The Shadows (Vampire Huntress Legend 11)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"Okay," Damali said, dragging her fingers through her hair as the van aimlessly maneuvered through Washington's gridlocked streets. "If the information Enoch had was in the architecture, and Masons built D.C. . . . it's in the stones, and the map shows that it's in the actual concrete street patterns . . . there's gotta be another lodge or something we can do research on to find out what was in the Scottish Rite Temple."

"Try the mother temple," Cordell said blithely with a shrug.

"Where?"Carlos said.

Cordell looked in the rearview mirror and beamed. "The past is prologue, my friend. This old black Israelite knows a little bit. Right, Doug?"

Doug nodded. "Cordell is brilliant, but doesn't like to let people know. I learned the streets from him." Doug winked at Cordell.

"Hey, I'm just an old black man driving a bus . . . but I do know that thirteen blocks north of the White House and thirteen blocks south of the temple wewas trying to get to, right on the corner of Sixteenth and S Streets, is one of the most important Masonic temples in the world. House of the Temple-headquarters of the Mother Supreme Council of the World . . . and the Supreme Council of the Third Degree of Scottish Rite Masons of the Southern Jurisdiction. Steps are set up in three, five, seven, nine groupings that lead to a doorway with a two-to-one proportion, just like the smaller Scottish Rite Temple on Sixteenth and Harvard. It's based on Kemetic architecture, and has one of the most impressive Masonic libraries in the world. Got 'Knowledge Is Power' etched in brass on two sphinxes of wisdom-knowledge and power-action."

Damali and Carlos shared a look, and Yonnie leaned forward.

"Cordell saidknowledge is power is on that building?" Yonnie's gaze held Carlos's. "That's right off the old thrones, man-basic."

"I feel you, man," Carlos said in a low murmur, giving Yonnie the vibe to be cool and let Cordell talk.

"The Temple Room got thirty-three columns that's thirty-three-feet high . . . with thirty-three seats for the highest level of Masons-thirty-three degree Masons inducted into the Mystic Shrine," Cordell continued proudly. "So, if there's something in the stones that was in the Scottish Rites Temple, the mother temple would have it, too-they're mirror images."

"You said your contact was dead," Doug interjected, looking at Carlos and cutting off Cordell's spiel. "If bodies are dropping already, then you need an exit strategy."

"How'd it happen?" Berkfield said, glancing around the team.

"Man got his throat cut and so-called robbed trying to get up the steps to the temple so he could meet y'all," Cordell said, all mirth leaving his tone as he relayed the information he'd heard earlier on his police scanner. "Dougie is right. All y'all seers open up a channel so I can show you our network. If the house on M is under siege, then we gotta take you through the 'hood over in southeast and either out into Virginia or Maryland, depending on whether you wanna hide heading north or south. Worse case, we can get you out into the Chesapeake Bay and head you toward Bermuda, if it's real hot, and from there you can jump down to the Caribbean. But most everywhere has extradition back to the United States these days. You can run, but it's real hard to hide from Big Brother, once theycome gunning for you."

"Let's hope it won't come to that," Marjorie said in a quiet tone.

"We're already there, Marj," Berkfield said, growing annoyed. "Didn't you hear the news J.L. just rattled off? We've already been set up by the darkside, positioned as potential terrorists . . . now the good guys are gonna start plowing into bank statements, credit cards, library cards, car notes, anything that we might have purchased even through a third party."

"Which means they'll freeze our assets," Dan said, suddenly panicked.

"You oughta know me better than that," Carlos said coolly, looking around the group as he materialized a platinum credit card between his fingers and made it just as quickly disappear. "I got most of our shit offshore in number only accounts. My old life living under radar taught me that much."

"My brother," Yonnie said, pounding his fist.

"Bigger problem is freedom of movement now just got seriously limited," Damali said, allowing her gaze to rake the group. "We're formally done-out of the music business. If we resurface again, we're going into immediate custody. From this point on, life as we knew it has changed . . . we're completely underground, strictly guerrilla."

