headed toward the dining area sink, yelling over her shoul der to the group. "Somebody open the windows!"
* * *
it took a few minutes for the group to settle down, and everybody agreed without any dissension whatsoever that the meeting needed to resume in Shabazz and Marlene's room - any room but the one that had the dead demon stench. Carlos looked at Damali, and she looked at him.
"You wanna school 'em, professor?" Carlos said, still seeming pissed off about his ruined Tims. "Or you want me to teach this morning?"
"Nan, I'll go," Damali said, hands on hips, but making a face at Carlos's boots. "Baby, you gotta take that down the hall and put on some sneakers or something." Jose and Rider pounded fists while Tara and Juanita shielded their faces with their hands.
"Please," Juanita gasped with tears in her eyes from the fumes. "He's already tracked it onto the rugs - let's go to our room, and don't come in there 'til you change shoes, Carlos."
Carlos laughed. "Meet y'all back in five. I tell you, I ain't feeling no love. I help kill the bug and now it's, 'Oh, Carlos, could you wash your hands before you - '"
"Man, stop givin' the group noses the blues," Damali said, laughing. "Change your shoes. We're out."
* * *
carlos jogged down the hall, but wasn't offended. The Tims were going in the Dumpster; it smelled like he'd stepped in a hot pile of fresh dog crap, and Juanita was right, the scent was following him everywhere as long as he had on those boots. But as he reentered the room, he watched the bug essence decompose in the sun. The claws and feet and mouth flared first, and then some of the green gook splattered. It burned the way vampire ash would. Much as he hated to, Carlos neared the bubbling ooze and sniffed, and then shut his eyes, grimacing. His old vampire capacity to know a blood tracer kicked in. Yeah, the damned thing had been feeding off Yonnie, then probably jumped to him, didn't get Damali because knowing his wife, she'd said a prayer before she drifted off or while he was down in the bar.
He stood, backed away, staring at the mess on the floor and unlaced his shoes. Yeah, he needed to warn his boy. That shit he'd picked up from Lorelei at a dark coven brothel was one helluva sexually transmitted demon.
* * *
"all right," Damali said, "we just saw it with our own eyes, and how many times have we seen mess like this in one form or another?" She waited, walking around the room with her hands on her hips. "No shame in the game - we're human. We laugh, love, fight, argue, throw pity parties, whatever, ain't nobody in here perfect." She let her breath out hard. "But that's why we have to have solidarity, one household, especially in the last days,
because who knows?"
Carlos nodded and sprawled out in his chair. "D ain't lied. I go there, get down, start thinking about woulda coulda, shoulda - but like my wife said, all that does is leave you wide open for something to slither into your psyche that shouldn't be there... and it's easy to forget to give it a white light jolt of prayer to get it up outta you once you've started to spiral."
"Word," Shabazz said, glancing at Carlos. "And Jack Daniel's don't help." He leaned forward and pounded Car los's fist. "Mighta come in through me, my head wasn't right." Marlene gave Shabazz a tender glance. "It doesn't matter where it came in, baby. All that matters is that we got it out before it multiplied and hurt the team."
"Hey, man - I'm sorry I went there last night," Rider said, looking at Carlos. "That's a whole scenario that pushes my buttons ... detonates 'em like nuclear warheads."
"I feel you," Carlos said, reaching over to pound Rider's fist across the coffee table. "No harm no foul, man."
"Good," Damali said, letting her breath out in relief. "Here's the thing we have to keep in front of us at all times. Family might get on our nerves, but they are not the enemy. That nasty bug we killed in there is. Stuff like that can have us at each other's throats. So, if we see a partner spiraling emo tionally, we have to support and spread the love - just like we would if somebody had a gunshot wound. I can't always do