with her hands, weeping into them and sputtering as she spoke. "He was so generous, so trusting, and that I did this to him for a moment of flesh pleasure--oh, how can I face him and explain? I have dishonored him in his own lair!"
"Okay, okay," Carlos said, worry for her safety now knotting his stomach. "Is there any way you can get him to blame it on me? Like, like, tell him I mind raped you, just went in and sucked your brain out through your ear, whatever. Tell him the silver-tongued bastard he tumbled through the rip with did it out of spite because he'd flesh kissed his woman. I can't let you take this kinda weight, but I need to get back on my side to go up against him before I starve to death. I don't know... But baby, I can't leave you over here to get your head--"
"He will never believe that a mere unseasoned vampire--young Neteru hybrid could bend the will of a centuries' old goddess!" She walked in a mad circle. "You? A kid? Take my mind against my will? Oh, by the gods, be serious!"
"Damn, that hurt, sis," Carlos said, truly meaning it. He rubbed his jaw, contemplating the older woman who'd just told him something he'd never thought he'd hear a woman tell him with such unblemished honesty. It stung like a slap, but he still didn't want to leave her ass-out. "Well, still, we need a plan to keep you safe, so lemme go get enough juice to pull you through, and you lay low until we can sync up a signal so I can extract you, so he doesn't--"
"He won't kill me!" she shrieked, covering her face as her head dropped back. "He'll shun me!" Bitter sobs wracked her body. "He has the most brilliant mind in the entire kingdom! He won't touch a hair on my head." She wiped her eyes with both fists and then brought her voice to a normal, decibel. "He will very simply refuse to mind lock with me ever again. I will no longer be his friend. I will be denied the silver fire within his brilliant synapses... his voice inside my head . . ."
"Wow... he's all that in the head?" Carlos asked, gazing out toward the barrier.
"You cannot even begin to fathom where centuries have allowed his mind to go," she whispered. "To be denied that... he might as well take off my head when I go back to him."
"Well, if it'll make you feel better," Carlos said, almost speaking to himself, "he got all up in my woman's head, too. So, where I come from, fair exchange is no robbery."
"He did what. . ."
The low, threatening timbre of the she-dragon's voice held such quiet, unmasked pain and disbelief that Carlos looked at her but backed away. It had not been his intent to start any additional drama, and the comment was only borne from his own heightening insecurity of what a mind lock with Cain might have done to Damali. He was not playing games when he'd said it.
"Yeah," Carlos admitted, too weary to cover up the truth with a he.
"Had been coming to her for years, I understand, bringing her music, coaxing her gift... then finally found the rip, I suppose, and had her in his arms--in our fucking house... the only thing that I'm pretty sure didn't go down all the way was the flesh violation. But what do I know?"
Carlos's voice trailed off as he thought about it and remembered the erotic charge in the room. He balled up his fists at his sides as angry at himself as he was at Cain. He'd been the one to violate Damali's trust, not Cain, and her trusting, innocent heart was the most special thing about her. How many lies had he told that woman time and time again... ? She was right. From the drugs, to the vamp turn, to the throne elevations, to making Yonnie a lieutenant, to getting Damali pregnant at the vanishing point, to taking another tumble on Level Six, and doing Juanita on her back deck. If this older woman standing near him was right, and a soul and mind violation weighed as heavily in the higher realms as they obviously did, then he understood a little bit more now why Damali wasn't hearing shit from him.
"He gave her his music?" the she-dragon asked in a faraway voice.
Carlos closed his eyes. Mutual pain was