"No, I don't." Raven laughed. "Be serious."
Damali watched for a strategic advantage. Marlene was not going out like that on her watch! Remembering every skill she'd ever learned, she lowered her weapon and laughed, using the strategy of guile as her mind siphoned the second-generation vampire before her. "What do you have on Marlene? Some petty bullshit? Pullease," Damali scoffed. "I am so unimpressed."
The female creature whirled on Marlene, abandoned her in rage, and took two paces toward Damali. Both Damali and the Raven held up their hands as their male teams tensed to mount a sudden attack. Damali shot Marlene a quick glance. If Marlene would just raise her ax, plant it in that bitch's back... C'mon, Mar, what's the problem? She'd take Raven, and then Rider and Mike could get a shot off. Damali kept her eyes on Raven and smiled.
"You're stronger than I thought... got a master's skills." Raven cocked her head to the side and smiled. "Then see for yourself, huntress. See if you can deal with this."
Damali had Raven in her mental sight, but was not prepared for the images that careened before her. Immediately pain, grief, emotional agony riddled her. She saw her father go into a lair and become hunted. Her mother was holding her as she wailed as an infant in her arms, and felt her mother's confusion, her rage, her pain of mistaken betrayal. The ritual. Then smoke. Her mother's throat was ripped away, tissue shredded, flesh leaving bone, her mother's face became distorted... her father... oh, God. Her parents had been turned. She clutched her blade tighter. "Oh, Mom... no. It wasn't what you thought - don't do it!"
Damali could hear Marlene yelling for her not to look any deeper into Raven's eyes. Needles entered her back - where her tattoo covered her spine. She was an infant, Marlene applied the protective emblem... a young, frightened, tearful Marlene put the Sankofa symbol on her as she wailed as a baby inside her head. Then Marlene abandoned her.
Swallowing hard, Damali forced the hurtful impressions from her mind. But the truth lingered long after the image was gone. Her parents had been turned. Marlene had given her over to foster care and had not kept her. Marlene's daughter had been bitten the year Damali had been found living on the streets. All this time, and Marlene had never told her...
"That's right," Raven said with satisfaction. "She gave your ass up," she said, pointing toward Marlene.
Do her, Mar... Damali's mind screamed, as Raven transformed into a large, sleek panther in an instant and made an immediate lunge for Damali.
Madame Isis sent off a chime in the wind as Damali swung it to match a clawed swipe from Raven. Rider's gun fired, knocking one of the beasts away from Marlene. The vampires disappeared as one of their squad began to burn, then angrily repositioned themselves after the shot. Damali swung her blade again, missing Raven, but she heard Marlene yell as a male vampire's fist connected to Marlene's jaw. Big Mike sent cannon fire above Marlene's body to give her time to retreat. They had to get Marlene back in the huddle before the vamps ripped her apart. Marlene swung her battle-ax, but there were too many around her. Yet, the older guardian was not going down without a fight. Marlene took her Aikido stance amid the growling forms. The first one moved, she swung her ax, hit a second with a well-placed kick, and backed another off of her with the blunt end of the weapon.
"Explosives!" Damali called, and Big Mike responded to the threat by hurling a series of holy water grenades at Marlene's feet.
Mike's cover had been just enough to give Marlene a narrow chance to escape to the safety of the team's hunkered down position, while Rider frantically reloaded his and Big Mike's guns - Raven circling and stalking Damali in a slow threat the entire time.
Using both hands to hold onto the blade, Damali quickly turned to address the threat that was suddenly at her back. The group of vampires dispersed and had her team surrounded - but she couldn't get to them, unless she put Raven down.
"Watch them die," Raven said, her tone taunting. "It's worse than being killed yourself... hearing the screams for mercy, feeling their panic."
