The Hunted

by L. A. Banks

  “Sounds like a plan,” Shabazz said, covering a back window as the limo rocked with weight again.

  They were moving backward away from the tree. Shabazz squinted, trying to get a visual on what had them, in order to get off a solid shot. The team’s attention darted between the standoff before them and the invisible force pulling the wrecked vehicle away from the tree trunk.

  “Hold up,” Marlene said fast. “I can see. Hold your fire.”

  “What?” Rider put his left hand under his right wrist to steady his weapon.

  JL, Dan, and Jose had crossbows assembled and aimed.

  “I said, hold your fire! It’s our only way out of here!”

  The back windshield peeled away like it was a piece of paper, and two red, glowing eyes stared back through it without a face. Massive incisors opened and a snarl emanated from the creature. Marlene’s hand went to Rider’s trembling arm, and she held up her other hand to keep Shabazz and the others steady.

  “We will repair your engine and radiator. But you must be quick. The demons are upon you. Daylight comes soon—and makes our assistance limited.”

  But as the entity spoke, it suddenly burst into flames and disintegrated.

  “I can fire now, huh, Mar?” Rider shouted, opening a round of gunfire with Big Mike and Shabazz.

  A dart flew past him, lodging in the leather seat a millimeter from his upper arm. Dan released a crossbow stake, but it simply passed through thin air. Before them, the standoff broke into a free-for-all battle as the jaguars lunged at the hooded creatures. Horrible snarls and hisses echoed into the night air.

  “Keep that back window covered!” Shabazz ordered, tumbling into the front seat with Dan.

  “Shabazz, no!” Marlene yelled, another dart missing him by inches. “They use poison! Use the holy-water grenades, Dan. The crossbow arrows aren’t fast enough. They don’t work on the demons, and don’t shoot the vamps. They’re allies!”

  A blue electric arc shattered the side window upon Marlene’s words. Shabazz yelled, “Noooo!” his gun firing toward nothing, passing through the light that wracked Marlene’s convulsing form. The arc was unbreakable. The front window was vulnerable as the team scrambled to help Marlene, unable to touch her as the current riddled her.

  The energy that held her was as bright as lightning, and as her body shook from the jolt that paralyzed her, the team drew back, not knowing what to fire at. The energy receded, dropping Marlene in a smoldering heap, and an albino human female face lowered into the side window. Her light brown locks were woven with gold bands, and her eyes glowed green, her evil grin disfigured by fangs. She disappeared before Big Mike’s shoulder cannon payload passed the horizon of the window.

  Just beyond the side of a limousine another vampire guard was felled, disintegrated by a hail of silver-tipped arrows. Shabazz was over the seat, holding Marlene to his chest, one arm extended with his weapon, his body swinging wildly as he quickly aimed in different directions. A hooded creature jumped into the driver’s seat that Shabazz had abandoned, and when Dan raised his crossbow, the vampire slapped it away, put his finger in the ignition, and the engine fired.

  “Drive!” Then the creature was gone.

  Dan slid over and took the wheel; Rider jumped in the front with him to cover their driver. Big Mike put one hand on Shabazz’s shoulder, covering him as he tried to revive Marlene. Both JL and Jose stood up through the hole, using it like a machine gun turret, leveling crossbows at the misty night while Dan drove the vehicle down the street in reverse. Spinning fast, he wheeled the limo in a circle, threw it into drive, and stomped the pedal to the floor.

  “You know where you’re going? You can’t see shit out here!”

  “No,” Dan yelled at Rider. “But anywhere is better than where we were. Fuck it. If we have to drive around like maniacs till dawn, what dif does it make?”

  “Point taken,” Rider admitted. “How’s Mar?”

  Rider peered over the seat. His eyes met Mike’s. Big Mike shook his head. Shabazz brought Marlene’s limp body closer against his, and rocked harder, saying nothing, nuzzling her cheek with his own.

  “Son of a bitch!” Rider punched the dashboard and swallowed hard, blinking back the emotion.

  Dan simply drove.

  Sudden motion at the door brought Damali to her feet, crossbow raised, chin lowered, her sight on the target; anything that came through the door would be toast.

