The Wicked (Vampire Huntress Legend #8)

The Wicked (Vampire Huntress Legend #8) Page 14

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

After what she'd witnessed flashing beneath Carlos's lids in full Tech�nicolor, Damali ran through the house searching for a tracker. Her thoughts scrambled as she tore across the floors, momentarily forget�ting that everyone was upstairs. She'd dashed past the dining room so quickly that it took a second for her eyes to sync up with her brain. Whirling around in the kitchen and about to run up the back stair�case, Rider's presence at the doorway startled her.

"Hey, hey, hey, where's the fire?" Rider asked, toting a bottle of Jack Daniel's.

"I need a tracker. Meet me outside in five minutes," Damali said, practically hyperventilating. She glanced at the bottle of liquor Rider clutched and paused. "How's your nose?"

"Good as ever," he said calmly, his gaze assessing her from head to toe. "D, what just happened?"

"We have to find Hubert," she said quickly, but not ready to fully divulge the fact that three Neteru kings just blasted the doors off Hell and stuck a sword in a hornet's nest. "Carlos has to rest so he can whirl us out of here if there's a serious problem," she added, trying to cover the tracks of her panic. "With Lilith on the loose, Hubert and his people are sitting ducks."

"I'd take a bullet for him and Sara, after what they did for me, kiddo, you know that. But, if you don't mind my saying, you look like

something just spooked you. Something recent, like two minutes ago. What was it?" Rider folded his arms over his chest and waited.

"Fallon Nuit is back. Carlos and I saw it. They raised him and gave him a council seat."

"Okay, Houston,now we have a problem." Rider was in motion, and dashed into the dining room with Damali on his heels. He grabbed a pump shotgun.

"We have to get Jose," Damali said. "His nose is vamp-locked to the bastard, plus we'll need a fluent interpreter, since we're going deep into central Mexico as an extraction squad for Hubert."

"He's in the garden."

Damali didn't ask why, just headed that way in a flat-out dash.

They ran outside, leaving Carlos fast asleep on the sofa. Jose was prone on a stone bench beneath a tree dozing in the early afternoon sun, but sat up quickly when he heard Rider and Damali's footfalls. Rider tossed him the pump shotgun and he caught it with one hand. Jose was on his feet.

"What's going on?" Jose's gaze ripped from Rider to Damali.

"Take a walk with me, Jose, and get into a Jeep," Damali said, not walking but running ahead of him, too frazzled to spell it all out.

"An old friend is back with Lilith, stirring the pot," Rider said. "We've got family out there who got lost. We'll fill you in as we drive."

"I know you guys are tired," Damali said, driving like a maniac, while talking a mile a minute. "If y'all were upstairs asleep, I would have gone alone but-"

"It's cool, D," Jose said, cutting off her apology. "Juanita put me out of the room to catch some shut-eye with Inez, of all people, because she's still scared I might turn-and Mike didn't have it in him to ar�gue, so he just crashed alone. I wasn't really asleep anyway. Had a lot running through my mind."

"Yeah, don't we all?" Rider said, keeping his eyes on the road and tensely monitoring the precarious hairpin turns Damali made as they sped down the narrow mountain passage. "Might be good, though, if we got there in one piece."

Jose glimpsed Rider when Damali didn't answer. "They could have landed anywhere if they were off course, D. There's miles of ru-ins."

"I'm heading toward Taxco, the silver city," she said, gripping the wheel tighter. "My gut tells me that Hubert would home in there if he got nervous and got turned around... because the silver deposits would be his beacon-sorta like a landing strip for him. Once on the ground, their natural instinct would be to head toward the convent and try to hide on hallowed ground to make it through the night."

Finding the partially renovated Convent of San Bernardino de Sena was relatively easy within the sleepy little town of Taxco. Just as Car�los had told them, quaint colonial houses dotted pristine, narrow streets paved with cobblestone that spiraled up in steep inclines rival�ing San Francisco. Silver and flower vendors and small outdoor cafes competed with tiny stores and bodegas, while local workers went on about their daily routines, unimpressed by a few straggling tourists.

