Geist (8 page)

"No," he shook his head, though he didn't look totally convinced. "I'm not sure what motivates that First Born. But I don't think he wanted you to do that. He's been suffering, you know." 

"He's...weaker. I can feel it. He's still scary just not like he was." 

"Uh huh. And I even heard him talking to Daniel about becoming a Revenant." 

Well that thought made me frown. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea." 

"It's an awful idea. I mean, I know why he's considering it—because if he does bond with a human then your physical self won't be tied to his any longer." 

"But," I propped my head up on the heel of my hand. "Won't that change me?" 

"Alice and I have talked about that—we're not sure. She knew the two of you were tied together, but we're not sure how anymore. You've changed since the Horror incident," and here he looked apologetic. "Being able to go Wraith even in your physical body? We're not sure that has anything to do with Azrael anymore." 

"Pfft. Neither do I," I sighed and laid my head back down. He touched my nose with the tip of his finger. I kissed it. "I just want things to be normal." 

"What's normal?" 

We both laughed. Neither of us knew the answer to that question anymore. "Dags...you know they want you. The Ethereals." I remembered what the Geist had told me. "They want to put you in the Throne." 

Dags' eyes widened. "Wow. Really? I got promoted?" 

"It's not funny. They want to rip that damn book out of you and then slot you into that Throne. And it's not fun." 

He propped himself up on his side with his elbow. "Zoë—do you even know what a Throne is?" 

"Yeah it's where a king and or a queen sit." 

"Wow. Give that girl an A." 

"Don't be an ass. Tell me." I tried to look sweet but I was pretty sure I looked more like—guilty. "I don't have access to Rhonda's Big Book of Everything."

"Well I did, and I've been reading over the Dioscuri Files." 

Oh god those things. Tomes and tomes of notes and observations on the Outer and Inner planes.
Borrrrring
. "So?" 

"According to what your great-uncle found," Dags moved his right hand and a pencil and paper appeared between us. "I have a very vivid imagination. I can make this into a chalkboard or whiteboard if it's easier." 

"Oh no, no," I laughed at him and sat up. My hair fell over my shoulders and half covered my breasts and thighs. I couldn't even feel that. "I'm just amazed you can do that." 

"Alice taught me. So," he drew two columns. "The two essences surrounding the inner planes—Abysmal and Ethereal—are part of the same but highly different." 

"I'll say." 

"Well even in the way they're governed. The Seraphim is pretty much the counter to the Phantasm—only Domas didn't know that much about it. Within the first Tier—" 

"That's what the Revenants called a part of the Abysmal—" 

"Yeah they both have tiers to them," he started scribbling names. "Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones." 

I frowned. "I don't get it." 

"The upper tier consists of these three entities. Seraphim—we call this one the big baddie. And we'll put them in the center." 

"Them? There's more than one?" 

"Dunno. Don't worry yet. Now," he drew a circle and labeled it Seraphim, then he drew a bigger circle around that one. "Here are the Cherubim."

"I'm pretty sure you don't mean the cute little naked babies with wings and arrows." 

"Nah, those are cherubs. And don't laugh—those things are nasty. From what I read? You do not want one of them shooting anything through your heart." 

That was a bit disconcerting. Cute little cherubs were ebil? 

"Now the Seraphim was believed to be the voice of God."

"You mean like the Metatron," I got that from a Kevin Smith movie. "Sounds like a transformer." 

"Yeah, it does. But this creature is supposedly too hideous to look at—if you do you'll go blind. And protecting this are the Cherubim. Now these are supposedly the keepers of wisdom and light." 

"But they eat babies instead?" 

"Not sure what they are. I just know Domas' notes said, and I quote 'STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM' so I think anyone researching them afterward has pretty much stayed the fuck away from them." Then he drew a bottom facing bracket above the circles and then a top facing bracket below. "And these, are the Thrones." 

I just looked at him.

Dags gave me a lopsided grin. "So...not really chairs for royalty?" I said to him. 

"No, not chairs. But they are living entities." 

Huh?
"Dude...you mean my body is inside of something living?" 

