The Darkness Page 5

CHAPTER FOUR

 

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Lilith strolled back into Vampire Council Chambers, blotting her running nose with the back of her wrist. Almost stumbling as she made her way across the expanse of veined marble floor, she adjusted her formfitting black gown before sliding into her throne.

  "Damn . . . " she murmured in appreciation with her eyes closed as she leaned her head back briefly, lost in thought. "I swear one day that man will be the death of me. " After a moment, she lifted her head weakly and stared at her mute councilmen. "And what are you doing here? Didn't you hear what the man said-you should be out there doing damage, stirring the cauldron . . . something other than gawking at me. "

  Fallon Nuit made a tent with his fingers before his mouth as though carefully considering his words before he spoke. "I think it's fair to say that the three of us needed a moment . . . to recover. It had been an eventful morning and no one wants to find out at high noon that their daylight powers have been rescinded. "

  "No lie," Yonnie said, smoothing his palm over his throat where he'd been choked.

  "We wanted to be sure we were following orders to the strictest adherence to your whims-I mean wishes, Madam Chairwoman. " Sebastian's pale complexion whitened as he looked down and began nervously picking at his cuticles.

  Lilith waved her hand dismissively. "Spare me. Lu is in such a buoyant mood right now that torching you three is the last thing on his mind. "

  "Be that as it may," Nuit pressed on, his gaze holding hers. "I'm sure that you can imagine how unique a visit like his was . . . in council. In past times, such an event was rare and it meant someone's imminent extermination. "

  "True," Lilith said, giggling and still high. "All right . . . I admit,he is given to excessive violence, so sue the man. But this morning he was very mellow. This could have been a disaster-Yolando. "

  A droll smile tugged at Nuit's mouth. "You've learned well from your partner in crime Rivera . . . you've gotten a pardon from the source no one can trump. But I haven't forgotten, Yolando. Rest assured. "

  Yonnie smiled and raised his middle finger to Nuit.

  "Are we free to leave, then, is what you're saying?" Sebastian countered, glaring at the quiet power struggle between Nuit and Yonnie.

  "I'm telling you to get the hell out of here before Lu possibly strolls back in here and sees you all sipping blood and not on the job. " She took up her golden goblet and leaned it beneath one of the star points of the pentagram-shaped table, filling it to the brim with black blood. "Knock 'em dead," she said, raising her goblet and taking a healthy swig from it. "I'm headed to theMiddle East where Lu likes to play-I suggest you boys make nice and wreak plenty of havoc while we're gone. "

  Nuit blew her a kiss and stood. "My specialty is children at risk,ch�rie . I will make it the best of times and the worst of times. " He chuckled when Yonnie stared at him, unable to hide both his alarm and curiosity. But he knew Yonnie could never tip his hand by showing concern in front of Lilith.

  Yonnie gave Nuit and Sebastian a curt nod and then turned to address Lilith. "I'm out. "

  In a grand sweeping gesture, Nuit bowed. "Au revoir. "

  Sebastian stood slowly and looked around Council Chambers and then at Lilith.

  "Well?" she snapped, growing annoyed. When he didn't immediately answer, she leaned forward and narrowed her gaze. "I know," she hissed between her teeth, "that you cannot believe you are getting laid this morning?"

  "No," Sebastian said, lifting his chin. "I'm talking about rebuilding. " He motioned to the two unoccupied thrones. "Full council is six of us, including you as the Chairwoman, yes?"

  Lilith brought her goblet to her lips, smiling around its obstruction.

  "Then while the other are terrorizing the Neteru team in whatever manner most delights them, permit me to bring you some newly made masters for consideration . . . the best of the covens, Lilith," he said, dropping his voice to a seductive murmur inDananu .