Damali pulled the Jeep behind the convent, out of view of the main thoroughfare. The decision to leave the pump shotgun in the vehicle was agreed upon without words. Jose and Rider quietly con�cealed it, and kept their shoulder firearms hidden beneath zipped jackets. Damali's Isis could be called to her palm, if necessary, but the fervent hope from everyone in the group was that it wouldn't be needed for a while.

"How you wanna play this, darlin'?" Rider asked as they walked around the building and up the convent's front steps.

Damali glanced at Rider and Jose. "Let me go in first and see if I can speak to the sisters about a recent request for last rites and a bur�ial... Then, Jose, you interpret for me if they don't speak English. Tara is my sister. That's both the truth, in a way, and our story. Uh... I'll say she got sick, also the truth, and went into a coma and the doc�tors didn't know what to do, and she passed. That's also the truth, and I won't have to get in spiritual trouble for lying to nuns. Then while I stall, I want your noses on Hubert and Sara's trail."

"Sara is deep into our sinuses, hon," Rider said. "She flew up our noses like fairy dust, remember." He smiled at Jose and shook his head as he released a weary sigh. "And Hubert's blood on that T-shirt is an unforgettable experience for a nose."

"We got it, D. Work your magic," Jose said, pushing open a huge wooden door for Damali and standing aside.

It was eerily quiet as they entered the sanctuary and echoing seren�ity surrounded them. Brilliant sunlight filtered in through timeless stained-glass windows, draping the weathered mahogany pews in a wash of color. Small white votive candles set in red glass holders flick�ered on a rack, the scent from burning wax mingling with the thick scent of frankincense.

Rider pulled out a wad of bills and shoved them in an alms box as they passed. "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned greatly in my day," he said quietly. "Just let my baby rest in peace. I loved her."

Jose and Damali hesitated and bowed their heads for a moment of silence out of remembrance for the dead. They then watched Rider empty his pockets, knowing his next prayer was for Gabrielle.

They all looked up as a small, elderly nun calmly strode toward them, her black-and-white habit flowing as she took dignified steps. She stared at them with kind eyes, but there was a light of excitement in them that made the group stand very still. Tears streaked her weathered face, and when she opened her mouth to speak, initially no words came out.

"Children, be the first to share in a miracle," she said in a flurry of Spanish that Jose interpreted for the group. "I am Sister Louisa. An angel has come to us here in the mountains... Her name is Sara."

Damali almost fell down and she squeezed Jose's arm hard. "Sister, may we see her?"

The nun shook her head and struggled with English, seeming frus�trated that she had to wait for a translation delay. "She came out of the sky in a streak across the heavens," the nun said, casting her gaze up, and then making the sign of the crucifix over her heart as she closed her aged brown eyes. "She said she was from a long line of an�gels of mercy, and asked our mercy to properly anoint and bury a young woman who had tragically fallen ill. She told us that this beau�tiful woman that she gave us to care for was never to have perished so young... God had work for her to do that was left undone."

"Where did the angel go?" Damali asked in a near whisper, also hoping that Hubert and company had enough presence of mind not to scare the daylights out of these dear sisters by showing them�selves.

The elderly nun opened her eyes. Her entire body was trembling as she spoke. "The tiny angel with changing hair color and eyes asked if she could stand watch for three days and three nights in the bell tower," Sister Louisa said. "But she wanted no one to come to her as she prayed for the salvation of the world. She said there were others with her, twelve in all, and she begged our promise of complete faith and privacy. After witnessing such a miracle, she asked that we turn our backs and close our eyes, and we felt them pass by us... huge be�ings with large wings we heard, flying all around us as we dropped to our knees and wept."

