The Wicked

by L. A. Banks

CHAPTER THREE

 

  CHAPTER THREE

  Okay, Zehiradangra, talk to me," Damali said, stooping down with ef�fort to lower her necklace into a shallow wash of sea by the rocks.

  Her entire body hurt, and after getting nearly hugged into a stupor by her family and healing Juanita, the last thing she wanted was a lec�ture from a dead she-dragon. But Zehiradangra was an old friend and now an oracle that rivaled the one at Delphi, so Damali summoned patience. Although it seemed like it was taking forever for the pearl to glow again and come to life in her hands.

  Damali steadied her voice and tried again with a gentler tone. "Z. . . all right, I'm sorry I snapped at you. Please talk to me. "

  "I didn't know what to say or if you wanted me around, you sounded so. . . upset. "

  Damali sighed with relief. "I was upset, but not at you," Damali ad�mitted. "A lot of crazy things seem to be happening again. What's your take on it?"

  The pearl glowed pink and then went white hot. "I did not want to intrude during a very private time, but are you all right now?"

  Complete humiliation shot heat to Damali's face, and she made a mental note to be sure to shove her necklace in the bedroom drawer from now on when she wasn't wearing it. "I'm cool," she lied.

  "You must be very, very careful during this time, Damali," the pearl warned. "I have never seen him this way. "

  "Yeah, well, me neither. But I really don't wanna focus on Carlos right now. Overall, I need to-"

  "I am not speaking of Carlos," Zehiradangra said calmly. "I am speaking of his brother. "

  Damali leaned closer to the pearl. "Jose just went through-"

  "No, no, no," she murmured impatiently, sending a small stream of bubbles to the surface of the shallow pool. "His older brother, my friend, Cain. "

  "Oh, him. . . " Damali turned and plopped down to sit on the rocks, no longer caring that her jeans would get wet and sandy. "I can't deal with whatever's going on in his twisted brain right now in Nod. As long as he stays there, then fine. "

  "There are several flaws to your statement, Damali," Zehiradangra said in a snippy tone that Damali had never heard her use before. "Cain loves you. He is a being that loves hard and deep, and you are very fortunate that he does. "

  Damali rolled her eyes and blew a stray lock up off her forehead. She had to remember that Zehiradangra used to be Cain's lover, so this was indeed going to be a delicate dance. "I'm married now," was all she could offer her.

  "Yes. I know. I was at the ceremony, as you may recall. "

  Great. Just what she needed. An oracle with an attitude.

  "Zehiradangra, listen. . . Cain seemed like a really nice entity go�ing in. He is fine as all get out. Has a voice like. . . " Damali searched for an adequate description that would mollify the offended pearl. "Like a. . . aw, heck, the man can sing his ass off and is awesome. Comes from good people on his mother's side. Yada, yada, yada," Damali said, losing patience. "But I had to leave him in Nod for sev�eral reasons-reasons that you agreed with when he helped set you up to get your neck snapped. Or am I not remembering how this all went down correctly?"

  "It is true," the pearl said, its glow dimming, its voice sad. "I just wished better for him. I am still connected to his light energy. . . what's left of it, that is. You should have seen how he suffered when you left him. " The pearl sniffed. "I know you had to, but during his apex-the timing was horrible. "

  "Pearl," Damali said, her voice coming out as a plea as she used one of Zehiradangra's nicknames. "You know I had no choice about the timing of all of this!"

  "Damali, he held his sheets to his face and breathed you in for seven days-unspent. He wept from the pain in his spirit and the agony rid�dling his body for you. He shunned regeneration and nourishment to the point of near energy collapse. . . . " The pearl stopped speaking and swallowed hard. "I am annoyed with you because his voice echoes and suffering clouded my vision. Cain needed to sire so badly, having come so close to you in the flesh that-I cannot even speak of it. "

  "Shit. " Damali closed her eyes. "I wasn't trying to play with his mind, but there was no way I was allowing him to bring out his dark soul hybrids to take over the world. "

  The pearl again glowed a more mellow pink, and its tone became more philosophical and less judgmental. "This, I know. But as long as he could come to you telepathically, even in a one-way transmission getting your vibrations, he could. . . well-"

  "Don't tell me," Damali muttered. "I get the picture. "

  "No, you do not have the full understanding of how deeply wounded he was-albeit much of this was his fault for his insistence on taking over the world. However, once you formally married in the Light, there was a sacred disconnection up in the realms from past lovers. Your energy receded from him, as did his ability to gain sen�sory impressions from you here on Earth. It became so maddening for my old friend that he even tried to relieve himself with inanimate ob�jects and-"

  "Stop," Damali said, removing the necklace from the water. "Waaaay too much info, Pearl. "

  "Well, it is true," Zehiradangra said in an amused tone once Damali had submerged it into the water again. "I have known Cain a long time, and I must admit that I was a bit jealous of his. . . duress brought on by his brief contact with you. However, I also am truth�ful enough to admit that I had heard of the legendary capacity of Neterus to drive anamour insane. Seeing it firsthand was a learn�ing-"

  "Pearl, you are dangerously on the edge of going back into the sea. The only thing keeping me from pitching you there at this moment is the fact that six other very precious stones sent by my queens are housed in this necklace. Are we clear?"