  "You caught me at a very auspicious time, Sebastian . . . while I'm high and recently sated by the best of the dark realms. Your request has merit. "

  "The others didn't think to request it-they are looking at outside conquest . . . spreading themselves and the empire thin without consideration of rebuilding critical infrastructure as quickly as we will soon be growing. I saw this bring Mother Russia to her knees socially and economically, and we cannot afford such a slip in strategic deployment at the end of days. "

  Lilith set her goblet down with precision, her glowing black eyes never leaving Sebastian. "Keep talking to me like that this morning, and you might get lucky in chambers after all. "

  A divided mind while on a mission was a dangerous thing, she knew . . . almost as dangerous as splitting the team at a time like this. Damali held Inez's hand as they walked around from behind the manicured hedges onto the front walkway of the property. She just prayed no one saw Big Mike appear like a huge genie. She could hear it now, some poor retiree in the gated community screaming her head off or some little kid trying to make his mother believe thatKazam was actually real.

  But the thing that disturbed her the most was Carlos's state of mind. No matter what he'd said, he'd absorbed a hellified negative charge today. His nerves were already rattled going in, after seeing Yonnie walk by day. Then add an attack on Father Pat-too much. Now this?Civilians in the compound. No matter how hard he seemed, she knew Carlos, knew her husband's deepest fears. And it was a scenario like this, where a little kid or an elderly woman might be put in harm's way.

  That was the only reason she hadn't argued, truly hadn't said much. Right now he so badly needed someone to be on his side, to see his point of view, but by the same token, regarding this-there was no other choice.

  "Yaya, you're too quiet in there for grandma," Delores Filgueiras called out from the kitchen as she cut the crusts off a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "You hear me? You'd better be behaving yourself-come on down here and wash your hands for lunch. "

  Fascinated, the child watched the tall man who appeared in the window.

  He floated! She giggled when he put one finger to his lips. She looked over her shoulder, somehow knowing that he didn't want Nana to see him. He could put words in her mind that she understood. Sometimes she didn't understand big people, the grown-ups, but him she understood. He wanted her to open the window and say it was okay for him to come in. She never had a secret friend before. Nana was careful about friends.

  "Can you open the window for me, sweetie, so we can be friends?"

  He made her giggle again, sending tickles across her belly.

  "Okay. "

  She had to climb up on her doll chair to reach the thing Nana turned and it was hard. But she was a big girl.

  "I do it myself," she said with triumph, happy when the hard thing turned.

  "Yes . . . you are a very big girl," he said in a nice voice. "I am very proud of you. Just lift the edge of the window and say, 'Come in,' and I will. "

  That was hard, too, lifting the heavy window.

  "My room is pretty!" She waved her hand around so he'd see all the Powder Puff dolls and her pink and white bed.

  "You have to say, 'Come in, please'; I can't see it so well from out here. "

  "Oh!" She giggled. "Come in, please. "

  But something wasn't right. His face was getting scary. His eyes made her want to cry. She should go get Nana! But her legs wouldn't work. His smile was ugly now. He had big teeth. The tickles now felt like buggies were crawling over her. Nana, Nana, it's the bogey man! Angels, make the bogey man go away!

  A high-pitched scream at a decibel that could shatter glass exited the child's mouth. Fallon held his ears for a moment, stunned, as a knifing pain shot through his temples. Surrounding the brat in a black box, he blotted his forehead with the sleeve of his jacket, glad to have momentarily silenced her voice. Where the hell had the child learned so young to call t
he angels with a piercing voice like that?

  "Oh, Jesus!Father God, help me! Get thee behind me, Satan!" a strange woman shrieked.

  "Silence!"Nuit bellowed and blew her through the door. He heard her collide with something, but had to struggle for composure for a moment after hearing the names of blasphemy hurled at him.

  He couldn't believe the woman's foolish nature. She wanted to die, that was clear. She was running at him with a piece of banister post. Nuit outstretched his arm to call her heart into his hand.

  A loud bang of wood hitting plaster jerked his attention away from the fallen woman and the black-boxed child. The front door had been kicked in. The translucent shield around the toddlerdropped, her screams boring into his ears like a dentist's drill. He cast her aside roughly, the goal to cause her small head to split open against the wall like an overripe melon-anything to stop the incessant screaming. But she hit the mattress instead and scrambled into a corner, still screeching at the top of her tiny lungs.

