"Marlene is very wise," she said, covering her lack of involvement. "Mar, take it from the top, slowly, so I can really think about it in another light."
"The girl's in a near-trance," Shabazz said, standing. "It might still be in here."
Marlene simply stared at Damali for a moment, but was gracious enough to oblige her request. Both women knew the deal, she hadn't been listening.
"Did it physically manifest and contact you audibly in any way?" Marlene's penetrating gaze locked with Damali's.
It took Damali a moment to respond. This was the moment of truth. Was she going to give up the tapes, or not? Not.
"Like I told you, I just felt a presence," Damali said as calmy as possible. "A current rippled across the surface of the water and blew the candles out. That's when I wigged, jumped out of the tub, grabbed my blade, and sent a premature SOS. That's all."
Although her story was plausible, the eyes around the room didn't seem like they were buying it. Father Patrick's voice broke through on the speakerphone, adding to the challenge.
"The current, child," the elderly priest said through the technology, his tone strained, "was it a dark one, or blue-white in nature?"
"Blue-white," Damali said quietly. "It was all good."
"Yeah, darlin', but what made a battle-seasoned vet like you wig from blue-white light?" Rider asked, his eyes holding both sadness and worry.
Damali shrugged. "I was tired, not prepared for a guide or any spiritual anything. I just wanted to relax in the tub and chill. So, when whatever it was tried to contact me, I sorta lost it."
Jose nodded. "Been there. Look y'all, maybe this was just a fluke. Seriously. D's been through a lot, like we all have. Everyone of us is gonna have nightmares and day jitters from time to time."
"Post-battle stress syndrome, most likely," Big Mike concluded, and relaxed. But he gave Damali a look as though he'd heard a lie in her voice.
"Well, I for one think this poor girl has been through enough to turn her hair white," Marjorie agreed. "If I see a shadow in my own closet, I'm ready to jump out of my skin."
"You sure you wanna be over here by yourself, kiddo?" Berkfield asked, his tone concerned and parental. "We've got a couple extra suites in the house, and you can always come home for a few, just until the heebie-jeebies wear off."
Damali let her breath out hard. "No, y'all. I'm all right, and I apologize for the alarm. I'll be cool here."
"I don't know, D," Jose hedged. "We know you need your own space, but sometimes a dose of family is good for the soul." He stood and began to pace. "I know it's hard to create in the household chaos, but the studio is soundproof. We all miss you, maybe think of it as a week's vacation and just play it by ear for a short visit?"
"Jose has a point," Carlos said, nodding as he went toward him to pound his fist. "My joint is too far from the group, and even though I don't think anything would be stupid enough to try to roll up on me in it, there could be times when you'd be in there by yourself. Somebody is always home in the house." "Right, D," Inez said, throwing her two cents into the pot. "Girl, listen, I'm still not right with all this mess we're living with. I wouldn't mind being your shadow."
"Me, either," Krissy said, glancing at J.L.
"Think about it, D," J.L. said, leaning forward with his hands open. "If anyone would know, Father Pat would know," Bobby said, raking his hair.
"Father Pat," Dan said, looking at the speakerphone. "What's your take?"
"I agree," Father Patrick replied, his gruff tone more of a command than a simple affirmation. "Better safe than sorry. Something within you sensed a Level-Seven vibration. I'm still a little jittery from it myself."
"Then it's settled," Carlos announced, folding his arms over his chest and looking at Damali hard. "Pack some--"
"It's not settled until I say it is," Damali said very quietly, very firmly, and never blinking as she stared at Carlos. When was this man going to learn that she was grown and not his property? She could feel the old resentment from earlier that day creeping back into her and firing up defiance. If she'd just flowed with her emotions, she would have laid the entity in her bathroom and this conversation wouldn't be taking place!
"Damali is grown," Juanita said, coolly entering the fray. "If she feels comfortable here, so be it."
Damali stared at Juanita. Of all people, Juanita was the last person she'd expect to have her back--albeit for her own selfish reasons. But Juanita didn't need to say a word to her. Fight adrenaline brimmed within Damali as her gaze narrowed by a hair. Yeah, that heifer didn't want her anywhere near the group house. There wasn't enough room in the mansion for the both of them; that was a fact. And Juanita would be sweating her and Jose while they were trying to work. Jose knew it, too.
New tension riddled the group, keeping everyone quiet for a moment. Before she could form a snappy comeback, a slow awareness dawned within Damali.
How many times had Juanita or Carlos broken up the groove on a jam session? How many .times when she and Jose were fusing, rockin', creating the most awesome sounds, did one or the other of those two nonartistic types have an issue, or try to sabotage the connection by creating drama, and pulling them away from what they were doing? And, perhaps more importantly, how often did she and Jose allow it?^Suddenly her muse's complaint began to make a whole lotta sense.
"You might have a point, Jose," Damali said, ignoring Juanita and giving crisp credit to the only person in the room who'd asked her without commanding her. She held Jose's line of vision, totally cutting Carlos out of her gaze as though he wasn't in the room. It grated her the way Carlos came at her, demanding. Fuck all that, she was her own woman. "A week, jamming, having some free mental space to create, get my head back into my music, might not be a half-bad idea."
Jose smiled. "Take it a day at a time, D. No pressure. You get back into the studio, start working again, soon you'll get caught up in that, focused, and your nerves will calm out. That's probably all that's wrong with you... I know I need to do that, too. Been away from my music for too long."