The Wicked (Vampire Huntress Legend #8)

The Wicked (Vampire Huntress Legend #8) Page 12

CHAPTER ELEVEN

After the battle in La Paz, during true nightfall, while the Guardians healed, Cain sat listed to one side in his throne with his eyes closed. He clung to the armrests to keep from crying out. His face was twisted into a grimace and his entire body shuddered with agony from the shorn-off wing and his dismembered tail, which he hung over the edge of the throne armrest, unable to retract it. A slow, steady drizzle of blood still seeped from the gaping wound, stealing his energy away in minute degrees.

Even though he'd tried to staunch the bleeding by scorching the opening that still yawned with torn gristle, muscles, flesh, and bones, the Neteru symbols from Damali's Isis kept them burning silver to disallow the injury to properly scab over. Glowing brands from each symbol that had sliced through his tail broke through the charred, black flesh, and a steady stream of blood from the severed tail created a pool of muck at his feet.

He heard Fallon Nuit standing nearby with Lilith, and sensed a new vampire presence in their midst. Pride made Cain open his eyes and attempt a kingly repose, but pain won out and he was forced to close his eyes again.

"What do you want?" Cain rasped in a surly tone. "Leave me!"

"Your Eminence, you must feed," Lilith said, her voice a strained murmur as she approached him with caution.

Nuit caught her arm. "He is severely wounded," he said in a tight whisper. "Beware the lion with a thorn in his paw."

Lilith glanced at Nuit and nodded, materializing a goblet into Cain's hand rather than risk being his ultimate source of regeneration. They stood back and watched Cain down the goblet and hurl it away, enraged as his shorn-off wing began to reconstruct.

Unable to endure the agony, Cain hunched forward and clutched the edges of the council table, crying out as a new, damp wing ripped through his shoulder blade as though that section of his body was giv�ing birth. The new wing trembled and slowly extended to give his form balance, and then both appendages were able to retract.

Dropping his head back, Cain panted, sweat pouring down his face, his body wracked with pain. "The tail cannot heal. It was taken by an Isis."

Lilith covered her mouth and looked at Nuit. "I have no remedy."

Seizing the opportunity, Nuit spoke in a gentle, seductive voice. "Your Eminence, this is why I have brought you a new councilman. Upon your orders to reinforce the power paradigm at our throne level, I present to you-"

"I never authorized you to make a new councilman!" Cain bel�lowed, looking over the vampire that Nuit presented. "Request de�nied! I alone shall handpick my councilmen."

Humiliation lowered Nuit's fangs as Yonnie stood next to him, waiting. "As you wish. My goal was only to strengthen your inner circle."

"I made you a female master, to also assist... based upon the last command you gave us," Lilith said carefully. She sent the image of Gabrielle to Cain and waited for the approval. "There has only been one other female master that was temporarily made, Damali. I thought this one could-"

"She's a common whore!" Cain shouted, grimacing as his tail lost another scab and the bleeding increased. He slowly materialized a black cord of energy around the tail above the injury and created a tourniquet that he tightly pulled with a yell. "Cast her away," he said after a moment, breathing hard through battle-length fangs. "You think a prostitute witch who runs a brothel is any match for the Neterus? You have lost your perspective on reality, Lilith. Did you not witness what only one seasoned Neteru was able to do to an army of my best hybrids?"

"She, like Fallon's candidate for a council throne, is intimately fa�miliar with members of the Neterus and their Guardians," Lilith said in a conciliatory tone. "If-"

"Do not dispute me! My decision is final."

A weak black energy arc singed Lilith's chest, but it wasn't strong enough to do what Cain intended-to snatch out her heart. Lilith rubbed her chest and glowered at him, but kept her tone even and re�spectful.

"As you wish, Cain."

"May I propose that we give her to Yolando, Your Eminence, and," Nuit said with a deferential bow, "offer her as a consolation prize for the denial of his candidacy to become a councilman at this time?" Nuit looked at Cain and spoke in Dananu now. "We can ill afford for this master to walk away from our table feeling as though he has not been given something rare and of value,n'est-ce pas? Perhaps a throne will be in his future," Nuit added, giving Yonnie a promise of that with a sidelong glance. Nuit returned his gaze to Cain. "But he might be mollified by the gift of a female master made by the most seduc�tive female entity of our realms, Lilith."

"So be it," Cain snarled. He closed his eyes after issuing a dismis�sive glance toward Yonnie. "Give him the whore and get him out of my presence."

Yonnie bowed and backed away toward the chamber doors. "I am honored." Then he was gone.

Lilith refilled Cain's goblet and sent it into his hand, and then waited for him to down it and cast it away again with a crash. "My Dark Lord," she murmured, concern in her voice as she once again glanced at Nuit. "All conception has ceased on the planet. Your con�tinued tether to your mother's spirit has stopped all reproduction."

"I fail to see why this is our concern, or yours," Cain snarled in pain.

Nuit gave her a quizzical look. "Your agony could be blinding you to our realm's longer-term issues... if you will permit my assess�ment for your benefit."

"Speak!" Cain bellowed.

"As we overrun the planet," Nuit said with care, "sooner or later with the human casualties... our food sources will diminish. Our goal is to dominate humanity, not to entirely eradicate it in total. If we exterminate it, long term, we eradicate ourselves."

"That is only a problem for full-breed vampires and demons-my hybrids can subsist on other food types."

