The Wicked (Vampire Huntress Legend 8)

CHAPTER EIGHT

His attention was so divided that Carlos was ready to rip out his hair by the roots. Damali was down the hall in the bathroom with Marlene getting a white-bath full dousing after he'd healed her jaw and Berk-field had closed up Damali's nicks and gashes with sacred blood. His wife was in an emotional place that he'd never seen. The newbies were telling him some insane shit about a huge demon named Hu�bert, and talking some bizarre madness about prayer flags and standing stone formations.

Berkfield lay on the sofa, slowly recovering from an intense healing session. Shabazz, Mike, and Jose were so amped that it was quite pos�sible he'd have to put bit-restraints in their mouths. The females in the villa were walking around in a stupor of fear and outrage, teetering on the brink of a suicidal, unplanned, go-for-broke, gang-war option. Then there was the not-so-small dilemma of Rider and Marjorie's very real fears that matched his: Tara and Gabrielle were at risk, and so was Yonnie.

Carlos reined in his own emotions and stared at the maps Krissy had provided, leaning on the dining room table with his hands.

"Aw'ight, listen up, people. Here's the deal. Forget the flags- they've blown out to sea. Forget the rocks down the beach, in hurri�canelike winds and torrential rains. With black lightning strikes, if you can get up there and hold on, you'll fry."

Pointing to a map, Carlos looked up at the assembled team. "Our options are limited because of civilian populations. When we bring the noise, we can't have a Los Angeles situation go down like it did before, or even a Philly-type firefight. The Pacific Northwest or the Midwest is a possibility as a last resort, although some freaky torna�does have been touching down in the midsection of the country, too. But the Gulf area, all the way from Florida to Texas has been ham�mered by hurricanes and devastation, and the last thing those innocent people need is a war. Kids running in the streets while bullets are fly�ing, Hummers rolling down sidewalks like Sherman tanks taking out women, old folks, and babies-shrapnel and bullshit exploding. No."

Carlos pushed back and stood straight, stretching his back. "South America is out, even though we could hit Bolivia, Peru, Brazil-any of the areas that have vast uninhabited regions... but is anybody feeling an ambush in the jungle again?"

"Hell no," Mike muttered.

"That's my point," Carlos said, frustration singeing his tone. "We have strong teams over there, but the wildlife that could be used against us is no joke. Anacondas and jaguars and shit. No. Same deal with Africa."

"Been there, done that," Shabazz said, nodding. "It ain't about get�ting caught in the motherland during a situation like this."

"Same thing with Asia," Carlos said. "We saw Tibet, and India is the same way. Wanna come face-to-face with a were-demon Bengal?"

"Shit," Rider said and sat down hard on a stool. "Europe, then? What do they have over there? Wolves we can handle easier, right Mike? You've sucker punched a few of them in your day and didn't draw back a nub."

Mike nodded. "Yup. I'm down."

"Then, like I said, Europe," Shabazz argued.

"Where, man? Think hard and long about Europe. Anybody re�member a little war called World War II?" Carlos said, not being sar�castic. "We go there, and we have the population problemplus the fact that Transylvania is a very old vamp headquarters. That would be like kicking off the noise near the Pentagon. You know how cold it gets on the front in some of those Alpine regions?" He sighed hard. "If we take it to colder climates, Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Russia-you feel me-and this thing goes on for months into the dead of winter, we could have bodies dropping from just the cold or falling off moun�tainsides. And I know nobody is ready to go back to Australia." He stared at the group and walked back to the maps. "We dusted so many masters over there that if they raise one, we're talking possible legions that could get up behind him with Cain to try to smoke us."

Dropping his weight on his hands against the table, Carlos stared down. "Don't even discuss the Middle East... old Ten Command�ments lands and whatnot. That's ground zero, as far as I'm concerned. Plus, the population is already at war, it's thick with people, and you definitely don't wanna be out there wrangling in the desert... not to mention, if we go there, Cain has cellular memory of the area with the ruins on lock for his troops to launch from. That's a stronghold zone for him."

"Then, where, man?" Shabazz said, his voice strained. "We're run�ning out of global real estate, and at some point, we can run but we can't hide. Gonna have to dig in and take a stand."

Carlos nodded. "Ain't about running, it's about backing up to launch a strategic, preemptive strike. We only got a coupla hours un�til sundown, and before I try to whirl this family outta here on a transport, I wanna make sure we're all in sync. I also need to be sure that I'm not dropping us into an ambush in the badlands, and I have to position us where we can get human resources quickly without having to suffer the elements."

Everybody groaned, muttering frustrated curses of agreement be�neath their breaths. Carlos rolled his shoulders, the tension about to snap his spine.