  Behind him, the window crashed. Shards of glass flew toward him like mini razors. Multiple gunshots sounded; hallowed earth shells told him the Guardians had been called. The sickening scent of prayer dirt revolted him. The huge male Guardian barreled through the door . . . he'd wanted to kill that one for so many years, he could taste it. One snatch and the giant Guardian's throatwas in his hands. His attention was again jerked to the floor. The old woman had thrown the Guardian the wooden banister piece. Seconds later, it sliced into his side.

  Howling with fury, he overturned every piece of furniture in the room, yanking the wood out of his side and sending it whizzing into the palm of the oversized Guardian that had assaulted him, pinning him to the wall. Turning wildly, he looked for his prize-the female Guardian's child. He looked up in time to see the child behind her weapons-bearing mother.

  Her two hands holding a single Glock 9mm, eyes lethal, firing off rounds almost faster than he could dodge, the female Guardian was definitely prepared to die. It was in her eyes and in her sweat. Nuit licked his lips. Admirable. He'd feed well on her. The big male had torn his hand away from the wall, leaving flesh, and had broken off a section of bedpost as the furniture flew by him. Cock-strong and insane . . . he wasn't sure which Guardian he wanted to feed on more. But that old bitch had to stop screaming prayers! It was weakening him. Deafening him!

  Nuit turned and stopped short, just in time to hear theIsisblade chime , missing his head by millimeters as he fell back and became mist.

  "Mommy's got you,Mommy's got you," Inez soothed, clutching her child to her chest with her right arm extended, still wielding the Glock.

  "Mercy of mercies, Fatherhear my prayer," Mrs. Delores sobbed, continually crossing herself as she struggled to get to her daughter and granddaughter. "The Devil almost got that baby-aw, Lord, what is going on? Look at Michael, oh, my God! He'll bleed to death-what's this terrible worldcoming to . . . this must be the end of days, Jesus! If I hadn't come up those steps, if y'all hadn't come when you did . . . "

  "It'sgonna be all right, Momma. We knew to come. I had a bad feeling for the last coupla days. I got you, Momma . . . it's all right. Ain't nobody gonna hurt you. Me, Mike, and Damali won't let 'em hurt you or our baby, I promise. " Inez sunk to the floor with her child on her lap and began crying hard. "I told you, D! I told you! A mother knows!What, then, if I had listened to Carlos, huh?"

  Damali looked around at the devastation and knelt down beside Inez and her mother. Inez was rocking her sobbing toddler and hurriedly trying to feel across her mother's body at the same time, searching for demon nicks and injuries. She watched sadness fill Mike's eyes as he tore off a section of bed linen and wrapped it around his destroyed hand.

  No time like the present. She had to get them out of there, but also had to assure the older woman that she nor her daughter and granddaughter would die. Damali touched Mrs. Filgueiras's arm.

  "Mom Delores . . . tell me if you're hurt," Damali said calmly.

  "Heal my momma up, D!" Inez said, growing hysterical. "Did he bite you, Momma? Did he scratch you?"

  "He, he . . . he . . . pushed me real hard, but I don't even remember him touching me. All of a sudden my back hit the banister and I almost fell over it. I hit it so hard that a few posts came out and I almost went over the rail. But the baby was still in there with him. " Her voice dissolved into a new round of sobs as she clutched Damali's hand. "I heard something snap inside me, but I had to keep going . . . I used whatever I could, and it was the banister post . . . and I kept coming for him. He would have to just kill me dead,that's all. Not that beautiful child was all I could think. My own daughter had been abused, you had almost been abused-Ijus' couldn't take no mo'. Not Ayana! And then it felt like my heart was about to explode out of my chest. I must have blacked out, because I fell again . . . and then y'all started shooting. "

  "You lie still," Damali said, soothing her. "It's probably a rib, because you were mobile. It's not your back or your legs. "

  "I can't be up inno hospital with a predator trying to come for my grandchild! I can't live in this house no more, you hear me!"