Tears of rapture coursed down the nun's face as she stared at Damali and pressed a shaking palm to her breast. "She said the young woman's family would come as a sign... she described you, your dif�ferent hair," the nun said, touching Damali's cheek as though to be sure Damali was real, and then she looked at Jose. "And she said one from our land-a... I don't know the word, this Neteru? But we did not question her. Wedared not offend her grace."

Damali and Jose shared a look, knowing the nun had mistaken him for Carlos.

"Sister Louisa," Rider said in a quiet voice. "May I see the woman the angel left, then... if the angel is gone?" "You are her husband,si ?"

"Yes," Rider whispered through a deep swallow. "I was her hus�band."

The nun rushed up to him and hugged him. "The angel cried so hard as she left her body... She said you loved her so much that she sent up prayers to the Mercies. She begged us to keep this vigil for a man with a good heart. We have, my son. We have, and always will."

Seeming embarrassed by her sudden emotional outburst, Sister Louisa pulled back from Rider and tried to collect herself after ap�parently forgetting that touching a man was not done. "Come," she told the group. "Our order is small, and twelve sisters surround her with intercessory prayers now until it is time to commit her to the earth and the Lord's care."

The nun walked away so quickly that the small team of Guardians almost had to run to match her short strides. She swept through a huge, carved, wooden archway and motioned toward the cloister that knelt on crimson velvet cushions between mounds of flowers that surrounded a small altar. Twelve praying nuns remained steadfast with their eyes closed and never looked up at the intrusion as their mouths moved in silent litanies and their blind fingers moved rosary beads.

Tara lay prone on a high stone bench just beyond the altar under a statue of the Blessed Virgin. Tara's body was draped in hand-embroidered white linen that had a large crucifix stitched into the center of it over her heart. The nuns had surrounded her with fra�grant blooms and her hair spilled across her shoulders in a silky, peace�ful wave. Three tall silver incense stands flanked her, sending spirals of white smoke into the vaulted ceiling above. Her forehead glistened with anointing oil, and her peaceful repose put tears in the Guardians' eyes.

"They brought her through the spiral whole," Rider said in a stran�gled whisper and went to Tara's body before anyone could think to stop him.

He laid his head on her chest and simply shook his head while stroking her hair, causing some of the flowers around her to fall away. "I still can't believe it," he said in a quiet sob. "Wait for me on the other side. I'll marry you in Heaven." With a shuddering breath, he pulled back and then kissed her forehead, and eyelids, the bridge of her nose, and her mouth. He cupped her face as he stood up. "Not even God loved you more than me," he whispered. "Take care of her, Lopez."

Damali bit her lip, crying so deep inside that she had to bear down hard to keep from wailing. The nun stood between Damah and Jose weeping so furiously that the older woman simply gathered their hands up within hers. They watched in agony as Rider's palm dropped away from Tara's cheek in defeat, and he straightened his shoulders, made the sign of the cross over his chest, and backed away from her body.

Rider turned away slowly and then froze. The look on his face made them drop their clasped hands and stare. Damali quickly wiped her eyes, sure that the blur from her tears, her private hopes, and the light was making her see things. The nun backed away, repeatedly crossing herself and then dropped to her knees. Jose rushed forward with Damali as Rider ran to the bench. The threesome stared down, watching Tara's lashes flutter.

Tara's lips parted and a quiet exhalation left her body with one word-"Rider."

Damali and Jose had to hold Rider up. Bleating, hiccupping male sobs filled the sanctuary as he gasped for air and repeatedly shouted his dead lover's name from where he stood.

"Tara!"

Rider broke his team's supportive embrace and made the twelve murmuring nuns drop their rosaries to gape as he rushed to Tara's side and held her face with both hands.

"Baby, don't leave me. Wake up," he said, crying hard. He looked up at the ceiling. "I believe all things are possible in Your Name, bring her back, please, God."