"Did you not hear me when I spoke?" Lilith said coolly."All con�ception has ceased. This includes other forms of meat and even grains. With our planned attacks on every continent, how long do you think it will take for us to wipe out mankind? How much of the ecosystem of plants and animals will be burned away as we smite the Earth? What will there be for any of us to eat, full-breed or hybrid alike, if the Earth does not replenish itself?"

"Then what do you propose?" Cain said, still leaning forward with his eyes closed.

Again, Lilith and Nuit shared a glance.

"Your method of producing more vampires has a nine-month ges�tation period. Making them by seed is too costly, time-wise," she said quietly. "Our age-old gestation period of three nights of death before they rise again is much more efficient. But we still have the concep�tion problem at hand."

Cain opened his eyes and glowered at them both. "My hybrids will regroup and flood the planet. Those are my chosen ones who will surround me as councilmen. Through the seed is the only natural way. Victory will be ours."

"You seem to be forgetting that even your hybrids have no way to reproduce as long as your mother remains in her grieving condition, and her soul linked to yours, Cain,"Lilith said, her tone now brittle with frustration. "You must sever the cord and take on the full mantle of your office. Once the cord to Eve is severed, fertility will com�mence again."

"There is only one way to accomplish that," Cain said, trying to stand, but failed as pain shot through him from his amputated tail. "To actually die and rise again as the vampiric undead, which would make me no more than Dante was, a sterile being, andthat I will never will�ingly submit to!"

"It would allow your bite to be the most lethal of all vampire bites," Lilith murmured, slowly edging closer to him. "You could cre�ate instant turns, as our Chairman. You could raise an army of vam�pires with a single night of releasing that dark power, and besetting me, Fallon, Yolando, and his new mate upon the region near the Guardian team."

"And I would besterile," Cain snapped, his eyes slits of glowing black rage. "My opportunity to sire the greatest of our kind through the vessel that carries the genetic lineage of what would become a fallen Powers Angel would be lost, you foolish, shortsighted bitch!"

"But there isno conception on the planet, sir," Lilith said through her teeth in Dananu. "Until you die so that your soul finally parts from Eve's, the point of siring is moot!"

"Your Eminence," Nuit said in a controlled tone in Dananu, "we must be able to feed our troops that are gathering in all realms. From your foray with the Neteru it is clear that we need the combined allied forces of the were-demons, vampires, and the Amanthras, as well as en�tities residing on Levels One and Two, to break the backs of our ene�mies. Your hundred-and-fifty-man battalion was wiped out on a beach in La Paz, true?" Nuit sighed and studied his manicure. "Therefore, ac�cepting your true greatness as a full-blooded vampire may be the only feasible solution. Our troops would be fed, as the humans replace them�selves after our battles. We would have our victory. And when the fe�male goes into season again as a Neteru, you would still be able to-"

"No!" Cain shouted. "She may have severed my tail, but I will not allow her to neuter me!"

"Your self-loathing sickens me," Lilith hissed in Dananu. "You claim to embrace your father's parentage, the dark side of what you are-death, a demon, the vampire of all vampires, yet you still cling to the side of the living."

"Why don't you ask my grandfather the same question... an en�tity that is not dead, but whom exists in an amorphous state between the living and the dead, able to sire at will by seed, and who also pos�sesses all the dark power of this realm." Cain glared at Lilith, breath�ing hard when she couldn't immediately respond. "Eve shall recover in time, as will I," he said in snarling Dananu. "Once I do, we can have this conversation again... in a way that I'm sure you will re-gret.

Lilith lifted her chin. "If my challenge makes you act, then it will not have been in vain. My goal is to encourage you into action, and if I must draw the fire of your rage to strengthen you," she said, hedging for her future, "then whatever toll you exact on me for my honesty, I will endure. But I do not think you know the depths of your mother's agony, just as I cannot fathom the depth of your suffering now," she added, motioning to his bloody stump of tail. "It is a spinal injury, Cain. The limb grows right out of our vertebra. The only rea�son you could still stand to pursue the Neteru to the rocks was be�cause you had fight adrenaline black energy and battle lust raging through you... but look at you now that the pain has truly set in."

Cain glanced down at his tail and winced, momentarily preoccu�pied. She neared Cain, dropping her voice to a comforting whisper as Fallon Nuit moved back to avoid any potential black blast that Cain might hurl.

"Your dark energy meridians have been severed," Lilith said calmly. "Your power leaks on the floor like a bloody stream. You cannot even stand, because the nerves going up your back will not allow you full control of even your legs."

Lilith heard Fallon's mental warning.

Be careful,mon petite.Even though you are female and what you say is true...and although as a woman you can say things to this man that no male could say, be on guard. When he recovers, your words may come back to haunt you and there may be Hell to pay.

Lilith gave Nuit a subtle smile.Why don't you withdraw so that I may speak to him more privately? He will not kill me, but will assassinate you where you stand for ever witnessing him in this weakened state. He and my husband are cut from the same dark cloth;Ihave dealt with males like him foreons.

"Your Eminence," Nuit said, pulling Cain's glare away from his in�jured tail toward him. "Allow me to begin rallying your subterranean forces for a night attack. We will stand at the ready for your command so that you may lead the charge of allied demon warriors for the next attack at night... once you have recovered. This will give us time to plot the next offensive. It will also allow the warrior hybrids to re�group and stand at the ready for the next wave of daylight strikes. In so doing, we can keep steady pressure on the Neterus and Guardians... by night, and then by day, without totally depleting your hybrid forces-so that you will have ample generals to choose from to take thrones once we have claimed victory."

