The Hunted

by L. A. Banks

  Fists clenched tight at the Amazon’s sides as she nodded. “Never would I surrender . . . you don’t know what they did.”

  “Don’t surrender,” Damali told her. “Keep fighting—from the right side, though, my sister.”

  A flicker of green came back, the Amazon’s eyes narrowed, and Damali tensed again.

  “What hold do they have over him? What would a man who’s tasted the sheer power of the sixth realm care that his soul was hostage? All souls are hostage to oppression, topside, as long as our people aren’t free! His soul was in bondage by humans already!” The Amazon paced in an agitated line between her snarling were-jaguar demons behind her and a cavern tunnel. “Besides, if his soul is in Purgatory, it is untouchable even by the vampires! He would not care what Vlak said, if he had a redemption option. He could die with honor, then. You lie!”

  The battle-ax left the Amazon’s hand so fast, and with so much force as the sun dipped beneath the horizon that Damali couldn’t even take a sip of air. The move she’d seen Kamal execute became one with Damali’s consciousness. The response was not thought, it was cellular encryption that connected with her legs, bending her knees, dropping her a millimeter from the ground, flexing back her injured spine with a shard of pain to avoid the weapon that waddled in a blur past her breasts, chin, forehead, eyes and became lodged in the mountain wall.

  Up fast, Damali spoke quickly to the unarmed, but seemingly more dangerous demon. “All that you say is true, but you forgot one variable.”

  “What?” The Amazon crouched low, like she would transform into a jaguar to even the odds of having lost her weapon.

  “Me!” Damali shouted, her voice ringing in the mountainside cavern. In an act of frustration, foolish for battle, she opened her arms, almost like an act of surrender.

  “Me, damn it,” Damali repeated, losing her battle cool. “Me. Look and see for yourself. That’s the only reason Vlak got to him. Me! That’s the only reason he agreed. The only reason he fought to get out of the tunnels. Me. The man crawled across the desert and starved for three days, bitch, for me!”

  The Amazon’s entire were-jag team transformed into human form and studied Damali’s eyes; all searching to be sure there was no fraud.

  “Me!” Damali was now yelling, rage filtering through her, pumping adrenaline so hard her ears rang. “I branded him—me. The only reason he can see the edge of daylight is because of me! I’ve kept him on the edge of the light—me!” she exclaimed, slapping the center of her chest with one hand, leveling her sword with the other. “Don’t tell me I’m a liar. Look in my eyes. You see for yourself. When you are down in that lair, the old bastard will be near to bleed the daylight access from the body that comes out of the point. Carlos. The only reason Carlos would allow some shit like that is because, to him, I’m worth it! The brother doesn’t even care about his own soul! Get to that!”

  Damali stepped closer. “Why would a master vampire submit to such rank humiliation? Why would he care to do his atonement? Huh! Me—because he loved me before he died, was turned with a prayer—my prayer—in his heart, and ya’ll can’t do shit with that, but digit!”

  Both sides became still. The Amazon stared at Damali for what seemed like a long time. “They won’t rob me twice,” she whispered, transformed, and took a running lunge at Damali before Damali could even raise her sword.

  But the creature’s leap and angle was just above Damali’s shoulder. To avoid the contact, Damali went down hard on one knee, anticipating the leverage she’d need when the creature doubled back for the second lunge. The guardians were poised to protect against the other demons from entering the combat, but when the demons began stalking in Damali’s direction, nobody fired.

  Damali’s gaze shot to her team, whose weapons weren’t sounding, then toward the jaguars that passed her, as she spun quickly to see the position of the Amazon. She immediately jumped back, her heart skipping a beat, as she stared at the gruesome sight.

  The Amazon’s head had been severed by her own leap toward the entity she most wanted to destroy—Counselor Vlak. As he fully materialized, the were-jaguar had become enraged and airborne. Unwittingly he stood in front of the mountain cavern, blocking the blade, sidestepping the lunge, accidentally allowing the Amazon to take the impact.

  “Stupid!” He was spitting and hissing, holding the head.

