The Wicked (Vampire Huntress Legend 8)

CHAPTER TEN

The carnage that met Damali's eyes made her run toward the villa in a flat-out dash. Big Mike was on the ground panting, sweat pouring down his contorted face as he struggled against a huge section of deck-rail wood that had pierced his abdomen like a stake. The over�whelmed nymph flitted anxiously between Mike and Hubert as she furiously tried to heal wounds, not sure of who to tend to first, her loyalties severely divided.

"Medic! Marlene!" Damali shouted, coming to a hard slide next to Mike in the sand. "Berkfield! We've got a man down!"

Berkfield struggled to rise from the sand, dazed from the blast, but couldn't. On a mission to save a life, undaunted, he tried to drag his injured leg with a compound fracture behind him. He yelled out in pain as the broken thigh bone shifted under his skin.

"Okay, okay, stand down," Damali said quickly, realizing that Berk�field was too weak from his own injuries to help her heal. She gently pressed one hand to Mike's forehead to siphon away the pain, causing him to groan when she touched her other hand near the gaping wound, and then threw her head back, panting. "Where's Mar? I need another healer to go in with me," Damali called out. She opened her eyes and looked down at Mike. "You hang in there with me, Michael Roberts. You hear me, you big ox!"

Inez came through the shattered doors first, screamed, and rushed to kneel beside Damali. "Oh, Jesus, Lord have mercy!" she said, rock�

ing on her knees next to Mike with her arms wrapped around her waist.

"Whereis Marlene?" Damali shouted.

"She fell down hard and hit her head on the counter trying to body-shield Sara from a black blast. Marjorie is trying to get her up," Inez said, choked. "She was unconscious."

Jose was flat on his back where he'd been blown from the roof. Juanita was hunched over him, patting his face trying to bring him around, while also trying to pick thick panels of glass out of his chest with shaking fingers.

"Don't move him," Damali ordered. "He could have injured his spine from the way he fell-I'll get to him in a minute, after I triage this man who's bleeding out."

J.L. was sitting on the sand, his head leaned back against the villa, his eyes closed and clutching his right arm to his side. Krissy ripped her T-shirt and began making a tourniquet and shrieked to Damali as she realized that the limb had been nearly severed from a black light�ning strike.

"Damali! He'll lose his arm!" Krissy screamed, frantically working to stop the bleeding.

"Tie the tourniquet as tight as you can and start working on that man-stat! Focus everything you've got to start knitting tissue back together!" Damali hollered across the beach.

The moment Krissy touched J.L., he arched with a wailing sob. His agony set Damali's teeth on edge and she watched flickering blue static run down J.L.'s body and terminate where the limb had been disconnected to only hang by ligaments and muscle.

"Don't touch me! Please, don't move it!" he screamed, sobbing.

"He's a tactical," Damali yelled to Krissy. "Stop the bleeding! Ig�nore his cries and work on him if you wanna save that arm! Connect his own energy arc from his upper body to the dying forearm, use your hands as a bridge, and juice him, once you secure the tourniquet. Sit on his ass if you have to!"

Damali's gaze shot around to take note of any other wounded. Af�ter the siege, the villa had now turned into a makeshift M.A.S.H. unit triage on the beach. Bobby was being helped to his feet by Jasmine, clearly still reeling from the effects of a hard fall off the deck and nursing a postblast concussion. Dan was out cold with a black smol�dering stripe across his chest. Heather was administering CPR, giving Dan the breath of life.

"Get your hands into it," Damali said, pulling more pain away from Mike as she slowed his internal hemorrhaging. "Thump on that man's chest! Get his heart started-he took a black blast!"God, just don't let Dan have fractured his skull or Jose have snapped his neck or spine.

Damali squeezed her eyes shut as Mike shuddered, groaned, and began going into shock. "I need the Caduceus," she said between her teeth, turning her face skyward to send her complaint up to Heaven. "To heal my team in battle, queens hear me."

We cannot send it to heal demons,Aset's sad mental voice murmured on the wind.It is forbidden.

"What are you talking about?" Damali screamed, now putting both hands on Mike's abdomen. "I am working on my Guardians! Hu�mans!"

Do NOT unfurl your wings before your team,Aset warned.Not with hybrid demons in your midst. Their legions must NEVER know. It is bad enough that Cain has learned this truth. That's an order from On High!

Then send the Caduceus!

Your team has been infected by a Level Seven demon genesis. The sacred Staff of Imhotep cannot be utilized in this manner. Once demon energy bonds to its serpents, the Caduceus would be their greatest weapon against us. Heaven forbade me to send it to you, child.

"I don't care what they said!" Damali shouted. "My team is-"

A thick white lightning bolt split the dark heavens above Damali's head and made her and Inez duck down.

The queens wish to help, but we have been given EXPLICIT orders that we dare not violate. You marriage is in jeopardy of annulment for the same reason-just like we cannot send in the Covenant to reinforce you now. Even they are unaware, just like your team is blind to the truth of what you are. Any of those who love you will not do what is necessary should the time come, and could also be corrupted to leak classified information to the wrong side at a perilous hour. Because of free will, as you know, humans are vulnerable to sway and to misguided empathy.

