CHAPTER SEVEN

Carlos walked out of the golden obelisk onto the beach, ready for war, blood in his eyes. He had never experienced such profound rage as what was quaking his system right now. But it took him a moment for his brain to sync up with the image before his eyes. The hacienda was in flames, full of spent gunfire, and the burning rubble carried a warning stench into the air. Fire engines and people were crawling all over what had been the Guardians' temporary compound. The faint scent of de�mon incursion was on the beach. He began running toward the blaze yelling the names of each team member before logic could stop him.

Mexican authorities pushed him back, and then took one glance at the blade he had in his hand, and drew on him. Carlos stepped back, stunned them with a quick energy pulse, and closed himself away into nothingness.

Frantic, he went back to the last place he knew there was a tracer of Damali. He had to contact her, get to her first before her mind broke from seeing that her entire family had been wiped out. Breathing hard, he spun around in circles, trying to get a lock on her and what�ever had razed their family to the ground.

Too battle-hyped to filter out friend from foe, the vibrations and sounds coming from his villa meant more than one aggressor was in�side. Invaders had already planted flags painted in blood on the beach, demon images fiercely emblazoned on sheets, boldly surrounding his villa with victory flags. It was Bobby's blood! The acrid scent of a

huge demon wafted from the infested dwelling. His family's bodies were inside, still warm. A fire had been built-fucking flesh eaters were about to devour his people! Carlos inhaled as renewed fury choked him, the scents blending together to make him go blind with rage. He spit the taste of battle and death out on the sand. The two newest females on his squad had even been violated!

Adrenaline was making his ears ring. A very weak message was stabbing at his mind from Marlene. He became the wind itself, blade raised, the door a flimsy barrier that blew off the hinges before he'd even kicked it. Two hands gripped his sword as he crossed the thresh�old and then stopped. Guardians froze, hands held midtask, and eyes not even blinking.

Carlos stood still for a moment, silver burning a path across the rug from his gaze, his chest heaving, his mind scrambling to sync-up faces with heat tracers from familiar bodies. Then he slowly lowered his blade.

"You all right, dude?" Rider asked nervously, stepping away from the counter with his hands raised. He nodded toward a bloody rag on the drain board that had demon blood on it. "They left you a phone number and were looking for you, General."

"I thought..." Carlos sucked in a huge breath, closed his eyes for a moment, adrenaline still giving him the battle shakes. "The ha�cienda," was all he could say.

"Yeah, we had a little problem," Shabazz said calmly "But we han�dled it, for now."

"In broad daylight?" Carlos said, coming into the villa and then leaning against the wall with a thud.

"Was crazy, boss," Big Mike said. He nodded to Inez. "Get our brother some water. I think this shock just used up one of his nine lives."

"I'm cool," Carlos said, allowing the blade to dangle at his side. "Where's D?"

"She didn't get back from the Queen's summit yet," Shabazz said. "She wasn't in the house when it happened." He shoved a stool away from the counter toward Carlos. "Sit down and take a load off, man. We got some crazy catching up to do before sunset."

Damali gripped her Isis as Aset kissed her gently and escorted her to the edge of the violet pyramid. There was nothing to say other than good-bye and Godspeed as she stepped into the strobe of the purple light. But... oh... woe unto Cain's no-good, low-life ass for what he had done to Carlos and Eve. Damn what he had done to her. She wasn't half as angry about that as she was about the other more dear hearts Cain had broken.

When her feet hit the beach, for a second all Damali could do was stare.He had razed her house to the ground with her family in it? She couldn't even propel her body forward as she watched plumes of bil�lowing smoke rise from the hacienda. Emotions too numerous to sort rocked her mind, colliding fury with core-wrenching grief.

The frantic people who were fighting the blaze blended with fast-moving still-frame images of demons spiraling through the air from Nod, Mike's RPG blast, Marjorie's scream, Bobby being dragged across the floor by a spaded tail. "No!"