  Timing was everything. Damali studied his countenance. He was definitely not trying to kill her. It was simply a matter of time and placement, where he’d materialized. Then again? She smiled. There were unseen forces on both sides shifting the balance, always. But where was Carlos?

  “You foolish bitch!” he shrieked, walking in a trail of black smoke, talking to the decapitated head. “You’ve ruined everything!”

  The other were-jaguars rumbled their complaint in low growls, stalking, circling, distracting the old vampire with snarls and hisses, but still not bold enough to rush one as old as Vlak.

  Anoint da queen were-jag, quickly, Mar, Kamal whispered in thought to the other seer. Weapons aren’t firing because of the master vamp’s psychic hold. But send the Amazon team to ascension with a prayer. Remember, you must cut off the head of the hydra. This one is anchored by a Neteru’s essence and won’t incinerate—so seal it with prayers to get da deceived Amazons to rest to go to the light. Take that ripe Neteru scent out of the air before the young male vampire shows up.

  Damali heard the thought transmission, and knew the old counselor would only be oblivious for a few seconds while he ranted about his lost cause, so she set up a distraction. “Too bad, but seven years from now, me and you? How about it?” Damali walked a wide circle, laughing as she glimpsed Marlene from the corner of her eye.

  Counselor Vlak sneered at her. “You think that you have won this little escapade, but now I have no reason not to turn Rivera in and destroy him. In fact, if I call up a squadron of messengers right now, we could all end this in the jungle.” The old creature made a tent with his fingers before his face and chuckled, shaking his head. “We can make your life a living Hell until we need you seven years from now.”

  “Possibly,” Damali said, trying to remain cool. “But that’s a lot of explaining to do, especially if the Vampire Council finds out about the Amazon.”

  She walked, holding Vlak’s stare, showing him what she knew. “Mr. Counselor, honestly. Holding back on product from the Vampire Council—hiding ripened Neteru scent in a demon on level five, and in the Amazon?”

  Damali clucked her tongue, enjoying torturing him as his beady red eyes narrowed. She could tell he was momentarily trapped; however, with an old master this shrewd, being caught in his own web of deception wouldn’t last long. But more important than indulging in twisting the blade of her tongue in his temporary wound, she needed to stall long enough for Marlene to do her thing. Fie was also being disoriented by the demon’s scent; she’d use that, too.

  “And, you’d better not kill me—because then you’ll have to wait a thousand years to get some, baby. Then, again, you think after this fiasco that the light is gonna make another Neteru anytime soon? Hmmm . . . Didn’t you all have to wait like three thousand years, at one point in history? You know they work with the number three in Heaven—already sent her, Nzinga, and me way ahead of schedule . . .” She shot him a glare of pure contempt. “Ya blew your trinity, brother. They’ll make your asses wait three thousand, my bet, for a shot at the title again.” She paused for effect, watching the old vampire hesitate. “Hurt any of my people, I will literally fall on my sword . . . but not before I let the old boys know what you did.” She watched the threat sink in.

  “Kill yourself, and you won’t ascend,” he said, trying to recover, but his voice didn’t have the same arrogant ring of authority in it.

  “True . . . but I won’t be on level six. I may be on level one as a disembodied spirit. Perhaps on level two and manifest as a poltergeist. I’ll be a lost soul, some crazy Neteru chick who committed an unthinkable act and died of
a broken heart. But rest assured I’ll have a prayer in my heart when I go. And all I know is, you guys won’t have me . . . and that will really piss off the chairman.” She looked at him hard, no fraud in her tone. “Try me. Love will make you act stupid.”

  Marlene’s lips continued to move and the head of the dead female were-jaguar began to smolder on the ground. The old vampire screeched, and sent a bolt of electrified fury toward Marlene, but the protective crystal breastplate she wore reflected it and sent it back to him. Seconds mattered. His semidisoriented state had been their salvation.

  As the old master fell to the dirt beside the severed head, Big Mike tossed Damali a holy-water vile, and she caught it quickly. Vlak raised his hand to send a dark arc toward Damali, and as he moved, the were-jaguar demons nearby rushed him. Damali cast the vile hard, smashing it at the head of the creature next to Vlak.

