"Damali, baby, you ain't gonna keep your momma locked up like this, are you sweetie?" Marlene then turned a wicked smile to Shabazz. "Lover... come on now, me and you go waaay back, right? Open the cage so I can go eat."
"D, don't listen to her," Carlos warned and he stared at Shabazz. "I need your head right and for you to hold the line, brother."
The Guardian team was scattered around the room in huddles of humanity, not sure which direction to turn. Then Juanita's scream tore through the room. Jose tilted his head and blew her a kiss through fangs, holding her arm hard.
"Oh, shit!" Carlos's eyes sought Damali's for help. Both his hands were tethered to silver cages holding back strong entities, as well as holding a black box in the bedroom. It would only be a matter of time before his concentration fractured or his energy dipped and they'd be out.
They had to get to Jose without killing him, if possible, and if not, blow him away if he went for Juanita's throat. Their team's best sharpshooter was in a black box and had just been pulled off the ceiling-if anybody else took a shot, Juanita would take the bullet. Shabazz could barely hold his gun level, it was trembling in his hand so badly as he watched Marlene fully transform. His boy, Jose, had just dropped fang-but as a weaker vamp, negotiation with Jose was pos�sible.
"Yo, Jose, don't do nothing stupid up in here that'll make some�body have to smoke you," Carlos said in Dananu.
Jose yanked Juanita to him, making her cry harder. He smelled her hair, and traced her jugular with a fang. "I won't hurt her," Jose mur�mured. "Baby, why don't me and you go find a lair. The night is young."
"Or you could take me," Damali said, creating a diversion. She glanced at Carlos and received his subtle nod. "You know you've al�ways wanted to, right? She'll turn, which could damn your soul... but if Carlos is cool with it, me and you can go all night-and still wake up laughing in the morning."
"I'm down," Carlos said, as calmly as possible. "I been missing Juanita, anyway, since you've had her on lock. Fair exchange is no rob�bery."
"You serious?" Jose said, slowly releasing his hold on Juanita. "You cool with that? Ain't gonna give me no static later?" Juanita shook her head with a whimper.
Damali stepped forward with a bright smile. "Send her my way, baby," Damali said in Dananu, "and I will blow your mind."
Jose shoved Juanita forward in a hard push that made her fall into Damali's embrace. Damali handed her off to stand by Carlos and slowly approached Jose. She seductively tossed her locks over her shoulder, exposing her neck.
"Lose the silver collar," Jose said, beginning to circle her as the stunned team watched the dance and scrambled out of the way.
Carlos kept his gaze sweeping for any other turns that might begin to materialize on the team, while also keeping an eye on the two cages with the snarling weres and Damali. If Jose hurt her, he'd have to kill him. Would drop him in a heartbeat.
Damali took off the collar, held it out, then let it fall to the floor. She'd expected Jose to lunge toward her, but instead he briefly closed his eyes and licked his lips, nicking his tongue with a fang. She was on him so fast he hadn't had a chance to see her coming. One fist was in his hair, her body behind his back, and her baby Isis to his throat.
Jose chuckled. "Damn, D, in front of family?"
"I like to play rough," she said into Jose's ear in Dananu. "Move, and your head is mine."
Overtaken by grief, Juanita turned, and barreled into Carlos's arms.
"No!" Carlos hollered as the caged Guardians broke free, and Rider scrambled along the ceiling like a crab.
Screams broke out as Mike lunged, landed on the countertop, and snarled down at Inez who was huddled on the floor between the stove and the butcher block. Marlene had taken a feline crouch on the back of the sofa, and was staring down at Shabazz, slowly stalking him. Jose flipped Damali over his head onto her back on the floor, eyes glow�ing. Carlos sent a split-second containment blast from either hand, sweeping Rider and Jose into a joint black box and Marlene and Mike into a single silver cage.
Damali got up slowly from the floor with a pull from Shabazz. "Anyone who ever sustained a nick is vulnerable. Any of us who had been infected before by the damned are, too. We gotta work fast." She looked at Carlos.That's what the queens were trying to tell me, but I didn't understand. Our team was somehow infected and whatever swirled up from Level Seven is reversing old wound purges and/or bringing old demon DNA to the fore.
Carlos nodded, sweating, unable to use the energy to mentally an�swer her. "Lilith can't heal, though... Cain was a Neteru, met this team, and could have sensed or caught the scent of which ones had old demon battle scars or vamp way down in their line. Same deal with our other infections from Lilith's games. A Neteru healer can re�verse an energy binding and open it right up like it was brand-new."
Damali nodded as she recalled her visit with the queens and how Aset had just shown her that technique. "I can't purge them all by myself," Damali said over the roars and hisses coming from the cages.
She was so exhausted that she was literally weaving from fatigue and breathing hard as she looked at the newbies. "With the old virus from the damned running through the rest of the squad, none of our healers are gonna be strong enough to go in after a demon nick and not come back with it adhered to their systems and spirits, especially after they just did serious injury healings for the first time on the beach." She glanced at Juanita and Inez, hoping that their sanity held before the old virus imploded within them. "As it is, we're gonna have to douse everybody else, too, just to be sure."
"I can't hold them like this all night," Carlos said, the muscles in his arms bulging as Rider and Jose raked their nails down the inner walls of the translucent black box, bellowing in silence behind the en�closure. The growls that came through the silver cages made him re�double his efforts. A deep wet V had formed in the center of his chest and his legs trembled as he shut his eyes tightly and set his jaw hard.
"Let me help," a small voice said, giving everyone in the room a start.
Sara slipped into the villa through the blasted-out deck doors and neared Damali. "I have worked with purging this type of energy for years in Nod. It is my specialty to bring back the human side and sub�limate the darker side. Later, when you are rested and in the daylight, you can make it more permanent."
"We damned sure can't travel to higher ground like this," Damali said, a plea in her voice. She looked around at all team members' eyes. "But we have to try 'cause ain't nobody ready to give up on anybody in our family yet."
"Do what you can," Shabazz said quietly, his weapon now lowered.
Damali and Carlos glanced at Sara and then at the contingent of huge hybrids who stood just outside the battered deck doors.