Carlos's war scent haunted the air like a thickening fog. She could see Shabazz and Rider emptying clips, Dan exploding holy water vials. Bobby's blood was fresh kill on the breeze. Damali jerked her head toward it; the scent was coming from the villa. She cringed and briefly closed her eyes. They had eaten the poor newbie alive!

Then she inhaled deeply and opened her eyes-Heather and Jas�mine had been raped. Damali was shaking her head as rocks, the surf, grunting sounds fused with the image of victory flags planted in the four cardinal points around her and Carlos's villa. Even now she could smell a huge demon's scent coming downwind from there-had to be the one that was feeding on warm bodies pulled from the inferno.

But eleven, twelve entities had ransacked the house. The sand was still vibrating with their energy. A huge one had obviously stayed be�hind to create a base camp a few miles away in the old honeymoon villa. The reality brought instant insanity. She would slaughter Cain a hundred times over. Carlos had come home before her, and had made his last stand on the beach.

Damali threw her head back and squeezed her eyes shut. There was nothing left to live for. Her family was destroyed, her man killed, all she ever knew and loved. Her Isis was in the air, held by a two-handed grip above her head.

"Cain,you motherfucker, come get me! This is war!"

Cain dropped his goblet and stood. Fallon Nuit was on his feet along with Lilith. The three looked up at the ceiling as a blue-white arc of lightning parted the transport cloud of bats in the ceiling and scorched the center of the Vampire Council table. Clothed in armor within milliseconds, Cain rounded his throne.

"She called me," he breathed out, almost unable to speak. He mate�rialized a Black Death sword in his trembling hand. "Fallon, she called me."

Lilith backed away from the table. "She's insane..." Fallon shook his head and smiled. "She's fantastic."

Carlos jerked his attention around two seconds before Mike did. "Damali!" he hollered. "Oh, shit, baby-no!"

Mike was on his heels and then lost him as Carlos cleared the back deck and was running headlong down the beach. Shabazz tore behind them and the other Guardians came to a slow stop as they realized it was futile.

"Damn!" Mike yelled, kicking sand. "She called Cain out when she saw the hacienda."

"By herself?" Shabazz said, gripping Mike bulging biceps.

Rider began walking in a circle. "Kiss my ass! We should have posted something there for her!"

Mike nodded toward Carlos who was frantically searching the shoreline, blade raised, and yelling Damali's name."Now, we've got a problem."

A black bolt of lightning had hit her squarely in the chest, knocking the wind out of her, and her back collided with a cavern wall. But be�ing temporarily stunned hadn't made her forget. Battle rage brought her off the wall, swinging the Isis with both hands. She couldn't have ventured a guess about which Level of Hell she was on, nor did she care. They could battle all the way down to Seven and beyond.

Steel met steel and the collision sent a hard quake up her forearm into her shoulder, almost chipping a tooth as she set her jaw.

"Sweetness, let me explain," Cain said in an amused tone, backing up as she advanced on him blow for blow.

"You murdered my entire family!" Damali yelled, and then released a war cry that made rocks fall.

"What? Are you mad?" Cain said, catching her next swing against his black blade, and then quickly wrapping his tail around her arm.

"Let me go, you bastard. I will cut out your heart, rip it from your chest with my bare hands!" she screamed, not caring that he was a lot bigger than she'd remembered and a whole lot stronger.

"Your family is alive," he said in a calm, sensual tone, still holding her arm hard with his massive tail.

She yanked away, the scales scraping flesh off her forearm and leav�ing it bloody and raw. "Where are they?" she panted through her teeth, ignoring the searing pain.

"On Earth, I suppose," he remarked coolly, now beginning to circle her. "You think I would do something like that to you?"

She straightened and lifted her chin, on guard for a potential lunge. His admission felt like he'd punched her with relief. For a moment she couldn't answer. "Why not?" she finally said and spat, remember�ing all the other offenses she needed to slaughter him for. "You tore out your mother's heart... Do you have any idea where Eve is now?"