  A melodic murmur of laughter filtered up to the water's surface, bursting in tingly bubbles against Damali's palm. "Oh, Damali, you tickle me. So modest. Why? You should be very, very flattered. "

  Damali closed her eyes and groaned. Her oracle was a flower child, if ever she saw one. "Pearl, can we get on to the more important mat�ters, like what's going on in the cosmos?"

  "This is all a part of it. Love and war are often combined, at least passion is at the center of both, one is light, one is dark, but this is the extreme of the balance of these energies. "

  "Please," Damali said, and dropped her head into one hand. She began rocking out of fatigue and frustration. "My head hurts. Be di�rect. What does this have to do with a decision I made about two men?

  "Everything," the pearl said in an upbeat tone. "Cain went mad, simply put. He was already teetering on the brink of insanity with his genius, but seven days in mourning for us both, combined with the unrequited physical hunger of a solo apex in Nod, just pushed him over the edge. " The pearl sighed. "He is even more brilliant now, and has learned much. But I don't like his new mentor at all. "

  "And who might that be?" Damali said in a voice that wasn't her own.

  "Why, Lilith," the pearl said, not the least bit fazed by Damali's tone. "She is his new lover, now. I don't think the three of us can be friends, as you and I are. "

  Damali leaned down very, very slowly. "Who?"

  "It was awful. Their union wasn't lovely at all, it was more like a mating, beasts with two backs rutting, if you ask me, and I-"

  "Where did this happen and when?" Damali crouched down over the pool, now holding the pearl with both hands.

  "I knew you would be upset," the pearl said coolly. "You do still have feelings for him, as do I. Oh, Damali, maybe we can get him away from her, I don't know. But it would be just wonderful if upon occasion you made love to him with me there. . . Don't you think we could share him? He's fantastic in bed. Although, it does make for a bit of a dilemma because your new husband-who is also my friend, by the way, a dear, dear friend-doesn't share. Should I talk to Carlos? He and I came to an accord once that was divine and-"

  "Pearl, have you lost your mind?" Damali yelled, shaking her neck�lace with both hands and splashing wat
er all around. She wasn't sure which part of what Zehiradangra had said flipped her out the most. Most likely all of it.

  "Yes, yes, I know," Zehiradangra said calmly. "Carlos is enough to handle alone without adding Cain's prowess into the equation. You would need a lot of rest and-"

  "Z, talk to me aboutLilith !"

  "Oh. . . her," the pearl said, her tone still nonchalant. "She's only temporary, because he could not stand another day in his condition. But he is planning to come to see you. He needs you in the worst way. I believe he has become obsessed. "

  "From where?" Damali screamed at the submerged pearl, her face hot with sudden rage.

  "From Hell," Zehiradangra murmured calmly. "Do not worry. Af�ter he sat in his father's throne and he satisfied himself with her body, I most clearly received the impression that he was simply resting to summon the strength to come for the real object of his desire-you. But he did have a nice family reunion, and I was oddly happy for him. His grandfather received him well and-"

  "What!" Damali was on her feet, stumbling around in a circle be�fore she realized that she had taken the pearl out of the water. She dropped to her knees quickly, her mind frantic, and dunked the pearl back under the surface. "Oh, Jesus, Pearl, are you sure? You saw all that? Positive? You have to be very, very clear about what you're telling me. "

  "Now, Damali," the pearl cooed, and then made a little tsking sound. "Why would I tell you something false about my dear friend? I make no judgment about the choices any of my friends make, and only disclose what I see them do. Cain and I have shared many trysts, much energy, and wonderful dialogue and debates. I am a part of his psyche in energy ether form. . . well, at least the Light-bearing side of him. But he is getting dimmer to me now, which makes me sad. " The pearl dropped its voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Back in the old days before all sensation was lost, he and I even shared the full color spectrum embedded in glorious sound. I am very connected to his sexual side, too. But if he keeps up his liaison with this very dark female entity, soon all threads of Light to his core will disintegrate, and I will lose my connection to him. "

  Before Damali could ask another question, the pearl began to cry. "Oh, Damali, don't let my friend leave me like that. His mind used to be sterling silver. His passion, white hot metals. Exquisite! I cannot bear such a loss. Can't you have just a brief little affair with him for me, to infuse him with what he is about to cast away? For me? He so adores you, and has already tasted your blood, I know-"

  "Pearl, you have to pull it together," Damali said, panicking, her mind locking in on the last thing the pearl said. Cain had tasted her blood. "He bit me before, and now all of a sudden, Carlos is acting weird and so is his old line brother, Jose. Carlos bit me after Cain did. What's the connection, because Carlos never bit me like that in his life or death, soooo-"

  "They're all connected," the pearl said, sniffing. "I don't understand what this has to do with the real problem at hand. Cain and Carlos had the same father, Dante. Cain was made from seed, Carlos from Dante's bite, but there is a link, just like all the ones that came from the same line-like Jose, who is more like a distant cousin-are related. "

  The thoughts were whirling through Damali's head so fast she was seeing double as she stared at the pearl. Adrenaline was spiking in her system at record levels, making her limbs shake.

