"So, what I'ma do, man?" Carlos said, opening his arms and willing his voice not to falter. He folded his arms and set his jaw hard to keep Yonnie from seeing just how upset he was. "After healing Marlene, he's got the family totally compromised. He stole my family, man! The Guardians are all ready to be cool and not smoke him. I bet if he called Father Pat, he'd get all up in his head and they'd be kicking biblical convo and he'd probably be able to answer Genesis questions from firsthand experience to restore any shaky faith, and whatnot, so they'd be telling me he's cool. His mom is on Damali's Council of Queens, so you know his mom is pulling for him--I ain't got no back in the house, man. So, like I said. What? I'm supposed to just stand there, let him be all in my woman's face, do whatever, and--"
"Act like you know," Yonnie said flatly. "Right now he's holding aces, yeah. Put up a fight, and a woman like Damali will run headlong into his arms." Yonnie slapped his chest, becoming indignant. "You saw that shit yourself, brother. Right in the house. You called him out, and she drew on you. What about this don't you get?"
"That shit hurt me to my soul, man. Total disrespect!"
"So, where's my cool-to-the-bone smooth operator at, huh?"
Yonnie neared him and brushed invisible lint off Carlos's shoulder. He donned him in a black Armani suit and ran his palms down Carlos's lapels. "Just because you went into the Light don't mean my main man don't know how to work," Yonnie whispered. "So give her the Light, because that's what Cain is doing. Seduction by honor. Admit what you did wrong," Yonnie said quietly, circling Carlos as though he were about to levy an attack strike. "No excuses. Just fall on your sword. Let her fever for that motherfucker burn out, by letting it run its course. Be smooth. Be gentle, lova... Let that other bastard lose his cool, feel me?"
"His game is airtight, hombre" Carlos said quietly. "But I hear you."
"No. You don't hear me and your eyes are blind. Peep his game," Yonnie said, standing close to Carlos with his hand on his shoulder. He leaned into Carlos's throat and whispered into his ear. "The night and this plane's density f**ks with him." Yonnie pulled back and chuckled as Carlos's eyes widened.
"That's right," Yonnie said, his head bobbing as he strode away from Carlos. "Over wherever he's from, he's king. All kings are arrogant. This brother is Leo to the bone--all ego. His silver burns hot, because he's got fire at his root; then put his f**king fire out, 'cause you a Scorp, bro. all water. Work with that shit. Fire burns, but can't nothing on the planet stop water from seeping into where it wants to go. Right? Seep back into, up, down, and around that stone wall she's put up, find the cracks and trickle in. Start with her dreams, man, and work your way out to the body, like he did."
"The brother's a king, aw'ight. What you talking about is theoretically sound, but in practice--"
"He used to have many wives, comprende? You know Damali don't play that polygamy vibe." Yonnie looked at Carlos, vindicated.
Carlos offered him a half-smile. "No lie. That ain't girlfriend by a long shot."
"Yeah. Now we're talking. But he's smart, will lock her down as wife number one, let the dust settle, then will probably try to get her to go with a King Solomon--type situation later, once she's too deep into it."
"Wife!" Carlos balled his hands into fists. "Never happen."
"Hear me out," Yonnie pressed. "That's how he's coming at her, and you. 'Cause if I remember my Old World theology, the kings back in the day didn't share and did battle over wives--over queens, plural isn't that what he called her in your face... it was a sly call out, just like we do it, over female territory... without the unsuspecting ever knowing the strike is about to go down. He called her a goddess and a queen--even an angel, man, and if he's already a king, and what the Greeks used to consider a god, then he told you to your face--on the sly tip, mind you-- that he was about to bust a move to make her his wife. He did that call out so blatantly, just stomped your pride in public so hard that you lost focus, man. I was stunned, standing there willing you in my mind to get up off the canvas and count my fingers, brother."
Yonnie just shook his head. "You know how this goes, holding two or three conversations at once--the one they hear, the one we mean, and the sly shit that is understood just between men. C'mon, man. Did the Light burn the basic rules of military engagement, war over a woman, out of our mind, or what?"
"Oh, shit . . ." Carlos tilted his head to the side and closed his eyes. "He played me. Right in front of the team. It got by me, man, because I was so pissed off. Nobody caught it but you."
