and looked at Damali with a question and pain in her eyes. "Damali, the man has served his sentence. I know who his father was, and what terrible thing he did--the whole world knows that. It was my mistake, not my son's, so do not blame him for my error. But you yourself have forgiven a drug dealer, a man who drew his own brother into a dark life, a life that consumed them both, made them both vampires... Alejandro was slain by Carlos's own hand, too, but you were able to forgive that and love him just the same. Carlos already had a chance to be by your side, but by your own admission, he desecrated your love with your own Guardian sister! Foolish. Leave him, and move on with the more honorable man. The decision is simple."
When Damali didn't immediately answer, Eve clasped both hands together and brought them to her chest. "Please, for me, offer my boy a chance at redemption and happiness." She looked up to the sky. "The prophecy states that you and a male Neteru are to be one, united, and sire together the greatest Neteru ever made." Her line of vision went back to Damali's and held it. "You and my son... my Lord. A combination that even I dared not dream."
Nervous sweat filled Damali's palms. She'd bow at Marlene's feet, when she got home, and would go prostrate on the floor in front of her mother-seer for calling this one.
"Queen Eve," Damali said slowly. "It's not that cut-and-dried. The terrible tsunami ripped open a hole in the fabric of the universe. I don't know if Heaven sent your son, or if my call, as a Neteru, simply allowed him to be able to bypass the energy barriers to it. He seems like a wonderful guy, don't get me wrong, but you and I both know what the situation is over in Nod. If I mess up, and have accidentally called him out, and if he isn't clear about which side--"
"He is clear!" Eve shouted. "The Light wouldn't have allowed the rip or him to hone his vibrations to your voice if he were not ready!" Eve walked a hot path back and forth before the flat rock. "Do not toy with his emotions, Damali. He has been through a lot, and any indecision on your part could be the thing to send him over the edge and back to his old ways!"
"I understand, my queen," Damali said calmly, fighting the impulse to just up and run back through the violet light. "This is why we must all be sure." She kept her tone humble, her eyes on Eve, her demeanor calm but firm. "My fervent hope is that you are correct. But now that Carlos is trapped over in Nod with him--"
"Carlos went through the rip? How?" Eve stopped pacing, her eyes holding an expression like she'd been struck. "He has to leave my son alone and go back to his side! There can be no altercation while Cain is on parole."
"They already got into a fight; that's how it happened. When they collided and took a tumble, and--"
Eve leveled a finger at Damali, pointing at her so intensely that blue-violet light flickered at the tip of the digit.
"My son," Eve said in a low, lethal tone, "has been incarcerated in a realm that is devoid of sensual stimulation for years. He lived a full life on the planet as a man, sired children, had many wives. Then, he died. But reincarnated in Nod with full recall of all of those earthly sensations so that he would learn self-discipline, honor, selfless sacrifice, and you would bait him into a fight with a half-vampire, half-human male Neteru while he's apexing!"
Violet flames covered Damali's chest and fanned out to paralyze her before she could turn and run. "I didn't bait him, Eve, I swear. What had happened was--"
"You called my boy to you through song--my poor male child--who has a weakness for music, like his father, into your company, my passionate son, my virile son, the one who takes after Dante's propensity for sensual excess... you call him sweetly like a lover over the barrier of Nod, but not sure if you would yield to him... after millennia of not being with a woman in the flesh and allow another Neteru challenger to--" "Eve, I swear to you . . ." Damali's voice trailed off as the elder queen materialized an Isis blade in