CHAPTER NINETEEN

D amali stood at the tingling border of violet pyramid light. A gentle shove from her queens sent her into its brilliant glare. She called out to Cain three times as her form dissolved into radiant energy. It was imperative that he met her, knew that she was on her way. He had to prepare a safe haven for their exchange and not be embroiled in the civil war. She had done courageous before, even crazy... but this was definitely insane.

Her feet met white marble floor. He stood waiting, clad in ivory muslin, his eyes soaking in her gaze. For a moment, they said nothing.

"You came to me," he finally whispered from the other side of the pool.

"I was worried," she murmured. "I couldn't get you out of my mind."

She watched his Adam's apple move within his throat as he swallowed hard and fought to breathe. But beyond raw desire there was a deep melancholy that kept his irises natural brown. She could feel waves of intense sadness practically strangling him as she stood momentarily paralyzed, not sure what to do. Compassion leaked from her pores without effort. For all his insanity, Cain was still not a being she wanted to destroy.

"Tell me what happened," she said quietly, fighting the urge to go to him.

He shook his head and looked off toward the far entrance. "I cannot even speak upon it."

She waited, didn't move, just allowed her soothing presence to bring his eyes back to hers. "Cain... what happened?"

To her surprise he didn't come toward her. Instead, he went to a bench across the pool and sat down. He stared into the water, his shoulders slumped, hands clasped and dangling between his knees as he leaned his forearms on his thighs.

"The Caduceus didn't work," he said flatly. "It must be in contact with living organic matter. The earth. What is ground here is not that." "The dragon," Damali whispered and closed her eyes.

"Zehiradangra," he corrected. "She was a friend of many, many years... and she would not come to me, even in spirit."

"Oh, Cain... where's the Caduceus? Maybe I could take it on the other side and recharge it?" she hedged, hating the ruse as it left her mouth.

He absently motioned toward the huge closet near his bed. "Over there. In Nod, it is useless metal. It does not come alive with Imhotep's energies unless connected with female nature energy, that which can reconstruct flesh."

Damali hesitated. Timing was critical. She knew he and the dragon were lovers, but he'd betrayed Zehiradangra. Yet, in his own odd way, he did love her. The whole affair was so twisted. But part of what he'd said sent a chard of defiance through her. She could also detect that in his mourning for the dragon, an unhealthy part of it included the fact that he couldn't come to terms with her flight from him. His commands didn't stop her. That was as much of the issue as Zehiradangra's death.

"Maybe she's in a better place now," Damali finally said in a gentle tone.

The one thing she and the queens hadn't factored in was a variable like this. What could she do for a man in acute mourning? The love-making would need to be tender, careful, healing, soul repairing... not energy depleting, back arching--if he asked her to stay the whole night, oh shit!

"I could not even properly carry out burial rites for her," he said thickly, two large shimmering tears rising in his deep brown eyes.

She almost went to him just from the pain in his voice. Zehiradangra had become her secret friend, too. Damali hugged herself. "Why not?"

"She was bloodied flesh in my arms." The tears Cain had been holding back fell. "I stood over her body, refusing to let them take her like carrion. But I had used up so much energy . . ." He stood. "I had to make a decision. In my brief absence total chaos reigned." His gaze returned to hers and absorbed all the compassion it exuded. He lifted his chin. "I made a trade."

Damali didn't speak for a moment. "You did what you had to do."

He nodded. "Twelve days of peace, for her body. The normal twelve days of funeral rites, a truce. During those twelve days, peace talks and new boundaries will be discussed and established. I have only twelve days to weave this delicate, fragile world back together, when twelve years would not be enough to mourn a friendship like that."

"But in those twelve days, there will be peace," Damali said in a quiet, firm voice, holding his beaten gaze without fraud. "You did the right thing." She began to walk toward him. "Her spirit is in the higher realm ether. If she was your friend, she had to have a good heart. She would have willingly sacrificed her discarded flesh to give you, her dear friend, a moment's peace... of that I'm sure."

He swallowed hard again as they remained only several feet apart. His gaze was so tender that she almost had to look away.