"If the old Guardian boys wasn't all messed up and diverted to the Marlene crisis, they would have caught it, too, just like I did. But since you was all messed up, you took the bait, and lost your cool. Dug your own grave deeper every time he called her 'my love... my devastation,' what the f**k ever. You saw red. Lost your f**king mind. And a master without his mind right ain't worth a damn. Then he had you so tricked around that you couldn't even focus to help Marlene for a minute. I was like, oh, no, my boy ain't going out like that." Yonnie made a zipper motion over his mouth. "But it wasn't the time to speak on it. Later. When it was just me and you."
"All right, man. Talk to me," Carlos said, no more bravado in his tone. "I know this is basic, but you're right, man, when it comes to her, I can't just chill, and--"
"She's your marked territory, now own it!" Yonnie yanked his lapels to straighten them and then folded his arms. "Don't c**k block, make him share. Let her go get some. Sample it. Get the whole curiosity thing out of her system. You be there when it's all over... hurt... confused... but loving her so much you can understand why she had to, but not blaming her because you know what you've done to hurt her... blah, blah, blah. If the king has to share, while she goes back and forth in a tizzy, that arrogant brother will definitely start demanding, will start trying to tell her what she can and cannot do... then, when he really messes up, her old first love is gonna seem so much better."
Yonnie chuckled and peered at Carlos from a sidelong glance. "Uhmph, uhmph, humph... if you play your cards right, the female mind filters away all but the sentimental, over time... moonlight walks on the beach, laughs until dawn up in the lair," Yonnie drew in a hissing breath. "How you used to put down your program, hard. Let her mentally mess up and call your name instead of his while he's wurking-- since both y'all's names start with the same consonant, it'll be game over. That'll make even a normal human male wig and show his dark side. You know that."
Carlos shook his head. "Intellectually, I hear you, man. I can do all that other shit, but the sampling part--"
"I'ma tell you what your problem is," Yonnie said, cutting him off and laughing hard. "You ain't used to having to battle for no woman's affection, and that's your blind spot. It's a weak muscle."
Carlos became very still.
"Yeah, that's it," Yonnie said, chuckling. "That's why when you had a little possession up in you, you had to pull Juanita one last time, just to let yourself know that you still had her marked, if you ever wanted to go back that way again. Be real."
"Naw, man . . ."
"You can lie to me, but don't lie to yourself. Be. Real," Yonnie said, singing the words, making Carlos chuckle against his will. "When you was livin' you ain't have to fight for da chicas, hombre. Word was on the street that if you pulled one, her ass was lost forever. Motherfuckers shuddered and prayed you didn't breach their households. Beee reeaaal. If you marked the brunani, it was yours for life--whether you left it for twenty years and came back to it, or not. Be real."
Despite his worry, Yonnie had made him laugh. All Carlos could do was rub his jaw and shake his head, chuckling as his friend railed on, immensely lifting his mood.
"Before you was a vampire, your Scorpio ass was already a vampire, tell me I'm lying? That's why when the clerics had you on lockdown you was ready to go nuts, off da meter... the old boys might as well have cut off your dick and left you in the sun. Sheeit. Your sly ass had been up in so many secret locations, had tapped so much ass like a pro, and being the secretive Scorp you are, not even your own boys knew who you did--even they was looking at you out the side of their eye, with just cause."
Carlos was laughing so hard he was wiping his eyes. The release felt good, even though Yonnie was talking trash. "I ain't never breach my boys' houses, yo. I wasn't that foul."
"Uh-huh," Yonnie said, laughing with a skeptical smirk. "You had women in bed with their men, trying to remember not to call your name--biting their lips. How many divorces you cause? Then word hit the newspapers that your ass died, and you had women practically ready to slit their wrists to meet you on the other side... be real. You see the shrines of flowers and shit they left at your momma's doorstep? They almost needed an eighteen wheeler to haul flowers and candles to the gravesite... your brother Alejandro was the same way, man. The women, they was devastated." He stood up tall and opened his arms. "They ain't do me like that when I died. Talk about no respect." He walked around in a jaunty little circle giving Carlos a wide grin. "Brother, you made the Neteru shut down her third eye, and you hadn't even gotten with her yet. Puhlease. Why you trippin'?"