Berkfield squatted beside the fallen Guardian, instinctively placing his hands on either side of her head as Marlene slowly passed the now-glowing ebony walking stick over Dragon Rider's body.
"Her nose is bleeding, never a good sign with a seer." Berk-field stared up at Marlene as Quick came to squat beside her fallen Guardian sister, and the rest of the team gathered around.
"I don't care what you say, Mar," Damali said, pacing behind Marlene. "If she doesn't come around in the next few minutes, I'm going in." People were beyond touching one another. The guards at the shrine entrance lowered weapons and used gun nuzzles from their automatics to run up and down Cordell's body to be sure he was clear of firearms.
"There is limited food and water here," a soldier said, not allowing Cordell to immediately pass. "If you are not injured—" "I don't need to eat, I just want to pray. Bricks fell on my head and—"
"You are not bleeding."
Cordell nodded, his nervous gaze darting around the fearsome retinue of soldiers.
"This is why I want to pray. The way the ceiling fell, I was in a pocket. I got knocked out but not bloodied. My neighbors weren't so lucky," Cordell replied in Hebrew, beginning to weep earnest tears. "But I saw the creatures pulling my neighbors down the hall to the deaths—the screaming, the crying. I cannot get it out of my head. What are these things that eat human flesh . . . that murder?"
"He is an old man," another soldier argued from a high post. "He's able to talk, isn't sick. Let him through—it could be your father or your brother . . . and since we're all probably going to die in this Apocalypse, do you want to have it on your head that you left an old man out here to fend for himself against demons? What will you say to Yahveh?"
The soldier that had stopped Cordell lifted his automatic to allow him to pass.
"Shalom."
Dragon Rider sat up slowly, coughing as Berkfield wiped his bloody nose with the back of his hand arid the collective teams released quiet exhalations of relief.
"You really took one for the team there, kiddo," Berkfield said, dabbing his nose.
"Thanks for going in and putting my poor head back together." She lifted her dark sandy hair off her neck and closed her eyes with a wince. "Can't remember a thing I saw, but have a nasty headache for the trouble."
"You'll be all right," Marlene said, stooping down to massage her neck. "I can draw the rest of it out, but whatever you saw was for Carlos and Cordell only . . . just as well, because it might have been something that would haunt you for the rest of your days."
Dragon Rider leaned into Marlene's nimble touch. "Like none of the rest of this would?"
Damali smirked. "I hear you. Just glad you're back in one piece. We really appreciate everything you did back there." "Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?" Marjorie asked. "Hot flash?" Marlene said, joking to relive the tension.
"Comes with the territory, lady . . . but I thought it was me from helping with a healing."
"No," Delores said quietly as she brought Ayana's limp body to Damali and Inez.
"The baby is burning up. She won't wake up—she's all fevered."
"I noticed Delores felt warm," Monty said, "and then I went to go get her some water and it wasn't cool like before."
Inez grabbed her child from her mother's arms and held her tightly as Guardians got to their feet and stared at the steaming reservoir.
Damali held out her arms at each side, turning around slowly, sensing, listening. It was quiet above them; the hail, fire, and brimstone rain had stopped. She looked up. There was no breach at the mouth of the tunnel entrance.
"Demons can't get in here because of the prayer barriers, demon rats will fry on contact, and the tunnel is barricaded against the walkers . . . they won't fry because they aren't technically demons—just reanimated humans with feral, rabid qualities awakened within their dead nervous systems," Shabazz said as sweat trickled down his temples.
"But they can heat the rocks and earth all around this shaft and turn it into an oven," Damali said, watching steam rise as the water in the reservoir begin to bubble. "I've gotta get you all out of here."
"But where?" Frank Weinstein said, panicked, holding his wife closer. "If the demons have enough power to melt the rocks around us and our weapons are almost spent—where do we take women and children?"
There was only one place she knew of from her team's tour there before that was nearby, hallowed ground that they might not violate so terribly by stumbling across the threshold unwashed, with men and women and children all in one huddled mass.