Cain wearily nodded and waved his hand at Nuit. "Spoken like a true councilman. One who is worthy to serve by me." He glowered at Lilith. "Unlike a female who does not understand the fine points of war. You are dismissed. Just inform all our allies to take the female Neteru uninjured and unharmed, when we battle again. But the male... his head on a pike."

Lilith waited until Nuit nodded and disappeared. She leaned against the table not far from Cain and folded her arms over her chest. "Without the tail, you're already practically neutered. Let's be honest, since it's just you and me speaking frankly."

Cain released a warning hiss as his talons lengthened.

"If you cannot stand, you won't be able to fuck her to sire. Your tail is as much a weapon as it is a sensory appendage used in carnal-"

"Shut up, Lilith, before I kill you where you stand," Cain growled.

"She knew that when she severed it," Lilith said, undaunted by his threat. "Our tails grow out of the primal meridian and are as sensitive and tactile as what's between your legs."

Cain looked away from her and swallowed hard. "It will grow back... perhaps."

Lilith issued a smug smile. "We can possibly create a prosthetic de�vice of black metal so that you may use it as a weapon. Something that adheres to the flesh above the Neteru symbols, avoiding them, but you will never have feeling in it again. It was taken off byan Isis blade." She nodded as horror filled his eyes. "Tell me, darling, can you still feel full sensation in your groin?"

Cain closed his eyes and spoke in a quiet, angry tone. "No. Not completely... only at the base."

"Your dick is there, and it works, but you can't fully feel sensation in it, correct?"

"Yes," he muttered. "I will make her mourn the day she did this. Despite it all, there should be honor amongst even warriors... old friends, at least, and I cannot comprehend how she could strike such a foul blow againstme... like I was merely a common demon."

"Then, what good is being alive with all these delusions of bedding the female Neteru," Lilith whispered, coming close enough to stroke his cheek, "if you cannot even feel it?" She brushed his forehead with a kiss. "How will you even know that you've ejaculated?" She chuck�led and sat back on the table. "Our kind isruled by power and plea�sure, the tactile feel of flesh. After this, you might as well pack your bags and return to Nod... at least now you'd be able to endure your sentence and the rest of us wouldn't have to starve for the folly... Eve's spirit would ease, knowing her son was safely locked away in the banishment zone as you had been for centuries, and the planet would be fertile, unlike you, once again."

He tore his gaze away from Lilith's, his voice now gravelly and quiet. "What Damali committed against me was an abomination."

"Yes, it was," Lilith said in a flat tone. "I am only glad that I had a chance to experience you in your fullness of virility. Now..."

"Lilith, do not torture my soul further," Cain said through a thick swallow his voice a rumbling mutter containing a plea. "Be gone."

"If you allow me to siphon you to death," she said in an evil whis�per, "I am an entity of Level Seven that can take your half-life and re�turn you to eternal life."

"Then my soul would be in the clutches of each of the realms," he said, considering her offer. "One false move and my grandfather could scatter me to every Level." He rubbed his palms down his face in frustration. "My soul has harbored sins on every Level."

"True... but as the undead, the physical injury you sustained would be no more. She'd have to attack you again and sever the limb once you were a new, full-breed demon, to make it permanent. What are the chances of her doing that again, now that you are aware of her deadly capacities and how much she loathes you? You would have in�sight into how much she clings to your competitor, who from all that I see now, truly is the better man... Rivera can fuck her with acute pleasure and give that to her in a way you cannot... now that you've been terribly injured." Lilith leaned forward and kissed Cain's throat. "Let me heal you, Cain. Then when you awaken to eternal life in my arms, test if I am a fraud by nearly fucking me blind."

He looked at her and lifted his chin. "After I plant her... perhaps I would consider it."

"You're in denial, lover, like most men," Lilith crooned, shaking her head. "A female of our devious species would gladly give up both ovaries to rule the world under the darkest night... but as a male, you sit here quibbling about what amounts to a vasectomy. You have also overlooked one basic fact."

Cain stared at her with a flicker of rage tempered by curiosity and pain in his eyes.

Lilith smiled. "She may already be planted by your seed... from when you took a throne ascension carrying her blood within you and dragging her husband's energy into your father's throne along with it."

Satisfied by Cain's stunned silence that she was making progress, Lilith kept her tone a low, conspiratorial murmur, occasionally glanc�ing around as though Nuit or even her husband might eavesdrop. "Cain, think of the opportunity-you and Rivera were linked as the only two male Neterus to sit in Dante's throne, the only two with a common vampire genetic link that the female Neteru willingly al�lowed to take her blood... the only two men to spark fevered desire within her... and if not moments before, surely simultaneously when Eve's spirit went cold."

Cain's eyes widened as he stared at Lilith. A black sword immedi�ately materialized in his hand and he snatched her by the jawbone before she could blink, putting the blade to her throat. "If you are ly�ing, I will behead you," he said quietly, his tone even and controlled.

Lilith only smiled and never flinched. "I have been the harbinger of original demon births for centuries... Why would I lie about how to make the best of them all?I was the genesis of original sin,not Eve -and history told by men robbed me of my title. That won't happen again, if you heed my advice."

