"I'm from the coven of Jezebel - we go back a very long time." Lorelei stood, letting the sheet fall away from her petite frame. "Don't you know that all banishments have been rescinded, because the Darkness needs to quickly amass power?" Yonnie stared at her hard, but her information had stayed his leave.
"That's right. A spell by Sebastian got reversed in the realms. The Dark Lord is pissed, and he's calling his own home with more power. I'd heard through the grapevine that Nuit had tried to make you a councilman when Cain was temporarily installed. All the girls were looking for you to do the honors. I just found you first." He crossed the room, needing space to think. Dark coven witches were known to lie, that was their specialty, but the truth registered in Lorelei's statement like fresh blood. Yonnie
quickly opened his mind and concentrated, mentally seeing down vacant level after vacant level, the realms' portals wide open? He began to pace, rubbing his palms down his face. Carlos had bitten him as a councilman, elevated him to master - but had never relinquished the elevation bond. Each time Carlos went up in rank, so did he - when Carlos was chairman, he'd been a councilman and didn't even know it! How?
"Oh, shit..." Yonnie murmured, stopping by the window to stare out into the night. No wonder Nuit could only save him from Rider's hallowed-earth-packed shell at dawn, but not run him. They were peers. Equals. But when Fallon presented him to Cain, lifting the turn ban on him, so much chaos immediately erupted that no one, not even Lilith, had recalled Dante's old edict. The ban had never been reset He saw it all, even Lilith's installation - now also understanding why he'd spent days in an L.A. coven brothel tagging everything in there that he normally would have passed on. It also threaded guilt through his veins ... yes, Nuit might have played him, but he'd flatlined Tara while at councilmanlevel strength. No wonder his boy let her go into the Light without him. Tara was safer with Rider; he'd known that all along but it stabbed him.
"Where are you going?" Lorelei said, beginning to panic as Yonnie's form started to disappear. "I gave you something, good information, and fair exchange is no robbery!"
"I gave you something, too, bitch, so don't ask me for anymore." Yonnie's voice echoed into the room where he'd been.
"What was worth what I just told you?" she shrieked, raging around the room at the nothingness of Yonnie's mist that remained.
"About ten inches for twelve hours and your miserable life."
* * *
"right here, it says it," Solomon replied, drawing the Neteru Kings closer to the large, open, gleaming papyrus scroll before him. "I John 2:18, '... it is the last time; and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.' " He stood and looked at Adam and Ausar.
"Yes," Adam argued, "we have seen many in our vast times. Several attempts. That doesn't give us accuracy."
"No one knows the exact hour, just like their side cannot predict when our Neterus will be born. It was a clause on both sides that was agreed upon when the great bargain of free will was struck," Ausar said, looking at both Adam and Solomon. "We cannot act with haste on something so delicate."
"But when has there ever been a rapid trinity of An tichrists?" Solomon allowed the gleaming sacred text to roll up slowly on its own accord and sat back. "Think. Most re
cently, Dante, son of the Unnamed, rose to the earth plane... then one split off from Rivera's DNA and entered the sacred space, then Cain, until Adam's beloved wife beheaded him. If there was ever a time for our Guardian teams to remain childless, it's now."
Ausar closed his eyes. "One of Damali's Guardian sisters is late in her menses. This is why Rivera needed extra cover on his transport to courier his teammates to their parents for an after-the-fact union blessing."
"You know what Eve might have to do," Solomon said, his tone sad and heavy. "I bring this matter to the table at only the highest levels because the Guardian in question was
once of a dark coven."
"But she has redeemed herself through free will and pos itive actions," Ausar said, beginning to pace. "We cannot cast aspersions or hold on to the past that is no more."
"It will break my wife's heart," Adam said. "It would also leave Damali destroyed, after all that she herself has endured in said regard." He walked away from the archon's table.
"She, like Eve, would try to save it until they knew for sure."
"And by then it could be too late," Solomon said flatly, no judgment in his tone.
"A womb-purge is not in our province ... and even if the Queens performed it, how would we know? Would any of you want that on your heads? An innocent baby's life, like the days of old when Kings swept through their empires killing firstborn children?" Adam's impassioned plea made Solomon close his eyes. "Are we not seeing genocide in the Motherland now? Peer down from the table and witness the Sudan, my brother. I can point out more horror, but feast your eyes there, first, and then tell me to lobby this unnatural cause to my wife!" Adam walked closer to the wide marble pillars that rimmed the inner chamber and held on to one for support. "After losing two of her own, my Eve would never countenance such an atrocity without unwavering proof." The two Kings before Adam fell quiet for a moment, their expressions conflicted.
"For now we inform the Queens and simply watch the de velopments without action," Ausar said, quietly. "But if we see it enter the earth plane, we'll have no choice but to allow Hannibal to release the red steed."
* * *
the neteru guardians took the party to the beach and were even bold enough to build a fire. Their prayer barrier was set up like a big tent under the stars. Tactical Guardians kept authorities turning a blind eye to permits and beach cur fews. Carlos had brought in a full complement of grub and beer, from the Dungeness crabs and chicken that Marlene and Shabazz fussed about, to sweet corn on the cob and everything in between. It all went on the fire, got blessed, and happily consumed.
Greasy hands found guitar chords and bass notes, beat drum skins and ran keyboards - the music was consuming them as much as they'd consumed the food and beer. Every instrument that had been brought in and salvaged from the old Beverly Hills compound was treated to a warm reunion with its owner.
It was a defiant display of taking back the night. Those sifted with music in their souls searched for song hooks, rapped and wrapped sixteen lines and sometimes twenty-one around thumping refrains - the audience of nonmusical Guardians being just as important, all energy blending one mind. Enjoy life. Live. Give. Share. Rejoice. Appreciate. They called the present the gift that it was. They carried that message to the sky above as they carried on down on the beach, blanketed in the effervescent light of creativity, laughter, love, and family, barbecuing crabs and corn and washing it down with ice-cold brews. Who knew what tomorrow would bring?
They'd finally run out of energy by dawn. The fire was now just embers. Cities and countries had been roughly chosen. A general outline of a stage plan and a plan of action had been loosely mapped out. Dumpsters and recycle bins far away got several deposits. Slow-moving but smiling Guardians stretched and watched another new day roll in, feeling blessed.
* * *
"I saw him," Lorelei whispered into her crystal ball. Her beady little eyes were narrowed to slits as she sent the message into Sebastian's throne. "Where are you, Master? You're the only raised one left of the dark covens of old ... the rest have been turned to ash. We need your energy to continue to empower us. Now we all do your bidding." Receiving no response, she began to worry and she made her attempts more urgent as her coven sisters gathered closer.