"Don't wake Shabazz up, yet," Rider said quietly, standing over Cain with a stake gripped between both hands. He looked at Jose. "This one and Mar. Together. She's nearly dead, already. He bit her. It's the only way."
Rider raised his stake high above his head, coordinating his timing with Jose's. Bobby wiped at his face and turned as Dan stalked away with Yonnie to avoid watching. Krissy's head went to J.L.'s chest. Juanita drew Marjorie away from the pending gore and held her. Inez dropped to her knees and hid her face in the crook of Big Mike's neck. Tara turned her back and set her sight on the moon and then shut her eyes.
Carlos nodded and found the distant tree line. Dark entities blackened the sky. Seraphim tried to rally around her, but were outnumbered and had to pull back. A golden rod and her Isis blade stabbed and cut at slashing tails and wretched claws. She was female. She was flesh. She was meat. She knew the imperative encoded in demon DNA, Carlos had also taught her that--fuck it, feed from it, kill it. Not today!
The golden staff became a goring rod, spilling hybrid demon guts and blood as it plunged in and out and left entrails; her Isis a master decapi-tator, blazing, singing, filling the air with thuds of demon death. Her golden stick doubled as a nemesis blocker, wielded with everything Marlene and Shabazz had taught. Deft Capoeira ducks, fluid Aikido leverage pivots off winged bodies, the ground, the ravine wall, energy and adrenaline shooting through her system as a flip dodge, land hard, get up quick, keep moving, side to side, rock hop, crack skulls, take heads without names. "Back off!"
Energy waning, but just get to a light band, snap off the energy, add it to her own, then... free-falling?
She was moving so fast that air left her lungs. Impressions, her name being called within a nearly dead mind. "Marlene!"
Still fighting. Navajo shaman chants running through the ground into the soles of her feet through her sandals. She could smell vamps surrounding her. Her ears ringing with Marlene's mental wails of agony. Spinning on many bodies everywhere. Back 'em off. Oh my God, they'd killed her mother-seer! They'd all die for that. Mar, Cain were down, "Back the f**k up!" Blade raised, Isis ready to take another head--no problem. Mike was down, body count. Shabazz was down, oh, she would kill these beasts!
Clarity.
"Stand down," she yelled, knocking Rider out of the way. "He's clean!" Her attention pivoted. "Jose, are you crazy? Put that weapon down!"
"He bit her, D!" Carlos shouted, grabbing her by the arm and receiving a hard elbow to his ribs that backed him up.
"No, I was there on the other side with him! He performed a tracheotomy to keep her breathing when something pulled her through the rip. He wouldn't leave her body, she'd come through the veil already burned." Damali dropped her sword, not sure which injured family member to run toward first. "What happened? Get him roused, wake him up, he--"
"Your mother-seer is over there f**king dying, Damali!" Carlos shouted, pointing toward Marlene. "You got that? And you're worried about--"
" Shut up, Carlos/ Wake him up! He's the superior healer. We've got three Neterus. Three serious seers. I have the Ancient Caduceus--do you even know what that is?" She shoved the healing staff forward and when Carlos didn't respond, yanked it back and went to Marlene. "No? Then stop jacking with my order and wake Cain up!" "Her pulse is so weak, dear one... I don't know if even I. . ."
"Try. For me," Damali said, brushing Cain's disheveled locks away from his brow as they knelt beside Marlene with the team looking down at them.
Yonnie paced back and forth behind the ring of Guardians as Carlos paced inside the circle. Tara rubbed Rider's back as the older Guardian silently wept just staring down at Marlene and Shabazz.
"It wasn't your fault," Tara whispered gently. "You didn't know. Had to do what you had to do."
Rider nodded and swallowed hard. "Two more seconds, that's all it would have taken."
Jose was so distraught that he'd sought refuge against a tree, refusing to allow Juanita to come near him. Shabazz was on his hands and knees, his palm trembling over Marlene's forehead, unable to touch her, unable to draw away from her, huge tears dropping to the ground as he sucked in and released quaking breaths. The rest of the team formed human standing stones of numb anguish, not a dry eye in their midst. "I will need the third Neteru's assistance," Cain said, still seeming a bit disoriented as he gazed into Damali's eyes and cupped her cheek. "This is not a demon attack that has damaged her. This is a purely physical injury, a mortal one, from the earth plane." He sighed hard. "Reversing black magic is one thing, intervening in an appointed hour of mortal death is another."
"It's not her time, though," Damali said, new tears brimming in her eyes. "It can't be."
"The poison from their darts is in my system, that with the density of this plane... we must make the circle of completion around your mother-seer's energies. I do not know if it will work, my love, but I will attempt anything for you, or die trying."
"Oh, shit. . ." Yonnie whispered through his teeth, rubbing his palms down his cheeks.
"I don't care what the f**k else is going on," Shabazz said, not even looking up from Marlene's disfigured face. "Suck it up, Rivera. Make the ring, and let that brother work. She's suffering, and I can't draw enough of the pain away from her to make a difference." His hands went to her temple, and then the shuddering flap of skin at her throat that wheezed in blood-wet exhales and slow inhales, but didn't touch her. "Oh, Heavenly Father, please . . ."
Yonnie and Tara hissed and turned, then bulked as a black jaguar took to a limb above Marlene, roared, but dropped to the ground and instantly transformed. The moment they saw Kamal, they normalized.
Kamal's entire body trembled as he walked a hot path back and forth behind Shabazz, unable to keep his eyes on Marlene. "Whatever I can do. If you need another seer, mon, I will go blind for her. Just tell me."
Berkfield dropped beside Shabazz, shrugging out of Marjorie's protective hold. "Man, for the love of God, let me help you. Me and you, together, with Kamal, bring the burns to us while the Neterus go in. Maybe Kamal's help can block it?"
Carlos was instantly down on his knees by Cain's side. No matter what he'd seen, no matter what was going on, the priority was to staunch the pain, make Marlene breathe, and try to keep her heart beating before hysterical Guardians went in with good intentions and killed themselves from pain-shock.
"Tell me what I've gotta do, man," Carlos said, focusing on Cain's eyes and blocking out the look of affection Damali had offered his competitor. It was beyond all that, with Marlene's life in the balance.
"Grab Damali's hand with mine," Cain ordered. His tone was that of a senior surgeon as he motioned for the correct physical, kneeling alignment. "The female Neteru at her head, each male Neteru at her side to form a pyramid--us as the platform at her heart level just beneath her lungs, and Damali siphoning life force up through the most damaged organs through her crown chakra."
Cain waited as the other Guardians quickly moved out of the way and Carlos and Damali took their positions. "The staff," he said to Damali. "Female energy therefore, you hold it, our hands over yours. Place it on her heart chakra. Visualize the kundalini serpents coming to life. One ascending into the Fohat macrocosmic field, pure white Light, the other descending into her energy field bringing the Light from the upper realms into her being."
Cain glanced up at Carlos. "Mind lock with me, brother. See only the green bands of Light. The harmonic frequencies of healing tones. Let it radiate out of your third eye, engulf your hands, and send the gentle pulse into the conduit, the rod. Do it easy, with skill. This woman a severely injured and what we do must be delicate. Then, we wait."