The Wicked (Vampire Huntress Legend #8)

CHAPTER FIVE

Chaotic, swirling interdimensional winds gathered Damali into a maelstrom the moment the violet queen's pyramid opened and she stepped over the threshold. Crash-landing in a giant marble hallway, she was caught by two hands just before she hit the ground.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, young queen," Nzinga said, holding Damali upright.

"Cain-"

"Yes," Aset said in a quiet rush, cutting off Damali's words. She motioned to the large chamber that housed the Council of Queens' meeting oval. "We must have a brief private session before we take this to the table." Aset glanced at Nzinga. "Create a diversion and has�ten Nefertiti to my side."

Nzinga stepped away as Aset practically dragged Damali down the large rose-and-gold marble hallway to hide behind a pillar. If it weren't for the frantic look in Aset's eyes, Damali would have been sure her queen was about to kick her natural ass. Old school, outside, one on one.

Damali didn't even get a chance to verbally defend herself or put up a fighter's stand to take the blow. Aset had swiftly grabbed her into a hug and now whispered tenderly in her ear.

"I know, I know, sister, but Eve is beside herself. Do not fear me or the other queens. We have to tell her that you have confirmed her son's Darkness, and thus must execute him... but stand behind me and Nzinga when you do."

Damali clung to Aset like she was drowning. Perhaps she was. A hundred emotions slammed into her and threatened to burst out all at once.

"I don't know what to tell her," Damali said. "He's lost his mind."

Aset nodded and held Damali away from her, finally letting Damali go to place a graceful finger over her lips before speaking again. "How are your powers?"

"Weak," Damali admitted. "I couldn't even summon the pyra�mid."

Aset closed her eyes. "All of us are experiencing a dredge." For a moment Damali just stared at Aset. "You guys, too? Whoa..."

"We work on a delicate, cooperative balance of feminine har�monies and energies," Aset said with a weary sigh. "Eve is the cor�nerstone of that. She was the first of our kind... Perhaps this is indeed the end of our reign, whereby the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Eve was the first, you are the last. I do not know." Aset began to pace. "Never before has our council been so bitterly divided. Eve accepted our collective decision on the surface, verbally conced�ing to the will of the group, but deep within her spirit, she is so wounded that even the Caduceus did not repair her suffering." Shim�mering silver tears filled Aset's eyes. "He isher son."

Not sure where to begin commentary, Damali dragged her fingers through her locks. "I thought the power drain was from Carlos being so angry at me... and from the battle bite, but-"

"Your husband...a Neteru king, battle bit you?"

Aset's voice held a tone so aghast that Damali cringed. Then the fact that she wasn't supposed to reveal that, per Carlos's request, made her close her eyes.

"Aset,swear to me on a stack of every holy book ever written that you willnever disclose this to any other queen. My husband asked me not to-"

"I betthe hell he did!" Aset's golden robes lifted at the hem as fury energy began to slowly whirl down the great hall. "Did your mother-seer clear it out and assist with-"

"No, because Inever want Marlene to see something like that be�tween him and me," Damali said, grasping Aset's arms and staring into her eyes. "It wasn't him. I healed myself! That, and your powers wan�ing from Eve's dissent, is all that's probably wrong with me. His bite, my self-healing, and your power drain-a bad threesome of events. That's gotta be it. Butthis isprivate."

Aset's resistance energy began to lower, and her gaze locked with Damali's in confusion. Nefertiti suddenly rounded the pillar, breath�less, like a woman being chased.

"Queen Sisters, what has transpired?" Nefertiti placed her graceful palm flat to her chest, her gorgeous Egyptian eyes darting between Damali and Aset.

"Please," Aset said, her gaze searching Damali for permission. "Just the three of us, a trinity of privacy and sisterly support. Youmust in�form Nefertiti. She, above all, understands male energies."

Damali leaned on a huge pillar and stared at both queens. "On my husband's honor, what happens in the Great Hall stays in the Great Hall. Promise."

Both queens nodded.

"We all know Cain took a throne tumble. He went there of his own volition, which was under very different circumstances than when Carlos went," Damali said, setting the backdrop for the queens to be sure there was no way they'd blame Carlos. "My husband was sent there by angelic command to getThe Bookofthe Damned. He was manipulated to go before he was ready by Lilith, who had sent a spiritual attachment to work on his psyche, so he got the directions and messages all screwed up. But his original intention was honor�able... Cain's was not. Dude went down there on a mission."