"What the hell are you talking about, Aset!" Damali briefly looked up at the sky. "Don't get shaky on me now, ladies.Not tonight." She returned her attention to her agonized Guardian brother, trying to blot out Aset's voice in order to concentrate fully on keeping Big Mike alive.

You, as a descendentofa Powers Angel-the highest form of healer, second only to archangels, were NEVER to marry or consort with a being that still has remnant tracesofvampire demon in his DNA. Carlos is your soul mate and has been reborn in the Light, but after his rebirth, once redeemed and clean, he was to never have taken a dark throne again-and definitely not the most deadly one of that insidious realm.Ifhe had beenclean,yourangelic lin�eage would have strengthened him as the strongest Neteru to have ever lived. Your progeny was to be without question a child of the Light.

"Aset," Damali begged, sobbing. "Help my team. Forget about whatever else! We can deal with that later!"

We cannot. I must tell you all now. The recessive gene that Carlos could possibly release from his loins has both Neteru Councils scrambling for an an�swer. Damali, had we known what was in your lineage...Maybe we can beleaguer the point of your love for one another and ask them to save the mar�riage but render you sterile to one another, by merely canceling out your oppo�site genes.

"Mike is inbad shape, Aset," Damali said through a grimace, pain riddling her body as tears coursed down her face. "Later, we can deal with that later!"

Inez continued to stroke Mike's brow, trying to calm him as Damali worked.

No. You must know NOW! I have only been granted permission for this last conversation.

"Last talk? Aset, you guys are walking away? I have men dying on the beach!"

Queen Sister, regretfully this is the last time we shall be able to directly speak until Heaven draws a conclusion. Communication to us and the Covenant will be summarily terminated. The Covenant will be kept behind walls in vigil, as their impulse will he to come to you to assist you by any means necessary. You will be cut off.

"What!" Damali shrieked, and then quickly leaned in to put her ear to Mike's chest. "His heartbeat is getting erratic." She yanked her attention toward the glimpse of triangular violet light in the sky. "Don't pull this crap on me right now!"

All I can share is that Eve's grief still swaths the Earth with infertility. But even if nanosecond timing allowed Carlos to sire versus Cain before her spirit became afflicted by Cain's descent, the fractals of light still may not have come together in the right combination. We are only now coming to understand this. Our hands are tied, just as our hearts are bound by sorrow. All we can offer is to continue to send you our combined energy from a distance, but cannot mate�rialize with you in battle or in healings from this point forward, dear daugh�ter... Queen Sister.Aset's words ended in a sob.If what you are carrying is the worst of what could be-it could leach into our auras if we are in your density and presence, siphon that very old Neteru energy, and threaten to breach Ring One of Heaven. Then the very Gates of Heaven could come under siege. We have been ordered to wait for a sign. We cannot even allow you to visit our council, until we know.

Quiet hysteria briefly broke Damali's concentration, sending Mike into a convulsion. "C'mon, Mike, stay with me. Stay with me, man!"

Blood was everywhere as Damali tried to keep one hand near Mike's wound while using the other to feel for his pulse. "He's going into cardiac arrest!" Damali's gaze went to Inez, who was weeping and stroking Mike's brow. "Suck that bullshit up, pound on this man's chest, and keep him breathing while I work, if you want him to live!"

Inez quickly moved into place and kept up the rhythmic CPR, in�termittently pressing onto Mike's chest with both hands and blowing into his mouth, while Damali closed her eyes and focused heat around the broken vessels.

Damali,Aset said, her tone apologetic.We do have mercy. Our tears are yours. But there is a dark energy lesion surrounding your team. Carlos's old alliances are tipping the balance. This is what Heaven waits to witness. The individual choices of you, Carlos, and the team.

"I can't focus on that right now, Aset," Damali yelled. "If I can't show my... then work with me!"

Remove the wood from him,Aset said quietly.We will assist as best we can from here. If he does not recover, bury him on hallowed ground with full Guardian honors. The kings will send a retinue to escort his admirable spirit to Heaven.

Damali looked at Inez. It was not about losing Mike. Screw what Aset said! This was her brother!

"I'm gonna have to pull out the deck rail, and he's gonna raise up and holler good when I do," she told Inez in a panting command. "Use your body to hold down his shoulders." Damali kissed Mike's forehead, and tried to still his eyes, which were rolling back and forth beneath their lids. "Mike, I love you," she said, and then grasped the wood, yanked hard, and quickly turned her head when a section of his intestines came out with it.

The wail Mike released echoed on the beach and brought Marlene and Marjorie stumbling to the broken door. Berkfield dragged himself forward, reaching toward Mike before he dropped to the sand, unable to move another inch unassisted. Marlene dashed away from Marjorie, fell, got back up, and half-crawled, half-scrambled to Damali's side with blood running down her temple from her scalp, where she'd sus�tained a head wound. Marjorie was at Richard's side within seconds.

