horizon was the only place he could send his gaze. "That's a suicide mission you're talking about."
"So, you be the one to dust me," Yonnie said, opening his arms until Carlos looked at him.
"Put your blade in my heart and then take off my head clean - after I do my work." Carlos just stared at him.
'Fair exchange is no robbery, Mr. Chairman," Yonnie said, slowly dropping to his knees on the sand. "I'm not negotiating with you. I'm begging you as your line-brother, your blood
line, to do the extinction honors when the time comes scatter my ashes in the Light, let your blade do the job, be cause I've seen it make the impossible happen. It was only
'cause of you that I could keep Nuit and Sebastian off my ass and got a chance to interest Lilith enough to buy me three nights." Yonnie stood and walked over to Carlos, tears stream ing down his face.
"Pull it from my head!" Yonnie shouted. "Like old times, if you don't believe me." He yanked Carlos by the arm when he tried to look away. "I've only got one chairman! Only got one brother to the grave and beyond! I only had one crazy motherfucker have my back like you - so who else's six would I watch? Theirs? Fuck you, man, if you think I'm gaming. I woulda did this shit for you regardless!"
Carlos gripped Yonnie's arm in a Neteru warrior's hold and pulled him into a firm embrace, talking hard and fast. "I got your six, man. Blade for blade, bullshit for bullshit, we ride or die together - you hear me, man?" He let Yonnie go, trying to hold emotion in check. "I done lost Alejandro, Juan, Miguel, Julio ... the list is long. Me and you, we been places none of them ever conceived, man." Carlos shook his head, sniffed hard, and kept his eyes on the sea. "The Light don't even understand what this is - I'm like, give the brother a fuckin' break, but it ain't my call, man, and I been asking 'em every day, yo, but they don't seem like on this petition they hear what I'm saying, you feel me ... but I ain't step off, ain't do you foul. That shit been on my con science, man, like a brick. Then you wanna come and tell me you're about to do a suicide mission, take one for the team, and I can't guarantee that - "
"I ain't ask for your guarantee!" Yonnie shouted. "What? I ain't supposed to give a shit what happens to my brother on a torture chamber wall? I been there!" Carlos said, slapping his chest.
"Let me do me," Yonnie said quietly. "Just like you need to do you." He wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "I love you too, man. But maybe after two hundred years, you know...my shit is too far gone. So let me do something that I can say I was proud of along the way. How many of us get out of the vamp game, once bitten? Eventually, you gotta give the devil his due. Torture comes with the whole lost soul imperative. So, taking a page out of your book, and a hit off your old throne... hey." Carlos stared at Yonnie, stunned and eerily pleased. "You took my old throne?"
"Who else's, man? Come on," Yonnie said with a shrug. "Might as well give them something to really kick my ass for. It ain't like if I don't they're gonna be nice and leave me alone. You know how this goes. And, who knows, if I game hard enough I might make it past three nights double-dealing for a while."
Carlos nodded and rubbed his palms down his face, feeling every muscle in his back and
shoulders absorbing the strain. "Okay, man ... and I'll do whatever I can to keep both sides off your back - my blade, though, only used against the darkside." He stared at Yonnie. "I can't make her see you, or have a hand in lying about where she's going, if Rider asks me." Yonnie shook his head and held up his hand. "Yeah, yeah, I know - you gotta maintain position. Even while chairman, you know, there were some things you couldn't do, based on position ... wouldn't seem right. Sends the wrong message."
"Exactly, and stop working me in broken Dananu"
They both looked at each other and smiled.
"But on the real," Carlos said, his smile fading.