entity roared, leveling his blade at Damali. "He will assuredly get himself killed if you do not."
Judgment left Carlos at the same moment he left the floor. Carlos lunged, and the entity swung, missed, and he landed a hard right to its jaw. The entity landed, narrowed his gaze, and flung the blade down, and then ripped the gold armor from his chest as Carlos snatched the mic stand, broke it over his knee, and made a weapon to impale it.
"Let us do this as was once done," the entity said through a low snarl.
"Old-school, motherfucker--it's on!"
Carlos's gaze narrowed, but seeing a Neteru symbol blazing on the entity's massive chest was disorienting. Still, it was a matter of honor. Carlos flung down the sharp-edged pole. An apexing male had rolled up on his woman, had breached the compound, and had drawn on him. Instantly both were airborne and collided with a deadlock thud. His throat was being strangled by what he now knew to be the stronger male. A lot of shit had happened to him in his life, but never this.
Leveraging the heavier weight, Carlos flip-rolled the being off of him. But it landed on its feet and threw a punch that sent Carlos sprawling across the floor. Dazed, it took Carlos a second to flip himself back up and to regain floor positioning.
"Stop!" Damali yelled. "You two have to stop!"
She went for the blade; the entity drew it to him by kinetic force and flung it through the air to disappear on the other side of nothing. In the few seconds that had passed, Carlos gained a healthy respect for the strength of what he was up against. His woman's voice was screaming at fever pitch, but what she was saying was incomprehensible.
"If you hurt him, I'll never come to you again. If he dies, it's over!"
Stupefied, Carlos backed up. "Damali, what's going on?"
"Baby, you weren't supposed to find out like this, I swear!"
Carlos looked at the entity, looked at her; renewed fury sent him headlong into the entity's abdomen. The entity lost his footing from the force of the collision. Carlos swung and landed a punch that sent red blood splattering. But the returned punch knocked him across the room to slam against the wall. He was off it before the entity blinked, and the two combatants hurled against the studio glass. Pain shot through Carlos's system as his spine and head took out a section of the double-thick glass plates. The next thing he knew, he had been jettisoned outside the studio, and a lair seal as strong as the shield of Heru kept him at bay.
Rage and frustration made him bang on the golden seal to no avail. He knew how strong a. master's-lair seal was, as well as the impossibility of breaking a Neteru's gold shield. The dichotomy only spiked his adrenaline higher. Everything about this entity told Carlos the interloper was from the old dark realms. Panic, fury, hurt, confusion filled him as he hollered and banged to no avail, sending his shoulder against the shield, yelling at the tops of his lungs.
Guardians' footfalls pummeled the steps like soldiers called to war. He was beyond speech. His voice was a series of roars. His woman was on the wrong side of a seal. A male vamp had her. The contender had council-level strength. It carried a Neteru blade. Came out in daylight. Arched gold-white energy. Had a Neteru tattoo, just like his. "Damali!"
This thing on the other side of the barrier was whispering to her, holding her arms, trying to talk some shit--he could see it through the glass. His woman was listening to the bullshit! She hadn't gone into battle mode, what the fuck? His ass was taller, older, wiser, and built--cut up! Dropped twelve inches of fang to his ten. Oh, hell no!
"Stand back," Mike said, "a cannon might blow the seal."
"No, my fucking woman is in there with some motherfucker she knows, and she's been with him before!" Carlos shouted. Tears fused with blood in his mouth as he pounded the impenetrable divide like a madman. Hysteria blacked out judgment. She'd left his bed to be with another man. There was a lair in the family house--for another vamp, not him? He whirled on the family, every conceivable weapon was drawn and pointed at the seal, but he didn't care. Saliva and snot slung from his nose as he roared rapid- fire questions. "How long have you known she had