"Yes, yes, yes, we know that, child," Aset said, waving her hand with impatience. "But we arenot about to allow you to stand here and jus�tify domestic violence in our presence or keep something that insidious a secret. That has been the horror of too many women's existence, and is a commandment from On High that we stand united to abolish... within the sanctity of marriage, no less? Do not ask me to be a party to-"

"Itwasn't Carlos that attacked me. It had to be Cain's energy. As many arguments and as much drama as Carlos and I have been through, the mannever in his life laid a hand on me or tried to hurt a hair on my head." Damali was breathing hard by the time she'd rushed out her defense.

"He slapped you once," Nefertiti said, her eyes narrowing. "Now you are saying heattacked you?"

"He thought I was Lilith when he slapped me because she was shadowing my energy-remember?" Damali folded her arms over her chest.

"I don't like the sound of this," Nefertiti said. "Sounds eerily like a woman making excuses for a violent man. Damali wouldn't be the first."

"If you all hear me out, hear the entire story, and then you can make a judgment. Okay?" Damali sighed hard and let her shoulders slump. No wonder Carlos wanted a chance to talk to the kings first!

"All right, child," Aset said, waving her hand with disgust. "Go back to Cain. But if this conversation devolves into Carlos's affront and becomes an excuse, I will go down there myself and slaughter him. No man should abuse a woman!"

"I may be many things, Aset," Damali said, looking the elder queen in the eye and then glancing at Nefertiti, "but do I seem like the kinda sister to let a man beat my ass and then hide it from anybody to pro�tect his sorry hide? If I didn't gore him myself, cops, family, a posse, whatever, would ride or die on the situation, and I bet he wouldn't mess with another sister again."

Nefertiti smiled a half-smile and relaxed. "I think we can bank on that, Aset. Let our young sister proceed about Cain-which is truth�fully the crux of her mission."

"All right," Damali said in a huff, trying to get her mind wrested back to the point. She waited until Aset seemed to stand down before pressing on. "So you know now that Cain has escaped, he's biding his time to raise an army of vampires from Level Six where he went, probably also gonna bring out his old loyalists from Nod, while he's at it. And with Lilith in the mix, who knows what other level could get into this pending war."

"Yes, we are aware," Nefertiti said, glancing at Aset. "This is what all the chaos is about. The living Neterus must stop him. He has taken Dante's throne, thus, as a demon now, he must be slain." Nefertiti glimpsed Aset again before returning her regal gaze to Damali. She smoothed her white silk gown. "Eve is distraught, but we stand with you on what must be done. Dear young queen sister, your eyes hold sheer devastation. We understand your loyalty to Eve, and she is our sister, too... but we cannot compromise on this. You must slay Cain, no mat�ter your earlier attraction to him while he was still undecided about his loyalties. In Nod, and briefly on Earth with you, he did seem good. But now all that has changed. So, you must do what you must. Kill him."

"I know that," Damali said, looking away. Nefertiti's simplistic statement turned a blade of guilt in Damali's side. She didn't want to revisit the earlier attraction or trust that had allowed her to foolishly let Cain bite her.

"Then why the long face?" Nefertiti asked, tilting her regal head. "Especially if you think he somehow came into your home as vam�pire illusion and beat you up in the image of your husband, I say gore the bastard."

"The problem may be more complex, Nefertiti," Aset murmured, gazing at Damali.

Throwing her shoulders back, Damali nodded. "It wasn't straight vamp illusion, my queen. That I could have handled, and would have seen right through it."

"I don't understand," Nefertiti said, folding her arms over her chest.

"Carlos and Cain both have a throne connection," Damali said slowly, working out major sections of the twisted puzzle in her own mind as she spoke. "They were both made from Dante, one way or another, and they therefore share the same DNA. They both sat in Dante's throne near or during their apex time, and were both Neteru brothers."

"Yes," Nefertiti said, coming closer. "But..."

"It wasn't an outright attack. Carlosbattle bit Damali, on theirhon�eymoon -so you can only imagine when the urge to bite her oc�curred," Aset said, her eyes holding renewed panic.

Nefertiti covered her mouth. "When?" she whispered, dropping her hand away slowly.

