"Two questions, then," Jose said. "How do we know which ones among their group that look like Hubert, are cool? We don't wanna smoke 'em by accident. But I also wanna know how come the basic antidemon stuff didn't work."
"Excellent observation," Hubert rumbled, giving Dan and Jose a nod of respect. "Those of us that have not gone dark and still have a human soul will have the same reaction to things like sacred waters and salts as you would. But the answer to your first question is not so easy."
"Cain lied to us," another smaller Hubert-looking entity said. He was a fawn from the waist down and a winged gargoyle on top, but his eyes were that of a gentle doe's. "Once he escaped, he descended into Hell. Initially, we were excited, because we thought he was so bold, so courageous that he'd gone down there on his own on a suicide mis�sion to start the big war and to clean out the bowels of the pit. We felt his exit from Nod and rushed to his cliffside lair to stand watch at his pool." The entity's voice fractured with emotion.
"It's all right," the nymph said, going to the half-fawn and rubbing his small horns. "Tell them."
"When we got there, his own sphinxes were slaughtered... beau�tiful animals." The entity shook his head. "We all stood around his sensation pool thinking that perhaps there had been an abduction of our king, and we held the silver thought thread of his Neteru energy until it snapped... then burned away black." Tears now streamed down the entity's cheeks. "We thought he was dead," he said and then nodded toward the other more menacing-looking creatures around him. "So we called in for those that could follow a black line. Hubert and the other rebels bold enough to try followed it as far as they could, and got a life pulse below."
Hubert nodded. "Many of us were holding out hope that he would be what he claimed, a full living Neteru-and we would have followed him into battle against evil demon legions. But he deceived us. If we die in battle fighting for him, all of us are going straight to Hell with no hearing or pardon. That was not the deal. We'd served our time in Nod, and were supposed to fight on the side of righ�teousness in the final days, and if we died, ascend to the realms of Light." Tears filled the entity's eyes. "He lied to us... and we all loved him so. Respected him."
"Yessss," another entity hissed with a strange sibilance to its voice. It had the eyes and scaled skin of a serpent but underneath was hu�man flesh, the body of a man, with wings, and yet it moved in a very fluid manner as it spoke. "The ssssensation tank in Cain's lair revealed much. I was an old friend of Zehiradangra... loved her with all my heart. We dragons are loyal and stick together, and Itold her for yearssss that Cain had an incredibly dark ssssside, but sssshe wouldn't listen. He had thoroughly captured her curious mind, and his prowesssss... well, even I had to defer. But he is sssso ruthlesssss that after he caused her death he even gave her body over to his troopssss to feed on as a ssssacrificial offering. I vowed to sssservice whomever his greatest enemy was, and I do believe that would be Carlossss Rivera."
"Nowthat's deep," Mike said, shaking his head. "Cold-blooded."
"While we share your sentiments, we would appreciate it if you would refrain from the gross ethnic slurs and stereotypes," Hubert said, looking at Big Mike hard.
"Hey, my bad," Mike said, raising both hands in front of his chest. "But we been fighting y'all for years, so it's gonna take a minute to get politically correct with the vocabulary."
"You have not been fightingus for years," the nymph said in a snit. "You have been, and should continue to fight demons. We," she said, waving her arms before the other interesting members of her group, "arenot demons. We arehybrids with human parents, and we were made before the banish edicts regarding intermingling with pure hu�mans." She folded her arms and lifted her chin. "Some of those who look like me are more deadly than these gentlemen here."
"They've got angels that have turned?" Berkfield just stared at the nymph.
"Yes," the nymph said flatly. "Their wings are often-but not always-gray, or falcon brown, and some are black like a raven's. Just because they are feathered doesn't mean a thing. And why should that surprise you, anyway? The most revered, most handsome, the one with the most beautiful voice fell, went pitch black in his spirit, and is now the owner of a silver tongue of lies."
"Touche, sister!" Rider said. "Damn."
"Correct," the nymph said, seeming vindicated as she walked back toward Hubert and hugged him.
"See, I like her because she's smart," Hubert said, stroking the nymph's hair. "My friends and I might have been tricked to go with Cain, except for one of us that had known Zehiradangra well."
Silence fell between the two groups on the beach as the house be�hind them burned out of control. Rider looked at the small stash of remaining ammo on the ground and then back at the blaze.
"Why does it always come to this, I ask myself time and again?" Rider sighed and checked his magazine and then put his weapon in its holster. "So now what?"
"We must eat," the nymph said carefully, "and hide until sunrise. Those not hybrid will hunt us down, unless we have a Neteru protec�tor." She glanced around. "Did the female Neteru go with Cain?"
The team passed nervous glances.
"Not to my knowledge," Marlene hedged. "Why?"
"He brought her to his lair, twice, I believe," the nymph said, her gaze lowered, "and he had her blood scent on him... The gossip in the alleys was rife about that. This is why we did not seek her. We had to be sure we had true amnesty." She looked up with fear. "That is why we fought-they fought. They could smell her here, even though Carlos also left his blood beacon in Nod... during uhmmm... an encounter with Zehiradangra, which also led us to this beach. We were frightened and thought that this could be the female Neteru's lair with Cain, perhaps. It is all so disorienting. His troops are preparing for a full-scale assault, and he will behead anyone suspected of treason."
"Carlos dida female dragon?" Shabazz muttered, looking at Berk�field.
"Damali and Carlosgot married," Marlene said, cutting a glare at Shabazz and then returning her line of vision to the foreign entities. "All that mess is history. If you guys will help us, we'll help you."
"Fair exchange is no robbery," Hubert said, valiantly sticking out his chest.
"Do all you guys from down there say that?" Rider slapped his forehead.
"It is a very old saying and a revered one amongst our kind. I do not understand your tone."
"Everybody just be cool," Marlene said, becoming exasperated. "Look, our Neteru team is doubly strong because we have two work�ing in tandem. A male and female with perfect-pitch, balanced en�ergy. We need a way to identify you guys."
"If Carlos is like Cain, with our shared DNA from the realms, we could send him images of each face that we know to be a friend," Hubert suggested.
"Well, ya better think of something, because in a serious firefight, it's easy enough to clip your own men, let alone somebody that's got on a uniform, so to speak, from the enemy side." Berkfield glanced around the group. "You just saw what happened. Your noses were off, our eyesight told us what to point and shoot at, so we need an identi�fier."