  "You won't have to, Mom," Damali said quietly, and then looked up at Mike. He towered over them like a massive oak tree, casting a shadow of support, blood running down his arm staining the rose-pink rug, his eyes set as hard as his jaw.

  "How you holding up?"Damali asked, gazing up at him.

  "I'm cool. Is there a nick on the baby? That sonofabitch flung her. Coulda killed her with the impact against the wall, if the bed hadn't broken her fall. "

  Damali shook her head. "She's not nicked. Breathe, brother. Breathe. "

  Inez crossed herself and squeezed her eyes shut, kissing her daughter's soft,cinnamon brown cheek.

  "But can I see her for a moment?" Damali asked, reaching out for Ayana.

  Ayana shook her head and buried her face against her mother's neck, clinging to her for dear life.

  "Aunt Damali just wants to make the bad man go away from your mind, all right, sweetie?" She looked at Inez for support and had to blink back tears as the child wailed when her mother pried her off her body. "Oh, baby . . . oh, sweetie . . . I'm gonna give you right back to your mother-see, she's only an inch away. "

  Inez wiped her face with both hands.

  "My grandbaby's gonna be scarred in her little mind and heart for life," Mom Delores said in a strangled whisper, closing her eyes tightly and forcing more tears to roll down her cheeks. "Jesus, please hear my prayer . . . just blot this stain outta her mind. "

  "No, Mom, she's not gonna carry this burden," Damali said calmly, stroking the child's profusion of light brown, silky curls. She kissed the top of Ayana's brow and then rested her cheek on the crown of her head, her hand at the toddler's back, feeling her stressed breathing slowly beginning to relax. "He was a bad man and you called the angels, didn't you, sweetie? I know, because I used to do that when I was a little girl. " The child immediately popped a thumb into her mouth and began sucking hard.

  "Did you know that angels are real and can really come when you call them for protection?"

  "That's right," Inez said. "Auntie Damali's been my angel all my life. "

  Ayana peeked at her mother and then peered at her grandmother for confirmation.

  "Yes, baby, you know how Nana says to pray, right? Angels came, musta sent your mommy just when we needed her . . . and Daddy Mike . . . you remember how he fought, hear. He wasn't gonna let anything happen to you, just like me, your momma, and Auntie Damali chased that bad man away. "

  "Like the other lady did, too?"

  The adults glimpsed each other and Big Mike stooped down. "What she look like, boo?"

  The child shrugged and spoke in a soft mumble around her thumb. "Miss Christine angel is pretty. She said keep screaming to make him go away. She didn't let me hit my head on the wall when he pushed me. "

  Damali hugged the child closer and shut her eyes fo
r a moment so that her voice wouldn't quaver when she spoke. "You remember what Christine angel said, but I want you to forget all about that bad man . . . "

  "Uh-uh, D," Mike said, standing. "She need to remember what he looks like-not to haunt her, take that . . . but don't take away her understanding of bad men, bad entities. Christine told her right-fight, scream, run, getsomebody until she's big enough to kill one of them SOBs herself. You better than anybody oughta know that, D. She gotta learn young, they all do. If she coming to live with us, some of her innocence is gonna be compromised. "

  Mrs. Delores struggled to sit up but couldn't. She dropped down panting as she winced in pain. "What's he talking about?" she gasped. "Her innocence compromised by living with her mother and new stepfather? Y'all better tell me something I can understand. You all selling drugs? Is that why that man came to kidnap that baby-swear to me that-"

  "No, Mom, I swear to you-"

  "Then tell me how y'all got all this money? Ain't that much touring and showbiz in the world when you allwas off for two years and just got back up on the road. Now you've got hit men climbing through windows in black suits-weain't never had this kinda trouble in our lives, Inez. What is he, a mobster promoter-what are you all into that has brought death, hell, and destruction to this door!"