"Oh, Jesus, Richard," Marjorie said, touching his leg and making him cry out.

Damali's hands were slick with blood as she forced her hand into the gaping wound, shoving Mike's innards back into the hole as Mike cried out again in pain. She ignored his cries, shudders of agony claiming her as his suffering reached fever pitch. He was begging for her to stop and just let him die, but she had to blot all that out with a fervent, mental prayer for him to make it as she worked to save his life. Slivers of wood bit into her fingers and palm as she drew the frag�ments out along with the internal poisons his intestinal tract was in�ternally leaking into his bloodstream.

The fetid stench of broken bowels and the intensity of Mike's agony put a cold sheen of sweat over Damali's whole body. Inez held down his torso with her own body weight, receiving weak blows to her back as Mike fought in pain to get her off him while sobbing. Marlene instinctively grabbed Mike's legs and began working with Damali's healing in a weakened state. Inez continued to hold him down, dry heaving, trying not to vomit until Mike's body slowly calmed. Damali finally pulled her hand out of his abdomen, her entire body trembling as she rolled over on her side, gasping.

"Seal him up, Mar," Damali whispered through chattering teeth and then slowly pushed herself up to stand after a moment. She stag�gered forward as she looked at her fallen team. "We ain't losing no�body on my watch," she wheezed. "Marj, get a cup from the kitchen, take blood from Berkfield's inner elbow-other side than the one used earlier today. I'ma work on him, first, so he can help clean up this beach," she said through ragged breaths, "while Marj goes behind Marlene to close up everybody's gashes."

Damali bent and rested her bloody hands on her knees for a sec�ond, sucking in air. She glanced around, glad to see that Jose and Dan were finally semiconscious.

Carlos and Shabazz stood on the beach staring at the villa in shock, holding up Rider's limp body. The dwelling looked like it had been shelled with the entire team in it. Tara's disintegrating form was bound in a black silk sheet over Carlos's shoulder, and he let it slide off him to the sand. Shabazz caught Rider's weight as Carlos dashed forward. Damali was lying facedown on the beach with a group of demons and a nymph hostage standing over her. The rest of the team was in varying states of injury grouped around his wife, unable to protect the fallen.

Dirty faces stained with tears and eyes stricken with pure terror looked up at Carlos as he made his way to Damali, calling the blade of Ausar into his grip, and running forward, sword raised, clearly ready to take a demon head. Shabazz eased Rider to the sand and began run�ning, Sleeping Beauty leveled at the closest demon standing near Mar�lene.

"They're on our side!" Berkfield said in an exhausted croak.

"Allies!"Marlene shouted.

"Hold your fire!" Marjorie yelled, scrambling to her feet to protect Hubert.

Shabazz slowed to a jog, coming up behind Carlos.

"What the fuck happened?" Carlos said, going to Damali but look�ing at the hybrids with suspicion.

"She healed a near mortal wound that Mike caught in the gut," Marlene said breathing hard, "after expending nearly all her energy in a battle against Cain. Three quarters of the team sustained serious in�juries, but she sealed 'em up with me, Marj, and Berkfield--Juanita, Krissy, Inez, and Jasmine didn't do too bad on assist, either. We'll live. So will she." Marlene motioned toward the nymph. "Sara sealed up her team, but they weren't as bad off."

Sara looked at Carlos and then dropped to her knees in exhaustion and awe. "The fabled one."

The eleven demon hybrids that had surrounded the nymph all went down on one knee.

"We are honored to serve you," the large hybrid named Hubert said. "If we die at your side, the Light shall accept us."

Carlos inhaled and Hubert's blood tracer matched the ripped T-shirt Rider had given him earlier. "All right. You check out," Car�los said, ramming his blade into the sand to free his hands so he could gently lift Damali. "You guys wait outside. Sara and the rest of the team go in the house." He stood and looked at Shabazz, and then at Marlene. "Tie Rider to a chair, then wake him up. 'Bazz, me and you dig the grave. Mar, we need you to stand in as chaplain."

Marlene got to her feet with a grunt, her eyes frantic. "Who's in the body bag?"

"Tara," Carlos said flatly, stepping over debris with Damali in his arms. "She didn't make it."

The villa's living room became the recovery ward. Newly healed Guardians rested and sipped water slowly as those less injured tended to them. Damali rested on a stool with her head in her hands, barely able to remain upright, but she'd refused to go to sleep until she knew for sure each Guardian would be all right. But it was the news about Tara that most pained her heart. Rider's bellows from the bedroom simply made her close her eyes as quiet tears fell.

"What went wrong?" Damali whispered, searching Carlos's eyes. "Why would Yonnie do something like that?"

"I don't think he meant to," Carlos said quietly as they both lis�tened to Shabazz trying to reason with Rider down the hall. "It was the look in his eyes, and he'd asked me to heal her... but I couldn't. Her spirit had vacated her body before I could even touch her... Lopez came for her." That was all Carlos could say over the thick lump that had formed in his throat.

