"Do not try to justify this! Like you wouldalways tell me when I messed up, it's time to face it, come clean, be honest about everything that went down, and then come up with a strategy," Carlos bellowed, pointing at her.
They stared at each other, seconds ticking away like a time bomb had been set. He refused to allow his thoughts to descend into suspi�cion.Please, God, don't let her have actually slept with Cain.
Damali's gaze narrowed slightly. "I didn't," she said, quietly. "I thought we'd been over that."
Embarrassed by her charge, Carlos sent his gaze toward the sea. "None of your queens was my mother; none was tied to the energy umbilical cord that never ceases."
"It'll be all right," she said, her calmness grating him.
"I know what the f**k I'm talking about," he muttered, his tone surly. "Even when I was all vamp and on the Vamp Council, black blood exchanges even among the demon realms was disallowed, and ya know why?"
"Why?" she whispered, already knowing the answer, but hoping he'd calm down as he talked.
"Because blood is a carrier of DNA and life-force energy. So, if a vamp exchanged with a werewolf, let's say, that vamp would not only have a problem with daylight, but would be locked up and only come out and feed during a full moon... and if said foul vamp bit another vamp-which is the way of that world-then they, too, would be�come polluted. Works the same way in reverse. It would give the were-demon access to open season on the night, regardless of the phase of the moon, for as long as that blood was running through his or her system. That's why the old Chairman didn't play that shit, D. I cannot believe you've put me in a position to finally agree with Dante!"
"Oh, baby, I'm so sorry," she said, rubbing her palms down her face. "That's why he didn't eat..."
"What!"
Damali hung her head and spoke in a soft voice. "Z said Cain didn't eat, I guess, or do an energy infusion to replenish himself after I left him sealed in Nod... and, uh, for seven days he was over there and refused to do that while he was apexing after a battle and-"
"Oh, shit..." Carlos walked back and forth like a caged panther. "That's what sat in the Chairman's throne? And to add insult to in�jury, vamp for vamp, given my old council rank and his current one with royal lineage to Dante and beyond, he's stronger than I ever was in the Dark Realms. Did you ever consider that, given his age and his rank as the second male Neteru ever made, Cain might have even outranked me until he went dark, while he was in the Light? A moth�erfucker with a power-sex-glory jones like that, holding a half-tank of your blood in him?" Carlos stopped pacing and stared at her. "We're even, Damali. I've practically stopped your heart with my mess in the past, and this one, baby... damn. You had betternever say anything to me aboutanything like this again in this life or the next, Damali-and I promise to do the same."
"I won't," she said in a shaky whisper, willing herself not to cry. She had never heard Carlos tell her something so profound in such a forthright manner with the level of hurt in his voice that it contained right now. She was used to his old games, those old sly moves of his- but an all-out admission of how he felt... the man might as well haveblatow flat-blasted her.
"He knew what he was doing, you know that, right?" Carlos stared at her as she kept her gaze lowered.
Damali set her shoulders hard, planted her feet, and lifted her chin, her eyes meeting his outraged silver gaze. "Yeah, he knew what he was doing," she said flatly. There was no point in being anything but di�rect. "Blood is a tracer element, too, and carries a scent."
"He's coming for you." "I know."
"Battle bulked like a motherfucker."
"I know."
"Good. Glad you know. Then get the team ready for the brawl. By the time it's all over, fifty-fifty odds you'll either be a widow or a wife-can't call the outcome of this one, baby." Carlos walked away from her, shaking his head. Silver sweat from the angry outburst streamed down his temples, made his T-shirt cling to him, and had dampened his hair, leaving a shimmer to his skin.
"You know this is gonna start the war of wars, right?" Carlos's voice had dropped to a warning decibel that made the sand rumble beneath her feet. "It was an excellent move on Lilith's part, I'll give her that."
Damali's heart rate increased as she watched Carlos's mind begin to work on the problem, instead of what she'd done wrong. But she kept her lips tightly sealed, lest she add the wrong bit of information at the wrong time in the wrong tone. Nefertiti's lessons were not a waste.
"First off, I need to warn Ausar, if he isn't already aware, and my generals are gonna have to get Adam's head right." Carlos closed his eyes. "Me and Yonnie are gonna have to talk, for sure. That brother is a sitting duck for a very bad situation that's about to bring him down. We're gonna have to tell the team we're being tracked by a heat-seeking missile from Hell with our names on it."
Carlos opened his eyes and glared at her. "But, for the sake of this marriage, I won't go into the details about how Cain can pinpoint us like we're on f**king radar. We've gotta move out while he's under�ground and plotting his next strike. The only thing that's buying us time is the fact that he bit Lilith, which dilutes you in his system, since he's gone dark, and after so many years being over in Nod, after what I felt last night, I'm pretty sure that he's working real hard to make up for lost time."
Carlos walked away, serving Damali his back as he took in two long, cleansing breaths. He loved this woman's dirty drawers, and she'd finally put him in a position not only to feel what she'd felt in the past, but to experience it. It was so wild and so unintentional on her part that he almost laughed. The Light definitely had a sense of humor-as above, so below... fair exchange was no robbery. He turned and looked at her. Nothing was coming between them, not even his anger about an old lover.
Damali's eyes glittered with unshed tears. "I didn't do this to spite you. You know that, right? It was messed up how it happened."
Carlos let out his breath hard and came near her, wanting to hug her as much as he wanted to draw a blade on Cain. "I know, baby. But we also know that he's no fool, and won't let an opportunity of get�ting tail pass by for more than twenty-four hours. However, he is a vampire, and Dante's throne makes it near impossible for even a well-laid, well-fed entity to simply walk away from that... my guess is, we have a small window while he gets his head right. Ask me how I know."
"I have to tell the queens," Damali whispered.
"Yes, you have to tell the queens," Carlos said in a weary tone. "You have to go to them and run it down all the way to the bone so your backup understands the gravity of the situation. Straight, no chaser."
Damali nodded. "I know." She sighed as more hot tears of remorse filled her eyes. "I never meant to do this to Eve."
Carlos's shoulders slumped as he rubbed the tension out of the back of his neck again. "It's f**ked up, but the whole part about let�ting Cain out, or hurting Eve, you didn't do." He looked up at Damali and shook his head, the muscles in his jaw working. "Lilith lured him to you-knowledge from a connection to him still flows both ways, so I can feel it. The airwaves are her and her husband's device. She got him all jacked around and on a mission to get you. That part I can ac�cept. He made a decision to take a throne because he couldn't stand being bested by me-that's his old weakness, jealousy of his brother. You didn't do that part, he had it in him... and the bastard was empire-building when we met him. So here, Nod, Hell, whatever, that's from his father's side. You ain't got nothing to do with it. Don't take that on and go tripping about that while we all need your head to be right."