  "Mom, the only way I can explain it to you is to show it to you. That man who came to the door was pure evil . . . and Yaya can see angels. " Damali lifted her locks up off her neck to let the air-conditioning cool her nape.

  Tears filled Inez's mother's eyes. "I can't breathe, my heart is breaking, and I don't understand how you all can live with yourselves . . . money is the root of all evil, and you kids today just don't care how you make it, do you? I thought better of you, Damali. Inez,you know I raised you better! And, Michael Roberts, if you are the one who got these girls all turned around, don't youever darken my doorstep again. Carlos Rivera was a drug dealer when I heard about him years ago, Damali-years ago. Now you're with his gang and running with allthem rappers?Who you in trouble with?"

  "Momma, we are in trouble . . . on the run, but not fromwho you think-it's so hard to explain, and I don't wanna hurt you. I've tried to keep you from it, but now it's at your door and it won't ever go away. I love you, Momma. " Inez covered her face and sobbed into her hands.

  "Show her, D," Mike said, going to the windows and checking for an intruder, as well as listening to sirens getting closer.

  "Inez, I will fight you in court for my granddaughter," her mother shouted, sobbing as loudly as her daughter. Yelling in hiccupping jags, she hollered over Ayana's tears, too, ignoring the child's bleating wails not to make her mommy go away. "I'll take her with me back home to the old country before I see her . . . "

  "Let me take the pain, Mom Delores," Damali said as calmly and gently as she could. "Let me heal you. "

  "D, we need to be on the move before Po Po gets here-ain't no explaining this. " Mike looked up and down the street from his post at the window, sure that neighbors who'd seen him would say that some big black man shot up the normally serene neighborhood and abducted an entire family.

  "I'm not going nowhere with y'all! Let the police come. Until you have your own, you won't know pain like this . . . to see your child get twisted around and led to the darkness! Every child starts out like my Ayana, every one of them,then this cruel, misbegotten world changes your baby. " The older woman sunk even closer to the floor and covered her face and wailed.

  Damali yanked up the back of her T-shirt and let her wings unfurl to their full span. Mrs. Filgueiras looked up and slowly covered her heart with her hand. Ayana became calm again as Damali handed her off to her mother. Inez intensely kissed her daughter's hair, rocking her back and forth. As only a child would, Ayana reached out from beyond her mother's clutches, unafraid, and gently fingered the soft feathers in awe.

  "Like Christine's?" Damali said, smiling at the toddler.

  Ayana shook her head. "I didn't touch hers. They were just sunshine. "

  "Oh . . . light . . . ah . . . a lot of light. Bright. "

  The child beamed at her. "Uh-huh. "

  He carried Father Patrick up the stairs of theBrooklyn safe house like he was an infant, laboring up each step from heartbreak. He'd had to clean him up before he could transport him. The man had soiled himself, and yet the vestiges of his old self glimpsed through the haze just enough for his dignity to be assaulted.

  Carlos drew a deep breath as Jose and Rider flanked him. The man in his arms was getting weaker, as though something was unraveling his life force like a ball of twine. And now there was an SOS transmission stabbing into his mind from Damali. The team had taken fire from Nuit. Carlos ran his tongue over his incisors. He couldn't respond,his hands were literally full. He was standing on the threshold of a synagogue, and all he could do for now was pray that they had enough firepower to keep the Darkness at bay.

  Yonnie retraced his steps very carefully, going to the beach, which was now the only place Carlos would allow him along the property line-that and the mountains. But he had to get word to his boy that an all-out assault was about to go down . . . the kind that ruined people forever. They were taking no prisoners. Neither age nor gender mattered. His boss was a respecter of neither. They knew about Inez's baby girl. How, he couldn't fathom, but the Devil knew a lot of shit. Had spies everywhere. And that pussy, Nuit, was trying to gain favor by doing something really foul. Truthbe told, the only thing that saved his ass, as well as the compound from a direct hit, was that Carlos and D had prayer blocked him when they did.

