Cain sighed. "Wow."
"Your Eminence?" Nuit said, visually scanning his body for signs of an Isis wound.
"She's ready," Cain said, snatching the goblet from Lilith. "Her council is fractured, her battle powers waning as my mother's health and sanity declines. Her confidence is broken, her husband in a state of conflict-paternity questions burrowing into his psyche like a par�asite. Their team is in an uproar and unfocused for battle." He held up his hands. "Smell this, my allies." He smiled. "Pure fear."
Nuit sat down slowly in his throne. "From the millennium Neteru?"
"How did you inspire such terror?" Lilith hissed, coming closer, curiosity making her foolish.
Cain glanced at her with disdain. "Leave my side or leave your heart in my talons, bitch."
She backed away quickly and stood near Nuit. "My apologies," she whispered.
"Do you think that after mind-fucking a Powers angel I would stoop to you tonight?"
Lilith and Nuit simply stared at him for a moment.
Cain chuckled and leaned forward, greedily slurping blood. "Do you know what one of them can breed with one of us? The ultimate destroyer," he whispered, pleased with himself.
Shaking his head and looking off in the distance, Cain spoke in a quiet echo. "The legend is true. The best kept secret in the universe. The escapee hybrid human angel," he said, now laughing hard. "Onlyone of the Powers angels ever lost discipline and sired with a human before the edicts-onlyone -and that gene had been submerged and hidden for millennia! Do you know how long my grandfather has sought this vessel? It is their side's Holy Grail! AndI found it, within a beautiful, female Neteru body with gleaming white opalescent wings. I had her cowering beneath me crying out for salvation. That is why I didn't bring her down into our realms too deeply, because Iknew they would come for her and pull her out if I sufficiently terrorized her while she was weakened by the Neteru Council of Queens' strife. They would scorch the entire pit with Light, in search of her."
He set down his goblet and looked at them hard. "I watched her do a healing that no normal Neteru of her age should have been able to accomplish. I felt the fledgling stirrings under her skin when I held her, each time hoping to bring them forth in passion so that I would know for sure... but she was too frightened, and had not enough time to bond to me in blind trust. Then her voice, her perfect-pitch healing words... I was almost certain, but Ihad to know for sure." Cain rubbed his chest and again shook his head in wonder. "Even with all my suspicions, seeing it stole my breath. And to think, I had almost bedded her. Had there simply been more time."
Fallon Nuit opened his mouth and closed it, holding his goblet in midair before his lips. Then he took a quick sip of blood and dabbed his brow. "Your Eminence... permit my ignorance, and I, of course, defer to your greatness. However, if she is totally afraid of you, how-"
"A trade," Cain said evenly, picking up his goblet and sipping from it slowly. "Tonight, compromise her inner circle. I've nicked her, and my energy is in her household. No doubt her team has hugged her, they will put ministrations on her wounds, and her husband will wipe her tears."
He leaned back and closed his eyes. "Her vampire friends should be waking up soon, and the torrential rains lock the Guardians in- Carlos's energy fractured between battles, his wife, his friends... di�vided loyalties are difficult to rein in... when you care. And the sheer beauty of it all is that Heaven can only intervene so much, be�cause she, like those they sequestered in Nod, isa hybrid. She wasnever supposed to exist beyond the walls of Heaven or Nod, but they al�lowed her to, because they knowingly let the carrier progeny of her ancestors escape the banishment zone.They, this time, the Light, breached the cosmic laws. I know this, because I used to be one of them-a Neteru with ancient, biblical knowledge."
Cain chuckled softly to himself and made a tent with his fingers before his mouth and shook his head. "I risked it all to find her, gam�bled everything, and I was richly rewarded tonight. An empire for a larger empire, with a caveat that can stop Heaven in its tracks." He leaned over with a wicked grin. "She is priceless because she still, be�ing human with a soul, has free will... and there is nothing they can do about her choice. Put it all on black on the roulette wheel of life and, as they said from your old favorite zone of rule, let the good times roll, my friend."
"Then a trade. A sacrifice," Nuit said with a chuckle, peering over his goblet at Cain as he sipped his blood. "Decisions, decisions. One female body as host in exchange for so many loved ones held hostage. She will go mad."
Cain leaned forward. "She will. She will lose her mind for her queens, for the planet that we will siege tomorrow night, for her hus�band, for her team, for her mother-seer, and anyone else we can twist her heart with... she will lie beneath me with silver tears streaming down her pretty face and will open her gorgeous legs and let me sire. Period. She might not like it, but the point is moot. As long as she says yes and drops her shields to save her family, she can sob and wail the whole time. Who gives a damn? I'll ride her pain like a stallion."
He chuckled and set his goblet down hard. "And knowing there is no choice, that will satisfy my first edict, which was to rip out Rivera's heart by its anchors. Finding him after that to sever his wretched head will be child's play. That fool will probably stand in a clearing, open his arms, and beg me to battle him, once it is all said and done."
Nuit stood, bowed, and turned to leave. "Sunset is quickly ap�proaching; I will prepare my reentry to topside and rest. It issuch an honor to serve you."
"Let me serve you, as well," Lilith whispered, biting her lip as her dark eyes glimmered with anticipation. "After that encounter... I'm sure you require relief."
Cain just stared at her, and then glanced down at his lap, dismissing the power erection that throbbed.
"You said you would do a hybrid. Lion and-"
"I am going up to the were-demon realms, alone," Cain said, standing. "Then I may join Nuit to forge a permanent Amanthra al�liance. Alone."
"But you said..." she whispered, her voice dejected, yet trailing off as he cast a hot glare that stopped her words.
"Like you have so many, many times, Lilith," Cain said, materializ�ing an emperor's robe and slipping it on. "I lied."
CHAPTER EIGHT
His attention was so divided that Carlos was ready to rip out his hair by the roots. Damali was down the hall in the bathroom with Marlene getting a white-bath full dousing after he'd healed her jaw and Berk-field had closed up Damali's nicks and gashes with sacred blood. His wife was in an emotional place that he'd never seen. The newbies were telling him some insane shit about a huge demon named Hu�bert, and talking some bizarre madness about prayer flags and standing stone formations.
Berkfield lay on the sofa, slowly recovering from an intense healing session. Shabazz, Mike, and Jose were so amped that it was quite pos�sible he'd have to put bit-restraints in their mouths. The females in the villa were walking around in a stupor of fear and outrage, teetering on the brink of a suicidal, unplanned, go-for-broke, gang-war option. Then there was the not-so-small dilemma of Rider and Marjorie's very real fears that matched his: Tara and Gabrielle were at risk, and so was Yonnie.
Carlos reined in his own emotions and stared at the maps Krissy had provided, leaning on the dining room table with his hands.