"Last night," Damali said quietly, looking at the floor. "Like Aset said, on our honeymoon."

Nefertiti grabbed Aset's arms. "Last night Cain took the throne! In an apex! With the imperative to sire clutching him in its grip? Heaven forbid this! He isn't sterile like other vampires." Nefertiti's eyes were wild as her voice briefly escalated and then dropped to a horrified whisper. "Eve's son is beyond virile. His motheris fertility. His fatherowned the pleasure principle of raw lust. If Cain was dark energy fus�ing with Carlos while Carlos was physically inside our queen sister-"

"I know," Aset said, her gaze tearing between Nefertiti and Damali. "He could have hurt her internally, and that I can fix if necessary. But as we can see, thankfully Damali stands before us, a bit exhausted from the trauma, but not hemorrhaging. However, my greater concern is that the two males are not so linked that in the future-especially during a battle, Carlos's mind could be compromised by Cain."

"It wasn't Carlos's mind that was compromised," Damali said flatly.

"Aset!" Nefertiti said in a tight whisper, shaking her older queen sister. "Listen to what Damali is saying to you. You said it yourself: "Her husband battle bit her on their honeymoon-and when do you think this might have occurred?"

Aset opened and closed her mouth as Nefertiti just nodded. Nefer�titi let her hands fall away from Aset's arms.

"Oh, daughter... I know it was a bit awkward, but it was just an energy fusion of both sexually active males, not a true tryst-and their combined prowess might have left you a bit off kilter. You'll re�cover your energies very shortly, I'm sure." Aset sighed impatiently as she glanced at Damali, and then back to her upset queen sister. "Ne�fertiti, calm yourself. This will all change once Damali slays Cain. He won't be able to ride Carlos's old link after that, and I'm absolutely positive that once the vital link is severed, your husband will return to his normal self. There should be no more violent outbursts. What is of greater import is that Cain not be allowed to link to Carlos while he's in battle with Carlos... The bedroom is a lower priority con�cern, given all we face. Worry about the battle, not the bedroom, is my advice."

"I cannot fathom how Cain's energy could have entered your household to bond so severely to Carlos, though." Nefertiti flung her long microbraids over her shoulder and refolded her arms. "It doesn't make sense. Nothing is that powerful to come between man and wife once sealed from On High... that is the ultimate prayer barrier, and not even Neteru Councils can see into that space. The only way something insidious can slither in from the outside to turn one part�ner against the other is for it to be invited in-and Iknow neither Damali nor Carlos did that."

"Cain had my blood in his veins through a previous, willing, throat offering," Damali said just above a whisper, "and it was still in his sys�tem seven days later when I got married and was on my honeymoon."

Nefertiti and Aset's collective gasp felt like the cutting edge of an Isis against Damali's skin.

Damali squeezed her eyes closed and tears wet her lashes. "I have to go into battle and slay Cain, but I don't know how I'm ever gonna make this right with my husband. Nefertiti, what do I tell him?"

"I don't know," Nefertiti murmured. "This is my fault... When I sent you in there to seduce Cain to get back the Caduceus and to seal him away again, I forgot to tell you not to give him your blood. Oh, my..." Nefertiti clasped her hands together over her chest. "Does Carlos have to know about the blood transfer? Couldn't we just attribute it all to the dark energies swirling on the planet?"

Damali just stared at Nefertiti for a moment. She could notbelieve her queen justforgot. Incredible. Still, she couldn't really get angry about the oversight and lay all the blame at Nefertiti's feet. Unfortu�nately, she had to take the weight for this one alone, and suck it up and be honest. "It happened before I went in for the Caduceus," Damali muttered, "so it wasn't on you. But none of that matters. I've already admitted it to Carlos and-"

"What would make you do that?" Nefertiti shrieked, causing Aset to clasp her hand over her mouth.

"Why would you tell him?" Aset said quickly in a tense whisper, her luminous eyes wide with disbelief. "He's a man, and doesn't need to know all." She let go of Nefertiti and both queens stood before Damali with their arms folded.

"Because it happened onmy honeymoon, and Carlos and I weren't usinganything... He was burning solid gold symbol that went white-hot, okaaaay? So was I. And you know if Cain was at the height of a denied apex, the way I left that brother in Nod... shit. Then he took a tumble inDante's throne? Double shit, ladies. You and I know that Cain wasn't shooting blanks when he finally got his groove on down there. And if Cain somehow used my blood as a beacon and then rode Carlos's energy through the preexisting link they had, or there was some kinda DNA mix up..." Damali caught her weight against a pillar with both hands. It became blurry as hot moisture built in her eyes as she spoke.