  As he walked along the shoreline, Yonnie chuckled sadly. Who would have thought thata prayer, of all things, would wind up saving his ass from Lu? A prayer, mind you, that got put up as a barrier to keep his horny ass from straight-snatchingTara out of the house at dawn. Yonnie shook his head and then suddenly bent over laughing.

  "Oh, shit! I can't believe it. Rivera, where are you, man?"

  A silver-tipped arrow whizzed so close to his spine as he stooped over that it singed the back of his Armani suit as it passed him. There was nowhere to take cover on the naked beach. Pivoting quickly, he avoided another one and threw up a translucent black shield against the onslaught of silver fire raining on him.

  Fangs dropped, battle bulked and ready for war, he scanned the beach so outraged that a heart-snatch was imminent. But that's when he saw her. She touched down, wings spread,ebony skin drenched with sweat, platinum locks lifted on the wind-a blade in hand. No fear in her eyes. Dressed like a Viking. Dayum. He foolishly flung away the translucent shield to get a closer look.

  "Yo, yo, yo," he called out, trying to stop her before she took a lunge at him. "I definitely come in peace, baby. "

  "Be gone, demon!Defiler of the Neteru sanctuary!"

  She swung and her blade tip sliced the front of his suit as he backed up.

  "Rivera was holding out on you, 'cause a brothernever told me you were on his squad. Good gotdamn! Where'd you come from?"

  She swung wild, fury rising as he pivoted into mist and reappeared, forcing her to expend energy that he loved watching her use.

  "To the end!" she yelled, yanking a dagger from her boots.

  "To the bloody fucking end . . . whew, baby, sho' you right!"Yonnie whirled away as she swung again, stole a quick kiss, and backed up before she lopped off his head. "Seriously, Ma, where you from? You a new Guardian recruit, Angel Company, or what?"

  She released a war cry that made him shudder as she flung her dagger hard at his throat and then gripped her blade with both hands. He stopped the dagger a quarter inch from his Adam's apple.

  "Let's talk, baby-it don't have to be all this . . . "

  "From the edges of Nod to the ends of the earth, I will protect those I pledged to stand with, demon! Know that!" she yelled, heaving in deep gulps of air between swings. "There is no negotiation, liar,trickster !"

  "Whoa, whoa, ma. You've got the wr
ong man. " Yonnie grabbed the hovering dagger out of the air where he'd frozen it and tossed it back to her. "Do I look like I'm trying to fight you, sis?"

  She caught the dagger with one hand, breathing hard.

  "You ain't no joke with a blade, girl. "

  She pointed her sword at him. "Who are you-friend or foe?"

  "Friend, baby. Meand Rivera go way back . . . me and D, too, kinda. "

  "Then where are they?" she spat, dragging in huge breaths. "Their windows are in shambles, a silver energy pulse was released containing toxin. My Neteru Queen's pearl shrieked all the way to Nod that Carlos was being attacked bythe Darkness! "

  "Youse a baadass -gangsta, baby-shit! If you thought that's who I was and came out here buck wild, just swinging crazy, ready to die on the beach for family? Takes heart. Much respect," Yonnie said, slapping his chest. "To see that in a woman . . . uhmmph, uhmmph, uhmmph. "

  "Do not evade my questions!" she said, frustration making her blade bounce.

  "I'm not," he said. "I came here looking for them, too-because I know who's on their ass, but I'm not him, aw'ight?" Yonnie began circling her, watching the sun glisten against her dark skin and enjoying how she turned with him, never giving him her back. "You're really from the forbidden realm and got out . . . like a jailbreak and whatnot, too?"

  "We are no longer incarcerated since the first two seals have been broken-we are not criminals. "

  "Hey, I was just saying, 'cause I found that rather sexy myself . . . that you broke outta the joint over the big edict," he said, pointing upward but unable to elaborate, "justto have Damali and Carlos's back. Like I said, respect. Plus you got a divine transmission . . . " Yonnie stopped circling her and shook his head. "So, uh, I guess if you're an angel, I could really get smoked if, uh, you know, we got to know each other better?"

