Dominion: Zoë Martinique Investigation, Book 6 (20 page)

Christmas Picasso took advantage of
the stumble and threw another lasso of tinfoil at him. This time it
encircled his left wrist. He'd been holding it out, trying to
steady himself. The thing yanked and Joe abruptly flipped on the
ground.

When the little monster cackled, my
wings unfurled. This was now beyond creepy. And whoever was doing
this was gonna get a bitch-slap from me.

Going corporeal, I launched myself up
with the determination to land on top of this little fucker just as
a lancing pain dropped me back onto my bunny slippers and into a
crouch. Jesus, that hurt! I turned to see—

OMFG!

Pumpkin Bucket's face had put itself
back together—just the face—and its teeth looked like someone had
taken a box cutter and carved them out of the plastic—and it'd sunk
those fuckers into my arm!

Normally I can take
physical damage and then rejuice from the Abysmal Plane. Or that's
the way it'd been working since my recovery from being in the
Abysmal Throne. But this time it hurt—I mean it really
hurt
. I felt my wings
curl up and vanish as I sat down hard on my ass. I started shaking,
and thought I heard the echo of TC….

That's when I realized the fucker had
bitten into the mark TC had left on me during our very first
encounter. I'd always assumed it was a physical manifestation of
our connection, and now I was more than sure. And I was confident
TC was feeling the same pain I did.

More noise to my right, and I glanced
over to see another Fetch forming out of a group of Halloween
decorations. Oh crap…this new one had donned the
witch-smashing-into-a-tree decoration and combined it with a huge
plastic skull I used to hang out on the porch. The skull fit
perfectly under the hat and green hair. It formed the rest of the
body by using paper and—to my horror—a pair of scissors.

Another noise behind me, and I saw
Christmas Picasso had its garland wrapped around Joe's legs, pinned
one arm behind him, and was wrapping it around and around the man's
neck!

Now I'm pissed.

I looked directly at the little
ass-hat nomming on my arm, took in a large breath, and Screamed at
it.

Every bit of the plastic disintegrated
into little more than orange plastic dust, although it did leave
some seriously ugly teeth marks in my ashen skin. Then I looked at
the skull-and-witch Fetch. The thing's dark, empty eye sockets
actually widened and the mouth opened in mock-horror. It turned and
ran up the steps.

Christ, I am never
watching another Halloween Special.

Feeling a little dizzy myself, I
scrambled over to Christmas Picasso and tried to pull the garland
out of its hands. It hissed and made noises at me with its funky,
sideways, busted-up Styrofoam mouth. And I hissed back at it. But
it wasn't budging, and it had a seriously tight hold on Joe's
neck.

"…ath….may…." Joe managed to say in a
hoarse whisper.

"What? May what?" I opened my mouth
and took a deep breath. I was gonna Scream this bitch into next
month.

But it apparently knew what I was
doing, and hopped over onto Joe's back. That forced Joe on his
front, his left arm pulled tight behind him and bound up in silver
garland. Shit. I couldn't Scream at it like that—I'd hit Joe. And I
didn't want to hurt him. My Scream could seriously shove his soul
out of his body!

Zoë! Get the athame out of
my pocket!

Oh, right! He'd put Mom's athame in
his pocket! I grabbed at his jacket and searched the closest
pocket. Nothing. I had to straddle him to get to the other pocket
and the little monster tried to wrap one of its garlands around me.
I found the knife and pulled it out.

The second it hit the garland, the
silver tinsel and string disintegrated into floating, sparkling
glitter. Christmas Picasso tumbled back and off Joe, since it'd
been using its own weight to cut off Joe's air supply.

I pushed Joe aside, took a deep
breath, and gave that fucker the Scream of its life
time.

Poof. It disintegrated
again.

Joe coughed, and I grabbed at him with
my Wraithy strength to get him up on his feet. "Dude…don't scare me
like that…. Why didn't you use more of that witch power on
it?"

"I couldn't," he said in a hoarse
voice. Once up, he reached out and rested against the stairs.
"I…that damn Veil is draining all my strength. I'm just too
tired."

"Joe! Are you in there? Unlock the
door!" That was Mastiff's voice.

We heard him and someone else beating
on the doors and a window.

I looked at my cop. "You think
whatever's controlling the Fetches locked us in here?"

"I do. And I think we need to get the
hell out of here. Now." He grabbed my hand and pulled me along as
we tiptoed over the debris and went for the stairs.

Christmas Picasso started reforming
again near the foot of the stairs so I used my slippers and kicked
the shit out of it. The pieces scattered and fell to the
concrete.

We made it up, and stopped in the
doorway.

"Oh…phock…" There were maybe six of
them? Two on the kitchen counter, one holding the kitchen door
closed, another hanging from the light fixture, and two more
blocking our way into the Tea Shop. And these were some seriously
frightening little mothers, 'cause they were all constructed out of
broken pieces of ceramic, glass, and kitchen utensils.

"Zoë…" Joe began.

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Not
now, Joe, okay? This isn't the end and I'm just not in the mood."
Yeah…I figured he was going to confess his love for me before it
looked like we were going to die by kitchen dishes. I mean, I'd
been told enough times how much Joe liked me, and I'd never
forgotten his kiss.

I wasn't expecting the rather confused
look he turned and gave me. "What are you talking about? I was
going to mention, what I said about the wards before?"

Oh. Oops. My bad. "Y-yeah? You said
they were broken?"

"I was wrong. They're not broken, Zoë.
They're gone. Completely gone."

"Yeah, so?" I was eying the
clear-looking muther made up of drinking glass pieces in the sink.
It'd adopted two coffee mug handles as eyes. Looked effed up.
"Whatever attacked Mom and is doing this destroyed the
wards."

"No, it didn't."

