim out."

"Joe remembered that. But it was in
one piece again, back in Nona's house the whole time you were in
the Abysmal Plane. No one could remember how it got back. But
Rhonda took it and used it to actually lock a First Born
inside."

"Joe broke it?"

"Azrael did."

"And Manuel and Morgan are
okay?"

"Yeah…"

I watched him, and frowned. "So why
are Jason and Umayma recovering?"

He stood abruptly and canted his head
to the left. His eyes took on that distant look, and I knew he was
talking to…someone else. Mephistopheles, maybe? Was it possible to
talk at such a distance to a First Born? We were in Canada and
Jason was in Georgia.

I stood, too—testing the waters. The
room didn't spin, but lead weighed down my muscles. I felt as
though I could sleep another week. "What is it?"

"Manuel's finished. We need to
go."

Ah. Morgan, not
Mephistopheles.

"Hey, you have to tell me about
Jason—"

"And you have to tell me about the
sketch the police showed you. But, I believe it's best we speak
somewhere else. Preferably on the plane."

Plane? I followed him, feeling a bit
light-headed. Damn, Danny-Boy—how much did you take?

Nick noticed—or maybe he already knew
how I felt since he was Jason's blood-doll in emergencies—and kept
his arm out for me to steady myself on. We walked through the
hospital—and it looked and felt pretty much like the hospitals in
the states.

Except I heard more French than
English. Having been in most of the hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia,
and their trauma units, I'd grown used to the slang and yelling so
common in the emergency rooms of the city's most popular hospitals.
Hell, for all I know, I was hearing the same kind of language
here.

But it sounded nicer.

Tiny crystals of ice stung my face
when we stepped outside. Bitter cold compared to the warmth of
inside. I wasn't prepared. A limo waited. Nick bundled me inside
and pulled a blanket up over my legs once the door was shut. The
driver pulled into evening traffic as Nick flipped open a side door
to reveal an electric kettle and coffee mugs. He poured hot milk
from the kettle and then chocolate syrup into a mug, and after
stirring, handed it to me. "It's not a hamburger, but it'll keep
you warm and going 'til we get on the plane. Then we can get you a
hamburger."

I took the mug's handle and blinked at
him. "Nick, can you hear me? Hear my thoughts without
Mephistopheles around?"

"Sometimes. Other times its
garbled. As if you have an echo in there—" and he touched my left
temple. "Zoë, what was it about the picture that upset you? If the
police
here
have a
sketch of someone that upset you—I see him as a threat."

I sipped the hot chocolate. It burned
my tongue, but chocolately goodness made up for it. I reached over
and opened the fridge. Small one-pint boxes of milk sat in a row in
the door and I grabbed one, opened it, and poured some into the mug
to cool it down. Nick waited patiently as I put the milk back and
then sighed. Yeah, I was stalling.

I didn't want to admit it. Not to
anyone but myself.

"Nick…you know I was raped,
right?"

"Yes."

"That was the man who raped
me."

"The one in Piedmont Park?" Nick
sounded surprised.

I searched his face. "Nick, what is
it? Why do you keep asking me about that picture?"

He leaned over and pulled a
briefcase from a compartment between us. He opened it and pulled
out a folder, but hesitated before he gave it to me. "Zoë, Joe gave
Jason this before you and Daniel left for Canada. It's a composite
sketch made from the only survivor of a rape attack near Piedmont
Park. She and her boyfriend were walking home late. He was killed.
She was also stabbed. The police have kept her survival a secret to
protect her." He handed me the folder. "There hasn't been another
attack since then. When I saw
their
sketch—" He sighed. "I knew it was
him."

I took the folder and set the mug down
in a holder to my right. The same man's face stared back at me. The
markings were there—the facial tattoo. The sketch style was
different. Different artist. But it was him. "What attack in
Piedmont Park?"

"It happened the night after you and
Manuel brought Zacharel in."

"Does this mean he followed me from
Atlanta to Montreal?"

Nick said softly, "I think so. We also
know the police here—those two constables—have a positive ID of
Daniel from the employees at that bed-and-breakfast."

"They said it was
questionable."

"They're lying."

"Shit, they're going to think Daniel
did this! But he doesn't look like the witness
sketches."

"They think he has an accomplice. His
record in Atlanta isn't a good one, Zoë. It's known you were dating
each other. They suspect, just like the police back home, that
Daniel's following you or you're protecting him. And if they come
to the conclusion you're protecting him, then they'll follow you to
find him."

"That's just eff'd up, Nick. That's
stupid."

"We know it is, because we know the
truth. But they don't. But we agree," he added, nodding to the
sketch, "that we suspect he is following you. And we know that's
your father's mark. We just don't know who's pulling his strings. A
Dominion—" His brow hardened. "—or Adiran Martinique."

Chapter Five

We didn't say anything else until
after we'd gone through airport security and safely fastened in our
seats on Jason's private jet. Soft, rich leather chairs in beige
and tan. Real wood tables and trim. A large flatscreen hung on the
back wall. To the right of it was a door leading into a private
bedroom and bath. No windows.

Nick ordered me a hamburger, rare.
Greek potatoes, broccoli, and a soda, water, and sweet tea. Manuel
jumped on board at the last minute and gave me a bear hug before he
retired to the back room to sleep. There were three other people on
the plane with us. The pilot, co-pilot, and attendant.