"That you would care enough to even discuss her, when she was the beginning of the end of your world with your former lover... I do not have the vocabulary for the emotions you inspire, Damali."

"She was your friend," she said, her voice a soft whisper. "You cared for her deeply. I can see it in your eyes."

She stopped herself before she said too much. She had to remember that being with him for a variety of reasons wasn't an option. He seemed so beaten, and so already depleted that there was no need to torture this already tortured soul. Her mission had changed. Her goal was simple. Ask him as a friend for the Caduceus, quietly seal him within his embattled realm, and go home. So she told him the only truth that she could.

"I never want to hurt you, Cain. You are a complex being. I don't claim to understand you fully. But I know that you are a king... out of time. Rule here, and rule well, my friend." Although sleeping with him was not in her plans, nor was allowing him to overrun the earth with a battalion of hybrids to reinstitute slavery for the lesser gods, and perish the thought of him becoming the new Chairman, her arms still ached to hold him and rub his back, and let him weep for the twisted confluence of events that had turned out so very wrong. What if it was mostly Lilith and not him, Damali wondered as she watched Cain's inner turmoil from afar. So much devastation laid in Lilith's wake that it wasn't out of the question.

"And you are indeed a queen," he said quietly after a moment. Thank you for being my friend."

He might as well have just stabbed her. Guilt had already plunged hilt deep into her spleen.

"And, you, for being mine." She nodded and backed away from him, needing distance and she sought it on the other side of the pool. "You taught me a lot," she said in a strong voice. "Showed me what was important. Helped me make critical decisions. Showed me the hard choices that come from true leadership. I couldn't have learned those lessons any other way."

She wasn't playing with his mind or jacking with his libido. This was fact. And given what she had to do to keep his world from spilling over into hers, she wanted to say it straight, loud and plain, so whatever happened after this conversation, he'd know it wasn't from malicious intent. It was simply a queen checkmating a king's imperialistic desires--but it was not a friend betraying a friend, as bizarre as the circumstances were.

"I will raze modern Cairo to the ground," he said, his eyes beginning to burn silver for her. "Wipe away the filth, and the crime, and the poverty, and build the Valley of the Queens in your name, Damali. Hatshepsut's temples will seem like hovels compared to the monuments of pink granite I will raise for you, my dearest of all friends."

He closed his eyes. She was horrified. Her honesty and the compliment it contained had inadvertently begun the dance.

"I will restore the majesty of Luxor, the colossi of Memnon... revitalize the old city of Memphis... Giza is in ruins, humans have desecrated the complexes of Khufu, Kafre, and Menkaure, but I will rebuild them all." His right fist pounded his palm as he gazed at her with determined ambition. "Your palaces will be filled with cypress... gardens within gardens. I will bring you rare, mystical amber from the city of Punt. You deserve no less than the best. Damali, when I'm done, it will be a new world."

"Cain," she said, her tone gentle but very steady. "While I am flattered beyond words that you would do all that for me--don't. Promise me. I know the modern world is a cesspool... but you cannot raze cities, cleanse humanity by just killing off those that offend, or enslave those you believe to be the ignorant masses. I'm out there every day fighting against that with everything I've got. This is not the Old Testament era, honey... you have to chill."

He looked at her, stunned for a moment, but then his expression mellowed to a tender, patronizing smile. "My love, do not trouble your mind over the harsh realities that come with progress. Your feminine compassion will not allow you to countenance it, nor will you ever be able to understand it. Shield your mind from such turmoil. Remain here, so that you bear no witness to what must be done. Know that I have already taken my petition to Ausar. It is under consideration as we speak. I do this not only for you, but for us, the future... and to ready the planet with only the best warriors--only the most evolved beings-- for when it is time for Hell's gates to open. The purge is eminent. Our fortification will be strong thereafter. The streets already lined with gold when the Armageddon begins. This is what a male Neteru must do. It is what is required of kings."