  Blue flames covered and spread from the incinerating head. Vlak’s robes combusted on contact with the edge of the holy water’s band of flame. Thick, black clouds plumed around him. But through the blackness, eleven white beams of energy immediately shot up—connecting to a single, wide amethyst beam of light that met them.

  “The ancient Neteru collects her team . . .” Marlene’s voice trailed off in awe.

  Despite the majesty of the event, Damali didn’t waste time while Vlak was deconstructing. His awful, screeching cries made the audio-sensitive guardians stoop and cover their ears.

  It was not about leaving Vlak’s end up to chance. Damali knew that with a vampire that old, one could never be too sure. Madame Isis raised, she looked Vlak dead in the eyes for just a second, added a smile, and plunged the Isis with her full weight behind it. “Rest in peace!”

  She jumped back, hearing the high whine of energy gathering—then covered her head for the boom. The team was knocked off their feet from Vlak’s body explosion, splattered with ash, and left coughing and sputtering as they stood up quickly.

  “Blow the lair,” she told Big Mike, snatching the Amazon’s battle-ax out of the slit cavern wall. “Holy water this area down! Remove all traces of ripening Neteru in the air!”

  Damali was running, helping people to their feet. “We gotta get out of here before they send up a search party—you don’t just nuke a council-level vamp and not expect them to check it out! C’mon! And the level-five demons that were supposed to witness this ritual—to be sure their interests were protected, will come up through the lair breach . . . it’s gotta be in their zone. We ain’t outta the jungle yet! Let’s move!”

  “What are you saying?” The chairman screeched, leaning over the Vampire Council’s table. “You and Counselor Vlak may have your differences, but he is still a ranking—”

  “Look at me,” Carlos said, breathing hard, his eyes set hard. “Do I look normal?”

  A murmur went through the three seated council members.

  “Where would I get a hit of ripened Neteru? I had international couriers with me! Look in my eyes—see for yourself!”

  Three sets of cool, steely eyes gripped Carlos, and he could feel his stomach move and a sharp pain enter his intestines, dropping him to his knees before the council.

  “Your charges are beyond sheer arrogance, it’s pure hubris that has possessed you! I will rip out your gizzards and feed upon them myself,” the old chairman warned. “If I sense duplicity . . .”

  “Damali is out of phase, but you’ve got a level-five breach,” he panted. “Our Neteru in a demon hot zone, and one senior council member about to turn a five-hundred-year-old, risen-demon, Amazon warrior, a trained Neteru guardian fighter, on her—then start a new empire with her.”

  “How can that be?” the chairman said, running his bony hand over his chin, but releasing Carlos from the painful hold. “There was no Neteru before Nzinga within the five-hundred-year range . . .”

  The chairman’s voice trailed off as he realized he gave Carlos too much information—highly guarded data only known at throne level. Carlos didn’t blink, but the fact that it wasn’t just an early sent Amazon Neteru, or Damali in the equation, another Neteru had been sent, too . . . all within a very short period of time. A trinity of them? And that info was so guarded that only old council seats knew? No wonder Nuit was so frantic to claim Damali. It was more than just daylight access, or even world domination. The last one bridged the millennium, and anything that created daylight capacities in the demon realms in this era was . . . they might try to rush even Heaven. These bastards were crazy. Oh, shit it was on. The Armageddon.

  “All of this is speculation,” the chairman said, coolly recovering. “Even if your claims about this demon are correct, her womb is dead.”

  Carlos nodded, standing with effort, using the seconds to work on his game. “She’s got daylight—he’s risking to do a black blood excha—”

  “Never . . .”

  Carlos nodded. “Supernatural law; the demons tricked the Neteru’s mother-seer, the mother-seer is doing time for the crime. But she wants out bad. She came to Vlak with a proposal after she became a were-demon, and Vlak saw an opening.” He looked at the chairman hard. “You think he’s out searching for my soul, don’t you? Well, last night he came to see me just before dawn to strip my ass of pride and to get me to go against you. He’s known where my soul is all along.”