Cain lowered his shoulders and glanced at the demon-skull hand protector of his sword. "She knows." He sighed heavily. "That is re�grettable. I imagine she did not take my decision well." He looked at Damali and slowly smiled.

"Youimagine she didn't take it well?" Incredulous, Damali leveled her blade. "The mother of mothers is prostrate on the floorof Coun�cil," she shouted. "Her firstborn son is killing her slowly. The woman can barely draw her next breath! Her heart went into that throne with you, Cain. What about this don't you get?"

"Her condition is regrettable," he said calmly, beginning to circle her again. He tilted his head as he stared at her when they took war�rior stances and squared off again.

"Regrettable? Regrettable! She is my queen!" Damali took a run�ning swing and scored his chest armor, but he deflected the blow with a defensive move.

"I love you," he breathed out, raw desire in his voice as his eyes went crimson. "You would battle me because of my mother's honor. Do you know what that means to me?"

"You're crazy!" Damali shouted, lobbing three steel-to-steel clashes, but he caught her blade with his and drove it down to the rocky floor and stepped on it, holding it down with his boot.

"Totally insane over you. Devastation, come let me heal your arm. The combination of your fury and blood in here is-"

She pivoted, using the blade as anchor and caught him dead center in the chest with a hard, flat-footed blow. But she backed up quickly when he didn't move and just looked at her with a handsome smile. He removed his foot slowly from her blade and allowed her to pull it away. She backed up farther, putting ten feet between them and glanced around. Okay, she was on Level One, not in too deep.

"You shouldn't have taken that throne," she said, fury still roiling but now mixed with deep concern. This bastard waswaaay stronger than she remembered. Dante wasn't even that solid, and definitely didn't have the Neteru moves to go with it.

"Are you telling me that your rage was born from your concern for me... and for my mother?" he whispered, advancing toward her slowly. He licked his lips and then glanced at her arm, sealing the wound. Inhaling deeply, he kept walking forward. "Damali, you sim�ply render me-"

"Hey, motherfucker-back up!" Damali said, judging the edge of the precipice behind her that yawned into an abyss, and whether or not she could get up onto a boulder fast enough to avoid him.

Cain's gaze narrowed as he stared at Damali's throat. "While I was away, he abducted you with a battle bite?" Cain's thundering voice bounced off the crevices and cavern walls. "Infidel! He forced you to marry through such brutality? I knew you would never forsake me! The union is void! Come to me, my angel, and stop this foolishness. We will vanquish his armies together!"

She was motion. Five boulders up there was a ledge and a wide enough space to battle before making it to an exit tunnel. A shape-shift would be her friend. Then she was out. Only problem was, when she got to the top, he was standing there, and had the gall to reach down and offer her a hand. The bird thing wasn't working, in fact, nothing was. The queens needed to stop tripping and come together, like now!

"Come to me," Cain said in a quiet voice, pulling her up with one strong yank and stopping her wrist in midswing. "You do not want to take off my head."

"Like hell," she said, reinforcing her grip on the blade, refusing to let him see how panic-stricken she was. Then it slowly dawned upon her... in her outrage she'd told him that her Neteru Council of Queens had been weakened by Eve's devastation.He knew what that meant. She'd been played!

Her wrist felt like it was made of papier-mache in his hold, and he wasn't really applying pressure. This wasnot how this was sup�posed to go.

Cain chuckled low in his throat. "You have a wonderful dexterity with words. I love anything that rolls off your tongue. Let me taste it."

She yanked her head back when he tried to kiss her, and he quickly put both of her hands behind her, the Isis scraping the ground. When she tried to lift her knee to go for a groin kick, or alternatively stomp his instep, his tail whipped between her thighs, anchoring them open. Fifteen different shape-shifts raced through her head, every power that she had hummed inside her, but it was like turning the key in a car engine and just getting a click-dead battery. A weak energy pulse

arced from her palms, but the Isis caught the charge between them, sending a medium current into the cavern floor. Now she was scared, something she'd rarely been. It was time to bargain.

