Damali's time distortion broke. Curious but amiable beachgoers looked at their team in passing and went on their merry ways, none the wiser that they'd just stepped out of a dimensional fold.
"We just got played," Carlos said, walking in an agitated circle. "You know what..." Damali watched him, trying to remain calm as no one said a word. She could tell he was so pissed off that blue-white static was flickering at the edges of his nostrils. But it was good to see that - rather than the other way he'd been.
"Never again!" he shouted, walking a hot line back and forth in front of the team and drawing slight glances from the occasional passerby. "I'm never in my life again gonna be chased out of my own house or wherever I am," he said, talking with his hands and almost stuttering. "We take a stand, right here, right now - if this is the big one, so be it! We were chosen to be here to hang because somebody must have thought we could! I am so fucking pissed right now, you just don't know!"
Unblinking eyes stared at him. Nobody moved, nobody said a word, nobody breathed for what felt like very long seconds.
"Aw'ight, C, what's the plan, boss?" Shabazz said, the first to break the silence. "I'm down for whatever."
"It was a damned familiar," Carlos seethed and then spat. Confused glances passed between team members.
"Y'all wanted San Diego, all right, we're in San Diego - just a little ahead of schedule, aw'ight?" Carlos walked away and headed for the surf.
"Is he okay, Damali?" Marjorie asked in a quiet tone after a moment. "This doesn't feel Carlos-normal, you get me?"
"He's under a lot of stress, Marj," Damali said hi a low murmur, giving her teammates the eye not to press for more right now. "Hold tight, I'll be back." She jogged down the pristine strip of beach to where Car los stood and watched him rake his hair with his fingers, drawing in slow breaths with his eyes closed and face tipped up to the sky, as though summoning calm with every fiber in him. Rather than interrupt him, she just stood as a soothing presence beside him - at the ready for when he was more able to talk about it.
Within her bubbled a very quiet prayer, one for peace and understanding, hope, and no casualties this time around. They were blessed, regardless of all the drama they'd endured. Carlos had brought them to a place that boasted of seventy miles of pristine beaches situated between the Laguna Mountains and the Anza-Borrego Desert where the northernmost point of La Jolla offered three-hundred-foot cliffs. As wild as the last fifteen minutes had been, not to mention the last twenty-four hours or so, a sudden peace claimed her soul as she stood next to her very agitated husband. Going inward, she sensed the land and drew its el ements of beauty to cloak her, sharing that vision with every seer in the group. Then she drew in the wondrous vibrations and scents of the nature around her, allowing that to pour as balm over the shattered nervous systems of her tactical and olfactory squad members, saving the gentle natural calls of the serene environment for her audio, Big Mike, for last.
Before long a certain knowing overtook her. Carlos had put them down within the oldest and most exclusive district of La Jolla. This place was an extension of Carlos's land homing pattern, where his regal spirit could claim residence amid his ancestral trails. It had Spanish and Indian vibra tions in the very sand. It was all him - high, majestic cliffs from his old existence of owning a lair, and would befit a warrior's sensibilities by being surrounded on three sides by the sea with the steep slopes of Mt. Soledad at its back. At high enough elevation, one could be alerted to anything coming before it approached. He was, after all, a Neteru.
But she tried not to think of that right now, the very real issue of war, choosing to focus on the Mediterranean-like balmy temperatures and the way she could sense that the streets rolled up by midnight, all residents indoors and relax ing at home. Peace. Yeah ... Upscale boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, good elementary schools set in turnof-the-century, stunning Spanish architecture and eclectic designs. University of Cali
fornia San Diego campus for all the newbies, and maybe even her, to get that chance