Instantly nude, their sweat stained the sheets silver and gold, his throbbing length poised for entry just as his incisors lowered in wait for the plunge. Her head was spinning and pleasure had created a near blackout as he slid against her wet slit with hot friction, but didn't penetrate her. She could feel her spirit giving way as her hands slid up his massive back, setting off a low, aching resonance within them.
A loud gong rang out and jerked their attention toward the entrance. The unmistakable sound of both feathered and leather flight made them both sit up quickly, as Cain materialized his sword in his hand and growled.
"What is it?" Damali said, unknown terror making her heart pound. In a snap, she was clothed and the Isis was in her grasp. It was impossible to catch her breath.
"Human barrier breach!"
CHAPTER ELEVEN
T he entire team watched in horror from the other side of the thick, unbreakable glass as the men who had questioned the Guardians relentlessly turned Marlene into a lab rat. On one side of the glass in a stainless-steel observation room, the team was tethered to chairs and taunted by a voice over the ceiling speaker. On the other side of the glass, Marlene struggled against restraints, but had a bit in her mouth and her hands covered in iron boxes to prevent a psychic discharge.
When the scientists had done that, the team looked at each other, a strange calm befalling them. If they knew how to neuter Marlene's powers, then these boys had obviously been investigating the paranormal, in depth, for quite some time. This was not simply Homeland Security run amuck. It was something just as bad, if not worse.
"Still don't wanna talk? Still don't know how they go through the gates?"
"We don't know what you're talking about!" Shabazz shouted. "You motherfuckers hurt her, and it's all over!"
"Well, until someone knows anything useful, we'll have to try to see if we can break the code using the one with the most psychic ability, and then work our way backward. Reverse engineering," the disembodied voice said from the lab. He lowered his surgical face mask and pressed several buttons on a control board that the Guardians couldn't fully see.
A team of white coats hovered near Marlene, watching her vital signs, computer readouts, and managing equipment that not even J.L. had ever encountered.
Marlene's strapped-down body began moving into the black mouth of a large tube that resembled CAT scan equipment. The gaping dome flickered with an eerie bluish electrical current that finally made her disappear.
"Marlene!" Shabazz's wrists bled with deep gashes from constant struggle against the restraints. Then suddenly he became still, popped the nylon, flipped a chair, broke it in one kick to create a weapon, and was summarily shot in the chest with a tranquilizer dart from across the room.
Mike was up in seconds. Pure fury and brute strength popped nylon, creating another raging bull that went down hard--but only after two darts struck his chest and thigh.
Yonnie lifted his head from Tara's throat as she slowly sat up. "Carlos is outside, and I ain't never heard an SOS like this from him."
Within seconds, both vampires had dressed and cleared Gabrielle's barriers to meet Carlos on the front steps.
"What's up, man?"
"You gotta get Gabby to work up a divination," Carlos said, his voice laced with panic. "Damali is gone. I had to regen. Couldn't get to you earlier to even send a signal. Phones are tapped; didn't wanna risk calling Gabby that way. I came as soon as I could. The team's house has been ransacked. There's a tear in a new realm we just saw--"
"We don't need Gabby for that shit, brother. Me and you can go down there and handle that shit. We'll take out--"
"They have perpetual daylight over there, man." Carlos began to pace. "Two suns, twenty-four/seven."
"Oh, shit, man... You start the big one, or what?" Now Yonnie had begun to pace. "I ain't no punk or nothin', but if you're talking warrior angels, man, I don't know."
"Naw, man. That's not where they're from."
Carlos and Yonnie stared at each other for a moment as Tara drew near to Yonnie and protectively held him.
"The only reason I'm here and asking you to get anywhere near this situation is 'cause we family," Carlos said. "I ain't trying to get you and Tara directly involved or possibly smoked, but could use a master's sensory lock to work with mine, if that's possible. I'm getting conflicting sensory data. Like, I just felt a serious panic surge on the team. I know they're in a human lockup somewhere, but that's the crazy thing. I know they ain't dead, but it's like they're in some kinda black box. I just came back from somewhere that none of our people had gotten sucked into, but now I'm feeling both Damali and another female team member over there."
"Man," Yonnie said, rubbing his chin as Tara melted closer against him for support. "If it's a divine realm with perpetual light, me and my lady can't--"
"I know, I know," Carlos said, beginning to pace again, "but that's why we need to talk to Gabby. I didn't just bust into her joint and ask her directly, because I didn't know what kinda clientele she was servicing tonight, and I ain't got time for a side battle over dumb shit. This ain't Heaven, and it ain't Hell. So I'm figuring maybe she can whip out her crystal ball and do an oracle-type thing."
Yonnie nodded. "Yeah, man, c'mon in. We family. Stay strong," he added, pounding Carlos's fist.
It took everything in Damali to keep up with Cain. Her density differential and the stress of what had just gone down was seriously slowing her up. Cain got to the ravine first, blade drawn, and backed up several hissing predators from the sky. She went to cover the ones with white feathered wings that were on the ground, body-shielding a wounded human beneath them.
"She breached our realm; we did not drag her through the barrier!" two aerial attackers said. "The human encroached. That gives us eminent domain over the carcass."
"Be gone!" Cain thundered, the gleam of his sword pushing them back.