"Yes, he is not beyond committing this heinous violation again," Penthesileia yelled. "Or are you going to let him make our young queen miscarry your own grandchild or have acherub angel born de�formed because Cain beat Damali so badly that-"
"Never!" Eve said, sweeping away from the table. "This time my son has gone too far!" She shook her head and then slowly advanced to Damali. "Let me scan to see if-"
"No, don't touch me!" Damali said, backing away. The last thing that she needed to do was have Eve find out that whatever was pos�sibly inside her wasn't Cain's, then all of this drama would be moot. She also wasn't truthfully ready to know if she was pregnant or not- and she would definitely pass out from heart failure if Eve's scan told her she was and it was Cain's. Later, after she killed his ass, then she could get technical. Her mind and heart could only bear so much.
Damali stood covered by her own wings, holding herself away from Eve in a challenge. A combination of reality, terror, and sadness filled her that was completely honest. All of it imploded within her at once. It was a terrifying reality that Cain could have busted a sleazy vamp move and planted something in her, and she knew in her heart that she couldn't go through another womb purge. A deep sadness made her close her eyes as the image of Carlos's agonized face entered her mind. The man would actually deal with this for her if he had to... damn. She wanted to drop to her knees and weep.
"After all our sister has recently been through, Eve," Aset said in a firm tone, "Damali shouldn't have to endure anyone touching or vio�lating a hair on her head-not even a hug, without her permission. This is the foulest act that can be committed against our kind."
Every queen in the room nodded and Eve slowly backed away.
"I am sorry beyond what you can fathom," Eve whispered. "Please let me try to make it up to you by putting every power at your dis�posal... anything you need... the elements, nature, whatever I can do, so that should you find yourself in battle with him again, you can protect yourself." Eve lifted her chin. "In my own grief, I have been blind." Huge tears filled her regal eyes but burned away with rage. "If this is what he has become, he shames me and his stepfather, Adam, a man that stood behind him... encouraged him, mentored him, loved him as his own. Adam was a role model of what it was to be a man with honor, and that Cain has become this not only breaks my heart, but enrages me."
"Rage is good," Nzinga said with a scowl. "Better than acting crazy and being in denial."
Eve closed her eyes, balled her hands into fists at her side, and spoke through her teeth. "When Ithink of how I loved that boy! The sacri�fices made as only a mother can make them! My marriage always on the precipice! The way I went against my beloved husband for him time and again! He disrespects Adam, and me, and even slaughters my baby boy, Abel..." Eve's voice cracked, but no one dared near her as she sucked in a huge breath and squeezed her eyes shut more tightly. "I gave Cain the world, everything in my soul! Now he does this? And now he would violate the woman who carries his seed-mygrandchild?" She opened her eyes and pointed to the table. "Never! I will kill him myself and put him out of his misery first!"
The entire gathering of queens quickly jumped away from their thrones and took shelter behind them. Damali had found a column to hide behind before the bolt ever left Eve's hand; she could feel it winding up. Having seen that look in Marlene's eyes for years, that mother death stare was easy to read. The table took the charge with a loud crack and a high-pitched whine whirred, magnetizing every�thing in the room as a yawing color spiral sucked a pure white current of lightning into the center of it. Heavy gold-and-white marble thrones inched forward as Eve held her arm out, her index finger ig�nited by a four-inch-wide swath of energy.
"You are dead to me!" Eve shouted. "My hope is contained within a thousand lights of Heaven that my grandchild will never be as you! I forsake you! I am no longer your mother. You have brought shame upon our household. I turn you over to the authorities On High! They may do with you what they will!" Eve lowered her voice and intensified the ray as she now spoke in an ending threat. "I shed Light on you with my final prayer of pure essence of mother love-mayGod bless you!"
The table exploded and energy shrapnel went flying. Afraid to peep out once the room nova-lit, Damali waited until sparkling confetti-like color particles began to slowly float down to the marble floor. Eve's wails were a cross between the screech of a woman losing her mind and a piteous moan.