Rider's frantic gaze returned to Tara, his hands and whole body trembling. "In the name of mercy, come back. I'll give up every sin," he said, choking. "Will fight a hundred more battles... just name it, let her breathe."

She coughed. Five nuns passed out and several screamed. Then Tara gasped and reached for Rider's hand. Disoriented, Tara began sobbing. Rider gathered her up in his arms and started rocking her. Transfixed by awe, Damali and Jose couldn't move.

"Ring the bells!" the senior nun shrieked. "We have witnessed a miracle!"

Damali spun as several shocked nuns tried to stand. "No. The an�gel is in the tower. You'll hurt her. Remember her warning."

Stunned sisters stood paralyzed, not sure what to do, fervently crossing themselves and weeping as they watched Rider gather Tara up in his arms with the linen draped around her. His face was buried against Tara's shoulder as he carried her toward the door.

"I'm taking you home, and I'll take such good care of you from now on, I promise."

Damali shook Jose out of the awe trance he was in. "We have about five seconds to rush the tower and go get Sara and crew," she whispered quickly. "Let me talk to the nuns so we can get out of here before they call the Vatican. Move, man!"

Jose began running, not sure which direction to go in. Rider was still sobbing by the door with Tara in his arms. Nuns huddled in weeping groups of rapture. Sister Louisa was clutching her heart, ap�pearing faint. It was pure pandemonium.

"Dear sister," Damali said, gathering the older nun's hands within hers and talking quickly. "She was only in a coma and we thought she was dead. It's a miracle, for sure, and the angel said she would keep watch. But now that mercy's been rendered and your prayers have been answered, youmust let the mysteries of faith further unfold through quiet grace. Please bear silent witness and tell the townspeopleafter we've gone, or they'll want proof, will try to investigate, and may even try to take this woman from her husband to study her. You can�not be a party to that travesty after... uh... seeing an angel."

"Si, si,"Sister Louisa said, sobbing. "Go in peace, my child. We will chronicle what we have seen and protect your secret until you have safely passed from gawking spectators. Our lives have been touched by the Hand of God."

"Sara rides with us," Damali told Hubert, gunning the Jeep engine. "Follow the vehicle in a low flight pattern so you don't get lost again." Damali careened away from the back of the convent before Hubert could answer. Her mind was too jumbled to process the fact that only he and the serpentlike hybrid ever showed themselves. The most she could do at the moment was to glance up intermittently into the rearview mirror to be sure Hubert's sky streak was following them.

"There was so much to see," Tara whispered hoarsely, over Rider's shuddering breaths.

"Don't talk, let me get you some water, some food," he murmured, holding her tightly against him in his lap.

Jose sat in the backseat, staring out at the passing scenery. Sara kept a hand on his arm to be sure he was all right. Damali stepped on the gas, but even through her panic, she drove with care. This afternoon she was carrying precious cargo, a nymph and a miracle.

When the Jeep pulled up to the casa, Damali careened it into the driveway and brought the vehicle to a stop with a screeching jolt. She was up and over the door before anyone else could move.

"Everybody on their posts!" she shouted, barreling through the front door of the hacienda. "Situation hot!"

She ran back outside to see Rider on a bench under the trees, gently rocking Tara against him while stroking her hair.

"She didn't want to go inside... just wanted to see the sun," Rider said through a garbled whisper.

"I haven't seen daylight in over thirty years," Tara whispered hoarsely.

Rider just gazed at her as though she were a mirage, something fragile that might disappear and leave him.

"Water! Bring her some water!" Damali ran to get it, realizing that she was yelling like a crazy woman, and nobody in the house could probably hear her.

Jose met her on the front steps with bottles of spring water in his hands. A loud sonic boom behind the house told them Hubert had landed. Sara sat at Rider's feet, looking up with a serene, sparkling gaze. Disoriented Guardians filled the courtyard, roused by the blast and Damali's yelling. Team members rushed forward, half-dressing, trying to maneuver weapons, and dragging Carlos with them. Hubert and one hybrid jogged to a stop and gathered around the bench with the others. For a moment no one spoke as they watched with reverence as Rider accepted an opened bottle of water and gently helped Tara sip from it.

