illusion, receive VIP treatment everywhere he went, walk through walls, battle bulk, fight, regenerate missing limbs if necessary, and hit the vanishing point to blow a sister's mind with no effort. Damali balled her hands into fists; his short-sightedness made her want to scream.
The dark side had taken it to the max, albeit way beyond what Carlos had consciously wanted or intended. Although he'd never do Yonnie and Tara like that, or probably Juanita, the fact remained that if his power lust hadn't been there, with all the other dark lusts he owned, Damali knew in her soul that things wouldn't have gotten crazy. He would have been a pure Neteru, versus what he'd returned as--part human, part Neteru, part Council-level vampire. The fusion had to happen when he'd come through the heat of Hell's furnace and into the atomic-level burn of the Light.
Damali shook her head.
"You all right, baby?" Marlene asked quietly.
"Yeah," Damali said in a distant voice, not opening her eyes. "A few more minutes. I think I've got it now."
Damali ran her palms over her face, feeling the slight moistness that had crept over her brow. The last episode had cultivated a quiet, deeply personal meltdown within her and something evil had attached itself to that when she couldn't take it anymore.
From his drug-dealing days, to becoming a vampire and all the madness that went with that, to accidentally getting pregnant with him, and losing the baby--but not just losing it, but having to retrieve it and slaughter the demon thief that stole it... nearly losing her title for him, having to reconfigure the team to accommodate him, having to share her command of the Guardians with him, then for him to go against what the Light had told him, after being a catalyst to her loss of the Isis and having to run all over the world to get it back... and then him getting compromised, again, on a dark throne no less--oh, yeah, it was about so much more than Juanita. Love or not, through-the-fire devotion or not, this man had shattered her nerves.
She'd wanted a new, safe pair of arms to hold her, ones without history, ones without house consequences. An older, wiser, more disciplined soul... one with charisma and sensuality and music who could appreciate her gifts, his gifts, her art, and had some sexy new ways of his own, but without all the changes that Carlos Rivera had taken her through over the years.
It had been at the forefront of her mind that day like never before. As she'd driven from Malibu back to Beverly Hills the thought had almost become a mantra. She'd pleaded out loud with hot tears running down her face, "God, give me somebody I don't have to go through changes like this with anymore." She also remembered the more urgent, silent part of the prayer. "Give me a man who is comfortable in his own skin and who loves being a Neteru." She almost laughed out loud in despair as new tears wet her lashes. She hadn't named names, and wasn't specific, which was most likely why the being who showed up didn't reveal a name--she hadn't asked for one--even though the rest of him was made to order! Like Marlene had always told her, be careful what you wish for, 'cause ya just might get it.
Damali quietly shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself. She could suddenly hear Carlos's mirror-image-request echoing through her head with as much pain as hers had contained. "Let her know what it feels like to have everybody looking at you sideways all the time. Let her know how something could go down like it did, but not mean all what it seemed to mean. Make her know how hard it is to resist something that has you all caught up and that's stronger than you."
Two Neterus of equal power, passion, and righteous indignation, praying hard, at the same time, in polar opposite directions on the same subject? Carlos had manifested this scenario as much as she did! Damali shuddered. Surely the Light would accommodate their requests, but also let them both know it was not to be trifled with for personal nonsense. That could only mean a stern lesson was about to be taught. Her only prayer now was that her team be spared drama on this go-round, if possible.
Thankfully, when she'd lobbed the Heaven-bound request, she'd blocked any attachment she had to Jose, not wanting to put him