"The darkside can only keep up the winds for a short while. Uses up too much of their energy," Carlos said, rubbing his palms down his face, fighting fatigue. "The storm that's got us currently boxed in from outside ain't coming from Mother Nature. All the deadly hurri�canes that hit the States were theirs, not the Light's-that many inno�cent people caught up in the madness, nah. But the darkside latched on to naturally occurring events. They can't completely jack the weather to use it against us, unless a hurricane was already out there brewing off the coast, which it wasn't. My shields will hold against the sea wall building outside until the enemy pulls back-then we're out."

"Okay, I hear you, man," Shabazz said in frustration. "Where to?"

"It's gotta be Central Mexico," Carlos said flatly. "Warm to mod�erate climate year round, good hiding places for the team and high-ridge strategic advantages in the Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre Occidental-we'll have underpopulated towns between those two mountain ranges and we wouldn't have to blow up half of Mex�ico City, which is like New York. If we stay away from the coastlines, then hurricanes and whatnot won't be an issue, like it would be in the Caribbean. Other than rattlesnakes and mountain lions, the wildlife there is more manageable, too, if it turns."

"Cool," Shabazz said, still sullen like the others. "We'll round up our gear and be ready to roll on your order, man." He glanced at Rider. "Maybe Marj, Krissy, and Heather, with Jasmine, can get a lock on Gabrielle in Vegas... last place Rider heard she was going."

"Thanks," Rider said flatly and stood to go look out the sliding glass doors.

"I've been trying to get up with Yonnie," Carlos said in an apolo�getic tone. "But the darkside's got me blocked eight ways from Sun�day. Can't get nothing in or out to any vamps topside. But I'm working on it. Might be able to get a jumper cable connection- Gabby to him, one that they can't block because of her soul ground wire, so we can get Yonnie and Tara inside our net again."

"Appreciate it," Rider said with his back to Carlos.

"Why don't you leave the rest of the loose ends to us, man?" Shabazz said, going to Carlos for an embrace handshake. "Go check on your wife. We got this."

Carlos nodded and released Shabazz's grip, then headed down the hall. Whatever Damali and Marlene were privately discussing, he didn't want to intrude. The last thing he wanted to do right now was further upset Damali; she'd been through enough. At this point he was beginning to realize that, even though he was her husband, he was male-Marlene was a mom, and some things only another woman could fix.

Stopping at the door, Carlos tapped on it gently. He could hear Marlene grunt as she stood, and within moments, Marlene cracked open the door.

"Just checking to see if she's all right," Carlos said quietly. "I won't bother you guys, if she needs some space... but..."

"Come on in, baby," Marlene said and then hugged him. "She could use a shoulder from you, too, right now."

He kissed Marlene's forehead, thanking her with his eyes, and slipped into the humid enclosure as Marlene slid around him and shut the door behind her, leaving him and Damali alone.

"Hey... how you feelin'?" Carlos asked, stopping just inside the door and staring at Damali with concern.

She had on the thick white terry robe that had been in the villa from the honeymoon, and her wet hair was swept up in a towel. Sage smudge, frankincense, and myrrh thickened the mist around her, and shea butter mixed with anointing oils glistened on the little bit of her skin he could see. The terrible bruises were gone, as were the fang and claw nicks, but he knew the bruise against her spirit would take a much longer time to heal. As he nervously waited for Damali to an�swer, he prayed the old defiant side of her would reappear in her eyes.

But instead of that street fighter, he saw defeat shimmering in her wide brown eyes, and just seeing that made him cross the room and kneel down next to where she sat on the side of the tub. He took her hands into his and just looked at them, tracing the graceful lines of her fingers and the delicate skin over her knuckles. Even though she was a serious warrior, he wished she'd never have to bust her pretty hands up in a demon-brawl again.

"Listen-"

"I already know what you're going to say," she murmured, cutting him off and squeezing his hands. "I'm gonna have to get back into the fight. I just got knocked down, was seeing stars, but I have to get back up.

He nodded, not arguing with her. What made him worry was that while he agreed with what she'd said, her voice and the tone of her statement sounded like textbook rhetoric... there was no passion in it, like it came from the heart-and that was the easiest way for her to get seriously hurt again.

"I know," he said after a while, kissing her knuckles. "But it's like... I guess, being a quarterback, and getting tackled and thrown down hard-a lot of brothers talk about hearing footsteps in their sleep from defensive linemen. Phantom terrors that are as real as the day is long. So, I want you to give yourself permission to heal in your head, is all I'm saying. I'm not challenging your ability, just saying that you're also human."

