The Wicked (Vampire Huntress Legend 8)

CHAPTER FOUR

Cain reclined in his new throne, sprawling in a sated, lazy stretch. His long, black silk robe flowed over the clawed marble throne footrest and his billowing sleeves casually draped the arms of it. His silk belt hung askew, and he didn't bother to adjust it as the black corded tie precari�ously dipped when he reached for his golden goblet to refill it with blood. His eyes had normalized to their original intense brown gaze beneath heavy lids as he assessed Lilith across the Vampire Council Chamber.

"You want a cigarette?" she asked with a sly smile, smoothing her black gown and sauntering to the door.

He chuckled. "No. That is one vice that I do not own. It pollutes the blood."

She turned and smiled at him. "Then, by all means, please don't." Her voice had come out in a low, sexy murmur. "You look like a huge, satisfied lion. I love your hair. It comes alive in my hands like tentacles... did you know that?"

"I can accommodate that fantasy, if you wish... perhaps after I eat. Saber-toothed tiger hybrid Greek hydra?" He laughed quietly and shrugged his mane of thick locks over his shoulder, eyeing her.

"You would do that for me?" she whispered, moving back toward the council table.

"No. I would do thatforme" he said, peering at her over the large goblet as he took a generous sip of fresh blood. "But the results would be the same. Stupefying."

She began to round the table, and he arched an eyebrow, giving her pause.

"I have to eat."

Lilith stopped walking and stared at him, confused. "The table runs perpetual blood now. What else is it that you need?"

"A steak... rare... unmolested by spices... running blood. I had that on my mind last night, but the primary hunger had been power and you."

"You canstill eat human food?" She weaved a bit and caught her balance on the edge of the table.

His smile widened as he inhaled her shock. "There are some things still necessary if one from our realms wants to sire in the flesh. Didn't Dante share that with you?" Cain chuckled. "Perhaps it had been so long ago that my father forgot how."

Lilith snapped her fingers without taking her eyes from Cain's and made a charcoal-seared slab of meat materialize on a gold platter be�fore him. Manipulating her fingers in the air, Lilith made a two-pronged gold fork appear between them, and she sent a dagger into the bloodied steak with a glance.

"Thank you, my dear," he murmured and leaned forward to in�spect her offering. "From the stock of fattened calves?"

"London's best, grade-A, human stock... the cows have all gone mad. Or would you prefer veal?" Lilith came to his side and then slid onto his lap, handing him the fork. "Name a country and I can bring you a whole child," she cooed.

"This will do... The young ones are more tender, but the bulls have more adrenaline and testosterone in them," he said, leaning around her to cut off a sizeable hunk.

"So wise," she said, melting against him and kissing the underside of his massive jaw as he ate. "What else can I give you right now, lover?" she added in a sexy whisper, writhing in his lap.

"Fallon," Cain mumbled through another mouthful of meat, and then he slurped blood from his goblet.

Lilith immediately slid out of his lap and strode across the floor as Cain watched her. She took a wide-legged stance, closed her eyes, and clapped twice, opening a large chasm in the floor between her and the pentagram-shaped table. Cain continued to eat, unfazed as sulfuric plumes swirled up from the fractured floor. Bored by the floor show, he occasionally tossed bits of fat and gristle up for squealing bats to fetch from the air.

Dozens of Harpies swarmed out of the yawning floor, and they ea�gerly huddled around Lilith's legs.

"Retrieve Fallon Nuit," she commanded in their language, and then she craned her fingers until they became talons.

A black arc zapped from her right hand to her left and soon her soot-covered fist was filled with a damaged, dead heart and broken fangs. Harpies scampered across the floor toward the huge, black-marble, throne-room doors that had been repaired. Bleating screeches made the doors quickly slam open, and the Harpies took off across the bridge that led to the Sea of Perpetual Agony. Now she'd ransomed his attention; Cain sat forward watching with guarded interest.

Lilith smiled as she cradled Fallon Nuit's injured heart with both hands, blowing a steady stream of black breath against it, warming it, massaging it, as she sauntered across the chamber and laid it in the center of the council table. She then set a broken jawbone and bat�tered fangs to either side of it.

"Of all that is unholy," she whispered, cupping handfuls of blood. "Of all that is undead and unclean, I regenerate you from the ashes of incarceration," she whispered, slitting her wrist and adding her own blood to the table's darkening elixir. "From the line of lines, from the first vampire ever made, you have been granted a reprieve to again claim the night by the imperial throne's new heir."

Nothing happened. The heart lay dead and unchanged.

"It will work," she hissed, glancing at Cain and then back down to Fallon's withered black heart. "It is a delicate transformation."

"Fail and you are surely fucked, and not in a way that you will en�joy"

She glanced at him, nervous sweat beginning to form on her top lip. Returning her black, glowing gaze to the heart, she flicked away the dark perspiration with the tip of her tongue through her fangs.

