"He's Cain," Damali said quietly. "That's who came through."
Eve just looked at her f<?r a moment, too stunned to even remove her hand from Damali's cheek.
"My son? My Cain? That's who came to you?"
Damali nodded and stood as Eve's hand fell away from her face. "Oh, Eve, listen, I'm so sorry... I wasn't trying to stir up any old hurts, or rub salt--"
"Oh, my God," Eve said, standing quickly. Tears were in her eyes as she walked in a crazed circle around Damali, half-laughing and half-crying, her hand intermittently covering her mouth. "You called for an honorable male Neteru, and the Most High sent you my boy? My baby? Oh . . ." Eve drew in a shaky breath. "They've released him? My child is coming home from Nod?"
Before Damali could respond, Eve had grabbed both of Damali's hands and pressed them to her bosom then to her lips as tears rolled down her face. "Eons. I knew he had it in him to change. I never lost hope, even while I bitterly wept the loss of his younger brother. I had lost two sons, not just the one, and my heart was shattered." She hugged Damali so tightly that Damali could barely breathe. "You have answered my prayers. Oh, Damali, love and light. Whatever I can do for you as your mother-in-law, just name it." She kissed Damali's cheek hard and then held her away. "Tell me, what does he look like now? Is he still tall and handsome? He is such a good man, now--I must believe that."
In that moment, Damali knew Marlene had been right. Eve was way past conflict, she had no objectivity whatsoever. So Damali dug down into her core and gave her queen a small sliver of hope, feeling that was the least she could do.
"He's tall and handsome and seems very honorable," Damali said quietly, watching silver tears now stream down Eve's beautiful cheeks. "He said, 'God bless my mother, she has endured much.'" Damali stopped speaking when Eve covered her mouth with both hands to hold back a sob. "He still bears the sword of Ausar. They didn't give it to Carlos when he was elevated to the position . .
"Did he come to you in pilgrimage robes or armor?" Eve asked in a quiet, strained whisper, her third eye glowing violet as she tried to see her son through Damali's eyes. "Both," Damali said, omitting the circumstances. "First with humility, then--"
"In full battle armor tp protect your honor." Eve nodded and paced away to lean on the huge, flat rock where they'd been seated. She seemed to be nearly faint with pride, holding herself up by a very slight margin.
"But, Eve," Damali hedged, not wanting to hurt her queen. "I'm not sure who sent him."
Eve snapped her head up and looked at Damali with a question and pain in her eyes. "Damali, the man has served his sentence. I know who his father was, and what terrible thing he did--the whole world knows that. It was my mistake, not my son's, so do not blame him for my error. But you yourself have forgiven a drug dealer, a man who drew his own brother into a dark life, a life that consumed them both, made them both vampires... Alejandro was slain by Carlos's own hand, too, but you were able to forgive that and love him just the same. Carlos already had a chance to be by your side, but by your own admission, he desecrated your love with your own Guardian sister! Foolish. Leave him, and move on with the more honorable man. The decision is simple."
When Damali didn't immediately answer, Eve clasped both hands together and brought them to her chest. "Please, for me, offer my boy a chance at redemption and happiness." She looked up to the sky. "The prophecy states that you and a male Neteru are to be one, united, and sire together the greatest Neteru ever made." Her line of vision went back to Damali's and held it. "You and my son... my Lord. A combination that even I dared not dream."
Nervous sweat filled Damali's palms. She'd bow at Marlene's feet, when she got home, and would go prostrate on the floor in front of her mother-seer for calling this one.
"Queen Eve," Damali said slowly. "It's not that cut-and-dried. The terrible tsunami ripped open a hole in the fabric of the universe. I don't know if Heaven sent your son, or if my call, as a Neteru, simply allowed him to be able to bypass the energy barriers to it. He seems like a wonderful guy, don't get me wrong, but you and I both know what the situation is over in Nod. If I mess up, and have accidentally called him out, and if he isn't clear about which side--"
"He is clear!" Eve shouted. "The Light wouldn't have allowed the rip or him to hone his vibrations to your voice if he were not ready!" Eve walked a hot path back and forth before the flat rock. "Do not toy with his emotions, Damali. He has been through a lot, and any indecision on your part could be the thing to send him over the edge and back to his old ways!"
"I understand, my queen," Damali said calmly, fighting the impulse to just up and run back through the violet light. "This is why we must all be sure." She kept her tone humble, her eyes on Eve, her demeanor calm but firm. "My fervent hope is that you are correct. But now that Carlos is trapped over in Nod with him--"
"Carlos went through the rip? How?" Eve stopped pacing, her eyes holding an expression like she'd been struck. "He has to leave my son alone and go back to his side! There can be no altercation while Cain is on parole."
"They already got into a fight; that's how it happened. When they collided and took a tumble, and--"
Eve leveled a finger at Damali, pointing at her so intensely that blue-violet light flickered at the tip of the digit.
"My son," Eve said in a low, lethal tone, "has been incarcerated in a realm that is devoid of sensual stimulation for years. He lived a full life on the planet as a man, sired children, had many wives. Then, he died. But reincarnated in Nod with full recall of all of those earthly sensations so that he would learn self-discipline, honor, selfless sacrifice, and you would bait him into a fight with a half-vampire, half-human male Neteru while he's apexing!"
Violet flames covered Damali's chest and fanned out to paralyze her before she could turn and run. "I didn't bait him, Eve, I swear. What had happened was--"
"You called my boy to you through song--my poor male child--who has a weakness for music, like his father, into your company, my passionate son, my virile son, the one who takes after Dante's propensity for sensual excess... you call him sweetly like a lover over the barrier of Nod, but not sure if you would yield to him... after millennia of not being with a woman in the flesh and allow another Neteru challenger to--" "Eve, I swear to you . . ." Damali's voice trailed off as the elder queen materialized an Isis blade in her hand and leveled it at her heart.
"My son," Eve said, walking closer to Damali, shaking her head with tears of rage in her eyes, "who has pure royal vampire strain all through him--you would allow another male with Council-level vampire lineage to make my boy produce fangs!" Damali shut her eyes tightly as the hot edge of the Isis pressed against her windpipe. She could instantly taste the electric discharge coming off of it on the back of her tongue. "Why do they always blame the woman?" It was the only truth she could quickly tell Eve to keep Eve from cutting her throat.
Damali panted as the steel edge of the blade suddenly yanked away from her skin. Eve lifted her chin and swept away to stand by the water, her back to Damali but her blade readied. The energy field around Damali vanished, and she dropped forward on her hands and knees, coughing, and speaking to Eve in a gravelly voice.
"Queen Mother, please hear me," Damali said, standing slowly as Eve's tight grip on the extended Isis made it vibrate in her hand.
Eve glanced over her shoulder at Damali and then turned away from her as she drove the blade into the sandy shore. She continued to give Damali her back as she stared out at the water. "Speak."
"I did not call him by name," Damali said plainly, rubbing her throat. "I called for the positive attributes I described to you. That's possibly a good sign, since that's what manifested him."
Eve nodded and wrapped her arms around herself, but didn't speak or turn to look at Damali.
"I was angry, as I told you," Damali said, hoping to at least get Eve to see her point of view, even if the woman didn't agree with her decision--whatever that might finally be. "I had been traumatized by what I saw with Carlos. Even Carlos said there was some type of black smoke--"