trip over the thin filament that was wired to emotional C4. Yeah, he knew exactly where she was right now. The problem was, he didn't have an answer or any smooth bullshit to tell her to bring her down, and all her points hit too close to home. Plus, it had been confirmed in his mind, something more than Damali's temper was at work here.
"It was out of my control, something had me, baby," he said, fatigued. "I don't know what else to say to make this right."
"Then if I ever go there, and tell you something had me, and it was out of my control, then this conversation will be moot--since you've been here more than once. Since I've sucked it up, more than once. And if I ever happen to accidentally get myself into a compromising position, you'll be able to forgive and let live, like nothing ever happened, right?" Damali's hands were on her hips again as she nodded and went back to staring out the window. "Okay. Fair exchange is no robbery. Duly noted, Mr. Councilman. Peace."
"I wish you wouldn't call me that," Carlos said in a quiet, urgent tone. "I'm not in that life anymore, and I'm a Neteru with just a little of the old vamp in me, but not like before. I work for the Light, and we're on the same team."
"Yeah, right," Damali said flatly.
Her words trapped him in the bedroom; he might as well have been hanging on the Chairman's torture wall getting his guts ripped out. "You know I love you, girl."
"And what dat mean?" She walked a hot path before the window. "Oh, you love me. Wasn't thinking about that when Juanita was on her knees between your legs, did ya? Oh, you love me. Didn't think about that shit when you lured her to my house. Did ya? You really didn't think about that when you asked her if she wanted to make a baby, did you?"
If Damali would just take a breath and stop... He began gesturing wildly as he tried to say what needed to be said. "No, baby, see, I didn't lure her to the house. She was still feeling the charge from the night before when I'd just come back up from the pit--and, what had happened was--"
"But you love me. Right. All right. Then I love you, too. I guess she's also still head over heels, literally, even though she doesn't know why. I got it." Damali's hands went back to her hips as her gaze narrowed on him. "I'm cool. It's squashed."
"If, if--listen--if there's anything still resonating in her, it isn't from that--it was from before when I was with her and human." For all the fluent, smooth vamp still lingering in him, or just general regulation street smarts, as a man he knew inherently within his soul that no male entity on any level could go up against and come out on top of a female verbal beat down. He'd almost started stuttering as he'd spoken, which wasn't him at all under any circumstances.
"Her recall had been erased when it went down--in fact, it's not her fault at all. For real, D. Don't carry that back to the house and start no mess with 'Nita--"
"Oh, so now she's 'Nita, not Juanita. My bad. I stand corrected. Why don't you just call her your boo from now on? You can tap that ass whenever the mood strikes you, and I won't have a problem with it. Bite her, too, for all I care. Serve her two inches in the jugular and let Mar purge her after you're done. We ain't married. Right? The vamp bond don't count in the Light, so hey. What it mean?"
He could feel beads of sweat begin to form on his brow. His palms felt moist. "The girl was under the influence, like I've been trying jp get you to understand. She's only human, and--"
"Well so am I!" Damali shouted, losing it as new tears of rage formed in her eyes. "I might be a Neteru, but I'm also human. And female. That shit keeps replaying itself in my head, Carlos. All I can see is the chica giving you a blow job on the porch of my house. Fuck all this Jerry Springer shit, demon-inspired or not. I'm out."
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER THREE
Beverly Hills, California
I t frustrated her no end that the heated exchange with Carlos had gotten way off the primary subject and had devolved into a stupid