to himself.
Gabrielle stared up at him. "Do you really want me to tell you in mixed company-or in private?"
"Just spit it out," Yonnie said, his patience gone along with his nerves.
"What the fuck," Carlos said, walking between the wall and the table.
"She did it because Lilith has her egg. Yes, you gave her seed to bring it to life, but what Lilith stole was supposed to grow and thrive in Damali's womb.This is the part of the equation that men will never understand." Her narrowed gaze raked Carlos. "This wasn't your fight-this time it washers . This wasn't your vendetta. She will do this or die trying. It is natural law. A mother versus a robber mother. Even the supernatural cannot avert that."
Tara leaned down as she peered at the swirling black smoke that had begun to spiral within Gabrielle's crystal. "It wasn't my place to stop her, and if I could have been her escort to help her smoke that bitch, I would have. If Raven double-crosses her,she's mine ." Tara looked up at Rider. "A baby... a precious little baby that's only a spec of life now. Do you know what I would give for the chance that Damali was robbed of?" She pushed away from the table and glanced at Yonnie. "None of you will ever experience the loss ache like that!"
The males in the room gathered to one side of the table in a slow, defeated huddle. Gabrielle and Tara glared at them. All eyes were on the crystal ball.
Gabrielle pointed at it and covered her mouth and then laughed. Tara smiled. Yonnie ran his fingers through his Afro as Rider shook his head. Carlos blanched.
All he could do was watch as his baby girl finessed an incubus like an all-pro vamp and slaughtered him. When she went black adder, he almost looked away. The sight of her agile flight at lightning speed on her belly was almost nauseating. But when she shifted and went panther, donning his old form, he had to walk away for a moment to get his head together.
"She's all pro, man," Yonnie said quietly. "She ain't no baby no more, not shifting like that." He shook his head. "Damn, man... I've never seen the Neteru work. Now I totally understand."
Carlos glared at him and came back to the table. If he could have still dropped fangs, he would have. But as he watched her cross into level six, everyone at the table sat down slowly.
"Oh... shit..." Carlos whispered. "She went bat."
Gabrielle nodded as they watched Damali fly in under radar and affix herself to the ceiling, huddling with the swarming masses. "I can try to send her support via a spell, since I do have a willing master vampire in the room with a strong second lieutenant, but then our position will be given away." She shook her head and closed her eyes. "This is suicide."
"Do it," Carlos said. "If you can give her a shield, any-"
"I don't know," Gabrielle said as calmly as she could. "I cansee into the dark realms, not influence events going on there. My spell shields are for topside only."
"But she's gotta watch out for the couriers at the gate!" Carlos paced back and forth like a trapped animal. His heart was pounding so hard that he could barely hear anything else. Then he stopped and his jaw dropped. "A roach?" He ran to the table and clutched the edge of it. "A fucking cockroach, with starving bats all around? Damali, no!"
The moment the aerial assault began, she knew the choice was a bad one. But a mouse was too obvious and was warm blooded, and a roach moved faster, not to mention could better withstand the heat rising off the hot rocks. All she had to do was scurry down the long crag-strewn path and squeeze under one of the doors. But bats dove at her relentlessly. However, the one thing she knew from her days on the streets, a roach was a hard thing to kill.
She scooted over the edge of the narrow path that led to the chairman's front doors and gripped the wall. Hair-raising wails from the Sea of Perpetual Agony echoed up with tortured moans. Molten lava below her made her eyes burn, but the bats avoided her when she squeezed herself into a crack. After each attempt they veered away from the surface as their wings began to smolder, then finally gave up. One tasty little morsel of a cockroach