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"Come with us!"
"No. If I come up with you, I'm a marked man. The televisions can't pick me up—but the Vampire Council can send a hit to do me right there onstage, if they think there's been a double-cross. You understand? I have one goal, to reunite you with your team in that center cavern, then I'm gone."
"But—"
"No buts about it. I need to handle my business. You are already handling yours."
"You could have bitten me at any time—why didn't you?"
She saw two glowing orbs in the shadows disappear and the reappear with the sound of a deep inhale.
"You have five minutes of juice left in the new battery on your suit. You could have toasted me and Nuit at any time, and gotten rid of both of us. Why didn't you?"
For a moment, she said nothing.
"Yeah, I feel you, baby," he murmured, his voice smooth, controlled, sensual in the dark.
"I need to find my team."
"Yeah, you sure do."
"You need to take the lead down here," she murmured. "I don't know the way, and I should probably stay downwind from you so we can make it topside."
"Glad you finally understand where I'm coming from," he said on a ragged breath, rounding her in the dark and taking the lead. "Wise choice."
A low flicker of light made Carlos and Damali start running faster. Moving bodies ran toward them, dragging wounded, and the numbers had considerably thinned. Carlos's line of vision narrowed, and he could sense her trying to see farther than was possible. Even with her unique ability, the night was his, and he had the advantage.
"Listen, D, brace yourself. There are only twelve standing, and not all twelve are completely standing. You started with a squad of nineteen. The reason we made it this far without incident is probably because they took the weight as decoys."
"Oh, no!"
"Yeah—but it wasn't your fault. That's their job… they're guardians. They have to be willing to lay down their lives for a Neteru."
Running beside Carlos, she let the remorse sink into her bones. No person should have to make that choice, no matter how honorable. Guilt dug into her side as the run sent a stab of pain through it. The battling, the stage, the run, were all taking their toll. The twinge felt like it was gouging her appendix, and she slowed her gait, and had to catch her breath as another shooting pain ripped through her abdomen.
Bent over, she heaved in air, and in slow motion, she watched Carlos stop, turn away from her, and growl.
"Get to your team! Now!"
She could barely breathe, much less run, and she pushed herself up and looked at the dim light that was coming closer. "I don't know what it is. I think I may have been hit… when I fell, some internal injury that just—"
"Get to your team," Carlos said in an agonized voice, but much softer. "Please, before they kill me. Run toward the light—I got'chure back."
Half running, half dragging herself, she brushed past him. Isis was making a line in the rock at her feet as Damali stumbled forward pulling it behind her, one arm in front of her waist clutching the dagger.
"Neteru!" the Templar called out. "Are you hurt?"
"No," Damali wheezed, making it to the border of light, her gaze counting faces, heads. "Roll call," she whispered, tears now streaming down her cheeks.
"Rider, Mar, Shabazz, J.L., Dan, Jose," Big Mike boomed, his breaths labored. "And me." He then fell quiet, breathing hard, as the blue knight stepped forward winded and exhausted.
Damali looked around as her assembled guardians each nodded upon Big Mike's roll call. All of them were leaning against portions of the jagged tunnel walls, trying to catch their breaths.
"They took the weight, li'l sis," Mike said while grappling for air. "Died with honor—said it was their job as front line. We're second line, and they held back things I cannot even describe. They helped us put down the guardian squad from our unit that had been nicked topside… so we didn't have to."
"Templar," Damali huffed, "we cannot begin to thank you and your men. There are not enough words."
"That you are still with us unscathed, Neteru, is all that we had hoped for," the knight said on slow, heavy exhales.
"We have to move, we only have a few moments to rest," Marlene whispered, drawing ragged inhales from the run. "D, you don't look good."
"I'm not." Damali winced. "But I'm not nicked. It's my side. I cut Nuit's heart out, after Carlos neutered him. But I think I hit a wall." Damali stopped mid-sentence, tried to catch her breath, and continued more slowly. "Might have some internal injuries. You're right, though. We've gotta move, the Vampire Council is looking for Carlos, and will flood the tunnels soon. We have to get back to the open cavern in the center and wait for a lift in a few minutes or less. I'll be all right."
