"Keep praying, don't leave off," Damali said, her voice getting louder with Marlene's.
Berkfield arched and gasped and the two golden healing serpents from the Caduceus exited his mouth in a swift, screaming blur, taking refuge under furniture. Immediately following them was something so large and angry that it split the sides of Berkfield's mouth as its dark head hissed and lunged forward.
Marjorie, Damali, and Marlene fell backward as the huge black serpent spewed from Berkfield's mouth in a seemingly endless length.
"Keep praying!" Damali ordered, calling theIsis into her hand.
The Caduceus snakes leapt at the massive black coils, but looked like garden snakes against an anaconda. Once outside of Berkfield's body, the thing kept growing, hissing and striking at the healing snakes, opening its cobra fan and baring massive fangs.
Damali backed it into a corner while Marjorie and Marlene kept vigil over Berkfield, who was vomiting blood. Guardian footfalls pounded the floors. Damali's blade chimed as she swung and dipped and dodged away from vicious strikes. She had to keep the thing away from Berkfield and the Caduceus healers, but it seemed to want in to Carlos's body in the worst way. The thing kept trying to maneuver around her until finally she took up a post at the foot of his couch.
"You can't have him, you bastard!" Damali shouted. "Prayer guards," she called over her shoulder. "Juanita, Heather, Inez, on post behind this sofa! Krissy, Bobby, help guard your father! Tacticals, where are you!"
A woman's scream and a baby's cry broke Damali's focus, as well as Inez's. In the split second they'd turned theirheads, the serpent lunged, struck Damali, and had her by the leg.
It lifted her, shook her, banging her from one wall to the other, trying to make her drop her blade. Feathers went flying everywhere. Plaster and paint flew off the walls and paintings fell with a crash as Damali was slung back and forth like a rag doll.But a huge black jaguar sailed through the window, and that made the creature drop Damali to the floor with a thud to turn on the lightning-fast cat.
The big cat released a threatening growl, blue-white static rolling over its coat in waves as it leapt, caught the serpent by the back of its neck, and tore into it with claws and teeth. Infuriated, the snake hit the wall to stun the jaguar and then turned on him when he fell. But J.L. and Bobby worked with Dan to get an energy band on it, lassoing its neck with a tactical charge while Damali struggled to get up. The downed cat slowly came to, transforming back into Shabazz. Rider and Mike dropped to one knee with Jose to open up rounds.
But the creature was shrewd, grabbing the sofa that Carlos was lying on, with him in it, within its coils. It brandished him in front of itself like a human shield to the gunfire, making the Guardians have to lay down their conventional weapons. Inez, Juanita, and Tara fell back, hurling razor-sharp knives that landed in the dark coils, drawing green ooze and demon screams, while Val dropped to one knee and assaulted the entity with silver arrows, blinding it in one eye.
It slung Carlos and the sofa he'd been in away angrily, turning first one way then the other, snapping and hissing wildly. Mike stomped the coffee table, splintering wood, and ran forward in complete battle lust, ramming the broken wood in its open mouth, then dove behind the overturned couch. In two seconds the entity had snapped the wood and was on a mission to get Mike. But when it turned in fury to go after Mike, it had momentarily turned its back on Damali. All it took was one strategic swing and the head came off, jaws open, falling, falling, covering Mike as he covered his head thinking he was a goner-but it all went to ash before it nicked him.
Guardians immediately went to the downed warriors. Jose and Rider had Shabazz; Juanita and Heather worked with Dan to get Carlos on his back and to make sure he was breathing. Damali bent over with both hands on her knees, heaving in air, theIsis on the floor by her feet. She looked up as Berkfield coughed and opened his eyes. The serpents from the golden staff had found their way back to the Caduceus. Her leg was bleeding but she didn't care.
Standing slowly, she trudged over toBerkfield, energy depleted, and lowered the Caduceus over his body. This time the healing rays turned golden green like they were supposed to, and the only sign of repair going on was Berkfield groaning as the sound of cracked ribs could be heard snapping back into place.
Sweaty, dirty, fatigued, Berkfield leaned over the edge of the couch and vomited, but drew a normal breath. Damali was so weary she couldn't even speak, and just patted his shoulder as she turned to go to Shabazz and Mike.
Mike stood and shook his head. "I'm cool.Just got a rug burn. 'Bazz is busted up kinda bad, though."
"I'm good. Just see if my man over there is cool. I don't like seeing Rivera out cold, ain't normal."
Damali touched Shabazz's head as Marlene went to him. "You've got a concussion. Might have whiplash, too . . . but that was an awesome shape-shift. Thank you."
"Old-school," Shabazz said with a smirk and then winced.
"I've got this-a concussion I can heal," Marlene said."Whiplash, too. We need to get Carlos conscious."
Damali shook her head. "I don't want anyone to touch him. I've gotta take him to the Neteru Council." All eyes were on Damali as she spoke. "That's what happened to Berkfield." She stared at him with a tender gaze. "Sometimes it's dangerous for a healer to go in. What attacked Carlos in that cathedral is way above any of our levels.Even yours, Richard. You have the blood in your veins, but because you were pissed off, once you drew that rage and hurt from Carlos, thinking you were just going in to help fix damaged organs, you got more than you bargained for."
She picked up herIsis and the Caduceus and went to Carlos and knelt beside him, then kissed his brow. She laid out the long blade and the staff as though he were a pharaoh and bent to brush his mouth gently with hers.
"It was beyond even yours," she murmured softly, stroking his hair away from his forehead. "That monster came up in a church.Robbed you of light.Took your hope.Which kills all dreams. Found the bitterness.Tapped into your worst fears. That's what weakened your shields, baby. You could've held that train, otherwise. Before all that, you were invincible."
There was only silence in the destroyed family room as she lowered her cheek to his chest, hugging him, wrapping them both in her wings. Tears of worry, outrage, and frustration rolled down the bridge of her nose and leaked from the corners of her eyes. Feathers were everywhere, a testimony of a battle hard-fought and possibly lost.
"You did what?" Nuit paced back and forth in front of his throne with his hands behind his back as Sebastian sat up tall on his with his arms folded over his chest.
"Yes. I raised Vlad's army for my councilwoman," Sebastian said. He looked atElizabeth and took up her hand, then kissed the back of it.
She coolly removed it and took up her goblet of blood. "But the losses were immeasurable. The Guardians were well fortified, and we underestimated their tenacity in battle. Next time, we will not be so unprepared." She shot Sebastian a meaningful glare and took another calm sip of blood.
"Perhaps, then, we should use more subtle methods," Lucrezia offered. "They are human, therefore must eat. Might I suggest poison? You did say that they had convened inunristorante, si? "
"Sei un bel genio,"Nuit said, bowing toward her with pride. He turned to Sebastian and the Countess, but addressedElizabeth . "With all due respect, Madame Councilwoman . . . that method has been tried and proven throughout antiquity as a very effective way to dispatch one's rivals. Given our current state of strained resources, it might work as an interim solution while we rebuild lost armies."
Elizabethsmiled and lifted her goblet toward Nuit and Lucrezia."Very wise. I may have to agree with you, Fallon. Your mate is a beautiful genius."