Damali called her Isis into her palm. "Church of the Holy Sepulcher." Cordell kept his head down and his hands clasped in prayer as his eyelids fluttered with Carlos's strong mental transmission. The images hit his mind so hard and fast that his eyeballs stung and a piercing, clear voice filled his mind. I can't go in there without violating the cleansing laws and we don't need any variables right through here, Carlos said. Once you're in the cave, you've gotta sense for it. Can you make it?
I don't know, Cordell's mind whispered back. Can you use my eyes to see? There's chaos all around . . . the entire complex has been turned into a giant army hospital and refugee camp here, but they are monitoring movement very heavily. They're shooting walkers that try to breach the perimeter, and there might even be some in the cave.
Okay, Carlos said on a hard mental exhalation. Lend me your eyes; let me see what you see as you try very carefully to make your way to that side of the building. If I see a walker or someone coming for you, I'll pull you out of there. Trust me, if I could see exactly where the relic was without having to send a pair of human hands to go get it, I'd pull it in without putting you in this position . . . but that's just the thing—this weapon has been so hidden and prayer sealed that only a righteous human with a pure soul can actually retrieve it. Maybe that's also why Hern said to send the baby . . . but you can understand why me and Damali weren't even trying to go there, right?
I want to do this—
I told you that before. Cordell got up slowly, and continued his prayers aloud, passing military guards. Take over my eyes. Use my sight.
Carlos wrapped his arms around his knees as he sat on the floor. Tobias kept a lookout and covered Carlos as silver •filled his irises and his gaze became distant. Soon the two seers joined as knighted Templars, sharing the same vision, with Carlos's vision being slightly bowled and distorted, but accurate nonetheless.
"I'm in," Carlos murmured aloud, and then sent Cordell the same message in a mental barb.
It took Carlos's complete concentration to follow the scenes being sent from Cordell's mind into his. Everything coming to him was in a grainy stream of continuous impressions that was like watching a very badly
handheld-camera-filmed silent movie.
Pallets, bodies amid Byzantine architecture loomed like a sea of writhing, wailing misery. The triage camp seemed to go on for forever as Cordell navigated his way to the Dome of the Rock. Then the images stopped. Flashed in and out. An angry Palestinian guard halted Cordell. There was a flurry of words that Carlos couldn't hear. A weapon was raised. There was no image. Carlos stood quickly, ready to do a jettison, but Cordell's words stabbed into his mind. Not yet. Images came back. A weapon in his focus slowly lowered. Images vanished again for a moment. I can't talk to them or you and keep my concentration of letting you use my eyes—takes a lot of energy.
It's cool, Carlos replied, sending Cordell protective vibes. You take care of you, first and foremost. If you need me to pull you out, drop the visual and holler. No, no, I'm okay, Cordell shot back quickly. They said I was on the wrong side, but I said my wife and children were on their side. I told them we'd gotten separated and I just wanted to bring them back to where they belonged. They have so much going on, guarding anything or anybody is futile and those guys are tired. That's the advantage of being my age; folks always underestimate you and let you pass. Carlos's shoulders relaxed. Okay, man, as long as you're good. Tell you
what would be a big help, Cordell finally said as he crossed the large courtyard.
Name it.
If you see a walker, rather than jettison me and not get what we need—send that sucker into a tunnel or somewhere . . . you keep them things off of me, I can work on frightened human beings by using diplomacy.
Carlos rubbed his hands down his face. Done.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
She could not afford to have any members of her team accidentally shot by nervous soldiers as they came out of an energy fold-away. Damali kept her focus keen. Marlene was sent in first as her remote vision. Once the two seers were on lock and in sync, Damali tried to bring the members into the sanctuary in small groups jettisoned behind pillars, doing that all from the memory of their pilgrimage to the site more than a year ago. Before she could actually see through Marlene's eyes, she could only pray that things within the holy location hadn't been decimated and hadn't been overrun by the walking dead. Even worse was the potential of scaring some trigger-happy MP who'd unload a clip out of reflex.
If she didn't get the first jettison just right, she might have been sending her mother-seer into instant death, but they had to take the risk. Guardians were beginning to pass out, the baby, civilians, and older folks had to get out first. Guardians began clutching their necks as air became scarce and too hot to suck in. She had to get her pregnant sisters out of there as the floor began to melt shoe rubber and turn soles gooey. Had to get her Guardian brothers out of there to provide cover for the team. Had to not fall down on the hot ground . . . had to keep conscious . . .