"Can I pray over her remains?" Sara asked, drawing Carlos and Damali's attention. She looked at Marlene. "Your mother-seer helped us all, helped me. Your team has taken us in, and no matter what your Tara had become, she was your family... therefore your loss some�how feels like ours, too."

Carlos nodded. "Yeah, it's cool. Thanks. She could use whatever Light you can send her way. The only thing that's gonna keep Yonnie and Rider from losing it might be knowing her soul really went with Lopez to Heaven and isn't down in the pit."

Damali nodded and grabbed Carlos's hand across the butcher block. "Need to talk to you. Open a channel."

He stared at her.What else went down?

She told him in fits and starts what Aset had said, fighting back a sob while looking him dead in the eyes.

They're not annulling shit.He looked away from her.Nothing comes between me and you.

Damali nodded.If I'm not already carrying for you, I might be sterile to you anyway. Aset said something about the council's ensuring that our genes would cancel each other out, which is moot anyway, because as long as Eve is grieving, there is no such thing as conception. But I'm still at risk for a fusion between you and Cain, or your seed could have beaten his to fertilize an egg first by nanoseconds. Even still, if it did... Damali swallowed hard and looked at the counter.Wedon't know what we've made.

I don't want to think about this now. I can't.

Carlos pulled out of the private telepathy and let his breath out hard. "We've gotta move this battered squad to Central Mexico with the quickness, but I'm nervous about moving them in a hard energy whirl until everything has set with their healing for twenty-four hours. Right now, with energy from Nod escaping, a new energy par�adigm has to be seeping into the planet-I can feel it."

"So can I," Damali said quietly, staring at him. "If the age-old truth is correct, 'As above, so below,' then maybe things are haywire on the darkside, because it sure is getting strange on our side."

Carlos leaned across the counter and dropped his voice to a tense whisper. "This hybrid energy, if it surfaces in humans, could mean anything. We've eventually gotta go clean out the nests of Cain loyal�ists in Nod, and let the good hybrids go back there, D. Long term, these refugees can't stay in the Gray Zone. Think about it. How long do you think it would take, if conception is ever possible again, before normal people would have all sorts of combinations with the entities in Nod, and superpowers to go with it-not to mention free will to use that strength? If we help that happen, we'd be going against the oldest banishment edict in the Good Book." Carlos glanced around and leaned in closer. "I'm trying to walk the straight and narrow dur�ing these last biblical days, D, for real. Maybe that's why the Light had to pull back from us... to see what we'd do, especially since you and I, technically, are hybrids ourselves."

She closed her eyes and allowed her head to drop forward, almost too overwhelmed to think about it all in one sitting. "You're right," was all the response she could muster.

"My other concern is this," Carlos pressed on, squeezing her hands tighter as his inner panic built. "Hubert and company are gonna have to get to Central Mexico the best way they can, because with a team that's dipping in life energy pulse, the added weight of hybrids can throw me off course-which cannot happen."

"I know," Damali said, her gaze now going to Tara's body, which was wrapped in a black silk sheet on the beach. "We need to bury Tara, too. If we get hit again tonight by vamps or weres..."

"It'll be just me, you, and Shabazz-maybe Hubert's squad. Every�body else is beat to hell. I'm not even feeling you in the mix, right through here, especially going solo against what just hit this beach."

Damali clasped Carlos's hands and sent the full battle into his mind, showing him the aerial assault, and how the Level One tunnels were used to hide Cain's hybrid army beneath the earth to then bring them up through the ocean in the Bermuda Triangle and Asian triangles near Japan, as well as through old battleground caverns beneath the sand. "I did all right."

He smiled and kissed her knuckles. "You did more than all right. You're one awesome gansta sister. I don't think I could have gotten to everybody that needed healing without losing one," he said in a pri�vate murmur. "I love you."

Shabazz's sudden footfalls rang out and made even the weary who were laid out on the floor look up. "Need a purge, people! Brother-man's eyes are glowing."

Carlos jumped to his feet and dashed down the hall with Damali fast behind him. But when they burst into the room, Rider wasn't in his chair. The sheet restraints were on the floor, and Rider was on the ceiling, staring down at them, and snarling. Carlos reached out and in�stantly contained Rider in a translucent black box that drowned out the curses Rider hurled as Carlos carefully lowered the containment cell to the floor.

"How's this happening?" Damali asked, her gaze steady on Rider. "We healed his last nick over a year ago." "I know. It doesn't make sense for-"

"Yo, yo, yo, got another man in turn-crisis!" Shabazz hollered from the next room.

Damali and Carlos almost bumped into each other as they rushed through the bedroom doorway and down the hall. When they entered the living room, the team was on one side of the room trying to find weapons, and Mike was on all fours on the other side of it, his jaw slowly and painfully extending in a werewolf transition.

