by L. A. Banks
“Now you see our point,” Marlene said, drawing out each word. “But before, we old folks couldn’t tell you—”
“Mar,” Carlos shouted, pointing at her as his nerves snapped. “I’ve still got a lotta vamp in me, sis. Don’t say it, because all I know is—I knew what my bite would do to her, based on what you all told me . . . which was supposed to be nothing!” He glanced at Damali, ignoring her hurt expression. It was the truth. “And based on trust, pure trust alone, I let her do something to me that fucked us both up! So don’t stand on my property telling me shit, Marlene, but I’m sorry!”
“This is crazy, Marlene,” Shabazz said. “I never thought I’d want a vampire to get back his full faculties, but this is—”
“Fix it!” Carlos yelled. “Marlene Stone, you taught her how to do this, now teach her the reverse for the cure!”
“You two are inextricably linked, at the moment. Probably always have been, which is the other part of our problem, but I’ll deal with that later.” Marlene wiped her face and sighed long and hard.
“Aw’ight,” Carlos said after a while, his cool façade totally gone. “So though the exchange had the desired effect, it helped her, right? She’s alive. I just need you to break down what else all this means. How bad is it really?”
“Correct, it helped her live,” Marlene replied, her gaze narrowing. “But it’s bad. Real bad. The purge almost killed her because you are in her system at the heart chakra level—that’s why she flatlined, brother. If she goes into a vampire episode, even though she probably never died as required for that to happen, we can’t bring her out of it. The vampire state will have to pass on its own and we’ll never know the duration of it.”
“Why not? If she hasn’t died, there are slow healing methods—”
“No, Carlos. Not an option. When we purge, we’re killing, extinguishing the vampire in her and the virus is in her heart. So she’ll flat-line, not because we’re amateurs! So don’t you ever go there again. Got it?”
Fired up, Marlene paused, and when Carlos didn’t challenge her, but instead looked off toward the line of trees, she continued. “It means that no matter what you see manifest, it’s temporary, most likely. It means that if she bears fangs and blows your mind, brother, she’s no fully turned female master. Unless you happen to accidentally kill her one night while y’all are playing too rough! And it means that if you happen to get a whiff of my daughter ready to conceive, it’s placebo, and you’d better keep your hands off her and bring her home! She has work to do!”
Marlene walked in a hot circle, her face flushed from fury. She whirled on Damali. “The things I taught you were never supposed to be used under these circumstances. Are you crazy? The vampires have the bite, but we trained seers have something, too, sister-girl, and our Ju Ju is just as deadly, is supposed to be used under very controlled circumstances. Not played with in some house on the beach. I taught you better than that!”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DAMALI AND her team stood there watching Carlos’s back as he turned from them, waved his dogs off, and simply folded away into nothingness. It was the way he did it with none of his usual decisive flair that concerned her. But there were many things competing for her attention at the moment, most immediately was her family, most importantly was the missing biblical key.
Gradually, her Madame Isis sword materialized at her side. Again, it was in the way it had been returned with such resignation that, for a moment, she and her team only stared at it.
“We never leave our own,” she said, holding her head up high, and pulling the Isis from the earth. Damali tossed the blade and it landed point down in the grass at Marlene’s feet. “You keep this until you think I’m worthy to have it. But my mission hasn’t changed. I’m going to clean out some nests, as planned, and bring back the thing we need.”
Full authority was in her tone. It was a command, not a request, as she pushed her shoulders back and stood firm. “Just understand that I never left you all, and I never left him—herein lies my dilemma. In my soul I know that he is just as much a part of my mission as being with you is.”
Marlene studied the blade and went to it, extracting it from the ground with a sharp tug. Her eyes met Damali’s and a quiet understanding passed between them. She ignored the nervous bristle of the other Guardians as she stepped in close to Damali, turned the blade handle out and offered it back to her, waiting patiently until Damali accepted the ornate handle.
