"Better question might be," Marlene said, going to her black bag, "what swept that realm away and why?"
"God," Father Patrick said without hesitation. "You do not breach those barriers--ever."
No one moved on the team. All eyes were on the telephone. No one even blinked, much less breathed for a few seconds.
"God?" Damali finally whispered.
"Yes," Father Patrick said in a loud, booming voice. "Him." "Okay, okay, okay--wait!" Damali said, now circling the table like a madwoman. "If this entity came from the Land of Nod, which is in some kinda parallel dimension that ours can't see--and the scientists were using light-bending technology to try to break into it--that has to mean it's from the upper realms, right?" She didn't wait to let Father Patrick answer. "So, if this thing breached God's barrier and came out--"
"It is in serious conflict with the Most High for the offense," Father Patrick said. "Which put? you, and all of us, in a precarious position if you aid and abet it. Neither the Neteru Councils nor the Covenant can get involved in going against the law of the Most High--ever. The only way we can get involved with breaching Nod is if there is a clear and present danger to earth and it's sanctioned. We must wait for a sign."
"Whoa," Damali said defensively. "I said a prayer for it to come out, not a ritual from---"
"You said a what!" Jose was now walking in an agitated circle.
"Later we discuss it," Damali shouted. "Not now!" She returned her focus to the speakerphone. "All right, Father Pat. If this thing came out of a dimensional rip that was already there, caused by a natural disaster that was strong enough to stop time for a few seconds, make the earth wobble on its axis, and to literally shift the north and south poles by a full inch, maybe it isn't in conflict and didn't bust out of cosmic jail, so to speak, but just walked through the opening."
"We'd better hope so," Father Patrick said, his tone strained. "Do you understand the significance of this realm that sits between Heaven and Hell and mirrors our gray zone of choice on earth?"
"No. Talk to us," Damali said, leaning against the weapons table to keep from falling down.
"I can only speak from biblical references, not scientific ones," Father Patrick said slowly. "But in the Old Testament, after Cain slew Abel, God asked him, 'Where is your brother?' To which Cain flippantly replied, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' And then--"
"Oh, shit!" Damali jumped back from the table.
"What, what?" Rider said, also beginning to pace. "D, make it fast. You're compromising my bladder, kiddo."
"He said, 'This time, detriment of my soul, I am my brother's keeper.' And when I asked him who his brother was, he said, Carlos--and I thought it was a male Neteru thing he was referring to, and--"
"Holy moley," Rider shouted, slapping his forehead.
"Do the genealogy," Marlene said, dropping her bag on the weapons table with a thud. "On the female Neteru side, we know who sired Cain with Eve."
A few seconds of silence brought a unified response. "The Chairman."
"Lucifer's son," Father Patrick said. "Don't forget, before his fall, Lucifer was the most gorgeous of all the angels, with the most melodic voice, also known as Prince of the Airwaves, with a stronger version of every seduction skill embedded within his son, the Chairman. Dante was to be his secret weapon, but acted prematurely in the Garden. The one we try not to name has that heightened sensual capacity, which was passed down the line with everything else, containing more guile, political treachery, and power lust than is probably even known by the vampire species. The grandfather to this being is master of master vampires, and heir to the Prince of Darkness was the Duke of Darkness, Dante--
also known as the Chairman, who begat Cain. Third removed is diluted, but comparatively speaking, a fraction of dilution does not account for much, given the lineage."
Damali found Rider's toppled chair and sat down hard, panting into her hands to keep from fainting. So much tension wound around her spine that it felt like it could be pulled out from the top of her skull.
"Then girlfriend's sensory instincts obviously kicked in correct," Shabazz said, now pacing with Rider. "She put out an all-points bulletin, a psychic SOS that said she'd been visited by a Level-Seven encounter. Like I was saying back at her condo, something deep went down, blocked her from telling all. But the instant Level-Seven alert with a direct call to Jesus makes a whole lotta sense to me now." He glanced at Marlene with a slight apology in his tone. "Maybe it wasn't nobody's fault, if that's who came calling."
"No wonder baby girl wigged," Big Mike said, his body thudding against the wall like he'd been punched. He looked at Marlene. "You had to be possessed, Mar, and must be missing your mind for keeping something like that from the old heads on this team. But I can understand it now." He glanced at Inez and then lowered his gaze. "And if that's the type of energy that was rolling through the compound, guess can't nobody be mad if anybody choked on spitting out critical info."
Berkfield nodded and rubbed his palm over his scalp as he glanced at his wife and then down at the floor. "Yeah... sorry about jumping to conclusions. Guess we were all feeling the effects, or somethin'."
"Damali straight up called for a black-hawk-chopper extraction when it first went down, man," Jose said. He looked at Damali, trying to send an apology to her with his eyes. "If something funky was going down with her and Carlos, and she got pissed off, and maybe asked for somebody who'd understand, and this thing showed up with that much juice instead... hey. Could happen to anybody." He sighed hard and cast his gaze toward the speakerphone, seeming contrite but more worried than before. "But how could a prayer directed toward the Light get deflected all the way down there?"
"That's the conundrum of it all," Father Patrick said slowly. "I don't think it got deflected or intercepted by the darkside. They can't simply snatch a prayer like that, unless the prayer had darkness threaded within it. It's wrapped in Light. Cain is not the Antichrist. He's human, or was human, while he lived on earth. Like his grandfather, he had no problem with daylight and isn't sterile. He doesn't reside on Level Seven any more than you or I do. He killed a man, who happened to be his brother, and is serving time, but he hasn't been rendered vampire sterile, isn't the living dead or an immortal demon, and doesn't have the blood hunger. The Chairman was made sterile, with all the vampire powers and limitations of sunlight depravation, by his father, Lucifer, upon almost prematurely beginning the big war between realms through his escapades in the Garden. But Cain has sired normal human infants with no more or less proclivities for evil or violence than any other human being."
Damali closed her eyes. Her prayer was more like a rant, a dark and vengeful wish, than anything else--and the dark side snagged it. She knew that fact like she knew her name.
"Must be the solid topspin from his mother's side," Shabazz muttered, worry straining his face as he stared at Damali.
"Yes," Father Patrick said. "On the maternal side, there is Light and humanity, human genetic foundation. He is half Neteru, and half something I don't want to consider. However, it states it clearly in the New Testament, I-John: 3:12, 'Cain comes from the evil one.' Yet it also states within the biblical texts that, after Cain was discovered and God's wrath was upon him, he begged not to be banished fearing those in the Land of Nod would kill him. To which God assured him that he would not die from the hands of those in Nod due to His mark upon Cain."
"I know the story well, Father," Marlene said. "Grew up in the South, in church, but with all that was happening here, I didn't make the connection," she said quietly, looking at Damali until their eyes met. "We thought he was the muse of music, and never dreamed . . ."