  When the chairman didn’t immediately answer, Carlos pressed on. “He sent his twisted demon bitch to my lair to pollute the perimeter with her hijacked scent during the day while he and I both slept. He’s smart enough to stay away from it; is probably lying low and told her not to trail it into the mating dens . . . but when I woke up, it hit me. It leads a trail right to her dens, but probably not in it, where Vlak will be to ensure the exchange goes down right.”

  “Impossible. How did you break away from the trail?” the chairman said with fury in his eyes, but his tone not quite as sure as it had been. “If it was ripened Neteru . . .”

  “The demon’s batch is synthetic product, tainted, not as strong as the pure stuff. Its will-polluting effect is only temporary—like a quick rush . . . leaves you high, but not totally stupid-blitzed. That’s what gave me a half-ounce of common sense to pull up from the trail and come here, first, to report in.” Carlos opened his arms wide; the old men were wasting time and frustration was drilling a hole in his brain. “But you’d better kill me now if you think I’m not going back topside tonight.”

  The chairman’s gaze narrowed. “I assure you we can accommodate your request here in chambers.”

  “What part about this don’t you get?” he said louder than advisable. “Damali is out of phase, and you know that—which means I had to get this contraband from somewhere!” Carlos paused, trying to regain enough control to sound respectful—but if the old vamps didn’t know for sure about the demon, had only heard rumors and only Vlak had solid proof . . . something happened at the borders of Purgatory . . . the forces of light had to be losing strength against evil on the planet. Now he understood the Covenant’s haste and need to make every soul count, better understood his position in the equation, too. Very interesting . . .

  “If I go back up and take another hit, Mr. Chairman, I could abort the whole mission by accidentally destroying our cargo because this is in my system. If the demon ain’t around, I could hemorrhage Damali or kill her, if she gets in between me and whatever’s trailing false Neteru, you know the outcome. The demon plans to double-cross Vlak and come out of the fusion then whack our vessel, or set me up to do it, so that she’s die sole source of the daylight option. When I thought she was one of us, I did a mind lock with her, messing around . . . I went back in high—trust me, I’m much stronger than her under these conditions.”

  Renewed rage entered Carlos as the old men at the council table simply stared at him. The look of outright shock on the chairman’s face helped Carlos build his case.

  “Vlak is so stupid and so desperate for power that he doesn’t see it! He not only betrayed us, but he’s put our package in j
eopardy, if his twisted plan fails.” Carlos rubbed his face with both hands. “I need something to come down, man, before I go topside again.” It was the stone-cold truth. His hands were shaking. “I’ve gotta get Damali out of harm’s way for the empire. I need your help. Stop fucking with me and let me do my job.”

  The council ignored Carlos for a moment and conferred.

  “Vlak would take such a risk, at his age?” the chairman asked evenly. “He would need insurance.” His gaze narrowed on Carlos. “Wouldn’t he?”

  Nodding quickly, Carlos stepped forward, feeling the effects of Neteru rocking his concentration. Only the depth of his subterranean meeting was helping, but he knew it would be all over as soon as he hit topside—if they didn’t gut him down here. “Vlak has been lying to us all. That stupid bastard allowed my soul to get dragged into Purgatory!” Carlos forced feigned rage, which wasn’t hard to do with ripe Neteru in his system. “He lost mine! I’m doomed!”

  A bolt of red, crackling current slammed into Carlos’s chest. Were it not for the additional bulk from the ripened Neteru scent in his system and protective brand, his heart would be lying on the marble floor.

  Bending over, his hands on his knees, Carlos sucked in huge inhales through his mouth. His eyes were shut tight as the fire of pain tore through his lungs, chest cavity, and began to ignite his liver.

  The chairman had rounded the table with the others, which surrounded him. He snatched Carlos’s chin up, making the sweat that ran down his face fling off it. “Tell me why, a man with such redemption options, would be standing in my sacred chambers telling me about a potential coup . . . one coming from a council seat, from a trusted adviser I have known for several thousand years!”

  “Because I wanted the power.” Carlos could feel his jaw crushing as the chairman’s red glowing eyes went black. “But Vlak forgot a variable.”