"Awesome," she whispered, not sure she was ready to go near the staff until the energy within it settled down. But she took a deep breath, moved toward the now all-golden instrument, and closed her fist around the smooth, round crystal globe.
Instantly, she was moving fast, everything around her blurred white, and she came to a hard stop on a grassy knoll. Majestic mountains were all around her. She glanced up at the strangely vivid blue sky that had two suns, one unnaturally iridescent, the other bearing down radiant solar heat. She scanned the horizon and slowly but surely, the mountainside wall gave way to the presence of two huge, black onyx sphinxes. Did she fall into the Valley of the Kings, or what?
Her heart beat fast, her nerves were wire taut. Even with her blade and a scepter on her, it wasn't about standing around waiting for something weird to jump off.
"Cain!" she shouted, hoping that he wouldn't materialize as something really freaky she'd have to fight.
Damali waited as she heard leisurely footfalls. She listened hard. No hoofs, okay, that was a very good sign. Two feet, not panther paws or something whack. No bat wings or the sound of leathery flight, a real positive sign. She clutched her staff tightly with one hand and her Isis handle with the other.
But her grip loosened as Cain came out of the entrance of what seemed like a temple. All he had on was a sheer swath of white linen casually tied at his hip. His broad chest was bare, his locks clasped back in a golden, scarab-studded band, his smile a serious weapon right through here.
"You came to me?" he said, his eyes appraising her without censure as he raised one knee, placed his bare foot against the onyx, and leaned against a sphinx base.
"Uh, yeah," Damali stammered, almost unable to look at him, he was so fine. "We need to talk."
"Be my guest," he said, his eyes constantly roving over her as he pushed away from the statue, gave her a slight bow, and waved her forward to enter.
Still a bit skeptical, Damali maintained her distance as she passed him. But as she did so, she could literally feel the charge of pure rnagnetism wafting off him. It almost knocked her down when she entered his space, and for a moment she just stood and openly gawked, unable to hide her amazement.
"This is you?" she murmured, her eyes drinking in the splendor. The pool immediately caught her attention, and she glanced at the bed, felt her face warm, and stared at the columns and ornate pottery instead.
He chuckled low and deep in a sensual, relaxed manner. "This is a part of me," he said. "Come, sit down, and we shall talk."
He bade her to sit beside him on a white alabaster bench by the pool. She did, no longer feeling quite so tense. There was no way to keep her line of vision from his. "You have the most amazing eyes," she said, not sure where all that came from. But it was the truth.
His smile became gentle and he looked away as though her forthright statement had embarrassed him. "As do you," he finally replied. Then he chuckled self-consciously. "I thought you came here to talk?"
He'd made her laugh.
"I was all prepared to do that, and then you came through the door in a half-toga and messed me up."
They both laughed. She couldn't believe she was saying this stuff to him, especially when she was supposed to be getting hard questions answered... but she was actually flirting with him. Crazy!
"I was resting," he admitted with a brilliant smile. "After coming through the rip, and dealing with my wayward guest--"
"Carlos!" Was she outta her mind? She'd almost forgotten why she was over here in Nod.
Cain chuckled more deeply and sighed. "Yes. Him."
"Where is he?" she asked, now appropriately alarmed. If this brother was all chilled out after a battle and resting and cleaned up, that meant only one thing, Carlos was--
"No," Cain said calmly, taking her weapon and the staff to lay them aside in order to clasp both of her hands within his. "He went back home."
Damali removed her hands from within Cain's, and then glanced at the staff and her blade on the bench, wondering what in tarnation would allow her to let the man so easily disarm her. "How do I know that?"
"Would I lie to you, sweet one?"
She smiled. He laughed, sat back, and slung his arm over the back of the bench.
"First of all, you would not be smiling if you thought I had done harm."
Damali swallowed her smile. "All right, true."
"Secondly, you saw how we entered this space." He waited until she nodded. "We both needed to come to terms, he and I." Now she was really nervous. "And?"
"We did what irrational males do," he said, looking at her with a sidelong, sheepish glance and a grin. "We fought until we both were battered and very tired. Then we stood in the glen hurling insults at each other, attempting to catch our breaths. Then we decided that the whole ordeal was futile, and I invited him back to my home to clean himself up, change, and rest so he could go home."
She covered her mouth and laughed. "Stop playing."