Rider flopped back against his seat and closed his eyes. "I knew this day would come. I have just retained the right to start smoking again."

"Shoot us the images," Carlos said, his voice weighted with sudden fatigue. "We definitely need a fallback position now."

"Roger that," Doug said. "I'll alert our base-station squads that we've got our Neteru team possibly coming in hot. We'll do everything we can to throw the feds off your trail, make 'em think you're in Europe or something, and we can try to send out confusing signatures to the darkside. Also know, the Internet is your friend . . . we've got Web radio cells at your disposal, and a grid that can block theirs with Light."

"No doubt we'll get a little angelic assistance with blocking our exact whereabouts from humans so we don't have to smoke anybody," Shabazz said, fishing his favorite Glock, Black Beauty, out of his mud cloth satchel to stash in his waistband.

"That would be helpful," Rider said sarcastically. "But my main concern is not having the Unnamed One know I'm riding in a van full of explosives, but maybe I'm just paranoid."

"Well, if you get in a jam, head for the Jefferson marker," Cordell said, peering at the group over his shoulder as he drove. "See, the Washington Monument was supposed to be the first zero milestone of the city, but the ground was too unstable . . . so it now stands where they say the ground could hold it-slightly east of the north-south axis between the White House and the Jefferson Memorial. But if you stand at the Jefferson's marker facing west, you would be standing in front of a cross formed by the Lincoln Memorial in front of you, the Capitol behind you, the White House on your right, and the Jefferson Memorial on your left. If you extend two perpendicular lines from the center of this point-which is the ten square miles Banneker and Ellicott surveyed back in the day-they would terminate at the four cornerstones that are north, south, east, and west boundaries of the city.It's a cross ."

"This riddle is about to make me pull my hair out," Damali said, clasping her locks in her fists. "A cross is squared off with a pentagram, with the White House being the exact center of the Metatron's Cube protecting it, which is also the baseline center point for a pyramid in the grid."

"Well, our stoneworkers know what to do. Ladies, you've got your position and coordinates," Carlos said. "You're gonna have to either bring us back home by frying anything supernatural that crosses the Cube or the cross-grid by supercharging that-same deal for the male tacticals on the squad."

Damali stared down at the map as the van came to a slow, rolling stop. "Two things are working my nerves. One-the Washington Monument being offset doesn't feel like a coincidence to me. I've seen this off-center arrangement somewhere before. It means something, Carlos. Two-the other thing that I keep remembering is the Washington Monument is a symbol for Ausar. It's a tekhen, a giant phallus symbol, the part of Ausar that Aset couldn't find when he was attacked and originally killed by Set or Satan, with his body scattered in fourteen segments. They only found thirteen, 'His phallus was thrown in the Nile and eaten by catfish.' "

"So they made that missing part from stone so he could be buried whole," Carlos said, wiping his palms down his face.

Every male on the team shuddered.

"Since then, that monument shape has been used in culture after culture as a symbol of fertility and power," Damali said, enthralling the van. She turned to Carlos and then to Yonnie. "Heru, Ausar's son, then came back and conquered Set-Satan-and restored his father's honor, blah, blah, blah . . . so wouldn't it make sense that, if we're following the old Kemetic beliefs as carved in the stones by the very layout of the nation's capital by its founding Masons-who also clearly believed in the ancient power of all of this-that to really get his revenge off, this particular monument would factor into the coming of Satan's son?"

"Fair exchange is no robbery," Carlos said, sitting back and looking out the window, his thoughts quickly traveling. "Baby, that's genius."

"And that is just how that motherfucker would think, too!" Yonnie said, jumping out of his seat so he could pace in the short aisle. "He'd screw the forces of Light, in their own house, with their own dick, in front of the cross, with the symbol of their potency, their power base, and shove it right up-"

"We get the point," Marlene said. "Language, Yolando, please . . ." Her eyelids fluttered as she spoke. "There's a Heru Bedhet inside the monument above the elevators that take visitors to the observation deck."