Anger made Damali swing again, and she nicked the forearm of the thing that reached for her. Raven drew back, her body returning to human female form as she studied the smoldering slice, growled, then leapt. Damali spun away, her elbow connecting with Raven's rib cage from behind, which sent the creature hurtling forward. Fury immediately transformed Raven into the huge panther once more. Landing on all fours, Raven glanced over her shoulder, and as fast as lightning was rushing toward Damali again. Prepared for the advance, Damali spun, her thigh lifting to connect a solid boot blow to Raven's fang-distorted jaw.
But the quick spin made Damali fall - Madame Isis was a hand reach away. Raven leapt, coming down, as Damali rolled away, her blade back in her possession. The spilt second that Raven tilted her head as though listening for something was all Damali needed to get back up. Raven took human-vampire form, apparently saving her energy.
Good, she must be getting tired, Damali thought as she heard Dan yell. A holy water vial broke at Damali's feet, making Raven draw back far enough to be in blade range. Rider's gun had stopped firing, but Damali could still hear Rider, Marlene, and Big Mike's grunts of exertion as the team behind her battled. For a second her focus went to those she loved, and a blow caught her in the center of her chest, knocking the wind out of her as Raven's boot connected with her body.
Temporarily dazed, Damali maneuvered herself out of the way of another kick, but realized that when she'd fallen her body had gone in one direction, and Madame Isis had gone in the other.
"Now, whatcha gonna do?" Raven asked through a fanged smile.
Drawing the dagger from her waist, Damali circled the beast. "Kick your unnatural black ass, bitch."
Raven immediately transformed again, using the strength of the shape-shift to her advantage. Crouching low, the panther kept shaking its head as it approached stealthily forward. Damali could feel the adrenaline inside her connecting to tissue, blood, bones, and cartilage. Her hand was on fire from holding the dagger so tightly - the beast's head turned to look into the darkness for a second, which was a second too long. Taking the offensive, Damali rushed the creature, slicing at the paw that spontaneously swiped in reflex, and dropping the animal's limb.
Raven instantly transformed where she was on the ground, holding the bloody stump, screeching, and that gave Damali enough time to reclaim her long blade. The sound of Raven's wails made the other vampires look up for a moment. Rider got one dead in the center of its chest with a short stake produced from his jeans back pocket, and Marlene summarily beheaded it. Big Mike had thrown a sucker-punch, connecting with another vamp - sending it hurdling toward Dan, who torched it with vials that broke around it. Rider ducked as Damali threw the dagger in his direction, connecting to the center of a vampire at his back, incinerating it immediately. Her team was back in control, and it was on.
Raven held the dismembered stub and began to draw away, her spine smacking against a tree. Mike got two more of them in one shot from his reloaded shoulder cannon, while Rider claimed one surrounding Dan with an abandoned crossbow, and Dan hurled his last set of vials. The vials didn't break, but the leather strap tangled around the creature's neck. The vials dangled against its chest and burst into flame, consuming the screeching entity in a slow burn that reeked of sulfur. From out of nowhere, a new vampire rushed Big Mike, but Marlene planted her silver battle-ax blade in the middle of the creature's spine.
Immediately, Raven pushed away from the tree to give flight, but Damali took her out - right in the center of her chest.
Damali pulled Madame Isis out of the wood slowly as ash crumbled and fell away from the tree. Thick plumes of sulfur wafted in the air, and her team - coughing, dirty, and exhausted, came to Damali's side. She studied the blade and then stopped to wipe the black ooze remains on the grass and watched them burn.
"Something was calling her back," Damali murmured. "That's the only reason I had a chance a coupla times."
"Well, who gives a shit why, D? The fine point here, I believe, is that something called her away." Rider picked up the small dagger and gave it to Damali, wiping off the muck on it with the bottom of his boot.
Damali nodded as she stood, accepting Rider's simple assessment.
"Might have been guardian angels, li'l sis, who knows?"
Damali glanced at Marlene for a moment and then looked away. "You should have told me, Mar." Multiple emotions zigzagged through Damali's thoughts. Her team stood still, listening to the quiet.