"I know," Aset said, her gaze tearing between Nefertiti and Damali. "He could have hurt her internally, and that I can fix if necessary. But as we can see, thankfully Damali stands before us, a bit exhausted from the trauma, but not hemorrhaging. However, my greater concern is that the two males are not so linked that in the future-especially during a battle, Carlos's mind could be compromised by Cain."
"It wasn't Carlos's mind that was compromised," Damali said flatly.
"Aset!" Nefertiti said in a tight whisper, shaking her older queen sister. "Listen to what Damali is saying to you. You said it yourself: "Her husband battle bit her on their honeymoon-and when do you think this might have occurred?"
Aset opened and closed her mouth as Nefertiti just nodded. Nefer�titi let her hands fall away from Aset's arms.
"Oh, daughter... I know it was a bit awkward, but it was just an energy fusion of both sexually active males, not a true tryst-and their combined prowess might have left you a bit off kilter. You'll re�cover your energies very shortly, I'm sure." Aset sighed impatiently as she glanced at Damali, and then back to her upset queen sister. "Ne�fertiti, calm yourself. This will all change once Damali slays Cain. He won't be able to ride Carlos's old link after that, and I'm absolutely positive that once the vital link is severed, your husband will return to his normal self. There should be no more violent outbursts. What is of greater import is that Cain not be allowed to link to Carlos while he's in battle with Carlos... The bedroom is a lower priority con�cern, given all we face. Worry about the battle, not the bedroom, is my advice."
"I cannot fathom how Cain's energy could have entered your household to bond so severely to Carlos, though." Nefertiti flung her long microbraids over her shoulder and refolded her arms. "It doesn't make sense. Nothing is that powerful to come between man and wife once sealed from On High... that is the ultimate prayer barrier, and not even Neteru Councils can see into that space. The only way something insidious can slither in from the outside to turn one part�ner against the other is for it to be invited in-and Iknow neither Damali nor Carlos did that."
"Cain had my blood in his veins through a previous, willing, throat offering," Damali said just above a whisper, "and it was still in his sys�tem seven days later when I got married and was on my honeymoon."
Nefertiti and Aset's collective gasp felt like the cutting edge of an Isis against Damali's skin.
Damali squeezed her eyes closed and tears wet her lashes. "I have to go into battle and slay Cain, but I don't know how I'm ever gonna make this right with my husband. Nefertiti, what do I tell him?"
"I don't know," Nefertiti murmured. "This is my fault... When I sent you in there to seduce Cain to get back the Caduceus and to seal him away again, I forgot to tell you not to give him your blood. Oh, my..." Nefertiti clasped her hands together over her chest. "Does Carlos have to know about the blood transfer? Couldn't we just attribute it all to the dark energies swirling on the planet?"
Damali just stared at Nefertiti for a moment. She could notbelieve her queen justforgot. Incredible. Still, she couldn't really get angry about the oversight and lay all the blame at Nefertiti's feet. Unfortu�nately, she had to take the weight for this one alone, and suck it up and be honest. "It happened before I went in for the Caduceus," Damali muttered, "so it wasn't on you. But none of that matters. I've already admitted it to Carlos and-"
"What would make you do that?" Nefertiti shrieked, causing Aset to clasp her hand over her mouth.
"Why would you tell him?" Aset said quickly in a tense whisper, her luminous eyes wide with disbelief. "He's a man, and doesn't need to know all." She let go of Nefertiti and both queens stood before Damali with their arms folded.
"Because it happened onmy honeymoon, and Carlos and I weren't usinganything... He was burning solid gold symbol that went white-hot, okaaaay? So was I. And you know if Cain was at the height of a denied apex, the way I left that brother in Nod... shit. Then he took a tumble inDante's throne? Double shit, ladies. You and I know that Cain wasn't shooting blanks when he finally got his groove on down there. And if Cain somehow used my blood as a beacon and then rode Carlos's energy through the preexisting link they had, or there was some kinda DNA mix up..." Damali caught her weight against a pillar with both hands. It became blurry as hot moisture built in her eyes as she spoke.