"I don't follow," Berkfield said, looking around. "What's a Heru Bedhet?"

"It's a figure that was carved above the entrance of every temple in Kemet-it symbolizes Heru's victory over Set or Satan, as the case may be," Damali said. "Heru then ascended into Heaven to meet his father, Ausar, after his time on earth was over. But the point is,he kicked Set's butt to avenge the way his father and mother had been played. That's the foundation of Kemetic philosophy and that belief system."

"It's on my shield and on my blade of Ausar," Carlos confirmed.

"My point, exactly," Yonnie argued. "Essentially, like a Neteru tattoo at your base, bro-that Bedhet is at the base of Ausar's rock-"

"Yo, man," Carlos shouted."TMI!"

A muffled giggle from Damali's pearl wafted up from the mud cloth bag where she'd stashed her necklace.

"I feel you, but we ain't got time to be all modest," Yonnie said, jumping up to begin pacing again. "Meand you know how the darkside thinks. So if youwas the Unnamed One, wouldn't you just love to screw the entire human world and the Light with a symbol that has been erected since time immemorial, since the days of Ausar, that basically threw in your face how you lost to your adversary's kid? Wouldn't you want to bring your heir back through that?"

"He's got a point, Carlos," Shabazz said, looking at Yonnie and then Carlos. "I'm sure the Unnamed One ascribes to the mine-is-bigger-than-yours theory."

"You know he does!" Yonnie said, slapping a seat back.

"Well, what's this symbol look like-the Bedhet thing that we should keep an eye out for?" Jose asked, looking at Carlos and then Damali.

"Two winged serpents, one that looks to the east and another to the west, with the sun in the middle, and inside the sun, the six-pointed star represents Sepedet-an upside-down triangle, or female form, for Aset-and a pyramid-for Ausar-put together-"

"Forms a Star of David," Dan said, jumping up to stand by Yonnie. "That's why you got the Enoch references and had to look at the Kabbalah!"

"It's called the Thirteenth or Royal Arch Degree," Cordell said. "I know. I'm a Mason . . . and Enoch is also associated with the Royal Arch. All fits."

"Go back to the pyramid," Carlos said, too wired to sit. He stood and smoothed a palm over his hair. "If the pyramid in the Sepedet refers to Ausar, then Yonnie broke the code." He looked at Yonnie and slowly pounded his fist. "If you were the Ultimate Darkness that was operating in the shadows, you'd do the unthinkable in front of the cross, and before Ausar who's bested you in the past with his son . . . you'd use his own phallus, that is marked at the base by the symbol of the first Kemetic family, Ausar and Aset, in front of the White House-which is a metaphor for their palace-and you'd screw them with the monument that allowed them to give birth to their heir, Heru . . . the son who beat you. You'd defy the Masons, who gated you in the Metatron's Cube and set their symbol beside that in the streets, the Masonic Compass, to let all who knew how to read the architecture that they wereall not necessarily responsible for what would arise from the pentagram-even if, perhaps, some of their early brethren who'd crossed over to the darkside might have laid those original streets in a satanic barter."

"Lotto!"Yonnie yelled in the bus.

"The Washington Monument is also the number of man," Cordell offered, fully turning in his seat as heidled the engine and put on the van's hazard lights. "Five. The Antichrist is coming as a man . . . and the monument is fifty-five-feet wide at the base and five-hundred-and-fifty-five-feet in height, a ten-to-one ratio just like the other tekhenwy in Egypt, or obelisks, as the Greeks called them."

"Hidden in plain sight," Damali murmured. "We've just gotta figure out how and where that pupa is hidden near the monument."

They waited in the van, anticipation zinging through the group. Cordell was supposed to try to gain access to the private lodge and send mental pics back to the group's seers, but the pomp and circumstance of it all was making everyone crazy. Yet, there was nothing to do but sit and wait in the van like a silently ticking time bomb. Then the first image hit her. It was the pyramid on the dollar bill.

