with you and allowed them to open the box--our box, that was once lined with pure silver and filled with nothing but light?" she asked quietly.
"It's still lined with silver for you, baby," he whispered. "Still filled with pure light... now more than it ever has been." He moved to go near her, but her body tensed and he stopped where he stood. "I took its head off. Nothing like that can violate what we have again," he added quietly. "Nothing."
She smiled, but it was an angry, tight expression, not her normally dazzling one. "Only problem is, like I said, I can't just lop off Juanita's head. She's human, and on the Guardian team, at that. Lives in the compound house. And I still have to see her, and she still gives me her ass to kiss when--"
"She doesn't remember what happened, fully," he said, panic in his voice. Yes, they'd argued before, but never like this. "Baby, I've been over it a thousand times."
"If that skank reaches for you in my presence... if I even sense it, I'll--"
"She ain't gonna reach for me, D. Listen to yourself. She don't even remember what happened, and you shouldn't call her a skank. It wasn't her fault. Like you told me, we were all under the influence and reeling from the charge! She might be feeling some mild aftereffect vibe, but she's unaware of how deep it got, so don't call the sister a skank, all right. She's one of us, cool peeps, and took care of my moms and grandmom." The moment the sentence came out of his mouth, he knew he was in deeper trouble. He could feel turbine energy zinging through Damali as she cocked her head to the side.
"Wait. Let me get this right," Damali said coolly, quietly holding up one hand and then closing her eyes. "Are you standing here defending her in my face?"
"Baby--"
"This old lover, one that still has the hots for you, even before you got possessed, and you have the nerve to question me about a guy who literally saved your life, mine, and who I'd never slept with but kissed only one time--after all he'd been through?" Damali's hands went to her hips as she leaned halfway across the bed.
Carlos backed up farther in the room. "See, now, D, that's--"
"This woman," she said, her voice rising on each word until she was
shouting in rapid-fire, broken sentences, "who, regardless of what she remembers or not... the same one who balked at my command of this team from the moment she set foot in our compound, gave me nothing but attitude way before you got possessed, and then went down on you, easily I might add, with no resistance in her. This is the chick I'm not supposed to feel any type of way about? When I could easily throw up every one of Jose's honorable deeds in your face, too, tit for tat, but this man never crossed the line, never challenged your position with me or your authority, and never went beyond the established limits! Even after you told him he could be with me, asked him to if you died, you selfish sonofabitch!"
"That's enough," Carlos hollered. "You need to watch your mouth and stop cussing at me!"
Damali wiped her palms down her face as rage made her body tremble. "Oh, shit, Carlos, you did not go there and tell me not to even talk about how I feel about her way down deep because you don't think I should? Are you fucking crazy! When conversely, she never respected me, you never demanded it from her, just let the bullshit fall where it may, never checked her quietly, discreetly, for the sake of Jose's pride, and left me to always have to suck it up when I should have kicked her narrow, disrespectful ass right after we did Philly! Oh, my God, oh, my God! I can't call this chica out of her name, even in here with you-- in the bedroom, supposed to be our sanctuary--and you're defending her to me? Oh shit! I have to respect her when she's always got something snide to say to every command I give this fucking team! I'm supposed to be cool, always, not lose it, not even knowing you seduced Juanita into doing something she wanted to do for your horny ass anyway and in my house and was gonna make a--"
"Damali, sweetheart, please, for real--"
"The onliest reason I haven't yanked her out