"What's wrong with my baby?" Inez screamed, torn between go�ing to Mike and brandishing a gun.

"Lower the weapon, 'Nez," Damali said, trying to slowly divert Mike's attention while Carlos arced enough energy to ensnare him in a silver cage with bars.

"When's the last time he got nicked by a were, Mar?" Carlos shouted without turning around, now needing his full focus to hold the cage before him and the black box holding Rider in the bedroom.

"A looong time ago. He sucker punched one and split his knuckles wide open on its fangs," Marlene said in a low murmur that again parted the group. "But not as many times as I most likely took a were-nick or two on the astral plane."

Carlos and Damali pivoted just in time to catch Marlene's at�tempt to lunge out of an open window. Carlos had her by the tail in a long energy lasso. Guardians dove over the sofa and tried to take cover. Shabazz was shouting for Marlene. She hissed and turned to Carlos, eyes glowing gold, upper and lower canines extended as she growled like the angry jaguar she was quickly becoming. Marlene lunged again, but Carlos silver-caged her, sweat pouring down his face as three draining energy sources held him in the center of the floor.

"Inez," Mike crooned in a low rumble. "C'mere, baby, and open up the door... just cross his line with your body and break the energy hold, suga. I don't do silver."

Inez shook her head and began hiccup crying as she turned away.

"Damali, baby, you ain't gonna keep your momma locked up like this, are you sweetie?" Marlene then turned a wicked smile to Shabazz. "Lover... come on now, me and you go waaay back, right? Open the cage so I can go eat."

"D, don't listen to her," Carlos warned and he stared at Shabazz. "I need your head right and for you to hold the line, brother."

The Guardian team was scattered around the room in huddles of humanity, not sure which direction to turn. Then Juanita's scream tore through the room. Jose tilted his head and blew her a kiss through fangs, holding her arm hard.

"Oh, shit!" Carlos's eyes sought Damali's for help. Both his hands were tethered to silver cages holding back strong entities, as well as holding a black box in the bedroom. It would only be a matter of time before his concentration fractured or his energy dipped and they'd be out.

They had to get to Jose without killing him, if possible, and if not, blow him away if he went for Juanita's throat. Their team's best sharpshooter was in a black box and had just been pulled off the ceiling-if anybody else took a shot, Juanita would take the bullet. Shabazz could barely hold his gun level, it was trembling in his hand so badly as he watched Marlene fully transform. His boy, Jose, had just dropped fang-but as a weaker vamp, negotiation with Jose was pos�sible.

"Yo, Jose, don't do nothing stupid up in here that'll make some�body have to smoke you," Carlos said in Dananu.

Jose yanked Juanita to him, making her cry harder. He smelled her hair, and traced her jugular with a fang. "I won't hurt her," Jose mur�mured. "Baby, why don't me and you go find a lair. The night is young."

"Or you could take me," Damali said, creating a diversion. She glanced at Carlos and received his subtle nod. "You know you've al�ways wanted to, right? She'll turn, which could damn your soul... but if Carlos is cool with it, me and you can go all night-and still wake up laughing in the morning."

"I'm down," Carlos said, as calmly as possible. "I been missing Juanita, anyway, since you've had her on lock. Fair exchange is no rob�bery."

"You serious?" Jose said, slowly releasing his hold on Juanita. "You cool with that? Ain't gonna give me no static later?" Juanita shook her head with a whimper.

Damali stepped forward with a bright smile. "Send her my way, baby," Damali said in Dananu, "and I will blow your mind."

Jose shoved Juanita forward in a hard push that made her fall into Damali's embrace. Damali handed her off to stand by Carlos and slowly approached Jose. She seductively tossed her locks over her shoulder, exposing her neck.

"Lose the silver collar," Jose said, beginning to circle her as the stunned team watched the dance and scrambled out of the way.

Carlos kept his gaze sweeping for any other turns that might begin to materialize on the team, while also keeping an eye on the two cages with the snarling weres and Damali. If Jose hurt her, he'd have to kill him. Would drop him in a heartbeat.

Damali took off the collar, held it out, then let it fall to the floor. She'd expected Jose to lunge toward her, but instead he briefly closed his eyes and licked his lips, nicking his tongue with a fang. She was on him so fast he hadn't had a chance to see her coming. One fist was in his hair, her body behind his back, and her baby Isis to his throat.

Jose chuckled. "Damn, D, in front of family?"

"I like to play rough," she said into Jose's ear in Dananu. "Move, and your head is mine."

Overtaken by grief, Juanita turned, and barreled into Carlos's arms.

"No!" Carlos hollered as the caged Guardians broke free, and Rider scrambled along the ceiling like a crab.

Screams broke out as Mike lunged, landed on the countertop, and snarled down at Inez who was huddled on the floor between the stove and the butcher block. Marlene had taken a feline crouch on the back of the sofa, and was staring down at Shabazz, slowly stalking him. Jose flipped Damali over his head onto her back on the floor, eyes glow�ing. Carlos sent a split-second containment blast from either hand, sweeping Rider and Jose into a joint black box and Marlene and Mike into a single silver cage.