"Oh, my God . . ." She began to pace on the other side of the pool. Every plan in her head evaporated. If Ausar had this proposal on the table and was considering it... oh, shit! What if Aset couldn't get the shield? What if the Neteru kings of old looked over the edge of their Roundtable, saw the horrendous condition that humanity had fallen into, and had given Cain the green light? Lilith might not even be a factor, if Cain could rule with his hybrids--why would he need her dead ass? He still had the sword! New panic arced a current down Damali's spine. And he wanted her to stay here, while he swept the planet clean of foul humans? Not.

"Listen to me, baby," Damali said, her voice beginning to strain. "You've been through a lot. Got a lot on your head and shoulders right now. This is not the time to make snap decisions. Think about it, uh... weigh all the options, uhmm, really see some of the cool things going on with people--they're not all so bad, ya know. And, uh--"

"If they are not living up to the laws of the old books, they are gone," he said quietly, his voice dipping to a sensual low. "If they are not intelligent, are weak of spirit and faith... they are gone. In the last days, we do not have time for them to learn. They have already had millennia to do so. Love, do not worry, I have had plenty of time to ponder these issues."

His gaze raked her. "But that you came to me, out of concern for my well-being and safety, and offered such compassion... that you would beg me not to battle and stay here where I could not be harmed." He briefly closed his eyes, and when he opened them they were pure silver-gold. "I would be honored to die for you."

"I don't want you to die," Damali stammered. "I just don't want you to--"

"My queen, with you waiting for me, I will not lose."

Damah just stared at him. Nefertiti had not told her what to do in a situation like this. All her life she'd been worried about whatever slithered over Hell's doorstop. Now the tables had turned and she was facing one of her own. What was she supposed to do with a gallant, deranged, zealot being, who had a soul, so she couldn't just smoke him, who was really good at heart, just twisted, was a friend of sorts, so she couldn't be-tray him to the bone... but she couldn't let him get out of Nod to wreak havoc on the planet, yet hated to lock him over here, and hated that he was all jacked up and in love, and she had a man?

"Sing for me," he whispered.

She almost blurted out, "What?"

"You are so torn with worry for me, that I can feel it literally ripple across the pool." He breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly. "Devastation, do not worry about the human cities... you have already razed me to the ground."

Now what was she supposed to do with that? If she went there, they wouldn't be friends when it was all over. If she went there, Carlos would have a fucking heart attack.

If she went there, she would have a fucking heart attack, because this man, clearly, was not playing tonight. Okay. What to do, what to do... do him, or do him?

He shook his head as his eyes stripped her. "I cannot believe you have lost your voice for me," he said in a tense whisper. "It's caught in your throat. I can feel it from where I stand."

She nodded weakly, as his gaze made each thin layer of silk she was wearing feel like a brand. This was not how the mission was supposed to go. As his slow visual unveiling went down her belly, the diamond in her navel began to radiate sudden heat throughout her womb.

"You wore essence of Hathor for me?"

She swallowed hard as he stopped breathing when he spied a glint of silver beneath the sheer wisp of scarves that made her skirt.

"Tell me that is not what I think it is . . ." Damali nodded and opened her palms for him to see. "I went to the queens of my council, and told them about you... and they gave me these for you." Her voice had dropped an octave on its own. She wasn't playing, just couldn't help it while looking at the expression on his face.

He shut his eyes and quickly turned his head as though she'd slapped him. "The Creator has blessed me." Then he slowly opened them and began walking toward her. "And they advanced your ripening for me?"

His voice held such quiet awe that she wasn't sure if she'd heard him, but there was no doubt about it, she could read the look on his face. If her voice would give her some wiggle room, now was the time to find it.

"Let me sing for you," she said, moving along the edge of the water in the opposite direction from him. "At least let me do that for you." She glanced around quickly to see what was available for another diversion. There was none. "And I wore these," she said, lifting a scarf with two fingers, "so I could dance for you."

He stopped. Incredulous. "You would even do the seven veils for me?" "Yeah. If you want me to," she said quickly, anxiety spiking through her.

He shook his head, his murmur tense. "At this point, you don't have to. Just sing to me in my arms." A hint of fang crested. "Just the fact that you would . . ."

