Adam let out a heavy breath and rubbed his palms down his face. His complexion was ashen as though his spirit had been tortured without relent.
"Thank you, brother. I had to ask. That's the only thing I could imagine that could have Eve so distraught. Her energy literally went into arrhythmia and then began to sputter out." Seeming as though he was on the verge of losing his mind, Adam raked his long locks with his thick fingers and looked off into the distance with tears in his eyes. "Do you realize what will happen if her energy completely folds in upon itself?"
"World annihilation," Carlos said in a gentle tone, "but more im�portantly, you will die a thousand deaths and still won't be able to get over losing her."
"Yes," Adam whispered thickly. "What could have traumatized her so completely, after all she's already been through?"
"Sometimes it's just the final straw, man," Carlos said, staring at Adam, remembering the times when Damali had been close to that state. "It's always the emotional wounds that never completely heal with women."
"And men, too," Adam said quietly, searching Carlos's eyes.
"Damali cut Cain pretty badly on the beach. She sliced off his tail and left a quarter-part stub... Maybe he bled out, and that's what Eve is feeling?"
Both men stared at each other for a moment.
Adam slowly shook his head. "His death in Darkness would have simply severed the cord... then there would be a period of grieving when all fertility and replenishment would be slow, but it wouldn't have sent her into a seizure. This much both councils are sure of."
"Then, let's be honest and speak as men," Carlos said, holding Adam's gaze. "You came here to ask me to take a day trip down to Hell and see what's up, right?" He hung his head back and closed his eyes. "Just give it to me straight."
"World annihilation is my paramount concern and-"
"I said let's talk as men," Carlos said, straightening and coming in close to stand before Adam. "No bullshit between brothers! I'm down, but I need to go strong. I'd do that for your wife, but I'd expect you to do that for mine, one day-we clear? Not because of a debt but becausewe're brothers."
"Understood." Adam grabbed Carlos's arm in a warrior handshake. "Any day, any night. We just need a map."
Carlos tightened his grip on Adam's massive arm. "I know my way in and outta Hell like I know the back of my hand. Just gotta lower your vibrations." He released Adam's forearm and stared at him. "You ain't never been where we have to go to do this thing-ain't pretty, hombre. Ain't the Garden of Eden by a long shot. You down?"
Adam lifted his chin higher. "Given Eve's condition, we have just cause, and the realms of Light will sanction it. Ausar cannot go, but would. He is coruler and should I perish-"
"Me, you, Hannibal. Small squad," Carlos said, cutting off the se�nior Neteru King. "We step to that motherfucker, Cain, old school. Let's ride."
Damali slowly set the tray down on the living room coffee table and stared at the empty sofa. She closed her eyes and let her breath out hard. "Oh, baby... what did you go and do now?"
"What is his condition, Lilith?" Nuit said as he slowly entered Cain's inner sanctum.
He looked across the flaming moat that surrounded the ailing monarch's high crypt pedestal. Cain was sprawled out on his stomach in his massive black marble bed, black serpents twining around the solid gold posts, hissing for Nuit to stay back. The black silk sheets were glistening not only from the flickering glow of wall torches, but black blood seepage. Nuit glanced up at the nervous warning bats that clung to the crevices in the vaulted ceiling, teeth bared. Harpies sat sentry with their muscular arms folded over their small barrel chests, anxiously shifting on side altars. Two pit bulls lay at the foot of the bed and had looked up at Nuit with a snarl.
"Still unconscious," she finally said, walking away from Cain's bed�side to go stand by the door with Nuit. "He's in a coma, and I tried all night to raise him."
Both she and Nuit looked up at the vaulted ceiling at the same time the bats screeched and began flying.
"Move the Chairman to Level Seven. Do it now!" Nuit yelled, and dashed out of the room.
The white light spiral that Hannibal hurled hit the Earth's crust so vi�olently that it took the entire Neteru Council of Kings to prevent a tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea. Three silver stallions thundered into the abyss that parted the water, their wings razor sharp at each feathered edge, nostrils snorting blue-white fire, gleaming hooves crushing demons by the hundreds as blades took heads in passing. The moment the black cavern closed over, all light was extinguished. Laserlike eyes cut a swath in the darkness as hooves crushed rock and then silver, armor-clad blurs spiraled down into the void.
"Don't touch down in the tar pits!" Carlos yelled over his shoulder. "Keep those steeds airborne!"
Giant serpents immediately uncoiled and began to drop from the wet foliage overhead as stallions of Light pivoted and tried to find a way in wide enough to keep them airborne.
"Put down in the mud! Not the swamps!"
Thick-bodied Amanthras hissed at the invasion and striking fangs made horses perilously rear. Stomping serpents, the war horses gal�loped forward, but the hind legs of Hannibal's steed became tangled in a nest that anchored its back legs.
He was off his mount in seconds, desperately using a Claw of Heru to clear his horse's legs. Silver blood splashed and singed the writhing coil, making cinder at the bucking stallion's feet. Serpents foolish enough to bite the steed went to instant embers.
"Leave me if you must!" Hannibal shouted.
"Like hell!" Carlos shouted back. Then he felt a presence coming before it materialized. "Overhead, at your six!"