  "If you attempt to molest me, I will cut out your heart. "

  "No, naw, you got me all wrong . . . I ain't into all that. I know some real wicked motherfuckers who like that kinda thing, but thatain't never been my style. I was just wondering because I half expected a thunderbolt to come out of the sky for the kiss . . . you know, given the wings. But I guess since you ain't really supposed to be here, your people upstairs don't have your back like they should?" He peered around her. "But damn . . . I'd have your back day and night-if you'd let me. "

  "My people have my back," she said between her teeth. "Valkyries never leave their own. "

  "Whoa, whoa, whoa . . . what?"

  She withdrew and angrily stared at him without blinking.

  Suddenly Yonnie burst out laughing. "Gitthe fuck outta here. You're a for-real Valkyrie?"

  "That is my name and that is what I am. Do not cast aspersion on my mixed parentage, demon. You walk by day but carry the fangs of the undead-half human, half dreaded ones, and dare to speak ill of my-"

  "Hey, I ain't talking about your people, girl. Don't get all salty on me. Chill. "

  He walked away from her a little to give her space, thoroughly admiring her beautiful features and voluptuous, athletic body. "I'm the last one to speak ill of a person's background, okay. So let's get that out of the way up-front. Next, I'm an old, old friend of Rivera's-before he went into the Light . . . so, I have some issues to deal with still . . . like prayer lines fuck me up. But I can take you to breakfast at this nice little caf� I know about. Maybe we can talk, girl. I'll buy you some clothes, because as much as I love the view, you're gonna have to fit in with the locals or you'll give yourself away. Then, maybe together, we can find the family? I've got some definite science I need to drop on them. "

  He watched her narrow her gaze as she ruefully considered her wings.

  "They don't retract," she said quietly. "The humans will know what I am. I cannot go on a search for the Neterus without bringing notice their way. "

  "But you ain't gotno silver in your veins or anything that could be hazardous to a brother's health, right?"

  "No," she said, looking away with shame. "I'm red-blooded . . . that part is human, if that's what you're asking. "

  Yonnie cocked his head to the side and smiled, licking his lips. "Com 'ere, baby. I'm a master at illusion. "

  "Show me from where I stand. I still do not trust you. "

  "Cool," he said, waving his hand in her direction. "Look behind you. "

  She screamed and felt her back with her hands, panicked as she dropped her sword. Then she looked down at her clothes. She now wore a sexy red tank top, red mules, and black leather jeans. "My wings!"

  "They're there, just blending in really well with the background. You can still knock over people's drinks in a club, but whatever background they're up against, they'll be camouflaged . . . until you say you want them back. "

  "I wish I could see . . . wish I had a mirror . . . I've always wondered what it would be like to fit in with the true humans . . . "

  "Ain't all it's cracked up to be,Ma. I like a woman with a little supernatural somethin'-but that's just my personal taste. " Yonnie backed away and left a full-length antique mirror where he'd been standing, careful to remain on the back side of it. He watched the expression on her face slowly give way to awe as she covered her mouth and walked forward, stroking her barely visible wings and staring at her reflection.

  "How did you do that . . . the mirror and my wings?"

  "Aw, it ain't nothin' . . . just a little sleight of hand, boo. "He studied her carefully as she turned around and stared at her image. "You're really a beautiful woman, Val. Fine as shit, with wings or without. A gangsta warrior, too . . . I might not be able to take you everywhere I gotta go . . . but I wouldn't mind hanging out with you while I try to find out what's happened to our friends. "

  "I can't believe you did this," she said quietly, still staring forward and then looked up at him with her beautiful, wide brown eyes.

  "This ain'tnothing baby," Yonnie said in a low, seductive murmur. He ran his tongue over his incisors, willing them to stay concealed. "If you think this was da bomb, just wait till after breakfast. "