that Valkyrie felled. As soon as they be gan an uncontrolled spiral, Damali was up, blade swinging.
Carlos saw half the loyalists begin to retreat down into the ravine and the threesome gave chase, Neterus firing unre lenting power pulses, further thinning the numbers down to less than one hundred before they got away.
"The seeking wall," Valkyrie said, breathing hard through her mouth and leaning on her knees with both hands. "We have to stop them before they get to Lilith." Damali didn't wait to hear anything else. She nosedived over the edge of the ravine, sweeping her blade with crackling light coming off it before her, claiming some hybrids in the air, and then somersaulted in front of the dank place Cain had once brought her, the place that almost made her lose her mind. She opened her wings in a challenge, taking a fighter's stance to block them entry to the rubbery surface that would allow them to whisper to Lilith for backup. Car los landed with Valkyrie behind the trapped loyalists.
"You'll never take us alive!" one demon hybrid leader shouted as his exhausted troops turned about in circles, not sure where to attack first.
Carlos smiled. 'That was never my intention, holmes."
He rushed forward and slit the leader's throat so fast that so me of the remaining hybrids held up their hands.
Valkyrie rushed forward, her machete raised before Damali or Carlos could protest, and swung. The moment of the loyalists raised a weapon, it was on - and over in thirty seconds. Valkyrie grabbed the leg of one mortally wounded survivor who still tried to crawl into the alley as a last-ditch effort. She looked up with defiant eyes. "You haven't gotten all of us," she said, just before Valkyrie took off her head. Carlos wiped his nose with the back of his hand, breath ing hard. He looked at Valkyrie and then Damali. "Feel bet ter? 'Cause I damned sure do."
* * *
they sort of half-fell, half-landed in the living room where the team and clerics were drinking coffee and tea and beginning to enjoy some of Inez's many fantastic desserts. Bloody, ripped, dirty, but vastly satisfied, the Neterus stag gered to lean on the wall, then looked at the pristine new fur niture, and finally decided to just hold each other up.
"Okay, it's cool," Carlos said, barely able to lift his blade.
"Yeah," Damali said, weaving against Carlos and speaking in bursts of breath, gulping air. She lifted her necklace, which was clutched in her hand. "It's all good." The team and the clerics just looked at them for a moment, coffee mugs and tea cups suspended midair, forks poised over plates.
"Then I guess you guys want me to call everything off for the night and call Duke back to cancel the concert?" Rider said, glancing from Carlos to Damali. "If you don't mind me saying, you look like hell."
Carlos and Damali looked at each other, closed their eyes, and groaned.
"Want me to send back the bikes and the Hummers, man?" Jose asked.
"No, it's cool," Carlos said, walking away from Damali stiff -legged. "I just need to get a shower."
"D, you gonna be able to perform?" Marlene asked, con cerned.
"Yeah, I'm good," she said, waving Marlene off and walking away, stiffly rubbing her back with one hand. "Just give me some Epsom salts, tea, and about two hours to crash and bum."
she was still sore when the team mounted up. She didn't even half-remember the impromptu lyrics she and Carlos had spit while just playing around. She knew her old standards like the back of her hand - but dang this shit was crazy! What was crazier as she walked out the front door was seeing a gleaming silver Bugatti Veyron in the driveway. Sore as her body was, that made her run across the expanse and grab her husband's arm. She spun him around so fast that he laughed.
"Hey, watch it, baby - that's my blade arm. Gonna need it tonight." Damali thrust her chin up, double sealed the channel around them when curious stares met them. "A word. Briefly, Mr. Rivera."
Quiet chuckles followed them as she strode over to the shining silver car, but everyone kept loading equipment and ammunition, trying to pretend to be minding their own busi
ness.
You stole a car with clerics in the house? You crazy, Car los! She folded her arms over her chest and glimpsed over her shoulder. We can't be rolling like that no more. I did 't