"Mar, listen," Damali said slowly. "He upchucked green bile, which, given how much he'd probably thrown up already, and what he drank last night, made sense. But the smell..." Damali wrinkled her nose and shook her head, almost tasting the putrid stench on the back of her tongue as she remembered it. "I took everything, even the bathroom sponge, out into the yard, and doused it. Holy water, oil, salt, you name it. If it was in my cabinets, I beat it back with what you'd given me to protect the house. The shit smoked, the ground opened up, and sucked it down, and then the earth closed over like nothing had ever been there."
"Have you been with him since all this happened?" Marlene began to pace. "Not that I'm in your business, girlfriend, but - "
"No," Damali said quickly. "I hear you, and no."
"Good. Maybe you'd better hold up on that until I can divine something more on the situation."
Both women stared at each other for a moment.
"That's not gonna be a problem," Damali said, her tone distant and sad.
"We'll find him," Marlene reassured her.
"That's not what I'm talking about," Damali said, her eyes seeking Marlene's for understanding.
"Oh," Marlene said in a quiet voice. "Since when have things cooled?"
"Since we got back from Philly. A couple of times, yeah... but, it wasn't the same."
Marlene held Damali's gaze, but kept her voice tender. "Why, baby?"
"I don't know," Damali said with a sad smile. "I was hoping you could tell me?"
Marlene chuckled softly. "I can tell you a lot of things, and see a lot, too, but that I can't divine for you. Your heart knows the answer, so talk to me."
Damali let her breath out in a rush of frustration, blowing a stray lock up from her forehead. "Marlene. ... I don't know. I've been stressed, with all this stuff that's going on, worrying about how to keep the uninitiated members of the team safe, the moves, everything. I'm battle-weary."
Marlene shook her head to signal she wasn't buying the explanation. "No, girlfriend. I hear you about the stress thing, but - "
"I know, I know," Damali said, holding up both hands. "All right, here's the deal as honestly as I can tell you." She looked away, finding a benign spot on the wall. "I go to hug him, and I tense up. He goes to kiss my neck, and I freeze. There's this deep-down revulsion that I have to get past; then I have to hide that away in my head, black box it, and then talk to myself while he's holding me to remember, this is my friend, my man, we've been through thick and thin, he loves me, I love him. I've got so much chatter going on in my head that by the time everything is over, I just feel relieved, then want him up off of me and out of me as soon as possible. It's all I can do not to dash for the shower. Now, I know I'm wrong, crazy, it makes no kinda sense... and Lord knows, I'm - "
"Stop beating yourself up, right this minute," Marlene said in a firm but gentle tone. She walked away from Damali and went to the closet, found her big satchel, and extracted her huge, black book. "When are you gonna learn that you can come to me with anything, chile? I'm female. I've been there. And every time I have been, my gut instinct was never wrong."
Again, there was a long pause as their gazes and minds connected.
"I just figured..." Damali's voice trailed off as Marlene shook her head. "Maybe I'm reacting to the contagion, or it's affected me in some weird way?"
"I know how you feel about Jose," Marlene said bluntly. "Know how he feels about you, too. No matter. But he's a carrier, and you respond to him. Your body is functioning normally. It's your head or your heart, maybe your spirit link with Carlos. I don't know."
Shame made Damali's face feel warm. "I don't wanna talk about... let's just focus on Car - "
"Girl, please," Marlene said in an exasperated tone, dropping her satchel and the Temt Tchaas book on the bed. "The man is fine. Jose is crazy about you, always has been. Y'all are tight, thick as thieves. You guys practically grew up in the compound together and share so much in common. You have a pulse, so, chile, an attraction is normal. Been there, too. Recently." Marlene looked away for a moment, but returned her gaze to Damali's. "But, the thing is, you have a line, he has one, too, and you've both elected to honor it. Cool. My lips on that are sealed; ain't my bizness. So, Jose hooked up with Juanita, even though she's a piece of work... but has a good heart down deep; and you've hooked up with Carlos, who also has a good heart - down deep."
Marlene stared at Daman intently. "Now, pound for pound, round for round, given the real special connection you and Carlos have, I'm not understanding what's ringing your alarm bells. The man ain't been nowhere, ain't been with nobody but you."
"I know," Damali said quietly.
"He hasn't flagrantly relapsed, yet. Hasn't said or done anything any more or less annoying than the average male, has he?"
Damali shook her head.
"So, I can get with fatigue, general purpose not feeling romantic due to lack of privacy and chaos - oh, yeah, been there. But revulsion - your word not mine, seems a little extreme. And all of us who have been infected have heightened libido to the point of the ridiculous, not lowered. I could understand if you two couldn't get out of bed to make decisions or address this new threat. That would make sense, given how this mess is manifesting in the household. But you're telling me you're revolted by the love of your life? Uh-uh. Something ain't right."
"I know," Damali whispered, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "What's wrong with me, Marlene?"
Marlene flipped open the book and began furiously turning pages. After a while, she sat down and sighed. "There's a lot in the book, honey. You're a huntress, with vampires as your primary target. You've mastered dealing with that entity. Know werewolves and incubi pretty good, too. I'm looking at your living history, and it stops dead here," she said, placing a finger on the page and turning the book for Damali to inspect.
"The Himalayas? C'mon, Mar, what's that got to do with what we're talking about?" Damali leaned in and sniffed. "New information burns."