"What time did Cain actually take a stroll out of Nod?" Damali asked.
"Oh, about an hour after sundown. That woman, Lilith, came and got him after he'd banged on the shadow alley wall begging her to get him out. Then perhaps no more than an hour later, he sat on his fa�ther's throne, and that's when she..." The pearl began sobbing again. "I don't like her!"
"Pearl, don't cry. I will slay that bitch, trust me."
"I am so glad we're friends, Damali," the pearl said in a shaky voice, still sniffing. "I think your solution makes me happy. Tell Cain I send my warmest regards when you see him."
Damali stood and stared out at the ocean. This was a level of in�sanity that she'dnever banked on. Her oracle was a nutcase, her hus�band was getting Chairman throne-spikes from below, and her Guardian brother was linked so closely to Carlos that he'd vamp-mate-marked Juanita! Queen Eve, the mother of all mothers, was go�ing to have a coronary, if she hadn't already. The Chairman's throne had a new ruler, which meant the Vampire Council was back in ses�sion. That put Yonnie and Tara in immediate harm's way, not to men�tion Gabrielle. Who knew what crazy entities Cain would install as councilmen? Some of the ones she'd seen in Nod could come out during the day and still had souls, for Christ's sake!
All she had done was plan a quickie wedding in three days, and leave for fourshort days to try to have a honeymoon, butnoooo. One week, seven teeny blips on the giant cosmic clock, and all hell had broken loose. Couldn't a sister catch a break?
Meanwhile, there had to be a yawning breach in the veil over in Nod, which meant hybrids either called by Cain, or simply on their own volition, could come spilling over the void any day or night. Sealing the tear would mean first finding it to inform Ausar to get more shields, but with Cain on the darkside, fat chance of that- before, while he was just a horny being of the good side was bad enough. Then there was Lilith. That bitch. Oh, my God... she would slaughter her!
Damali turned back to the house, slowly trudging toward it. So, girlfriend finally got what she'd wanted; an apexing male Neteru in Dante's chair, and a chance to ride him all night. If Cain was in Dante's throne spiking Old World male Neteru, it had to be one hel�luva ride!
"She didn't deserve that one, yo!" A bizarre combination of anger, pity, and jealousy was threatening to make Damali irrational. Just the thought of Lilith laying Cain made Damali want to scream and go to war.
True, it didn't make sense, but that's where she was-ready for hand-to-hand combat. It was a matter of honor. Cain was many things, among them a complex being that she'd really liked, all mad�ness notwithstanding. He was a twisted friend.
But Lilith doinga Neteru? One oftheirs from the side of the Light? Lilith driving a stake into Eve's heart by finally getting to her queen sister through her son? That tall, refined, handsome,sexy, intelligent hunk of passionate but crazy protoplasm f**ked Lilith? "That bitch!" Lilith took a musical and military genius and broke his ass down in his own daddy's throne? Just cut off the hands of an experienced healer and converted his power to raise the dead into black lightning de�struction? Actually turned Cain over as a door prize to Lucifer to get her own trifling ass a get-out-of-jail-free pass on this millennium Neteru team's watch?
"I'll kill you!" That whore had usedher as bait to make that being filled with so much positive potential to go dark, pitch black, enough to give up his empire in Nod... and then make it look like his dev�astation was all her fault? "Oh, hell no!"
Galled beyond words, Damali spit on the beach as she walked. Fury had put the acrid taste of metal in her mouth. Where was her Isis? When she'd been with Cain, yeah, he'd been nuts... but still the brother was cool as long as he was over in his kingdom and had that to rule.
She couldn't even think about the things Zehiradangra had told her. She didn't have to; she could feel it as the pearl spoke the stone-cold truth. Cain's suffering and need to be in her arms had made them ache. But he would have never gone there and been so caught up in a love-jones had Lilith not been constantly thinning the veil be�tween them, working her mojo, plotting and scheming and sending instant airborne messages to him saturated with every lust-filled mi�rage she could create with her succubus, skank-ass illusions.
The way Lilith had run her seduction game had been smooth, she'd give her that. Damali shook her head as she walked, making her locks slap her shoulders. Girlfriend had been the one to use the airwaves, courtesy of her deranged husband, to send her voice over the cosmic Net to torture Cain-that much she knew in her soul. Then Lilith had let that poor bastard twist.
Stomping in the sand as she walked, Damali's eyesight blurred from repressed rage. Lilith had hit him with sensation the moment he'd tumbled into the gray zone... a half-vamp Neteru going through changes. Lethal cocktail primed for disaster. She'd seen Carlos wig under those conditions, and he hadn't been locked up for centuries. And the way this was set up, every Council Neteru would be con�flicted, divided. Like they said, every woman knows her husband, and Lilith no doubt knew Adam's weak spot, 'cause girlfriend just did the cha-cha on it.
Damali stopped walking and stared up at the house once she'd reached the front steps. What was she gonna tell Carlos? She had been the carrier of Cain's vamp virus to him, right at the throat. For all the drama Carlos had brought to her door in the past, he'd never dropped the beginning of the cold-blooded Armageddon at her feet.
If Cain was doing Lilith onDante's throne last night while linked to Carlos,no wonder he bit the bullshit out of her in the throes. And mild-mannered Jose just got swept up in the male vamp passion tor�nado by extended lineage. She wondered if Yonnie had practically flatlined Tara yet. Yonnie was all vamp and no doubt a power surge had run through that brother hard enough to have him speaking in tongues. Half the squad of serious warriors was gonna feel the fallout of this crap.
Red-blood-running meat au naturel made sense-feed then... Damali didn't even want to say the word when thinking about her and Carlos, or even Jose getting with Juanita, for that matter. But it was a feed then f**k then fight vamp paradigm rush going on for sure. The scenario ran through Damali's mind in an endless dark loop.
Cain would have to feed for strength, then fulfill his next core de�sire, and if he met the Devil face-to-face while doing his wife, who knew what had ultimately kicked off? The only saving grace and rea�son Juanita could do sunshine now was because Jose was working with blunt edges. Damn! Carlos was right. This time, she could only blame herself. She shouldnever have allowed another male vamp to bite her forany reason.
Damali closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself. There was no damage control option here. This was one of those times a sister just had to fall on her sword.
"Hey, baby," Carlos said, coming to the front door. "Just checking on you. Folks wanna know what you want for dinner. Better make the most of it, because tomorrow it's back to drawing straws for chores. But today we get served." He smiled and strolled down the steps, and then stopped. "D?"
"Walk with me on the beach for a few. I ain't ready to go in the house."
Carlos looked over his shoulder. "Cool." He ignored several sug�gestive grins behind him. "You look like something's spooked you. After everything that went down," he said more quietly as he neared her, "maybe the sun and exertion isn't a good idea."
Damali just began walking and didn't speak until they were several yards away from the house. She then began kicking sand as she walked along the shoreline, wanting to be well out of earshot of the team when Carlos started yelling. The man would go off. Correction. Herhusband would go off.
"Baby," she said, putting her hands behind her back as she kept her eyes on the ground and continued walking farther from the house. "See, what had happened was... uhmm... remember that thing with Cain?"
Carlos stopped walking. "Yeah. That motherfucker try to contact you while you was out here alone?" "Not exactly." She peered up at him.
"How exactly?" Carlos said, folding his arms over his chest and glaring at her.
Damali sighed. "Remember I love you when I tell you what I'm about to tell you." "What happened?"
Damali took a deep breath and then began her rapid-fire explana�tion while wildly gesturing with her hands.