"Whoa..." Carlos murmured, wiping the haze of sleep from his face with both palms. "D, did you..."

"No, no-I don't know how to do something like that!" Damali said in a quick whisper. "I can't raise the freakin' dead. Ya crazy?"

"It was beautiful," Tara said quietly, cupping Rider's face. "Lopez came for me and pulled me away from Fallon Nuit's jaws."

"Fallon Nuit?" Marlene said, elbowing through the group and squatting down to hold Tara's hand. "Baby, talk to us." She looked up at Rider and then back to Damali and Carlos.

Carlos's jaw pulsed with anger. "A simultaneous bite from a coun�cilman layered right over the top of Yonnie's to flatline her. The Chairman did it to me over Fallon's. That's probably how he knew how to do it... set my boy up and almost made Tara-"

"They raised him again?" Marlene asked quickly, cutting Carlos off. She dropped Tara's hand and stood.

"Yeah, long story. I'll fill you in later, main thing is Tara is back. And we also know Lopez is where he should be," Carlos said, still amazed to see Tara in the sunlight. "But, how did she come back?" He'd seen a lot of miracles in his time, but this one beat all.

"There was a bond so deep," Sara said quietly, now looking at Rider and Tara. "A love so profound... that when I went into Rider to purge all the old wounds he'd sustained, each and every one of them was from their love. His heart and her heart were tied together as one, since they were so young." Sara drew a shaky breath and wiped her eyes. "I come from a long line of Healing Mercy Angels on my mother's side. My father was a Spartan soldier who found mercy and let prisoners bound for death go. I went to them, first, and they ap�pealed to the Mercies in the Rings Above. That allowed Tara's body to be preserved in death, even though she had been a..." Sara cen�sored her words and reached up to squeeze Tara's hand. "Even though she had been gone for so long."

The little nymph stood and kissed both Tara and Rider on their cheeks. "I did not know that the Mercies were so moved that they went to the Powers and the Powers wept at the story," she said, giving Damali a quizzical glance. "Only a few times in history have they re�versed a fate like this." Sara covered her mouth and spoke in an awed voice between her fingers. "When Hubert got lost, he sought the sil-ver land... and it was built in a seven elevation. Then twelve good sisters prayed with us on high ground. I kept hoping and asking that Heaven spare just this one Guardian who was robbed of her whole life. I didn't do this all by myself."

"Forever indebted," Rider said softly, touching Tara's cheek with trembling fingers. He traced away her tears with the pad of his thumbs, unable to say more.

"You give us all hope," Marjorie said, swallowing hard. "There's a chance for Gabby, too... even Yonnie, then. Right?"

"One can only hope at this point," Carlos said, still too awed to comment further. "I don't know..."

"I saw my whole family, tribes of tribes of ancients," Tara whis�pered, staring up into Rider's bloodshot eyes. "And there was this bright silver cord coming out of my chest that none of them would break by crossing through it. They said the choice to go back was mine... and when I touched the cord I saw your face, heard you cry�ing, and heard every prayer you ever said for me. I held on to that life�line, pulling on it, hand over hand trying to reach you to tell you that I was all right and was in a place of peace. When I opened my eyes, you were standing there." Tara used her graceful fingers to sign over Rider's chest. "Man with a good heart, I never left you, and never will."

Damali slipped her hand into Carlos's as the team dissolved into tears around them. The emotional impact of what they'd all just seen left everyone spent. Slowly people filed into the house, old grievances and pet peeves with each other were left buried in the courtyard. Each team member then hesitated and stood at the bottom of the main hall staircase and watched Rider take Tara up the steps to rest as though he were carrying his new bride over a threshold.