"He's in," Damali announced quickly. "Pyramids . . . he's looking at pyramids in the library," she added in a quieter tone as her Guardian sister's eyelids began to flutter."Cross section. Tekhen . . . he doesn't know what we need and we can't tell him because we don't know-he could be in there for hours! Dollar bill, thirteen steps on that pyramid . . . eagle tail feathers, nine.All-seeing eye. He's trying to do numerology combinations. I don't know what to tell him. Valley of the Kings built on the west bank of the Nile, our famous necropolis and many memorials to dead presidents are on the west bank of the Potomac. He's all over the place and it isn't his fault."

"Pyramids-because those are secret and they are strong and that's where the dead kings used to be buried," the pearl shouted from her bag. "It's so horrible, but that's where it's growing. I'm afraid, Damali. I don't like this at all!"

"Go back to the pyramid-cross section," Marlene said calmly. "Overlay the Queen's Chamber inside the apex of the traditional pyramid with the street design of where the Washington Monument sits across from the White House. Just like the Queen's Chamber is offset from the King's Chamber, so, too, is the Washington Monument from the White House."

"The Washington Monument could be the womb, the Queen's Chamber, offset from the male energy of the King's Chamber-the White House," Damali murmured.

"Oh, yeah, old Lu is sick . . . making Ausar's phallus symbol offset like it's female energy," Yonnie said, chuckling in disbelief, "by screwing with the ground years ago so the humans couldn't build the damned thing where they'd wanted to."

"Tell him to stay with cross sections of pyramids," Carlos said, leaning over a seat.

Damali nodded and conveyed the message. In a few moments, words began to flow from her mouth as Dan, Jose, and J.L. furiously scribbled notes.

"Potomac Avenue is equivalent to the Descending Passage and Pennsylvania Avenue to the Ascending Passage and Grand Gallery in a Giza pyramid. The old canal simulates the well shaft in those Kemetic structures. The point of the relieving stones above the King's Chamber is a direct match to Scott Circle north of the White House . . . and the junction of the Ascending and Descending Passages is a direct match to the junction of Potomac and Pennsylvania Avenues." Damali began rocking as she spoke, drawing the team in closer. "If you follow Potomac southwest in direction, right out into the river, there's a secret subterranean vault or chamber, just like in the Kemetic pyramids."

"I say we follow the juncture points and then check the vault," Carlos said. "We can't bust into the King's chamber, the White House-and the likelihood of getting smoked in the Washington Monument by human gunfire is too real-but I'd put money on it that he's hiding his heir in an easy route back to the monument. So let's start at those two places on the map," he said, pointing at where he'd drawn along with Damali's description. "We hit the junction point or head toward the Potomac."

The moment the words came out of Carlos's mouth a police cruiser pulled up beside the van and put on its popcorn lights. The team looked at one another. Doug slid into the driver's seat as Marjorie stepped up to take the pretend role as tour guide.

"Can I help you, officer?" she said brightly as Doug opened the door.

Two policemen stood wide-legged with the strap popped on their weapons.

"Step away from the vehicle, ma'am," the first cop said as more vehicles entered the street.

"Sure, no problem, sir," Marj said in her most pleasant suburban tone. "Have we violated any parking rules by stopping our tour van so these folks could take pictures?If so, I'm so sorry."

The tension in the bus crackled as Guardians held their breaths. Damali and Carlos saw it at the same time. Just behind the mirror aviator sunglasses, black static demon eyes flashed as Marj hit the bottom step. A swift tactical yank by Carlos snatched Marj off her feet and back into the bus. Reacting on instinct as Marj hit the floor and cops drew, Doug shut the door and sealed it with a tactical charge, while Carlos flung up a shield.

"Drive!" Shabazz hollered, hitting the cruisers' engines with enough charge to blow them.

Damali was up and out of her seat, sending mental darts to Cordell. "Get out of there!" she yelled at the same time she sent the mental image and the van slammed onto the pavement to begin a wild chase.