She brought his hands up to her face, kissed them, and pressed them to her cheek, closing her eyes. "I love you." She let out a hard breath. "You were right."

"I'm not trying to be right," he said quietly and really meaning it. "Things have gone way beyond that. I'm trying to be your husband."

He watched tears roll down her cheeks from beneath her closed lashes, making them glisten, and he wiped them away with the pad of his thumb, feeling her pain lodged so deeply in his chest that he al�most couldn't breathe.

"You know what really messes me up, Carlos?" she whispered through a sniff. "I might be..."

"I know." He pulled her to him and hugged her, rubbing her back so she could get it all out. He knew that was the core of it-the fact that after it all, she might be carrying for Cain, if she was pregnant. "I ain't going nowhere."

She balled the back of his T-shirt up into her fists, and he could feel her fighting an all-out sob. He was, too, and just held her tighter, be�ginning to rock her, trying to come up with something to say to grant her peace. The more he held her, the more he understood Adam's po�sition. What did a tiny little baby have to do with larceny and the schemes of grown beings? There was so much chaos in his spirit that he could barely contain it, and it came out in silent tears against her shoulder that began to wash the dilemma clean in his soul. The only thing he was sure about was how much he loved her.

"Damali, God as my witness, if it's got any of you in it, I'll raise it like my own."

His thickly murmured confession broke the damn loose within her, and hiccupping sobs rained down on his shoulder as they both rocked away the pain.

"I never wanted-"

"I know. You don't have to say it again," he whispered, slowly re�covering and pulling back to see her face. "Look me in the eyes, Damali." He waited until she would."Nothing comes between me and you-not nobody, not no bullshit. Nothing."

She shook her head. "Nothing," she whispered, touching his face.

"Nothing," he said, resolute. "Ever."

"He threatened to wipe out everyone I love and care about."

"So, you gonna let him?" Carlos said, working on the defiant em�ber he hoped was still within her. Knowing Damali well, he went for that insane switch inside her that even Hell couldn't deal with.

For a moment, she just stared at him.

"That punk bastard thinks he's broken your back, baby, just because he made you cry."

Carlos watched her slightly tilt her head and hope coursed through him as he egged her on. "Arrogant motherfucker thinks you're gonna go out like Eve, so upset that you can't deal with possibly taking an�other blow... just 'cause he got you good the first time and you came up dazed, he thinks you're gonna do whatever he wants to ap�pease the beast and let him run you," Carlos added in a philosophical tone, watching liquid fire ignite in Damali's irises.

"I know how twisted men think," he said with a shrug. "It's a power thing. Holler at 'em and beat 'em down, and they'll be so scared they'll do whatever. He probably figures, 'cause you're a queen, like his mother, he can break you like he did her. In fact, because youare a queen, it gives him all the more pleasure to make you get down on your knees and beg him not to hurt you-sick, slimy mother�fucker that he is. But I don't think holmes is used to dealing with a twenty-first-century sister from around the way."

She nodded slowly, her nostrils beginning to flare.

"You tell me how to play this, baby," Carlos said, deadly serious. "If you're scared of him, ain't no shame in the game. He's bigger than you and stronger than you. If he shook your confidence, that stays be�tween me and you. If you ain't ready to go gansta, pure guerilla on him, then as your husband, you know my position-I'll go out swing�ing for you. But I just want you to remember, one round in a boxing match ain't the whole match... unless you can't get up from the mat."

He hugged her when her body went rigid with silent fury, pleased to see he'd thrown the master switch. "I got your back. If you don't wanna deal, I can dig it. That's why we're a team. If I go down hard, you got me until I can stand, and vice versa."

"He thinks I'm weak because my queens are experiencing a power drain through his mother," she said, yanking back to stare at him.

"So, all right," Carlos said, resuming his philosophical tone, loosen�ing his hold on her to sit on the floor. "They're experiencing a power loss from his bullshit, but ain't there a higher power source, D? One battery that can't nobody drain?"

"Definitely," she said, lifting her chin and glancing away to stare at the tiles.

Relief wafted through him. "Cool, then maybe you just stepped up and graduated to the next level again?" He almost smiled when she snapped her attention back to him. "You always get your lessons faster than me and before me. I'm just learning how to deal with that real�ity without actin' the fool, myself."

Awe slowly dawned in her eyes.

"Damali, you ever think that maybe the reason the queens never came or their powers were of no use in that particular situation might have been because... you got some new serious powers blooming?"

"I never thought about that, Carlos." She stared at him and slowly brought both hands up to cover her mouth.

"Don't you always tell me that the Light always adds, but doesn't take away?"