Hubert and his reduced team anxiously gathered around the two Neterus as the other Guardians wearily found a private space to con�template it all.

"Those of us who stayed are honored to be with you," Hubert said, drawing Sara to his side.

"Those who stayed?" Carlos said, looking at Hubert's much smaller crew and then Damali.

The hybrid that resembled a serpent dropped to his knees and clung to Carlos's legs. "Do not forssssake ussss, because of the others. I am Ssssedgewick-of good lineage. My mother was a serpent deity in Thebes, my father a palace high priest."

"Come on, man, get up," Carlos said, becoming uncomfortable as Sedgewick clung to him and began crying. He helped up the dis�tressed serpent and held his arms firmly. "Nobody is putting you guys out. What happened to your squad? Were you attacked?"

"No," Hubert said, shame filling his voice. "That cowardly little son-of-a-satyr, Odefe, used us."

"The fawn, or half-fawn?" Damali asked, trying to piece together the information.

"Yesss. Him. Traitor." Sedgewick hissed. "He wanted to get away from ssserving in any campaign."

Damali and Carlos looked at each other.

"Do we need to hunt him down? Is he gonna be a problem, since nine of your crew went south with him?" Carlos asked, releasing Sedgewick's arms and looking at Hubert hard.

"No. He doesn't want to fight for either side," Hubert said in a huff. "We later found out, while discussing it in the bell tower, that he and his friends only came along to get out of Nod. The moment they saw the green hillside, they ran for it. All they want to do is eat, drink, and be merry... he's probably cornered a doe by now and mounted one, if I know him well."

"Great," Damali said. "Just what we need. A bunch of horny hy�brids on the loose up in central Mexico trying to nail any creature walking." She let out an impatient breath. "Any of them dangerous, like flesh-eaters that could go after local humans for dinner?"

"Better question," Carlos said in a flat, annoyed tone. "Can any of them lock on to us here and cause a problem by guiding the wrong side of this war to us?"

"No," Sara said in a sad voice. She turned to Hubert and placed her hand on his chest to calm him. "They're afraid of their own shadows and would not be able to stand on the silver ground if they took a life. They do not want to fight with Cain's army and do not want to fight with yours. They just want to hide and enjoy the fruits of peace once it is all over."

Hubert growled and lifted his chin. "They are not prepared to sac�rifice anything for anyone, not even themselves... and they argued with me about not just leaving Tara's body wherever I could drop it and running away."

"Nowthat woulda been fucked up," Carlos said, rolling new ten�sion out of his shoulders.

"It is their loss, as they missed witnessing a miracle," Sara said. "Yes, it was daunting and frightening to approach the nuns, and what is before us is also terrifying, but if we should perish in the service of the Light, then all was for a worthy cause."

"I couldn't agree more," Damali said, stooping down to stare at the nymph and then hugged her. "Girlfriend, you were awesome. But I want you guys safe, not perishing, okay?"

"You are magnificent, too. Much more than me," the nymph whis�pered into Damali's ear. "Your secret is safe. We can always see our own... your prayers helped."

Damali kissed her forehead and stood quickly. Carlos gave Damali a look, but said nothing.

"Only Hubert and Sedgewick of the rebels had learned the way out of Nod and how to find you, because they were the only ones brave enough to go into Cain's lair to access his pool. The last image we had was the beach hacienda that Cain had seen. Beyond that, the pool holds no more images, so none of the other hybrids know where you are. The good ones will be too afraid to come out, not sure where Cain's loyalists will be or if humans will panic and slaughter them on sight." Sara gazed up at Carlos. "If we die with you, we will go to the place Tara was. I am not afraid to go there."

"Nor am I," Hubert said, lifting his chin.

"Nor I," Sedgewick concurred, straightening his back.

