would do something like this," Heather whispered, tears rising.
Dan groaned. "Aw, baby, not the guilt trip, c'mon, I - " Heather had crossed the room so quickly and struck him so fast that she rivaled a female vamp. "Guilt trip, guilt trip," Heather shrieked, grabbing his shirt. "My period's late and I didn't know where my husband was and I find out he went somewhere that might take
Damali's Caduceus - if they give it to her - to get whatever's in him purged! Daniel Weinstein, Jr., are you completely mad?" She dropped her hold on Dan, whirled around, and began sobbing.
"Oh ... shit..." Jose murmured, echoing the entire team's sentiments. Dan pulled Heather into an embrace and kissed her hair. "It'll be all right," he said, rocking her. "I promise." But his words only seemed to make her cry harder, and his gaze sought Carlos's.
Carlos nodded, despite the bad feeling he had in his gut, and then he closed his eyes. "Oh, shit, man ..."
"And this is why we move out as a unit!" Damali shouted, her arm snapping toward Heather and Dan. "This is why we don't do any more solo missions. Ohmigod, Carlos," she said, suddenly breathing into her palms. "Baby ... just tell me, why? What was it that took you guys over the edge?"
"I felt a jolt off the throne," Carlos said quietly, his gaze locked to Damali's. "I knew if I said that, it would freak you out ... but I knew it like I knew my name. Lilith had taken a permanent seat after Cain." He drew a shaky breath and walked across the room with all eyes on him. "Once you sit in that chair, baby, it has you for life - you can feel things from it, even if you're severed from it. That's our secret weapon. Me and Cain were linked by the chair and his hit of your blood. So, impressions off it are real fresh for me." Carlos gave the group his back and put his hands on top of his head. "I knew she was... ascending, getting her power on - you know?" He let his breath out slowly. "Could tell she'd been distracted ... had even been topside ... but preoccupied. I could also feel something release Fallen Nuit ... but it wasn't until we got there that I realized what had preoccupied Lilith enough that we could just walk into her joint like we did." Damali walked toward him, her voice quiet. "Oh, shit, baby, what was it? How bad? Fallen being stronger, legions she's raising ... what?"
Carlos turned and stared at Damali. "Her husband." Damali backed up ten paces as a collective gasp cut through the room. "What?" she squeaked.
Carlos nodded. "It was now or never. Dude who shall re main nameless never rolled through Level Six like that. So while he had her in his clutches, we flat blasted her joint and took out a lot of her players. While she was vulnerable - and you don't catch girlfriend like that too often, trust me."
"Wait, go back to the husband part," Marlene said in a tight, quiet voice. Her gaze bore into Carlos as he glanced around at the stricken faces on the team.
"He never christened Dante's throne while Dante was in it, or while Cain was in it. But when Lilith sat in it - hey."
"What?" Damali wheezed, bending over and grabbing her chest, then she sat on the floor.
"Yeah ... uh ... that's why we had a window. I just didn't know that going in, just felt her power dip for a minute," Carlos said, leaning against the wall with a thud. He spoke slowly with his eyes closed, remembering being impaled on the Chairman's torture wall not so long ago. "Her husband came up to chambers and power-fucked her in the chair - I thought it was Nuit, at first, but I could feel girlfriend's energy dip in a way no throne ascension is supposed to go ... like, I don't know what was going on before, but last night, there was a shift in the realms. So ... I thought, maybe somehow there was a double-cross,
or maybe she'd been dredged for allowing Cain to get smoked. If she'd been flung topside for her offenses, I knew she'd go to her lair and lick her wounds - the goal was to smoke that foul bitch in her own house, old-school payback served ice cold."
"I'm calling for the Caduceus," Damali said quietly.