"This woman," she said, her voice rising on each word until she was
shouting in rapid-fire, broken sentences, "who, regardless of what she remembers or not... the same one who balked at my command of this team from the moment she set foot in our compound, gave me nothing but attitude way before you got possessed, and then went down on you, easily I might add, with no resistance in her. This is the chick I'm not supposed to feel any type of way about? When I could easily throw up every one of Jose's honorable deeds in your face, too, tit for tat, but this man never crossed the line, never challenged your position with me or your authority, and never went beyond the established limits! Even after you told him he could be with me, asked him to if you died, you selfish sonofabitch!"
"That's enough," Carlos hollered. "You need to watch your mouth and stop cussing at me!"
Damali wiped her palms down her face as rage made her body tremble. "Oh, shit, Carlos, you did not go there and tell me not to even talk about how I feel about her way down deep because you don't think I should? Are you f**king crazy! When conversely, she never respected me, you never demanded it from her, just let the bullshit fall where it may, never checked her quietly, discreetly, for the sake of Jose's pride, and left me to always have to suck it up when I should have kicked her narrow, disrespectful ass right after we did Philly! Oh, my God, oh, my God! I can't call this chica out of her name, even in here with you-- in the bedroom, supposed to be our sanctuary--and you're defending her to me? Oh shit! I have to respect her when she's always got something snide to say to every command I give this f**king team! I'm supposed to be cool, always, not lose it, not even knowing you seduced Juanita into doing something she wanted to do for your horny ass anyway and in my house and was gonna make a--"
"Damali, sweetheart, please, for real--"
"The onliest reason I haven't yanked her out of the compound by her hair--the same hair you were running your hands all through when she was on her knees--to beat her ass in the yard is for Jose's sake. Every time that heifer cuts me dead with her eyes, every time she makes a side-out-the-neck sarcastic comment, every damned time she gives me her ass to kiss like she knows a secret that I don't, I am ready to draw blood. Do you know how dangerous this shit is and how close to the surface it is under my skin?"
Damali paced back and forth like a trapped panther, visibly so angry
that a shape-shift was not out of the question. "If Hell was to snatch me now, they wouldn't have to pry to get to this emotion out of me. I'm so mad at you, Carlos, I'd slap that bullshit you just tried to hand me on the table and would tell 'em, 'Gentlemen, let's deal'--that's how angry I am! Own it! She's working my nerves, so you'd better fix this and get her straight!"
"Juanita acts the way she does sometimes, not because she remembers what happened in the house in Arizona, D, I swear," he said quickly, beginning to pace in front of the bedroom door. "It's, it's because she and I used to deal, and she's jealous of what Jose used to feel for you, maybe stills feels a little bit--plus, you got to both of us, him and me, and she's feeling--"
"Fuck what she feels!" Damali pulled her hair into her fists as she glared at Carlos. "She can feel any way she wants to in the quiet of her confused mind--but she's gonna feel my foot squarely up her ass if she challenges my command in front of this team ever again! Got it?" Damali let her hair go, folded her arms, and took in deep breaths with her eyes closed. "When she's feeling scared, girlfriend is all about feelin' me out there kicking demon ass--ask her how she would feel if one night I wasn't feeling up to my Neteru self and stepped aside to let something horrible yank her ass down to Hell." Damali opened her eyes. "Ask her that for me, will ya?"
"You know that's wrong, D," he said, new worry hitching his voice. "You wouldn't do that, baby, would you? That would compromise your soul. You know that's wrong and dangerous to even allow a mind as strong as yours to think something like that."
"Then you could come down there and get my soul, if I lost it, right? Or you could go rescue her out of the jaws of a huge, dangerous, feeding Amanthra. You da man. After you saved us both, we'd be so grateful we might hook a brother up with a three- way... you could definitely hang, and she and I could sing two-part harmony--too bad you're not still apexing, but it would still be awesome, and then she and I could kiss and make up right there on your f**king lap," Damali said between her teeth, coolly appraising his groin for the slightest twitch of interest.
"Damali, don't even play like that. Come on now, you have to let this old relationship me and Juanita had go." "Why?"