  Big Mike barreled through the hotel-room door first, an Uzi leveled as he kicked it in, and Shabazz came in carrying Marlene in his arms, followed by Jose, JL, and Dan, Rider bringing up the rear—backing in, his gun toward the hall before shutting the door.

  All weapons dropped, the team gathered around the bed, and Shabazz gently lowered Marlene and laid his head on her chest. The rest of the group backed up as they saw his fist slowly clench the covers around her. His shoulders shook. A sob caught in Damali’s throat. Her crossbow fell to the floor. She stood there, stunned, not believing her eyes. Hot moisture made everything go hazy, and her voice came from her belly, as she screamed, “No!”

  Fighting against the hands that grabbed for her, she pushed them away.

  “Let me at her, Shabazz. Please, ’Bazz! I got this, trust me!”

  Tears coursed down his dark, stricken face, but he sucked in a deep breath, stood, and stepped to the side. Damali pressed her face to Marlene’s chest and closed her eyes. Then she took a deep breath and opened her mind. Her hands caressed the crown of Marlene’s head, her fingers tangling in Marlene’s dense thicket of silver locks. Frantic, Damali tried to still herself, tried to remember everything Marlene had taught her about healing, removing dark-arts magic, restoring wholeness, breaking horrible illusions. She breathed slowly, willing Marlene’s soul to hear hers. Silent tears ran down the bridge of her nose, dripping onto Marlene’s chest. The smell of sulfur sent a stench of raw skin and acid into the back of Damali’s throat where the arc of negative energy had struck.

  In her mind, she could see the electric blue light that was darkened by a black, writhing mass of adders that it carried, their green eyes glowing as they’d entered Marlene’s chest, strangling her heart, trying to stop the flow of her life force. She covered their entry point on Marlene’s chest with both hands, her eyes shut tight, as she mentally siphoned them to her with her younger, angrier, more vital energy. She could feel them enter her palms, slide up her arms, and enter her chest cavity.

  Damali’s chest began to sting, burn, and sear her cotton T-shirt to her as her lungs became filled with suffocating sulfur. Her chest felt tight, her innards moved, consumed by a slithering mass that snapped at her heart tissue and soft organs. She cried out. Big Mike rushed toward her, but Rider held him.

  Shabazz began a silent prayer, his hands clasped, his eyes shut tight, now on his knees. Dan knelt beside him as Damali worked, joining in the prayer with Shabazz in Hebrew. Rider’s hands went to Damali’s shoulders and Big Mike added his with Jose’s, sending energy, power, prayers, light to the fallen Marlene. Shabazz lowered his face to the bed covers, his body shaking with the effort to control his tears. The pain that went through Damali’s chest felt like her heart was being stripped from it, but she would not stop. Dear God in Heaven, not Marlene!

  Pain made her breaths come in short pants. Panic ripped at her mind. But she held on, sending love, light, and warmth. Images echoed in her skull. She saw the thing that had sent the horrible dark charge. Her eyes locked with its demonic stare. Damali sat up, trapped in the vision, holding Marlene’s clothes in tight fists.

  “You can’t have her!” she said, her voice coming out almost in a growl. “It is not her time.”

  Damali yanked her hands away from Marlene’s chest and made fists, holding a part of the evil within them. She stood and shrugged off the other guardians’ touch for their safety. She knew it would concentrate, would try to pull back into one black mass. An eerie dark light swirled around Damali’s clenched fists as she opened them and stepped
away from the bed, then slapped her own chest hard, taking a small portion of what had attacked Marlene into her. “And you don’t have that kind of power!”

  Damali’s body instantly arched as the black charge entered her, and she tried to draw the negative energy away from Marlene toward her. The air around both women crackled with dark current, and a volt snapped Damali with a hard jerk as a charred filament threaded out of Marlene and connected both women at the heart level chakra like a snakelike black cord.

  “Toss me my blade, but don’t touch me,” Damali said, her voice strong through labored breaths. She didn’t even open her eyes, just heard her weapon chime as a teammate threw it. She felt for it blindly as she reached out and caught it mid-air. With one swing, she broke the dark cord connection that was beginning to choke her, then leaped up on the bed, one foot on either side of Marlene’s body.