Unafraid, Lilith craned her body around Cain's loosening grasp and leaned in closer toward him, ignoring his earlier threat to whisper mind-bending truths. "The original sin was going against the Un�named One On High and making a pact with Lucifer,not biting an apple in Eden. Men are foolish, as I said, and believed what they wanted. Theyneeded to believe that, because they couldn't get to me, and they had to have a female head on a pike thus forever using that misinformed logic to rule women. And fools that they are, ego al�lowed them to dominate and cut themselves off from the vessels of wise counsel fromtheir own species --just because they didn't want to hear the truth of what Eve learned in the Garden... just like you're about to do now. Suit yourself." When Cain's glare narrowed, Lilith laughed.

"What did my mother learn?" Cain said in a quiet, tense voice. "What had she discovered that nearly had her stoned to death?"

Lilith's gaze danced across Cain's and then bore into it. "That we are equal," she whispered. "In match to your male superior brawn, we females have superior reasoning, thus are better strategists... with the patience to wait for opportunities in a way that you do not own. One is neither superior nor inferior to the other," she said on a se�ductive murmur. "Both energies were created simultaneously in the cosmos. We're evenly matched... which is why you rushed into battle with the female Neteru owning superior-strength forces, but lost an entire battalion in one afternoon."

"That will never happen again," Cain said, slowly tightening his grip on Lilith's jaw.

"Add a thousand soldiers next time, warriors of might. It won't matter," Lilith hissed, unable to get her words to do more than seep from her lips because of Cain's grip. "She slaughtered you with the elements, nature, and used that as cannon fodder, not her own people-then she wounded you and pulled back, and lived, still whole to fight another day. Had Rivera been on that beach, you would have prevailed. But it wasa smart woman who knew your every weakness, and employed it to her own means. Like your mother, I hate the new Neteru... but I respect the hell out of her. She has proven to be my most worthy adversary."

Cain loosened his grip but kept his blade to her throat, steadily eye�ing Lilith to sense for a lie.

"If there is anyone you should trust on demon reproduction and how to survive an archangel onslaught, it is me, Cain. Besides," Lilith said casually, not even bothering to speak to him in Dananu, "it is in my best interest, as well as our realm's, for Damali's potential preg�nancy with you as the sire to be a possibility."

Lilith waited until Cain finally lowered the blade, never taking her eyes away from his. "What else would have so enraged your mother that she would have sent lightning down to breach the realms against the edict from On High not to intervene or to begin the Armaged�don? Think about it... think through the pain and become strate�gic."

"My mother said I was dead to her," Cain whispered. "Yet there was hope in her fury, the entire council chamber crackled with it... I could feel that wafting over my skin and could taste it on my tongue in the aftermath."

"Yes... and if she cast away her beloved son, what could make a mother still have hope, if not the belief that there could still be new life coming after him that is of her flesh?" Lilith caressed Cain's face. "Only a grandchild would inspire that. The Neteru must already be carrying for you, my love... so die to the agony and rise up from my arms to your full greatness."

Cain pulled back and sat on the throne, staring at her. "Until I know for sure, I am not ready to accept your offer."

"Take your time," Lilith said coolly, "as I am sure the shock is great." She smiled evilly and arched her eyebrow. "But consider this. If the planet is now barren because Eve's grief still holds her fertility hostage due to her continued link with your soul, there will be noth�ing in Damali's womb to fertilize, if she isn't already carrying your heir. This is fact."

Lilith pushed off the table and began to pace before Cain. "If there are no new conceptions, thus no new births, eventually your demon legions, and even your hybrids that can eat human food, will starve... Starvation creates mutiny in all worlds-not just in ours. Not a single blade of grass currently grows; livestock will begin to drop like flies. There will be no more lambs or fattened calves for the slaughter." She leaned in toward Cain and looked him squarely in the eyes. "There will be no more steaks for your hybrids or blood for your vampire battalions... or flesh for your were-demons and Amanthras. There will be a bloody coup. Against us!"

When he didn't respond, she pressed her point. "If Damali already carries your seed, you win. You can end your agony now, regenerate to your full capacity, and abduct her until she delivers your heir. If she does not currently carry, there is no way to impregnate her as long as your mother's spirit languishes by being tied to yours... Your suf�fering will then be an unnecessary travesty that also depletes the nat�ural resources of the planet, thereby eventually cascading your armies into starvation. Ask yourself why, Cain. Male ego? Because you'd rather sire by seed than the pure vampire bite? As your lover and top advisor, and as an entity much older than you, who is also thoroughly versed in biblical matters, it is my role to pose the hard questions. And as a good ruler, youcannot allow ego to rule you and cause you to make fatal tactical errors that will subordinate reason."

"I never wanted to be like Dante," he said in a quiet, tense whisper, "with dead, black seed spilling from my loins. I never envisioned such a conclusion."

"You've made other children while you were trying to repent and stay in the fucking Light-so get over it." Lilith waved her arms about. "They went on to make you a proud poppa and did good deeds. So what? That's history. Now you've gone dark, and a new era is upon us." Lilith stroked his groin when he looked away from her. "Can you feel that?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"No," Cain whispered, and glanced down at her hand and then at his bloodied tail. "However, there is another way."

Horrified, she stood and turned her back to him. "You wouldn't. The pain... is beyond what even we can tolerate in our realm. Don't do it. Don't ask me to be a party to that."

"Stand at my side," he commanded quietly. "When I go into shock, I will need an immediate black blood transfusion. It is the only way to carve out the Neteru symbols that will disallow regeneration over them."