"He'll never make it," Doug screamed, careening off the curb and into oncoming traffic. "Throw him a tactical shield or something!"

Out of nowhere, three fast-moving bicycle messengers whizzed by the two demons disguised as police. Instant recognition coiled a new level of tension within Carlos and Damali as their eyes met. The two ebony-hued sister Guardians from Philly skidded out in opposite directions, while an unknown, almond-hued male Guardian momentarily drew the demons' attention. Three names and faces pierced the Neterus' minds-Zulma, Kenyetta, Craig. Thencame the urgent message to avoid a friendly-fire mistake:Don't shoot us, we're in the Light. We came to give you cover -get out of the grid!

Snub-nosed revolvers came out of cyclist Windbreaker jackets in a flash to spit silver shells. Demons dove behind the cruiser doors for cover and to take aim, but the cyclists' athletic maneuvers were too swift. They'd blended into the urban environment and were gone before they could be hit. Then Craig circled back around as Kenyetta slid in from one street, Zulma raced in from an adjacent one, all three now toting pump shotguns. In a split second, weapon hammers clicked back. Three blasts released, a demon splattered the cruiser interior and then burned to ash as the second one rolled under the vehicle chassis snarling. Like erratic, fast-moving lightning, the Guardians were once again gone. But they had created enough of a diversion to give the older Guardian who'd been trapped in the building time to hear the telepathic 911 and to get out.

A hail of bullets riddled the outer shields of the van and suddenly the team saw Cordell huffing down the steps. It all happened in slow motion. Guardians remained weaponless as bullets left chambers and more demon officers appeared out of thin air. Officers ducked behind cars, popping up to fire at Cordell. A stunned old man froze for two seconds too long in the crossfire. Carlos reached out, and then fell back as two-hundred-plus pounds of humanity landed in his lap.

"Thanks, young brother," Cordell said, breathing hard.

"You all right?"Carlos said, struggling to get up as Doug drove like a maniac.

"You get my father-seer? You get him!" Doug hollered from the front seat.

"I'm good, I'm good," Cordell said, crawling to a seat. "But lemme drive, boy. I can see 'round corners-you gonna get us kilt."

Choppers were in the air and sirens blared.

"This got real bad real fast," Rider said, going from window to window. "How do we know which ones are regular human cops and which are demons? Which ones do we shoot at, guys!"

"Now would be a good time to light up those stones that are on our side, ladies!" Berkfield shouted.

"We're going the wrong way!" the pearl screamed as her platinum necklace bounced out of Damali's toppled satchel and rolled across the van floor.

"No, no, no!" Cordell yelled, trying to get to the driver's seat. "You've panicked and lost your way, boy, not down that street!"

"The pentagram!" the pearl screamed and then stopped dead and went dark.

The moment the van crossed the threshold of the pentagram, the shield Carlos had put up to protect the vehicle disappeared. Blue tactical protective charges receded, leaving the van naked and vulnerable.

Guardians hit the floor as steel tore through metal and shattered glass. Then the van dangerously swerved before jumping the curb and crashing into the side of a building. Cordell made it to the front and let out an agonized wail as he pulled Doug's head back only to see a bullet wound in the center of his forehead.

"Ah . . . nooo!" he wailed, clutching the young Guardian to his chest.

"We gotta move-now!" Carlos said,trying to help the old man out of the van as sirens neared.

Disoriented, the team spilled out into the street amid screaming, fleeing pedestrians in broad daylight-looking to Cordell for which way to run.

"We've gotta get out of the pentagram!" Carlos said, shaking the traumatized seer."Now!"

"Can't blow the van," Shabazz shouted-looking at the row of office buildings-"too much collateral damage."

"Choppers in the air," Damali said, beginning to run toward an underground Metro station."This way!" Then she turned back for a second."Pearl!"

"You have to leave her and energy-tag her to us later! We'll be sitting ducks underground, anyway!" Carlos hollered as they ran, pummeled the steps, and jumped the turnstiles. "We got no juice, D-none whatsoever!"

