The guardian team cast a glance at Damali, who cleared her throat.
"Yeah, well, we had an issue... uh, go ahead. I'll explain later."
"Yes, we knew of this issue, and that is why we were here. But many creatures immediately drew to the darkness. Thankfully, they were wary of the perimeter, and it kept them at bay. We waited," the man in blue said, still trying to catch his breath. "Then we realized there had been a breach of the fortress when the lights went out again, and the dark entity that had been inside your compound sanctuary fled. But we couldn't tell which entity it was." He looked at Damali hard. "Neteru, were you harmed?"
"No," Rider said casually, "just had her mind blown for a minute there, but our girl regrouped."
"Shut up, Rider," Marlene snapped.
"Praise Allah," the Moor said, relaxing his hold on his machete.
"Good. Praise the Almighty," the blue knight added, letting his breath out hard. Relief visibly washed through the two warriors. "Then it went deep into the woods across the road - we didn't give chase because there were too many of them. But we could hear his howl for miles. We weren't sure if it was wounded, or if it was gathering more forces. So we prepared to battle within the perimeter of your lights." The knight looked at Damali squarely. "If we are to die, so be it. We do so with honor. It is a privilege!"
"The bastard wasn't wounded, per se," Rider quipped. "But she did get him in the heart. Homeboy was in agony when he left here, that's - "
"Rider! Watch your mouth in front of clergy, for starters. And we can do without the comic relief," Damali snapped. "Let the man continue." She folded her arms and tried to steady her breathing. She could only pray that these guys didn't have a seer in their group. She was still struggling to bring her thoughts under control.
"He attacked you... You got him in the heart?" the knight asked, looking at his brethren, confused. "But it didn't die?" He cast another glance around at the other armed cleric. "If you drove a stake, or the Isis, and it was able to still move, then we're dealing with something now, that... I understand now why the warrior angels told us to stay by your side. To answer your call. They said you wailed in abject defeat, and that we had a Neteru down... slowly losing hope, faith... maybe even love. They left us, didn't even disperse the demon line - just said, 'Have faith.' The dark line retreated as soon as the one maimed stopped howling. We waited until we thought it was safe to approach your door. Oh, Neteru, but we were obviously too late."
The Covenant members hung their heads, their weapons held in relaxed grips as they stared at the floor.
"The angels heard me cry?" Damali then covered her mouth and closed her eyes. This could not be happening.
"Always, Neteru. Your tears are diamonds. Your heart holds light. Your words are a beacon. Your thoughts have power. They heard it all. They sent us, but we're too late."
"Can we just stop beating around the bush with these guys?" Rider asked as he walked around in an agitated circle. "Everybody always says, 'Rider, shut up.' But I think this is one time that a straight without a chaser approach is called for. Geeze Louise."
Marlene nodded. "For once, I agree with Rider."
Rider opened his mouth and then shut it, and raked his fingers through his hair. "Gee, Mar... now I don't know what to say."
"Damali let it in here, because she trusted it - it wasn't her fault," Big Mike said in his deep, soft voice.
"He had us all going for a moment, and even duped us with phony maps of Hell. Can you believe it?" Shabazz said, the anger clear in his tone. "We all dropped our guard, so Damali isn't at fault... silver-tongued bast - I mean, devil."
"That she trusted him, like that, had our poor sister in tears," Jose said, shaking his head. "She deserved better."
"Wait!" the knight said. Both Covenant soldiers seemed to revive as they passed excited glances between each other. "You say he brought you maps?"
"Yeah, but they burned," Damali said quietly, her gaze going to the window as she turned toward it. Having the light shine upon her most private weakness made her feel too open, too vulnerable, and it was still so tender a wound. "It was only an illusion."
"You said that the Neteru had injured it, had struck it in the heart?"
"Yeah," Rider said on a long breath. "The guy had a thing for her - before he was turned - and crossed the threshold on her invitation." He gave Damali a sideways glance. "Then he gave us the maps, explained all this bizarre stuff about Hell... am I allowed to say that word in front of you guys?"
The knight nodded with impatience. "Just speak, man! All of our sensory capacities are overloaded after our encounters with the beasts."
Rider looked at the group with a sheepish expression while Damali walked farther away, her arms wrapped around herself.
"Okay. So, we were all reading the phony maps, and he kept looking at her like he'd eat her alive - and we now know that he will - so we were on guard because something was fishy. Then Damali went to him, hugged him, and, I don't know how to describe it." Rider raked his fingers though his hair again while walking and shaking his head. "She kissed the sonofa... she kissed him," Rider sighed, checking himself, "and he snapped."
Damali's team nodded as Rider opened his arms, using his hands to talk.
"It was like, wild. He grabbed her, laid one on her like I have never seen a man kiss a woman in my life, the maps burst into flames, our alarm system went into a frenzy, she was crushed against the wall - trying to scratch him to get him off of her - then he took a chunk out of the wall with his claws!" Rider pointed to the wall where five grooves remained as evidence. Satisfied when all heads turned and then looked at him again, he pressed on.
"The girl was in shock, I tell you. She couldn't breathe and the SOB hit the lights so he could get out, passed our sprinklers, which initially wouldn't respond. J.L. was going nuts at the panel, trying to get our shields back up. It happened so fast, not one of us could get a shot off. Then Marlene took her - because he howled and poor Damali had this dazed look on her face like she might go to him. With me and Shabazz and Mike holding her, I thought we were going to have to put her down. But thank God, she came to her senses." Rider was breathing hard and his voice became quieter as he took a breath to deliver the last part of what he'd witnessed. "Then, we heard her sobbing... I never want to hear her cry like that again. I'll kill whatever tries to take our baby sister there."
All of the members of Damali's team nodded their silent agreement with Rider.