He almost laughed at how the new corporate logo had been slightly toned down from the one in the Vampire Council's pentagram-shaped bargaining table in Hell, but it still was what it was: a sign of absolute power.
J.L. looked up with a smile as Carlos passed his equipment room in search of Damali. Guts of computers, television innards, cell phones, stereo system circuitry, and other varying bits of technology that he couldn't immediately recognize littered the long workbench in front of his Guardian brother.
He could tell by J.L.'s broad grin that a cursory greeting wasn't going to be enough-J.L. wanted to talk. His Guardian brother's entire vibe practically yanked him into the room. Problem was,he didn't feel like talking; he just wanted to find Damali. He wanted to know how she felt and to get her take on starting a new demon hunt.
Renewed energy made him impatient. He hadn't felt this clear and this good in weeks. But the way J.L. popped up like an excited jack-in-the-box to round the table made him laugh. Maybe the big secret had finally gotten out? The entire room was crackling with J.L.'s tactical sensory charge, as pure adrenaline made it waft off his skin and begin to lift the edges of Carlos's hair.
"What's up, man?" Carlos said,chuckling as J.L. pulled him into a quick Guardian brother hug. "You've got blue static jumpin' all over you. I think you've been cooped up in the compound too long."
"That's no lie-but I finally figured it out," J.L. said excitedly. "The downtime made me focus. Now I know what's up."
Carlos beamed and just nodded. "Yeah . . . sooner or later I knew you would, man."
J.L. playfully punched Carlos in the shoulder with a lightning-fast martial arts spar and then dashed back over to the table where he'd been working. "You know I got skills, brother," J.L. said, laughing. "Check it out." He held a tiny silver object that looked like a small transistor the size of a pencil lead on the tip of his index finger. "No cheating . . . make a clean guess, man. You're gonna love it!"
The smile slowly faded from Carlos's face. J.L. hadn't figured out his secret . . . this was about something else. Carlos nodded, trying to play it cool, and then stepped farther into the compound's brain center-the tech lab.
J.L.'s smile widened and Carlos shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. Damn, he'd almost slipped and told on himself. In that moment he realized just how badly he'd wanted to share the good news about the baby with the household, and he had to really be on guard not to go against the advice of the Neteru CouncilOn High. They'd said to wait; this time he was following the rules to the letter. Marlene and Shabazz had found outon their own . That was something different. But no grand announcements at this juncture were authorized. The older couple instinctively knew that, too, even before Damali had asked them to keep the info on the down-low.
"Okay, enlighten me, oh genius one," Carlos said with a half smile after a moment.
There was no way to know what new gadget J.L. had developed for the team security systems, short of going into J.L.'s razor-sharp mind for a subtle thought scan, but that would be cheating. He could tell that he'd made J.L.'s day by being stumped, so he allowed his Guardian brother to revel in the triumph. Curiosity pushed Carlos's other thoughts aside as he stepped closer and peered down at the tiny object J.L. held out for him to inspect.
"You know how all of us have been in a funk ever since we came out of that last battle in Greece?"
Carlos nodded. "Yeah . . . but you know who we were up against, too, so it stands to reason. But the Covenant said we were all clean and would shake it soon."
"True," J.L. said with a wide smile."If we had a chance not to mentally get weighed down again for a little while."
Carlos just stared at his Guardian brother for a moment, studying the quiet warrior burning deep within his almond-shaped, brown eyes. It was as though thousands of years of ancient Asian wisdom had coalesced into one soul as the two men stood facing each other, both expectant of the other's reaction. J.L.'s smile faded, giving way to his more serious side. Everybody's energy had been zapped after that battle, and it felt like they'd been walking through quicksand. Not even Marlene's white baths were helping.
"Talk to me," Carlos said quietly.
"It's been coming through the airwaves . . . the assault. You-know-who is the Prince of the Airwaves."
"Shit . . ." Carlos murmured, more closely studying the tiny bit of silver metal on J.L.'s finger.
"Yeah," J.L. said with triumph. "Once again, Inez's baby girl was our canary in a coal mine. All of us thought we were burnt-out from battle, and Inez's mom just from age and the pure shock of being inducted into this life. But neither of them went to war with us over in Greece. They stayed back home in New York in the Covenant safe house until we got back, right?"
"Right," Carlos said, extracting his hands from his pockets to fold his arms.
"Yeah, well, I get up real early every morning to do my tai chi on the back deck-gotta pass through the kitchen. I have a routine . . . make my green tea, let it steep, while I do my thing. The three-year-old gets up real early like that, too. I pass her every day in the kitchen eating her cereal and every morning her grandmother can barely make it into the kitchen and the kid is always sniffling. So a few days ago I asked the little bird why she was always so sad in the morning . . . and get this, man. She said the cartoons make her cry."
"Huh?Cartoons?" Dumbfounded, Carlos simply stared at J.L.
J.L. gingerly set down the small silver-coated chip on a piece of black velvet on the workbench. "That's what I said, man. So I asked her which ones she watched and the kid said everything makes her cry on TV now. She said it wasn't good anymore."
"That's . . .crazy ."
J.L. nodded. "Yeah, and you and I both know the kid is a seer, right?"
"Right . . ."
"Inez's mom said she was just being dramatic because she wouldn't allow her to bust into Inez and Big Mike's room first thing in the morning, so it was just a daily tantrum . . . but I didn'tfeel that, bro. I wasn't feeling like the kid was making it up. There was genuine melancholy."
"This is too deep," Carlos said, raking his fingers through his hair.
"Uh-huh. My take exactly. So I got some old DVDs ofBarney and other stuff she likes, and the kid was happy. Then I'd try a direct broadcast, and the poor little thing would hide her face and say it was scaring her."