lit, her eyes set hard and her tone resolute as she banished the potential of any demon essence. Every threshold had been salted and covered, every entry point anointed, and his clothes had been stashed in a safety bag with hers. He trudged to the shower like he was going to the gallows.
After the shit he'd seen, and they'd been through, he didn't feel like talking about it or arguing. He understood her point, and was glad that she finally understood his. But for the first time in a very long time, the real stress of being the team's head of household weighed him down. What if she'd been right? What if he lost a man in the firefight? His boy Yonnie was AWOL. Kamal's entire team had been lost, when it very easily could have been anybody on their squad. Now Heather was possibly pregnant and he felt like a nervous grandfather suddenly responsible for Dan's safety - and Heather's went without saying. Damali slid into the shower behind him. "C'mere," she said gently. "Lemme do your hair and your back."
"Thanks, baby, but I'm all right. I'll get out of your way in a minute." She didn't say anything for a moment but lathered his back anyway, spreading wide swirls of suds against it. "It's hard being the one everybody looks up to," she murmured, her touch soft as she attended his skin. "I understand that."
"At first you bit my head off, though," he said, still a little salty. He expected a comeback but instead she pressed her body to his, fitting against him in a snug, warm seal.
"I love you so much, Carlos Rivera, that sometimes I have to back up from that just not to suffocate or scream." She turned him around and let her fingers cradle his cheek.
"How many times did I almost lose you, then lose you, then you came back from the dead, only to lose you and..."
He smiled; she closed her eyes.
"That's what I was waiting for."
He pulled her into a slow embrace. "I started the Ar mageddon, D ... I'm a little freaked out, for real, okay?"
He stared at her without blinking as she pulled back. Water coursed down his handsome
face, droplets catching in his long lashes. She slid her hand across his jaw to bring his face forward.
"Oh, you did not. It was coincidence," she said, trying to make herself believe that was true.
He sighed and pulled her into his embrace and she held him tight. "I didn't mean for it to go down like that, D. I was going in to smoke some vamps that had done our whole family wrong. In and out. Hit the targets hard and be gone." Again, silence filled the void between them and she gripped his arms tightly. "You know what? Okay, maybe you did kick it off." She stepped back and folded her arms over her chest. "Who else to do it?" When he looked down and turned into the spray, she grabbed his arm, making him look at her. "My husband is the baddest shut-your-mouth on the planet, okaaaay? And my man is soooo wild and off the hook that he went in and did some crazy soldier shit, and kicked off the galactic prophecies of old. He's got sooo much juice, all right, that Heaven picked him to make it jump off." She smiled wider as a sly half-smile snuck out of hiding on his face.
"You think so ... think they actually wanted me to do this?"
"Did you get a vibe?" Damali's hands were on her hips. He turned to fully face her. "Yeah. For real, I did."
"Well, did Adam come and help you, no questions asked, like they dropped the Caduceus on me from just a shout out? They must have had a reason."
"Yeah, D ... now that you mention it, there was no static about what went down." They stared at each other for a long time.
"I am so proud of you, Carlos."
He traced her cheek. "That's only because you're insane, like me."
"Yeah, true," she said, her expression serious. "But I still love you so much."
"Baby, you know I love you," he whispered over the spray, his hands sliding down her arms. "I'm just glad you're not still mad at me, because, D, I couldn't have stopped myself from doing that drive-by if I wanted to."
"I know... because it was a prime directive from a higher source than this team." She touched his face, suddenly wanting to just be