"Rayne," shesaid, her gaze hard.
"Thanks for having our backs," Carlos said.
Carlos gave a quick nod of thanks to the Philly and D.C. teams for the assist back in the streets, and looked at the tall woman with sandy brunet hair and the bluest eyes he'd ever seen. "You came a long way," he said with respect.
"Was no trouble.Sandra from Scotland," she replied, hailing Carlos and lifting her chin, then glancing around until her gaze landed on Heather. "She's from my land, a stoneworker like I am. I got special word to be sure she's looked after. No accidents this time. So they sent in a Dragon Rider, me, and I'll ride those bastards into the ground if they mess with that one again." She checked the magazine on her Uzi and stepped closer to Heather and Dan. "I'm your new nanny," she added with a smile.
"Everybody's got a babysitter," Quick said, checking her weapon and looking around as the sirens and choppers neared. "I've got you covered."
"The Light ain't playing this time out-noticeall the female Guardians on this watch? Quick meant what she said. The Light is making sure you've got strong female energy backup, whatever you need on the squad," Craig said, his gaze holding Carlos's. "You know it ain't normally like this.There's always been more male Guardians than females, but not this time out, bro. All the seers got the emergency vision. They call me the Kemetic One, and I heard the call to arms loud and clear. That's why I was up in Detroit with y'all. So we got your back."
Carlos and Damali gave each other a look.
"We've gotta get to a safe house, stat," Carlos said, leaning on his thighs with both hands. "The military is on our asses."
"Worse than that," a disembodied voice said,quaking the ground and opening the earth. Sebastian quickly appeared and then clapped before disappearing. "Ride this, Neterus!"
Guardians fought to stand as Damali and Carlos tried to draw their blades into their hands as the earth fissured and a massive, pale mare exited the cavern and reared on its hind legs. The translucent, phantomlike creature's black eyes gleamed with pure evil and it took off without a rider then evaporated into sheer mist. Sirens were closing in, but the ground was still rumbling.
"Fall back!" Damali and Carlos shouted in unison as thousands of shadows belched from the earth.
Try as they might to fight against the dark tide, there were just too many shadows, and human forces were closing in. Guardians fired at the shadows, keeping them at bay as much as was possible. The newly added squad covered every pregnant female on the team as though on a suicide mission; no fear. But as soon as one demon was incinerated, another replaced it. The earth continued to quake even more violently and it became apparent that there were people trapped in the Washington Monument as it began to lean. Rubble fell and people shrieked at the base as the massive structure leaned perilously. Then a blinding explosion sent it propelling forward in a pikelike spiral toward the White House.
"Vlad!"Carlos yelled, forming an energy ball in his hand and then hurling it toward the monument.
Both Damali and Carlos reached out, but the energy band wasn't wide enough to lasso and halt it; they both would have been dragged to their deaths. All they could do was watch in horror as the monument slammed into the one place in the country that was an icon for the world.
"You've just blown your load," Nuit's voice chuckled smoothly, joining in a cacophony of evil female laughter.
"Run," Lilith hissed. "Andmaybe live to fight another day."
Carlos and Damali looked at each other.
The juncture, he mentally whispered.
Yeah, and the chamber under the Potomac, she mentally replied.
They touched their swords together and sent out two blinding energy pulses in the direction of the locations they'd mentioned.
The second the charges emitted, two massive horns breached the earth-then in the next moment they were sprawled on a white sugar sand beach.
Rider was up on his feet first. "We died! This time they got us and we f**kingdied, people!"
Guardians stood slowly, trying to understand. Bobby bent and vomited. Krissy wept into her hands as Tara felt along her body for injuries. Each Guardian blinked, and walked in a circle, inspecting their bodies, trying to make sense of the completely senseless.
"If we're dead," Cordell said with a tearstained face. "Where's my boy, Dougie?Where you at, Dougie?"
A translucent figure stepped out of the nothingness and waved sadly at Cordell. "I messed up," he said quietly. "I took a wrong turn."
"Boy, we'll fix all that," Cordell said, weeping harder.
"No . . .it's beautiful here . . . peaceful," Doug said with a calm smile. "The angels came for me."
"We're not dead then," Tara whispered, clutching Juanita's hand.
Damali squinted as information pierced her brain. "The Philly team, DC, Georgia, the Scot-they all made it." Damali closed her eyes."Jettisoned to a safe house in Georgetown."
"Then wherewe at?"Inez looked around.