hundred demon births a day and she took that from me. From us. Work with me, husband, to protect what we have left in Nod. That is multiple surprises for the loss of one."
He lifted his head and stared at her, nodding, his eyes glowing black as his fangs slowly lengthened. His vertebrae quickly elongated, his tail now twining with hers in a feral, serpentine dance. He winced with unconcealed pleasure as she climbed up his body and wrapped her legs around his waist to mount him.
"So be it," he whispered sensually. "Then, for now, we'll be even."
CHAPTER ONE
Tahiti...
He was lacing up his Tims in the living room of their ho tel suite by the time Damali opened her eyes, struggled to sit up, and half-stumbled through the doorway to argue. But there was nothing she could tell him. None of this was up for debate. It was a knowing that slammed his core, sat him straight up in bed, killed his libido, and sent him over the edge of the mattress, ready for war. Never in his life had he been so sure about what he had to do. What hit him felt like a white light ning charge direct from the archon's table of old.
He'd mentally sent the call out to the brothers already. Twelve days of bliss and the honeymoon was over. The meeting was already scheduled - 2100 hours, sharp. Nary a man in the joint objected. They all knew what time it was. It was about protecting theirs -
if the world got saved as a fringe benefit, cool. They all had something serious to lose. A preemptive strike was in order. An unmistakable energy jolt, throne level, had run up Carlos's spine, just like it hit Shabazz's locks and f**ked with Mike's hearing in a low, re
lentless buzz. Dan and J.L. felt it no differently than Rider and Jose smelled it. Pure sulfur was rising.
Carlos stared at Damali. She lifted her chin and folded her arms over her chest. He would not be moved. Fine as she was, standing there half-naked and draped in white silk, that was the primary reason he was gonna do what he had to do. Unlike all the times in the past where the team sat back, hid, waited for trouble to come to their door, this time his squad was going in to blow the roof off the mother - first.
"So, I guess there's nothing I can say to you?"
"Nope," Carlos muttered, pulling his foot down from the white wall and collecting a snubnosed pump shotgun off the coffee table to stash in his long, black leather coat. Damali stared at the huge boot print he'd left on the wall for a second and sighed hard.
"Don't you think we should have a full team meeting about this?" She stepped away from the bedroom door, worry blotting out the fury in her eyes.
"Nope."
"Well, at least won't you tell me where y'all are going?"
"Nope," he said, hoisting up an Uzi to sling over his shoulder.
"Stop," she said, walking deeper into the suite, now talk ing with her hands. "Team protocol. One half of the team will not know where the other half is - not done, brother.
And you all just can't up and leave Tahiti on a dime, no explanation, no nothing, Carlos!" He stared at the door. "You'd better go put some clothes on before the brothers get here."
"Carlos Rivera, are you listening to me?"
His response was very simplistic and to the point as he went to the door. "Nope." Big Mike was two steps from the door as Carlos swung it open. Carrying a shoulder launcher, Mike pounded Carlos's fist.
"Ride or die, brother," Mike said in a low, ready-for-war rumble, and then nodded toward Damali. "Evenin', D."
Consumed with frustration, she raced into the bedroom, grabbed a T-shirt and her jeans, and hurriedly threw them on. She looked at her ten-carat engagement ring and matching diamond-studded wedding band and sighed, then slipped them into her small front jeans pocket. Clearly, the honeymoon was over for everybody, and there was no sense in getting her rings fouled by nasty demon gook if she had to go to war. Men! They'd lost their minds. She came out of the bedroom like a bee had stung her, just in time to see Rider roll through the door with Shabazz, both giving Carlos a silent fist pound and her a brief nod as though she were a civilian.
Shabazz slammed a clip into Black Beauty, his eyes ablaze, locks lifted off his shoulders by two inches, blue arc crackling. Rider's forearms bulged as he carried some thing ridiculous that looked like a custom-made Gatling gun. Damali's eyes tore around the stone faces, hoping that the younger male members of the team would bring some sanity to whatever had set the senior brothers off. But as soon as Jose rolled through the door with a red bandana tied around his head, wearing a long leather coat, toting a crossbow with a snub-nosed welded to it, and J.L. stepped in behind him looking straight Samurai, her hopes considerably dimmed. By the time Bobby and Dan came in, she'd sat down heavily on the edge of the nearby dining room table.
Dan strolled in wearing a leather coat that swept the ground and clutching dual AK-47s. Bobby gripped handheld Ingram semis in both hands. Berkfield was with them, his seniority providing no rational balance whatsoever. He was strapped with grenades on a flak-jacket vest like he was going to 'Nam and carrying an M-16. There would defi nitely be no reasoning with them.
"I got black-box vamp on all scents coming off artillery. Everybody's ammo demonreadied, hallowed-earth shells and shit?" Carlos asked in a low rumble, gaining nods all around. "Then let's do this."
"Hold it, hold it, hold it," Marlene yelled, running down the hall, br**sts bouncing, barefoot, wearing only a purple lace-and-satin robe. Her eyes wild, she circled on Shabazz, breathing hard and pointing at him. "Not after all we've been through, and not without saying good-bye - ever."
Marjorie was on her heels, her eyes frantic, as she clutched the front of her pink silk negligee closed. "Richard, have you lost your mind?" For Damali, it was an out-of-body experience. She knew the delay might take a few minutes, but she wasn't even wasting her breath to argue. These men were already as good as gone. She knew her husband. There was that certain look that Carlos got in his eyes that she'd come to learn - that "no means no" stare. She sighed as Inez burst in behind Marlene and Marj, trying to make an impact against a stone wall. Before her girlfriend opened her mouth, she could tell by the look on her brother Mike's face that, audio-sensor
or not, he wasn't trying to hear it.
"Baby, don't do this.... Listen, we can figure out a plan, a team strategy," Inez said, tears rising quickly as she whirled around in a white silk teddy, vastly overexposed. "I heard you all the way down the hall talking that ride-or-die mess." When he didn't move, she threw her arms around his waist.
"Suga, stay with 'Mali, hear?" was all Big Mike said as he peeled her away from his body, brushed her mouth with a kiss, and gave her a gentle bear shove toward Damali. Stunned, Inez hugged herself and went to Damali, whispering thickly, "Say something to them, girl!"