"She is an expert," Hubert said. "Let her give you back the gift your mother-seer gave her. This is our way."
"Do it," Carlos said, straining. "But she's gotta hurry."
"How you gonna go in that cage, sis?" Damali said, looking at Marlene and Mike, who had begun to square off and circle each other as competing fauna within the same cage.
"I move very quickly," Sara whispered, hesitating a beat before sucking in a deep breath to calm herself, and then rounding Carlos's legs. "The moment I exit the first person, shrink the cage until I do the next, and then you can eliminate it to fully concentrate on only the black box." She looked at Damali. "A black orb will come out of them. Surround it in a silver light sphere and send it toward the sun."
As Sara approached the bars her opalescent body began to disinte�grate into what looked like flecks of shimmering, fast-moving dust. The glistening miasma flowed over Marlene, making her hiss and then scream. Yet the moment Marlene opened her mouth, the glittering essence of the nymph rushed down Marlene's throat, causing her to go into a convulsion, and then eventually begin to normalize. Sara's light sparkles immediately came out of Marlene's nose, and Carlos stepped forward to get Marlene's limp body out of Mike's claw range. Damali snatched the black orb that hovered over Marlene's third eye, surrounded it with silver light, blew on it to freeze it, and then jetti�soned it with an energy arc from her hands toward the sky.
The team watched in awe as Sara performed the same process on Mike, felling him quickly. Damali swiftly repeated the process of snagging and jettisoning a large black orb that hovered near Mike's right fist, and then caught a smaller, sneaky one near his jugular that was trying to get away. "Five bucks this one came from the vamp he did in New Orleans however many years ago," Damali said as she hurled the small orb into the night sky.
Sara dropped into a small, exhausted pile by Carlos's feet, breathing hard with beads of pearly sweat on her fragile brow.
"The big one," she said, pushing herself up on all fours. "He's re�ally strong like Hubert. He had both were-demon and vampire bites raging inside him, but the were-bite was dominant. I think I got it all."
"You don't have to go in again, honey," Hubert said, beginning to pace. "You should rest."
"That's true," Damali said, lending Sara a hand. "How you holding up, Carlos?"
"Better. A lot better, now that I dropped half the energy load."
Sara shook her head. "The vampire infection is the most toxic and I have to do it tonight, or there could be lasting effects."
Shabazz had gone to Marlene to lift her to the sofa. Inez was on her knees at Big Mike's side, wiping sweat from his dazed brow. Mar�jorie rushed forward, giving Shabazz and Inez bottled water for the injured.
"Get a purge circle around them," Damali warned, making use of Krissy, Heather, and Jasmine's ability to create a powerful circle of three. "Prayers, salt, holy water. Heads, wrists, soles of their feet anointed fast. Marjorie, you run supplies to 'em while they work and recite scriptures out loud. Man, we need the Covenant, right through here."
The team began moving, but their attention was split between the task at hand and concern for whatever Sara could do to bring back Rider and Jose. Juanita waited near the box with her arms hugging her body, tears standing in her eyes.
"Just bring him back from the Darkness," Juanita whispered.
"Anything he said or did in that condition, 'Nita, know it wasn't from his heart. We had to pull some old strings and open some old wounds to save your throat," Damali said quietly as Sara's energy pen�etrated the box from a tiny corner that Carlos opened in the top of it.
Juanita just nodded and watched the box, awed and frightened as Jose inhaled the sparkling, floating dust as if Sara was coc**ne. It knocked his head back and lowered his fangs to battle-length, bulking his body for a moment, before the fangs gently retracted and Jose dropped to the floor.
But Carlos had to move at vamp speed to get Jose out of there un�scathed while Damali quickly caught the dark orb that exited his throat, which was more gray than black with diluted vamp lineage, and sent it skyward. Rider was almost on Jose before Carlos could shrink the enclosure, smelling blood and eyeing Jose's jugular.
In a rage, Rider pounded on the translucent black surface with both fists, eyes glowing a hate-filled warning as he railed. He sucked Sara in by accident, and then suddenly became still, dropping his head back. On his knees, Rider opened his eyes, his gaze going directly past the team to the black sheet that was tucked around Tara's body whip�ping in the evening sea breeze, then passed out. Damali grabbed at the dark orb with both hands, and it took her several seconds to grapple with it and seal it in frozen silver before straining to send it toward the unseen sun. Carlos dropped to the floor with exhaustion and just lay there for several minutes breathing hard.
Catching Sara in her arms as she rematerialized, Damali kissed her brow. "Thank you, angel," she whispered, nodding for Hubert to cross the threshold to claim her.
What was the point of sanitation barriers at this point? Marjorie must have read her mind because she went to Rider's side to help him while Damali pulled Carlos to his feet.
"We can't move the team now, not until daylight," Damali said.
Carlos nodded, still winded and leaning heavily against her.
"Hubert, with the ultimate trust, we'll give you and your boys some antidemon ammo and some food. Got a coupla steaks in the fridge and some junk in the cabinets. If you have to fall back for your own personal safety, you can enter the villa, but we'd appreciate a night lookout. We can bed Sara down in here on some pillows under a blanket and give her some fruit and sugar... if that's what she eats."
"She does, dear Neteru," Hubert said and swallowed hard, his voice filled with gratitude. "How did you know that she eats like a hum�mingbird?"
"Just a lucky guess." Damali cast her gaze toward Tara's body, which lay prone on the beach, not wanting to know the state of de�composition beneath the sheet. "Try not to let the enemy take her," Damali said, in a quiet, faraway voice. "As you can imagine it'll be bad enough having to bury her when Rider wakes up again."
Damali flung Hubert a bag of Red Sea salt from the cabinets, haul�ing Carlos with her to deposit him on a stool with a thud. Hubert caught the bag with one hand, careful not to rip into the plastic with his talons.
"Thank you, Neteru. Our endurance is made from the night. If full breeds attempt to siege, we will sound an alarm and fight until you are in position, as well as after that."
"Throw the man a Clock with hallowed-earth shells," Carlos said, sweat running down his face. "We all gotta regenerate. Even the hu�mans on the team."