"You should have seen the look in my husband's eyes. I might as well have cut his heart out on that beach. I never want to hurt Carlos like that again in my life, or see Carlos's eyes stare back at me with that incredible disbelief thatI, of all the people in the world, could do something like this to him." Hot tears rolled down Damali's cheeks and she didn't bother to wipe them away. "That man never looked at me with disgust in his life," she said thickly, a sob brewing very close to her surface.

She didn't look up when she heard the older queens swallow hard, and her voice broke as she told them the truth. "This may sound weak, may sound foolish up here in the Neteru Queens' Council with everything else that's going on, but ladies, I'm being real... If that man walks, I don't know what I'll do."

Damali pushed off the pillar and wrapped her arms around her waist. "Fate of the world?" she said, looking at the floor. "My world just experienced a cataclysmic wipeout. Yeah, I'll go down and battle, whateva. Try to save humanity, yeah, yeah, yeah, but when it's all said and done, then what? I've been to Hell and back for that man, love the ground he walks on. Life without him would be what to me? I might as well be the living dead, soulless, just walking around in a stupor without my soul mate. I can't be carrying nobody else's baby but his." She shook her head and closed her eyes again. "Oh,my God, you should have seen his face."

"Oh... my God..." Aset whispered, rushing to Damali with Nefertiti.

"We have to fix this," Nefertiti whispered through her teeth. "History cannot repeat itself in such a manner." She touched Damali's tears. "If you are carrying, Eve is the only one we can go to in order to get a paternity divination... and if she learns that you are with child, her hopes that it is Cain's will make her even more irrational."

Aset nodded, walking in a tight line back and forth, hugging her�self. "She will want any part of it to be Cain's, as that will be the last flicker of Light within his being. He may have gone dark, but his fu�ture holds the heritage of a Neteru in the Light-and Eve will be on Damali like a wasp to ensure the pregnancy comes to term, that the child is reared in an envelope of total love, and she'll attempt to relive every motherly mistake she thinks she ever made by assisting in the upbringing of this child."

"The marriage will crumble under that weight," Nefertiti said in a faraway voice.

"Carlos is not Adam," Damali said, her voice strained. "He wouldn't stick around long enough for it to be all that, if I know any�thing about the man. At first, I think he'd try to hold on, but the big�ger I got..." Damali let her voice trail off as multiple negative scenarios played out in her mind.

"Eve wouldn't care," Aset said quietly. "She would bring all her powers to bear to help Damali raise the child alone.. In fact, if I know my queen sister's weeping heart, she would prefer it that way... would want Carlos out of the picture in hopes that her son would come around to change for the sake of the new baby."

Nefertiti looked at Aset. "Maybe we could develop a compromise to save the marriage and let Eve raise the child here, so that-"

Damali held up her hand, cutting off Nefertiti's words. "Don't evenask me to give my baby up if I'm pregnant."

"I'm sorry," Nefertiti said, her eyes containing so much compas�sion that tears flowed over her onyx lashes. Egyptian kohl was run�ning down her cheeks and a sob made her cover her mouth with her hand. "Even slaying Cain will not fix this. Yet, we are bound to sav�ing the world at large and never taking a soul... and, still, my heart shatters for my sister's personal loss. Aset, advise us."

"Just scan me, Aset," Damali whispered, her tone desperate. "At least let me know now what I'm dealing with so I can get my head right to go into battle. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll die on the job and that way at least-"

"Don't say that, Damali!" Aset whispered, silver tears streaming down her cheeks as she paced. "Maybe we can send a petition up to the angels? This was larceny, not an act of intent... This young queen didn't know-Cain may have done this through a blood heist, since she never actually bedded him. He broke into a marital chamber using an old blood siphon from before, not one given once our sister got married."

"But they take so long on matters this involved up there," Nefertiti wailed. "The debate over this, and with Cain's dark decision, who knows, maybe they want to teach Hell a lesson that no matter the parentage, free will to go into the Light reigns supreme? We never know how they do things all the way up there, what mysteries are un�folding until they do!"