She nodded, wide-eyed, with her fingers still shielding her lips. "All I know is, hombre probably didn't bank on that. Doesn't know how my wife will patiently lay like a cobra for his ass and strike like white lightening when he least expects it." Carlos nodded and stood, and then sat down beside her on the edge of the tub, holding her gaze in an intimate lock. "Keep crying. Keep wailing. Keep seeming inse�cure around him, 'cause I know that ain't you, but he don't. Keep beg�ging for the safety of your family... and the next time he rolls up on you, slay him."

Damali shut her eyes and stood so quickly, Carlos almost toppled into the tub.

"That no-good, lowlife, sneaky, arrogant demon..." she said, walking in a slow, deadly circle with her eyes closed, just shaking her head. "Next time, I'll have a dagger on my hip for the tail." She stopped walking and looked at Carlos hard. "Thank you for the battle bite. I know I can take one, now And I'm glad he hit me good and hard, because now I know how strong the bastard is-it wasn't a punch, but I can guestimate. I also found out the hard way that as long as the queens are divided, my Isis won't shear his blade. Okay. Experi�ence is the best teacher. So if I call for your sword in a firefight- work with me, and throw me yours."

"Done."

"Shape-shifts ain't working," she said with an angry smile, "I guess because I'm supposed to use my real wings... and maybe I'm not supposed to be turning into anything crazy anymore now that I have them and they're fully matured."

"I'll go with the theory." A slight smile crept out on one side of his face.

"Yeah," she said, her head bobbing as she folded her arms over her chest. "No coincidences or accidents in the universe. We're supposed to useeverything. Every lesson, every heartbreak, and every game that was run on us... gotta keep your head in the battle."

He just looked up at her, both proud and amazed.

"I need to meet with Eve... maybe give her a little hope to send some white Light down into a brother's chair. If Darkness can sub�tract, then the Light can add. Whatchu think, baby?"

Carlos smiled wider. "Sounds like a plan."

"Honesty is the best policy, right? With a little diplomatic omis�sion."

He chuckled. "You getting ready to fuck dude up, ain't you, baby?"

"Did I tell you I loved you?"

Carlos laughed and stood, going to her to pull her into his arms. "Yeah... you just did."

She watched Carlos slip out of the bathroom and she stood in the cen�ter of the tiled space using her hands to make a pyramid. She called to Aset softly, not even bothering to put on her clothes. A robe, wet towel, and bare feet would have to do. Slowly the violet entrance opened, and Damali stepped through it with her head held high. As soon as Aset neared her, she held up her hand.

"I have news for the full oval. May we meet, and bring Eve?"

Aset stared at her for a moment. "Queen Sister, are you sure?"

"Never more sure in my life," Damali said, and strode past Aset.

Damali opened the large chamber doors and entered the Neteru Council of Queens' session room that already had a heated summit underway. All voices ceased as Aset calmly entered the white marble-ensconced gallery behind Damali and shut the large doors with a wave of her hand.

"Damali has recent news from the front," Aset announced.

Eve looked up with anger and released a weary sigh. "So you have come here triumphant." Eve stood. "Then I need not hear the details, now that my son-"

"Cain is very much alive," Damali said, staying Eve's departure. "Aset, can you reveal wounds that have just been recently healed?"

Aset nodded and slowly approached Damali.

"Show them everything that my body sustained in the last few hours," Damali said, unceremoniously dropping her robe and standing nude before an aghast council. "Show Eve how strong her son is... I want her to see what he did to me when I went down there to con�front him-to tell him to go back to Nod and to convince him that he shouldn't have bargained with the Devil, and I even explained how your soul was crushed." Damali shook her head. "Yes, I went armed and furious, yeah, with indignation, but I also tried to tell him the truth and give him a last-ditch option, once I learned my family was still alive. Look at this. I tried your approach, Eve. Talking. This is the result." Damali set her jaw hard. "And, oh, by the way, when I told him about his momma, he said 'Her condition is unfortunate.' Now get to that."

Aset closed her eyes and turned away as every wound Damali sus�tained overtook her body. Eve gasped and held on to the edge of the oval table and backed away, but as much as the injuries hurt when she moved, Damali neared Eve to make the point visually sink in.

"Wait until you see my back." Damali slowly turned around and showed Eve and the assembled queens the third-degree burns, huge demon talon welts and gashes, and then opened her thighs to show the thick ropes of black-and-blue marks and raw scrapes where Cain's scaled tail had forcibly parted her legs. Convinced that the queens were sufficiently mortified, judging from the shocked expressions on the regal faces around her, Damali turned her attention back to Eve. "And let me add that I might be carrying for him, dear queen. I could be pregnant."

