"Then be quick," Adam thundered, beginning to pace. "Time draws nigh, and every second is a lost advantage."
Ausar simply held up his hand to stop further commentary from the table as he mentally addressed Carlos.Young brother, if there was a collision of forces, at best, Hannibal's war rage may have cancelled out a poten�tial fusion siring. If the two energies passed each other, one thundering into you like dominoes, one after the other...then it is a game of chance. Dice. Your energies would vacillate at a very inopportune time. Neither side can see into the holy union, and as long as you are married, either side can only send what we had toward you, hoping that it would adhere. But, if you were one heart, one mind, one spirit, one flesh at the time...God only knows what damage we have done.
"Oh, shit!" Carlos said, walking away from Ausar. "I'm wounded? Lost the ability to heal a fallen warrior because of this shit," he said, trying in vain to protect his and Damali's personal business using a verbal diversion. "I'm going into the potential f**king Armageddon wounded?" He looked at Hannibal as confused stares met him from the group of kings. "Man, what was in that power hit?"
"Everything from our centuries of battle tactics," Hannibal said proudly, lifting his chin. "A blast of pure, righteous fury infused with warrior skill and strategy profound."
"While I was on my damned honeymoon, man? Are you crazy!" Carlos couldn't help it; the truth rushed out before he could censor it. His wife was in an unknown condition and might be carrying a fu�sion of him and his archenemy, or worse. "I cannot f**king believe this shit!"
Carlos drove the blade of Ausar into the marble floor and ap�proached the archon's table, suddenly realizing that the power blast hadn't merely closed off his ability to seal a bite or heal a wound, or had simply made him too aggressive-it even went beyond the devas�tating possibility of a fusion. The significance of the jolt that was sent from the kings was written all over Hannibal's face.
As Carlos's mind raced, he wasn't worried about experiencing a loss of a specific Neteru ability. It became too clear that he and all the kings feared that the sudden lightning rod of war might have inadvertently done permanent, irreversible, internal damage to Damali. Carlos's mind instantly latched on to the image of her standing in the bathroom telling him she was bleeding silver. He was trembling with frustration as he stared at silver-lit eyes that held new uncertainty. "What could happen to her under those conditions?"
Akhenaton closed his eyes. "Hannibal... brother, brother, brother."
Hannibal sat down slowly like he'd been punched. "Young brother... my deepest regrets... had I known..."
Solomon leaned forward and made a tent before his mouth with his hands. "This is a problem. Is she injured?"
"I don't know!" Carlos shouted, veins standing in his neck and temples. "Why didn't you wait until I came home, summon me here, and do it here?"
"You were unavailable... we could not see you for a brief time," Ausar said quietly.
"I had just gotten married! Where the hell else do you think I would be other than with her?"
"This occurred during heated debate amongst the inner circle," Hannibal admitted, his voice low and deadpan. He glimpsed Adam. "Tempers flared, testosterone rushed, and we forgot that you had eloped. Our apologies."
"Youforgot? Treated me like I was absent without leave, when you knew I was getting married? Now you're telling me,our bad? Oh shit!" Carlos rubbed his palms down his face.
Adam sat down slowly with a thud as Ausar began to pace. "In our intemperance and battle fury," Adam said quietly, "we acted prema�turely, perhaps."
"Acted prematurely? Acted what?" Carlos was leaning across the table, sputtering. "Fix it now!"
"Female fertility issues rest in the province of Eve," Adam said qui�etly, "and lately, given the circumstances before us... my wife is not herself. We govern war and paternity, not those things maternal, as you know."
Carlos let out a hard breath, his gaze locking with Adam's. His palms were flattened against the table, glowing white when he splayed his fingers. "Then get the paternity straight," Carlos said between his teeth. "If she's able to carry and is carrying, y'all better fix this bull�shit with the quickness."
Adam stood slowly and spoke in a quiet rumble. "There is a pater�nity question? From whom?"
"Cain," Carlos said in a lethal mutter. "Don't do me like this. Put healing back into my hands and my bites, if I'm on my way to war... but before you doanother thing, you get it right with D."
Murmurs of dissent broke out among the gallery of kings behind the major archons.
"Paternity can only be guided prior, not after conception," Solomon said in a calm voice filled with remorse. "While your peti�tion stabs our collective conscience and has not fallen on deaf ears, young brother... you must believe that we hear you loud and clearly. There is only One above who can change destinies to such a degree. Wars against evil demon legions and building righteous, powerful leaders are our charge... but on some things we cannot intervene. We do not own such powers. Even the angels tread lightly on the subject and must get official sanction to make an in vitro change like that." He glanced at Adam, who looked away. "If we had this ability, we would have exercised that option eons ago."
"Fix this shit," Carlos repeated, his gaze going to each of the older kings at the table. He walked back to the blade that had been driven into the marble and extracted it with one deft pull. He looked at Ausar. "I got your transmission-translucent box, positioning troops up on a ridge rather than waiting to be slaughtered on a beachfront hacienda. That part I got, along with maps and formations in my skull driving me crazy. How to ride a blinding stallion like it's a nightmare. How to use falcons to f**k up a Harpie tornado. Throw multiple shields and blue-arc oceanic waves backward to drown battleships. Got it. Tried a few out on the beach a little while ago, I was so pissed the f**k off."
Carlos made a fist and allowed it to glow white hot as he stared at it with a searing silver gaze. "Energy ball; put a sonic boom war cry on this and it's nuclear-right?" he said in a quiet, disgusted voice, still staring at his fist for a moment before looking up.
"But do not," Carlos said, his voice dropping to a dangerous en�ergy pulse,"ever send me no crazy war shit when I'm with her." He looked up at the kings and then landed an angry gaze on Ausar. "Fix this. Respectdemanded as a Neteru among you."
Ausar nodded and slung an arm over Carlos's shoulder, taking the fury ball out of his hand and diffusing it. "We shall endeavor to do what we can. You are not injured, only strengthened. The healing will return shortly. But it may be advisable for you to have Damali scanned by Aset for signs of any permanent harm."
"I will confer with Eve on your behalf," Adam said, his gaze going off into the distance.
Ausar tightened his hold on Carlos's shoulder in support. "We may have to draw counsel from the queens on this matter, if not healing by the Caduceus," he added, glancing around and receiving slow nods. "However, our primary mission here at this summit is imminent war."
Damali sat on the front steps of the hacienda with the entire Guardian team staring at her. She could feel their questions like a heat rash cov�ering her skin. Weakened by the double healing, the argument, and something else she couldn't describe, she was so exhausted that she could only watch Carlos deliver a very-edited version of what had gone down. There was nothing to say. He'd kept it short and sweet. Guardians had sat on the sand one by one, seeming as though the air had been knocked out of them.