"You sound like a vampire!" Rabbi Zeitloff shouted.
"But will it work?" Dan asked, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his forearm.
"It has potential," Rabbi Zeitloff fussed. "I can do it, but at its core, it's as rotten as - "
"At its core," Monk Lin coolly interjected, "is the honor able desire of two young people who have found love to make their parents a part of ushering in a new generation."
"Give me a break."
"Love," Father Patrick said.
Imam Asula chuckled. "I think we have a solution."
"Rabbi?" Dan asked, standing over the speakerphone. "Please. This is really, really - "
"Oh, all right! You put it all on my head; if I say no, then I'm against love, and you've ganged up on me. I do not ap preciate this kind of group pressure for a man of my age. But I like Daniel, he's a good young man, and this Heather, I'll like her more when she converts and I don't have to lie to Daniel's mother and father that he married a nice Jewish girl. All right."
Dan's shoulders slumped in relief and he closed his eyes. Rider practically caught him around the waist to keep him from falling, but grabbed him by the shoulders instead.
"Thank you," Dan breathed out.
"Thanks. We'll call you when we get settled in San Diego," Carlos said. "Peace." The moment all good-byes were said and each cleric hung up, Dan clicked off the call button, and pandemonium broke loose. Slaps on the back almost made Dan fall. Calls for beer to go with the room service order rang out. What had begun as a midmorning strategy meeting had turned into a raucous room party.
"I told you to call him, man," Jose said, laughing. "You gotta get that no-fear in the cojones."
Dan and Jose squared off, faced each other, and made ugly grimaces as their arms made huge, bicep-straining U shapes in the air. "No fear!" they shouted in unison, and then burst out laughing.
"Champagne and brew on the way," Mike hollered, holding up a phone extension. Heather went to Dan and hugged him, hiding her face against his neck as he stroked her hair. "You did that for me ... all of that just for me? The whole team, too ..." Her voice wobbled and broke. "Thank you, Dan. I love you."
"Aw, man," Rider said with a broad smile. "We might lose a man at the party, might go AWOL and back to his room - hurry up with the food, Mike!" Bobby stood with his back against the door and arms outstretched, blocking a possible exit. "One beer with the team, dude. It's protocol."
"I'll go see what's holding up the food," Carlos said with a tight half-smile. "Maybe I can
just go to the bar and bring back that part of the order."
"I'll help," Damali said, jogging over to leave with him. "You'll need extra hands to carry all those six-packs," she said, making excuses when he cut her a sharp glance.
"Cool." Carlos lifted his chin as Bobby stood aside, laughing.
"Bring back some natural juices for Heather, too," Bobby said as he rolled his body away from the door so Carlos and Damali could pass. "We gotta take care of our lady in wait
ing. No alcohol for her."
Carlos didn't answer, just nodded.
"I'll make sure to bring something up just for her," Damali assured Dan, and then slipped out the door with a sigh.
* * *
the golden-fanged knockers at the door didn't even ID check her with a strike, her power signature was so strong from her unprecedented coronation. Messenger demons had genuflected as she passed and strode down the long, narrow crag beyond the Sea of Perpetual Agony.
"Bring me that cowardly little satyr," Lilith commanded to her Harpies as she swept into Vampire Council chambers.
She sat with a weary but satisfied thud in the council throne that headed the blood-veined, pentagram-shaped table and drew a golden goblet of black blood into her clutches. Intense weeping made her peer over the rim of her goblet, and then the huge black marble chamber doors sud denly opened.
Four Harpies flew forward dragging a half-eaten satyr across the floor. They unceremoniously dropped him at Lilith's feet and he immediately drew away to hide under the table, whimpering.
"Fetch him and hold him on the table before me, since he likes to hide." The satyr covered his head, screaming 'Wo!" as the Harpies dragged him out of hiding and flung him down on the