but didn't get up off the floor. Everyone seemed rooted where they sat.
"I have had enough," Marlene said, never raising her voice. "This family is on the brink of collapse. A house divided can never stand, and we must stand united against the unimaginable, or all will be lost. What would have been our purpose?" She cocked her head to the side and folded her arms again. "Generations are to be built on your Neteru shoulders. The family is the cornerstone of communities yet to come.
Decimate that because of lusts and passions and rages and foolishness, and there is no family--no foundation, therefore, no future."
She got up in his face, unafraid. There was something in her eyes so old, so wise, that the strength of ancestral knowledge wafted from her in molten energy bands to surround him.
"So, today, you are going to mind lock with me, or we'll fight all over this hacienda until I tackle your young, stupid ass to the floor, sit on your chest, and force-feed the knowledge to you!" She walked away from him and stood across the room like a Western gunfighter. "Open your mind. Don't make me go in there by force."
The challenge bristled within Carlos. Fucking Harpies hadn't been able to go into his mind by force, and Marlene wasn't gonna stand there and threaten him, not today! Not after all the drama he'd been through. "You can try, but I'd advise you to back off. You've seen what's in there, and that was just a peek."
"I don't want what's in your brain," she replied coolly, "I'm gonna give you what's in mine."
Carlos set his jaw hard and looked out the window toward the vacant beach. "There ain't nothing you can tell me, Mar, that I don't already know."
"How did I break your shield, then?" Now she had his attention.
"Because what I've got can go through any substance in the universe." Carlos just stared at her. Now he really wasn't letting Marlene get all up in his head. Uh-uh. He folded his arms. "I said, back off." "I told your ass no, boy. Come here!"
"What?" he said, so indignant that he almost couldn't get the words out. "I ain't no boy."
Marlene shook her head. Shabazz stood up.
"Mar. Don't do it," Shabazz said. "You're tired, baby, and he doesn't know how--"
" 'Bazz," she said quickly. "I got this. Don't step in between me and this kid. I'ma spank his ass today, so help me. It's bigger than him and Damali. The rest of my family got put at risk. He has to get this lesson down, now, once and for all!" Her voice escalated as she began pacing. "I will not tolerate dissention in the house to this degree! I'm not having it! I'm not going to have my family splinter and fall apart while he learns!
Enough, 'Bazz. Sit down." She spun on Carlos. "I'ma ask you one last time."
Carlos had backed up to a far wall. The fact that Marlene was slightly scaring him made him worry. He didn't want to be in a position to have to fight her. If she got hurt, then they'd really never forgive him. "Mar, I'm warning you--"
"Don't make me snatch you across this room. I said, come here." Her eyes blazed with righteous indignation.
The sight of her challenge with the threat embedded in it did something crazy to him. She'd called him a boy in front of onlookers. What was left of his pride had already flattened on the beach. He just couldn't take it anymore. Not another indignity. He battle bulked, dropped fang, and glared at her, feeling the hot scorch of silver enter his irises. "I said no. What part of that didn't you hear, Marlene?"
"That's it!" A violet current ejected from her outstretched hand and seized Carlos's chest. "Nothing I feed, nothing I hold to my heart, nothing I care for and let into my home to be with my daughter will ever threaten me or this family! Ever!"
Jose was up with a gun in his hand, but to Carlos's surprise, Marlene slapped it away with an arc, yet could still hold him.
"This is between him and me," Marlene said coolly. "Nary a Guardian move, hear! I'm not afraid of him, never was."
Carlos battled Marlene's hold, trying to send a silver arc through it to break it, but her hold was too strong. "Lemme go, Mar!" he shouted, twisting in her violet light and trying to get it off of him.