“You did teach me better, Marlene,” Damali said, no anger or apology in her voice. “That’s why I did what I did—I wasn’t playing. I wanted him on our side . . . still do, always have, and I wasn’t afraid to go where I had to go to reach him.” She gave Marlene a slight smile.
Marlene smiled, her finger moving a stray lock off Damali’s shoulder. “You scared us half to death.”
“Scared myself . . . still do sometimes.”
Both women’s eyes held a level of amusement that only the night could witness. They both turned back toward the team, feeling the group behind them growing restless.
“You coming with us, or what?” Rider shouted, his frustration rippling through the night. “Tell me after this you are leaving hombre—’cause, girlfriend, you are way off mission, right about through here.”
“She can no more leave him now than I could leave Shabazz,” Marlene said firmly, dismissing Rider’s question with a wave of her hand.
“It’s time you guys clue me in to what else might be affecting my flux,” Damali said, her gaze holding the group. “There’s some serious yang going down in Australia. I was standing by Carlos when his squad showed up, and apparently another master breached his borders.”
Marlene touched her face as she walked forward. “The sixth biblical seal is in jeopardy, baby,” she said in a quiet tone. “We need our Neteru.”
As clear as day, Damali heard Marlene’s mental instruction: Go find the missing key—by any means necessary.
Damali touched Marlene’s cheek. “Trust me, Marlene. Let me see.”
Marlene’s gaze opened to Damali, and images rushed into Damali’s awareness. But with that information also came a sad understanding; if the seal that matched the stolen key was discovered, Carlos would trade it for her life.
Now his agitation and stress made all the sense in the world to her. She understood where all the posturing and hollering was coming from—brother was caught between a rock and a hard place and wasn’t coping well at all. He knew that she’d give her life for humanity. The fact that he’d hunt down the key just to spare her, bartering it away for one human life, that in and of itself was enough to make her never want to speak to him again. Yet, she also couldn’t ignore the fact that he’d done that simply because he couldn’t bear the concept of her death under any circumstances. It was too complicated. Damali closed her eyes and let out a long, weary sigh.
“You know that’s why I have to go with him,” Damali said, her voice just above a whisper. “He’s scared, Mar. I’ve seen him go through a lot of mess, but all the bravado is about fear.”
Marlene nodded. “Definitely a male reaction, human or vamp, it’s the same.”
Both women shared a tender smile.
“Maybe that’s why you had to intimately learn about his world,” Marlene said after a moment, and then glanced at Father Patrick. “She has to go in under their radar as one of them. We’ll back her up from the outside.”
“This is what I was meant to do as the millennium Neteru,” Damali said firmly. “The timing of my birth . . . hey, we all know we’re in the end of days, so, this is it, people. Win or die trying.”
Father Patrick tossed Damali the small dagger that matched her Isis, and she caught it fast. “In Australia, follow the song lines of the Aborigines . . . tell him that will lead you both to a safe house.”
Monk Lin nodded and glanced at his clerical team. “In case you need to know so they don’t burn you, they appear like infrared, but blue-white lines, and stretch across
the protected sites like an alarm grid might . . . hopefully, you’ll never be able to see them like he can.” The monk sighed. “Make sure you get a map of all the sites with hallowed ground between wherever you’re going, and there.”
“What!” Shabazz shouted, whirling around on the priests, his line of vision tearing between Father Patrick, Monk Lin, and Marlene. “She can’t stay with him—one, and two—she cannot go over there and do a concert as a cover for an international vampire hit, dragging a master vampire with her! I don’t care what she’s searching for!” He looked at his team for support, and the other men stepped in closer toward him. “She’s not stable, one more nick could turn her, and she’ll be on their side and doesn’t need the Isis in her possession!”
“Set up a concert over there, Dan,” Marlene said flatly, ignoring Shabazz.