"I call the power of all dark covens! The power of female darkness to bring forth dark life! Envy, jealousy, rage... spite, vindictive evil, treachery-I own you! I am your master, your consort, your root of scorn! Hell hath no fury the likes of which we can rent! Havoc, I am your lover."

Nonplussed by Lilith's ineffective theatrics and annoyed, Cain fin�ished his meal and wiped the golden plate away from the table with a sweep of his arm, sending it, along with the fork and dagger, clatter�ing to the floor. From the corner of his eye he watched bats swoop down to claim the remains while battling rats that had rushed in to challenge them for the spoils. The squealing aerial contest was more interesting. He leaned forward and made a tent with his fingers in front of him, watching the dead councilman's heart.

"Rivera even neutered him," Cain said in an amused tone. "Unbe�lievable."

Concentrating harder on the task, Lilith didn't respond. Dark beads of sweat had begun to form on her brow as her hands strained to arc enough power for another jolt of black magic. "I'm depleted. I used a lot of energy... may need to feed again before I can-"

"Fail me, and you fail my grandfather," Cain remarked calmly. "Take your pick on which of us you would like to disappoint. Me or your husband, or both?"

Lilith grabbed her goblet, refilled it, and took several deep swallows from it, then set it down hard. Her dark gaze became a black laser as she focused again and intensified the charge within her talons until blue-black smoke began to rise from the center of the dead heart.

As though a black, charred seam was being sewn, the edges of the gaping hole in the center of the damaged organ began to sizzle and knit back together. The moment the wound was sealed, Lilith gently placed her left hand beneath the heart and regurgitated the blood she'd fed on to cover it in a murky, bloody casing.

The sound of her Harpies' screeches and horrendous wailing jerked her and Cain's attention toward the chamber doors. A smol�dering, slimy, shuddering body was in their clutches. Only its flesh re�mained, all evidence of skin burned away. The Harpies' wings were covered by molten ooze and their scrambling, gray-green, gargoyle�like bodies were splattered with black gook. Like an army of over�sized ants, they ferried the twitching form forward and then unceremoniously dropped it at Lilith's feet, looking up at her for ap�proval.

Rounding the table, she held the heart in cupped, blood-dripping hands, and then dropped to her knees.

"I will you to live again, Fallon Nuit... master vampire... made councilman under Dante's rule, now beholden to the bidding of his heir and son by seed, Cain."

Setting the heart upon the torn-out section of chest that could be seen beneath the black, static-charged casing around the lifeless form, she nestled the heart where the rib cage had been gored. Lilith stood back, lowered an index finger in a hard point toward it, and sent a steady stream of black lightning into the heart, driving it back into the body.

Within seconds the static coating around the body sizzled, lit in an angry plume of sulfur, and then began to recede from the feet up un�til it was gone. Beneath it lay a still, naked, unconscious male form.

Hastening her efforts, Lilith went to the table, grasped the broken fangs, put them into her mouth, and went down on her knees again. She grasped the long, damp, flowing onyx curls at the top of the un-awakened vampire's head, forcing his mouth open, and kissed him hard, spewing his fangs and blood into his mouth.

The body beneath her shuddered, arched in pain, then drew a sud�den gasp. Lilith moved back as the vampire on the floor dug his nails into the marble, opened his red gleaming eyes, and wailed. Lilith was on her feet so quickly she almost trampled one of the Harpies. She snatched a goblet, filled it fast, and brought it to the agonized vampire.

"Drink the sweet elixir of life, Fallon," she urged, holding his head up as she poured a slow stream of blood into his mouth until he was strong enough to sip from the edge of the goblet.

Tears ran down his face as he greedily drank, blood running down the sides of his mouth and over his chin as he tried to take it in too quickly. When the goblet was depleted, he looked at Lilith, his eyes still seeming disoriented, and snatched her to him, tearing open her throat at the jugular. But she didn't struggle and only smiled as her eyes slid shut.

"Yes," she whispered. "That's it, take it right from the vein and re�generate."

Cain smiled as he watched the process of the frail nude body gain in weight and density. The sunken chest soon filled out to a perfect, smooth, broad marble-cut structure. A once-wrinkled abdomen that showed skeleton beneath gaunt skin became the well-defined torso of a warrior.

Limbs that had been mere withered twigs bulked to add sinew and definition. Hooked, wretched hands and feet gracefully extended into their original, natural, manicured form. Eyes that had been ugly orbs within black sockets transformed into a handsome pair of eyes framed in thick, black lashes. Bronze skin replaced the unnatural death pallor of ashen, green-tinged decay, and the rank smell of rotting flesh vanished, chased away by the masculine pheromone carried in the ingested blood.

Lilith looked up at Cain from the floor when Fallon released her, breathing hard and confused. Cain nodded toward the body beside her on the floor with a half-smile, noting the erection.

"He is a councilman and a new ally. Service him."

Fallon Nuit lifted his head, his gaze briefly locking with Cain's as Lilith mounted him. An echoing moan bounced off the chamber walls as his head dropped back from the intense pleasure.