  "What time did Cain actually take a stroll out of Nod?" Damali asked.

  "Oh, about an hour after sundown. That woman, Lilith, came and got him after he'd banged on the shadow alley wall begging her to get him out. Then perhaps no more than an hour later, he sat on his fa�ther's throne, and that's when she. . . " The pearl began sobbing again. "I don't like her!"

  "Pearl, don't cry. I will slay that bitch, trust me. "

  "I am so glad we're friends, Damali," the pearl said in a shaky voice, still sniffing. "I think your solution makes me happy. Tell Cain I send my warmest regards when you see him. "

  Damali stood and stared out at the ocean. This was a level of in�sanity that she'dnever banked on. Her oracle was a nutcase, her hus�band was getting Chairman throne-spikes from below, and her Guardian brother was linked so closely to Carlos that he'd vamp-mate-marked Juanita! Queen Eve, the mother of all mothers, was go�ing to have a coronary, if she hadn't already. The Chairman's throne had a new ruler, which meant the Vampire Council was back in ses�sion. That put Yonnie and Tara in immediate harm's way, not to men�tion Gabrielle. Who knew what crazy entities Cain would install as councilmen? Some of the ones she'd seen in Nod could come out during the day and still had souls, for Christ's sake!

  All she had done was plan a quickie wedding in three days, and leave for fourshort days to try to have a honeymoon, butnoooo. One week, seven teeny blips on the giant cosmic clock, and all hell had broken loose. Couldn't a sister catch a break?

  Meanwhile, there had to be a yawning breach in the veil over in Nod, which meant hybrids either called by Cain, or simply on their own volition, could come spilling over the void any day or night. Sealing the tear would mean first finding it to inform Ausar to get more shields, but with Cain on the darkside, fat chance of that- before, while he was just a horny being of the good side was bad enough. Then there was Lilith. That bitch. Oh, my God. . . she would slaughter her!

  Damali turned back to the house, slowly trudging toward it. So, girlfriend finally got what she'd wanted; an apexing male Neteru in Dante's chair, and a chance to ride him all night. If Cain was in Dante's throne spiking Old World male Neteru, it had to be one hel�luva ride!

  "She didn't deserve that one, yo!" A bizarre combination of anger, pity, and jealousy was threatening to make Damali irrational. Just the thought of Lilith laying Cain made Damali want to scream and go to war.

  True, it didn't make sense, but that's where she was-ready for hand-to-hand combat. It was a matter of honor. Cain was many things, among them a complex being that she'd really liked, all mad�ness notwithstanding. He was a twisted friend.

  But Lilith doinga Neteru? One oftheirs from the side of the Light? Lilith driving a stake into Eve's heart by finally getting to her queen sister through her son? That tall, refined, handsome,sexy, intelligent hunk of passionate but crazy protoplasm fucked Lilith? "That bitch!" Lilith took a musical and military genius and broke his ass down in his own daddy's throne? Just cut off the hands of an experienced healer and converted his power to raise the dead into black lightning de�struction? Actually turned Cain over as a door prize to Lucifer to get her own trifling ass a get-out-of-jail-free pass on this millennium Neteru team's watch?

  "I'll kill you!" That whore had usedher as bait to make that being filled with so much positive potential to go dark, pitch black, enough to give up his empire in Nod. . . and then make it look like his dev�astation was all her fault? "Oh, hell no!"

  Galled beyond words, Damali spit on the beach as she walked. Fury had put the acrid taste of metal in her mouth. Where was her Isis? When she'd been with Cain, yeah, he'd been nuts. . . but still the brother was cool as long as he was over in his kingdom and had that to rule.

  She couldn't even think about the things Zehiradangra had told her. She didn't have to; she could feel it as the pearl spoke the stone-cold truth. Cain's suffering and need to be in her arms had made them ache. But he would have never gone there and been so caught up in a love-jones had Lilith not been constantly thinning the veil be�tween them, working her mojo, plotting and scheming and sending instant airborne messages to him saturated with every lust-filled mi�rage she could create with her succubus, skank-ass illusions.