"But the acoustics are better over here," she nearly shrieked, dashing over to the shallow side of the pool.

He chuckled low in his throat. "No, they're way better in bed."

She could have kicked herself. She sounded like a complete bubble-head! Aw Lawd, Nefertiti didn't give her an antidote for this! Without much room for evasion, she fled down the wide pool steps and went into the sensation tank. He simply folded his arms and looked at her, seeming both amused and even more turned on.

Her skirts were floating in the strange, tingly energy that looked like water but wasn't wet. She glanced up at him and he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the effect. Okay, the pool was working. She'd do the floor show from here. She'd do whatever was necessary to buy some time. She began belting out the first song that came into her head. "Wounded Lover," yeah, that would work, it sent an apology for what was about to go down. Even though it was new, this one she knew by heart. She'd actually composed it for Carlos, and shit, after this morning, and definitely after tonight, he'd need to hear that, too.

But something was very wrong. As she kept singing, Cain's rapt expression of desire had begun to dissolve into something she wasn't sure of. When he battle bulked, she froze for a second, took two steps back, and leapt out, putting the pool between them.

"How could you! In my house! When you know I am ready to put the world at your feet!"

"Yo, yo, yo," Damali said quickly, "I don't know what you're--"

"Look at your hands!" he thundered.

She glanced down at her palms quickly, her eyes wide, and started backing up. "I don't know how that happened, baby."

"Because you had him on your mind! His energy is in my pool and betrayed you! You sing to me--a lover's song, in my pool, composed and created for another man, and put your desire for him in it so strong that it literally changes your tattoo for him? Are you mad? You bear his tattoo in my house?"

When Cain headed for his closet, she headed for the door. She didn't need to be a telepath to know the man was going for his blade. She wasn't waiting around for old biblical justice, served king style, either. An eye for an eye, sheeeit... Off with the head of an adulterous bride, aw hell no, she was a sistah from 'round the way.

Her bare feet slapped the floor; the room was a blur. She could hear marble explode as the closet door left its hinges. But at least that meant the closet was open. She kept running, pushing herself to go faster, while she reached her hand back as the velocity of headwinds stung her cheeks. The Caduceus filled her grip. Two angry sphinxes stood and snarled.

"And you would rob from me, too!" a furious male voice bellowed behind her.

It was snap reflex. The Caduceus gripped tightly, something stronger and faster and bigger than she was on her ass. Two huge lion- bodied statues had dismounted for an attack. She went airborne, dragon style. It was the first image that popped into her head.

Her body nearly collided with the roof of the entrance as it elongated, picked up every color of the scarves she wore in its scales, and spiraled high past the sphinxes. She opened massive pearl-colored wings and set her sights on the three moons, clutching the Caduceus to her chest. She didn't know where she was going but she was out!

But as sure as the moons were her guidepost, she heard frenzied leather flapping coming her way. Darkness was covering the moons. She looked back to Cain's lair, and watched in horror as he hurled an energy' ball toward her.

Her body jerked to a midair halt and she had to strain to stay airborne. Something tight and burning had wrapped around her waist. She didn't need to look down to know what it was. He'd lassoed her! A combination of fury and outrage made her redouble her efforts as he pulled. It was a test of wills and endurance. Defiance magnified the adrenaline spike. No man was gonna pull her out of the sky once she took flight! No arrogant king or whatever he was! She was definitely angry enough to breathe fire, but the image she'd pulled was Zehiradangra's placid, water dragon, love child vibe.

Damali screamed a battle cry as she dragged Cain several hundred yards. He held on to the line as though she were a huge dragon kite. The friction from his planted stance drew sparks from the pure energy-ground as he began to move forward against his will. She didn't care; he had to let her go. But oddly, she refused to take him over the edge of the ravine. She was angry, but not murderously so.

Regardless of the test of wills between she and Cain, the moon was blackening as several thousand leather-winged predators covered it.

"Come tame!" he shouted.