"You should have seen the look in my husband's eyes. I might as well have cut his heart out on that beach. I never want to hurt Carlos like that again in my life, or see Carlos's eyes stare back at me with that incredible disbelief thatI, of all the people in the world, could do something like this to him." Hot tears rolled down Damali's cheeks and she didn't bother to wipe them away. "That man never looked at me with disgust in his life," she said thickly, a sob brewing very close to her surface.
She didn't look up when she heard the older queens swallow hard, and her voice broke as she told them the truth. "This may sound weak, may sound foolish up here in the Neteru Queens' Council with everything else that's going on, but ladies, I'm being real... If that man walks, I don't know what I'll do."
Damali pushed off the pillar and wrapped her arms around her waist. "Fate of the world?" she said, looking at the floor. "My world just experienced a cataclysmic wipeout. Yeah, I'll go down and battle, whateva. Try to save humanity, yeah, yeah, yeah, but when it's all said and done, then what? I've been to Hell and back for that man, love the ground he walks on. Life without him would be what to me? I might as well be the living dead, soulless, just walking around in a stupor without my soul mate. I can't be carrying nobody else's baby but his." She shook her head and closed her eyes again. "Oh,my God, you should have seen his face."
"Oh... my God..." Aset whispered, rushing to Damali with Nefertiti.
"We have to fix this," Nefertiti whispered through her teeth. "History cannot repeat itself in such a manner." She touched Damali's tears. "If you are carrying, Eve is the only one we can go to in order to get a paternity divination... and if she learns that you are with child, her hopes that it is Cain's will make her even more irrational."
Aset nodded, walking in a tight line back and forth, hugging her�self. "She will want any part of it to be Cain's, as that will be the last flicker of Light within his being. He may have gone dark, but his fu�ture holds the heritage of a Neteru in the Light-and Eve will be on Damali like a wasp to ensure the pregnancy comes to term, that the child is reared in an envelope of total love, and she'll attempt to relive every motherly mistake she thinks she ever made by assisting in the upbringing of this child."
"The marriage will crumble under that weight," Nefertiti said in a faraway voice.
"Carlos is not Adam," Damali said, her voice strained. "He wouldn't stick around long enough for it to be all that, if I know any�thing about the man. At first, I think he'd try to hold on, but the big�ger I got..." Damali let her voice trail off as multiple negative scenarios played out in her mind.
"Eve wouldn't care," Aset said quietly. "She would bring all her powers to bear to help Damali raise the child alone.. In fact, if I know my queen sister's weeping heart, she would prefer it that way... would want Carlos out of the picture in hopes that her son would come around to change for the sake of the new baby."
Nefertiti looked at Aset. "Maybe we could develop a compromise to save the marriage and let Eve raise the child here, so that-"
Damali held up her hand, cutting off Nefertiti's words. "Don't evenask me to give my baby up if I'm pregnant."
"I'm sorry," Nefertiti said, her eyes containing so much compas�sion that tears flowed over her onyx lashes. Egyptian kohl was run�ning down her cheeks and a sob made her cover her mouth with her hand. "Even slaying Cain will not fix this. Yet, we are bound to sav�ing the world at large and never taking a soul... and, still, my heart shatters for my sister's personal loss. Aset, advise us."
"Just scan me, Aset," Damali whispered, her tone desperate. "At least let me know now what I'm dealing with so I can get my head right to go into battle. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll die on the job and that way at least-"
"Don't say that, Damali!" Aset whispered, silver tears streaming down her cheeks as she paced. "Maybe we can send a petition up to the angels? This was larceny, not an act of intent... This young queen didn't know-Cain may have done this through a blood heist, since she never actually bedded him. He broke into a marital chamber using an old blood siphon from before, not one given once our sister got married."
"But they take so long on matters this involved up there," Nefertiti wailed. "The debate over this, and with Cain's dark decision, who knows, maybe they want to teach Hell a lesson that no matter the parentage, free will to go into the Light reigns supreme? We never know how they do things all the way up there, what mysteries are un�folding until they do!"
"Just scan me," Damali said, holding Aset's arm. "I have to know. You healed me before when-"