  The way Lilith had run her seduction game had been smooth, she'd give her that. Damali shook her head as she walked, making her locks slap her shoulders. Girlfriend had been the one to use the airwaves, courtesy of her deranged husband, to send her voice over the cosmic Net to torture Cain-that much she knew in her soul. Then Lilith had let that poor bastard twist.

  Stomping in the sand as she wal
ked, Damali's eyesight blurred from repressed rage. Lilith had hit him with sensation the moment he'd tumbled into the gray zone. . . a half-vamp Neteru going through changes. Lethal cocktail primed for disaster. She'd seen Carlos wig under those conditions, and he hadn't been locked up for centuries. And the way this was set up, every Council Neteru would be con�flicted, divided. Like they said, every woman knows her husband, and Lilith no doubt knew Adam's weak spot, 'cause girlfriend just did the cha-cha on it.

  Damali stopped walking and stared up at the house once she'd reached the front steps. What was she gonna tell Carlos? She had been the carrier of Cain's vamp virus to him, right at the throat. For all the drama Carlos had brought to her door in the past, he'd never dropped the beginning of the cold-blooded Armageddon at her feet.

  If Cain was doing Lilith onDante's throne last night while linked to Carlos,no wonder he bit the bullshit out of her in the throes. And mild-mannered Jose just got swept up in the male vamp passion tor�nado by extended lineage. She wondered if Yonnie had practically flatlined Tara yet. Yonnie was all vamp and no doubt a power surge had run through that brother hard enough to have him speaking in tongues. Half the squad of serious warriors was gonna feel the fallout of this crap.

  Red-blood-running meat au naturel made sense-feed then. . . Damali didn't even want to say the word when thinking about her and Carlos, or even Jose getting with Juanita, for that matter. But it was a feed then fuck then fight vamp paradigm rush going on for sure. The scenario ran through Damali's mind in an endless dark loop.

  Cain would have to feed for strength, then fulfill his next core de�sire, and if he met the Devil face-to-face while doing his wife, who knew what had ultimately kicked off? The only saving grace and rea�son Juanita could do sunshine now was because Jose was working with blunt edges. Damn! Carlos was right. This time, she could only blame herself. She shouldnever have allowed another male vamp to bite her forany reason.

  Damali closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself. There was no damage control option here. This was one of those times a sister just had to fall on her sword.

  "Hey, baby," Carlos said, coming to the front door. "Just checking on you. Folks wanna know what you want for dinner. Better make the most of it, because tomorrow it's back to drawing straws for chores. But today we get served. " He smiled and strolled down the steps, and then stopped. "D?"

  "Walk with me on the beach for a few. I ain't ready to go in the house. "

  Carlos looked over his shoulder. "Cool. " He ignored several sug�gestive grins behind him. "You look like something's spooked you. After everything that went down," he said more quietly as he neared her, "maybe the sun and exertion isn't a good idea. "

  Damali just began walking and didn't speak until they were several yards away from the house. She then began kicking sand as she walked along the shoreline, wanting to be well out of earshot of the team when Carlos started yelling. The man would go off. Correction. Herhusband would go off.

  "Baby," she said, putting her hands behind her back as she kept her eyes on the ground and continued walking farther from the house. "See, what had happened was. . . uhmm. . . remember that thing with Cain?"

  Carlos stopped walking. "Yeah. That motherfucker try to contact you while you was out here alone?" "Not exactly. " She peered up at him.

  "How exactly?" Carlos said, folding his arms over his chest and glaring at her.

  Damali sighed. "Remember I love you when I tell you what I'm about to tell you. " "What happened?"

  Damali took a deep breath and then began her rapid-fire explana�tion while wildly gesturing with her hands.

  "Cain busted out of Nod with Lilith's help and went to Hell and took his father's throne, and he's now the new Chairman and may have cut a deal with Satan, and since he's a hybrid, he can do daylight and can make babies, but he also took a teeny, weeny, sip of blood from me-that time, you remember when you said it was cool, so when he sat in the throne, he got a rush, had to eat, then he did Lilith in Dante's throne, that's all you were feeling, baby. Zehiradangra told me it happened last night while we was in bed, and uh, that's the rea�son you bit me so hard, like I said, baby, it wasn't you-there was a reason, and y'all are sorta linked, by way of both being Neteru broth�ers, until his silver burns all the way out is my guess, but the Chairman sired him and bit you, so that links you, which also hit Jose last night-'cause he bit the living bullshit out of 'Nita-I healed her a little while ago. "

  Damali gasped and sucked in a huge breath to keep rolling. She spit her words out like they were being sprayed by a semiautomatic, and they came out even faster as Carlos's eyes went solid silver and his fu�rious gaze began melting sand on the beach when he looked away.