"So that you always know where your first loyalty should lie," Cain murmured in a low rumble while watching Lilith make tears run down Fallon's cheeks."I negotiated your release.I was the one who had you fed. It wasI who commanded that you receive awakening pleasure, not pain to torture you again."

"Yes!" Fallon yelled, practically choking on the blood that Lilith offered.

Cain glared at Lilith. "Stop moving until he pledges his loyalty to me in Dananu."

"Done. Your service is mine," Fallon said, gasping in Dananu the moment Lilith stopped her sultry thrusts. His gaze fractured between Lilith and Cain and his glowing eyes held a plea within them."Tell me your bidding, Your Eminence," Fallon said in a strained voice between his fangs when she began to pull away from him.

"Bring me Carlos Rivera's head on a stake," Cain said, standing to round the table and stare down at the entwined couple. "I want his heart, first... torn out of its housing anchor by anchor until he goes insane from grief. Then, execute him."

Fallon's expression went rigid as he stared up at Cain, dug his nails into Lilith's arms until they bled, and flipped her onto her back in a hard roll. He stared down at her, a low growl erupting from his throat as he spoke. "I will fuckingdestroy him! I know his every desire and his entire line's weaknesses."

Lilith's spine elongated and her spaded tail emerged, twitching, be�fore it wrapped around Fallon's waist. She licked her lips as she glanced up at Cain and tilted her head.

Cain nodded and swept back toward his throne. "Finish him off, and do not take long. He and I have business to discuss."

"Yonnie," Tara gasped, "I must regen. I have to feed. You'll flatline me. Outside the lair, the sun is still-"

He crushed away her kiss, unable to stop moving against her. Tara's once silky brown hair was becoming brittle in his hands and streaks of gray had crept into it, yet he couldn't stop.

"We have to eat, since early last night you haven't fed, just this," she said, her voice a stuttered wail.

"Take it from my throat," he growled between heaving gasps.

"You're already depleted," she said, panting, and beginning to shudder from the dangerous blood loss. "If I siphon you-"

"Do it!" he commanded, beginning to dematerialize again to drag her to the vanishing point. "If I flatline like this, who gives a damn?"

Carlos walked toward the house, his eyes on the stricken team that had fanned out on the beach. He extended his right arm to his side and the gleaming blade of Ausar filled his fist. "Meeting," he said flatly. "Seal it in a prayer, Marlene."

Damali jogged behind him and tried to call the Isis to her, but only a small tingle of spent energy crept along her palm. Carlos never looked at her as quiet panic overtook her. He just sat down heavily on the wide, low steps. The family backed up and stood waiting for an explanation on the beach, all eyes holding a mixture of deep concern and panic like hers. She neared Carlos, glanced at the family, and then sat down beside him very carefully.

"I suggest you all sit down before you fall down," Carlos said in a flat, surly tone, ramming his blade into the sand at his feet. Then he looked up at Jose. "After this meeting, you and I need to have a con�versation."

Juanita's eyes widened. Damali simply closed hers.

Lilith stood over Fallon and bent to offer him a warrior's grip to stand. He was on his feet in one lithe move and gave her a gentle�manly nod.

"It's good to be home," Fallon said with a half-smile.

"Glad to have you back, Mr. Councilman," she said with a smile, and then sashayed across the chamber to stand behind his throne.

Fallon gave Cain a grand bow. "Thank you... and eternally at your service."

"Not to spoil your sensual rush," Cain said with a chuckle, his icy gaze appraising Fallon's nude body from head to toe, "but I want you to note the name that is still etched at the top of your old throne be�fore you relax in it."

Fallon slowly turned his gaze toward the throne that he'd once cherished, and neared the table. "No..." he whispered, his form bulking to battle readiness. "Treason!"

"Now we talk," Cain said with a gloating smile. "You and I had the same reaction."

Total disbelief engulfed Fallon's expression. "The Chairman's throne? Surely you jest?"

Cain shook his head slowly, all mirth dissipating from his face. "I ripped the top of my father's throne away upon seeing it, and have shared your outrage."

"I stand before Cain... Cain of Nod? Dante's lost heir?"

Cain leaned back in his throne. "Indeed."

"I shall go to New Orleans and raise an army at your behest-"

"Monsieur,"Cain murmured in French to further taunt Fallon. "New Orleans is in ruin. The French quarter gone... mud."

"Non..." Fallon whispered, stricken. "My beloved New Or�leans...non."

Cain issued Lilith a disparaging glance as Fallon Nuit took a wob�bly step forward to brace his hands against the table for support. "For some reason, our Dark Lord's ire had been stoked to biblical propor�tions and he was very displeased."

"Even the graves are no more?" Nuit whispered.

"Anything near Lake Ponchartrain and beyond... hundreds of years of history decimated. The crypts that were topside, opened to the sunlight and were swept away when the levees broke."