"Why would you make a deal with the Unnamed One?" she said in Dananu, breathing hard. "He'll rob you, take everything, every beautiful gift you once owned, once it's all said and done."

"Probably," Cain murmured, inhaling her scent in a hard nuzzle against her hair. "But that will be a very long time from now." He closed his eyes and sent craven images into her skull by force. "There is so much that I want to do with you," he whispered into her ear. "Choose one and I will make it so, lover."

She thought about using her teeth as a weapon, but then thought better of it. What was the point? She had to say something, do some�thing, to get him up off her to buy distance. Seconds felt like minutes as he pressed against her befouling her mind.

"Speak to me again in Dananu," he said with a shudder, sliding against her. "I did notknow you could speak it thus."

"Brother, why you got me all up against a cavern wall like this, huh? Tacky. When I first met you, you behaved like a royal-had wet my drawers, could sing, made me scream 'cause it was so good, and I hadn't even gotten any, for real. But see how one tumble into that throne has jacked you up?"

Cain pulled back to look at her and smiled. "I missed you. Perhaps that is what has made me too eager."

"Well, some homecoming."

They stared at each other.

"Damali, let me say this to you once. I am not the same man you met before. If this is a ruse..."

"There's no fraud. I'm scared of your ass now. I wasn't that be�fore," she said in a sexy whisper in Dananu. "What happened to the lair in Nod? It was beautiful. This frightens me. Can't we go there?"

"I have something better downstairs," he said, nipping her jugular. "All black marble. Would you like to see it?"

Go lower into the pit with failing powers? No way.

"Nah, here is fine, but the rocks-"

He crushed her mouth with a kiss and transferred both her hands into one of his, still able to hold her, which was truly disconcerting.

"It's all in your sweat," he said through a ragged breath. "Adrena�line, fight pheromone, rage, fear... that and your skin, the way you feel beneath me. I've suffered for you, woman... This time I'm be�ing selfish, but will make it up to you at the next vanishing point."

Her clothes had dissolved with his before she could blink. He'd knocked her head back so hard with his massive jaw that for a second she was sure she'd blacked out. Something seven feet tall with an iron grip had her. She was looking at his old Neteru tattoo blackened in the center of his chest; all silver was gone. The flash of mate-bite fangs made her yank her head to the side with a scream, and he almost bit the wall, but came up furious.

"I forbid it over my husband's bite!" she yelled, going for a battle versus whatever else Cain had planned. "I chose the better man, ass�hole! No matter what you do, you'll never be Carlos Rivera!"

Her hands were suddenly loose, but not soon enough to block the backhanded blow that sent her sprawling. The Isis went one way, and she went the other. Stunned, she had never had the snot knocked out of her like that in her life. No demon or vamp had landed a blow so squarely. Not even in the Amazon had she been sucker punched and unable to instantly get up. This time she'd heard bone actually snap. Tasting blood in her mouth, her lip split, she quickly tried to stand, but was flattened by a black arc drilling heat into her chest.

"You make me nearly lose an empire, ransom my soul, disgrace my mother, and raise an army for you, and you tell mewhat! Rivera is the better man? Bitch... I will slaughter you! Will fuck you to death down here! Are youinsane?"

Gone was the gorgeous hunk with the megawatt vamp smile. Huge wings ripped out of Cain's shoulders, casting a shadow over her in the dim fire-lit cavern. His eyes went from a desirous crimson glow to solid black gleam. Fast-moving ghostly phantoms whizzed by, tak�ing cover as the cavern imploded with a sonic boom and flames. Damali shielded her face to the inferno with her again bleeding fore�arm. The searing ground against her naked body made her arch in agony and try to reach the Isis and draw it to her, but just as quickly as she did so, Cain's massive body blanketed hers.

