Jose was flat on his back where he'd been blown from the roof. Juanita was hunched over him, patting his face trying to bring him around, while also trying to pick thick panels of glass out of his chest with shaking fingers.
"Don't move him," Damali ordered. "He could have injured his spine from the way he fell-I'll get to him in a minute, after I triage this man who's bleeding out."
J.L. was sitting on the sand, his head leaned back against the villa, his eyes closed and clutching his right arm to his side. Krissy ripped her T-shirt and began making a tourniquet and shrieked to Damali as she realized that the limb had been nearly severed from a black light�ning strike.
"Damali! He'll lose his arm!" Krissy screamed, frantically working to stop the bleeding.
"Tie the tourniquet as tight as you can and start working on that man-stat! Focus everything you've got to start knitting tissue back together!" Damali hollered across the beach.
The moment Krissy touched J.L., he arched with a wailing sob. His agony set Damali's teeth on edge and she watched flickering blue static run down J.L.'s body and terminate where the limb had been disconnected to only hang by ligaments and muscle.
"Don't touch me! Please, don't move it!" he screamed, sobbing.
"He's a tactical," Damali yelled to Krissy. "Stop the bleeding! Ig�nore his cries and work on him if you wanna save that arm! Connect his own energy arc from his upper body to the dying forearm, use your hands as a bridge, and juice him, once you secure the tourniquet. Sit on his ass if you have to!"
Damali's gaze shot around to take note of any other wounded. Af�ter the siege, the villa had now turned into a makeshift M.A.S.H. unit triage on the beach. Bobby was being helped to his feet by Jasmine, clearly still reeling from the effects of a hard fall off the deck and nursing a postblast concussion. Dan was out cold with a black smol�dering stripe across his chest. Heather was administering CPR, giving Dan the breath of life.
"Get your hands into it," Damali said, pulling more pain away from Mike as she slowed his internal hemorrhaging. "Thump on that man's chest! Get his heart started-he took a black blast!"God, just don't let Dan have fractured his skull or Jose have snapped his neck or spine.
Damali squeezed her eyes shut as Mike shuddered, groaned, and began going into shock. "I need the Caduceus," she said between her teeth, turning her face skyward to send her complaint up to Heaven. "To heal my team in battle, queens hear me."
We cannot send it to heal demons,Aset's sad mental voice murmured on the wind.It is forbidden.
"What are you talking about?" Damali screamed, now putting both hands on Mike's abdomen. "I am working on my Guardians! Hu�mans!"
Do NOT unfurl your wings before your team,Aset warned.Not with hybrid demons in your midst. Their legions must NEVER know. It is bad enough that Cain has learned this truth. That's an order from On High!
Then send the Caduceus!
Your team has been infected by a Level Seven demon genesis. The sacred Staff of Imhotep cannot be utilized in this manner. Once demon energy bonds to its serpents, the Caduceus would be their greatest weapon against us. Heaven forbade me to send it to you, child.
"I don't care what they said!" Damali shouted. "My team is-"
A thick white lightning bolt split the dark heavens above Damali's head and made her and Inez duck down.
The queens wish to help, but we have been given EXPLICIT orders that we dare not violate. You marriage is in jeopardy of annulment for the same reason-just like we cannot send in the Covenant to reinforce you now. Even they are unaware, just like your team is blind to the truth of what you are. Any of those who love you will not do what is necessary should the time come, and could also be corrupted to leak classified information to the wrong side at a perilous hour. Because of free will, as you know, humans are vulnerable to sway and to misguided empathy.
"What the hell are you talking about, Aset!" Damali briefly looked up at the sky. "Don't get shaky on me now, ladies.Not tonight." She returned her attention to her agonized Guardian brother, trying to blot out Aset's voice in order to concentrate fully on keeping Big Mike alive.
You, as a descendentofa Powers Angel-the highest form of healer, second only to archangels, were NEVER to marry or consort with a being that still has remnant tracesofvampire demon in his DNA. Carlos is your soul mate and has been reborn in the Light, but after his rebirth, once redeemed and clean, he was to never have taken a dark throne again-and definitely not the most deadly one of that insidious realm.Ifhe had beenclean,yourangelic lin�eage would have strengthened him as the strongest Neteru to have ever lived. Your progeny was to be without question a child of the Light.
"Aset," Damali begged, sobbing. "Help my team. Forget about whatever else! We can deal with that later!"
We cannot. I must tell you all now. The recessive gene that Carlos could possibly release from his loins has both Neteru Councils scrambling for an an�swer. Damali, had we known what was in your lineage...Maybe we can beleaguer the point of your love for one another and ask them to save the mar�riage but render you sterile to one another, by merely canceling out your oppo�site genes.
"Mike is inbad shape, Aset," Damali said through a grimace, pain riddling her body as tears coursed down her face. "Later, we can deal with that later!"
Inez continued to stroke Mike's brow, trying to calm him as Damali worked.
No. You must know NOW! I have only been granted permission for this last conversation.
"Last talk? Aset, you guys are walking away? I have men dying on the beach!"
Queen Sister, regretfully this is the last time we shall be able to directly speak until Heaven draws a conclusion. Communication to us and the Covenant will be summarily terminated. The Covenant will be kept behind walls in vigil, as their impulse will he to come to you to assist you by any means necessary. You will be cut off.
"What!" Damali shrieked, and then quickly leaned in to put her ear to Mike's chest. "His heartbeat is getting erratic." She yanked her attention toward the glimpse of triangular violet light in the sky. "Don't pull this crap on me right now!"
All I can share is that Eve's grief still swaths the Earth with infertility. But even if nanosecond timing allowed Carlos to sire versus Cain before her spirit became afflicted by Cain's descent, the fractals of light still may not have come together in the right combination. We are only now coming to understand this. Our hands are tied, just as our hearts are bound by sorrow. All we can offer is to continue to send you our combined energy from a distance, but cannot mate�rialize with you in battle or in healings from this point forward, dear daugh�ter... Queen Sister.Aset's words ended in a sob.If what you are carrying is the worst of what could be-it could leach into our auras if we are in your density and presence, siphon that very old Neteru energy, and threaten to breach Ring One of Heaven. Then the very Gates of Heaven could come under siege. We have been ordered to wait for a sign. We cannot even allow you to visit our council, until we know.