Beyond The Door (2 page)

Joe nodded. "I know."

"It means he has something. Some piece of
information."

"I
know
."

"We have to find him."

Joe turned and glared at the bald, muscled
Abysmal creature and put his hands on his hips. "Well yeah,
p'ssshhh
, duh? But if you didn't notice—which you
didn't—we're working here, Azzie. I've still got a job to
do."

"Do not," Azrael pointed at Joe's face. "Call
me Azzie. That is
not
my name."

"Well then what? TC? Archer? Trench Coat?" Joe
arched his left eyebrow high on his forehead. "First Born? I don't
freak'n care. We'll see Daniel when we're done." He turned back to
face the direction the car had gone.

Hit something un-moveable.

With a sigh he looked up at the buildings, his
eyes scanning the rooftops. There weren't many in this part of
town. He spotted Daniel though—standing on top of the right corner
building a block away. The only movement was the lower half of his
duster blown by the wind. A duster…in this heat?

The truth was, Daniel Frasier didn't dare show
his face on the ground—not in the middle of a squad full of Atlanta
Police. Daniel had been a detective not long ago. But his career
had taken a left turn after being possessed by something called a
Horror—created by his former girlfriend Zoë—and killed his Captain,
Kenneth Cooper.

What he was now?

Not even Joe really understood it
all.

Now Daniel was a Revenant, a human host to a
being known as a First Born, like Azrael. Daniel's First Born was
Azrael's sister, Inanna. One of the more powerful of the Revenants
still living in the physical plane. Joe and Rhonda had often
discussed Daniel's decision to invite in the First Born. He'd been
locked away in a mental institute, his mind unable to comprehend
what his body had done, the murders he'd committed while possessed
by the Horror.

Some small lucid part of Daniel had agreed to
Inanna's covenant and the two became one, her sheer force of will
making him sane once again. But he wasn't human anymore, and he was
changing every day, becoming more and more the creature the Abysmal
essence of the First Born wanted him to be.

Joe watched his old friend standing up there
and said in a soft voice, "Vampire."

ARRESTS
were made as the man on the
ground died from bullet wounds to the chest and neck. The area was
blocked off and the parent of the child nearly killed was a
miserable mess. Joe and Mastiff reassured her everything was fine
and that the driver hit the building.

Right
.

Mastiff handled the lies pretty good, and the
reassurances, but once the two of them returned to Joe's truck, his
partner let him have it.

"It was
him
, wasn't it? He was
there
…somewhere around there. He saved that kid."

Joe didn't say anything as he snapped his
seatbelt on and waited for Mastiff to do the same. The thin dark
skinned male narrowed his eyes at Joe as he fell silent but finally
buckled up. The two said nothing on their way to the station. Joe
just wanted to drop his partner off and go home.

But when he pulled in and put the truck in
park, Mastiff didn't get out. Instead he unbuckled and faced Joe.
"He killed Cooper, Halloran."

"He also killed a few other people,
Mastiff."

"Yes but he was possessed then. He killed the
Captain when he was normal again."

Joe sighed. This was an old argument. And it
was one he understood. Many of the guys at the precinct wanted
Daniel caught, and tried, and punished for Cooper's
death.

But no one…no one more than Daniel…wanted the
exact same thing.

Joe saw it in his old friend's eyes when he
actually let himself talk about it. When he let his guard down and
Inanna wasn't protecting him from the memories. The First Born had
linked with him, body and soul, and no one—especially not a group
of petty mortals—would ever touch Daniel.

I find myself wishing for the good old
days
. Joe shook his head. Too bad they're all gone. "George… He
wasn't sane when he did that. And he wasn't trying to kill Cooper.
He was trying to kill Zoë."

"And that somehow makes it better? Justifies
it?" He held up his hands. "Look, Zoë's one freaky lady—she's
pretty as all get out—but freaky. And she's gone. Took off. No
one's seen her. Probably to get away from Frasier. But wanting to
kill her still doesn't make it right. It was the Captain, Joe.
Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Joe blinked a few times as he watched Mastiff.
"Yeah. It does. And I think…before we say something we're going to
regret, we should end it for the night. I'll start paperwork in the
morning."

Mastiff opened his mouth, and then closed it.
He grabbed his bag, and his gun, and slid out of the truck. But
before he shut the door, he turned to look at Joe. "He's a monster,
Halloran. He's wrong. He's different. He turned on his own
girlfriend—he'll turn on you too." And with that parting shot,
Mastiff closed the door and walked away.

Joe put the truck in drive and pulled
out.

Three…two…one…

Azrael appeared in the seat Mastiff just
vacated. He made a face and looked down. "Seat's warm."

"I'm on my way home, Azzie. What's
wrong?"

"I gave him the page. He does have something.
Wants to meet at your place about one."

Joe glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Is
there something wrong with half an hour from now when I get home?
Instead of after midnight?"

The First Born shrugged. "Dunno. Ask him.
That's what he says. I'll be there too. You got any
grapes?"

Joe nodded. "In the fridge. Help
yourself."

Azrael grinned beneath his mirrored shades.
"Don't mind if I do," and he vanished.

Joe continued on down Ponce De Leon to the
apartment he'd rented after moving out of Rhonda's
condo.

Daniel

THE
Botanica and Tea shop on Euclid
avenue sat quietly under the late summer sky. The fruit trees
planted around the lot's corners were in full green. The clematis
on the back porch swayed in the breeze, its white flowers had
bloomed and gone during spring. The smells of fresh mint tea cakes
wafted from the open back door. A box fan blew air out of the
kitchen and into the heat of the night.