Commuters hugged the wall and backed away.

"Ladies, see what I see," Damali shouted, panting as she showed the stoneworkers on the team the cross-points and Meta-tron's Cube. "Light it up-magnetic-style." She turned to the male tactical squad members. "Bounce off them, electric-seeif we can get enough juice to get us out of the hot-zone. We gotta do this remotely, all second-sight, no hands."

Lights lit the tunnel and then a huge explosion sounded. The first car of the oncoming train broke away from its housing in the line and came barreling into the station, empty.

"Do it!" Damali shouted.

Carlos folded the team away into the rocketing bullet as it careened past in a blur, landing bodies with a thud on the floor, against seats, slamming poles and doors. But soon incredible heat surrounded the runaway Metro car and it became apparent that the source was right on their backs.

Thousands of miniature demons engulfed in flames chased the careening car like a blast furnace. Smoke filled the car, choking the Guardians, and every metal surface was like touching a frying pan. With no choice left, Carlos grabbed Damali's hand and pointed upward. They had to get up, had to break through the surface.

Opening the ground above them, they bulldozed to the asphalt surface, whizzing across streets, slamming through cars and traffic, moving like a missile as they skipped water on the Mall and came to a crashing thud in the manicured grass. Tactical charges cracked like thunder and lightning, keeping Guardians from colliding against the interior of the hot car. In an instant, Carlos and Damali had worked in tandem to extract the team to safety so they could breathe, but in the very near distance, sirens, choppers, and jets could be heard.

Damali held her head as Guardian messages pummeled her brain. "Local team is here-their seers led them," she said quickly, blasting the images to Carlos and her squad so they'd be sure not to accidentally fire on their own. "Michelle, team seer, one o'clock," she wheezed, whirring around, looking for the Georgia team. "Quick-military nicknamed and military trained, tactical. Three o'clock.Shaun, at your six, Carlos. Leone and Charlee are standing with Craig at your nine. And the two from Philly are in with a serious warrior from overseas, code named Dragon Rider. That brother, Craig, is with them.All our side, baby, and not civilians."

Carlos did a quick assessment of the additional squad who'd joined the fight. A honey-brown babe in ripped denim with bloodlust in her seer eyes was indeed standing at one o'clock and ready for war with an assault rifle cocked and loaded. Not far from her was a brown-skinned beauty, with hair in fiercely immaculate twists, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, dual handheld Uzis in her grip-straight gangsta, a fearless leader. The tall Amazon-built beauty at his six made him nod with appreciation. If there was anybody to have at his six, the sister with a pump shotgun loaded for bear was the one.

His attention whirled, making sure he had a mental lock on all those he'd have to account for and could count on. The petite sisters at his nine looked like they were ready to kick things off Ninja-style. One had an L.A. salsa vibe, her hazel eyes glittering with the rage he understood; her weapons of choice twin Berettas. The female beside her looked like a cross between Native American and African American, her long braids wound in silver strands and her exotic eyes spoiling for war as she brandished a nickel-plated nine.

"Rayne," shesaid, her gaze hard.

"Thanks for having our backs," Carlos said.

Carlos gave a quick nod of thanks to the Philly and D.C. teams for the assist back in the streets, and looked at the tall woman with sandy brunet hair and the bluest eyes he'd ever seen. "You came a long way," he said with respect.

"Was no trouble.Sandra from Scotland," she replied, hailing Carlos and lifting her chin, then glancing around until her gaze landed on Heather. "She's from my land, a stoneworker like I am. I got special word to be sure she's looked after. No accidents this time. So they sent in a Dragon Rider, me, and I'll ride those bastards into the ground if they mess with that one again." She checked the magazine on her Uzi and stepped closer to Heather and Dan. "I'm your new nanny," she added with a smile.

"Everybody's got a babysitter," Quick said, checking her weapon and looking around as the sirens and choppers neared. "I've got you covered."

