Marlene peered more closely. "Just came in tonight." She gingerly touched the still-warm print and jerked her attention up to stare at Damali. "Has Eve's signature vibration in it."
Damali flattened her hand on the page and closed her eyes. A mountain came into her mental view and she recognized it from an earlier vision, but this time landmarks surrounded it to add additional guidance. "The Chairman's lair... oh, my God... she actually met with him on my behalf. My destiny begins there."
Marlene's brow furrowed as she ran her palm over the ancient text, the slight brush of her hand making the secret alphabet sway and ripple as though riding on an invisible wave. "Part of it ends there, too." Marlene looked up. "Have you had any visions?"
Damali sat down slowly on the edge of the bed next to Marlene. "Yeah." Slowly and carefully she related how the cactus in her yard had transformed.
"I wonder..." Marlene said after Damali had finished, causing the young Neteru to hang on her every word. "Two things. You could be really angry at having lost the Isis long blade in large part because of Carlos, and that could be driving a wedge between you. I'm no psychologist, baby, but being with him did significantly alter your career path. You wouldn't be the first woman to harbor deep-seated resentment, even while loving a man, for something like that."
"I don't know," Damali said, studying her clasped hands. "Maybe. I've thought about it. But if I had to do it all over again for the same outcome, him being alive, I would."
"That's just the thing," Marlene said, her voice warm, and her palms covered Damali's. "It had to be done, you made the ultimate sacrifice on his behalf - gambled everything, gave up something that defined you, and he got to be redeemed, stepped into your space, your family, your team, and has the gall and audacity to have an attitude about things not going exactly his way."
Damali nodded fervently. "Ungrateful bastard."
"Ahh... now we're getting somewhere."
Damali smiled for the first time since she'd entered Marlene's room. "Okay, I got beef about a lot of things."
"You're glad he's alive, thank God that he is, but..."
"Yeah," Damali said, looking at Marlene without blinking. "But."
"Then, because he ain't feelin' no luv, and doesn't like the step down from the fabulous, he has the nerve to go out with his boy, Yonnie, and possibly get himself back into trouble again while the world is literally falling apart. All you can think of is all the changes you went through to save his sorry ass in the first place, and all he can think of is how much he hates that a woman had to be the one to pull his butt out of the flames. Which leads me to the second thing I was gonna say. Your energies got disconnected and you're no longer in sync, once the big crisis was over and it was back to everyday life. So neither of you was ready and in lockstep when this new serious challenge came down."
"That is it, Marlene!" Damali shouted. "That's it. In a nutshell."
"Whew," Marlene said, blowing out a hard breath. "If every world crisis could be so easily solved."
"But what about the clothes in the yard and this Himalayas stuff?"
"Were you angry when you doused his clothes?"
"Mad as Hell."
Marlene laughed. "Then, that's where you sent them, girl."
Damali's eyes opened wide. "For real?"
"You're full-blown Neteru, kiddo. You sent something back into the pit, put a fury topspin on it, and it's gone."
"Dang."
"Yep." Marlene grunted as she stood. "The Himalayas... hey. We go to the Chairman's lair and dust him, once and for all. Carlos doesn't have time to go through another month of training before he spikes, even though Tibet is where some real serious martial and spiritual arts masters reside. If he has to learn Zen principles and integrate his longings for his old life with this new one in the Light, what better place for him to learn in a hurry; he dang sure ain't absorbing what he should out here in Arizona. I knew that the moment we set foot on this land and stared at the house. Brotherman's jaw locked so hard I thought he'd chip teeth."
Damali laughed softly in relief, remembering the day well.
"Your long blade is missing and you saw it there," Marlene said, packing away her book and satchel. "Maybe that's where you guys will sync up, get back to the crazy normal y'all call normal. Who knows? Meanwhile, can you work on saving the world?"
"Road trip." Damali hopped up from the bed with a wide grin.
"When we receive a sign," Marlene said, her grin matching Damali's. "Let's not rush things."
"No, Marlene. Eve going into combat mode, risking a full seduction info siphon from the Chairman is a sign. Don't get it twisted. Girlfriend put a lot on the line, had to open old wounds to come away with that. I owe her. We all do."
Damali's expression went stone serious as she stared at Marlene. "We don't have time to waste; we pull out tomorrow - first light, hit L.A. to get a flight over to China. You and Dan make the arrangements; get J.L. to do it online, if you have to. But do it. Call Father Pat, too. Make sure we can get shots and all that, pronto, so we can pass foreign inspection, not that we'll need 'em if we don't succeed in this mission. Tell him to hook us up with a doctor from the Covenant that's already infected, so we don't hurt any innocents. And since we just got booted off Jose's property, if we survive, when we get back, we can figure out a more metropolitan place to live. Sound like a plan?"
"Sounds like a plan. A new location is definitely in order, if we get through this. It might be a good idea to compromise, too. Perhaps find a spot in L.A. that we can all live with, where the Berkfield kids can go to school during the day, even though Marj is doing her best to homeschool them. They're bouncing off the walls, poor babies, as is everyone else. Vamp incidents are at an all-time low, we haven't seen any crazy were-demon activity, and the Chairman is on the run. We can do a good job of throwing down a prayer line, retrofit a mansion, and get the Covenant brothers to add a little somethin' somethin' to the mix."