Soul Cage (2 page)

"Yes." Jason neared Dags.
This was the closest he'd dared come to the Guardian since he'd
lost his memories of Zoë. It wasn't because he was afraid of Dags,
or the power he possessed in the
Grimoire
, including a spell that
would completely annihilate a Revenant, but because he and
Mephistopheles sometimes preferred to just watch and
learn.

And Rhonda annoyed him. She also
annoyed Mephistopheles, but for different reasons. Dags smelled of
car oil and cleanser. Apparently he'd been in the Society's garage
again working on his motorcycle. "You're hearing my First
Born."

Dags' eyes widened. "I am? That's good
isn't it? I mean…" his expression fell much like a child's would
when told what they thought was a good deed was actually causing a
problem. "I know I used it be able to talk to them. I could hear
all of them."

Yes. But if he remembered
that, then he should have recognized Mephistopheles'
voice
. Jason didn't voice this but he was
sure his First Born was thinking the same thing. "Dags…you remember
talking to them?"

He shook his head. "No. I can't." Dags
sighed and rubbed at his face. "But that's what people have told
me. Seems I can't remember a lot of things. And what sucks is it's
just getting worse."

What do you
mean?

"I mean," and he held out his arms.
"It's happening a lot. Someone says something and is weirded out
because I have no recollection of it. Rhonda keeps reassuring me
that they're the ones remembering it wrong. But see, I pay
attention, because so few people actually talk to me. So when they
do talk to me or make eye-contact, I savor every moment. It's
like…being alone in a sea of people. Or being
invisible."

"What do you mean?" Jason echoed
Mephistopheles.

"You both sound very
similar sometimes." Dags moved past him into the room and looked
through the door where Rhonda had been standing minutes before.
"It's hard for me to get people to talk to me. After the
Grimoire
procedure,
that's what Rhonda calls it, I found myself alone a lot. Or with
Rhonda. I tried talking to Daniel, but he won't even look at me.
And if hate was something tangible, he's going to give birth to it.
Even Azrael has sort of left me out of things. Rhonda's the only
one that'll even work with me."

Jason had been at the
Society House off and on over the past week, and he'd been
listening. That and the First Borns gossiped in their own way. He'd
heard a few things himself. "Dags—I think anyone would work with
you. It's just that no one is
allowed
to work with
you."

He looked puzzled. "Rhonda said
everyone's afraid of me."

More afraid of Miss
Orly.

"What did he mean by that?"

If Jason could have kicked his First
Born he would. But there was no tangent essence to him. Just a
feeling. "Don't worry about that for now, Dags. What I am picking
up is a need to talk—"

She's coming.

"—somewhere else. Would you like to go
to my place?"

"Really? God I'd love to get out of
this house and on my own. I mean…I love Rhonda but I need other
contact."

She's going to stop
you.

No she's not. Is another
Revenant nearby?

A pause.
Yes. Morgan is here.
Morgan was Manuel's First Born.

Then have Manuel run
interference.

Manuel hates
her.

Does Morgan?

Morgan doesn't
care.

Please?

Fine.

Jason gestured for Dags to
come with him. He maneuvered through the Society's new labyrinth,
depending on Morgan/Manuel to waylay Rhonda. Jason as aware she
would find any way possible to prevent Dags from going anywhere
with him. Nona had already informed him Rhonda thought of Jason and
Mephistopheles as a lose cannon. A pair that couldn't be
controlled. Truth was, they were a pair
she
couldn't control.

Status?
He was curious of Manuel was having success with
Rhonda.

They're arguing. Manuel
brought up his last assignment with legitimate concerns. Apparently
he was partnered with a green member who couldn't identify a Power,
much less kill one. She nearly died and he wants to be partnered
with Zoë again.

Gesturing to the stairs
leading to the front door, Jason glanced behind him even though he
knew Rhonda was busy. He didn't want a scene. Didn't need one. He
wasn't afraid of her magic—he had some tricks of his own. But what
he worried about most was the
Grimoire
and the fact no one had
seen Alice or Maureen at all since then. A Guardian needed their
Familiars. Jason didn't know if there were consequences to not
having them. Or what Rhonda had done to them.

Where is Zoë
now?

She and Daniel finally
left for Canada yesterday for a break. I'm sure Rhonda had a lot to
do with putting the two of them together.

Jason was positive she had everything
to do with getting Zoë away from Dags. Once they made it through
the front door, his Mercedes was parked in a handicap spot—of which
he offered to pay extra for if needed—and he was more than happy to
bustle Dags inside. Once in the driver's seat, he wasted no time in
pulling out of the parking lot. He continued glancing in the rear
view mirror as he moved down the driveway. But for what? Did he
expect to see Rhonda flying out of the House at him on a broom or a
horned devil?

Charming, but not
accurate.
Mephistopheles sounded
tired.
She and Manuel are fully engaged.
It might be some time before she realizes Dags isn't in the
house.

Jason pushed the car into
fifth gear as they merged into traffic on 85 South.
Just let me know when she does discover it.
She'll be determined to find him.

I will. She can track him
through GPS.

"Dags," he said as he pushed the car
visor down. "Turn off your phone. We don't want to be
disturbed."

-2-

Rhonda Orly, former head of the
Society of Ishmael, the community started by her Uncle and Zoë
Martinique's great-great uncle, glared at the damned, irritating
little prick in front of her. She didn't care if he was a Revenant.
She didn't care if he housed inside of him one of the oldest of the
First Born. She didn't care that he was a thousand times stronger
than her.

