Part 18 (1/2)
”Your long blade is missing and you saw it there,” Marlene said, packing away her book and satchel. ”Maybe that's where you guys will sync up, get back to the crazy normal y'all call normal. Who knows? Meanwhile, can you work on saving the world?”
”Road trip.” Damali hopped up from the bed with a wide grin.
”When we receive a sign,” Marlene said, her grin matching Damali's. ”Let's not rush things.”
”No, Marlene. Eve going into combat mode, risking a full seduction info siphon from the Chairman is a sign. Don't get it twisted.
Girlfriend put a lot on the line, had to open old wounds to come away with that. I owe her. We all do.”
Damali's expression went stone serious as she stared at Marlene. ”We don't have time to waste; we pull out tomorrow-first light, hit L.A. to get a flight over to China. You and Dan make the arrangements; get J.L. to do it online, if you have to. But do it.
Call Father Pat, too. Make sure we can get shots and all that, p.r.o.nto, so we can pa.s.s foreign inspection, not that we'll need 'em if we don't succeed in this mission. Tell him to hook us up with a doctor from the Covenant that's already infected, so we don't hurt any innocents. And since we just got booted off Jose's property, if we survive, when we get back, we can figure out a more metropolitan place to live. Sound like a plan?”
”Sounds like a plan. A new location is definitely in order, if we get through this. It might be a good idea to compromise, too.
Perhaps find a spot in L.A. that we can all live with, where the Berkfield kids can go to school during the day, even though Marj is doing her best to homeschool them. They're bouncing off the walls, poor babies, as is everyone else. Vamp incidents are at an all-time low, we haven't seen any crazy were-demon activity, and the Chairman is on the run. We can do a good job of throwing down a prayer line, retrofit a mansion, and get the Covenant brothers to add a little somethin' somethin' to the mix.”
Damali nodded hard, but Marlene's line of conversation disturbed her. The woman was in denial. Wasn't thinking clearly. Why was she worried about trivial things when in thirty days, there might not be a world? Damali tempered her response.
”Yeah, because Marlene, for real-you can run but you can't hide, and sooner or later, the newbies have to be able to live like regular people, blend in.” That was as much as she could offer without bodily shaking sense into Marlene.
”Couldn't agree more,” Marlene said, coming to Damali to give her a hug. ”Might stem some of that resentment thing, too.”
”Ya think?” Damali held Marlene tightly. Oh, G.o.d... everyone, even her mother-seer, had lost their minds. ”I didn't realize how much of that poison was running through my system.” She let Marlene take the statement any way she wanted to, but she'd been referring to the contagion, not some stupid man-woman resentment issue.
”A very famous lady, an old star, Jill St. John, said this when she lost her son: resentment is like taking poison, and hoping the other person dies.” Marlene held Damali back from her. ”That was so profound, it stayed with me. Here this woman had lost her heart, her fourteen-year-old child to a tragedy, and that was her take on the matter. I learned something from those words, so I pa.s.s them on for you to consider.”
Damali touched Marlene's cheek, her hand cupping it with tender love. She had to stop the infection. She missed the old Marlene so much she could almost wail. ”Marlene, you are so deep sometimes. I've been feeling like I was possessed or like something was trying to get inside me and take over my spirit. Resentment is poison.”
Marlene nodded and released her hold on Damali. She watched her grown daughter walk away from her, but didn't immediately follow behind her. There was something in what Damali had said; also something had slithered within her daughter's touch. The word possessed hung in her mind like a dark cloud. Her lips moved reciting a silent prayer as she watched Damali rejoin the despondent group in the living room. Something was wrong; her internal warning bells were going off.
For the first time in a long time, Marlene was very unsure.
All heads jerked up as footsteps came up the path. Before they could land on the front steps, the entire team was on the porch.
Carlos glanced up sheepishly, his ragged, bloodstained jeans, torn T-s.h.i.+rt, and dirt-smeared face made them stare.
”d.a.m.n, y'all, what a night!” Carlos exclaimed, shaking his head as he mounted the stairs. ”I'm driving to L.A. to get the h.e.l.l out of here for a short break until we could all figure out what to do, and a freakin' deer jumps into the middle of the road, wrecks my Jeep, messes up a brother's transpo, are you feeling me? I am done!”
He smoothed his palm over his hair as the team stared at him without blinking, their expressions blank. ”Then,” he said quickly, adding to his story, ”I'm trying to find my way back home in the dark, and white light holds me, checking to see if I even smelled the deer-like I'm an addict, or something? What'd y'all do, call the spiritual feds on a brother, or something?”
Shoulders relaxed, smiles eased into expressions, Damali slowly came down the steps. ”The angels scanned you, huh?” she said with a slow grin. ”Did you pa.s.s inspection?”