Damali got up slowly from the floor with a pull from Shabazz. "Anyone who ever sustained a nick is vulnerable. Any of us who had been infected before by the damned are, too. We gotta work fast." She looked at Carlos.That's what the queens were trying to tell me, but I didn't understand. Our team was somehow infected and whatever swirled up from Level Seven is reversing old wound purges and/or bringing old demon DNA to the fore.

Carlos nodded, sweating, unable to use the energy to mentally an�swer her. "Lilith can't heal, though... Cain was a Neteru, met this team, and could have sensed or caught the scent of which ones had old demon battle scars or vamp way down in their line. Same deal with our other infections from Lilith's games. A Neteru healer can re�verse an energy binding and open it right up like it was brand-new."

Damali nodded as she recalled her visit with the queens and how Aset had just shown her that technique. "I can't purge them all by myself," Damali said over the roars and hisses coming from the cages.

She was so exhausted that she was literally weaving from fatigue and breathing hard as she looked at the newbies. "With the old virus from the damned running through the rest of the squad, none of our healers are gonna be strong enough to go in after a demon nick and not come back with it adhered to their systems and spirits, especially after they just did serious injury healings for the first time on the beach." She glanced at Juanita and Inez, hoping that their sanity held before the old virus imploded within them. "As it is, we're gonna have to douse everybody else, too, just to be sure."

"I can't hold them like this all night," Carlos said, the muscles in his arms bulging as Rider and Jose raked their nails down the inner walls of the translucent black box, bellowing in silence behind the en�closure. The growls that came through the silver cages made him re�double his efforts. A deep wet V had formed in the center of his chest and his legs trembled as he shut his eyes tightly and set his jaw hard.

"Let me help," a small voice said, giving everyone in the room a start.

Sara slipped into the villa through the blasted-out deck doors and neared Damali. "I have worked with purging this type of energy for years in Nod. It is my specialty to bring back the human side and sub�limate the darker side. Later, when you are rested and in the daylight, you can make it more permanent."

"We damned sure can't travel to higher ground like this," Damali said, a plea in her voice. She looked around at all team members' eyes. "But we have to try 'cause ain't nobody ready to give up on anybody in our family yet."

"Do what you can," Shabazz said quietly, his weapon now lowered.

Damali and Carlos glanced at Sara and then at the contingent of huge hybrids who stood just outside the battered deck doors.

"She is an expert," Hubert said. "Let her give you back the gift your mother-seer gave her. This is our way."

"Do it," Carlos said, straining. "But she's gotta hurry."

"How you gonna go in that cage, sis?" Damali said, looking at Marlene and Mike, who had begun to square off and circle each other as competing fauna within the same cage.

"I move very quickly," Sara whispered, hesitating a beat before sucking in a deep breath to calm herself, and then rounding Carlos's legs. "The moment I exit the first person, shrink the cage until I do the next, and then you can eliminate it to fully concentrate on only the black box." She looked at Damali. "A black orb will come out of them. Surround it in a silver light sphere and send it toward the sun."

As Sara approached the bars her opalescent body began to disinte�grate into what looked like flecks of shimmering, fast-moving dust. The glistening miasma flowed over Marlene, making her hiss and then scream. Yet the moment Marlene opened her mouth, the glittering essence of the nymph rushed down Marlene's throat, causing her to go into a convulsion, and then eventually begin to normalize. Sara's light sparkles immediately came out of Marlene's nose, and Carlos stepped forward to get Marlene's limp body out of Mike's claw range. Damali snatched the black orb that hovered over Marlene's third eye, surrounded it with silver light, blew on it to freeze it, and then jetti�soned it with an energy arc from her hands toward the sky.

The team watched in awe as Sara performed the same process on Mike, felling him quickly. Damali swiftly repeated the process of snagging and jettisoning a large black orb that hovered near Mike's right fist, and then caught a smaller, sneaky one near his jugular that was trying to get away. "Five bucks this one came from the vamp he did in New Orleans however many years ago," Damali said as she hurled the small orb into the night sky.

Sara dropped into a small, exhausted pile by Carlos's feet, breathing hard with beads of pearly sweat on her fragile brow.

"The big one," she said, pushing herself up on all fours. "He's re�ally strong like Hubert. He had both were-demon and vampire bites raging inside him, but the were-bite was dominant. I think I got it all."

"You don't have to go in again, honey," Hubert said, beginning to pace. "You should rest."

"That's true," Damali said, lending Sara a hand. "How you holding up, Carlos?"

"Better. A lot better, now that I dropped half the energy load."

Sara shook her head. "The vampire infection is the most toxic and I have to do it tonight, or there could be lasting effects."

Shabazz had gone to Marlene to lift her to the sofa. Inez was on her knees at Big Mike's side, wiping sweat from his dazed brow. Mar�jorie rushed forward, giving Shabazz and Inez bottled water for the injured.