"Where's Carlos?" Rider said, an odd level of concern in his voice.
"He left me, about twenty-five feet back and told me to run toward the light. He had my back the whole time—save one minor incident." She chuckled sadly. "But he's gone."
"He's not gone," the Templar warned, glancing around. "He's a master, and he's showing a lot of discipline, Neteru. Unparalleled restraint at the moment. If you can withstand the pain, we have to get you out of here before his restraint falters."
Damali doubled over again as another stab in her side ripped through her abdomen.
"Tell her, Mar," Shabazz murmured. "Once and for all."
Marlene looked at Damali and glanced at the darkness behind them.
"It's almost midnight—you were born at twelve-oh-one… and, baby, you're in the middle of Hell, and you just started ovulating—the first adult Neteru menses. It's a rough one on the human system, that's why it hurts so much—you aren't injured. You've gotta move, now, without us."
Damali's gaze locked with Marlene's.
"Baby, you can take a body blow, or a bite, and you can see in the dark… Read minds, and you are making him crazy. So, baby, run. We got your back; let Isis have your front. We're dragging wounded and will slow you down. You'll draw sharks in this cavern in the next minute or two. Run!"
"Run with me, Marlene—everybody. Or we all go down fighting together. We all go up into the light, together. That's the only way I'm going down that tunnel—as a team."
A low growl behind them made the group stop and turn fast.
"I tried to reason with her, too, Marlene. I tried to stay upwind from her," a low rumbled whispered. "Tried to explain what she was doing to me, but… she's so damned stubborn."
When J.L. moved a light near the voice, it was summarily flung away.
"Oh, shit… uh, look, Carlos, man—"
"Shut up, Rider! Go with her, if that will make her move. I'll watch your backs; you will immediately get your bloody, mangled team out of here. You're drawing more of us, and more of them to her—the longer you all stand and have a summit meeting in the fucking cavern about this!"
A section of the cavern wall gave way, and falling gravel and dirt made the team cover their heads.
"I can keep them from your back, but I can't guard your front," the voice said more calmly.
Heavy breathing echoed in the cavern, as the group remained still.
"Come with us, Rivera," the Templar said quietly. "You had faith that she could trust you, hope that you would vanquish Nuit… and love, or the Neteru could not be here with us, not without one of you being dead. Rivera, your choice is—"
"Move her, now, priest! Or I take her deeper into the lair zones. You'll find that choices are very limited in my world. Decisions are also swiftly made."
"Carlos," Damali's voice rang out, still refusing to leave without him or her team, "you'll be a sitting duck here for the Vampire Council. There's safety in numbers! We fought good together."
Two golden orbs in the dark disappeared and came back red.
"That cannot be a good sign, D," Rider said fast. "Let's not argue with the man. He's made his decision. He has serious issues. So let's get the fuck out of here."
"W
ise choice," the voice rumbled. "All of you need to roll. Quickly. You're between a rock and a hard place—me at your back, and whatever at your front. You all smell like blood, and I haven't eaten all night… and she smells…" The voice paused. "Fabulous. Get my woman out of here. I'm not myself."
"We get the picture," Big Mike murmured, as the group began to move out. "Let's give boss some space. He's compromised—and it's real cool of him to give notice."
"What did you say?" Damali murmured as she walked toward the darkness, and Big Mike put a hand on her shoulder.
"Her voice is running all through me… Baby, go 'head. For real. You don't understand this craving… yet." The red glow disappeared from the darkness.
Marlene and Shabazz glanced at each other.
"Uh, people," Dan whispered, "I think that's our cue."
"Y'all deal wit your shit later," Shabazz said, his tone firm. "We be out."
"Big time," Rider yelled as the group backed up. "See, that's youth. People our age only gotta be told once."
"Leave him, D," Marlene said, as a growl came nearer.