I am not a magic person. I am a
Wraith-type person. So this was annoying. "Joe, spit it
out."

"I've been trying to suss out how
something could have gotten to Nona here. This was the most
well-warded place in all of Atlanta, besides the work I've done on
Jason's homes."

I was still behind him, using him as a
shield and standing on the first step into the basement, so when I
peeked around him at the monsters, they peeked back. Mastiff and
the officers he'd left here were still banging on the door and
windows. Luckily the windows were covered, 'cause I wasn't sure how
Mastiff was going to react to seeing three-foot-high moving dish
monsters. "Point, Joe. We don't have time for a
dissertation."

"If something had destroyed the wards,
there would be pieces, traces of the magic still evident. Like…when
you break a window out? Not all of the glass is
removed?"

I got the image and nodded. The
glass-made Fetch clinked as it moved out of the sink. It was
looking at me! I wanted to Wraith out and fly the hell out of this
house of horrors. "So, it's not like that?"

"No. It's like someone removed the
wards. They're just not there anymore."

Wait…what? I leaned to his left past
his shoulder and looked up at him. "The hell? Why would anyone
remove the wards?"

He looked down at me. I noticed a red
ring showing up around his neck where that Fetch had pulled the
garland tight. There were similar bands around his wrist. "I don't
know. I doubt Nona did. And she and Rhonda were the ones who
initiated the—"

Oh no. I think we were having the same
terrible thought at the same time.

And that was…if Mom didn't do it, that
meant Rhonda had.

"Joe." I was shaking my head slowly.
"That's not…I mean, she's a bitch and all, and she's got some crazy
Dominion making its moves on her…but do you think she'd let it use
her to remove them?"

"I don't know. And right now it
doesn't matter. I can't jump to a conclusion, even if it's obvious.
What we do have to do right now is get the wards back up. If I can
do that, then I can sever the control of whomever is puppeting
these Fetches."

"You…by yourself? I thought warding
this house was a two-man job?"

"It is. But we don't have two men and
this is the only way to get rid of them. You want them to get
outside and start attacking people?"

No.

He held out his left hand, and to my
surprise, half of it disappeared. I'd seen this happen before, with
Mom and with Rhonda. He was reaching into the Veil.

Joe nearly fell backwards on top of me
and he turned bone-white. "Whoa," he said in his best Keanu Reeves.
Again. "That was a trip. I need more practice."

"What?"

"I slowed the rotation to get what I
needed. Wasn't…prepared for it." His hand reappeared, holding
another athame. This one was much larger than Mom's and was a bit
ornate. The hilt was wrapped in black leather and topped by a
medallion; the guard long and curved. "I'm gonna need you more than
I've ever needed you."

I realized he was talking to me.
"Oh…okay. You tell me what to do."

The first thing he did was grab a
nearby mop and swung it at the two dish-and-glass Fetches on the
sink. They crashed and split apart, making a bigger mess. I
followed him out of the kitchen to the tea shop, where he smashed
one of the ceramic ones.

"Clear away the chairs and
tables!"

I did as he told me to. Out of the
corner of my eye, I could the Fetches in the kitchen re-forming—but
more disturbing, the one that'd been hanging from the light wasn't
there anymore.

Oh shit.

"Shit!"

The fucker had landed on Joe's back.
He had his athame in his right hand, his right arm lifted up, the
blade pointing at the ceiling. The thing was trying to yank his arm
down and was slicing the shit out of his skin.

I went half-Wraith this time and
reached out with my talons to grab at it. Luckily I was successful,
as the long, sharp nail slipped between the pieces of glass. That
gave me a nice hold, which I used to flick that thing off like a
booger.

Something sailed by my head. I turned
to see a fork sticking out of the wall behind me. One of the little
monsters was perched on the destroyed display case hurling utensils
at me!

Joe still held his arm in the air even
as blood ran down over his elbow and dripped on the floor. He had
his left hand in his Veil again and came out with a canister of
Morton's salt. "Zoë, make a circle of this around me!"

I grabbed the salt and did as he said,
even as I ducked more forks and spoons.

Spoons? Really?

Soon as the ends of the salt circle
met, everything the little bugger threw bounced off of some
invisible shield around Joe. He had both hands up in the air now
and the blade of the athame glowed a brilliant blue. Mastiff and
the others beat steadily on the door with something, trying to push
it down. I was pretty sure they were a bit confused as to why a
simple kitchen door was so hard to break.

"Zoë! I need you!"

Ducking one last plastic spork, I ran
to Joe, not even thinking about the small ward of salt around him.
But as soon as I hit, it I remembered. I didn't bounce off of it or
anything—salt doesn't exactly exorcise Abysmal—but it did sort
of…do something. Only I didn't know it immediately. To me it was
like moving through concrete.

And then I had my arms around him. He
dropped his left arm around me and I closed my eyes as the light
inside the circle grew bright. I could feel and see that whirling
maelstrom around him and wondered if that was his Veil, or were the
things in the house flying about as whatever was controlling the
Fetches fought the ward?

I felt cold, and then hot, and then
cold again. I shivered as the whirling stopped, only to be replaced
by the sound of a thousand crashing plates. I waited a few minutes
before I opened one eye, then the other. But I had my face buried
in his chest, so all I saw was shirt.

"Joe?"

He didn't answer me. I tried to move
back and realized really damn fast I was the only thing holding Joe
Halloran on his feet.

Chapter Twenty

"Joe?" I shifted into full physical
Wraith as my wings unfurled and beat fast to counterbalance Joe's
weight. He slumped over my shoulders, his arms down at his sides.
Once I lowered him down onto his back, I saw his athame sticking
out of the wooden floor where he'd let go of it. I was lucky it
hadn't skewered my foot to the floor.