Nuit lifted his chin as tears burned away from his eyes, and the shock of it all made the red glow flicker down to normal brown.

"Have a seat and reclaim your old title," Cain said calmly, nodding toward the throne. "You and I have shared the same devastation... have the same goals,oui ?"

"Oui,"Fallon murmured.

"Tres bon."Cain leaned back and sighed. "I want an audience with the Amanthras." He stared at Fallon, who had not moved. "I like the way my father operated through their form in the Garden."

Fallon smiled a half-smile. "Their mating balls are legendary. They can last up to six weeks in the swamps of Levels Three and Four."

"So I've heard," Cain said, leaning forward on his elbows, study�ing Nuit. "But I do not have six weeks. I am, however, rescinding my father's old edict of no black blood exchanges. He was a purist who hated hybrids. That is why of all those vanquished councilmen I could have raised, I raised you." Cain pushed away from the table and stood. "My father was set in his ways and did not understand the need for progress. If we are to align forces with the other realms for the offensive, preemptive strike I intend, then our bite must know no bounds." He walked toward Fallon and clothed him in a black robe. "You understood this principle, thus I understand your eager�ness for a coup. But be very clear that although I am Dante's son, I amnot Dante. Daylight is not my obstacle. In that regard, I take af�ter my grandfather." Cain leaned closer to Fallon as shock widened his gaze.

"While I was gone, theybedded the millennium Neteru to make you a daywalker?" Fallon's awed question trailed off as he slowly dropped to one knee and his voice became a reverent whisper. "Cain, you have my eternal loyalty and it would be my honor to accept your daylight strike."

Cain walked away from Nuit in abject frustration. "No. They never succeeded in that quest," he said, renewed fury roiling through him until his fangs crested. "My father failed, and the huntress took his head off at the shoulders."

Fallon stood slowly, his jaw going slack. "Damali assassinateda chairman?"

"Manipulated by the heretic, Rivera," Cain corrected, his eyes blazing black. "I had her in my arms, able to sire... and yet he had so compromised her soul that she would not drop the silver shields within her. I would have made her a dark angel, a female version of my grandfather's image... completely fallen and corrupted to sire at will... her soul mine, her progeny the greatest this empire has ever seen-black winged majesty. But access to my heirs was snatched by Rivera's treachery. However, there is still time. I want her back."

"You had herin your arms?" Fallon ran his fingers through his hair, his eyes beginning to glow again.

Cain spat on the marble floor. "Naked, writhing, climaxing, and ready for penetration, but she would not sire with me. Even after I bit her, because of him."

Fallon stumbled backward to hold on to the table again. "You've tasted her blood?"

"I am the direct descendant of the Dark Lord-of course I did!" Cain stared at Nuit for a moment and then closed his eyes, his nostrils flaring, ignoring Lilith's low, jealous hiss. "She willingly gave me her throat in the woods by her family's home. An entire Guardian team in the house, her lover about to commit suicide as he stood on the back porch. You have no concept... and for seven days I starved to keep that undiluted, sweet, fragrant elixir in my veins until it was impos�sible not to feed. I thought surely after that seduction bite she was mine, and siring would be imminent." Cain opened his eyes. "I must have his head on a pike!"

Storm clouds of sulfur began to gather in the ceiling as Cain swept away from Nuit to alight his throne. "I want hybrids to increase our mobility: were-demons, Amanthras, succubae, and incubi, anything from our realms and within my old armies of Nod on this mission. Black blood exchanges, human turns at record levels," Cain shouted, pounding the table and splashing blood under his fist. "I want his heart in ruins. His family decimated. Any and all Darkness within them brought to the surface of their beings one cell at a time! I want all that he held dear razed to the damned ground! Every footfall that he has taken tracked and erased from the planet. His Neteru essence washed away in a tide of blood!"

"Neteru essence,Your Eminence, what travesty do you speak!" Fal�lon said, dropping battle-length fangs. "He is no longer vampire?"

"He went into the Light!" Cain bellowed, sending bats into a frenzy above. "He married her in acathedral inbroad daylight -using aCovenant priest and the bond blinds us to where she is! He is backed by the Council of Neteru Kings!"

"Married her!" Fallon shouted, and then stormed away from the table, black smoke trailing him and streaming from his nose. "Not a vampire mate union? In a what! He has even inserted himself onto a Neteru Council of Kings?"

Lilith nodded and folded her arms, her eyes narrowed to gleaming slits.

"You heard me!" Cain shouted, pointing at Nuit and standing before his now-smoldering throne. "Much has transpired since your incarceration. Double jeopardy! My father's head. One Chairman- the very beginning of our lines. My replacement, another Chairman, slain by the sword in Rivera's hand! Our entire Council of Masters wiped out in Australia during a treacherous plot! Legions of demons and Lilim, slaughtered wholesale. The damned scattered;The Book of the Damned abducted and sent into the clutches of war�rior angels!"