Damali! Marlene's voice cut through the broiling oven around her for a moment just as everything went black.
Carlos's head jerked back. Marlene's scream pierced his consciousness and blotted out Cordell's vision. He opened his arms and his wife filled them, her clothes smoldering, her cheek and palms and arms burned where she'd obviously fallen against a scorching surface.
"Damali, Damali, wake up, D!" Carlos shouted, no longer caring if passing forces or spies heard him.
Tobias was at Carlos's side in seconds as Carlos laid her flat on the floor, turned his cheek to her nose, and felt for a pulse. She had one; it was weak, but instantly he began to place his hands a millimeter over her skin to take the third-degree burns from her into him.
"Freshwater, any you've got in the house," Carlos said, wincing as his skin blistered and took the violent injury from Damali's skin into his. "I've gotta hydrate her." Not even answering, Tobias immediately ran down the hall to honor the request, but within seconds Carlos heard Tobias's weapon report. It wasn't about waiting to see what had happened. Blind, frantic, Carlos jettisoned Tobias to the cave he'd seen in his mind, having no idea what had gone on in the water tunnel. For all he knew, the team could be dead, the water tunnel nuked by conventional weapons. Standing quickly with Damali half healed in his arms, Carlos was gone in a flash as walkers broke down the front door, came out of the hall, and rushed the living room, snarling.
"I want your permission to send everything we've got into Jerusalem now," Lilith said, staring at her husband as she burst into his private war room.
"And why would I do that, given how wasteful you all have been? After the heavy losses I have just endured, which could take me at least twenty years or more to rebuild Hell to its old capacities, you now want me to go into reserve demons before the Rapture?" He sat back and laughed in a low sarcastic chuckle, staring at the globe and making a tent with his graceful fingers before his mouth. "Are you not aware that if my demon reserves get depleted, our heir will be forced to rule during the Tribulation period at a severe military disadvantage? Therefore," he added, standing slowly, his gaze menacing her even though he continued to smile,
"I suggest you not give yourself over to rage and frustration, darling . . . and that you continue to be strategic."
"I have located and injured the pregnant female Neteru, and her team is on the run."
He picked up a goblet of blood and casually took a sip from it, giving her a sidelong glance. "Forgive my skepticism, but I have heard this sort of overconfident bullshit before, Lilith." He set his goblet down very carefully on the war-room table and leaned forward. "Produce a witness."
"Gladly," she said, fighting an openly insubordinate snarl. "Will Iddabaoth do?" Icy hands grasped his arms and legs, sending shivers of pure terror into his skeleton. The dark cavern felt like a tomb and as he squeezed the trigger on his automatic, the tragic sound of an empty click reverberated off the walls. Yahveh help him, he would be eaten alive.
Tobias quickly pulled a bowie knife from his fatigues and just as suddenly, dim light let him see that he was all alone in the Well of Souls. He quickly put away the knife and dropped the spent automatic weapon as he fell to his knees and began to pray. An inexplicable knowing told him that whatever had been trying to tear at him from the great beyond had to have been spirits protecting this sanctuary.
"I am not a perfect man, I have sinned," he said in a quavering voice. "1 admit that I fear for my wife, for my own life, but I submit to the will of God." A sound broke Tobias's prayer and made him look up. Footsteps creeping closer in a steady shuffle put Tobias on his feet in search of any small cove he could find to hide in. Every bit of military training he owned took over his mind as he picked up his gun, prepared to use the gun butt to stun a predator before his knife would instantly slit its throat. But instead of a walker or something equally as formidable, a frightened old man stumbled into the enclosure.
Before Cordell could draw his next breath, a strong hand reached out and yanked him against a wall. For a second he couldn't breathe, couldn't fight the gripping strength, but he still tried to free himself in a futile struggle.
"Stop, before you hurt yourself," Tobias said in a low-timbred warning between his teeth. "It's me, Tobias!"
