She wrapped her arms around her waist, but never lost eye contact with Marlene. "What's freaking me out is, while whatever is out should have been my primary concern, it wasn't. Isn't. Are you hearing me? I shouldn't be thinking about getting with him, not with my girl's family at risk, innocents at risk, my whole team at risk, but I swear Mar, I can't shake this feeling. It's not normal. I'm so ashamed to be acting like this; I don't know what to do with myself. I hate being out of control, and I think I am." Damali's voice went to a low murmur and her gaze went to the floor. "Marlene, I don't know what he did to me, and I'm scared."
Her eyes sought Marlene's again for understanding and found it, which gave her the wherewithal to continue the confession. "Plus, he's got strong vibe, but brother ain't that bad that he can cut through equatorial sun. Come on, now."
Marlene nodded. "I don't think it's him," she said quietly.
Damali was on her feet. "And then when we arrived here it felt like I had done some of this before... I just knew what was going to happen next, but it wasn't like a premonition. Then I felt this really hard-to-shake sexual presence... That's what made me freak. But it was there, and it wasn't playing."
Marlene's voice was quiet and her expression was grave. "I know, because it happened to me, too."
Damali let her breath out in relief. "Glad I'm not trippin' by myself in here. But I'm really worried. I thought I was the only one."
"You're not." Marlene stood and paced to the window. "Have you been watching Jose? He had the opposite reaction - nearly bristled when we walked through the hotel lobby."
For a moment, the two women held each other in a worried stare. Truthfully, she hadn't noticed Jose's reaction. She had been too immersed in her own. "You think he's all right, Mar?"
"Yeah. But he sensed something, too. And the guys are losing perspective here. Shabazz is quietly going nuts..." Marlene's gaze slid from hers. "I know him very well, and my man is a tactical. He's usually the team's voice of reason; the rock. He had to get away from me in the lobby and go get a drink - that ain't Shabazz's way. And I watched Rider inhale and go weak in the knees. JL and Dan practically melted down as soon as they crossed the threshold. And Mike..." Marlene shook her head. "We've gotta put a short choker chain on him. Boss is ready to nail anything walking, and Mike is usually pretty selective. This environment, for whatever reason, is kicking everybody's ass - even mine. It's making everybody lose focus. But it's also like our whole team has done this before, and we can't get our concentration together."
Marlene looked at Damali, her gaze a stronghold, and nodded. "Yeah, even me, the den mother," she admitted. "None of us should be thinking like that, given all we have to do. The question is, why? Carlos didn't do that to the entire team. Something else is in the equation. So don't be too hard on yourself, for whatever it's worth."
"This whole thing is weird. Not like what we generally do isn't out of the ordinary, but you know what I mean."
Marlene nodded again. "When I heard your song lyrics, I knew what you were going to say before you read them to us in the studio, and not because I was inside your head. I knew the music, the sound beneath it, just like JL was able to pick up the percussion and lay it in - perfectly. Everybody on the team almost knew the same song, all of us were throwing in flava with the sound. Then something jumps off that makes us need to book here for a concert? C'mon, D, you know how this mess goes. You don't cut a CD in a night, in one take - it's not done. Nor do coincidences like all of us vibing on Brazil just happen. We were all beginning to get drawn to this region before the bodies dropped. It was in the music, came through before this mess hit the news. Once it did, we were all on lock. But we wanted you to zero in on it on your own. After ten nights, you did. Give yourself a break."
"I know..." She walked about the room, raking her fingers through her locks. Marlene's absolution meant a lot, and it took some of the sting out of her wounded pride.
"I didn't put innocents at risk," Marlene said firmly. "Wouldn't do that, even for you. Bodies have dropped at distinct moon phases... and you and Carlos hooked up when the moon was full, and the relationship ran aground when the moon waned, just like the incidents did. Father Pat and I convened and both came to the conclusion that your telepathy would start to strengthen as the moon waxed over here again. But I think I need to call in some experts on this particular hunch. I know some people who've mixed it up with were-demons and have even been nicked. They would know."
Damali looked at Marlene hard. "All of our guys are solid, right? So are Father Pat's... I mean, even if they had a little vamp in them from generations back, it should be diluted enough and they'd passed all the will tests to be able to handle this. Talk to me, Mar."
Marlene nodded. "If what we're dealing with are vampires."
Damali sighed. "The Covenant said some mess went down over here, right? They were trying to talk to Carlos about finding out more about what was happening here when he disappeared."
"Yeah." Marlene folded her arms over her chest. "Said all they knew from their Vatican sources was that in 1500 the pope, unrightfully, gave the Amazon and Brazil to Spain, months before Pedro Alvares Cabral claimed it for Portugal, and he brought a bunch of convicts to settle it. But for about a hundred years, things were fairly cool - the Portuguese harvested the red dye, basile, from the Caesalpinia echinata tree, where Brazil gets its name, and - "
"Red... The color red... I just was thinking about how that needed to go with 'In the Dark.' "
Marlene looked at her. "Right. And, then the Germans came. Ambrosio de Alfmger - beheaded the African-Brazilian Indians, and - "
"Stop!" Damali walked over to Marlene and held her by both arms. "Okay, now listen... Didn't the clerics say they couldn't intervene on this one?"
"Yeah," Marlene said.
"Don't you think that's odd?"
"Definitely."
"What if they can't get in it because... like Carlos always says, 'fair exchange is no robbery'? A Catholic pope sanctioned - "
"Oh, my God."
"Right," Damali said quietly. "And, isn't beheading the only way Carlos can be killed, because of my brand?"
Marlene took in small sips of air.
"Mar... you should see the way he looks at the color red. Maybe he was scared to death for me to come to Brazil. I thought the red fetish was some vamp blood thing, and the fear of me coming to Brazil was just Carlos being selfish. What if there's more to it that he just didn't tell me? In fact, I know there is, but he's got me blocked now." She sighed. "This is getting complicated. I just wish he would have been honest with me." She rubbed her hands over her face in frustration and let her breath out hard. Secrets, lies, drama, she hated all of it, but needed to figure out this maddening puzzle to keep her team safe while they hunted. Shit!
"Damali," Marlene said slowly, "he told Father Pat that the other portals had been closed, but the vamp empire was still seeing disturbances in his realm coming up in Brazil - "