  "Oh, it was bad, Carlos. Juanita, had blood-clot-type femoral nicks, but I got it all even though I was tired. She'll live, will just be sore. So. we probably oughta tell the team that this isn't a drill. Vamp Council is back in session, time to go huntin'. You should probably check on Yonnie, too, because if you felt it, then he definitely is in his lair losing his mind-we should just be sure brotherman has enough black bot�tles to hold him over. . . uh, Cain was younger and stronger than Dante, so all you brothers are gonna feel a big jolt from his corona�tion. "

  Damali sucked in another huge breath, her eyes wild and her hair practically standing up on her head. "So, that's what happened. Well, I'd better get back to the house to tell Inez I just want a salad and, like, eight hours of sleep. Cool?"

  "Do. Not. Move. " Carlos walked around her, circling her with his hands behind his back, a look of such rage in his eyes that it made her close hers.

  "I know you're angry and upset, baby, but-"

  "Pissed off at that bastard does noteven begin to describe where I'm at, D," Carlos said in such a quiet rumble that she wondered if the ocean had gone still.

  Damali opened one eye. The only saving grace was the fact that Carlos had said his rage was directed toward Cain, not her. Still, she wasn't ready to release her breath. She'd seen her man mad before, butnever like this.

  Carlos dragged his fingers through his hair and tilted his head, coming to a stop before her. "You mean to tell me that while we were on our honeymoon," Carlos whispered, his voice increasing in decibel word by word, "that bastard got out of Nod, did Lilith, and tookDante's throne?" He shook his head and looked off into the distance for a moment, trying without success to summon calm. "We're now double linked by what happened out there in Arizona when you let him bite you, is that what you're telling me?"

  "Now, Carlos, baby, you have to be rational," she said, backing away from him and talking with her hands. "He lost the whole contest and we got married, so he was apexing and needed some real bad-you've been there yourself, and uh, Lilith was available, since I'm married now," she said, flashing her ring as evidence, "and I wasn't nowhere but with you, right, so, what I guess he figured-"

  "Do. Not. Justify this in any way, shape, or form, Damali!" Carlos hollered. "I got a blood taint from that motherfucker through you?"

  "No, no, no, it's not like that-there's a lot involved and it's more complicated than-"

  "Than what?"

  Sand and wind were beginning to form a turbine of energy around Carlos, sending shells and debris in a stinging cloud around them. He had to calm down before he had an aneurysm. The rational side of his brain, the side that was currently frying, knew that it wasn't Damali's fault. After all the bullshit he had done in his life, and all that she'd tol�erated from him, he couldn't by rights go there. But the very male part of him, admittedly the irrational side at the moment, wasn't feel�ing the shit. The thing that was making the whole twisted scenario nearly impossible to process was the fact that he'd never brought any�thing foul home to Damali! For all his bullshit, he never had her eyes going gold from a were-demon-contracted virus, or dropping fang from a dragon nick!

  Carlos closed his eyes, fury spikes making him need to count to ten. He
could feel Damali peering at him. Her beautiful brown eyes were filled with worry, which only channeled his fury toward the real source of his anger-Cain. This time he'd gone too far.

  "But, I can explain how-"

  "No! Don't tell me shit," Carlos said, whirling on Damali. "Don't try to explain why his ass is crazy-none of it. You aremy wife!"

  The moment the tide lapped the shore, Carlos flung out his arm and a sonic boom hit the wet sand, sending a backward tidal wave into the confused surf. Family was on the front steps and heading their way in a panic.

  "Yo,yo, yo, y'all!" Shabazz shouted.

  The moment the older Guardian shouted, Carlos turned, stopping the family meeting in its tracks just by the expression on his face. "This is between me andmy wife," Carlos said between battle-length fangs, and then made a square with his hands in the air, sealing him and Damali in a huge, translucent black box.

  For a moment, she didn't breathe. Maybe she couldn't. She had seen him angry in her time, but never like this-at least not when she'd been the one in the wrong. She could see family nervously watching them through the blackish-silver energy seal, but not even the sound of the surf penetrated into the enclosure. Her heart was beating off tempo, making her slightly faint as Carlos stood in front of her trembling with rage, his chest heaving with sudden breaths of fury.

  "Now, let me get this straight, Damali," Carlos said in a low rumble. "This horny, apexing, gotta-get-with-my-woman motherfucker busts out of Nod, using Lilith as his crowbar, goes down and gets a power hit thatI feel. . . thatall my boys feel, and because I am unnaturally linked to his ass through a blood transfer thatmy wife did with him. . . a willing, throat nick laced with seduction all in it-a fucking plea�sure nick, I drop fang Onmy wife. . . in bed. . . onour honeymoon, and I can't shake his tie to me now until I take his head off with my blade. Is that what you're telling me, bottom line?"

  "Sorta," she said quickly. "But there's more to it than that, Carlos. More important things, and uh, it actually happened before we got married, 'cause, baby, youknow I would never,ever, in a million years go there-we were having problems when it happened, and baby, I love you, youknow that, so let's not go back to the past, let's look to what we have to do together in the future, and uh-"

  "Before we go to the future, such that it is," he said, now studying his nails coolly. "Let's look at the repercussions of what you just told me, okay?" He glanced up at her, his eyes creating unnatural warmth on her face.

