fell away and her sad gaze drifted toward the door. "I love you, Damali. But you know what a councilman's wife must do, right?"
Damali held both of Tara's hands and then brought them to her lips. "I know. You have to ensure his power is never challenged."
Tara closed her eyes. "I will also have to feed properly to do that... as will he." She shuddered. "In all these years, I was able to avoid it, and I held out hope that one night, we'd be free."
"Don't give up--not yet. Not now. Just--"
"Damali... your heart is as big as Rider's. If Yonnie descends, you have to let me go. I will feed that first night, and it won't be deer." Tara's fingers traced the side of Damali's face and she pushed a lock behind her ear. "The other night, I felt Lilith's rise. I could feel new energy hit the throne level of Level Six, and . . ."
Tara's words trailed off as she stood and walked across the room. "It was female energy, Level Seven that slammed a throne. The energy went to me, first, as she pulled at the dark filaments in Carlos's line." She looked at Damali, who was now sitting, and held her gaze with solid red eyes glowing. "I was out of my skull with need for a body, and begged him, sobbing at V-point to bring me one. That's when I knew something was wrong and so much stronger than me."
Damali got up from the bed slowly and went to Tara to embrace her. "I love you," was all she could say as her heart crumbled into a hundred pieces.
"Make it quick, is all I ask. I have no idea where my soul will bottom out." Tara's cool embrace rubbed pain into Damali's spine as she laid her head on Damali's shoulder. "I don't know where Yonnie's will go, and mercy be unto him if he bottoms out in the were- demon realms. Carlos will have to make it a surgical strike."
"I can't think of you as anything else but a member of this team," Damali whispered with her eyes closed.
"The Light sent you two new female initiates from Gabrielle's and they will replace--"
"No," Damali said quickly, holding Tara's arms and looking at her hard. "They may add to the family, but will never take your places." She dropped her hold on Tara and began pacing. "I so owe that bitch, Lilith... if she comes for either of you, I swear ..."
"She's coming," Tara said, her tone weary and resigned. "Soon, there will be new master vampires, a new Chairman... the night is darker, denser."
Damali nodded, hating that Tara was right.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
C arlos stood quietly alone considering the dawn. The crystal-blue waters of Los Islotes, right off La Paz, seemed so serene, something his spirit needed right now. The cruise ships sat idle in the distance, buoyed by gentle waves. Gentle, just like he'd tried to be with Damali's heart. The pulse of the environment was that, gentle, and he'd hoped she'd feel it here on the Baja peninsula.
But Damali had missed the irony of his choosing La Paz, which simply translated meant, the peace. He was trying to tell her that by the destination. Didn't she care that he was trying to pick up the lost thread of what had once been their very private connection to weave it into the torn fabric of their relationship, mending it back together?
There was nothing Yonnie could say to him about this. Be cool? What was that, when it came to her? Another man had bitten her right in the throat... her soft, beautiful, Neteru throat that was only his, until now. It didn't even occur to her that he'd picked this place just for her, because of its name, what it represented, and because it reminded him so of the blue Caribbean she thrived in... near a beach with a white blanket of sand, thundering waves, where she'd given him back a heartbeat. Then she practically took that away, stopped his heart with a gentle gasp for another man. Waves... Yes, waves of hurt now represented the beaches.
There were no words. He'd experienced being a dead man walking, but never like this. Pain constricted his chest until he could barely breathe, but the torturous part of it was he'd live. Carlos kept his back to the sprawling, beachside hacienda and shut down his sensory sweep of the new, makeshift compound. He didn't