"You have tested my patience for the last time, lover," he hissed in her ear. "When I am done with your disloyal, traitorous carcass, you will be vomiting blood and choking on your own womb."

Dark energy was prying her thighs open; the cavern floor was scorching the flesh on her back. She could smell her own skin burn�ing, hear it sizzle. Sulfur fumes were making her choke and gasp, while the heavy male demon on top of her was crushing the air out of her lungs.

A prayer for survival sent silver shock into her mind. If she could just live to fight another day. He'd dropped twelve inches of battle-length fangs and had pressed them to her throat in a snarling threat, breaking the skin. His talons were digging into her forearms as he lifted her hands above her head. An angry, razor-sharp tail swished like a bullwhip in the dense smoke. Something akin to marble, the length and width of a baseball bat, pulsed against her thigh. Damali squeezed her eyes shut. She could feel her jawbone knitting back together from an unknown source the harder she prayed in her mind.

"Angels hear me!" Damali shrieked when her thigh muscles gave out and Cain finally parted her legs. "Protect me from all that is un�holy!"

Her voice cracked with a sob, and her wings tore through her shoulder blades as hysteria overtook her. Her back was suddenly cool, and the sulfur began to dissipate. Cain leaned back, his eyes normaliz�ing with confusion. His fangs retracted as he brushed her wild tangle of locks away from her sweaty forehead to better see her eyes.

"No!" Damali kept screaming between the sobs. "Until my body is a limp dead rag I will never concede! Never! Get thee behind me, spawn of Satan! No!"

Cain backed off of her with a pain-filled roar and stood. "You're a Powers? A Realm Six healing angel?" He looked around the cavern nervously. "Downhere?" He raked his locks and backed up farther, de-bulking and retracting his tail, wings, and fangs. "How can that be?

They do not walk the Earth in human form! There has never been a Neteru blend of that. It is forbidden."

He pointed between her legs and she glimpsed down. Her sex was encased in a solid silver, glowing shield of liquid metal, white-hot heat.

Damali covered her nakedness with her wings, sobbing. "Fuck you!"

Disoriented, Cain stumbled backward. "You speak curses, come here, mate like a lusty human female, even take a vampire lover, but have wings?" He clutched his chest like a man experiencing a heart attack and leaned against a boulder. "I felt it when you were in Nod, in my arms, so close to letting me inside you... there was something beneath your skin that I had never encountered. But I dared not be�lieve."

Damali stood, dashed for her Isis, and clutched it to her, her eyes frantically glancing around for an exit.

"Devastation, as an angel in the Light, I cannot take you against your will. But do you know what we could create together?" Cain murmured in an awed rush. "Do you realize what type of being you and I could create, if you'd just stop chasing after that young fool and become my bride? Divorce him now!"

"Please God, send in reinforcements!" Damali shouted, looking up at the endless black ceiling. She raised her Isis over her head. "I need an airlift, an extraction-stat. Warrior angels, one of your own is trapped in Hell. Send a beacon; I've got a crazy big demon on my ass!

Cain covered his ears and yelled in pain. The cavern filled with light, causing bats and vermin and unseen phantoms screeching for dark corners. Cain stood covered by smoldering wings, glimpsing up as Damali folded away into a silver splinter.

"Concede to me, Damali, or I will raze the planet!" he called after her. "That is my ultimatum!"

Damali tumbled onto the sand, clutching her Isis, her body so sore that she could barely get up. Her ripped tank top and ragged jeans were back on, her wings sealed away beneath her skin, but somewhere along the chaotic route back she'd lost her shoes. She looked up at the villa and saw the team on the deck, gun barrels pointed at her, Carlos standing at the ready with a sword in hand.

He cleared the deck rail in a one-handed jump. Guns lowered. The sky was lit with thunder and lightning in a display that rivaled the Fourth of July. She was crying harder than it was raining by the time he reached her. A torrential downpour and hurricane-level winds made waves slam against the beach in an ominous warning. Carlos hugged her hard and she groaned, and then nearly passed out from the pain.

