Damali rolled her shoulders and closed her eyes, stretching her back. A weeklong soak in one of the hacienda's old claw-foot tubs would be a luxury cure, but who had that kind of time? The team had been fortunate to get seven days of battle hiatus and, in a day or so, it would be time to move out to places unknown. Tonight, they'd party. Tomorrow, they'd sit in the makeshift war room, otherwise known as the family room, and figure out where the next safest place would be. In the interim, she and Carlos had to find clues as to what was going on while holding their shit together in front of the team. No emo�tion came. She was too tired to dwell on it right now. Tonight, after the welcome-home festivities, she'd slip into bed in her husband's arms and respect his personal space.
Damali plugged the sink with her eyes closed. The headache from the probable concussion was making her eyes sensitive to the glaring, bright light of Mexico's sun. She filled the bowl with cool water to splash her face, wondering how long she could endure the family hugs and slaps on the back before breaking down and begging them not to touch her. If Big Mike came at her-and he would because she'd slipped by him intentionally-one mighty crush from those huge arms... a two-hundred-and-seventy-five-pound-and-climbing weight category from Inez's loving pots, combined with an off-the-floor hug by the six-foot-eight team giant, would make her see stars and call on Jesus.
A light tap on the door jerked Damali's attention around, and she slowly said, "ouch," in a silent, openmouthed wince as she clutched the sink. Her necklace got bumped into the sink and was now sub�merged under cool water, but her arms hurt so badly at the moment she couldn't immediately move them to get it. If Carlos was sweating her to help fend off family, she couldn't.
"Come in," Damali said, breathing hard. "I can't come out; you'll have to come in."
When Juanita walked into the bathroom slowly, latched the door behind her, and kept her back to Damali, she tried not to bristle. Of all days... if girlfriend was gonna start some meeting-in-the-ladies'-room mess, today would not have been the day she would have picked.
"Hey, lady," Damali said, trying to be cool, and forcing herself to remember all the good things Marlene had told her Juanita had done from before.
"Hey, D. Welcome home."
The fact that Juanita kept her back to Damali wasn't helping mat�ters, but there was something in the sound of her voice that gave Damali enough energy to push off the sink and meet Juanita mid-floor.
"Girl, you okay?" Now Damali was concerned. Something wasn't right; even Juanita's voice was off. She held her body strangely, too.
Juanita turned around. She had on dark sunglasses, her hair was di�sheveled, and she was wearing a man's white cotton shirt with the collar flipped up and long sweatpants-in La Paz, in eighty-five de�grees? When, of all the women in the house, 'Nita always showed the most skin?
"Are you all right?" Damali asked again, her voice steady as she ap�proached Juanita.
"I have to ask you a question," Juanita said in a quiet, serious tone, unafraid. "This is nothing about your business. I'm just asking you this because I have a reason." She carefully lowered her collar and re�moved her sunglasses.
Damali didn't know where to look first. Juanita's eyes had dark rings under them as though she hadn't slept in days. Her neck was pocked by a series of purplish-red bruises, fresh ones that descended into scattered, older mulberry-hued tones that presented significant risks for blood clots. As Juanita did a slow striptease, removing her shirt to reveal a tank top and show skin, Damali slowly brought her hand up to her mouth.
"Father Mother God..."
"Did he ever do this to you?" Juanita asked, her voice just above a murmur.
Damali rushed to Juanita as fast as her sore body would allow, but stopped several feet away in the huge hacienda bathroom as the woman closed her eyes as though begging Damali not to touch her. Scanning Juanita's arms with a horrified gaze, Damali saw every easy vein point bruised. The insides of her elbows, her wrists, her throat.
"Girl, what happened?" Damali whispered through her teeth.
"When Carlos was half-vampire or part-vampire, did he ever do this to you?" Juanita repeated, her eyes opening slowly to stare at Damali without blinking.
"Let me see your throat," Damali said as softly as she could. "I'm a healer and won't hurt you."
"I'm a seer and never saw it coming," Juanita said sadly. "I only see very recent past events. I'm not like Mar or Inez, who see the future events in varying degrees of clarity. Marj can see a little, but is better at conjuring. If I was better, I would have seen it."
"Shushhhh," Damali whispered, allowing her hand to cover the left side of Juanita's throat without actually touching the tender bruise. "It's okay. When was the last time he bit you?"
"Jose bit me until dawn, then collapsed. You understand?"
The wild look in Juanita's eyes made Damali want to hug her. But for the sake of both their bodies, she dared not. The heat emanating from Juanita's skin was the closest human attempt at a vamp mate strike she'd ever seen. Raw passion almost arced a current in her palm as she tried to draw the blunt-edged strike off Juanita's skin.
"Where else?" Damali said quietly, going down Juanita's arms and lessening the pain. But Damali had to back up and breathe after a mo�ment. Taking this on and coping with her own body aches made tears almost fall.
"I'm sorry. I know it hurts, but I couldn't go to Marlene with this... or Berkfield," Juanita said quickly, her voice quiet and panic-stricken. "He's never done anything like this before... It would get intense, and I knew he had vamp way back in his family tree... but I swear to God-"
Damali held up her hand. "I know, I know, and baby, please don't swear to God about something like this." She sighed hard. "Look, I pretty much know where else a male vampire would bite you... and you can show me or not, but if it's bad, a femoral bite that gets a blood clot can be a for-real heart-stopping experience. I know we've had our shit between us, but-"
"It hurts so f**king bad I can't walk, girl," Juanita whispered through her teeth. When she shut her eyes two huge tears streamed down her cheeks. "Jose is the most passionate, caring, careful lover that... this isn't him, and you cannot sayanything to anybody,promise me."
"I know-I mean, I suspect, given his personality," Damali said, quickly correcting herself before anything crazy jumped off in Juanita's mind. For a moment, she wasn't sure what to do and couldn't commit to keeping a secret this huge. The team needed to know about this; Carlos definitely had to know, but she also wanted to pre�serve some of her teammate's privacy. She just prayed that Juanita had enough sense not to tell her something she didn't wanna hear about Carlos, whodid sleep with Juanita for years.
"Can you sit down on the edge of the tub?" Damali finally said. "And tell me you have on underwear because I'm not gonna be able to hang, unless you do."
"Yeah," Juanita said through a painful chuckle. "I was standing in the room by the door, trying to get dressed while he passed out. I knew you'd be coming home and was just trying to figure out how to get to you alone... God is good."