Carlos carefully appraised Damali, the pain in her eyes haunting him, but he couldn't look away from her. "There's only one, but it won't sit well with the group."
For a moment silence stood between them.
"All right. Talk fast, man. Lest we have to smoke you in here."
Nodding, Carlos began to pace, trying to shake off the effect of Damali. Shabazz had a point. "Yeah, Shabazz. You might have to - because I have to catch her when she drops - or the demons will get her, or the Vampire Council, or any other possible rogue vamps that want her. If she travels at a high speed with me - it will be directly to Nuit's door. But by then, I'll be in a very compromised state, and a weakened one. I'll be no match for him alone... and I don't even know if I can hold her - she's wearing silver."
The group cast stricken glances between them.
"Templar, can you do anything?" Carlos murmured. "If I drop her, the suit will only hold back a few vamps, but as you know, Hell is infested. She won't be able to find her way back to the portal. Eventually, if the Amanthras get to her and pull her in deep enough, the suit won't do shit for her."
Warily, the knight approached Carlos, glancing between him and the group. "On May tenth, Venus, love, and Mars, war, were in exact conjunction in a very rare celestial alignment during the Neteru-signaling period. It hasn't, and will not occur again for decades. We didn't know what it meant, in the midst of the other signs. Love would collide with war, we initially thought. But perhaps it meant aligning love within the same war. We can attempt a prayer, but only for her, that will also cover you... which might also help you keep focused. But we won't know if it works till she drops, or you touch her."
"I'll take the risk." Carlos turned, his gaze going past the Templar and the team of warriors surrounding Damali. Silver notwithstanding, her pull was incomprehensible. She looked at him and rocked his mind to semidazed awareness. Yeah, he'd take the risk.
"How fast to Nuit's door?" Damali asked, walking in a circle.
"Be still... you stir the air," Carlos hissed.
Everybody looked at him and she stopped pacing.
Carlos let out his breath slowly, and closed his eyes, unable to simultaneously process the sight and the scent of her. "Forty-five seconds. If you go by foot through the tunnels - it's still astral speed, just not as fast. Time is different down there than up here - seems like hours and it's only minutes. So be prepared for the time distortion. Any human in the tunnel, or nonsanctioned vamp, will be moving at topside time approximately ten minutes behind you... but anything human or otherwise without what amounts to an Amanthra passport will be attacked."
He stopped and briefly gazed at her again, having to close his eyes once more just to be able to speak. The sight of her in a body-fitting wetsuit, her locks down on her shoulders, her eyes boring a hole into him...
"Can we get you some water, or something?" Rider asked, shaking his head. "Damn. Hurry up and say what you gotta say. You're giving me the heebie-jeebies!"
"Damali," Carlos murmured. "If you come with me, you and I can take Nuit - "
"No," Shabazz said immediately.
"Definitely not." Marlene walked away and leaned against the far wall.
"What they said," Rider agreed.
"You must be crazy," Big Mike rumbled, shaking his head slowly, and then pounding J.L.'s and Dan's fists. "Must be missin' yo' mind."
"Hold up, everybody," Damali interjected. "If the silver doesn't maim him, the man can get me to Nuit with Madame Isis in hand in forty-five seconds, right? And he's not going to bite me, because he wants Nuit dead as bad as I do - Nuit did his family... so he's not going to bite me."
Again, the group's attention went to Carlos, who now opened his eyes.
"Can't promise that, baby. Never could."
Rider folded his arms over his chest. "At least the brother is honest. Look at him, Little Red Riding Hood. That is, for real, for real, the big bad wolf!"
Carlos just nodded, too ashamed to be able to do anything else.
"Then why is he here?" Damali started toward Carlos but he held up his hand and turned away.
"Don't."
The room went still again, and the blue-clad Templar stepped in between them. "His time to make a decision is running out and even he doesn't know what that decision will be. If he goes with the Vampire Council, he can have infinite power at the ground level. If he goes with Nuit, he will be a high-level advisor with a vast topside territory and daywalker power. If he goes with us, five mob factions, the FBI, and other police forces will hunt for him, or until they find his body... and that's only assuming he gets a chance to live. He might have to die if he becomes human again because the bite was so horrendous. And, once this double-cross is uncovered - both sides of the vampire empire and all its factions will hunt him till the end of time."
"Shit. And here I thought homeboy was holding aces." Rider shook his head and looked at Damali. "Don't even think about hugging him under these circumstances - not even to keep hope alive, as Reverend Jackson would say."
"Man, you got yourself in a totally f**ked-up position," Shabazz said. " 'Scuze me, all present. But, there's no other way to describe it."
"The tunnels," Damali said quickly. "If our men go in, led by Marlene, what advantages can we leverage?"