Nzinga's battle-ax rent the chamber with a whir and came to a clanking stop in the marble door. The Amazon let out such a thun�derous war cry that thrones shook and Aset's lions roared.

"I'm going to Ausar about this shit," Damali said, leaning onto the table and staring at Eve. "I was in a battle with your son in Hell, and because you wouldn't stand with me to do what has to be done, my powers waned." She pushed away from the table, fully naked, and folded her arms over her bare, bruised breasts. "But Carlos, being the man he is, said even if I am pregnant and it's Cain's, he would love it and raise it and protect it like his very own."

Eve was on her feet with a strangled gasp. "My son did this to you? Are you certain?"

"Is she on drugs?" Damali said, moving away from Eve to stand by Aset. "Like I wouldn't know who went after me in Hell?"

Eve bowed down and went to one knee. "There is not enough that I can say to you, Damali, but to beg you to forgive me for any danger I may have put you in. I suspect you want a scan, and to end the preg�nancy... after this?"

"No!" Damali shouted, drawing confused stares from the other queens. "I will raise it with my husband, if I am carrying for either man." She waited until Eve slowly stood. "But I would not lie to or deceive my husband about it. Carlos deserves better, and the decision to stay or leave based on my situation is his choice. I told him and had to suck it up-had to bea queen about it and honorably take whatever decision he personally made about this-and I did. I respect him that much."

Eve nodded, wrapping her hands around her waist. "You would keep it?"

Damali held out her bloodied blade arm so that Eve could see the ravaged flesh better. "Even after Cain did this to me," she said in a low, threatening voice. "Even after he pried my legs open and forced him�self between them and made me cry out to Heaven... even after he dropped twelve inches of battle-length fangs and told me I'd be puk�ing my own blood and choking on my own womb when he was done... Yeah, sis, no problem. Me andmy husband will raiseyour son's baby, together-and will even let you act like grandma. The baby didn't have nothing to do with it and I won't play those kinds of games, keeping you from the child to spite you. Why? Just because you loved your son so much you forgot that / was somebody's child? Now how wouldthat seem?"

When Eve cringed and drew away, Damali pranced around the table naked, watching rage implode in each queen's eyes.

"My mother-seer almost went blind when I came home. My hus�band was almost ready to put his blade to his own throat. Shabazz, who is like my dad, hey, we almost had to thump on his chest to restart his heart. My brothers and other Guardians in the house-they still can't breathe." Damali leaned across the table and stared at Eve until Eve looked up at her. "Jam somebody's child, too, Eve. It's not all right for you to cover for your sick-ass, twisted son, just because he's yours and let him tear apart a woman and her family. No matter what!"

Every queen was on her feet and pandemonium broke out in the gallery so badly that daggers and weapons were drawn in millisec�onds. Aset literally had to send a crack of purple lightning into the oval table and speak with thunder to quiet the council.

"Eve," Aset said, pointing at Eve, "this demands redress! I wantall her powers immediately restored, her Isis securely in her grip, her seven-stone necklace returned from wherever it was lost at once! Ausar will be notifiedby me -personally-know that. Carlos has done no less than Adam, in this regard, and what has been visited upon Queen Damali's household and personage is an outrage!"

"You got that right," Damali said, and gave Eve her back. She spoke softly to make the room go still, using every stage performance and voice technique that she owned to heighten the drama.

It didn't matter that her wounds were the result of an attempted rape this time and she'd come away with just a severe beating. What mattered was the violation of her humanity-period. So if the queens wanted to jump to conclusions that a rape also happened while she was in Hell battling, so be it. Cain had already done no less by riding Carlos's energy. He'd violated her once on Carlos's wave, and then again by beating her ass almost to death. Determining when each event occurred was splitting hairs, as far as she was concerned. This was war.

"You especially wanna know why, Eve. You know what else hap�pened down there?" Damali allowed her voice to falter. "I amSome�body's child," she said, pointing upward and slowly, painfully through the bruises, she unfurled her clean, damp wings.

The collective gasp that echoed through the Neteru Queens' Council could have cut stone. Damali turned around to face them with tears in her eyes that were not a part of the theatrics. Just think�ing about it brought it all back full force along with every foul indig�nity.

"They came out while I was down there!" she shouted, pounding on the table and making the opalescent colors within it swirl. She closed her wings around her nakedness in a hug, silver tears streaming down her face as she railed. "I was on adirty cavern floor under his foul body, ghosts and poltergeists laughing and murmuring like phan�tom peeping Toms, while that sweating, grunting beast humped me, sliding his tongue into my ear, and sending the most depraved sexual images into my mind! I'mmarried! How can I sleep with my husband againafter that -with those images in my head? Eve, you tell me! Thiswasn't a seduction. This was-"

Damali tore herself away from the table when the elder queen closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands.