"Just scan me," Damali said, holding Aset's arm. "I have to know. You healed me before when-"

"I can't," Aset said, pulling Damali into an embrace. "Before when I went in to scan you, all queens stood with me united. Before, I was healing the damage to your womb that Dante's claw created, but I was not going in there to see whose baby it was. The small embryo was not there. If I attempt a scan, Eve will know."

Damali dropped her head to Aset's shoulder. But just as suddenly as she'd done that, all three queens jerked their heads up at the distur�bance coming down the hall. Nzinga was body blocking Eve, and yet Eve had deftly rounded her with the other queens on her heels.

"Why do you hide her from me!" Eve shouted, striding down the Great Hall in a billowing swirl of opalescent energy. "I have felt her pulse since the moment she entered our domain, yet I waited for her to come into the oval. Do you think I'm stupid, that I have lost all sensing capacity? Is this how you treat your most grieved sister?"

Nzinga lowered her battle-ax and the other queens parted. Eve slowly approached Damali, her ruby robe flowing in a long train be�hind her.

Damali stared at Eve's face. Her eyes were red and puffy from what she knew had been unrelenting sobs. Eve's coloring was ashen, mak�ing her once dewy brown complexion seem nearly gray in pallor. Even the regal queen's hair that was normally wound up in thick, dark locks was down on her shoulders, and beginning to get threads of graying silver within it. Worry lines creased her once flawless brow, and her eyes had a mad, disoriented look in them. Dark circles gave Eve the appearance of a woman slowly dying from within. Damali made a note to herself-before she took off Cain's head, she'd gore his heart by letting him know just what his foul behavior had done to his beloved mother.

"So, tell me," Eve said, standing in front of Damali with her head held high, new tears of rage slowly filling her large brown eyes. "How will you seduce my son to his death? What is the plan?"

Damali lifted her chin. "I will respect his parentage, the fact that he was once a Neteru, and for the sake of all humanity, I will make it swift and painless. He deserves that, as do you, dear Eve."

Eve nodded. "At least you are honest and have told me to my face, unlike my sisters. I see that your cheeks, like mine, are stained with tears of remorse-for that I thank you. I appreciate that you once loved him."

Damali kept her mouth shut, neither agreeing with or denying the charge, as she stared into Eve's tormented eyes. What would be the point of hurting Eve by correcting her and saying she'd never felt like that about Cain? But it wasn't a lie that she regretted having to exe�cute him.

A slow exhale of defeat exited Eve's body and made her dignified shoulders lower. "I had so hoped that he would cling to your Light, Damali... or that in Nod, he would find an angel." Eve swallowed hard and wrapped her arms around herself. "If he had found an angel... a healing one, from the Powers group on Ring Six, if not a Neteru queen, then he might have had a chance. If he escaped, and sired with the right female, the Light of what he made would have anchored him to our side and perhaps brought him back to our side of the family." Eve opened her arms out slowly. "Do you not see what I had prayed for? But he only found a Neteru queen who had already given her heart over to another like him." Eve shook her head. "Why couldn't you have chosen my son over Carlos?"

In that moment as Eve stood before her, Eve's beautiful, pained eyes searching hers, Damali knew that everything her elder queens had told her was true. Everything that Marlene had told her about a mother and a son was also true. Pity choked Damali's words and kept them lodged in her throat. She so badly wanted to tell Eve that no woman could change a man that way. He had to man-up on his own and make his own choices, just like Carlos had done-andthat was why she'd picked the man with superior spiritual strength to be her husband. The physical wasn't the issue; Cain was as fine a specimen as there ever was... seemed to have it all going on. But he was weak at the core if you put him in a lineup next to Carlos Rivera, in her mind.

"Eve, there is no way for me to answer your question," Damali whispered gently, watching the older queen lower her arms to her side.

If her heart wasn't racing so fast, she would have pressed Eve's hand to it to send the truth into the elder queen's palm... She would have said, dearest Queen Mother of all mothers, you know you are grabbing at straws. Your son is now a man, and that man made an ir�reversible choice... and now, even as his mother, you can't fix this for him.