He stood on the porch, in the shadows, watching
through the window as Nona moved about the kitchen in silence. She
didn't smile. She didn't laugh. She only looked down at her work,
her mind on things beyond his comprehension.

This woman had been ripped from her body,
months ago, imprisoned in a puppet made of flesh, and then
sheltered inside a younger woman's body. And still—she survived. He
was amazed by this.

She is kin to Domas
, came
Inanna's voice inside his head. He wasn't sure if he would ever
really get used to having another living thing inside of him.
It is right she should be strong willed. Their
daughter also possesses this strength. It's what will make the
Phantasm flourish.

"She's not going to stay there," Daniel said
softly, and forcefully. "She can't stay there. I won't allow
it."

We've talked about this at length.
If you remove her from the egg, then the planes will cross. There
must be balance.

"Then someone else can take her place," he
said. "She doesn't belong there."

Inanna didn't answer. He knew his First Born
didn't agree with the plan to rescue Zoë. But she wasn't going
to  stop them either. Daniel was still so new to it all.
Finding out what Zoë was, what she had done to him—with the
Horror—though not her fault. About Rhonda and Nona and magic, and
about Trench Coat, Joe, Jason…and Dags.

Darren McConnell.

The name caused an unpleasant mixture of
emotions to well up inside of him. His stomach churned. His heart
rate increased. And his anger—

Don't. You haven't learned to
control the power yet.

"Shush," he said softly, but kindly. He knew
Inanna was happy with her choice of hosts. She was content with
him, but she was also wary.

We're not alone.

"I know."

He'd heard her footsteps on the grass outside
as she'd come around the house, stepping out the front door in a
pretext of leaving. Her car, a Volkswagen Beetle, was parked across
the street, out of sight. She'd cloaked herself again—a subtle
power she'd learned from the
Grimoire
.

"You're getting bold," she said. "If she sees
you, she'll fight you."

Daniel turned, nodding, his hands shoved into
the pockets of his brown duster. His hair brushed over his eyes as
he took her in, his Abysmal eyes could see her in the dark as well
as the day. He no longer needed his glasses. "Good evening,
Rhonda."

She looked tired. Waves of exhaustion—mental as
well as physical—brushed against his senses. He knew without asking
she'd spent the day working in the shop with Nona, taking care of
customers. Now she would travel home to her compound, and care for
Dags. Up until a month ago, she and Nona had kept him in the house
here, but he'd been moved.

"For his protection," Rhonda had told
him.

No. Dags has been moved so that he and his
comrades couldn't get to him.

Stella Rosenberg, Dags' landlady and sometimes
lover, was taking them to court to be Dags' guardian. Time was
growing short. They had to reassemble the pages.

"I'm not worried about Nona. She's doing what
she thinks is best."

Rhonda beckoned him with a nod of her head to
come to her. She moved down the slope of the yard into Jemmy's
copse of trees separating the two houses. Jemmy had also chosen a
side, and she and Nona hadn't spoken in several months. Fireflies
flickered in the darker parts of the tiny forest. Daniel saw a
chipmunk start and dash into a small hole beneath a stone of
granite, a natural occurrence on the land.

That stone connected to the stone beneath,
which connected to the stone to the east.

Stone Mountain.

Rhonda sat on the jutting rock, making her hip
level with Daniel. She wore a gray tank top with black shorts,
Crocs. Her hair, now touching her shoulder, the roots revealing her
redder, natural color. "Like I told Azrael and Joe—I'm not that
convinced Nona's working against us."

"She told us herself," Daniel said as he knelt
before her and looked up. "She would choose that Zoë remain the
Phantasm, as her Adiran wished it. She loves him, and she'll follow
him anywhere, Rhonda. I know it bothers you that she's been so
easily swayed—"

"No," she hissed and then looked around, though
her gaze constantly returned to the light inside the botanica
kitchen. "I don't buy it. She was against any of this happening to
Zoë to begin with. She created that spell to hide her daughter's
power—the one that took it from her again. She wanted to stop
whatever it was Adiran and Domas had been doing."

"Domas," Inanna sneered within Daniel,
surfacing, her voice harmonizing with his. Daniel stepped back
inside and allowed his demon to come forward, knowing this also
changed his appearance somewhat. Subtle. But enough that seeing it
in the mirror had been enough to make him shudder. "A fool.
Believing that anything in the Ethereal would agree to make a deal
with him. They have one thing on their mind, Miss Orly," she said,
her voice steely within his own. "Domination."

Rhonda hesitated only slightly, but enough that
Daniel recognized it. Inanna still frightened her. After all, it'd
been Inanna that had first consumed him in her haste to find the
pages in the
Grimoire
that held the spell to destroy them.
During that instant he'd attacked them, attacked
Jason/Mephistopheles. But Inanna had only wanted to scare them
away.

To protect them.

"Nona Martinique isn't like that. She's—she's
not doing this to purposefully seal her own daughter in
place."

"She holds the Grimoire as her own," Inanna
said.

"She's taking care of him."

"She won't allow us to arrange the
pages."

Rhonda looked down. "She says it could kill
him. And if he dies, then the
Grimoire
is free. And open.
And vulnerable."

"Bullshit," Daniel interjected, his voice
changing. "We need him to help us, Rhonda. We need the magic he
possesses in that book to get Zoë back."

She frowned at him. "You don't
know
that
kind of knowledge exists in those pages."

"No—" he pointed to the house. "Because
she
won't let us look. She
knows
our
weaknesses
, Rhonda. She knows what we can
and
can't
do." He shifted on his knee. "Have you been paying attention at all
to Azrael?"

She narrowed her eyes. A car passed by, the
bass of its woofers vibrating the ground. "No…what is
it."