Lilith whirled around on him; her fangs lowered to battle-length, and spoke in Dananu. "If you die, my husband will murder me. Therefore, make it worth my while to assist in said travesty."

"A Chairman's seat-mine, if I do not survive... the first female to occupy one, which should give you enough insurance through power to avoid your husband's wrath up to, and possibly beyond, the Armageddon. My throne will courier the message to him that I did this of my own volition, in fact, it will convey that I commanded it and you could not stop me," Cain said in Dananu, his voice beginning to labor from his injuries and the verbal test of wills with Lilith. "And should I survive, I'll grant you a councilman's seat. Again a first. But if you betray me by allowing me to unnecessarily perish... my throne will echo the deceit to my grandfather with a direct blood tracer to your whereabouts, if you ever try to sit in it and claim it through fraud. That is my final offer."

"If you do the insanity you propose and live through it," Lilith said with her back still to Cain, "with your soul still tethered to Eve's you will send her spirit into arrhythmia! Do you know how many times she and I have battled?"

Lilith turned to face Cain and came in closer to him to put a firm hand on his huge forearm. "Why do you think it always ends in a stalemate?" Lilith's voice became an urgent plea as she went into a flurry of Dananu. "As much as I have wanted to end that bitch's worthless existence, for the empire and the food sources her fertility provides, even I have never dared smite her so severely that she might perish. I beg your clarity of thought on this." She looked at his throne and shook her head. "Your offer is enticing, but what good is ruler-ship over a dying planet?"

"I have thought about all of this while you have presented apoignant argument that I respect," Cain said calmly, now holding his bloodied stump of tail. He grimaced as his grasp became more firm and he leveled his black blade over his injury, a hand-width above where Damali's blow had severed it. "If I survive, a healthy feeding will repair the limb no longer beset by the Neteru's incision. My mother's spirit, if she survives, will be severed from mine after the shock separates us."

He glared at Lilith when she closed her eyes. "As my familiar, gov�erned by the edict of my grandfather, I command you to feed me and regenerate me once this is done. If you let me bleed out and die to ac�complish your shortsighted aim, then his wrath for not following my direct command be upon you."

Cain waited for Lilith to stare at him and nod.

"I cannot disobey a direct command from you and you know that."

"Very well," Cain said, breathing hard as the pain from just hold�ing the damaged limb nearly made him pass out. "Summon the black blood from Level Seven and have it waiting."

Cain took a deep breath and raised his sword as he pressed the thick, dripping section of his tail against the throne armrest hard. "Good-bye, Mother," he whispered through blurred vision. "May we forever be separated that you flourish again in fertility." With all his might he swung, cutting off another hunk of his tail, and the cry he released started an avalanche within the Vampire Council Chambers.

A meaty thud of flesh hit the floor as his body went into convul�sions and the blade fell from his hand. He scrabbled at the throne as he slid to the floor, sobbing in agony, vomiting bile, and then clawed at the black marble beneath him. Harpies filled the room in battle readi�ness, thinking their leader was under siege. Cain's piteous death wails made bats scream and cover their contorted faces and beady, red gleaming eyes with their wings. Bulked, armed cavern messengers broke into the chamber and turned away the moment they saw and understood.

Lilith dry heaved and dropped to her knees beside Cain. The ago�nized pounding from his fists against the marble floor began to open small fissures under his hand as she sat on his back facing his tail and grasped his flailing limb in her arms, almost unable to subdue the ap�pendage.

"Do it!" Cain hollered, tears streaming down his face. "Mercy in your withered soul, woman-do it!"

Her body thrashed back and forth with the powerful jerks riddling the tail in her arms as she rode Cain's writhing form. In a serpent-quick strike, she sank her long fangs into the blackened flesh of his opened wound, causing Cain's body to buckle, arch, and his cries to topple thrones. But she held on, eating away at the flesh until it was bloodied pulp, creating a valley around now-exposed tailbone with a thin margin of scaled skin surface to hold blood around it like a chal�lis, then spewed black blood into it and sealed it shut.

She sat that way for several minutes as Cain thrashed, holding his tail upright so the black blood could adhere, and didn't release him until the flaps of outer skin began to seal over the exposed bone.

Moving quickly, she rolled Cain onto his side, using all of her strength as she shoved a sobbing sovereign into a feed position. She slit her jugular and allowed her thickened black blood to ooze into his mouth, but Cain was so pain-dazed that he almost couldn't swallow-it. He convulsed once, and then dropped his head, unconscious.

"You brilliant... arrogant... fool," she murmured, standing and staggering away. Lilith wiped her brow, depleted. "If you live, I think even your grandfather would be proud."

Yonnie swept into Gabrielle's Nevada condo and rushed to her crum�pled body on the dining room floor. "Oh, baby... not you, of all people," he whispered, gathering her up in his arms and kissing her forehead.

Her terrified eyes snapped open, and he knew that Lilith or the Chairman were the only ones of his realm that could deliver an instant-turn bite. He dared not send an SOS to Carlos with the air�waves totally compromised at this juncture. As he watched Gabrielle's first crest of fangs lower and her body begin to tremble with new vampire awareness, he held her to his throat.

"It wasn't supposed to happen to you, or like this," he said, gently stroking her hair. "Feed only from me or the bottles. They violated supernatural law, and this was the same way Carlos broke out. You haven't been dead three nights yet-there's still time."