Carlos half-dragged, half-carried her into the villa with one arm, both of their blades cutting into the sand as they walked. The team parted as Carlos looked at her jaw in disbelief. He dropped his blade where he stood once he truly saw the bodily damage she'd sustained, and he took her sword and angrily cast it away with a loud clatter.

Water streamed onto the floor from their drenched bodies, placing them in a huge, spreading puddle. Their clothes clung like second skin and his eyes searched hers as he studied the large, purple, angry bruise that had begun to make her cheek swell. Blood still ran from her nose, and she sniffed it back. Carlos's eyes darted downward to look at the deep talon gouges in her arms, and then he saw her blade arm and fi�nally freaked. Damali shivered, going into mild shock.

"Oh, Jesus... get a towel, some ice, some-fucking-body move!"

He swept her up into his arms and hustled her over to the sofa. The bewildered team moved like jerky robots, bringing the supplies Car�los had bellowed for them to bring while Marlene ransacked her black bag with shaking hands.

"Oh, shit, Marlene, seers, healers, medic! Get over here!" Carlos was on his knees on the floor beside Damali, his palm hovering over Damali's injured cheek, silver tears of rage in his eyes. "Baby, it's gonna be all right. I'ma take the pain, Berkfield is gonna open a vein to clean out the gashes. Mar is gonna do her thing. We got you. It's all right."

Damali groaned as Carlos's hand came nearer to the jaw wound and he ran his fingers over her jugular, seeing where a huge, battle-bite entry indentation had been attempted.

"Oh, my God, I'm gonna cut his heart out," Carlos whispered. "Twelve inches of battle-length from jaw to shoulder."

Damali clutched the center of Carlos's T-shirt to pull him near so she could hide her face against his chest.Baby... she said in a garbled mental whisper,Iwasn't being arrogant. I thought he had slaughtered you and my family. Sobs came out before she could pull it together. Hu�miliation tore through her; the whole team was watching.

"Shhsssh, shhhsssh, I know," Carlos murmured, rocking her as the healers gathered. He buried his face in her hair and kissed the crown of her head.

He kicked my ass,she sputtered mentally, unable to admit the un�thinkable in front of the team.I ain't never been-

"I know... I know. It's gonna be all right, 'Mali. Just breathe, baby," Carlos said, rocking her harder.

What if I can't fight anymore?her mind shrieked, as she became hys�terical in his hold. When he wouldn't let her go and she realized how much his strength eclipsed hers, she wigged. "Let go of me!"

She rolled off the couch to a wobbly stand, meeting his bewildered gaze. "I'm still a Neteru," she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I will not let some motherfucker just take me like that! No!" she screamed, wrapping her arms around herself. "He had no right to vi�olate me like that! Never surrender, never give up!" She was scream�ing and looking around for her blade like a madwoman. "My queens left me down there ass-out," she said, covering her mouth with a hand. "How could they?"

"Oh, Father," Marlene said, coming closer and pausing as Damali put her hands out in front of her.

"Don't touch me!" Damali shouted. "I'm so unclean... the images, his filthy touch is all over me, Mar. I'm dirty! I need a white bath!"

Carlos was on his feet and he rubbed his palms down his face, sip�ping air.

Tears wet Shabazz's face. "Baby girl, we'll smoke him, don't worry, ya hear?"

Big Mike left the circle with tears of frustrated rage streaming down his huge, ebony cheeks, and began packing shells. "We ride." He sucked in a huge breath and threw a shoulder cannon to Rider, who caught it with both hands.

"We ride," Rider said, his jaw muscles jumping.

"I gotchure back," Jose said to Carlos, shaking his head. "Not on our watch. Uh-uh."

Inez flung a kitchen blade and impaled it into the wall. "I'm down!"

Several clicks echoed through the villa as every Guardian Glocked-up and slammed in a clip.