"He's one of us—we don't leave our own! I saw him fight back there. He fought like a guardian. He didn't harm me. He was once a guardian, too, and it may not be too late! Carlos, listen to the Templar and come with us—"
"I'm not one of you, beautiful vision . . ." Carlos's voice echoed through the cavern in a low, seductive murmur, bouncing off the walls, now making it difficult to locate his position in the darkness. The intensity of it made the sounds beyond them go quiet for a moment, the way birds and crickets go still when a loping predator passes. "Damali, raise your sword, baby, before you have to plant it in my chest."
His voice was rendered at such a low, sensual octave of warning that the walls vibrated from the sound of it even after he'd stopped speaking. Wisdom instantly assaulted her, and she turned away from the darkness to quickly usher her team through the cavern toward safety—but her mind was left in an invisible corner as they ran, and she glanced back repeatedly hoping what was in it would follow. He was one of them; they didn't leave their own. Running as a small huddle, they turned after a hundred yards when they heard a fight ensue behind them. Loud snarls and snaps and screeches echoed behind them. Damali turned to head back.
"Leave him, huntress!"
Reality jolted her and they continued to run, now in a flat-out dash down the treacherous area before them. Hideous sounds were advancing, a loud cry rang through the cavern—it was male, it was low like a mortal wound… it was Carlos.
"No!" Damali turned again, but Big Mike held her, shoving her ahead of him.
"Push forward toward the light. You can't help him now—whatever's got him, got him!"
She ran as hard and as fast as she could, helping to drag the knight's wounded teammates, helping Jose, her side killing her, the sound of a fierce vampire battle behind her stabbing her heart. It was a vertical thrust with no mercy in it, goring her as she listened to Carlos's roars of agony behind her. "Die with honor… but live with pride," she whispered as she raced. "Live!"
They stood gathered in the small, confining space where they'd first been dropped—the allied teams gasping for air, sucking in the sulfur, the putrid after-stench of vampire extinction. Guardians surrounded her in Templar formation; her team a center ring, then the Templars, and she at the core. Damali glanced at a revived Jose, who could now live, also knowing his loss, like hers, would never be erased. She briefly closed her eyes, the burn of the environment becoming grit behind her lids, waiting for the lift, and listening as the pathways behind them went still. That's when her hand found her mouth, and she looked back just one last time. What if… Please, God, even down here.
Things of the night slithered into the space around them, vampires, demons, all manner of creatures unnamed. And as her weary team drew together, surrounded, back to back, the last of their weapons readied to go down as one—she quieted her team with a silent prayer, and lit herself as a torch.
Ultraviolet light filled the space from her suit and fried everything in its wake that wasn't human. Billowing black clouds mixed with yellow and deep crimson, screams so horrific that the guardians covered their ears and a small avalanche started. Damali raised her sword upon a whisper… "For Carlos. Rest in peace."
It was not clear whether the subterranean disturbance, the timing, or the light jettisoned them upward, ejecting them back to the place where they'd first been swallowed. But her team stood firm, surrounding her—then fanned out one-by-one on an electric blue-lit stage with black smoke behind them, the Vampire huntress in the circle's center, all slowly stepping forward for the cheering crowd, her sword raised in salute to those who got left behind.
Media swamped them, the crowd rushed the barricades, and the team looked on as commentators thrust microphones in their faces… there were no words. Who cared that they'd brought the house down? It wasn't magic; it was a miracle, and there was no way to explain something as complicated as that.
Damali closed her eyes, leaned her head back, swallowed hard, and raised Isis higher for the applauding, cheering crowd… the refrain of a very sad song echoed in her mind. She tried to send it by thought to someone she once knew.
Remember before it all got crazy? Please, baby, don't ever forget.
* * *
EPILOGUE
Detective Berkfield sat at his desk, looking at the package that had come to him with no name and no address. The note inside of it said simply, The Jamaican Territory—as promised.
For a month, nothing, and now this came in the mail? He looked up as his new partner leaned in his doorway.