  "All right," she said quietly. "Okay. "

  "Fact number one. Had there been no blood exchange between you and Cain, whatever his ass did would not involve you or me at home. It would just be a job, like any other vamp assassination, which I would gladly do. " As he stared at her stricken expression, a part of him mellowed. "I've done this type of shit, myself. Maybe that's why I'm so pissed off, D. Not at you, but at the whole damned thing. "

  Carlos shook his head and rubbed the tension out of his neck. "I know how dangerous it is. Remember, I've had warrior angels all up in my grille about some dumb shit I did, not knowing the repercus�sions. So, I'm not casting aspersions on you, baby, but I wanna kill this motherfucker in the worst way. You have no idea. "

  When Damali drew a breath to speak, Carlos held up his hand. "And, because it was your blood in his system and you are a queen, the Neteru Queen's Council's newest made, I am sure they are feeling some fallout from this. "

  Carlos nodded when Damali gasped and covered her mouth. "Yeah. Eve. His mother. He took your blood with him down into that throne. " Carlos walked back and forth and punched the translu�cent wall.

  "Hey, hey, hey," Damali said, holding up her hands in front of her chest, becoming defensive. "Like you said, you did it, too, and sur�vived. You sat in Dante's-"

  "Do not try to justify this! Like you wouldalways tell me when I messed up, it's time to face it, come clean, be honest about everything that went down, and then come up with a strategy," Carlos bellowed, pointing at her.

  They stared at each other, seconds ticking away like a time bomb had been set. He refused to allow his thoughts to descend into suspi�cion. Please, God, don't let her have actually slept with Cain.

  Damali's gaze narrowed slightly. "I didn't," she said, quietly. "I thought we'd been over that. "

  Embarrassed by her charge, Carlos sent his gaze toward the sea. "None of your queens was my mother; none was tied to the energy umbilical cord that never ceases. "

  "It'll be all right," she said, her calmness grating him.

  "I know what the fuck I'm talking about," he muttered, his tone surly. "Even when I was all vamp and on the Vamp Council, black blood exchanges even among the demon realms was disallowed, and ya know why?"

  "Why?" she whispered, already knowing the answer, but hoping he'd calm down as he talked.

  "Because blood is a carrier of DNA and life-force energy. So, if a vamp exchanged with a werewolf, let's say, that vamp would not only have a problem with daylight, but would be locked up and only come out and feed during a full moon. . . and if said foul vamp bit another vamp-which is the way of that world-then they, too, would be�come polluted. Works the same way in reverse. It would give the were-demon access to open season on the night, regardless of the phase of the moon, for as long as that blood was running through his or her system. That's why the old Chairman didn't play that shit, D. I cannot believe you've put me in a position to finally agree with Dante!"

  "Oh, baby, I'm so sorry," she said, rubbing her palms down her face. "That's why he didn't eat. . . "

  "What!"

  Damali hung her head and spoke in a soft voice. "Z said Cain didn't eat, I guess, or do an energy infusion to replenish himself after I left him sealed in Nod. . . and, uh, for seven days he was over there and refused to do that while he was apexing after a battle and-"

  "Oh, shit. . . " Carlos walked back and forth like a caged panther. "That's what sat in the Chairman's throne? And to add insult to in�jury, vamp for vamp, given my old council rank and his current one with royal lineage to Dante and beyond, he's stronger than I ever was in the Dark Realms. Did you ever consider that, given his age and his rank as the second male Neteru ever made, Cain might have even outranked me until he went dark, while he was in the Light? A moth�erfucker with a power-sex-glory jones like that, holding a half-tank of your blood in him?" Carlos stopped pacing and stared at her. "We're even, Damali. I've practically stopped your heart with my mess in the past, and this one, baby. . . damn. You had betternever say anything to me aboutanything like this again in this life or the next, Damali-and I promise to do the same. "

  "I won't," she said in a shaky whisper, willing herself not to cry. She had never heard Carlos tell her something so profound in such a forthright manner with the level of hurt in his voice that it contained right now. She was used to his old games, those old sly moves of his- but an all-out admission of how he felt. . . the man might as well haveblatow flat-blasted her.

  "He knew what he was doing, you know that, right?" Carlos stared at her as she kept her gaze lowered.

  Damali set her shoulders hard, planted her feet, and lifted her chin, her eyes meeting his outraged silver gaze. "Yeah, he knew what he was doing," she said flatly. There was no point in being anything but di�rect. "Blood is a tracer element, too, and carries a scent. "

  "He's coming for you. " "I know. "

  "Battle bulked like a motherfucker. "

  "I know. "

  "Good. Glad you know. Then get the team ready for the brawl. By the time it's all over, fifty-fifty odds you'll either be a widow or a wife-can't call the outcome of this one, baby. " Carlos walked away from her, shaking his head. Silver sweat from the angry outburst streamed down his temples, made his T-shirt cling to him, and had dampened his hair, leaving a shimmer to his skin.

