Lucrezia stroked the armrest of Fallon's throne. "But Madame Chairwoman, the moment the fifth seal is broken, does not the match point revert to us? My poisons and plagues are making it impossible for the team to hide as it spreads across the land. No agricultural stock animal will be fit to eat. Nor fish. The adverse weather will blot out crops. Once the human stockpile diminishes, there will be war in the street for food."
"I have already risen the undead," Sebastian said with a sallow grin. "Those who succumb to Lucrezia's plagues reanimate and wake up with a hunger for human flesh . . . there will be more than war in the street. So let the Light open the fifth seal and call their martyrs. As soon as they do so, all we have to do is open the sixth seal, and it will be our turn."
Nuit's eyes met Lilith's as Vlad made a tent before his mouth with his hands, waiting.
Lilith nodded. "But it is not that simplistic. The sixth seal was hidden eons ago because it is our nuclear alternative, if we elect to employ it. It seems some angels playing dirty allowed it to be removed from the astral plane and after such treachery, we have been hunting it for millennia."
"You almost had it," Vlad murmured in Dananu, cutting a glare at Fallen Nuit. "Residue of that time whispers in my throne. I'll share my impressions for a reinstatement of my position as head of the table, beneath you, of course, milady."
"Still green with envy from Fallon's subtle coup, eh, Count?" Lilith chuckled. "Make it interesting; time is not on our side."
Vlad ignored the curious gazes from his competitors. "There were four masters who Carlos Rivera bested in the Outback, yes? This, of course, after he'd already bested Fallen." Vlad leaned forward as Lilith held a goblet of blood in midair. He gave a triumphant glance in Fallon Nuit's direction before returning his gaze to Lilith. "I believe all that occurred during the time Fallon was in repose in the Sea of Perpetual Agony . . . after having been fang-neutered by the inimitable Mr. Rivera." Vlad chuckled as Nuit issued a low, warning snarl. "You see, I, too, am a student of history, especially epic battles. Being so close to claiming the sixth seal is what nearly drove our former Chairman, Dante, insane. He was so dose."
With a snap of her fingers Lilith created a dark globe in front of her throne and then blew on it to make it spin. A long graceful fingernail soon became a talon as it scored the crust of the earth, causing it to bleed where Rivera had been during his vampire incarnation. "Carlos was primarily in Sydney -- not the Outback, to be exact -- with that Neteru bitch of his. He spent a brief time at the late Master McGuire's castle, just off the sandstone cliffs overlooking the Great Barrier Reef. But where the real travesty occurred was on the high seas on McGuire's yacht and at the docks in Sydney -- which is presumably why Sydney is already under Lucrezia's plagues and Elizabeth's chaos. What more do you suggest?"
Vlad stood and swept away from his throne to meet Lilith by the globe. "Rivera bested Nuit, and then subsequently all four master vampires that confronted him and -- "
"Yes, yes, I know! Dante revoked Rivera's freedom, bat-snatched him in a swirl of Harpies off the yacht, killed his first conceived child, and brought him here to these very chambers, where he ripped out Rivera's innards, then sent him into the sun. What more was there to do to the man? He was as good as exterminated, had the Light not cheated and called in the soul determination clause. Whatever."
"Your husband taught me something earlier -- taught me not to overlook the details -- and I respect his wise counsel." Vlad offered Lilith a charming bow and then took up her hand. "Follow Rivera's blood trail from the night he won the Master's Cup . . . from the castle, through the desert ... to the border of sunrise."
Lilith pulled away from Vlad's hold and waved her hand dis-missively. "He was with the Neteru female--many a male vampire would have braved ash for a ripened--"
"No," Vlad said, cutting her off and catching her arm by the wrist. "He was to bring Dante the sixth seal and the woman. Love blotted out the female's whereabouts, and the Light blinded us to the seal's location . . . but the fact that Rivera saw it out there in that desert and left it out there for the love of a woman, for the love of humanity, registered as treason in his throne! Feel it! That is what drove Dante wild. It was a multiple offense against the empire."
Lilith yanked away from Vlad and quickly swept to his throne, caressing the armrests before she sat down. Her glowing black irises slowly widened as dark energy entered her body.
"Throne of darkness that nearly took residence in Rivera's spirit, speak to me," she murmured. Slowly she closed her eyes with a satisfied sigh and then opened them.
"We do not need an exact location," Elizabeth cooed in Dananu. "Just a general area."
Vlad nodded and held out a hand to his wife, who floated over to him to receive it. "Let the full wrath of the fourth broken seal drive the beasts of the earth to ravage the ancient Aborigine population . . . then send the plagues. In death, they cannot keep up their dreamtime Light chants that blind us from the exact location. As the plagues take their toll, sooner or later we will find their hiding dens and will rout them out. All we needed to know was a general location of who had it, and from there we can apply pressure to the area until the humans in it cave and give up the seal."
"As with all things," Lilith said, standing slowly, choosing her words in Dananu with care. "You and your wife only win an elevation in power if your theory proves correct and you can defend it to Lu." She cast a withering gaze toward Sebastian, who simply hissed. "Isn't that correct, Sebastian? Being right isn't the full monte--you must have the balls to execute." Walking slowly, she gave Vlad a long, contemplative look and tapped her forefinger to her mouth. "That area is extremely dangerous. It is crisscrossed by twenty-thousand-year-old prayer lines and sacred didgeridoo sound lines, hence why we haven't returned. An educated guess is that once the keepers of the seal had been discovered, they would have moved it.... I just don't know. We have already expended a lot of resources, but you may have a point. Time will tell."
"Rather than playing long shots, why not allow a real artist to go to work?" Sebastian snarled in Dananu. "I can raise the Berserkers from all of the Nordic lands, as well as from the old Slavic empires and Germanic tribes, to search and destroy the planet for the seal." He turned to Vlad with an evil challenge in his smoldering eyes. "If my reanimated demons find the sixth seal first, I will claim lead councilman--and your f**king wife will lap dance me!"
Nuit came between both snarling combatants, blocking Vlad's and Elizabeth's lunge at Sebastian with a cool smile. "You take the high road, Sebastian, by raising the Berserkers. Allow Vlad and Elizabeth to take the low road, namely ravaging the Aussies," Nuit offered in Dananu. "But until such time as either of you bring in the goods, you will do things my way. Right now, I say we concentrate on locating the Neteru female who is carrying the Neteru child."
Chapter FOUR
"No matter what I tell you, do not let the team see it on your face.
Then tell me what's wrong. Carlos's gaze was hard with worry as it raked her body, searching for anything that could have made her sick.
Everyone was looking at them, waiting for word that it was safe to move out. Damali stared at Carlos, her eyes imploring him not to tip the team off to the multiple tragedies she'd sensed. She waited till he nodded and then glanced around the desolate hallway inside the Cathedral of the Most Holy.
"It's safe here," she said quietly, glancing around. "Tourists haven't started arriving. Priests are probably in the sanctuary. Go two by two and slide into the pews, spread out like we didn't just jettison in here together. Keep your head low like you're praying until we can figure out how to approach our contact."
"Whaduya mean like we're praying?" Jose said, running his fingers through his hair. "At this point, D, that's all we're doing."
"You ain't said a word," Mike muttered, moving out first with Inez.
Carlos gave the group a nod and he and Damali watched as each couple slowly fanned out, moving into the sanctuary quietly and then hiding their identities behind clasped hands.
"Talk to me," he said in a low, private murmur as soon as they were alone.
Damali closed her eyes and then reached out to hold his face with both hands. "Oh, Carlos . . . Imam, Rabbi . . ." She shook her head and allowed the horrific images to flow from her mind into his.