Damali looked at Marlene. "When we get back, I need to fill you in more. You and I have to talk."
"For sure," Marlene replied, her intense gaze boring into Damali's.
"Like Jose said," Big Mike repeated, gaining a nod from Berkfield. "We ride."
"Old squad," Shabazz said, motioning to Rider, Big Mike, and Berkfield. "We take our lead tracker, audio sensor, and a healer, along with Damali, our lead seer. I've got your backs as lead tactical sensor. J.L., Jose, you two stay here on monitors and as a nose to be sure nothing untoward blows through this door. Dan, you're on ammo with Jose. Mar and Marjorie will be in here as senior and junior seers to pick up anything before it even shows up on the radar. The rest of y'all chill and stay strapped with a weapon until we get back."
The lights of the family house were like a beacon. All that he cared about, all that he loved was at risk. He wanted this nightmare to be over. Tonight. Waiting was out of the question. Damali hadn't answered her door, and he knew where she was - home, with the others. A place that he could no longer go in his condition.
Carlos wiped his face with both hands and walked down the steps into the front yard. He paused as he passed a blackened section of grass that had not been there before. He stood still and sniffed, and a rank metallic smell entered his nose. He rounded the small patch of pure darkness and then stooped to further inspect it. Something magnetic drew his arm away from his body, made his fist open, and invited his fingers near the patch of sullied earth. He immediately knew what it was; the place where he'd vomited, where his clothes had been deposited in a trash bag in the yard... where the earth had swallowed his dark essence back down into the pit.
And she'd seen it. Had anointed him. Damali had witnessed all of this and still came back into the house to allow him to lie in her bed, trying to heal him, purge him? He owed her more than an apology.
"Oh... baby..." he whispered into the night. "You still had my back. I should have never doubted you." He stood and walked around the dark patch, closing his eyes as he considered the enormity of her love. She'd kept his secret, always had, and had tried on her own to bring him back before alerting the team. She knew he was turning back and had something else too horrible to name within him.' She'd felt it, but never disclosed it. She had also held him in her arms, but simply couldn't get past her inner alarm barriers. Nothing was wrong with her; it was him. Now he understood it all.
Renewed panic entered him as he opened his eyes and glanced back at the lit house in the distance. If all he needed to do to put this to rest and keep the team safe was to deliver the book to angels, then that was a small thing, at least compared to what could result if he didn't.
The pull to the black circle became stronger, almost a lure, and with Damali on his mind, he stepped into the center of it. Instantly the ground gave way, yawned, and sucked him down, burped, and then closed over him.
Rider stood in front of Carlos's wrecked Jeep, sending a UV halogen flashlight beam onto the doe, and then neared the dead animal. He drew in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and shook his head. "Wasn't Rivera," he said, disgusted.
Damali touched the animal's throat, peering at the gaping puncture wounds. She measured the bite marks with her forefinger and thumb. "Too small. This isn't Carlos's jaw range. It's - "
"Female," Rider said, flatly. "Goes with a tracer of lavender that I'll never forget."
"Tara?" Shabazz said, nearing the carcass. He spread out his hands and then pulled them away from the animal as though it had burned him. "Definitely female vamp vibration."
Mike cocked his head to the side. "Incoming," he muttered, and spun in the direction of the bramble a few feet away.
Tara walked out of the darkness. Her shadowed form remained partially hidden until Rider killed the lights. This time, without Yonnie there to immediately observe, she allowed her gaze to appreciate Rider fully.
Old memories died so hard, as did one's soul. Every facet of him took her back to a lost oasis in her mind. He still had that sinewy, lanky build, and gorgeous hazel eyes, even when they flashed in her direction with anger. There was a quiet passion beneath his hard gaze, just as the way the muscle flexed in his jaw told her all she needed to know. He felt it; she felt it. Maybe one night; but not tonight. She breathed in his earthy scent, picking up his adrenaline-laced blood, and watching his nostrils slightly flare to breathe her in, too.
She wanted to whisper to him that it had been a long time, but thought better of it. She allowed her mind to scavenge sensations from memory... his rough, guitar-calloused hands, and how wonderful they felt gently caressing her skin. The warmth of his body, the exacting rhythms of his deep breaths when he was in her arms... and the impassioned sound of it when it hitched just behind her ear. His hair, his laugh, his wit, his touch... his good heart. A thousand years would never replace the loss. She loved him so, but had hurt him so badly that tears rose to her eyes in the dark. Yet, there had been no other way. One more kiss, one more night, and she'd turn him. That couldn't happen. He deserved better, and she loved him enough to set him free.
"I'm sorry that you all had to see that," she said quietly, her eyes on Rider, meaning more than the bleeding deer. "It was my intention to remove the animal before you did, but the trooper and the old man arrived before I could."
For a moment, he just stared at her and then sent his line of vision toward the dead doe. "Nice to see you again, too, Tara," Rider said in a tight voice. "How've you been since last night? Guess you can tell we've been just peachy."
"Rider, listen," she said gently. "I - "
"What's to listen to, darlin'?" Rider snapped, cutting off her statement. "You had to eat, jacked up our boy in the process, but he's only a human. You got our near-apex male Net stashed in a the DAMMED love lair, or did you have him for a light appetizer, maybe the main course? Or did you save the big game for Yon - "
"I don't know where Carlos is. I didn't send the deer into his windshield, either. It was running from my hunt and froze in Carlos's path. Before I could help him, a bright light sent me back and away. I was temporarily blinded, and I don't know what happened. I needed to feed once the light receded, because I'd been rendered blind. I was injured! Do you understand?" she said, her voice as brittle as Rider's. "I didn't call Yonnie to help me - out of respect for this land, and for you."
"This is getting us nowhere," Damali said, giving Rider a look to tell him to chill. Hummer headlights made everyone's faces seem elongated and eerie, but she shook the dread. If lights came from the sky and chased a female vampire away, then it stood to reason that Carlos was still in good graces. She hoped. Damali turned her attention to Tara. "Can you track Carlos now? Are you all right?"
"Thanks, Damali," Tara said in a huff. "Yes. I am fine. I've healed." She scowled at Rider, and then addressed Damali again. "But I could not locate Carlos, even after the light receded. I fed as quickly as possible to regain my sight, and then began to search for him. I was frantic. That's why I left the carcass, hoping he might home back to it, if he was experiencing a relapse. Then the sheriff came before I could dispose of it and I had to conceal myself. When I saw your Hummer approach, I was hoping we could search for him as a team." Tara had let the offer dangle, placing extra emphasis on the word team.
Damali nodded. "Let's do that, then." She looked at Tara, then at Rider, before glancing at Shabazz and Mike. "We all have to pull together on this. If one of our team is out there and down, time is of the essence - given what else might be out there." She stared at Rider hard. "Tara just confirmed that Carlos didn't relapse. This was her kill. However, she and another member of our team have superior night radar and range."
"Rider, man, we ain't trying to rub your nose in the situation," Shabazz said carefully, "but Carlos's boy can cover more ground in the air with Tara than we can on foot or even in a vehicle - plus he can pick up a human blood tracer faster."
"Word," Mike said, adjusting his semiautomatic. "But it's up to you, brother. Respect."
All eyes were on Rider. He hocked and spit and walked away toward the Hummer.
"Call the sonofabitch," Rider muttered. "Just keep that bastard out of my face."