Carlos paused and drew in a shaky breath. "Because I let what you and Jose had blooming go, D, when you put his blanket in your cedar chest--which, by rights, you shoulda given back, but I let that go because all of us are cool now, and, see, baby... c'mon, now. She don't remember. She just acts funny sometimes because she's probably wondering what mighta happened if she and I coulda stayed together, or if Jose hadn't had a jones for you once, which I know she can sense, so you pop off her deep-down emotions, is all it is, and sometimes that gets the better of her, and--" "Total disrespect," Damali said in a near whisper. She looked up at him, pressed both hands over her heart, and leaned forward, eyes blazing. "But I'ma let it ride. Not for you, not for her, but because my Guardian brother would die a thousand deaths if he knew, and the team has to function as one. This mess with you and her goes to the grave with me and beyond it,for him--not your ass. Hear?"
Oh, he'd heard her all right, and her tone scared him. Everything between them now hung in a fragile balance, and he didn't know how not to trip over the thin filament that was wired to emotional C4. Yeah, he knew exactly where she was right now. The problem was, he didn't have an answer or any smooth bullshit to tell her to bring her down, and all her points hit too close to home. Plus, it had been confirmed in his mind, something more than Damali's temper was at work here.
"It was out of my control, something had me, baby," he said, fatigued. "I don't know what else to say to make this right."
"Then if I ever go there, and tell you something had me, and it was out of my control, then this conversation will be moot--since you've been here more than once. Since I've sucked it up, more than once. And if I ever happen to accidentally get myself into a compromising position, you'll be able to forgive and let live, like nothing ever happened, right?" Damali's hands were on her h*ps again as she nodded and went back to staring out the window. "Okay. Fair exchange is no robbery. Duly noted, Mr. Councilman. Peace."
"I wish you wouldn't call me that," Carlos said in a quiet, urgent tone. "I'm not in that life anymore, and I'm a Neteru with just a little of the old vamp in me, but not like before. I work for the Light, and we're on the same team."
"Yeah, right," Damali said flatly.
Her words trapped him in the bedroom; he might as well have been hanging on the Chairman's torture wall getting his guts ripped out. "You know I love you, girl."
"And what dat mean?" She walked a hot path before the window. "Oh, you love me. Wasn't thinking about that when Juanita was on her knees between your legs, did ya? Oh, you love me. Didn't think about that shit when you lured her to my house. Did ya? You really didn't think about that when you asked her if she wanted to make a baby, did you?"
If Damali would just take a breath and stop... He began gesturing wildly as he tried to say what needed to be said. "No, baby, see, I didn't lure her to the house. She was still feeling the charge from the night before when I'd just come back up from the pit--and, what had happened was--"
"But you love me. Right. All right. Then I love you, too. I guess she's also still head over heels, literally, even though she doesn't know why. I got it." Damali's hands went back to her h*ps as her gaze narrowed on him. "I'm cool. It's squashed."
"If, if--listen--if there's anything still resonating in her, it isn't from that--it was from before when I was with her and human." For all the fluent, smooth vamp still lingering in him, or just general regulation street smarts, as a man he knew inherently within his soul that no male entity on any level could go up against and come out on top of a female verbal beat down. He'd almost started stuttering as he'd spoken, which wasn't him at all under any circumstances.
"Her recall had been erased when it went down--in fact, it's not her fault at all. For real, D. Don't carry that back to the house and start no mess with 'Nita--"
"Oh, so now she's 'Nita, not Juanita. My bad. I stand corrected. Why don't you just call her your boo from now on? You can tap that ass whenever the mood strikes you, and I won't have a problem with it. Bite her, too, for all I care. Serve her two inches in the jugular and let Mar purge her after you're done. We ain't married. Right? The vamp bond don't count in the Light, so hey. What it mean?"
He could feel beads of sweat begin to form on his brow. His palms felt moist. "The girl was under the influence, like I've been trying jp get you to understand. She's only human, and--"
"Well so am I!" Damali shouted, losing it as new tears of rage formed in her eyes. "I might be a Neteru, but I'm also human. And female. That shit keeps replaying itself in my head, Carlos. All I can see is the chica giving you a b**w j*b on the porch of my house. Fuck all this Jerry Springer shit, demon-inspired or not. I'm out."
CHAPTER THREE
Beverly Hills, California