"The Light ain't playing this time out-noticeall the female Guardians on this watch? Quick meant what she said. The Light is making sure you've got strong female energy backup, whatever you need on the squad," Craig said, his gaze holding Carlos's. "You know it ain't normally like this.There's always been more male Guardians than females, but not this time out, bro. All the seers got the emergency vision. They call me the Kemetic One, and I heard the call to arms loud and clear. That's why I was up in Detroit with y'all. So we got your back."

Carlos and Damali gave each other a look.

"We've gotta get to a safe house, stat," Carlos said, leaning on his thighs with both hands. "The military is on our asses."

"Worse than that," a disembodied voice said,quaking the ground and opening the earth. Sebastian quickly appeared and then clapped before disappearing. "Ride this, Neterus!"

Guardians fought to stand as Damali and Carlos tried to draw their blades into their hands as the earth fissured and a massive, pale mare exited the cavern and reared on its hind legs. The translucent, phantomlike creature's black eyes gleamed with pure evil and it took off without a rider then evaporated into sheer mist. Sirens were closing in, but the ground was still rumbling.

"Fall back!" Damali and Carlos shouted in unison as thousands of shadows belched from the earth.

Try as they might to fight against the dark tide, there were just too many shadows, and human forces were closing in. Guardians fired at the shadows, keeping them at bay as much as was possible. The newly added squad covered every pregnant female on the team as though on a suicide mission; no fear. But as soon as one demon was incinerated, another replaced it. The earth continued to quake even more violently and it became apparent that there were people trapped in the Washington Monument as it began to lean. Rubble fell and people shrieked at the base as the massive structure leaned perilously. Then a blinding explosion sent it propelling forward in a pikelike spiral toward the White House.

"Vlad!"Carlos yelled, forming an energy ball in his hand and then hurling it toward the monument.

Both Damali and Carlos reached out, but the energy band wasn't wide enough to lasso and halt it; they both would have been dragged to their deaths. All they could do was watch in horror as the monument slammed into the one place in the country that was an icon for the world.

"You've just blown your load," Nuit's voice chuckled smoothly, joining in a cacophony of evil female laughter.

"Run," Lilith hissed. "Andmaybe live to fight another day."

Carlos and Damali looked at each other.

The juncture, he mentally whispered.

Yeah, and the chamber under the Potomac, she mentally replied.

They touched their swords together and sent out two blinding energy pulses in the direction of the locations they'd mentioned.

The second the charges emitted, two massive horns breached the earth-then in the next moment they were sprawled on a white sugar sand beach.

Rider was up on his feet first. "We died! This time they got us and we fuckingdied, people!"

Guardians stood slowly, trying to understand. Bobby bent and vomited. Krissy wept into her hands as Tara felt along her body for injuries. Each Guardian blinked, and walked in a circle, inspecting their bodies, trying to make sense of the completely senseless.

"If we're dead," Cordell said with a tearstained face. "Where's my boy, Dougie?Where you at, Dougie?"

A translucent figure stepped out of the nothingness and waved sadly at Cordell. "I messed up," he said quietly. "I took a wrong turn."

"Boy, we'll fix all that," Cordell said, weeping harder.

"No . . .it's beautiful here . . . peaceful," Doug said with a calm smile. "The angels came for me."

"We're not dead then," Tara whispered, clutching Juanita's hand.

Damali squinted as information pierced her brain. "The Philly team, DC, Georgia, the Scot-they all made it." Damali closed her eyes."Jettisoned to a safe house in Georgetown."

"Then wherewe at?"Inez looked around.

"Bermuda," a quiet, angelic voice said. "You led us to it. We have much work to do to catch it this time. This was the last place in your minds that we could salvage. They have not won the war, simply the battle, but things back at your home have irrevocably changed. You are now outside the laws of man. Watch the news, rest, and heal . . . and await word."

"Uriel," Damali's necklace said as it suddenly appeared in her hand.

The team just stared at one another for a moment and then went to Cordell to comfort him. It was time, yet again, to bury the fallen.