"But what if this doesn't have anything to do with him?" Marlene's question hung in the air. She sat down and looked out the window as she spoke. "Say if the vampires went and closed the seals - and we did too, with our Warriors of Light positive energies... but say if the prayers couldn't seal a certain area, because the church had blood on its hands? What if the spring rites held open a seal to something the native peoples didn't even know was opened?"
Damali stopped rubbing her temples. "And what if the old vamps could seal those concert areas, the portals where no additional energy was added this strong by concurrent spring rites that were going on in the hillsides, plus given the history, thus energy charge this ground already holds - "
"The incantations of the evil concert, plus the positive spring fertility rituals, might have crossed, fused, and called up something the vamps and demons couldn't vanquish... like an entity peculiar to this region formed by the chaos of this region? A dark one, a female one, twisted by Nuit's ceremony and strengthened by the rites, and jettisoned from a place down deep? Something like that could have easily been made here in an act of desperation by oppressed people, where justice was never served to the native peoples." Marlene closed her eyes. "If that's what came up, if that has been dredged up from the caverns, what are we going to do?"
"Oh, shit!" Walking in a circle, Damali felt her breath getting short. "Mar, Mar, the amount of rage... the amount of righteous indignation, the amount of unfinished business... or karma. Oh, Lord! No wonder Father Pat didn't want to come over here wearing robes, carrying a conquistador's sword with a bleeding, high-ranking Vatican cross on his chest! Shit! I wouldn't!" She looked at Marlene hard. "There were also two master vampires in Nuit's lair during that concert."
Marlene opened her mouth and then closed it.
"One died, one didn't... and one lost his vampire cool on me out in the woods - went near ballistic primal, and - "
"He didn't shape-shift on you, did he?"
Marlene's question felt like a slap, it hit her so hard. The tone of her voice was so panic laden that it made Damali shiver. She swore she'd never tell a soul something so deeply personal. Damali looked away and wrapped her arms around herself again.
"Normally," she said, trying to make herself sound calm, "he is, uh... smooth. In control. Yeah, passionate, but uh, brother never just lost it."
"What did he turn into, Damali?" Marlene's voice was firm, like a doctor who was trying to diagnose an ailment.
Damali shut her eyes tight. "He didn't actually change, on me, but, he uh..."
"He flipped out and went were, right?" Marlene stood and walked across the room. "What creature, kiddo? It's just me and you; just us girls. So let's be real. I need to know."
It took a moment to answer Marlene, but she found her voice and finally did. "He kept looking up at the moon and went panther."
"Oh, shit..." Marlene shut her eyes. "Don't you understand the were-realms? Didn't I explain to you how they roll?"
Damali just nodded.
"Tell me he didn't go all the way, did he?"
"I'm not exactly sure what you mean." Damali glanced up at Marlene and then looked away. "He went far enough, though."
"Did he actually transform and hold the form while with you?"
Marlene's eyes glittered with something she couldn't put her finger on. But the question was so damned personal. She couldn't speak.
"Did the man bring you fresh kill afterward, and drop it at your feet?" Marlene's voice was escalating with renewed panic. "Did he - "
"No!" Damali said, unable to have this conversation with her mother, of all people. "I just felt the animal presence, he didn't actually, I mean... oh, shit, Mar. Close, but - "
"Girl." Marlene began pacing, and had stopped speaking for a moment, appearing completely frazzled. "Master vampires detest the were-demons. They only shape-shift to amuse themselves, or to leverage their advantage during a fight, or to use it as a means of escape when cornered and they want to drop a body in a gruesome way as a warning. They'll mist on you in a heartbeat, will vaporize for you in a flash, but they generally prefer the superiority of holding the human form - that's their signature, chile. They do not drape that on a woman when seducing her - ever." She stared at Damali until she looked up. "Honey, I told you I was feeling a serious primal undercurrent coming from him. And I told you that something was pushing that man's buttons."
"I know, I know," Damali said quickly. "But I didn't do anything out of the norm..." She stopped, and tucked the whole thong incident far in the back of her mind.
"I'm not blaming you. I'm not saying it's your fault. I just felt it coming, but you were so caught up in love... plus you know my rule. I don't get into people's heads or envision that aspect of their personal business - so I refused to vibe on it." Marlene stopped and walked over to Damali and put her hand on her arm. "Were sexual energy is very different than male vampire energy. You hearing me?"
She waited until Damali looked up at her again. "It's raw, unshakable, violent. It is touched off by the phases of the moon - something vampires are impervious to. If that's what Carlos is tracking in his territory, then his normal male vampire reflex would be to hunt it down and kill it. He wouldn't allow it to be near his females, or poach his zones, no matter what its gender. If a female vamp called him into the night, the way he feels about you - plus the fact that your Neteru call would block her call - would not have been enough to make him leave you." Marlene's gaze narrowed, not in anger, but in an attempt to gain critical information. "I'm not trying to get into your business, but when he left you, how was he?"
"Still on the hunt, and not for fuel," Damali said quietly. "He never totally chilled out." She couldn't even look at Marlene as her self-confidence fractured.
"Has that ever happened before?" Marlene asked as gently as she could.
"No," Damali admitted, her voice becoming softer.
"All right, baby, listen. This isn't normal - not that anything about any of this is normal, per se, but you know what I mean. A master vampire is smooth enough to leave your side and go find a female vamp without your even knowing it. He wouldn't be blatant about it. So if you saw that he was still... well, that lack of suave just ain't done by masters. Period." The older woman sighed and scratched her head. "That mating ritual put some spin on it, maybe..."
"That's what's messing me up, Mar. Right in my face! He had the nerve to be trying to tell me some raggedy shit about why he needed to go out. To my face, Mar." Damali let her breath out in a slow, unsteady exhale.