"What's happening to me, Yonnie?" she shrieked, becoming hys�terical in his arms. "I... I..." Pain stopped her words as she wailed and began tearing at his pants and ripping off his clothes.

"Feed," he said gently, rocking her body against his. "That'll stop the burn. It's the only way Then, as your friend, I'll do you... and will explain everything later."

Sara gently held Carlos's wrist as he and Jose began digging a grave for Tara in the sand. "Last night we all went through a lot, and experi�enced physical, spiritual, and emotional pain that will take a very long time to heal. Do not make a decision in haste to put this all behind you."

The group's weary attention focused on the small being who stared up at Carlos with wide, shimmering, turquoise eyes.

"Neteru, take her body with us to be buried on true hallowed ground," the nymph said quietly. She continued to stare up at Carlos when he didn't immediately respond and she squinted in the sunlight, covering her eyes to shield them. "Please."

The team looked at Carlos and Jose, and then everyone looked at Rider.

"It's only fitting," Rider said quietly. "I'll carry her, now that Mar�lene anointed her and said a few prayers over her."

"She'll disintegrate in the bright light within the whirl," Carlos said in a gentle voice, sparing everyone, especially Rider, the grim de�tails of what that really meant. This was exactly what he'd wanted to avoid--just having to come out and say it. The heat of a transpo en�ergy whirl would unmask all of Sara's good deeds of making Tara presentable to the family.

"Neither you nor your family should have to endure that," Hubert said, knowing what Carlos had failed to disclose. He walked over to Carlos to place a hand on his shoulder. "Let me carry her. I do not travel by white light, but by an energy current that's been trapped be�tween dimensions. It's not as... harsh."

Damali nodded and came to stand beside Carlos. "Let them do it," she said in a quiet voice. "There's a convent in the state of Morelos, Mexico, not far from where the team will be."

Carlos leaned on his shovel and stared at Rider for a moment, and then looked at Hubert. "We're going to Morelos, the smallest state in central Mexico and staying just outside of Morelos's jewel city, Cuer-navaca, which is thinly populated-to avoid as many human civilian casualties as possible. That's like ninety kilometers from Mexico City, which is a quick whirl so we can get supplies fast without a problem."

"We will not be traveling together?" Hubert looked to Carlos and then at Sara. "I thought we would travel in tandem?"

"Hubert, it is best that we... deliver her to hallowed ground and then follow the Neteru team to the safe place," the nymph said in a near whisper. "If my work becomes undone..."

Hubert nodded and stroked Sara's hair. "You are wise. They should not see that. My apologies. It is just my concern for the members of my group who are not as strong."

"We got your backs on this, and you won't get to where we're go�ing and find it locked to you,we promise." She looked at Carlos as he and the team nodded.

"We don't roll like that," Carlos said. "At this point, you're family. Especially carrying one of ours. If you want to guard her here on the beach, let me get the team to higher ground, then I can come back and carry Tara myself. However you wanna do this, man, so you're com�fortable."

"That would waste valuable time," Hubert replied, releasing a long sigh of relief. "We trust you."

"Good, because we trust you, and we're not gonna just up and leave you guys this morning," Damali said, looking at Hubert with openness.

"I trust them," Sara said, looking at each member of the small, rag�tag group of hybrids. She turned to Damali. "How will we know which house is the safe place, though, especially in a new land that we do not know? The way we look, we could frighten humans and they could attack us."

"You'll know the fortress Carlos picked by the silver signature we'll light that sucker up with-me and Carlos will be throwing a protec�tive aura over it and prayer barriers from Marlene," Damali said, slip�ping her hand into Hubert's and giving it a supportive squeeze.

"Structurally, what will we be looking for, so we will be sure to re�convene with you quickly?" Hubert asked, seeming a little unsure.

"It's an old stone castle that Carlos found... which just so hap�pened to be vacant, and I'll take that as a positive sign and location, since the kings helped him divinate it from their war table," Damali said as she glimpsed Carlos and smiled sadly, quietly acknowledging their shared memory of doing battle in a castle a couple years ago. "High stone walls, gun turrets, iron gates, but completely modernized and for rent, if you can believe it," she added, shaking her head.

"I'll take care of the paper trail," Dan said with confidence. "We're just a vacationing band on hiatus."

"Cool, work it out," Damali said, leaving Hubert to kiss Dan's forehead. "At nine large a week, it's fully furnished with Old World antiques so everybody can get cleaned up and take a load off and get comfortable for a few hours. It comes prestocked with food and top-shelf liquor when we get there, privately sleeps more than twenty with king-sized plantation beds, linens, the works... has multiple bathrooms, and came with a staff... which we'll dismiss with full pay for the month and tell them we have our own people-which will be Hubert's crew, as a good cover."

"Ninethousand dollarsa week?" Berkfield looked at Marlene. "After we blow it up in a miniwar, what's the insurance rider on that puppy? As it is, the villa and the hacienda are toast... and that's gonna-"

"Richard," Marjorie said in a weary tone, "Dan will work it out."

"I got it, don't worry," Dan said with a half-smile-the first one the group had seen since the previous night. "I'll call in ahead for clothes to be delivered... can tell 'em everybody's sizes and have everything sent up from Cuernavaca, the closest town. I'll be sure to get some wool ponchos and, uh, something Hubert's crew can wear."

"Look up Casa Del Cuernavaca for my man here before we go, would ya, J.L.," Carlos said. "I want a floor plan printed out for each team member, and Hubert's squad, too, so you know the layout before we get there."