“Marlene, face it, the girl might not even be able to cast an image. The whole plan to go country-to-country dusting topside master vampires to weaken their empire and bring back our stolen property is an abort until she stabilizes,” Rider said in a defeated rush, gaining a nod from Big Mike. “Accidental stroke of luck on their side, notwithstanding—they won. They took out our power center—Damali.”
“No, D is still the Neteru,” Jose said, his voice fervent, just like his eyes. “Come with us, baby. Please don’t stay with him.” His voice hitched and he opened his arms. “We’ll make it all right . . . I’m begging you, D. We’ll keep the plan, as it always was, all of us. Just come home.”
“Even if she stayed with us and we flew out at night,” Big Mike said, lowering his weapon as his shoulders slumped, “we’d be flying from night into day because of the layovers and time-zone changes . . . she’s unstable, could torch on impact right in her seat on the plane.”
“I’m aware of that risk, so I’m traveling a nontraditional route, if I can get a ride.” Damali let her breath out hard, sharing a supportive glance with Marlene. “Which is why I’m going inside to do some damage repair on one critical member of our team. And that’s also why you all are going to have to have more faith than you’ve ever had before.” But it broke her heart to watch Jose slowly lower his arms and look away from her.
“See you in Sydney, kiddo,” Marlene said calmly. “Travel safe. If we don’t see you in a couple of nights . . .”
“We’ll send a rescue and recovery party,” Imam Asula said, glancing at the other members of the Covenant. “If you’re beyond repair, we will bury you on hallowed ground . . . or scatter your ashes there—either way.”
Rider hawked and spit, and even the clerics’ expressions held unconcealed worry.
“Gentlemen, Mar,” Damali said, looking at the doubts held in every pair of eyes, “maybe what I did was instinct, who knows? That’s what’s driving me now. A gut hunch.”
“You don’t even know if Carlos will go or still guide you to the lairs so you can pick them off one by one to eliminate the threat,” Dan said, his gaze fervent. He glanced at the others; J.L. nodded and Jose let out a long, disgusted sigh.
“Oh, he’ll take her to a lair, all right. But not to clean one out.” Rider sputtered in fury, walking back and forth. “In this condition, he’ll be setting up vampire housekeeping!”
“We’re supposed to protect the Neteru, but also assist her destiny,” Father Patrick said, his slight smile knowing, evolving on his face in slow increments. “If Heaven is willing to gamble, who are we to throw in our hand?”
Marlene kissed Damali’s cheek and walked away from her. “Let’s go, gentlemen. I think our girl just created something even Hell can’t deal with.”
The long walk back to the mansion gave her plenty of time to think. What could she tell Carlos that made any kind of sense? He had trusted her completely, and there were so many times she’d mistrusted him. He’d been up-front and had told her about what he could do to her, but she’d never explained all of that to him in equal measure. Truth was, even she didn’t know at the time. She was making it up as she’d went along.
Yet, what she was sure of now, just as sure as she’d always been, was that there was pure intent behind the soul-sharing exchange. There was no fraud in it, no trickery or guile. She had gone into his depths to restart his heart, to dredge up every abandoned hope and dream inside him that he’d ever had, and had coated it with every ounce of love she could siphon from herself. That was real, and it wasn’t a game.
As she entered the mansion, Carlos was pacing in the foyer.
“What are you doing here?” he muttered.
“I never run.”
“Yeah, I forgot.” His back was to her and his tone was angry and distant.
An eerie quiet filled the room, time standing still again in the balance between her response and his.
“Carlos, you do understand my concerns now, right?” She leaned on her Isis blade. “There is only one issue—the stolen key.”
He looked at her hard.
“I had a need to know not just from them, but also from you,” she snapped, her gaze roving over him so hotly that he turned around.
“Since you’ve been all inside my head, Damali, then I hope you can also feel the fatigue from my sitting up all day, worried fucking sick, praying, and beating my own ass about what I’ve allowed to happen to you.”
She swallowed hard and looked down at her shoes.