"Warrior angelscolluded with him to take our book hostage?" Fal�lon leaned in toward Cain across the table. "How can this be, Your Eminence? Never in the history of Darkness has such a foul series of events beset our empire-"

"Then thatsonofahumanbitch takes the blade of Ausar, my Neteru bride, my empire in Nod, and marries her. Redress this injustice with me or return from whence you came, Nuit!" Cain thundered, making small rocks begin to fall around them.

Fallon Nuit stalked toward his old throne, his head held high, and spit blood on Carlos's name etched in the high, black marble back. "Give me a moment to draw my old powers unto me, and then, my ally and commander, consider it done!"

Carlos left a stunned family to walk into the golden obelisk that ap�peared as he shouted Ausar's name. Jose would have to cope. There was no time for a long discussion; it was about motion. In and out, and raising an army. Ausar met him in the brightly lit hallway wearing a session robe of white Egyptian cotton tied with a golden sash. "Cain-"

"We know. We are in session as you speak." Ausar stopped walking and put a heavy hand on Carlos's shoulder. "Before you go in to the archons, several realities must be discussed."

"I am so down for whatever, you have no idea," Carlos said in a low rumble, meeting Ausar's steady gaze.

"Adam has stood in your shoes. When you go in there, as you make your valid complaint, do not rub his nose in it by belaboring the pre�vious offenses of Cain against your wife."

Carlos rubbed his jaw, rolling his shoulders. In truth, he'd been so upset that he hadn't considered that. "Aw'ight. I hear you."

"No. Get it out, now, with me in this antechamber, and then go in there like a true general asking for the resources you require and for�mulating a strategy for us to win."

Carlos closed his eyes and allowed his head to drop back. "Ausar, man... while I was withmy wife?"

"Of what violation do you speak?" Ausar whispered through his teeth, causing Carlos to stare at him.

"He had her blood in his veins," Carlos muttered, sending his gaze to the large gold and alabaster Neteru Council of Kings doors. "When he took Dante's throne last night... It was the last night of my honeymoon." Carlos reinforced his grip on the blade so tightly the steel quivered. "If she's pregnant, if his energy rode mine... if I die battling this bastard this lifetime, I'll come back a thousand times to kill his ass again and again!"

Ausar briefly closed his eyes and paced away with his hands behind his back, then returned to Carlos. "Now you understand why Dante never came topside again during Adam's reign, and even feared to at�tempt to do so after Adam was in spirit. All of us had a price on Dante's wretched head for his offense against Eve in our brother's household. Then when Dante did resurface from the bowels of Hell, our Neteru Council of Kings received high angelic commands to stand down. ObtainingThe Book of the Damned was viewed as more of a priority than an ageless personal grudge. Our brother was de�nied for the greater good, just as he and his wife's dignity were pre�served in the old books-for the greater good-by leaving out the unfortunate circumstances of Cain's heritage. It would have shamed them. Know that we are all eager to avenge Adam, and now your cause also."

"It wasn't Damali's fault," Carlos said, eyes blazing. "The way this went down... It was so foul, man, there are no words."

Ausar's nostrils flared as blue-white flames licked their edges. Dropping his voice to a private, angry murmur, he kept a steady gaze on Carlos. "He violated the sanctity ofyour marriage bed? This I did not know!"

Carlos nodded, hot tears of frustration glittering in his eyes. "Man, how can I leave her, though, if this twisted shit plants? She didn't know. Damali thought she was just with me... thought it was over and done with between them, you feel me? I sensed it, she wasn't lying-the look in her eyes told me all I needed to know... she was blown away. My wife is so shook she couldn't even call the Isis into her grip. And, the more I think about it, even if I kill Cain's ass, he might still have the last laugh and I'll have to raise his heir." Carlos drew in a shuddering breath. "I don't know if I have it in me, man."

Ausar touched Carlos's shoulder. "This, too, was Adam's dilemma. He loved Eve so deeply that he refused to split his house asunder.That is strength."

"No," Carlos said, shaking his head."That is pain, my brother." He drew in a few more breaths. "Watching some other man's kid grow�ing in your woman's womb... watching her eyes looking down at that child with love but never fully able to look directly into yours again. Having some foul shit snap in that kid's psyche one day, 'cause you ain't his biological daddy-and then try to step to you after all those years, inyour house, aboutyour wife being his mother, and try to run your shit?"

Carlos began to pace, shaking his head in disbelief. "Then you can't slay the little motherfucker, because it will kill your wife-but you gotta take his bull? Oh... hell... no. I ain't the one. I can't do it."

He stopped and looked at Ausar hard. "It would have been differ�ent if she already came to me with a kid; I wouldn't have had a prob�lem with that, and would have been ready to take a bullet for it like it was my own. Wouldn't have cared if another brother and her got to�gether before I came on the scene. That shit happens every day on the planet. Even if we had broken up, and then had gotten back together, and something had gone down while we were apart-okay. Fine. Shit happens, and it ain't the baby's fault. She's mine; the kid would be, too. But the way this bullshit went down..." Carlos shook his head. "I can't deal."

