of the compound by her hair--the same hair you were running your hands all through when she was on her knees--to beat her ass in the yard is for Jose's sake. Every time that heifer cuts me dead with her eyes, every time she makes a side-out-the-neck sarcastic comment, every damned time she gives me her ass to kiss like she knows a secret that I don't, I am ready to draw blood. Do you know how dangerous this shit is and how close to the surface it is under my skin?"
Damali paced back and forth like a trapped panther, visibly so angry
that a shape-shift was not out of the question. "If Hell was to snatch me now, they wouldn't have to pry to get to this emotion out of me. I'm so mad at you, Carlos, I'd slap that bullshit you just tried to hand me on the table and would tell 'em, 'Gentlemen, let's deal'--that's how angry I am! Own it! She's working my nerves, so you'd better fix this and get her straight!"
"Juanita acts the way she does sometimes, not because she remembers what happened in the house in Arizona, D, I swear," he said quickly, beginning to pace in front of the bedroom door. "It's, it's because she and I used to deal, and she's jealous of what Jose used to feel for you, maybe stills feels a little bit--plus, you got to both of us, him and me, and she's feeling--"
"Fuck what she feels!" Damali pulled her hair into her fists as she glared at Carlos. "She can feel any way she wants to in the quiet of her confused mind--but she's gonna feel my foot squarely up her ass if she challenges my command in front of this team ever again! Got it?" Damali let her hair go, folded her arms, and took in deep breaths with her eyes closed. "When she's feeling scared, girlfriend is all about feelin' me out there kicking demon ass--ask her how she would feel if one night I wasn't feeling up to my Neteru self and stepped aside to let something horrible yank her ass down to Hell." Damali opened her eyes. "Ask her that for me, will ya?"
"You know that's wrong, D," he said, new worry hitching his voice. "You wouldn't do that, baby, would you? That would compromise your soul. You know that's wrong and dangerous to even allow a mind as strong as yours to think something like that."
"Then you could come down there and get my soul, if I lost it, right? Or you could go rescue her out of the jaws of a huge, dangerous, feeding Amanthra. You da man. After you saved us both, we'd be so grateful we might hook a brother up with a three- way... you could definitely hang, and she and I could sing two-part harmony--too bad you're not still apexing, but it would still be awesome, and then she and I could kiss and make up right there on your fucking lap," Damali said between her teeth, coolly appraising his groin for the slightest twitch of interest.
"Damali, don't even play like that. Come on now, you have to let this old relationship me and Juanita had go." "Why?"
Carlos paused and drew in a shaky breath. "Because I let what you and Jose had blooming go, D, when you put his blanket in your cedar chest--which, by rights, you shoulda given back, but I let that go because all of us are cool now, and, see, baby... c'mon, now. She don't remember. She just acts funny sometimes because she's probably wondering what mighta happened if she and I coulda stayed together, or if Jose hadn't had a jones for you once, which I know she can sense, so you pop off her deep-down emotions, is all it is, and sometimes that gets the better of her, and--" "Total disrespect," Damali said in a near whisper. She looked up at him, pressed both hands over her heart, and leaned forward, eyes blazing. "But I'ma let it ride. Not for you, not for her, but because my Guardian brother would die a thousand deaths if he knew, and the team has to function as one. This mess with you and her goes to the grave with me and beyond it,for him--not your ass. Hear?"
Oh, he'd heard her all right, and her tone scared him. Everything between them now hung in a fragile balance, and he didn't know how not to