"This is family," J.L. said, breaking a stool, and instantly creating a wooden stake.

"Oh fuck no," Berkfield said low. "Not one of my daughters."

"No,I wanna kill him!" Damali shrieked, her voice so shrill every�one slightly cringed. "After what he did to me? Throw me my blade."

Baby, how bad?Carlos asked mentally, coming to her slowly. Trying to hold her hands, trying to reason with her and calm her down be�fore she had a stroke.

"He-he-he... held my legs open with his tail," she said, look�ing at the floor. "He's morphed into something... twenty-foot wingspan... twelve-inch fangs... seven feet tall, breathes fucking fire... put me on my back naked on an inferno floor-oh Jesus..." Damali walked away.

Carlos stood numb, staring at her back.

"I couldn't get away," she said, shuddering and wrapping her arms around herself. She began to shake her head slowly, her voice a shat�tered mental whisper.Iwas calling on Heaven, warrior angels, the Most High, hiccup crying, moved two seconds past two late and he bit the wall...and he knocked the taste outta my mouth. I've been in many battles, but I don't think I've ever been that afraid, and all it did was turn him on more- you know the vamp power paradigm...but I couldn't even summon enough mental discipline to hold that in check. That's why I'm bugging.

"Baby, if he raped you-" Marlene said in a gentle murmur, tears coursing down her face. "We can clean you out... me and Marj. We'll call the queens, all right, suga... please just let me hold you."

Damali turned around, her face crumbling as she bit her split lip. She glanced at her husband's ashen expression and at Marlene and choked back a sob. "He didn't rape my body, Mar," she whispered. "Eleventh-hour escape." Damali closed her eyes and hugged herself tighter and sucked in a deep breath. "He gangbanged my mind."

Cain returned to his throne room, quietly chuckling to himself and shaking his head. Nuit and Lilith stood holding their breaths, awaiting his news. He flopped into his throne and sighed. "She's the one," he said. "I found her."

Nuit cocked his head to the side in a silent question. Lilith slowly approached Cain with a goblet outstretched in an offering, unsure of his mood.

Cain sighed. "Wow."

"Your Eminence?" Nuit said, visually scanning his body for signs of an Isis wound.

"She's ready," Cain said, snatching the goblet from Lilith. "Her council is fractured, her battle powers waning as my mother's health and sanity declines. Her confidence is broken, her husband in a state of conflict-paternity questions burrowing into his psyche like a par�asite. Their team is in an uproar and unfocused for battle." He held up his hands. "Smell this, my allies." He smiled. "Pure fear."

Nuit sat down slowly in his throne. "From the millennium Neteru?"

"How did you inspire such terror?" Lilith hissed, coming closer, curiosity making her foolish.

Cain glanced at her with disdain. "Leave my side or leave your heart in my talons, bitch."

She backed away quickly and stood near Nuit. "My apologies," she whispered.

"Do you think that after mind-fucking a Powers angel I would stoop to you tonight?"

Lilith and Nuit simply stared at him for a moment.

Cain chuckled and leaned forward, greedily slurping blood. "Do you know what one of them can breed with one of us? The ultimate destroyer," he whispered, pleased with himself.

Shaking his head and looking off in the distance, Cain spoke in a quiet echo. "The legend is true. The best kept secret in the universe. The escapee hybrid human angel," he said, now laughing hard. "Onlyone of the Powers angels ever lost discipline and sired with a human before the edicts-onlyone -and that gene had been submerged and hidden for millennia! Do you know how long my grandfather has sought this vessel? It is their side's Holy Grail! AndI found it, within a beautiful, female Neteru body with gleaming white opalescent wings. I had her cowering beneath me crying out for salvation. That is why I didn't bring her down into our realms too deeply, because Iknew they would come for her and pull her out if I sufficiently terrorized her while she was weakened by the Neteru Council of Queens' strife. They would scorch the entire pit with Light, in search of her."