"Not with a blade in your hand!" What, did he think she was stupid? "The blade was for them, I knew you would run if I chastised you!" Damali hesitated and stopped pulling away so hard. "Then let me go! I'll come to you on my own volition--pull me, and we'll both--"

"All right, all right!" He dropped the line.

Immediately the restriction left her with a gasp. But there was an even bigger problem than Cain. Nobody had to tell her. She was adrenaline spiked, they'd just eaten a dragon, she was trailing oil of Hathor, pseudo ripening, and to them she probably seemed like airborne sushi.

Smaller feather-winged entities were headed her way, too, as though ready to make a last suicidal stand. Cain looked so exhausted he was leaning on his sword for support.

"Tell them to get back," she hollered. "Your side will get slaughtered! You stay here and restore order!"

"No! Not without you! Until the last entity stands! Come home to me and I will defend your honor!"

Was he nuts? He was clearly energy depleted, could barely lift his blade. Whatever siphon he'd gotten from her had already been used.

He'd burned it all up restoring order when civil unrest broke out over the first dragon. She wasn't crazy. It was as plain as day. Grief had stripped him. The pool had sapped him. The tug-of-war had drained him. And her emotional drama had sucked him dry. It wasn't about be-ing yard scraps for pride. She wasn't trying to let an old warrior save her; she would save herself and his ass in the process.

Frustration claimed her as she turned away from Cain and yelled the command to the feather bearers and followed it with a Neteru battle cry "Go back! I'm going home!" They could either listen to their insane king or take an order from a queen who was making total sense. "Retreat!"

"Never surrender!" Cain yelled, dropping to one knee from exhaustion. "I will come for you in victory one day, my queen!"

Yeah, whatever--hut not tonight. She watched Cain's forces pull back as hundreds of advanced forces of heavily armored, leather-winged hybrid soldiers careened over the edge of the ravine behind her. Thousands were behind them, the strongest had made it to the front line. They were taking the bait. The rip was right there. She could see the sky lighting up with golden shields dotting the horizon. There were multiple rips? Oh, man... which exit wasn't blocked?

Tumbling in a high-speed nosedive toward a thin barrier of light, she closed her eyes, said a prayer, and hollered Nzinga's name.

He'd walked for miles after talking with Ausar, just like he had after the whole blowout at the hacienda. Right through here, he needed a peaceful place, far away from the house, far away from the maddening tourist vibe. The moon had been up for hours, but Damali hadn't come home. What Ausar had told him was wise, but if Damali didn't come back, what was the point?

Carlos looked up to Heaven, wondering why God hadn't answered his prayers. But he knew in his heart the answer was simple; this time, he'd gone too far. The older king had told him, just like Marlene and Yonnie had.

Sometimes a man's luck just ran out, and all his bullshit finally came back to bite him in the ass. Carlos stood facing the ocean simply listening to the waves roll in and out. Some things hadn't changed since the beginning of time, like the tide, it rolled in, and rolled out. It was time for him to be out.

"All I asked for was a sign," he said quietly, pitching the last seashell in his fist.

He looked up and stood still.

A spiraling, sparking stream of light shot across the sky. The shooting star held his attention as the dense, gray clouds seemed to brighten, go golden like a shield of Heru had been raised, then went instantly black and disappeared. But the star kept moving... or was it a comet?

Carlos keened his eyes on the phenomena in awe. It looked like a whirring rainbow lit by lightning or something. All right, what did this sign mean? He should have asked for the answer to go with the mesmerizing spectacle that seemed to be moving closer and closer . . .

Oh, shit... it was headed his way!

He dodged what he thought was a fireball, hit the beach, covered his head, and waited for the explosion. Instead he heard laughter.

"Oh, my God, Carlos!" a very familiar female voice shouted.

He was on his feet in seconds looking at a beautiful, disheveled woman who'd come out of the sky in a blaze of sparks, half-naked, wearing scarves, hair all wild, eyes gorgeous but crazed, and walking in a circle clutching the Caduceus.

"Whooo!'' she exclaimed. "The drag coefficient on this golden rod ain't no joke, brother!"

"Damali?"

"Yeah, baby, lemme tell you what happened! It was wild!"