your own team and if you shoot it, the little sucker will divide. Everybody stop, let it crawl on you for a second, and we'll pen it in with blue charges."
Inez covered her face, her leg bouncing but trying to be still. "Get it off me, y'all - like right now," she whispered in a faraway voice that was reminiscent of a person quickly be
coming deranged.
"Buzz her," Damali said, looking at the three closest Guardians near Inez - Dan, Shabazz, and J.L. "Three united on three. One ... two ... now!" The moment the tactical charge hit Inez, the defiant little creature bit Inez's thigh as it came out of her shorts, trying to burrow back under her skin and hold on like a tick.
"Pray, girl!" Damali said, her blade held tightly in her fist. "I want all of the little bastard
out of you."
Inez was hiccup crying and it messed Mike up so bad he rushed over, but Damali held up her hand.
"No, Mike, these little beasties are crabs in a barrel, hon. They move through a group real fast, mate, and multiply real fast, and I have to get the head out of her leg or the damned thing ain't dead. A new body will grow right out of her." Damali looked at Mike hard to get him to respond and spoke no nonsense in her tone. "I don't wanna cut her leg - you've gotta back up and trust me. Hold her hands and say psalm 91 with her or Something, but back up off me while I'm working, hear?"
"C'mon, baby, give me your hands," Big Mike said, trying to c oax Inez's palms away from her face. "No plague will come near my tent... a thousand will fall at my right side, ten thousand at my right hand, but - "
As soon as Inez's mouth began to murmur with the same words Mike was saying, the creature pulled its head out of her thigh, threw its head back, and hissed. Damali got it in the forehead with the tip of her blade and then grabbed the smelly loose skin of its back.
"Keep the charge with me, fellas," Damali said as she sneered at the squirming creature.
"Hit me with some city-strength juice for this nasty bug, Carlos." Carlos squatted and looked at the demon, silver heat making its skin bubble and sizzle as it squealed.
"With the power of the Almighty, I banish the demon spirit of dissension from my team," Damali said, adding her charge to its body through her blade as it lost its grip on Inez's leg.
The moment it let go of Inez, Damali held it to the floor and Carlos put his Timberland on its back.
"Crush it slowly," Damali said, pure fury in her eyes. "I want a name of who sent this." Carlos began putting more pressure on the bug, making it twist and squeal louder.
"Somebody bring me some holy water," Damali mut tered, her gaze never wavering. "It will talk."
Marlene tossed a vial to Carlos and the moment he opened it the little beastie began to scream, "Lorelei! Lorelei!"
Heather and Jasmine covered their mouths and gasped.
"You know her?" Carlos asked, looking up with Damali. Heather nodded. "She was second in command of the New Orleans covens ... after Gabrielle - but Gabrielle never approved her methods. There was a feud."
"She hid in Denver until we lost Gabrielle," Jasmine said her eyes frantic as she stared at Heather. "She would do something like this, has the skill. Tries to seem like she doesn't and plays dumb, but is more vicious than she looks "
"Thanks, ladies." Carlos nodded. "I'ma run this name by my boy, Yonnie, for more details. He needs to know what's operating in his territories, and definitely not get himself jacked in one of the brothels."
"Douse it." Damali rammed her blade all the way through the small creature's forehead and removed her hand quickly from its fat little body as Carlos doused the head and squashed the demon under his shoe. Green gook squirted out around its eight legs and anus, and then the whole body went pop. Smelly, sulfuric gook came out in a splat. The entire team made a face and muttered, "Eeeiiw."
"Damn, that was a brand-new pair of Tims, too!" Carlos wiped his foot off on the carpet with a grimace at the stench. "You know this is gonna be a helluva bill in here, between this and Mike's door."