Carlos stood and stared off into the distance, eyes glistening.
Damali closed her eyes and materialized the rod in her grip when no one would hand it to her. "Now you listen to me, Marlene Stone," she said between her teeth. "I refuse to let you go because foolish men tampered with the fabric of the universe!"
She rammed the staff into the dirt, making the ground beneath Marlene's body begin to glow gold as she gently laid her down. "I call nature energy!" Damali shouted and stood, opening her arms to the dark heavens. "I call all the elements of the universe, female power to give life! Through me, I call Isis, herself! Aset, every Neteru on the Council of Queens. Eve--you owe me! Your son is beyond the barrier! I delivered your message, now hear mine! My mother-seer is my sanity! Do not let her die!" Damali snatched the rose quartz crystal from her pants pocket and held it up in her fist. "Love, all the way from the original temple of Hathor, from the pavilion of Trajan in Egypt, I love her with all my heart and soul!"
Strong winds gathered. Lightning touched off dancing energy in the sky. Trees shuddered. Green grass grew around Marlene's body where it was once parched and dry. Rain fell like tears. A stunned team looked on in awed silence.
"I am woman, thus water, and water is the essence of life. My tears are the rain which replenishes the barren earth. I am fire--love, profound passion, the spark of conception--which gives inanimate cells motion. I am the air, which fills lungs. I am the earth, form and substance, nourishment and healing. I am pure faith, for I own the heart and soul of a woman. I am hope... because of my faith and my love. A trinity resides in my soul. My female symbol is the circle of unity. My spirit is unbroken, like the infinite circle. She will not die. Not on my watch!"
Silver tears streamed down Damali's cheeks and she stood legs wide, head back, eyes closed, arms open, begging Heaven in her mind.
Slowly, the wrinkles in Marlene's face began to recede. Her dead, white irises became warm, and living, and brown. Her hair began to grow out dark ebony from the roots as the white, dead locks became brittle and fell away. A shudder, then a cough. Damali was on her knees in seconds before Shabazz could ever reach his fallen woman. Marlene was in her arms gasping. Kamal hung back weeping. Shabazz was sobbing so hard that Big Mike had to come get him. Yonnie had silent tears running down his strained face. Younger Guardians slowly came near, too mesmerized to emote. Carlos stared down at Damali and Marlene in awe. Cain stooped and gently touched Marlene's warm, healed hand and drew his fingers back in utter amazement.
Cain finally stood and raked his hair and paced away from Carlos's side. "She is a true queen. A goddess... if not an angel."
Damali continued to hold Marlene as though she were a long-lost doll that had just been found. She refused to even move aside for Shabazz. She simply kept petting Marlene's hair, her face, and then would crush Marlene to her breast again. She didn't care what any of them were talking about as she and Marlene sat on the sofa, the whole team huddled into the small confines of Jose's grandfather's house.
But when Kamal came to the door, all peace in the house was shattered. Shabazz drew Sleeping Beauty with such swiftness that no one could even speak.
"Be clear!" Shabazz shouted. "While she's in the flesh, Marlene is my wife!" He cocked the gun to the side, dead aim at Kamal's forehead. "Astrally or any other kinda way you step across the divide, you die.
Fuck a shape-shift and hand-to-hand, I'll blow your brains out. As long as she's living with me, she made a personal choice! This is the last time, I'm telling you!"
"She saved my life," Kamal snarled. "Back in Bahia, years ago, mon. She and I were meant to be--this makes three times she almost died on your watch!" Kamal's voice broke as tears streamed down his face. "I had a mortal were-jag bite, and she didn't let me die. I let her leave me," he said, slapping his chest, "to save her pain, and now this?"
"I don't give a damn!" Shabazz hollered, his finger slowly depressing the trigger. "You're a dead man walking!"
"Don't," Damali whispered. "You kill him, 'Bazz, and your soul is lost to this team."
"Your Neteru is correct," Cain said slowly. "I killed my brother with the same rage, and was lost. What purpose does it serve to bring back the love of your soul, to only be separated by the chasm of Hell? You have won. She made a choice to be with you until her end of earth time. Let that be enough."
Marlene stirred and sat forward slowly with Damali's help. "Shabazz... don't become lost to me," she whispered. "I love you." She glanced at Kamal. "I love you, too, but it's time to say good-bye... permanently."
Kamal closed his gleaming were-jaguar eyes, unconcerned about Shabazz's gun. He allowed his shoulders to drop and the battle bulk to fade to normalcy. His upper and lower canines retracted as he held up his hand. "I will always love you, Marlene," he whispered. "You will always be my angel of mercy... and more importantly, always my friend. I'll see you on the other side, when we die, and when none of this matters."
Shabazz pulled back his weapon and lowered it as Kamal turned and loped away. "Not even in Heaven, motherfucker," Shabazz muttered and then slammed the front door. Tears still glistened in his eyes as he glanced around the team, looked at Marlene, and then sought the solitude of the kitchen to csllect himself.
Carlos rubbed his palms down his face, gripped by the scene of two men who had been competing for a woman's love for decades. He glanced at Big Mike, who simply nodded and calmly walked through the house to go to Shabazz's side for support. What the f**k was happening to his world... to the team?
Damali gathered Marlene into her arms again and kissed the crown of her head, searching the faces around her for answers that weren't there.
"Since this was a hit attempt by the feds, unfriendly ones--and obviously not the guys that sent us on the mission before, and they're onto us," Dan said, his tone reverent. "We're gonna have to move underground, from now on. I put stash, IDs, weapons, all over, like Carlos had showed me. Did that after we knew who abducted Berkfield, the first time out. We've got unmarked accounts; I separated some of what we had. Swiss banks and whatnot," he said, glancing at Carlos for approval.
"Good looking out, young buck," Carlos said, nodding and glancing at Yonnie. "Never completely trust the authorities. They've got agendas, and the last one almost killed Mar."
"Sho' you right," Shabazz said, coming back into the living room from the kitchen, Big Mike bringing up the rear. Shabazz gazed down at Marlene. It was obvious how badly he wanted to hold her by the way he kept his arms wrapped around himself. But something within him seemed to know that Damali wasn't ready to release her to anyone else yet.
"We've gotta get out of the country," Berkfield said quickly, his gaze roving the room. "If they're feds, or CIA boys."
"The only place we know of that's outside the country is Bahia," J.L. said, pacing. "Regardless, that compound--"
"No!" Shabazz said. "That's out."
"Man, we can run, but we can't hide. If it's some kinda black ops groove, they have tentacles in every country. So, it's about motion, constant," Big Mike said, his voice an angry whisper. "Bahia is out, though, for obvious reasons."
"Me and J.L. can find safe harbors, wireless Internet connections, keep the signals going, encrypt them enough to make it a bitch to break, and by the time they do, we're at the next location," Krissy said, her red, tear-puffed eyes going around the room.
"Then maybe the other Guardian teams around the world will be at the ready for backup," Carlos muttered. "Any place, any time."