"Yep," he smiled at me. "The lap of God." 

-11-

Powers and Virtues

"Can we go past this, cause it's just creeping me out." 

Dags shook his head. "What Domas found out was that the Thrones were created to stand as actual nexus points. Like in a human, they're the brain and the heart. Two different jobs but one can't live without the other." 

"Dude...that is gross. Which is which?" 

"Not sure—and don't take it so literally. Rhonda and I actually talked about this the other night—before the ambush." 

"Ambush—you mean that little tussle with the tattooed guys?" 

"Yeah but we'll talk about it later," he waved me away. "Wait till we can all be in the same room. I think we have a lot of information swapping to do. And we have to plan on getting you out." 

I beamed at him and kissed his nose. 

"As I was saying—" as he tapped his pen in the top bracket, "The Ethereal Throne houses the Seraphim—and the Abysmal houses the Phantasm. They both act as governors—or say small Sheriffs-of their fiefdoms. And under them were the Deputies. These were the Irins." 

"Like me." 

"Uh-huh. Only I think you and I qualify as the only ones left—and you've gone beyond Irin into Abysmic." 

I sighed. "That just sounds...bad." 

"You can't look at this like that. Neither side is good nor bad, that's all in belief and perception. In the beginning of all this, it worked. All the parts worked. The Thrones controlled the ebb and flow, one pulling and the other pushing. The Irin patrolled the planar borders, and regulated traffic between the Inner Planes. But as time wore on and these living entities learned and matured, they began to change. Things always change, Zoë. We can't get past that." 

"I know," and I looked at him.
Look at us, Darren. Look at what we are...what we've become
. "I think I read a bit of this in Inanna's book. The one about Samael and his children." 

"Uh-huh. A similar thing was happening in the Ethereal plane." He stopped and tapped his pen. "The only problem is we don't know what happened there. That's where Domas' notes just...end." 

A breeze pushed my hair and I saw it shift over my thigh. I watched as the hairs on my lower arm moved and goosebumps began to form. But I didn't
feel
any of it. It was like I was disconnected from everything. "So they end after my dad technically did, right?"

Dags nodded. "Yeah, after the fire. There's a gap and then some really odd writings in some weird code no one's ever been able to break. Though—honestly—we're just assuming. All Domas wrote was that he was betrayed by one of his own. The little we do know we've gotten from the Revenants who were there when it all happened. Pieced together from what Azrael was able to remember, what you got from Inanna's book and what Inanna remembers herself." 

"Meaning the Seraphim decided that it didn't like the Phantasm sending out its children in order to experience the world so it declared a war?" 

"More like...it disapproved of the influence those children had on the world. Think about their names, Zoë. The First Born. Hephaestus, Hermes, Brahma, Inanna—those are all very powerful names. Names you can find in history. Gods and Goddesses." 

I'd always wondered about that—especially when I'd started reading Inanna's book. I always thought it was odd that Jason's First Born carried a name like Mephistopheles. But I'd sort of assumed it was because he chose it. "So they've...in their own way...shaped history." 

"Yes. Do you know of any Ethereal names?" 

"I'm not sure I would, even if I heard them."

"Exactly. You remembered Metatron, but only because of a movie. The other names are synonymous with angels. Michael, Gabriel, Raphael—but these are arcs. Third tier at best and slaves to the First Tier." 

"I think my brain just went to sleep. You keep all of this in your head?" 

"What I'm getting at, Zoë, is that the Seraphim wants to control the universe. Or what it thinks it can get to. Mainly the Outer Planes and I mean both sides. Ethereal and Abysmal. And it believes it can do this by controlling whatever being sits inside the Thrones." 

"But, what is this about the Thrones being alive?" 

He set the pen down and rested back on the blanket. With his hands behind his head, I could see him so clearly in the moonlight. He was...beautiful. "Ever heard of the universal mind?" 

Uh-oh. "Yeah." 

"Well...think of the Thrones as being two halves of that mind. Like the left side of the brain and right side of the brain. Your brain is a living organism all on its own, right?" 

I nodded. 