"Oh, God!" Eve wailed. "He didn't!"

"He did!" Damali screamed, feathers flying as she snapped open her wings. "And you know what, you know what! He's threatened my entire family, who I can't protect because my powers are shaky... He'll wipe them out, if I won't go down there and get with him again!"

Eve was up and out of her chair, and she ran to Damali and held both her arms. "Child, my son has lost his mind," Eve said in a horri�fied, urgent rush. "Youcannot go down there and allow him to take you like that while possibly carrying our-"

Damali shrugged away. "I don't want him toever touch me again, Eve. I just want to raise my baby in peace... and to have my full family there in love and support around me so I can put this horror out of my mind."

What she'd declared was no act; if she was pregnant, it was the pure truth. Thinking about Cain touching her gave her hives. Damali looked at Eve hard. "But I can't do any of that as long as Cain is free to roam to and fro. He's stalking me, and either has to go into perma�nent lockup, or be put down like the animal he is."

"I say put the bastard down for good," Nzinga shouted across the chamber. "He's dangerous, and if he's after Damali and her family- what if he attacks her while she's very ripe with child, huh, Eve? The bigger she gets, and the further along the pregnancy goes, she'll be crippled to fight him and ward off an attack! He's a demon and would rape her when she was like that and you know it!"

"I shall beg all of Heaven to allow me to materialize in the flesh again to cut off his member, first," Joan said."Heresy, against a heav�enly body," she whispered, gaining nods all around.

The Aztec, Asian, and Native American queens stood unified with Joan.

"We will raise every noble Aztec warrior from the crusts of their graves!"

"Every dragon's teeth of Shanghais shall be sewn!"

"Every honorable brave shall ride again like a nightmare on the wind!"

"I will summon Anubis, the scarabs of Amen-Ra, and all the an�cient Egyptian entities of old... plus will draw the Orishas of Africa to assist, and I will call the winds of Cyprus and sweep a plague into the bowels of Hell so vast that the Earth will shudder!" Nefertiti hollered, her golden robes billowing after her as she paced behind her throne. "I have six daughters!Six, Eve, count them-and never in my incarnations have I been so enraged. I do not care that we are not supposed to directly get involved in the Armageddon until we are called," she shrieked. "This is beyond my endurance to idly sit by and witness! Your son violatedan angel, and my petitions will be heard Above, if I cross the line!"

"Yes, he is not beyond committing this heinous violation again," Penthesileia yelled. "Or are you going to let him make our young queen miscarry your own grandchild or have acherub angel born de�formed because Cain beat Damali so badly that-"

"Never!" Eve said, sweeping away from the table. "This time my son has gone too far!" She shook her head and then slowly advanced to Damali. "Let me scan to see if-"

"No, don't touch me!" Damali said, backing away. The last thing that she needed to do was have Eve find out that whatever was pos�sibly inside her wasn't Cain's, then all of this drama would be moot. She also wasn't truthfully ready to know if she was pregnant or not- and she would definitely pass out from heart failure if Eve's scan told her she was and it was Cain's. Later, after she killed his ass, then she could get technical. Her mind and heart could only bear so much.

Damali stood covered by her own wings, holding herself away from Eve in a challenge. A combination of reality, terror, and sadness filled her that was completely honest. All of it imploded within her at once. It was a terrifying reality that Cain could have busted a sleazy vamp move and planted something in her, and she knew in her heart that she couldn't go through another womb purge. A deep sadness made her close her eyes as the image of Carlos's agonized face entered her mind. The man would actually deal with this for her if he had to... damn. She wanted to drop to her knees and weep.

"After all our sister has recently been through, Eve," Aset said in a firm tone, "Damali shouldn't have to endure anyone touching or vio�lating a hair on her head-not even a hug, without her permission. This is the foulest act that can be committed against our kind."

Every queen in the room nodded and Eve slowly backed away.

"I am sorry beyond what you can fathom," Eve whispered. "Please let me try to make it up to you by putting every power at your dis�posal... anything you need... the elements, nature, whatever I can do, so that should you find yourself in battle with him again, you can protect yourself." Eve lifted her chin. "In my own grief, I have been blind." Huge tears filled her regal eyes but burned away with rage. "If this is what he has become, he shames me and his stepfather, Adam, a man that stood behind him... encouraged him, mentored him, loved him as his own. Adam was a role model of what it was to be a man with honor, and that Cain has become this not only breaks my heart, but enrages me."

