Lilith glanced at Nuit and nodded, materializing a goblet into Cain's hand rather than risk being his ultimate source of regeneration. They stood back and watched Cain down the goblet and hurl it away, enraged as his shorn-off wing began to reconstruct.
Unable to endure the agony, Cain hunched forward and clutched the edges of the council table, crying out as a new, damp wing ripped through his shoulder blade as though that section of his body was giv�ing birth. The new wing trembled and slowly extended to give his form balance, and then both appendages were able to retract.
Dropping his head back, Cain panted, sweat pouring down his face, his body wracked with pain. "The tail cannot heal. It was taken by an Isis."
Lilith covered her mouth and looked at Nuit. "I have no remedy."
Seizing the opportunity, Nuit spoke in a gentle, seductive voice. "Your Eminence, this is why I have brought you a new councilman. Upon your orders to reinforce the power paradigm at our throne level, I present to you-"
"I never authorized you to make a new councilman!" Cain bel�lowed, looking over the vampire that Nuit presented. "Request de�nied! I alone shall handpick my councilmen."
Humiliation lowered Nuit's fangs as Yonnie stood next to him, waiting. "As you wish. My goal was only to strengthen your inner circle."
"I made you a female master, to also assist... based upon the last command you gave us," Lilith said carefully. She sent the image of Gabrielle to Cain and waited for the approval. "There has only been one other female master that was temporarily made, Damali. I thought this one could-"
"She's a common whore!" Cain shouted, grimacing as his tail lost another scab and the bleeding increased. He slowly materialized a black cord of energy around the tail above the injury and created a tourniquet that he tightly pulled with a yell. "Cast her away," he said after a moment, breathing hard through battle-length fangs. "You think a prostitute witch who runs a brothel is any match for the Neterus? You have lost your perspective on reality, Lilith. Did you not witness what only one seasoned Neteru was able to do to an army of my best hybrids?"
"She, like Fallon's candidate for a council throne, is intimately fa�miliar with members of the Neterus and their Guardians," Lilith said in a conciliatory tone. "If-"
"Do not dispute me! My decision is final."
A weak black energy arc singed Lilith's chest, but it wasn't strong enough to do what Cain intended-to snatch out her heart. Lilith rubbed her chest and glowered at him, but kept her tone even and re�spectful.
"As you wish, Cain."
"May I propose that we give her to Yolando, Your Eminence, and," Nuit said with a deferential bow, "offer her as a consolation prize for the denial of his candidacy to become a councilman at this time?" Nuit looked at Cain and spoke in Dananu now. "We can ill afford for this master to walk away from our table feeling as though he has not been given something rare and of value,n'est-ce pas? Perhaps a throne will be in his future," Nuit added, giving Yonnie a promise of that with a sidelong glance. Nuit returned his gaze to Cain. "But he might be mollified by the gift of a female master made by the most seduc�tive female entity of our realms, Lilith."
"So be it," Cain snarled. He closed his eyes after issuing a dismis�sive glance toward Yonnie. "Give him the whore and get him out of my presence."
Yonnie bowed and backed away toward the chamber doors. "I am honored." Then he was gone.
Lilith refilled Cain's goblet and sent it into his hand, and then waited for him to down it and cast it away again with a crash. "My Dark Lord," she murmured, concern in her voice as she once again glanced at Nuit. "All conception has ceased on the planet. Your con�tinued tether to your mother's spirit has stopped all reproduction."
"I fail to see why this is our concern, or yours," Cain snarled in pain.
Nuit gave her a quizzical look. "Your agony could be blinding you to our realm's longer-term issues... if you will permit my assess�ment for your benefit."
"Speak!" Cain bellowed.
"As we overrun the planet," Nuit said with care, "sooner or later with the human casualties... our food sources will diminish. Our goal is to dominate humanity, not to entirely eradicate it in total. If we exterminate it, long term, we eradicate ourselves."
"That is only a problem for full-breed vampires and demons-my hybrids can subsist on other food types."
"Did you not hear me when I spoke?" Lilith said coolly."All con�ception has ceased. This includes other forms of meat and even grains. With our planned attacks on every continent, how long do you think it will take for us to wipe out mankind? How much of the ecosystem of plants and animals will be burned away as we smite the Earth? What will there be for any of us to eat, full-breed or hybrid alike, if the Earth does not replenish itself?"
"Then what do you propose?" Cain said, still leaning forward with his eyes closed.
Again, Lilith and Nuit shared a glance.
"Your method of producing more vampires has a nine-month ges�tation period. Making them by seed is too costly, time-wise," she said quietly. "Our age-old gestation period of three nights of death before they rise again is much more efficient. But we still have the concep�tion problem at hand."
Cain opened his eyes and glowered at them both. "My hybrids will regroup and flood the planet. Those are my chosen ones who will surround me as councilmen. Through the seed is the only natural way. Victory will be ours."
"You seem to be forgetting that even your hybrids have no way to reproduce as long as your mother remains in her grieving condition, and her soul linked to yours, Cain,"Lilith said, her tone now brittle with frustration. "You must sever the cord and take on the full mantle of your office. Once the cord to Eve is severed, fertility will com�mence again."
"There is only one way to accomplish that," Cain said, trying to stand, but failed as pain shot through him from his amputated tail. "To actually die and rise again as the vampiric undead, which would make me no more than Dante was, a sterile being, andthat I will never will�ingly submit to!"
"It would allow your bite to be the most lethal of all vampire bites," Lilith murmured, slowly edging closer to him. "You could cre�ate instant turns, as our Chairman. You could raise an army of vam�pires with a single night of releasing that dark power, and besetting me, Fallon, Yolando, and his new mate upon the region near the Guardian team."