He set down his goblet and looked at them hard. "I watched her do a healing that no normal Neteru of her age should have been able to accomplish. I felt the fledgling stirrings under her skin when I held her, each time hoping to bring them forth in passion so that I would know for sure... but she was too frightened, and had not enough time to bond to me in blind trust. Then her voice, her perfect-pitch healing words... I was almost certain, but Ihad to know for sure." Cain rubbed his chest and again shook his head in wonder. "Even with all my suspicions, seeing it stole my breath. And to think, I had almost bedded her. Had there simply been more time."

Fallon Nuit opened his mouth and closed it, holding his goblet in midair before his lips. Then he took a quick sip of blood and dabbed his brow. "Your Eminence... permit my ignorance, and I, of course, defer to your greatness. However, if she is totally afraid of you, how-"

"A trade," Cain said evenly, picking up his goblet and sipping from it slowly. "Tonight, compromise her inner circle. I've nicked her, and my energy is in her household. No doubt her team has hugged her, they will put ministrations on her wounds, and her husband will wipe her tears."

He leaned back and closed his eyes. "Her vampire friends should be waking up soon, and the torrential rains lock the Guardians in- Carlos's energy fractured between battles, his wife, his friends... di�vided loyalties are difficult to rein in... when you care. And the sheer beauty of it all is that Heaven can only intervene so much, be�cause she, like those they sequestered in Nod, isa hybrid. She wasnever supposed to exist beyond the walls of Heaven or Nod, but they al�lowed her to, because they knowingly let the carrier progeny of her ancestors escape the banishment zone.They, this time, the Light, breached the cosmic laws. I know this, because I used to be one of them-a Neteru with ancient, biblical knowledge."

Cain chuckled softly to himself and made a tent with his fingers before his mouth and shook his head. "I risked it all to find her, gam�bled everything, and I was richly rewarded tonight. An empire for a larger empire, with a caveat that can stop Heaven in its tracks." He leaned over with a wicked grin. "She is priceless because she still, be�ing human with a soul, has free will... and there is nothing they can do about her choice. Put it all on black on the roulette wheel of life and, as they said from your old favorite zone of rule, let the good times roll, my friend."

"Then a trade. A sacrifice," Nuit said with a chuckle, peering over his goblet at Cain as he sipped his blood. "Decisions, decisions. One female body as host in exchange for so many loved ones held hostage. She will go mad."

Cain leaned forward. "She will. She will lose her mind for her queens, for the planet that we will siege tomorrow night, for her hus�band, for her team, for her mother-seer, and anyone else we can twist her heart with... she will lie beneath me with silver tears streaming down her pretty face and will open her gorgeous legs and let me sire. Period. She might not like it, but the point is moot. As long as she says yes and drops her shields to save her family, she can sob and wail the whole time. Who gives a damn? I'll ride her pain like a stallion."

He chuckled and set his goblet down hard. "And knowing there is no choice, that will satisfy my first edict, which was to rip out Rivera's heart by its anchors. Finding him after that to sever his wretched head will be child's play. That fool will probably stand in a clearing, open his arms, and beg me to battle him, once it is all said and done."

Nuit stood, bowed, and turned to leave. "Sunset is quickly ap�proaching; I will prepare my reentry to topside and rest. It issuch an honor to serve you."

"Let me serve you, as well," Lilith whispered, biting her lip as her dark eyes glimmered with anticipation. "After that encounter... I'm sure you require relief."

Cain just stared at her, and then glanced down at his lap, dismissing the power erection that throbbed.

"You said you would do a hybrid. Lion and-"

"I am going up to the were-demon realms, alone," Cain said, standing. "Then I may join Nuit to forge a permanent Amanthra al�liance. Alone."

"But you said..." she whispered, her voice dejected, yet trailing off as he cast a hot glare that stopped her words.

"Like you have so many, many times, Lilith," Cain said, materializ�ing an emperor's robe and slipping it on. "I lied."