with it, caressing her cheek. She turned her face into his rough palm and kissed it.
"It has truly been a long time since anybody has taken me there, Lilith," he said with a satisfied smile, still slightly breathing hard.
She snuggled closer to him and chuckled. "Wow."
"Better than Dante or Cain?"
Her eyes were wide with disbelief. "Of course - are you mad? Their throne is in splinters." He chuckled an easy, satisfied laugh and then slowly rolled over to flop on his back, his wings spread-eagle on the battered floor. "I think I killed some of your messengers and a few Harpies. I'll do a body count later and replace them ... I was simply overcome." She slid up onto his chest, vastly flattered, and kissed him slowly, then licked the site of his oozing mate mark until he shivered. "Do not concern yourself with such trivial matters. I'm just grateful that you visited me like this after all these years." He nodded, winded still. "It's been too long, Lilith ... I don't even remember what came between us."
"Good," she whispered petting his huge, granite-cut chest. "Neither do I." Without looking over at it, he began gathering splinters of the destroyed throne together, absently mending it with one hand outstretched and petting her with the other.
"Pitiful," he said with a smile. "I can't even think it back together right now without using my hands."
She sighed, but then tensed as she felt his body become rigid. "What is it?" Lilith sat up quickly, her gaze studying his as he looked up to the ceiling. Her husband was on his feet in one lithe move, toppling her to the floor. His black feathered wings were wrapped around him and beginning to transform into leathery batwing membrane. His tail ripped through his back and he bellowed up to the ceiling, eyes beginning to glow. "Not fucking now!"
It took a second for the image to form in her mind's eye, and then she was on her feet with a screech. "My lair? They desecrated my lair with white light!" Horrified, she covered her mouth as she saw her familiar's multiple beheading. "My baby! My sweet, sweet baby -
oh, Lu, they killed my hydra!"
"It's all right," he shouted. "I'll, I'll... don't worry - I'm so enraged and fucking energydepleted, I can't even think, woman. Give me space! I need to eat, goddamn it - bring me some bodies, now!" He paced back and forth, leaving black plumes of sulfur in his wake.
"My wife's lair? Never in all of history - this is unacceptable! It is a slap in my face; the gauntlet has been thrown down."
Transport bats attempted to stir but failed. Messengers crawled forward, unable to stand. Lilith backed up, her eyes widened.
"Adam was with them," she whispered.
"What!" The Unnamed One's voice blew out wall torches as his size began to rapidly increase in height and bulk. Fis sures began to open in the walls and floor from the fury emanating from him like mini-earthquakes.
"How would Adam find your lair?" he seethed, his voice now deadly and his eyes slits of potential violence trained on her.
"He rode a white war horse," she shrieked, backing up, "and tracked the Guardian team. Adam would have never been there if the Guardians weren't at my door to retaliate for Cain's attack on their homestead in Mexico. Adam followed the male Neteru's energy tracer!" She quickly put the table between them as his gaze narrowed. "In all my treachery, I have never, ever, ever had a liaison with Adam; even I have a limit," she cried.
"You're exhausted, husband, irrational - think. If Adam rode a white - "
"The first seal..." he said quietly, stunned and going to the righted Chairman's throne to sit down heavily in it. "I cannot believe they began the Armageddon without me, like this," he added in a tense, bewildered whisper. "I was sure that we had years after my mark had been upon the popula tions for a time ..."
"The National ID Card mark that spread through Europe to the U.S. - they cannot buy or sell without it - was bril liant, beloved." Thoroughly undone, Lilith wrung her hands trying to console him. "It will take years for it to proliferate, and surely they cannot start the war without the mark of the beast? That will happen."
"In due time. It hasn't taken root yet, hasn't hit other continents!" He leaned back in the throne and closed his eyes. "While I was for