"Our goal is not to lose anybody," Damali said, looking at them all hard. "Not one. Got it? You just saw what losing one person did to us, and you're family now. So no heroics. You keep your heads down in a firefight. I want everybody to grow old and live a long time and to one day die peacefully in their sleep-that's been my prayer from day one."

"But if duty calls, know that we stand with you," Hubert said with pride. "That was what we thought the others also wanted, which was the only reason we allowed them to travel with us... that their lives would not have been in vain, and they had served mankind with self�less courage. When we all expire, the Light will then take us home. But that smarmy group of malcontents... they can only think of themselves, and care nothing of the fate of the world! I cannot believe the years of debate on this, how we all espoused such lofty goals and to have it disintegrate into mere rhetorical rubbish when the final hour came."

"All right," Carlos said with a heavy sigh. "Why don't you guys get something to eat. then we'll show you to a great room with a view so you can rest. Maybe later, if you're up for it, you can man a tower and our guys can show you how to shoot a gun or an RPG without blowing your foot off."

"Very good," Hubert said. "And my sincerest apologies that my human side makes me inept at sky navigation. But I am strong."

"Hisss eyessssight issss not so good, but if he sssees a location once, he isss very reliable," Sedgewick said, slapping Hubert's back.

"Uh... one last question," Damali said, leading the strange new addition to their family into the kitchen with Carlos. "Do you and Sara want your own room, or should I bed Sedgewick down alone?"

Hubert smiled as Sedgewick's eyes widened in terror. "Thank you for your consideration, Queen Damali. However, Sedgewick is afraid of the dark, and my relationship with Sara is strictly platonic. She is my best friend."

Lilith leaned against a cavern wall and spoke quickly to a Harpie as she gouged a talon into her abdomen. She shuddered and closed her eyes as she dragged the sharp claw down her lower belly, and panted as she reached into her body to extract her womb. Speaking through her teeth as sweat covered her shaking body, she weakly extended her hand, which contained a slick, black organ.

"This contains an empire," she wheezed. "Guard it with your life. Courier it to a surviving hybrid and tell them to secret it away in Cain's palace in Nod."

The Harpie squealed and snatched the bloody organ from Lilith, clutched the quivering pulp to its breast and then protectively folded its wings around it. But the creature tilted its horned gargoyle head in a question as its beady little eyes narrowed. The Harpie screeched and made a face, pointing upward with a hooked claw.

"I know, I know, dear one," Lilith gasped, weakening as she walked deeper into Level Seven. "The Light in Nod will not harm it. My womb will burn away, but Cain's seed combined within my egg will not. It may be the last time we can cultivate dark Neteru seed from our sovereign while he still has a living soul, if he does not recover. Should he expire, we will have to make the decision for him and de�liver the eternal bite. Do not worry as you fly to locate a hybrid war�rior. Level Seven is impervious to daylight, just as Cain's soul layer will make what you carry impervious to the dreaded Light of Nod. Cain's legacy should live on. Just as mine shall. Have the hybrids find a host womb for the crown jewel of our empire in Nod."

Lilith pushed off the wall and staggered deeper into the pit. "Fly now with haste! The deposit Cain made into me is only forty-eight hours old. My womb was of no use, and could not hold a fetus to term... but a healthy female demon hybrid's can. Be gone!"

Damali sat alone in the kitchen with Carlos, listening to the faucet drip. They sat that way quietly for a long time; him watching her sip her tea and nosh on fruit, her watching him take an unsteady sip of Jack Daniel's every now and then as he polished off a burger. "You all right?" she finally said.

No," he said calmly. "You?" "No," she said, and sipped her tea. "I don't even know where to begin."

He lifted his short rocks glass and clinked it against her mug. "My point exactly."

"They're not ready for battle," Damali murmured, staring down into her mug.

"You talking about Hubert or the team?"

"Both," she said, glancing up to hold Carlos's gaze.

"I know," he muttered, slowly rolling his glass between his palms as he looked down at it. "Nobody is. Not even me or you."