Eve just set her jaw hard and looked away. Quiet mourning filled the Great Hall and the other queens respectfully lowered their gazes. Damali knew in her soul that, if no one,not even the queens, had been able to detect something that had presented while she was in Carlos's arms, namely, wings-that was something to keep strictly between him and her. Eve was already edging toward the high treason of po�tentially aiding and abetting her son through weakening the queens' efforts; all that Eve would need to learn is that she did have a little an�gel in her genes. Now it also made so much sense to Damali why even during the first scan by Aset, this part of her being was always hid�den... even from her. The situation was beyond volatile.

"Eve... I am so sorry," Damali finally whispered, truly meaning it. But it was futile to try to get Eve to come to terms with the fact that her son had most likely gone primarily dark years ago.

"As am I," Eve whispered, dropping her shoulders. "Then I guess there is nothing further for any of us to discuss."

Suddenly Eve looked so frail, so delicate, like a wilting red hibiscus that would drop its petals and soon blow away in the wind.

"We have to strengthen her, Eve," Nzinga said quietly, gaining nods from the other bereft queens. "She cannot go into battle with her powers waning. It will take all of us standing together and holding the image of her victory as one... just like we always do."

"Please, Eve," Joan said softly. "I was a warrior who led men in bat�tles and what is coming for the planet... our sister must be strong."

"How can I hold the image of my son's death in my mind?" Eve murmured, slowly drawing away from the group. "I cannot even hold the image of feminine conception in it, much less the death of my own child. No more children... the heartbreak is too much for the female spirit. Let the men war until the earth is a black cinder and you may join them in collecting the charred spoils of bone and ash and let your female war cries demand heads on pikes. I will not bring forth new life, under these conditions. I am dying from it all."

The stunned gathering of queens watched in horror as Eve slowly strode away, her shoulders bent, her breathing as labored as her wob�bly gait.

"Since last night," Nzinga said after Eve had closed herself away into a chamber, "all conception on the planet has ceased. Not even the flowers are reproducing. Nary a gnat has spawned. We don't have to wait for Cain's armies to eliminate life-he can simply stay in Hell for a season and the delicate ecosystem of nature will collapse. He's dragged his mother's heart into Dante's throne with him. Damali, we have never experienced anything so profoundly dangerous through�out the centuries!"

"Send Damali every battle tactic you own and the use of your most cherished gifts, sisters, that she may be victorious. There is much at stake, and too much riding on the outcome for personal grief to sway the results. Our young queen sister is, like Eve, emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausted. Replenish her. She must continue to fight," Nefertiti said. She cast a loving gaze in Damali's direction, holding Damali's secret and embedding a discreet message of support in her words. "Even though the personal sacrifice is difficult."

"Encircle her," Aset commanded. "Infuse her with all that we have left, even if it is not the fullness of our supply, it is our best chance."

Aset held Damali by the arms and opened her mind to Damali's. A small, glowing violet pyramid began to pulse in the center of Aset's forehead.Do not despair or lose hope. We will take your petition up to the Powers Angels for mediation. Also, as you heard Nzinga's words-all concep�tion ceased last night. It will be my silver-sent prayer on an urgent wind that it also included you. However, we won't know until your menses. After what we have seen of Eve's frame of mind, I do not want to risk a scan that she can detect.

Damali nodded.Neither do I, Great Queen. Neither do I.

The team knew the drill; everybody fall out and scramble to gather the weapons and necessities within their area of expertise. J.L. and Krissy rushed around the hacienda grabbing laptops and any com�puter hardware the team might need on the road. Marjorie and Juanita were on weather protection, ensuring that if the team went to cold climes or the desert, they had blankets, tents, sleeping bags, what�ever could protect against the elements.

Inez was on kitchen detail, stashing K-rations in a box, bottled wa�ter, and every deadly piece of cutlery she could lay her hands on. Shabazz, Rider, Berkfield, and Bobby were on guns, while Big Mike, Dan, and Jose were rounding up explosives and projectiles. Marlene was on communications and spiritual shields-her first point of con�tact was to the Covenant, the second to the telephone network of North American Guardian teams, then the sister packed her big black bag. It was a worldwide call to arms.

The two newest members of the team were runners, frantically go�ing from team cluster in the house to team cluster, responding quickly to whatever the more senior Guardians bellowed for them to fetch. Several times Heather almost bumped into Jasmine and vice versa, and everyone went still when the two collided with an ammo duffle.

"That's it!" Rider shouted. "Out! You two go stand on the porch and watch the freakin'sky for signs of our Neterus coming home, but my nerves can't take another grenade bag dropping."