  "You know this is gonna start the war of wars, right?" Carlos's voice had dropped to a warning decibel that made the sand rumble beneat
h her feet. "It was an excellent move on Lilith's part, I'll give her that. "

  Damali's heart rate increased as she watched Carlos's mind begin to work on the problem, instead of what she'd done wrong. But she kept her lips tightly sealed, lest she add the wrong bit of information at the wrong time in the wrong tone. Nefertiti's lessons were not a waste.

  "First off, I need to warn Ausar, if he isn't already aware, and my generals are gonna have to get Adam's head right. " Carlos closed his eyes. "Me and Yonnie are gonna have to talk, for sure. That brother is a sitting duck for a very bad situation that's about to bring him down. We're gonna have to tell the team we're being tracked by a heat-seeking missile from Hell with our names on it. "

  Carlos opened his eyes and glared at her. "But, for the sake of this marriage, I won't go into the details about how Cain can pinpoint us like we're on fucking radar. We've gotta move out while he's under�ground and plotting his next strike. The only thing that's buying us time is the fact that he bit Lilith, which dilutes you in his system, since he's gone dark, and after so many years being over in Nod, after what I felt last night, I'm pretty sure that he's working real hard to make up for lost time. "

  Carlos walked away, serving Damali his back as he took in two long, cleansing breaths. He loved this woman's dirty drawers, and she'd finally put him in a position not only to feel what she'd felt in the past, but to experience it. It was so wild and so unintentional on her part that he almost laughed. The Light definitely had a sense of humor-as above, so below. . . fair exchange was no robbery. He turned and looked at her. Nothing was coming between them, not even his anger about an old lover.

  Damali's eyes glittered with unshed tears. "I didn't do this to spite you. You know that, right? It was messed up how it happened. "

  Carlos let out his breath hard and came near her, wanting to hug her as much as he wanted to draw a blade on Cain. "I know, baby. But we also know that he's no fool, and won't let an opportunity of get�ting tail pass by for more than twenty-four hours. However, he is a vampire, and Dante's throne makes it near impossible for even a well-laid, well-fed entity to simply walk away from that. . . my guess is, we have a small window while he gets his head right. Ask me how I know. "

  "I have to tell the queens," Damali whispered.

  "Yes, you have to tell the queens," Carlos said in a weary tone. "You have to go to them and run it down all the way to the bone so your backup understands the gravity of the situation. Straight, no chaser. "

  Damali nodded. "I know. " She sighed as more hot tears of remorse filled her eyes. "I never meant to do this to Eve. "

  Carlos's shoulders slumped as he rubbed the tension out of the back of his neck again. "It's fucked up, but the whole part about let�ting Cain out, or hurting Eve, you didn't do. " He looked up at Damali and shook his head, the muscles in his jaw working. "Lilith lured him to you-knowledge from a connection to him still flows both ways, so I can feel it. The airwaves are her and her husband's device. She got him all jacked around and on a mission to get you. That part I can ac�cept. He made a decision to take a throne because he couldn't stand being bested by me-that's his old weakness, jealousy of his brother. You didn't do that part, he had it in him. . . and the bastard was empire-building when we met him. So here, Nod, Hell, whatever, that's from his father's side. You ain't got nothing to do with it. Don't take that on and go tripping about that while we all need your head to be right. "

  "Then. . . " Damali let the words trail off as she saw a new dimen�sion of her husband that she had never seen.

  "Then what am I angry about?" Carlos said in a weary tone, still staring at her, but now with eyes that were slowly becoming a normal brown again. "I'm angry that you let him nearly seduce you because you were so angry at me. Probable cause, regardless, that's how I feel. You let him bite you and carry your sacred blood in his veins and feed off that in his head, when your blood carries a beacon. You'remy an�gel, and your blood is like a supernova in one of our systems. . . can track it through freaking dimensions, girl. And I'm pissed off beyond-" Carlos stopped speaking and walked away again to place both hands on the translucent wall.

  He dropped his head and sucked in several breaths to steady his voice. "Damali, I have done a lot of shit, I'll grant you that. But Inever got with an entity because I thought they were better than you or be�cause I wanted to hurt you by going there. Don't fling Juanita in my face, either, because what went down with her wasn't me. I know that betrayal cut to the bone. . . yeah, now I really know it. But I'm not gonna revisit that discussion again as long as I live, Damali--just like I'm never gonna speak on this Cain thing again. " He turned his head, craning his neck to stare at her. "Fair?"