"Get a purge circle around them," Damali warned, making use of Krissy, Heather, and Jasmine's ability to create a powerful circle of three. "Prayers, salt, holy water. Heads, wrists, soles of their feet anointed fast. Marjorie, you run supplies to 'em while they work and recite scriptures out loud. Man, we need the Covenant, right through here."

The team began moving, but their attention was split between the task at hand and concern for whatever Sara could do to bring back Rider and Jose. Juanita waited near the box with her arms hugging her body, tears standing in her eyes.

"Just bring him back from the Darkness," Juanita whispered.

"Anything he said or did in that condition, 'Nita, know it wasn't from his heart. We had to pull some old strings and open some old wounds to save your throat," Damali said quietly as Sara's energy pen�etrated the box from a tiny corner that Carlos opened in the top of it.

Juanita just nodded and watched the box, awed and frightened as Jose inhaled the sparkling, floating dust as if Sara was cocaine. It knocked his head back and lowered his fangs to battle-length, bulking his body for a moment, before the fangs gently retracted and Jose dropped to the floor.

But Carlos had to move at vamp speed to get Jose out of there un�scathed while Damali quickly caught the dark orb that exited his throat, which was more gray than black with diluted vamp lineage, and sent it skyward. Rider was almost on Jose before Carlos could shrink the enclosure, smelling blood and eyeing Jose's jugular.

In a rage, Rider pounded on the translucent black surface with both fists, eyes glowing a hate-filled warning as he railed. He sucked Sara in by accident, and then suddenly became still, dropping his head back. On his knees, Rider opened his eyes, his gaze going directly past the team to the black sheet that was tucked around Tara's body whip�ping in the evening sea breeze, then passed out. Damali grabbed at the dark orb with both hands, and it took her several seconds to grapple with it and seal it in frozen silver before straining to send it toward the unseen sun. Carlos dropped to the floor with exhaustion and just lay there for several minutes breathing hard.

Catching Sara in her arms as she rematerialized, Damali kissed her brow. "Thank you, angel," she whispered, nodding for Hubert to cross the threshold to claim her.

What was the point of sanitation barriers at this point? Marjorie must have read her mind because she went to Rider's side to help him while Damali pulled Carlos to his feet.

"We can't move the team now, not until daylight," Damali said.

Carlos nodded, still winded and leaning heavily against her.

"Hubert, with the ultimate trust, we'll give you and your boys some antidemon ammo and some food. Got a coupla steaks in the fridge and some junk in the cabinets. If you have to fall back for your own personal safety, you can enter the villa, but we'd appreciate a night lookout. We can bed Sara down in here on some pillows under a blanket and give her some fruit and sugar... if that's what she eats."

"She does, dear Neteru," Hubert said and swallowed hard, his voice filled with gratitude. "How did you know that she eats like a hum�mingbird?"

"Just a lucky guess." Damali cast her gaze toward Tara's body, which lay prone on the beach, not wanting to know the state of de�composition beneath the sheet. "Try not to let the enemy take her," Damali said, in a quiet, faraway voice. "As you can imagine it'll be bad enough having to bury her when Rider wakes up again."

Damali flung Hubert a bag of Red Sea salt from the cabinets, haul�ing Carlos with her to deposit him on a stool with a thud. Hubert caught the bag with one hand, careful not to rip into the plastic with his talons.

"Thank you, Neteru. Our endurance is made from the night. If full breeds attempt to siege, we will sound an alarm and fight until you are in position, as well as after that."

"Throw the man a Clock with hallowed-earth shells," Carlos said, sweat running down his face. "We all gotta regenerate. Even the hu�mans on the team."

Mental anguish made sleep next to impossible, but the Guardian team's battered bodies demanded it. Chairs, sofas, love seats, the main couch, rugs, anything that would allow someone to lie horizontally for a few hours were pressed into service. Every now and then some�one could be heard weeping. Male and female alike; it didn't matter. Acute trauma was no respecter of age or gender. But the privacy of all whispering, crying couples or the sobs of an individual just work�ing things out between themselves and their maker, was thoroughly respected.

Damali and Carlos took turns sitting vigil with Rider. He'd curled up in a fetal position with his head in Damali's lap. She sat that way with him for the duration, humming a low, easy melody, stroking her fingers through his hair with tears dropping off her nose to wet his cheek. The moment she dozed, Carlos would awake to lay a sup�portive hand on Rider's shoulder, watching the horizon like a stoic centurion, and wondering how in God's name he'd be able to deal if something like that had happened to Damali.

The process was a brutal cycle of heal a bit, cry a bit, tense for pos�sible danger, doze a bit, become philosophical while briefly asleep, only to awake to realize that all of this really did go down... then quietly cry some more, just let the tears roll without sound, look over the shoulder and hunker down against panic as hybrid guard demons walked the beach, and then listen to one's body knit, going to sleep from the sound of one's own heartbeat and staggered breaths, thank�ing Heaven that you'd made it out alive.