  She placed the Isis tip over Marlene’s heart, and watched the dark filament attack it, leaving Marlene to creep up the blood grooves in the sword, cover her hand, and slide up her blade arm in a slow approach to her heart. That’s right, come to me. I’m younger, stronger, more vital, have a weapon. You want the group leader, the seer, female energy. Come for the Neteru. Her mind screamed at the darkness, baiting it, drawing it, Yes, come to me, she’s old. When the last of the black plasma had stopped coming from Marlene’s chest, Damali raised the Isis and began a loud chant of Psalm Ninety-One—the psalm of protection during battle.

  Immediately, the dark cord receded from her shoulder in a fast-moving, smoking, angry swirl back down her arm as though trying to escape the route it had traveled. The moment it hit the handle of the blade the black plasma sparked, ignited, and torched everything on the blade, leaving a green slimy residue that ran down the blood grooves when Damali lowered it over the side of the bed away from her and Marlene. The group watched it burn, turn to ash, then disappear.

  Blue electric current rippled across Marlene’s shut lids as soon as the last of the ash had vanished. Marlene gasped and arched violently, then relaxed. She coughed, wheezed, and drew in a huge gulp of air, then vomited over the side of the bed.

  Damali knelt and held Marlene’s locks out of her face, while her body continued to empty itself. An open sob wracked Shabazz as he clutched Marlene’s concert robe and buried his face in it. Damali touched Marlene’s face.

  “You learned good, baby,” Marlene said, her voice a hoarse whisper. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She caressed the top of Shabazz’s head. He was breathing hard as he clasped her hand, but had recovered.

  “Get her some water,” he said, glancing up at Mike.

  Rider went to get towels to clean up the mess by the bed, and the others helped as Shabazz just stayed by her side stroking her hair, dabbing perspiration off her forehead, and swallowing hard. Marlene sat up a little, took a sip of water, and spit it into the waste can Rider held for her. She took a bit of toothpaste from Damali’s finger when Big Mike offered it, and swished her mouth out, then shook her head.

  “Close one,” she murmured, shutting her eyes and drinking a full glass of water.

  Damali nodded, her hand went to her chest, and her voice fractured with rage. She was seeing red, little pinpoints of it wafting past her corneas, almost scorching them from the inside out. “Too close. This was over the top!” Damali picked up her sword and her grip tightened on Madame Isis. She looked around at her team, realizing that she had almost lost them.

  “Everybody else is all right,” Shabazz said, his voice hoarse as he stood slowly. “I’ve just never seen Marlene take a hit like that. We’re all right. After this, I’m done.”

  “Shabazz,” Marlene said quietly. “Guardians never run.” She touched his face. “This thing is—”

  “I’m going alone,” Damali said, sitting down beside Marlene and taking up one of her hands. “I will cut this bitch’s heart out. She went for my moms, my mother-seer—had my partner, Rider, almost shoot himself in the head? Got my man acting stupid? Oh, hell no!” Her gaze swept the group. “I understand ’Bazz’s point—it is too dangerous for a lot of members on this team. But, you know what? I’m so fucking done, if I get one of them before I die, that’s all right by me.”

  She looked at Shabazz, thoroughly understanding his position, and also could dig why her team was silently riding the fence, not trying to sway the decision to fight so that if something happened to Marlene again, their own consciences wouldn’t kill them—if they lived. Both elder members would lay heavy on all their hearts, if the shit got any crazier than it already had. She kissed Marlene’s forehead fast and stood and walked to the terrace doors and flung them open. “It’s on now, you whore!” she yelled, then slammed the glass so hard it almost shattered.

  Rider glanced at Damali and Shabazz, then cast his gaze around the room, allowing it to settle on Marlene. “I don’t think Carlos knows what he’s dealing with. He told us it was a female vamp. What attacked us were were-demons from this region. I was the first one ready to break camp and ready to go home, too. But my mind can’t wrap around a piece of this puzzle.” He rubbed his jaw and looked at Shabazz. “You should take Marlene home, man. Wouldn’t nobody blame you . . . least of all, me.”