"Rage is good," Nzinga said with a scowl. "Better than acting crazy and being in denial."

Eve closed her eyes, balled her hands into fists at her side, and spoke through her teeth. "When Ithink of how I loved that boy! The sacri�fices made as only a mother can make them! My marriage always on the precipice! The way I went against my beloved husband for him time and again! He disrespects Adam, and me, and even slaughters my baby boy, Abel..." Eve's voice cracked, but no one dared near her as she sucked in a huge breath and squeezed her eyes shut more tightly. "I gave Cain the world, everything in my soul! Now he does this? And now he would violate the woman who carries his seed-mygrandchild?" She opened her eyes and pointed to the table. "Never! I will kill him myself and put him out of his misery first!"

The entire gathering of queens quickly jumped away from their thrones and took shelter behind them. Damali had found a column to hide behind before the bolt ever left Eve's hand; she could feel it winding up. Having seen that look in Marlene's eyes for years, that mother death stare was easy to read. The table took the charge with a loud crack and a high-pitched whine whirred, magnetizing every�thing in the room as a yawing color spiral sucked a pure white current of lightning into the center of it. Heavy gold-and-white marble thrones inched forward as Eve held her arm out, her index finger ig�nited by a four-inch-wide swath of energy.

"You are dead to me!" Eve shouted. "My hope is contained within a thousand lights of Heaven that my grandchild will never be as you! I forsake you! I am no longer your mother. You have brought shame upon our household. I turn you over to the authorities On High! They may do with you what they will!" Eve lowered her voice and intensified the ray as she now spoke in an ending threat. "I shed Light on you with my final prayer of pure essence of mother love-mayGod bless you!"

The table exploded and energy shrapnel went flying. Afraid to peep out once the room nova-lit, Damali waited until sparkling confetti-like color particles began to slowly float down to the marble floor. Eve's wails were a cross between the screech of a woman losing her mind and a piteous moan.

"Heal Damali. Gather the table and assist Eve with the Caduceus," Aset commanded urgently to the others, as the queens began to pull pieces of the disintegrated table back together with tender rays of vi�olet light from their hands. Aset held out Damali's robe with a silent plea in her eyes for Damali to leave, and quickly waved healing green light over her to remove the injuries. "We will take it from here, child... Your petition has been heard on multiple levels, rest as�sured."

The explosion that hit the Vampire Council table went off like a mor�tar round. Midstroke, Cain released a were-demon, unable to still mount the lionlike she-beast as a missile ball of pure Light tore through Level Five and kept going. The black forest around him was in white-light flames as though a comet had ripped through the realm. He looked up, mesmerized, to witness white and blue flicker�ing embers clinging to the sides of the cavern. Late sundown filtered into the hole five levels deep and beyond in a smoky gray filter, leav�ing a trail of screeches and demon screams in its wake.

The entity he'd been holding immediately burst into flames and went to screaming ash. He swiftly transported himself to the narrow bridge over the Sea of Perpetual Agony outside his council chambers, and stepped through the remains of ashen, charred messengers that never stood a chance.

Dead bats littered the floor as he opened the black marble doors. Burning vermin twitched where they lay, sending their putrid stench up in small, smoking funnels. Thrones were scorched. The pentagram-shaped table was a pile of white-hot glowing rubble... and his throne was melted down into a tangle of rock as though a nuclear blast had hit it.

Paralyzed, for a moment he could only stare and gape. Had Fallon Nuit or Lilith been in the room... or him, they all would have been instantly liquefied. But the thing that stunned him the most was the source of the blast.His mother? The facts were incongruent.His mother? True, her signature was in the glowing rubble, butEve had rent such destruction?

While it could all be repaired in due time, albeit through the great expense of a lot of energy, that was not the point. That his mother had obviously sided with Damali for some reason and had made him dead to her heart was a significant variable he'd never gambled on. It also meant that Damali's powers, and then some, would be restored.

Cain began to pace; he had to work quickly and redouble his ef�forts to break Damali's spirit, or all that he'd invested in his quest would be lost. Buthis mother sided with someone over him?

Slight remorse tugged at him as he threw his shoulders back and rubbed his palms down his face, too stricken for fraud. "Damn, Mom," he muttered, still somewhat bewildered by what could have gotten into her. "I'm sorry."

"Did you feel the blast?" Lilith said in a hissing whisper near her hus�band's ear. "You know what I told you Cain discovered about the liv�ing female Neteru."

"Yes," he said in a calm voice.

"What should we do?"