”Would I be standing here, if I didn't?” Carlos folded his arms over his chest. ”Now what kinda question is that?” He shook his head and brushed past her. ”No, 'hi, baby, glad you're all right?' d.a.m.n, girl, you cold. What is up with you, D? What's the 'get back you don't know me like that' about?”
Rider put his semiautomatic lengthwise, barring Carlos farther entry up the steps. Carlos stopped, looked at the gun, and then up at Rider. All right, sensors were on. Everybody that had someone dear to protect might be able to feel the change. Love cut through all dark-side illusions. He needed to find weak links in the chain. ”What's up with that, Rider?”
Rider's gaze into Carlos's eyes never wavered. ”Where'd the so-called angels drop you, then? We had a search party covering the ground from the land and the air.”
”Tara came?” Carlos said, acting surprised. He'd seen them both, but hadn't allowed them to see him.”And Yonnie,” Rider said evenly. ”Neither one of them, working together, could find you-just like we couldn't.”
Again the group went still. Carlos looked down at his bloodstained clothes.
”I hope somebody had the presence of mind to check out the deer that was stuck in my winds.h.i.+eld? Take a sniff, man. This was all over my seats.”
”The deer checked out, Rider,” Damali said, trying to mediate the tension.
Rider refused to yield. ”That's not what I asked him. I can smell deer blood from here.”
Carlos sighed. ”What do you want from me, man? They dropped me far enough away that I could barely see the house lights in the distance, then gave me some long speech about duty to the greater good. But you know how they work. They didn't bother to give a brother a lift home.”
Big Mike nodded. ”Rider, man, it would make sense that they'd s.h.i.+eld him from his old friends if they feared a relapse, given Yonnie and Tara are still... you know, vamps, and all.”
Carlos fought not to smile. ”My point, Rider.”
”Why don't you get washed up,” Marjorie said cautiously, ”while there's hot water, and if you give me those clothes-”
Rider shook his head no, and glanced at Shabazz, who had been strangely silent.
”Not back in this house with newbies. No,” Rider said flatly. ”If the angels thought you might relapse, then-”
”Well where the h.e.l.l am I gonna go, Rider!” Carlos shouted, and then looked at Shabazz for support.
Rider hocked and spit. ”Metal is all in my throat.” He glanced at Jose. ”Talk to me little brother. You picking that up, too?”
Carlos's gaze narrowed on Jose. He homed in on the vamp tracer in Jose's DNA and unlocked the code that was embedded within it: You can never out your own to humans. Ask Yonnie and Tara, who are several generations up. Your Chairman commands it so, with a little extra topspin that would make old Dante p.i.s.s in his pants.
When Jose opened his mouth to speak, he fell eerily quiet and shrugged. Seeming satisfied, Carlos returned his attention to Rider. ”Jack Daniel's and cigarettes got your senses off, hombre. You need to chill.”
”Jack Daniel's ain't got nothin' to do with it. I know what I know. Something ain't right.”
”Maybe we're all just a little taxed,” Marjorie offered. ”Carlos has been-”
”Acting strange,” Shabazz muttered. ”Say what you want to, and my job is to groom a male Neteru, but I ain't having a potential vamp flux in here with newbies. Call it misplaced paternal instinct, but something is making the hair stand up on my arms. Dig?”
”So, now I have to sleep in the equipment shed like a dog?” Indignant, Carlos stormed down the steps. ”Then at least give me a vehicle so I can drive to a motel.”
His gaze went to Marlene's and then Damali's. Both women were impa.s.sive, and it totally floored him that Damali had remained silent throughout the exchange.
”Rider and Shabazz are right,” Damali finally said.
”What!” Carlos was so angry that he could feel his own breath singe the hairs within his nose on each breath.”If there's any flux happening, innocent or otherwise,” Damali said, unsheathing her baby Isis, ”then maybe you'd better come home with somebody who can deal with it.”
Carlos almost smiled. He gave the team his back to consider, catching Berkfield's pained expression before he turned around.
”If you're injured,” Berkfield said, beginning to walk down the steps. ”Maybe-”
”No,” Carlos yelled. ”Don't touch me.” He then mellowed his next response. ”I'm fine. Y'all have put me out of the house, so, fine. I don't need anything from anybody.” He waited, watching Berkfield remain on the step, unmoving. The last thing he needed was for a healer with sacred blood running through his veins to attempt to lay hands on him. He didn't know what the repercussions of that would be, and would make it a point not even to shake Berkfield's hand until he knew.
”Carlos,” Juanita said, coming down the steps past the others. ”Listen, it's not like that, okay?”