"Thisis why I stay so busy," he said with a weary sigh, glaring at Sebastian. "I mustalways double-back and do my own research. Had I not gone topside to lure the old priest out of hiding to finish off the job I'd begun, I would have thought the Neteru female was pregnant and given you my pale mare."
He studied Sebastian for a moment. "You see, they always leave a back door . . . they always forget one variable. The old man was the variable, one that I beautifully exploited tonight. They thought he was safe fromme, therefore they didn't recode the information in his mind. He was a priest, a pure vessel, and had the truth-there is no Neteru child incubating yet. None of the females on her Guardian team are pregnant. The male Neteru was given extra power by them, undoubtedly, to fight Vlad like a madman to make it all appear plausible. But that was all complete bullshit to get me to send the majority of my forces after the Neterus, to the possible delinquency of protecting my own heir. Very shrewd and it almost worked, had I not done my own follow-up research . . . something that I'm sure they assumed I'd be too busy to do at this time in the dark empire."
"Forgive me . . . please forgive the entire Vampire Council for such a potential oversight of the obvious," Sebastian whispered, his eyes still wide with terror. "We didn't know how involved the angels were with this . . . with minor border skirmishes with the Neterus. We thought their angelic forces were solely focused on seeking the dark heir-which was why they'd come out in force in Greece-or, or, or which was why they fought our side at the second Masada . . . but who knew they'd show up in Detroit?"
"There are more thantwo hundred million of them," Lucifer snarled. "Haven't you ever read the Bible?"
"Only key excerpts, sir," Sebastian said, quickly lowering his head in a submissive bow.
"Then let me enlighten you. Angels can bring life through the wombs of human women and can therefore trick our side into believing that they had! But as a Vampire Council General, Sebastian-you imbecile, do you honestly believe that at this time of escalated war, the Light would be so foolish or careless as to literally allow one-half of their elite fighting squadron of Neteru Guardians to be weakened by the physical state of multiple pregnancies?"
"No . . . no,Your Greatness-that was a foolish assumption on my part. Forgive me for even coming to you with such a ridiculous concept. It will never happen again, this I assure you."
"Foolish? It was stupid!" The Dark Lord propelled himself from his throne and began to pace again as flames swept through his chambers. "Why I ought to strangle Lilith with my own bare hands for sending you down here like this with such bogus information! That bitch is so needy . . . like a child, always wanting attention!"
After the potentially destructive moment passed, Lucifer released a long, weary breath of flames. "Unbeknownst to the Light, I'd had a beacon on that old man. He and I shared unfinished business, and I never allow myself to be cheated-no onecheats the Devil. I knew one day or night he'd leave hallowed ground . . . and the moment he did, he'd be mine. It was a good way to kill two birds, maybe three, with one stone . . . in this transaction that delightfully bloodied my hands. Tonight, for the effort, I got the old cleric who'd defied me, f**ked-up his male Neteru, and broke the heart of the female Neteru . . . since she's one with her husband and his pain is her pain. Who knows, the male used to belong to me . . . this might piss him off enough to make him recant the Light."
The Devil looked at Sebastian for a moment and then laughed. "Nowthat would be a truly interesting reversal of fortune."
Carlos sat down on the polished stone steps of the altar with a thud. "They massacred him, D," he said in a gravelly voice.
"I know," she murmured. "Baby, I know . . ."
"I should have been there . . . they got him while I was fighting up here. If I'd been on my game, had been focused, I woulda been able to send him a message, woulda maybe picked up a vibe that they were coming for him."
"Carlos, youcannot blame yourself. You were in the battle of your life-the entire squad could have been massacred-you simply can't blame yourself."
For a moment he just looked at her. "Then who else is there to blame, D? He was my father-seer. That would be like you not picking up when something was about to happen to Marlene and not moving Heaven and earth to make sure that it didn't. He'd been reduced to a helpless old man and he needed me . . . but I wasn't there. Baby, I justwasn't there ." Carlos closed his eyes and slumped forward, leaning his forearms on his thighs. "Oh, God, what am I supposed to do with forever knowing that I just wasn't there for Father Pat like I shoulda been, Damali?"
Her hand caressed his back. "We'll go get him . . . we'll go to Philly . . . we'll bury him righteous and-"
"There's nothing left to hardly bury, D," Carlos said in a ragged murmur, his pained gaze holding hers as he looked up. "The Covenant clerics and the Templar brothers will have to cremate him."
She closed her eyes and hung her head. "Let me check on the Detroit team you jettisoned . . . just five minutes,then we'll leave for Philly.All right?"
"Yeah," Carlos said, his gaze drifting toward empty space in the nave.
"I've got a sight-link with Owa," Marlene said in a gentle voice. "They're all good . . . mourning their losses of Gus and Muata like we're mourning our own."
Carlos nodded. "Good to know I did at least one thing right tonight . . . sent 'em somewhere they didn't get smoked."
Damali's hand sought his back again as she spoke to Marlene. "Ask her what the public spin is on all the destruction, Mar . . . we've gotta get some prayers for damage control in place before we leave here-otherwise, there'll be a panic. Who knows, it might already be too late."
Marlene became still to send the question to Owa at the sanctuary where the local team had been jettisoned for safety. The Neteru squad remained so quiet within the church they were holed up in that the very silence around them seemed like a gong.
"There is no general public panic. Events from earlier this evening have been spun on the evening news as a massive and unusual earthquake coupled with a fast-moving tornado that crippled downtown Detroit and reached as far as Toronto," Marlene said in short bursts of information, translating Owa's vision into her sight, and then into a verbal format that the entire Neteru team could immediately hear. "But Motor City's officials say their town is tough. They're still having the jazz festival, just moving stages to different locations."
"Good," Damali said in a faraway voice. She turned her attention to Carlos and stroked his hair for a moment. "Let's go to Philly. . . . Baby, do you want to take us, or I can do the fold-away?"
He didn't even look at her as he spoke. Defeat claimed his being as he sat slumped with his back to the altar and his gaze seeing nothing on the floor.
"You take the team, D. I ain't got it in me . . . and need to just roll solo for a little while."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
For reasons he'd probably never fathom, but thoroughly appreciated, when he'd said that he needed to roll solo for a few, his wife didn't argue. Unlike every other time in the past, she'd simply said one word to him that spoke volumes, "Okay." Her tone, her eyes, the gentle touch at his jaw with that one single word said more than anything. He knew she was asking him to make her a promise and her requests were reasonable: Baby, come back to me alive. Baby, don't do nothing crazy that'll break my heart. Baby, remember that I love you . . . and know that I respect and trust you enough, even at this hour, to give you some room for your head.
Carlos walked through the main marble hallway of Philadelphia's Masonic Temple at One Broad Street. He had to get word to the Knights Templar that one of theirs had fallen, but didn't begin to know where to start looking for a contact. Father Pat deserved to be buried with full Scottish honors, Templar honors, Guardian honors, clerical honors; the man was a VIP as far as he was concerned. But how to get in touch with the elusive Templars was anybody's guess.