Dawn made everyone stir. Moving to an internal, silent dirge, people filed in and out of the bathroom and then went outside to take a seat on the sand beyond the edge of the deck. Church would be outdoors under the sky-the original cathedral. Grateful eyes offered Hubert and his crew a chance to crash indoors on softer surfaces for a few hours. Although, out of genuine concern for the team's most re�cent fears, he respectfully declined. Everyone knew that the unpleas�ant but necessary task of burying the dead was before them. All eyes went to Rider as he came out to stand on the partial deck and looked across the beach at Tara's body, which was amazingly still there. Guardians slowly stood and waited for his instructions.

"It's almost full sunrise," Rider said softly. "She's gone but she never even smoldered."

Sara slipped beside him and slid her delicate hand into Rider's. "She won't. When I went inside your body to heal you last night, I felt that you wanted to see her again before you said good-bye. She had a good heart, like you do, and never killed a soul, or fed that way. I begged any angel of compassion that would listen for her not to burn in the sun, given she was to be a Guardian and was turned against her will." Two big tears slid down Sara's cheeks. "It wasn't fair. Come." She looked up at Rider, her expression pleading. "I gave her back her lavender, too... just the way it always remained in your si�nuses and memory."

Carlos bristled and rubbed the shadow of new growth that dark�ened his jaw. "Sis... the man has been through a lot, and-"

"I want to," Rider said in a quiet, resolute tone, then gently squeezed Sara's hand and followed her.

"I don't know which is worse," Carlos said, his voice reverent as he watched Rider cross the beach. "If he sees her actual remains, it might help him make the separation and finally allow us to put her to rest." He rubbed the tension away from his neck as Damali touched his shoulder. "But if he sees her repaired, sleeping peacefully like an an�gel... smelling like lavender..." Carlos shook his head when his voice broke. "It's fucked up either way, even though Sara had good intent."

"We never thought..." Hubert closed his eyes.

Marlene turned her back to the beach and covered her mouth with her hand. "He'll never be the same after this," she whispered. "None of us will. She was one of us."

"I'm going down there to stand with him, man," Shabazz said to Big Mike. "Original three."

"Original three," Big Mike said. "Me, you, and Rider."

Damali watched the procession of older Guardians walk to meet Rider with their heads high, shoulders back, dignity and compassion within their strides. One day, if she ever lived that long, she, too, would be going to gravesides with younger onlookers who would be unable to fathom the length and depth of a bond that not even death could destroy. There would be no way to quantify the profound loss with words, or to convey how many years of shared laughter, hopes, drama, and tears linked one to another. It just was. No definition re�quired. You had to be there, experience the phenomena for yourself in order to know that those three older protectors silently wept inside, one for the other, bled the same blood as though it pumped from one heart, one set of veins, sharing the same soul... maybe they did.

Carlos squeezed Damali's hand as he neared her. "I know," he said quietly

"Me and Jack Rider go way back. That's my buddy... ." Marlene's voice trailed off as she pulled herself away from the house and walked down the damaged deck steps with care, going toward the standing stones of men.

Marjorie turned to her husband and then looked at Krissy, Heather, and Jasmine, and then finally sent her gaze toward Damali and Carlos. "We have to find Gabrielle. If this happened... I have a bad feeling."

Damali and Carlos nodded, neither wanting to give voice to the nagging feelings that gnawed at their guts. They drew closer together as they watched Rider kneel, pull the black drape away from Tara's face, and kiss her lips gently as the breeze blew her long, dark hair. Damali quickly pivoted and turned into Carlos's embrace, shaking her head, unable to watch more, lest she wail out loud.

"Sara made her look like she's just asleep. Lavender is all in the air."

Carlos squeezed Damali tightly and kissed the top of her head. "She is. She just fell asleep on this side and woke up on the other side in the Light." He glanced at Marj. "We'll take an extraction team to look for Gabby after the burial."

Jose was rocking, tears streaming. "The man had to go through this once, and shouldn't have to again... I was just a kid when Tara died at my grandfather's house. Jesus, don't a man with a good heart get a break?"

"Why don't me and you go do the honors, man?" Carlos said to Jose. "It's our turn to step up. We dig the grave this time and let the old-heads fall back and mourn. They've earned that right." Carlos looked at the haggard faces around him. "The original team has been at this war since the beginning, people. But this time, there just ain't no answer and we've all gotta step up like you did yesterday. Soon, we'll be the old-heads, and the ones who come behind us are gonna be standing where we are this dawn... wanting to just break down and sob 'cause the shit hurts so bad, watching the ones we love who paid the ultimate sacrifice hurt so bad. The only way I know to repay the debt in full is to suck it up for them, pick them up when they stumble, and do 'em proud. Now let's move out and bury her with full Guardian honors."

Damali watched her husband throw his shoulders back, inhale a shuddering breath, materialize a shovel in each hand, and jump off the deck with Jose behind him. In that very fragile moment, standing near the abyss of living emotional hell, she realized she'd definitely married a king.