Carlos turned to the other Guardians. "Trust me on this, we've all been battling hard and righteous and this may seem trivial, but this is for the spirit. The one thing you gotta take care of when battling is your head. I got this straight from Ausar-water your horses before they drop from mental fatigue. If your mind is right, you can get through whatever happens to the body."

"That ain't no lie," Shabazz muttered.

"It's a welcomed break, man," Big Mike said. "Thanks."

"I got you, brother," Carlos said, trying to buoy the nearly broken spirits gathered on the beach. "Can't always get nice accommoda�tions, but when you can, ya gotta do it to give your soul a break. So, forall our morales, I found us this sixteenth-century jewel, which combinates to the number seven... lush exterior gardens, strategic mountain view, Mexican antiques, huge Jacuzzis for battle-weary bones, fireplaces in each bedroom... stone floors and walls that ab�sorb a silver charge real nice-bounces it off like laser security sys�tems, near lakes and the silver market-which I'll explain in a few. But the thing is, after what just went down, we all need to get our heads right before we throw down in a firefight again."

Rider pounded Carlos's fist, his expression stoic. "Sounds like a good place for an after-funeral repast." He sighed hard and walked away to stand alone. "Just tell 'em to stock Jack Daniel's and Marlboro Reds, would ya?" he said to Dan under his breath as he passed him.

"I got you, man," Dan said and swallowed hard. "Anything you want."

Damali glanced around at the team. "Hubert and company will be safe. No neighbors for miles, and we get a good view of the sur�rounding valley and cities. Carlos honed right in on it, and I trust his judgment."

"I'm beginning to feel a little better about this odyssey, hearing that news," Berkfield said. "But after we get Tara properly buried and the team settled in with supplies, me, Carlos, and maybe Shabazz can take a quick whirl to Nevada to go get Gabrielle."

"Done," Carlos said, nodding. "You were reading my mind, brother." He looked at Hubert. "Your aerial landmark is the Tlahuica ruins. The smoking Popocatepetl volcano is the most active joint in North America that threatens everything within forty kilometers of Mexico City. I'm laying odds that Cain will send up night forces from there, since Damali and our squad kicked his hybrids' asses last eve�ning just before sunset, so you get back to us as soon as you can."

Not wanting to just come out and tell Hubert to dump Tara's body on the closest hallowed ground that could be sensed and haul ass back to the group, Carlos tempered his words for Rider's sake. But the message got through to everyone, even Rider. Waiting for Hubert's squad and the Guardians to absorb the information and nod, Carlos gave explicit instructions, quietly worrying about Hubert's navigation abilities.

"The other ruins you can use as an aerial landmark are right in the center of Cuernavaca-that's the Teopanzolco ruins," Carlos said, drawing a quick map in the sand with his shovel. "There's another ruin under the Palacio de Cortes, and you can see part of it sticking out through the more modern palace. Then there's Coatetlco, which is the one with a ball court and small temple pyramid on the western side of Morelos, and another one twenty-six miles south of Cuer�navaca called Xochicalco. In the older Nahuatl language, that means 'place of the house of flowers' circa seven hundred to nine hundred A.D. Any of this striking a bell with you guys?"

"We'll know it when we see it," Hubert said with false confidence. "Languages change, as well as the phonetics used to speak them."

"Aw'ight, maybe my accent is off with the ancient Aztec," Carlos said, now seriously worrying. "Check it out; you've got Tepozteco. a ceramics complex that sits up on the cliffs. It's six hundred meters up from the base of the valley, right above the town of Tepoztlan in Morelos... It sits on a Ehecatepetl, the 'hill of wind,' man, which is also called Tlahuitepetl, the 'hill of light.' You follow me?"

Growing exasperated, Carlos searched his mind for information that could go back far enough to put a glimmer of true recognition in Hubert's eyes. "That one you should be able to hone in on; it was dedicated to Ometochtli-Tepoxtecatl, god of fertility and harvest." Carlos rubbed his hand over his jaw. "But whatever you do, man, don't get boxed in up at Xochicalco-the Quetzalcoatl pyramid in the complex of that joint is four hundred and thirty feet above the valley, a seven numerically, and has a carving of a feathered serpent coiling around the sides of it, and until we know-"

"That'ssss a cousin!" one of Hubert's men said, swaying with ex�citement. "I know thisss monument. It hassss two hundred and fifty stonessss carved with ssssacred animals."

"Seven again," Damali said, glancing around the group. "I think they'll be fine, Carlos." She shot him a private message.Baby, I know you're worried, but we've gotta move out.

Giving up, Carlos spoke quickly. They were losing precious time, once again, and Damali was right. "There's a bunch of ruins concen�trated in Morelos, which is why we're going there and taking a cliff-side position for the pending assault that's coming, man. So don't get lost. There's so many ruins in the area that one of the biggest sites is like ninety-three kilometers off the freakin' Cuernavaca-Cuautla Highway. You can't miss spotting Chalcatzingo-'venerated place of the sacred waters,' with the whole rock carving thing going on... frescos of the king, the flying man, mural of fertility, the puma, the queen-strong Olmec influence-"

"Yes, yes," Hubert said enthusiastically. "More in my time. Seven hundred B.C.!"

"Cool. Wefinally have a landmark winner," Carlos said with a rush of relief. "Between those sites, if you triangulate properly, you won't be able to miss us."