"If she sires a blend, the queens will never allow her to purge her womb, you know that," Ausar said in a gentle, philosophical tone. "What if it's half yours and half his, a fusion?" Ausar waited patiently as Carlos slowly lowered his blade in shock. "Damali will not be able to get Eve's permission to end her pregnancy, and how would she be able to stand before that great queen that has gone through no less and make such a request? If there's even a cell of Cain's DNA in whatever Damali conceives, it will be wholly Eve's grandchild, regardless of what men think. Just like it will be wholly your wife's child in your wife's eyes. So, before we enter the meeting, you have to become very clear about how far you will go and where your personal line is. We all know where you're at-we have lived this heartbreak with Adam for thousands of years."

"How did Adam deal with this, make it right in his head day after day, night after night, man?" Carlos raked his hair and stared at Ausar for answers.

"You will have to ask him that yourself, in private. His demonstra�tion of this level of inner strength has earned him my deepest, most profound eternal respect. I don't know that I could have adjusted to said circumstances... so I cast no aspersions on your indignity. This conundrum has been a private riddle to me for years, but I can only imagine that my brother focused on the fact that the child contained half of his queen and thus made his peace with loving her and the child as one. Your alternative is to walk away from her and become a solo male Neteru with your own team, which we can arrange, de�voted to ridding the planet of evil. Your teams would only have to come together whenever a major planetary disaster strikes, like the one we are challenged to address now. I don't know what other choice to present to you, my brother."

"I can't leave her." Carlos looked away as his voice faltered. "I can't even envision life without Damali."

"That is your strength," Ausar said in a quiet, firm voice. "You love her. That is your advantage. Cain lusted after her. That is his weakness. Use it."

Carlos reinforced his grip on his blade, sniffed hard to swallow away the tears he refused to let fall in the king's presence. "All I can think about is the fact that the bastard broke down after seven short days-a fucking week, man, and went dark. He already had it in him. I told her! But I waited for her for five damned years and never touched her."

When Ausar simply let out a hard exhale and nodded, then closed his eyes, Carlos began walking in a tight circle. "I was there when she virgin-ripened, and was full vamp, and never violated her."

Speaking in a low rumble through battle-length fangs that had slowly lowered, Carlos's eyes went solid silver. "Three months in the damned Mexican desert, wounded, clerics all around me and then quarantined in a safe house run by the Covenant, I waited for her to come to me... and now... once she'sfinally my legal wife..."

"We know," Ausar stated and opened the door. "We stand with you.

Every king around the archon table stood as Ausar strode into the room with Carlos at his side. Adam cleared the table and grasped Car�los's arm in an old warrior handshake as Carlos tossed his blade to his left hand and grasped Adam's forearm.

"First Dante befouls my household, and now attempts to siege my young Neteru brother's household through his son, Cain?" Adam rumbled, staring into Carlos's eyes. "Unleash the dogs of war upon the planet, my fellow Neteru kings. Avenge me and my brother, Car�los, in one war."

"I have given you our collective outrage and power, powers that would have taken you years to refine," Hannibal said in a booming voice. "Did you receive my transmission last night, two hours past sunset?"

Carlos tore his gaze from Adam to stare at the towering Hannibal. "Two hours past sunset?"

Hannibal rounded the table as the other archons passed concerned glances between them. "Indeed! I sent all the outrage in a white light�ning jolt to thunder through our archon table directly to you, brother. It was pure battle fury with solid-silver-encased knowing so that it might not be intercepted by the pirating thieves of the airwaves."

"Did you receive it?" Akhenaton shouted, drawing a rumble of dissent from the large gathering of kings. "It represented eons of our knowing and cannot be-"

"It could have cancelled out the other issue," Ausar said in a cryptic manner, looking at Carlos and giving the other kings his back. "A moment of private conference with our brother." Ausar stepped around Adam and body-shielded Carlos from view. "Open a direct telepathy channel to me."

"There are no secrets between archons," Adam raged, walking back to the table fuming. His white meeting robes began to billow out from him as blue-white static lifted his long African locks off his shoulders.

"When it is a matter this delicate, there need only be one archon source of conference," Ausar said evenly, glancing over his shoulder at Adam. "I knowyou can respect that."

Adam looked away and held his peace, the muscle in his jaw puls�ing as Ausar turned back to Carlos.

There is a chance,Ausar said mentally, gazing at Carlos with his hand on his shoulder,that part of what you felt came from Hannibal's strong transmission of power.

I'm praying to God that's what happened,Carlos mentally shot back,but it was a battle bite, man...one that wouldn't even seal in the morning.

Ausar stiffened, tilted his head, and stepped back from Carlos.A battle bite...your queen took a-

Don't even say it.Carlos sent his silver gaze beyond the pillars to�ward the Valley of the Kings.It had to be dark energy, he said in his mind after a moment.That ain't me by a long shot.