Once we were alone again, Nick
unbuttoned his suit jacket and tossed it over a chair. We were at
cruising altitude and the seatbelt sign was off. "Okay, now for the
rough part, Zoë. Dags is missing."

I nearly choked on a swallow of water
from a bottle the nice attendant had given me. When Nick tried to
pat my back, I pushed his hand away. "You…you can't go blurting
shit like that out, Nick. What the hell do you mean, he's
missing?"

"I need to tell you from the
beginning, okay?" He looked a bit upset. "It's been a really
fucked-up three days." When he ran a hand through his hair, I felt
a little sad I'd yelled at him.

Well.

Fuck.

Here I was trying to forget Dags and
move on, and it looked like I was going to get pulled in to help
find him.

•••

Nick wasted no time telling me
everything that'd happened since Daniel and I left
Atlanta.

"Jason was able to get Dags out of the
Society House. And Manuel was fine before Jason asked him to stall
Rhonda?" I was a bit calmer now, after having thrown back a
seriously nasty shot of whiskey. Jason always had the best
booze.

Nick nodded as he loosened his tie. He
was starting to look more like the Ghoul I knew and loved. "Yeah.
Mephistopheles was in contact with Morgan. They usually always are
anyway." He pulled the tie completely off and tossed it on top of
his jacket. "Then Jason and Dags were attacked in the garage of
Jason's private residence by a Dominion."

"What?"

"Two Powers showed up first—and Jason
took care of them. But when the Dominion appeared, he took out
Jason. But it was Dags that defeated it."

"Dags
defeated
a Dominion?" I recalled the
more recent altercation between myself and a Dominion in a
nightclub with Manuel. It wasn't easy to fight one—much less defeat
one. And I'd had to do it the hard way—including taking out most of
the souls it'd been harvesting for judgment. "Where…were did the
souls go?"

"Didn't have any, as far as we could
tell." He held up his hand. "Dags defeated the Dominion by using
the Guardian's sword. He usually can't manifest that without the
Familiars."

"So…the Familiars are
back?"

"Your mom's sure they never left;
they've always been there. Rhonda wrote something in that page that
prevents the Familiars from manifesting to Dags or anyone else. We
suspect she did it to prevent them from protecting him from
her."

I nearly came off the seat at him.
"Protecting him? This have to do with that Shadowed by a Dominion
thing?"

Nick sat down in one of the chairs
opposite mine. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "Listen
carefully to me, Zoë. Rhonda's been acting a bit more…bugnuts than
usual. We agreed not to run yours and Dags's personal life across
the employees. But there were people at the Society House that knew
you and he were an item to begin with. So when Dags started getting
close to Rhonda while you were in the hospital, a lot of them
started gossiping. And Dags apparently overheard some of it. When
Rhonda found out about it, every employee that had contact with
Dags was dismissed. When we went to question them…" He frowned.
"They were gone."

"What do you mean, 'gone'?"

"Just
gone
. Their houses cleaned out. Their
accounts closed down. No forwarding address."

"Holy hell—how many
people?"

"Four. After that started
happening, anyone that did remember Dags and you being together
kept their mouths shut. A few quit. But rumors still spread, and
enough of them got to Dags so that he started questioning
things—and this was
before
Jason took him off-site."

I smelled the food before the nice
lady brought me the plate. The aroma of freshly grilled beef, tangy
tomatoes, and spicy Greek potatoes—OMG! I joined Nick at a table
and dug into my burger without even blinking. He wasn't eating.
See…Ghouls ate things that weren't really dead yet. And if they
were dead…they didn't cook them.

Gross.

After the third bite, I wiped my mouth
and washed it down with a huge swallow of soda. "And that's when
Jason took Dags out of the House?"

"Yeah. Dags confronted Jason that
morning because he could suddenly hear Mephistopheles. Jason wanted
to get him away from Rhonda so they could talk, and Manuel would do
anything to piss Rhonda off."

I knew I loved that guy for a
reason—and his First Born.

"That's when Rhonda really went
apeshit. A technician found Manuel unresponsive in one of the
archive rooms in the second basement. Of course, everyone's
attention was focused on him and not on what she wanted—which was
to get Dags back under her thumb. And what pissed Jason off more
than anything was that Nona agreed with her."

"Mom agreed?" I said that
around another huge bite of food, but I was careful not to
spit
food. Or I think I
was. "You're kidding."

"No, I'm not. She and Jason fought
about it at first, until she explained the seriousness of Rhonda's
burgeoning powers. Rhonda declared you were behind all of this even
though you were in Canada. She really made Nona mad. I think," he
paused and held up a hand. "I don't know this for sure.
But…"

"But?" I put the burger
down. I hated
buts
.

"I think maybe she was desperate
because she was losing control. Dags was remembering you—and he was
doing it because of memories she hadn't destroyed. Memories of the
Familiars, along with you and she." He shrugged. "I told Dags
everything when they came to the condo. I didn't hold back. Jason
wasn't happy with me, and Nona was furious. I didn't care. Having
lost the love of my life…" He sighed. "I didn't want the same thing
to happen. I knew how happy the two of you were—and I want you to
be happy again. So Dags agreed to go back to the Society House, but
with a gift to sort of appease Rhonda."