Damali reached across the table and held Carlos's hand, which made his eyes finally meet hers and remain there. Her fingers caressed his platinum wedding band as his moved her wedding and engage�ment rings with a gentle touch.

"Talk to me," she murmured.

Carlos paused and let out a heavy breath. "D, after I saw how tore up Rider was, and then Tara coming back and before that, how shook Adam was about his wife... Berkfield about Marj, and the way Shabazz was quietly wigging about Marlene's temporary turn..." Carlos sighed hard. "Yonnie is all fucked around out there somewhere by himself with pure Hell on his ass, and nowhere to turn, and I can't even grant my boy sanctuary until he checks out. We've got Gabby out there screwed, and can't help her. Plus, now, every man on this team has something more precious than his own life to lose, even the newbies. And Hubert, for Christ's sake, has a hybrid angel to worry about. The man is shitting gold bricks about going into a firefight, no matter what his big ass says."

"I know," Damali said quietly, squeezing Carlos's hand hard. "Maybe it'll make everybody fight harder, when the time comes."

"That's just it," Carlos said, reaching across the counter to cup her cheek. "They'll fight hard enough to die quick. They'll take risks in a panic, their minds divided... and when it's all said and done, we can't raise 'em all from the dead, baby. None of us know how or are even probably supposed to, if we did. The Tara thing... we just got lucky. Had a lot working with us combining the thing right. But we're gonna need a whole lot more than luck with Cain, Lilith,and Fallon Nuit as a councilman coming for us. This bullshit is insane now."

Carlos pushed a stray lock behind Damali's ear and dropped for�ward to lean his forearms on the counter between them, and then looked out the window as the early evening sun splashed pink-rose-orange color against the azure blue mountain clouds.

"Seems not so long ago," she said in a gentle voice, "that it all seemed so much easier back then-and even just saying that sounds crazy, if you think about it."

"You should have seen Adam's face, D. The man, a seasoned war�rior king, was ready to burn to death in his own armor and die down there to avenge Eve's heartbreak. Sloppy. That troubles me, baby."

Carlos's gaze slid away from the horizon to look at Damali. "What worries me the most iseverybody on the team is right there, including me... so emotional about what was done to one of our own, each nursing a deep, personal scar that we're allright there," he said, point�ing on the counter hard. "Just where Adam was today. Not good."

She didn't know what to say to him. All of what he'd said was true. The subject that was too tender to discuss was also in the room with them like a leering phantom that could turn into a poltergeist at any given moment. There were two approaches she could take: a silent hug that would simply allow the thing to fester within her husband's soul, or she could flush it out into the open and make it bleed... but without knowing how to heal it, that didn't seem like the best option.

"Did you get any rest today?" Carlos finally asked, obviously need�ing to change the subject.

"No," Damali said quietly, now staring down at her lukewarm tea. "I'm glad you got a few hours, though."

Carlos nodded. He'd gone back to twirling an empty rocks glass between his palms. "You should lie down for an hour or two before sunset, at least, especially if your back is bothering you and you have cramps."

"My back is bothering me from body blows and tension," she said just above a whisper. "Everybody else in the house has that problem except me. That's what your nose is picking up."

She watched Carlos's gaze seek the window and then the sky for redemption that he didn't need to request. The question was valid, just as his hopes that she wasn't pregnant by anybody right now were. Yet she could also feel a thin thread of a prayer lingering, a prayer that she was carrying for him wrestled just beneath the surface of his skin. Deep conflict was shredding him to death. The muscle in his jaw pulsed as she watched him fight within himself. It would be the toughest battle he ever waged, possibly a fruitless campaign that might very well have no victory one way or the other.

She stood and came around the counter to give her husband that silent hug he so desperately needed but couldn't ask for. This evening the decision was made clear as he enfolded her in his arms and held on to her for dear life: the wound would just have to fester a while longer. He didn't want to talk about it and she respected that.