"Hey, Dick, I know you're brown-nosing for the next big promotion, but it's getting late. You wanna get something to eat?"
"Naw," he said slowly, holding the package in his hands. "I think I'm gonna hang here for a while longer."
"Why, man? You have to eat. You're gonna mess up your bio-rhythms, working all night all the time, and then crashing at dawn."
"Yeah, I know… but I got a funny feeling I'm going to get a phone call soon." Berkfield's gaze slid out of the window toward the blue moon. "Don't ask me why, I can't even tell you—just a feeling, is all. Next time. Be careful going home though… say a little prayer; works for me. Catch ya later."
* * *
THE LEGENDS CONTINUE WITH
THE
HUNTED
A VAMPIRE HUNTRESS LEGEND
COMING JUNE 2004
TAKE A SNEAK PEEK
He had to get out of there. The look of shock, relief, disappointment, and rage on Damali's face was working every cell in his body. She hadn't said a word, just circled him, staring, her blade held low, moving counterclockwise to him like she'd lunge at any moment. Her team was not his greatest danger. The Covenant team was not his greatest danger. She was. He needed to roll.
"J.L., hit the exteriors, all right?"
J.L. nodded, but Damali held up her hand. Everyone stood still, waiting. The room crackled with quiet. The hum of air-conditioner compressors created a sump-pump sound in the distance. A stereo was on somewhere in the compound. The humans had enough adrenaline oozing from their bodies to give him a contact high. He could see their eyes blink in slow motion as they stared at his and Damali's circling forms. The pores on their faces enlarged within his peripheral vision. He could detect the moment a bead of sweat exited their skin. His tongue glided over his lips and he tasted salt. The tension in their muscles increased, springs wound so tightly that at any moment they would pop. It fused with his reflexes. He felt the air, sensing for a weapon release. He smelled their blood, twelve nervous humans with hearts beating a rhythm out of their chests.
"I have to go," Carlos murmured, his gaze steady on Damali.
She shook her head slowly no. It was a millimeter of movement. Her locks swayed ever so much. The adornments in her hair and her earrings chimed. Lion's teeth, a tiny silver charm… Ankh fertility symbols created natural music at a nearly imperceptible timbre.
Her pupils had eclipsed her irises. Shea butter, almond oil—the scent of her was an intoxicating blend with something else she emitted… something different than Neteru. He'd smelled it on her before, but couldn't place it. Her face and arms glistened. The muscles beneath her smooth skin were a network of taut, steel-like cable. He could hear the blood pumping through her veins as she stalked him. She was gorgeous, poetry in motion. The crocheted white dress had holes that showed skin. As she moved, the dress moved with her body, barely concealing it. The fluorescent lights glinted off of Isis and sent shards of illumination against patches of warm, damp flesh.
He allowed his gaze to roll over her in a slow undressing. "I have to go," he repeated more firmly, his voice dropping an octave. He had meant it as a statement, but even to his own ears, it had come out as a plea.
"You talk to me," she whispered through her teeth and stopped circling.
"Oh, shit…" Rider backed up a few paces and leveled his shotgun.
"Shut up, Rider," Marlene snapped.
Damali's eyes had never left Carlos's. All she did was hold up her hand and her team went still once more.
"We should leave," the eldest cleric said quietly. "Before somebody gets hurt."
Carlos shook his head no.
"Oh, what the fuck." Rider threw Big Mike a crossbow, and he caught it, nodding. Rider glanced at the clerics. "I thought you had an understanding with dude?"
"We do, and it's time to leave," Father Patrick insisted. "If it's not too late."
The Covenant team backed up, cautiously rounded Damali and Carlos, standing the line on the side of the guardians with weapons raised. J.L. had armed himself with a battle-ax; even Dan and Jose now had silver-tipped stakes in their hands. Shabazz had pulled Sleeping Beauty out of her holster.
Marlene folded her arms and leaned against the weapons table. "Steady, gentlemen. Nobody get an itchy trigger finger. Stay cool. Have faith."