Cordell stopped struggling and Tobias removed his hand from his mouth.
"You weren't supposed to be here!" Cordell whispered, shaken.
"I know," Tobias said more calmly, wiping at the perspiration that wet his brow.
"Walkers finally overran the safe house. I don't know how or why, but they did and Carlos jettisoned me here to finish the mission with you."
"Did that boy make it out all right?" Cordell asked, gripping both of Tobias's arms.
"I cannot say," Tobias murmured, and then looked beyond Cordell's shoulder. "I honestly don't know. All I know is that I owe the man my life—he saved me and sacrificed himself back there ... I heard him yelling as I disappeared."
"Then that's gotta be why I couldn't connect—the signal between us just went black and then nothing." Cordell rubbed his palms over his bald head and walked away from Tobias. "It just ain't right. It just ain't right the way the young is dying . . . the ones who could stand and fight against the coming evil is being called home way too young." He turned and looked at Tobias. "So, we gotta finish this."
"Am I not a woman of my word?" Lilith asked, surveying the Old City from their vantage point in the hills beyond it. She brought her black nightmare around to face her council. "I present to you perhaps the greatest battle theater of them all—
Jerusalem."
When Nuit smiled, she offered him an appreciative nod. "My fellow Chairman, this may have been well before your time, but I assure you that, as a man who appreciates antiquity and the finer points of war, feast your eyes on what can only be described as the true art of war."
She waved her arm out toward the sweeping, panoramic view. "The Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock . . . the Church of the Holy Sepulcher . . . the Tower of David—and we will siege this city like the days of old, when Babylon was at its zenith and the Roman Empire was an unconquerable force. My machinations led those armies into battle to grind Jerusalem under their heels. . . and we will do so again!"
A thunderous demon cheer went up. Vlad rode down the rows of his Berserkers, looking into the glowing eyes of his frontline captains.
Misshapen faces in massive
skulls leered back at him. Maggot-infested pelts barely concealed barrel chests as gargantuan arms lifted swords and maces, battle-axes, and spears. Huge Viking helmets gleamed with black static charges of pure fury as riders tried to rein in their nightmarish, demon warhorses.
"There will be warrior angels!" Vlad shouted. "They will open up Heaven to rain injustice upon you, but your reward is worth the sacrifice! The dark empire will rise again! Take the Tower of David as our fortress, lay siege to the streets!" Another rowdy cheer went up in a deafening roar. Nuit pulled away from Lilith to bring his mount down the left flank of the Berserkers.
"Master vampires to the air!" Nuit shouted. "Darken the already dim sky. Blot out the gray clouds in a carpet of pure night! They must be holed up in one of the three main citadels that we cannot breach. But use conventional weaponry from the standing human armies to blast at their edifices until they crumble to dust!"
"You three are on recon," Lilith shouted toward Lucrezia, Elizabeth, and Sebastian.
"As our warriors fall, bring them back. As the humans flee the destruction—poison them, hit them with contagion, and take them hostage until the Neteru team is forced out beyond the sanctuary of hallowed ground."
When the threesome nodded, Lilith rode off to the right flank into a dark void of nothingness. She stopped as the slow, putrid breaths of Satan's Thirteenth pelted her ears. She didn't turn to meet the colossal presence that dwarfed her nightmare and made the frightened beast rear, snorting fire.
"Your bidding, per my master, my queen?" it rumbled. Lilith took a moment to compose herself, narrowing her gaze against the absolute darkness that had bent to address her. "If the Neteru 'Councils rush in and if the archangels come .. . you are our nuclear option. I will not cede to defeat."
Damali sat up slowly as the combined teams gathered around. Five soldiers took note and rushed over, weapons drawn.
"Get back, get back!" the captain shouted at the teams, leveling gun barrels at Carlos as he slowly unfolded from Damali's body. "He has the contagion! Look at his eyes and his teeth. Get back so we have a clear shot!" Red dots covered Carlos's chest and forehead. But Guardian brothers stepped out from behind columns, and the distinctive clicks of hammers being cocked made the confused soldiers ease their arms down.
L A Banks - [Vampire Huntres Legend 12] Page 22