No,Ausar assured him, bringing Carlos's gaze back to his by the calm thought.But our brother Hannibal is sheer strength and has one of the most significant warrior minds ever created. However, as furious as he was last night, he does not own province of a battle bite.

Is that why I couldn't heal it-couldn't pull out of the siphon and close the wound?Carlos's eyes widened as he became more distraught.Took, man, that brother is a destroyer...Hannibal isn't a healer. You see where I'm going. I could have...

Yes, yes, I know,Ausar said in a fast mental projection.

And if I battle bulked and dropped fang on Damali like that, then that was Cain's shit-not Hannibal's!Carlos's mind shouted.

"Breathe," Ausar said out loud, drawing curious stares from the other kings as he held his focus on Carlos.

"Perhaps you both need to approach the table," Solomon said in a cool tone, his gaze raking Ausar and Carlos. "If what you are dis�cussing has enough import to put our young brother in a position to nearly pass out, then-"

"Let me handle this," Ausar said, not turning away from Carlos.

"Then be quick," Adam thundered, beginning to pace. "Time draws nigh, and every second is a lost advantage."

Ausar simply held up his hand to stop further commentary from the table as he mentally addressed Carlos.Young brother, if there was a collision of forces, at best, Hannibal's war rage may have cancelled out a poten�tial fusion siring. If the two energies passed each other, one thundering into you like dominoes, one after the other...then it is a game of chance. Dice. Your energies would vacillate at a very inopportune time. Neither side can see into the holy union, and as long as you are married, either side can only send what we had toward you, hoping that it would adhere. But, if you were one heart, one mind, one spirit, one flesh at the time...God only knows what damage we have done.

"Oh, shit!" Carlos said, walking away from Ausar. "I'm wounded? Lost the ability to heal a fallen warrior because of this shit," he said, trying in vain to protect his and Damali's personal business using a verbal diversion. "I'm going into the potential fucking Armageddon wounded?" He looked at Hannibal as confused stares met him from the group of kings. "Man, what was in that power hit?"

"Everything from our centuries of battle tactics," Hannibal said proudly, lifting his chin. "A blast of pure, righteous fury infused with warrior skill and strategy profound."

"While I was on my damned honeymoon, man? Are you crazy!" Carlos couldn't help it; the truth rushed out before he could censor it. His wife was in an unknown condition and might be carrying a fu�sion of him and his archenemy, or worse. "I cannot fucking believe this shit!"

Carlos drove the blade of Ausar into the marble floor and ap�proached the archon's table, suddenly realizing that the power blast hadn't merely closed off his ability to seal a bite or heal a wound, or had simply made him too aggressive-it even went beyond the devas�tating possibility of a fusion. The significance of the jolt that was sent from the kings was written all over Hannibal's face.

As Carlos's mind raced, he wasn't worried about experiencing a loss of a specific Neteru ability. It became too clear that he and all the kings feared that the sudden lightning rod of war might have inadvertently done permanent, irreversible, internal damage to Damali. Carlos's mind instantly latched on to the image of her standing in the bathroom telling him she was bleeding silver. He was trembling with frustration as he stared at silver-lit eyes that held new uncertainty. "What could happen to her under those conditions?"

Akhenaton closed his eyes. "Hannibal... brother, brother, brother."

Hannibal sat down slowly like he'd been punched. "Young brother... my deepest regrets... had I known..."

Solomon leaned forward and made a tent before his mouth with his hands. "This is a problem. Is she injured?"

"I don't know!" Carlos shouted, veins standing in his neck and temples. "Why didn't you wait until I came home, summon me here, and do it here?"

"You were unavailable... we could not see you for a brief time," Ausar said quietly.

"I had just gotten married! Where the hell else do you think I would be other than with her?"

"This occurred during heated debate amongst the inner circle," Hannibal admitted, his voice low and deadpan. He glimpsed Adam. "Tempers flared, testosterone rushed, and we forgot that you had eloped. Our apologies."

"Youforgot? Treated me like I was absent without leave, when you knew I was getting married? Now you're telling me,our bad? Oh shit!" Carlos rubbed his palms down his face.

Adam sat down slowly with a thud as Ausar began to pace. "In our intemperance and battle fury," Adam said quietly, "we acted prema�turely, perhaps."

"Acted prematurely? Acted what?" Carlos was leaning across the table, sputtering. "Fix it now!"

"Female fertility issues rest in the province of Eve," Adam said qui�etly, "and lately, given the circumstances before us... my wife is not herself. We govern war and paternity, not those things maternal, as you know."

Carlos let out a hard breath, his gaze locking with Adam's. His palms were flattened against the table, glowing white when he splayed his fingers. "Then get the paternity straight," Carlos said between his teeth. "If she's able to carry and is carrying, y'all better fix this bull�shit with the quickness."

Adam stood slowly and spoke in a quiet rumble. "There is a pater�nity question? From whom?"

