Misshapen faces in massive skulls leered back at him. Maggot-infested pelts barely concealed barrel chests as gargantuan arms lifted swords and maces, battle-axes, and spears. Huge Viking helmets gleamed with black static charges of pure fury as riders tried to rein in their nightmarish, demon warhorses.
"There will be warrior angels!" Vlad shouted. "They will open up Heaven to rain injustice upon you, but your reward is worth the sacrifice! The dark empire will rise again! Take the Tower of David as our fortress, lay siege to the streets!"
Another rowdy cheer went up in a deafening roar. Nuit pulled away from Lilith to bring his mount down the left flank of the Berserkers.
"Master vampires to the air!" Nuit shouted. "Darken the already dim sky. Blot out the gray clouds in a carpet of pure night! They must be holed up in one of the three main citadels that we cannot breach. But use conventional weaponry from the standing human armies to blast at their edifices until they crumble to dust!"
"You three are on recon," Lilith shouted toward Lucrezia, Elizabeth, and Sebastian. "As our warriors fall, bring them back. As the humans flee the destruction--poison them, hit them with contagion, and take them hostage until the Neteru team is forced out beyond the sanctuary of hallowed ground."
When the threesome nodded, Lilith rode off to the right flank into a dark void of nothingness. She stopped as the slow, putrid breaths of Satan's Thirteenth pelted her ears. She didn't turn to meet the colossal presence that dwarfed her nightmare and made the frightened beast rear, snorting fire.
"Your bidding, per my master, my queen?" it rumbled. Lilith took a moment to compose herself, narrowing her gaze against the absolute darkness that had bent to address her. "If the Neteru 'Councils rush in and if the archangels come .. . you are our nuclear option. I will not cede to defeat."
Damali sat up slowly as the combined teams gathered around. Five soldiers took note and rushed over, weapons drawn.
"Get back, get back!" the captain shouted at the teams, leveling gun barrels at Carlos as he slowly unfolded from Damali's body. "He has the contagion! Look at his eyes and his teeth. Get back so we have a clear shot!"
Red dots covered Carlos's chest and forehead. But Guardian brothers stepped out from behind columns, and the distinctive clicks of hammers being cocked made the confused soldiers ease their arms down.
"You need to chill," Phat G said quietly into a nervous soldier's ear, pressing cold steel against his neck. "Things ain't always what they seem."
"Ain't nobody contagious. This ain't got nothing to do with you," Big Mike said into a captain's ear, making him feel the gun muzzle at his back. "Tell your men to stand down--you and I don't want nothin' unfortunate to kick off up in here, right?"
"We'll take care of our own," Shabazz said calmly as he dug the muzzle of Black Beauty into one of the lead soldiers' temple.
"Americano, comprende?" Jose said between his teeth, making sure the soldier in front of him could feel the barrel of his 9mm at the base of his skull.
"Just say the word, Captain," Rider called out, while pressing his weapon into a young soldier's cheek. "This is family business and we've got a cure for the man.
You don't want an all-out war inside this of all churches, so my suggestion is you call your squad back. We are not the enemy. The enemy is out there, trust me!"
"You don't want a full-scale shooting match in here with all these civilians, right?" Big Mike warned the captain.
The captain shook his head as civilians and clerics huddled against the walls and altar. "Stand down," he said quickly. "This is not of our concern--they are Americans."
Cordell and Tobias got down on their knees. Cordell held his hands over a small fissure in the stone floor. They listened, straining, until Tobias glanced up.
"You can hear water," Tobias whispered, awestruck. "But the crack is so small. . . maybe the child's hand could have reached down within it. Our limbs are too big."
Cordell nodded. "If it's water, then it had to be blessed . . . and it's gotta be holy water that could cover anything hidden within this cave that's covered by holy rock. But if something goes wrong out here, would you or I want to have that little girl's life on our heads? She ain't nuthin' but a baby. If I die, so what? If she ran the wrong way or something snatched her along the way, could you live with yourself? Maybe that's what the angels were testing to see, who knows?"
For a moment, neither man spoke, their silence answering the lingering question.
"But how can we get the dagger if it is down there?" Tobias leaned in, peering into the nothingness. "It is an abyss. We have no ropes or climbing gear. I do not think I am supposed to send a tactical charge into the center of the world to take out something so revered . . . that could be considered sacrilege."
"If we're supposed to have it, it will come to us," Cordell said sitting back on his haunches. "My old grandma wasn't a black Hebrew, but she had wisdom that comes down through the ages. She said if two or more are gathered in His name, then that's where He is also." Cordell's gaze trapped Tobias's for a moment. "Me and you make two, so let's do that."
"Are you all right?" Carlos asked in a rush, bringing bottled water to Damali's lips.
She nodded, taking the water from him, and then pushed herself up to balance on her own. "Yeah," she said after a long drink.- "They burned us out--or better stated, boiled us out. They turned it into a steam oven. Had to get the team onto serious hallowed ground, and with the heat, and the multiple sends over that distance, next thing I knew I was passed out."
Carlos rubbed his palm over his jaw and dropped his voice. "Next time you get in a box, if there is a next time, you get out first and then pull everybody to where you are. None of this captain going down with the ship--"
"Don't even say it," she warned, her gaze unflinching and her tone nonnegotiable. "Leave them in an oven and--"
"I didn't say leave them in an oven, I said, like they tell you on a commercial flight, put the damned mask over your face first, Damali. If you go down, you can't save anybody else!" He could feel his heart slamming against his breastbone as his voice went from a private whisper to a sonic boom. He stood and walked away from her. Shabazz landed a hand on his shoulder and walked with him.
"It's cool, man, you gonna be okay, she's gonna be okay. Everything is peace. Hetep," Shabazz said.