  “I hear you, but, we’re okay, everything’s gonna be fine. Gotta pick your battles, just wasn’t ready for this one.” Shabazz’s voice sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than anyone else, but the group simply nodded. They could all dig it. The team was shook.

  “Marlene, you were right all along—Carlos doesn’t know shit. These are were-demons, girl. His ass is tripping, so don’t factor in what he has to say. The two that came for me—one as a croc, the other as an anaconda . . . right in Carlos’s fucking lair, his shit is so raggedy.” She stood and began pacing. “I’m done.”

  “What?” Rider had stopped her from pacing by holding her elbow. “In a master vamp’s lair? How the hell did they breach his—”

  “He thought she was a female vamp, and obviously didn’t bar her or her girls from his bedroom,” Damali said quickly, cutting Rider off. “The point is, I was in there with no Isis, a freakin’ brass fireplace poker, and a twelve-foot crocodile materialized in the stream in the bedroom—then a giant anaconda slithered out of the goddamned hot tub.”

  “I’m not going to ask about the appointments in these vamp lairs,” Rider said slowly, “but, uh, where was lover-man when the shit was hitting the fan?” He folded his arms over his chest. “This ain’t his style, D. Not the way he feels about you. And you are still valuable to the vamp empire. To them, you’re precious cargo, and he wouldn’t risk that; the man has two very compelling reasons to keep you out of harm’s way. He couldn’t have known about this.”

  “The first one would have been enough for Rivera,” Jose said. “Trust me on that.” He looked at Damali and his gaze slid from her toward the window. “He didn’t sanction a hit.”

  “Nah,” Big Mike said, looking at Rider. “Homeboy might have decided to take the vampires’ offer, but I agree with Rider and Jose, and I know he wouldn’t willingly put Damali in harm’s way . . . and demons? C’mon, y’all. Something’s up with that. He don’t roll like that. Where was he when they breached his lair, baby?”

  Marlene struggled to sit up and Shabazz helped her, as all eyes in the room went to Damali. She studied the blade in her hand.

  “Out feeding,” Damali said, humiliation coating her tongue as she said it. “Or, whatever.”

  “He was feeding, D,” JL said quietly. “Don’t go there.”

  Again, no one spoke for a moment, but Dan’s soft voice of reason broke the silence.

  “Well, it was Carlos’s crew that bailed us out, D. Rivera kept his word.”

  Damali nodded. But a rage so deep, worse than she’d ever known, threatened to make her scream. The emotion was so close to the surface of her skin it was making her itch. A war cry trapped in her throat mixed with the tears of anguish she’d swallowed and threatened to choke her.

/>   “If there’s been some kind of new alliance between the vamp empire and the strongest demon forces out there, the weres, then we need to go to Bahia,” Marlene said quietly. “We can’t run from this, or allow how we individually feel to cloud the issue.”

  Her gaze went to Shabazz and she cupped his cheek, and she briefly closed her eyes as he kissed the center of her palm and took her hand. She looked at Damali until Damali turned to face her. “He came for you when you were blind . . . you’ve gotta come for him now.” She hesitated as she watched the tears rising in Damali’s eyes. “Regardless, you and I both know that we cannot have an alignment that might allow these two entities to share power.”

  Damali nodded. “Vamps have mobility to go wherever they want, demons have access to daylight.” She let out a weary breath. “Yeah, Mar. I know.”

  “Then, we need to at least warn the crew in Bahia about what Marlene is talking about. Matter of fact, if they’ve seen something like this, maybe they’d have weapons for it, because we sure don’t.” JL’s gaze swept the group. “That’s freakin’ courtesy, folks. Imagine how we’d feel if another team knew about the whole Nuit thing, and just ran?”

  “That’s what telephones and fax machines and the Internet is for, little brother. We can get word to ’em. No need for a guided tour.” Shabazz’s eyes remained on Marlene. “The more I’m thinking about it, the whole thing is just too risky and my heart can’t take it—honest to God.”

  “I love you, too,” Marlene said quietly. “But you know in your soul, we’ve gotta go.”

  Shabazz stood and walked to stand by the terrace doors that Damali had abandoned and raked his fingers through his locks. Damali watched Marlene lie back down and close her eyes. She studied Shabazz’s back as he breathed slowly.