She carried the knowledge and
confidence in herself that she possessed an arsenal of spells that
could be used to defend herself in an instant.

Really? I don't remember
you using any of that magic on Zoë when she damned near killed you.
No… you lay there choking and grasping for air, a weak kitten at
her feet
.

Damn she hated that voice.
Hated it because it was right. And hated it because she had no idea
where it came from. Hated it because….because it reminded her how
powerless she
really
was.

Powerless to have anything she
wanted.

Before she met Dags McConnell that
fateful Saturday morning, Rhonda believed she had everything she
could possibly want. She had money, though she rarely touched it.
She had a career of a sorts—one that she enjoyed. She had
friends—and a wonderful magical mentor in Nona
Martinique.

And she had Zoë.

It'd been an impossible friendship.
The latino bombshell with the incredibly long legs who just
happened to have the ability to go out of her body—friends with the
shorter timid geeky gothy introvert with wanna-be witch. Rhonda had
dabbled in magic back then. Been successful with the occasional
spell, but everything changed once Nona started teaching
her.

Her magic bloomed. A new door opened
for her and a new world was born.

And
then…
he
walked
through that door. Darren Gregory McConnell, III. Cute, compact,
smart, a dazzling smile.

But it became painfully clear Dags
only had eyes for Zoë.

They
always
had eyes for her.

Why? She was too tall. She had
freckles on her cheeks. She had some seriously big feet—couldn't
they see that from the size of those bunny slippers?

But
always…
always
…men
were drawn to her.

Rhonda stayed close anyway to support
the work her uncle wanted done. She still monitored Zoë, witnessed
the changes the symbiont / First Born TC, aka Azrael, had wrought
on her Irin power. She'd even endured Zoë's wrath after Rodriquez
felt it necessary to expose her to Zoë. And for the first time, one
of their group had actually noticed her.

Joe.

He'd kept her sane when she took over
the Society after Zoë killed her uncle.

But then he too had
returned to
her
side.

Then Zoë finally tossed Daniel aside
and took Dags as a lover.

The very thought of her
using them the way she did galled Rhonda. No…it fucking
pissed
her off. And then
Zoë was gone, and Dags was there. Even though he was little more
than a vegetable, he was hers. She'd taken care of Dags when
Maureen scrambled the pages of the
Grimoire
. She didn't want him like
that…and it hurt her down to her soul to see him stare into space.
But she could touch him, love him, take care of him.

She tasked their group to find the
pages, those friends of Zoë. The ones that wanted to find her.
Azrael, Joe, Jason, and even Daniel.

Daniel, so dark and brooding now.
Beautiful as a Revenant and so sad. He carried a burden he didn't
deserve. Possessed by Zoë's darker self, her Horror, and made to
kill again and again. And then the death of his captain who saved
Zoë…

When they had the pages—all but the
one—Rhonda worked the spell she'd learned that day in Rodriguez'
chamber of horrors where they'd found Dags, barely hanging on to
life. He'd been burned, flayed, beaten, tortured. He'd been
dying.

Arranging the pages had been
simple—their secrets revealed themselves to her as she'd worked
that day—

He was awake and whole
again, even if he couldn't access the
Grimoire
.

But
still
he wanted Zoë. He
pinned
for
her.

Zoë…

She balled her hands into
fists as she listened to Manuel drone on about…
Zoë
. How he wanted to be partnered
with Zoë on his last assignment because they'd faced that Dominion
together.

Zoë….ZoëZoëZoë.

You hate her.

"No. I don't."
She fired back at the voice in her
head.

You want her
dead.

"No…"

Yes you do. Otherwise, why
did you start listening to me after you healed the Guardian? You
wanted what was rightfully yours. She had the cop, and the cop
turned Revenant. And I helped you get what you wanted, remember? I
helped you forge that page so that he would love you.

"No you didn't. I learned
how from the knowledge Geist gave me. You…you just showed up,
annoying me."

But since then, haven't I
remained by your side? Warned you when danger was near? Helped you
keep your little boy toy safe?

"Yes. But I as the one
that worked the spell to dissolve those memories.
Me
."

And when Dags woke that day, he kissed
her…

He kissed…Rhonda. And Dags was hers,
just as Geist promised.

But it was a short lived happiness—Zoë
recovered soon enough and then discovered what had happened. And
somehow, she hadn't been told the standard story, the one Rhonda
had written, that somehow the prolonged exposure to the Abysmal
Throne had damaged the last page and erased some of Dags'
memories.

No… when Zoë had come for her that day
of the welcoming home party, the bitch had been told the
truth.

Which meant
they
knew the truth.
Daniel, Joe, Azrael, and…Nona.

She didn't want to see
Nona as an enemy…but she was
Zoë's
mom. And that was where her loyalty would always
remain.

The Society Council, set up by Nona
and agreed upon by Rhonda, had refused to remove any of them from
the Society—mainly because Rhonda didn't have a reasonable excuse.
And…they all liked Joe, and Nona, and Daniel. Though Daniel had
proven to be a liability a few times. He might not be the killer
he'd been before Inanna bonded with him—but he still had the same
face, which remained inside of a law enforcement's database on
dangerous criminals.

Since Zoë's emergence into the
Society's working pool, since he'd seen her that day in his room,
when she hugged him, not knowing what had changed, Dags asked
questions about her. No matter how many times Rhonda told him Zoë
was dangerous, she was Abysmal, to stay away from her and that she
was Daniel's...he wouldn't leave it alone.