Heather covered her mouth and jumped back from the army bag so fast that her back hit a wall. Jasmine's eyes had widened so quickly that even Rider had to smile.

"Go watch the sky," Marlene muttered. "If the demons don't get us, our own team will," she said, looking up from the satellite phone she was speaking into.

Both team newbies dashed through the house and ran out onto the steps, and then kept going until they were near the water.

"I thought Gabrielle said we would be safe here?" Heather wailed, holding on to Jasmine's arm.

Jasmine pushed Heather's thicket of auburn ringlets back and stared up into her gray, wondering eyes. "If what has just happened did, then Gabrielle's houses could be overrun by vampires. They'll all have to feed-and she has an outstanding debt with you know who. Gabrielle was always good to us and trying to save us, and no one has called her." Jasmine looked back at the house. "We have to get word to her, or at least get one of the others to try... I think Rider would do it, if Damali and Carlos wouldn't."

Tears rose in Jasmine's pretty, almond-shaped eyes as her petite body filled Heather's arms. Heather stroked her jet black hair and clung to her, looking up to the sky, trying not to sob.

"We never leave our own," Heather said. "We are a part of her coven, and we owe her..." But Heather's words trailed off as she tensed and stared up at a darkening sky.

Both newbie Guardians looked up, not sure what to make of the spectacle above them. The crystal clear blue sky over La Paz had been ruptured by several horizontal, dark streaking clouds that looked like the wake of an aircraft going down. It was as though minitornadoes were swirling on a sideways funnel that was headed directly toward them. Without consulting each other, both women immediately broke their hugs, pivoted, and dashed toward the hacienda, screaming.

Mike, Rider, and Shabazz were on the porch first, and they took one glance at the newbies as the others joined them and then looked up at the sky in unison.

"Incoming," Rider shouted.

Each Guardian dashed back into the house, with Dan and Bobby yanking the two newbies in with them. Safeties came off weapons, Mike took a position by a window with an RPG shoulder launcher, and the sound of clips clicking into place as each team member took a position was the only sound in the house.

The blast that hit the beach rocked the house, blowing out win�dows and sending glass shrapnel everywhere.

"Heads down, people!" Shabazz ordered, covering his position. "Get those two newbies down!"

Heather was breathing through her mouth in short pants, her cheek pressed to the floor. Perspiration rolled down the center of her back, making her tank top skin. But she saw something. Almost too scared to scream she trained her eyes on the doorway down the hall. A fast-moving shadow put her on her feet with a scream. "It's in here, in the house!"

"Stay down!" Dan shouted, gripping the back of her shirt and forcing her to the floor. "You wanna get your head blown off?"

"It's back there in the bedrooms," she said panting. "I saw it under the door when it passed through the sunlight."

"Yo, something went past sunlight, and we've got motion, two o'clock," Dan shouted.

"There's another one," Jasmine shrieked, covering her face and be�coming a tiny ball next to Bobby.

"Mike, you on it?" Shabazz hollered from his position.

"Moving fast, two o'clock, ten o'clock, eight o'clock-there's more than one."

"Then blow this sucker," Rider said. He glanced over the back of a sofa and got a nod from Shabazz.

Both team sharpshooters positioned themselves to smoke any�thing coming out of Mike's blast. Mike stood. A huge demon ap�peared in the hallway. The rocket-propelled grenade left its housing, and blew out the back wall of the house. An instant hail of bullets followed. A low growl rumbled and that demon's tail could be seen flashing away in escape before five more green-and-black-scaled en�tities with gold glowing eyes and black wings slipped through the smoke, but didn't appear hit. They moved like lightning, and the salt rings and holy water that Marlene cast in their paths didn't slow them down.

"Get that prayer barrier up, Mar," Jose shouted. "I'm doing hollow point packed with church dirt and these boys ain't stopping!"

Dan popped up, slingshot in hand, and exploded several bottles of holy water at the yawning gap in the house that was ablaze. Six more demons strode through it, seeming puzzled but not injured in the least, before dodging away from the Guardians' gunfire.

"Fall back!" Berkfield yelled, as the entities approached, slipping from protective hiding place to hiding place, and seeming to be able to take a bullet, summarily heal a tertiary wound, but keep advancing. "These boys ain't going down like they should, people!"