"Nothing... for now. Let us bide our time." A pair of red gleam�ing slits opened and a lazy, bored voice spoke. "My grandson has al�ways suffered from delusions of grandeur." The statement was delivered with a long, weary sigh that escaped into the pitch blackness and then a slow chuckle followed it. "Let Cain do all the work, let him use his armies as cannon fodder to reduce the ranks of Guardians on the planet... then I will decide what to do with the vessel. This new development isvery interesting, indeed."

"Are you pleased with my work so far?" Lilith's voice hitched and she held her breath after she'd spoken.

The slits disappeared in the darkness as the beast closed his eyes. "Yes."

Nuit opened his eyes and sat up so quickly in his coffin that he bumped his head. Disbelieving, he flattened his palms against the black marble crypt covering in the Vampire Council's antechambers to sense for heat. Level Six was now under siege by the Light? What had that arrogant, foolish, bastard done?Cain was out of his mind.

Did Cain think that after being the most ruthless master vampire ever made that this pretender to the throne would rule through her�itage alone? He'd been a vampire for much longer than Cain could imagine, all the while Cain was dallying in the Light... posturing as a Neteru pretender that knewnothing firsthand about the insidious politics of the realms! Now this? A direct attack, the inner chambers under siege?

Everything Cain knew was all throne-knowledge, nothing hard-won by ducal rights battles for territory and amassed wealth snatched in hand-to-hand combat. Forging intra-Level demon alliances took years of detente! And now he wanted to lay claim to the huntress... a treasure he'd found, cultivated, and had almost captured while she was still a virgin during her first ripening.Non.

Fallon Nuit became very still, slowing his breathing to a near stop. He surrounded his coffin with an extra black arc barrier of protection and closed his eyes. An hour until true nightfall... he needed his rest to be strong.

"Yeah, I did," Damali said, tugging on her jeans and talking to Carlos in the bedroom while she dressed.

Carlos blew out a long whistle. "Thetable blew?"

"Yep. Eve wasn't playing." She looked at Carlos with a mischievous smile. "Neither was I, okaaay."

"D... I just wish I could have been the fly on the wall down there when the Light hit. Iknow he didn't bank on you being crazy."

Yonnie dragged himself to the edge of the bed, and put his hand on the last black bottle in the lair. He weakly turned it up to his mouth, and then offered it to Tara. When she couldn't lift her head to even drink, he gently cradled her skull in his palm and raised it, pouring slow sips into her mouth until her cracked, dry lips moistened.

"Baby, I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me," he wheezed. "I couldn't stop."

She greedily drank with her eyes closed, blood running from the corners of her mouth until she choked. "I was almost gone," she gasped.

"I know," he murmured and gathered her into his arms, gently rocking her. "That was too close... I scared my damned self."

A loud knock on the bedroom door made Carlos and Damali look up. He stood and went to it.

"Yo, what's up?" Carlos stared at Damali as she put her baby Isis blade into a hip holster and grabbed her Madame Isis long blade off the dresser. He watched her put her necklace on like a queen and lift her head, ready to battle.

"Storm's over," Big Mike said through the door. "Wind's let up, it ain't raining, and Shabazz said to tell you now's probably a good time to move out."

"Sho' you right," Carlos said. "Two minutes." He looked at Damali. "You good? You ready to roll?" She nodded. "Let's do this."

She glanced out the window and groaned. Carlos had his hand on the doorknob but didn't open it, following her line of vision. "Just what we need. A full moon," she muttered. "Can we just catch a break?"

Carlos yanked the door open and began walking down the hall, trying again to send a signal to Yonnie with his mind. The weak sig�nal that came back at him made him walk faster.

"We got a man injured in Vegas," Carlos said, turning to Damali and looking at Rider. "We can take a small squad, an in-and-out de�tail, now that the sun is going down, but-"

"Go," Damali said. "Rider, Shabazz, and you. Half-hour, and it'll be dusk. Then we all have to move as one unit."

Carlos kissed her quickly and looked at Rider. "We gotchure back, man." What he didn't say was that he was barely able to get an energy pulse back from Tara.

"While the winds are down and the lightning has stopped, and we have a break in the rain, we should take a crew up on the rocks to do the lighthouse move Hubert told you about," Damali said, looking at Marj. "Rather than sitting around and waiting for Special Forces members of the team to report back, we can use that time wisely, and can maybe even get a secure beacon out to Gabrielle."

"You sure you feel up to this?" Marlene said cautiously, her line of vision now locked with Damali.

"Yeah, she's good," Carlos said, as Damali's eyes went to his with respect. "Girlfriend isdefinitely back on the block."