  Damali nodded, her voice quiet. "Fair. "

  "Then just like you had to get the betrayal out of your system, and get how you felt off your chest so you could finally either let it go, pack it away, or whatever, then I'm asking for the same courtesy. "

  Again, she nodded and spoke quietly. "Fair. "

  Carlos nodded, set his jaw hard before speaking, and then looked away again. "All right. Then, lemme say this. Here's what's fucking with my head, D. You went into that whole vibe with Cain wanting me to get messed up by it. Mission accomplished, sis. A part of me is still not right about that, and I thought I was, but him being able to send a throne jolt through me now that I'm clean from the old life. . . not in our bed. Not in our marriage. Not on our honeymoon while I was making love to my wife. "

  Carlos closed his eyes and his voice sounded like it was miles away as he spoke in a low echo within the box. "The blue-white Light of us joining in holy matrimony might have made him temporarily blind to you, but by him carrying your blood in his veins, his transfor�mation became partially mine. All that pent-up rage and raw lust in him flowed right into me and made me handle my wife like an ani�mal. Still fucks me up. "

  "Oh, God, Carlos, I am so sorry," she whispered, tears falling with�out censure this time. "Iswear to you, I never knew that what I thought was one feed bite to send him packing with enough energy to go home could ever be harnessed like this. . . or could ever affect you like this. If I had known it could have future ramifications, baby, I wouldn't have done it-not even angry. " Damali stared at Carlos's back. "I wouldn't have hurt my husband like that," she said quietly. "No. "

  "I know. That's the bitch of the dilemma. I know you didn't know and I know why he bit you, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I know where we were at when it happened. The relationship was messed up for a lotta reasons. " He glanced up from the sand he'd been staring at and drew in a shaky breath. "But now, as head of the household, where I go, what I do, is linked. . . Jose, Yonnie, and a whole lotta people in be�tween. I'm not talking about ruling anyone, I'm talking about my en�ergy has to stay pure. Can't get all jacked up. What if I had made you pregnant while that was running through me? Shit. . . what if you're pregnant now, as my wife? Would it be his or mine, or some whack combination of both?"

  Damali's eyes widened and she walked away to the far side of the box.

  "Yeah. My point exactly. That's why I'm bugging, 'cause it ain't about aborting just 'cause we don't know, is it? And it's not like we can find out, can we-even if it presents fangs, still could be mine, right?"

  "Carlos," she said, her hands shaking as she held them up before her. "I'll get Aset to scan me with the Caduceus, honey. I didn't know, didn't even think about-oh, shit. "

  "Cain isn't sterile, and is unlike any other vamp that ever took that throne other than me. We weren't using anything. Why would I think I had to, now that we're married? But his energy was riding with mine on the airwaves or vice versa last night. You wanna make a baby from a damned near vamp rape or the way we did in Australia?"

  She bit her lip to stifle a sob and then closed her eyes.

  "I agree. I liked the Australian method much better myself. How�ever, that said, this is the kinda so-called macho shit a man thinks about,a husband
thinks about, when his wife brings him news like this. I love you, Damali. . . You talk about cuttin' a motherfucker's heart out?" Carlos's voice remained a low, fatigued rumble as he glanced around at the sand by his feet. "I know I had one when I came out here, but damn if I do now. Was already wondering if our genes were still compatible. . . hoping we wouldn't run into a fertil�ity problem with my fangs, your wings, hey. But I was hopeful. . . we made a kid once, even while I was dead, so figured we had a shot at it one day. Just hadn't added in a possible third party by way of blood with us in bed. "

  "Baby, don't. . . " Damali whispered, his image becoming blurred by tears that dared not fall.

  Carlos pushed away from the box and came to Damali and touched her hair. "It ain't your fault, in total, that Jose is linked to me, or that Yonnie is, either. I'm not saying that. . . so whatever happens to them or whatever they do, you don't own that. I do. They'remy boyz. "

  "I don't see how you can say that," she whispered and went into his loose embrace. She held him tightly and pressed her cheek to his chest, her words becoming thick as she swallowed hard. "You were clean and I-"

  "Nah. Let's just be honest, all right? I'm as mad at myself as I was at you. The only reason they're linked at all is because I took a tumble into a throne from the jump. I became a vamp while you were straight, pure white Light. So, if we get technical about it, then hey, a little topspin from Cain affecting everybody through his link to me is another cosmic spanking for even sitting my ass in his daddy's chair in the first fucking place. If I hadn't been down there, he could have bit�ten you, carried your blood, but I wouldn't have been a vamp, or had

  any resonance off the throne for him to tap. I played myself, he played you, we both got played. . . and Lilith fucked all of us around real sweet. Game over-until we run it again. "

  "Baby, I'm sorry," Damali said in a thick whisper against his chest.

  Carlos nodded and wearily kissed the crown of her head, and then let the black box barrier drop as his shoulders relaxed. "Yeah. So am I. "