"When we're born, there's something that holds us all together—something that scientists can't identify very clearly. It binds our bodies together, it regulates our hearts, our lungs, our stomachs—it makes all of this stuff work. And it does it before you—you as in your soul and personality—ever really start to develop." 

"You think...these Thrones are that same thing? That glue?"

"Well, it's not like they make plastic in the Abysmal plane. Everything is made up of abysmic stuff. And we know from experience that abysmic stuff can eventually develop something close to sentience. Or...kinda. Alice and Nona agree—" 

I reacted at the mention of my mother's name and touched his chest. God I wanted to feel his skin against mine. "I need to see mom." 

"You sure that's a good idea?" He reached down and took my hand in his. 

"Why? 

"Well... Nona keeps herself separate from us because Adiran is always watching her. She helped get me out of hock, so to speak, but since then she's kept her distance. We keep in touch with her—but we also have to make sure we're never around her." 

"You mean my dad stalks her?"

"Yeah. 'Fraid so." 

What a right bastard he was. He'd stuck his daughter into an egg and then abandoned her to harass his ex-wife? "He's so fucking sure there's nothing I can do about this." 

"Wow. You sound angry." 

"And why shouldn't I be?" I crossed my arms under my breasts. "Bastard lured me into an egg, told me I was going to be a great power and then I lose a couple of months while he steers the ship all over the fucking place. That and he doesn't want us together—none of them do." 

Dags turned on his left side and looked at me. "Why not?" 

I started to answer–and then realized I didn't actually have one. An answer. "I—I don't know. I just remember during one of the times I was being questioned about you and me and TC I overheard a voice making a note that you and I should be kept apart at all costs." 

He looked thoughtful. "Wonder why. Maybe we'll start getting answers now that you're with us. But for right now, no skipping out to see Nona, okay? We'll let her know in our own way. They don't know you've skipped town so to speak, do they?"

"I don't think so. I mean I haven't heard any warning sirens or anything. But okay—" and I leaned down to kiss his forehead. "No telling mom, yet." I waited a few seconds before I finally asked the question that'd been bugging me all this time. "Dags—after they put your book back together—except for the page I have—why didn't you come and get me out?" 

He looked up at me. His gray eyes amazed me. They were so full of passion and mirth. Yeah, a lot of mirth. Finally, he said, "Zoë—we couldn't find a way in. Not even Azrael was having any luck." 

"You mean the borders being closed stopped you?"

"Yes. Once we figure out a way to get to you physically—we plan on getting to you, and that page, and putting an end to all of this." 

"I guess I thought getting you out of the Society's House would do that. I thought telling my mother off for actually putting you in the Society's care would end this—"  

"Zoë," he sighed and took my hand in his. I imagined it was warm and inviting. "Don't be mad at Nona. She put me in a place that gave me round-the-clock care when she and Rhonda couldn't do it anymore. Jemmy left—though she still has the house next to your mom's. Without her, Nona got a little depressed. I think at the time—she just did what she had to do." 

"I'm still not happy with her." 

"I am. And besides, since then," he sighed. "The Society's compound is pretty much gone." 

That was news. "What do you mean gone? I thought they just seized it. Did they burn it too?" 

His eyebrows arched. "Oh wow....that's right. You don't know what's been going on."  

"Uh...let's pretend I have no idea what it is you're talking about." 

He sat up then and faced me, his legs crossed in front of him. I loved being naked with him. He took a strand of my hair—the white shock that still grew from my right temple—and rubbed it against his cheek, his eyes closed. 

"Dags?" 

"Right," he opened them but kept the hair in his hand. "Part of the Ethereal's plan is to get rid of the Revenants and get to me. They're who are keeping me safe. You'll learn more as we go along. The only place to get information on the Revenants was to infiltrate the organizations that knew about them and watched them. Now, besides the Society of Ishmael, there are three other groups just in the southeast that know of them and protect their identities. In fact," he grinned. "The Revenants started a few of them and privately fund them." 

"You're shit'n me." 

"No shit'n. Now what's the best way to get into a company, or organization in a legal fashion?  'Cause you know the Ethereals are all about following the rules."