Once Father Lopez was squarely at Jose's back, Marlene began her inquiry again, pushing harder for answers.
"Red," she told Jose, "concentrate on red. Is it blood?"
"No, soft..." he said and sighed. "Satin and roses."
"Why am I not surprised?" Rider asked, blowing his breath out hard.
"Rider, please," Marlene warned. "Jose, baby, open your mind's eye wider. Let Father Lopez's energy help you. Work with it."
"It's all in the air... Neteru," Jose said, taking in a deep breath and shuddering. "Her skin is like butter... and her throat." He licked his lips, and squeezed his shut eyes tighter.
The group went still.
"Where?" Marlene's voice was strained. Her gaze bore into Jose as sweat coursed down the sides of his face.
Father Patrick put his hand on Marlene's shoulders. "Steady, Mar. You'll lose the connection if you panic."
"In the mansion - "
All of a sudden Father Lopez dropped his hands from Jose's shoulders and backed away from the group, hugging his arms about himself. "I cannot do it," he said, shaking his head. "No."
"What did you feel, or see?" Father Patrick asked.
"It wasn't what I saw," Father Lopez said quietly. "It was what I felt." He staggered over to the wall, and leaned against it. The front of his black robe had a darkening stain that spread down his leg.
The team watched horrified as blood splattered the top of his shoe and oozed out onto the floor.
"It's his femoral artery! Break circle! Now!" Rider yelled.
Shabazz and Big Mike leapt forward and caught Father Lopez before he hit the ground. They slowly laid him on the floor. Two Guardians held their hands against the wound, applying pressure to the young cleric's inner thigh. J.L. ripped off his belt, and tossed it to Shabazz. Rider held the cleric's head up from the floor as his Guardian brothers worked to stop the hemorrhage. Marlene kept one hand on Jose's shoulders, Imam Asula kept one hand on the other. Father Patrick and Monk Lin covered their fallen brother with prayers, while the rest of the team stood in the distance, poised to act but not sure what to do.
Snatching the bowie knife from his hip, Rider passed the blade to Shabazz, who pushed up Father Lopez's robe and cut a long slit in the wounded cleric's pants. There was so much blood, they couldn't see the extent of the wound.
"Get some holy water to clean the site," Big Mike yelled to Dan, who immediately dashed away and came back with a plastic jug from the weapon's room containing what Mike had requested.
Shabazz doused the wound. Father Lopez screamed and convulsed. Marlene gasped when she saw two puncture wounds on the young man's inner thigh.
"Oh, shit, he bit her!" Marlene shrieked, breaking the connection. "He's bleeding her out!"
"No he's not," Jose said in a low, sensual tone. "She bit him."
"What!" Father Patrick said, staring at Jose in shock. He looked down at Lopez and slapped his face. "C'mon, son."
But just as quickly, the two puncture wounds sealed and the flow of blood stopped. Slowly, Father Lopez roused, his face ashen before it flushed a deep red, his breaths uneven.
He crossed himself, and struggled to sit up. The other guardians helped him.
"Oh, my God! Oh Father Christ!" he said, his voice fracturing as he pushed hands away from him and made the sign of the cross over his chest again. "She bit me... never in my life - "
"Steady," Father Patrick said, soothing the distraught junior priest. "What happened? Tell us exactly what happened."
Father Lopez shook his head, and shut his eyes tightly.
"Please, son..."
Father Lopez covered his face with his hands and breathed slowly. "I am so ashamed. Don't ask me to tell you with a woman in the room."
Rider threw up his hands. "Y'all gonna make me start smoking again. I'll tell you what the hell happened." He raked his fingers through his hair, hocked and spit in the wastebasket. "Blood f**ks with my sinuses," he muttered, dismissing the group's glare. "She went down on hombre and took out his femoral artery at the moment of truth. Lopez and Jose were locked in on the master, not Damali."