Mike was on his feet again, new RPG loaded, and Rider and Shabazz hadn't stopped firing, nor had the rest of the group. Jose scrambled on the floor behind furniture to the duffle bag that had crossbows, yanked it open, and began quickly loading.

"In the heart!" Jose hollered. "Dead aim is the only way!"

Bobby was out of ammo with a dead clip, and he rolled over to�ward a duffle bag but was forced back by another RPG blast. "Throw me a clip! I'm out," he shouted, panicked.

"Take a hostage," a low, demon voice rumbled through the in�ferno. "Where is the Neteru?"

Smoke and the danger of structural collapse were forcing the Guardian team into a corner. The fight would soon be on the beach as Guardians broke windows with gun butts and fell back, trying to hold their positions behind flimsy cover. But that option was sure massacre.

A clip was hurled toward Bobby by his father, but as he reached for it, a long tail lassoed his arm, pulled, and he was over the couch being dragged to sudden death. Marjorie was on her feet shrieking with Krissy. Rounds were going off, but Marj dashed forward, her hands outstretched before her, going into the smoke behind Bobby and whatever held him.

Berkfield shouted his wife's name to no avail, and then everything seemed to happen in slow motion as Marjorie released a battle cry, and white lightning ejected from her fingers into the billowing smoke. A thud was heard, whatever had been dragging Bobby re�treated, and he jumped off the floor, grabbed his mother's arm, and pulled her back behind the couch. Jasmine and Krissy were sobbing, but Bobby couldn't catch his breath to answer their frantic questions about his condition. His mother had him pressed to her breasts, and there was no fear in her eyes.

"You want my son, you bastards, then you gotta come through me!" Marjorie shouted. "Give me a fucking gun, Richard. I'm going into that smoke to blow their heads off!"

"Truce!" a loud voice shouted with demon inflection.

"We did not come to war but to warn," another garbled voice shouted from beyond the smoke.

"Hold your fire," a light female voice said.

Everyone looked at one another.

"I do not regenerate like my friends. If you shoot me, I will be mortally injured."

"Then state your business," Shabazz hollered, jamming a new clip into the handle of his nine.

"We're looking for Carlos. We need amnesty."

The soot-and-sweat-smudged team passed confused glances.

"Who you be then, sis?" Mike hollered, raising his RPG as the smoke began to part with a form. But he lowered it slowly as a frag�ile, nymphlike entity with white wings stepped through the soot, slightly dirty and looking suspiciously like an angel.

"Demon illusion," Rider said. "On three, right in the center of her head."

As soon as he said it, a huge half-gargoyle half-male with black and green skin leapt before the nymph and wrapped his wings around her. "Kill her and I will lose my soul up in the godforsaken house-and you call yourselves Guardians?"

Rider looked at Marlene. "Wait... did dude just say the name of the Most High, or did I hear wrong? Mike, talk to me."

Big Mike lowered his weapon. "Speak!"

The nymph began coughing and the larger demons stood around her, gently trying to hold her and get her to a window.

"She needs air. She cannot tolerate the ash and soot of an in�ferno... we must take her outside."

The team slowly stood and looked at each other, and then watched the brigade of demons carry the small being, swathed in white like she were a doll.

"Oh, baby... come on, breathe for me," the large creature with a six-foot wingspan said through his fangs.

Marlene and Rider and Shabazz just looked at each other.

"I'm a healer," Marlene said, "and we got us another pretty good medic, too," she added, glancing at Berkfield.

"The escape through the barrier was a rough ride, and the distor�tion of energy may have affected her." The entity looked up at Mar�lene with normal brown eyes holding deep concern. "Can you help her?"

"Is she an angel?" Marlene asked, folding her arms over her chest.

"At my age I'm way too old to be picking up no spiritual attachment in the streets."

"She's a hybrid... part that, part nymph, and the sweetest spirit you would ever know," the entity said, no longer looking at Marlene, but down at the small dirty creature in his arms that was struggling to breathe.

"Marlene..." Shabazz said, shaking his head. "At least have them put her down on the beach and back off."

Rider pulled his shirt over his head and flung it to the demon squad. "Lay her down on the sand for our lead medic to work on her. Then you gentlemen would be so kind as to give her like fifty feet."

The large one holding the nymph nodded and complied. "Just make her better."