“And you should have also picked up how your first awareness panic while they were purging you cut my soul to the bone and emotionally bled me out till I had to come to you. Funny thing is, you’re in my system as much as I’m in yours. Now, that’s fucked up, when I’m the one supposed to be running shit. So my main concern then was, as it always has been, to make sure you survive. Fuck a key, if it means you’ll die—or worse.”
When she looked up at him, the tears that glistened in her eyes made him glance away.
“If we don’t find and return the key, all of humanity will get turned—or kept for vamp food. I just don’t want to live like that,” she whispered.
“Neither do I, baby, but I don’t know how to fix this. All I’ve ever known how to do is play the hand I’m dealt to buy time. Now even that’s running out.”
“I felt the hunger burn,” she said, her voice so quiet that he had to strain to hear her. “I’ve never been so repulsed or terrified in my life.”
“It’s a bitch,” he said plainly, walking to stand by a massive livingroom window. “And the absence of daylight, the taste of real food, everything you’ve always taken for granted, ain’t no joke. So now you know.”
“If I stay with you as a female vamp, I’ll never see my family again. But I want to be with you so bad, it hurts. But you also know I’ll do whatever I have to do to get the key.”
Carlos sighed. “If you stay in the dark life, you’ll never see daylight, your family, your friends, a lot of shit that seems unimportant until it’s gone.” He turned and looked at her squarely. “Believe me, I miss my mom, and Grams . . . I miss my brother, and my boyz. And I wanted to protect them all, just like I wanted to protect you, missing you most of all. But, hey, that’s my trip, my atonement for all the foul shit I’ve done.” Unable to look at her any longer, he rubbed his hand across his jaw, remembering the last of her touch. “Let me do at least one thing right, and take you home. You stay there, let me do what I have to do, and it’ll be cool. I’ll find the key and will work a deal. I promise.”
“No, it won’t be cool. Guarding humanity is my job. This is not something you can cut a deal with. You clear?”
Even though her tone was firm, her eyes held such empathy that he couldn’t remain focused on them. “Just promise me one thing,” he finally said, as he began walking toward the door.
“Name it.”
“Don’t ever tell a master vampire something like that,” he chuckled, his voice hollow from the soul ache. “Hear me out, then make wise choices, baby.”
“Talk to me.”
He closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure if it was the familiar line, or
the timbre of her voice yearning to hear some feasible solution, or the fact that she still cared enough to listen to him despite the circumstances, but the simple statement messed him up.
“If you die on your mission—and I have to say that because I know you’re so stubborn there’s no stopping you once you’ve made your mind up,” he said slowly, measuring his voice to be sure it didn’t falter, “and they make you a warrior angel . . . look in on my people for me, D. Make sure my moms knows I loved her and died trying—but just took a wrong turn at the Light.”
He would not allow the fact that her fingers had gone to her lips to change his path. He was walking out that door, going to handle his business and settle this issue, alone, once and for all. As for his fate, the Devil may care, but he didn’t. All she had to do was cross the threshold, and he’d transport her to the edge of the lights beyond the compound.
“You coming?” he said in a hardened tone without looking back at where she stood. “Since you’re siding with the Guardians, we go out side by side. No ‘in your arms’ bullshit. I ain’t got that much integrity, animal-predator that I am.”
When she didn’t move, he turned around and glared at her. “We’ve got a time issue, dig?”
He could feel her mind working, trying to absorb all his pain and make it right. “You can’t fix this, no more than I can fix it. Let it drop. Sometimes you lose when you gamble. I’ve gotten used to it. You want the key for your reasons, I want the key for mine. You’re ready to die for the cause; I’m not waiting around to watch that happen. Now let’s go.”
He waited while she walked toward him slowly, and then lifted her chin to stand by his side. Every instinct within him told him to never let her leave, but everything he’d ever known about her also told him that if he held her there, one night she’d grow to hate him just as much as he hated himself now.