"Cain," Carlos said in a lethal mutter. "Don't do me like this. Put healing back into my hands and my bites, if I'm on my way to war... but before you doanother thing, you get it right with D."

Murmurs of dissent broke out among the gallery of kings behind the major archons.

"Paternity can only be guided prior, not after conception," Solomon said in a calm voice filled with remorse. "While your peti�tion stabs our collective conscience and has not fallen on deaf ears, young brother... you must believe that we hear you loud and clearly. There is only One above who can change destinies to such a degree. Wars against evil demon legions and building righteous, powerful leaders are our charge... but on some things we cannot intervene. We do not own such powers. Even the angels tread lightly on the subject and must get official sanction to make an in vitro change like that." He glanced at Adam, who looked away. "If we had this ability, we would have exercised that option eons ago."

"Fix this shit," Carlos repeated, his gaze going to each of the older kings at the table. He walked back to the blade that had been driven into the marble and extracted it with one deft pull. He looked at Ausar. "I got your transmission-translucent box, positioning troops up on a ridge rather than waiting to be slaughtered on a beachfront hacienda. That part I got, along with maps and formations in my skull driving me crazy. How to ride a blinding stallion like it's a nightmare. How to use falcons to fuck up a Harpie tornado. Throw multiple shields and blue-arc oceanic waves backward to drown battleships. Got it. Tried a few out on the beach a little while ago, I was so pissed the fuck off."

Carlos made a fist and allowed it to glow white hot as he stared at it with a searing silver gaze. "Energy ball; put a sonic boom war cry on this and it's nuclear-right?" he said in a quiet, disgusted voice, still staring at his fist for a moment before looking up.

"But do not," Carlos said, his voice dropping to a dangerous en�ergy pulse,"ever send me no crazy war shit when I'm with her." He looked up at the kings and then landed an angry gaze on Ausar. "Fix this. Respectdemanded as a Neteru among you."

Ausar nodded and slung an arm over Carlos's shoulder, taking the fury ball out of his hand and diffusing it. "We shall endeavor to do what we can. You are not injured, only strengthened. The healing will return shortly. But it may be advisable for you to have Damali scanned by Aset for signs of any permanent harm."

"I will confer with Eve on your behalf," Adam said, his gaze going off into the distance.

Ausar tightened his hold on Carlos's shoulder in support. "We may have to draw counsel from the queens on this matter, if not healing by the Caduceus," he added, glancing around and receiving slow nods. "However, our primary mission here at this summit is imminent war."

Damali sat on the front steps of the hacienda with the entire Guardian team staring at her. She could feel their questions like a heat rash cov�ering her skin. Weakened by the double healing, the argument, and something else she couldn't describe, she was so exhausted that she could only watch Carlos deliver a very-edited version of what had gone down. There was nothing to say. He'd kept it short and sweet. Guardians had sat on the sand one by one, seeming as though the air had been knocked out of them.

Her husband had delivered the state of the union in full battle bulk, and then called Jose to his side to walk down the beach. Mo�ments later, Carlos had left Jose standing on the shore appearing numb as he evaporated into a golden obelisk-blade in hand.

Juanita's eyes still held a hard edge of betrayal in them and didn't soften until Jose returned and pulled her into a hug.

"I had to tell him," Damali said quietly, staring at Juanita's back and searching Jose's eyes.

Juanita nodded and kept her face pressed against Jose's shoulder.

"Good looking out, D," Jose said, quietly. "Thanks."

"What happened?" Marlene said, her radar snapping on, but Damali held up her hand. "That," she said, nodding to where Jose and Carlos had been on the beach, "was personal. Let it rest. He just wants Jose to be careful, since he has some vamp line in him. With Cain's energy whirling at Chairman Level, anything crazy could kick off."

Jose nodded, and Juanita turned to finally glimpse Damali with a silent thank-you in her eyes.

"I have to go," Damali said, standing with effort. "He went to the kings; I have to consult the queens." She glanced around the team. "Y'all pull out all the weaponry, get strapped, all seers' radar up. Everybody's personal guard up; sensory capacities at the ready."

She waited until nods and battle-ready gazes met hers and the dis�gruntled band of warriors began to stand and go into the house. Silent terror was threading its way through her system, though. Each time she'd tried to summon her Isis, she got only a small tickle of cur�rent in her palm.

Hastening to the water's edge, Damali focused on the surf, trying to get the violet pyramid to open. Nothing. No juice. It was as though she was a dead battery. Damali glanced over her shoulder and tried to signal Marlene with her mind. Nothing. No telepathy? She covered her mouth with her hands. Her system had never been this fried in her life. Part of her wanted to dash back to the house and get Marlene to open the pyramid. The other part of her knew it would freak Mar and the entire squad out if they thought they had a Neteru down.

Damali touched the large diamond in the center of her collar with two fingers and spoke in a low, urgent whisper.

"Aset, hear me. I must come to you, but you have to get me. Cain is loose."