"Heal Damali. Gather the table and assist Eve with the Caduceus," Aset commanded urgently to the others, as the queens began to pull pieces of the disintegrated table back together with tender rays of vi�olet light from their hands. Aset held out Damali's robe with a silent plea in her eyes for Damali to leave, and quickly waved healing green light over her to remove the injuries. "We will take it from here, child... Your petition has been heard on multiple levels, rest as�sured."
The explosion that hit the Vampire Council table went off like a mor�tar round. Midstroke, Cain released a were-demon, unable to still mount the lionlike she-beast as a missile ball of pure Light tore through Level Five and kept going. The black forest around him was in white-light flames as though a comet had ripped through the realm. He looked up, mesmerized, to witness white and blue flicker�ing embers clinging to the sides of the cavern. Late sundown filtered into the hole five levels deep and beyond in a smoky gray filter, leav�ing a trail of screeches and demon screams in its wake.
The entity he'd been holding immediately burst into flames and went to screaming ash. He swiftly transported himself to the narrow bridge over the Sea of Perpetual Agony outside his council chambers, and stepped through the remains of ashen, charred messengers that never stood a chance.
Dead bats littered the floor as he opened the black marble doors. Burning vermin twitched where they lay, sending their putrid stench up in small, smoking funnels. Thrones were scorched. The pentagram-shaped table was a pile of white-hot glowing rubble... and his throne was melted down into a tangle of rock as though a nuclear blast had hit it.
Paralyzed, for a moment he could only stare and gape. Had Fallon Nuit or Lilith been in the room... or him, they all would have been instantly liquefied. But the thing that stunned him the most was the source of the blast.His mother? The facts were incongruent.His mother? True, her signature was in the glowing rubble, butEve had rent such destruction?
While it could all be repaired in due time, albeit through the great expense of a lot of energy, that was not the point. That his mother had obviously sided with Damali for some reason and had made him dead to her heart was a significant variable he'd never gambled on. It also meant that Damali's powers, and then some, would be restored.
Cain began to pace; he had to work quickly and redouble his ef�forts to break Damali's spirit, or all that he'd invested in his quest would be lost. Buthis mother sided with someone over him?
Slight remorse tugged at him as he threw his shoulders back and rubbed his palms down his face, too stricken for fraud. "Damn, Mom," he muttered, still somewhat bewildered by what could have gotten into her. "I'm sorry."
"Did you feel the blast?" Lilith said in a hissing whisper near her hus�band's ear. "You know what I told you Cain discovered about the liv�ing female Neteru."
"Yes," he said in a calm voice.
"What should we do?"
"Nothing... for now. Let us bide our time." A pair of red gleam�ing slits opened and a lazy, bored voice spoke. "My grandson has al�ways suffered from delusions of grandeur." The statement was delivered with a long, weary sigh that escaped into the pitch blackness and then a slow chuckle followed it. "Let Cain do all the work, let him use his armies as cannon fodder to reduce the ranks of Guardians on the planet... then I will decide what to do with the vessel. This new development isvery interesting, indeed."
"Are you pleased with my work so far?" Lilith's voice hitched and she held her breath after she'd spoken.
The slits disappeared in the darkness as the beast closed his eyes. "Yes."
Nuit opened his eyes and sat up so quickly in his coffin that he bumped his head. Disbelieving, he flattened his palms against the black marble crypt covering in the Vampire Council's antechambers to sense for heat. Level Six was now under siege by the Light? What had that arrogant, foolish, bastard done?Cain was out of his mind.
Did Cain think that after being the most ruthless master vampire ever made that this pretender to the throne would rule through her�itage alone? He'd been a vampire for much longer than Cain could imagine, all the while Cain was dallying in the Light... posturing as a Neteru pretender that knewnothing firsthand about the insidious politics of the realms! Now this? A direct attack, the inner chambers under siege?
Everything Cain knew was all throne-knowledge, nothing hard-won by ducal rights battles for territory and amassed wealth snatched in hand-to-hand combat. Forging intra-Level demon alliances took years of detente! And now he wanted to lay claim to the huntress... a treasure he'd found, cultivated, and had almost captured while she was still a virgin during her first ripening.Non.
Fallon Nuit became very still, slowing his breathing to a near stop. He surrounded his coffin with an extra black arc barrier of protection and closed his eyes. An hour until true nightfall... he needed his rest to be strong.