"We know the region well enough from your description... the Aztec ruins. I do not know the name Cuernavaca, but will find you," Hubert said, standing taller.

Carlos scratched his head, sorting languages. "Back in the day it was called Cuauhnahuac, meaning 'near the trees,' high up, brother, elevation five thousand and some odd feet. For human transport, go�ing by car, that's only a forty-five-minute drive from Mexico City, but far enough away to be cool if some crazy shit jumps off. But we'll stay outside of Cuernavaca, like close to seven thousand feet up so we'll have an aerial view. You're gonna need some blankets for Sara, too, because it gets cold at night." Carlos looked at him hard. "Makesure you find us... you're with us now, and we don't leave our own."

"I will not fail," Hubert said with pride. "We will courier Tara with honor and meet with you upon our return."

"With all the stone ruins and silver around," Heather said excit�edly, moving closer to Jasmine and Krissy, "we'll be able to help a whole lot, too. We can send Hubert a beacon to follow and keep vigil until they land at the fort."

Murmurs of agreement rippled through the team.

"Cool," Carlos said, hoping that things would for once go smoothly. "There's a cathedral in Tepoztlan, and next to it is Our Lady of Annunciation Convent that's under restoration, which was established by the Dominicans. You can see the hills and the Tepozteco pyramid from there. Use the restoration activities as your cover, as a lot of work crews have left open ditches and..." Carlos let his words trail off. He hadn't meant to mention the word "ditch" so callously in front of Rider, but his nerves were raw.

"There's another convent, too, in Oaxtepec," Carlos said in a gen�der tone. "But if you guys get lost, home back toward the National Park in the mountains above Cuernavaca. From the air you'll be able to see seven lakes, and three of them keep water year round, even if the others are dry-remember, seven or three bodies of water. There's also mineral springs nearby, because of the volcano."

"What is a National Park?" Hubert glanced around at his fellow hybrids. "This is a new term, a new word."

Carlos let his breath out hard. "Navigate by math-justdothemath, man, if you get lost and can't do it by sight and sensors, and if you get totally ass-out, head over the state border into Guerrerro to the town of Taxco de Alarcon, that used to be called Tetelcingo."

"I think you're confusing him," Damali said, beginning to panic. "It's so much information too quickly."

"I must learn quickly, dear Neteru Queen." Hubert looked at Car�los without blinking. "I will remember."

"So will I," Sara said, stroking Hubert's arm. "Sometimes he has trouble remembering things, but I'll stay with him. He has a brilliant mind, but his memory... he is a very ancient being and this atmos�phere doesn't help him."

"I thought you'd be going with us, just in case there's a midair problem?" Damali said, glancing between Sara and Hubert, and then looking at Carlos.

"I do better at finding places when she's with me," Hubert admit�ted quietly.

"Pleasssse let him take her ssssooo we all have a prayer of sssur-vival," Hubert's serpentlike hybrid friend said. "Without Ssssara, we are doomed."

Carlos stopped and stared at Hubert hard. "Okay, here's a fallback plan if you get lost. Taxco is rich in silver deposits. It's a mining town. Darkside hybrids, and even general-regulation demons can't come up through there." He glanced around the team. "If we get screwed in a firefight, that's our fallback position, too. It's also not far from Ixca-teopan, the burial place of the last Aztec emperor after Montezuma II and Cuitiahuac... My line brother Cuauhtemoc's tomb is there- also known as descending eagle or plunging eagle, so I'm hoping on ancestral support up in that tip if it comes to that."

"If that's what your gut is telling you, I'm with you," Hubert said. "I can easily see the silver region."

"Good," Carlos said. "Because it's not just my gut alone we're working with. I also talked to the kings and we all agreed. Mount the offensive from a high elevation as far away from populated areas as possible, but near areas that have serious spiritual charge for our side. hence Morelos. My DNA code is landlocked there, so are Jose's and Juanita's... Tara's would be, too, along with Lopez's. It's also close enough to keep our eyes on the Popocatepetl volcano, which has been threatening major cities and erupted like thirty-somethin' times since the thirteen hundreds... that's an accident waitin' to happen. Be�sides, I don't trust Cain not to use the chaos of an eruption and hu�man civilians as hostages to a pending disaster to come at us, too, to create a diversion."

Carlos touched Damali's face. "The ground is silver rich; it's up in the hills sixteen hundred and forty-five feet above sea level-which breaks back down to seven, for us. Plus there's major hallowed ground there, baby. For a pullback position, go to the Temple of Santa Prisca on Borda Plaza... If it gets crazy, you fall back there, I'm serious, D. The town is small, has a sparse population, narrow, colonial, cobble-stoned streets that wind up the hill and are good for a contained fire-fight and for hiding Hubert and his gang-if they get spotted out in the open by people-versus open boulevards where a lot of innocent folks could get accidentally shot, plus the ex-convent of San Bernardino de Sena is there, built in the sixteenth century."

"If I do my math, as you say, Carlos," Hubert asked quietly, draw�ing everyone's attention, "and sixteen becomes seven, on silver-laden soil, within a numerically correct seven in elevation-should we not take Tara there to be protected in the abandoned convent on very old, silver-plated hallowed earth protected by the numbers?"

To Hubert's surprise, Rider slowly walked over to him, hugged him slowly, and said nothing as he tightened the embrace.

One human gesture said it all. The decision was made and all con�versation ceased. It happened just that fast.