Chapter Ten
"What's the matter, baby?" Damali murmured, stroking Carlos's chest.
Suddenly he lifted his head from her throat, and braced himself on his arms, listening, eyes scanning the room, every sense keened: After what seemed like an eternity, he kissed the bridge of her nose, then moved down her torso and planted a gentle kiss on her bare belly. "Two lower-level male vamps just tried a lock with me," he said, then rolled off of her and stood.
Instantly, he was dressed. "I'ma take a walk. You stay here," he said, firmly. "The two vamps have a bunch of human helpers with them. It might get ugly, and I haven't fed."
"I don't want to stay in here by myself," she said, studying him hard.
"You hungry?" he asked, glancing at her sideways.
She nodded.
"Get dressed, then. Tonight is as good a night as any for me to teach you how to hunt."
She hesitated, but found herself fully dressed before she could even look down. "You said they had human helpers..."
"Yeah," he replied. He hesitated. "If you're carrying precious cargo, you need to eat right, and learn how to do it without turning one of them."
She touched her belly with shaky fingers. He didn't respond. They both knew what time it was.
"I need to also show you how to control the dogs, if I'm away for a few hours. But I don't want you out too often. I'll bring the feeds to the lair for you. I'll take care of you, baby. Don't worry."
Damali stood there wondering. What had she done?
She could feel herself vacillating between wanting to follow him outside to do the unthinkable, and wanting to run shrieking into the night.
"I don't want to feed like that... Not until I know for sure - "
"Know what? If you've fully turned?" He stared at her hard.
His statement slapped her in the face. She took a deep breath.
"Baby, think about it," she said calmly. "I can't be carrying, if I'm turned."
He rubbed his jaw with his palm.
"And if I am already turned... wouldn't we have bigger problems than some low-level vamps sniffing around? Wouldn't you have to worry about the Vampire Council coming after you for turning their vessel?"
"True dat," he said, thoughtfully. "But, baby, you've definitely ripened." All of a sudden his head tilted and his nostrils flared.
"Will you forget about them, Carlos! They can't get in here. I've got other concerns right now. Look, my name would have burned into their books if I'd turned, you'd thought it yourself." She stared at him. Something wasn't right. Her turning and the Vampire Council's response should have been Carlos's top priority, but it wasn't. He was hiding something from her; she could feel it. What could be more important than the dark side losing its vessel?
She studied him hard and kept pushing him for answers. "If I've completely turned, all Hell would literally be breaking loose right now, and it's not. So, I'm not fully turned."
"Damned sure felt like it," he said and his voice sent a sensual shiver through her.
No, she was not going there with him again. They needed to talk. "This might have been a false ripening."
He shook his head, his gaze penetrating her. "No, baby, that I'm very clear about."
Her hand nervously rested on her abdomen. "If I'd conceived tonight, then wouldn't that register somewhere, too? Wouldn't the presence of a potential daywalker conception show up in the registers of Hell?"
Carlos crossed his arms over his chest. "After what I laid down tonight, you are pregnant as a jaybird, D. It might not have registered, yet, but I'm sure. Till I know otherwise, I'm treating you like you're carrying mine."
She opened her mouth and closed it again. She could not believe the macho bullshit coming out of this man's mouth. Half of her wanted laugh, it was so ludicrous, the other half of her wanted to punch him. She shook her head, but held her peace. Neither option at the moment would have been wise.
"Do me a favor," she said, exasperated. "Do the lower-level vamps - I'll even help you - but the humans, let them go. If you feed on them in my presence I'll - "
"What, D? Never speak to me again? Please," he said, gathering transport clouds about them. "Don't piss me off, woman. I'm not in the mood!"
"What?" She began to circle him, temporarily halting their transport. One hand went to her hip, while the other pointed at him. "Let's get one thing straight, Carlos. Pregnant or not, turned or not, you'd better cut the alpha male crap - now. I am not the one!"
"I hope Jose and Lopez are right," Rider said, checking the magazine in his gun. "Up till now, we've been real lucky - no cops, no public incidents, and now we're talking about running a Hum-V and two Jeeps through a gated community, taking out the south wall with a light shell and C4, and basically setting off what could be misconstrued as a terrorist action upon a private mansion. Anybody feeling me?"
No one in the platoon of warriors answered Rider, except Marlene.
"Blow the wall, Mike. I'm goin' in, with or without y'all, to get my baby girl."
There was nothing to say to this crazy man as she walked the perimeter of the mansion's upper balcony with him. The Hellhounds were baying in the distance and she rubbed her arms to stave off the creeps.
Out of nowhere, six lower-level male vampires appeared on the balcony. Damali braced herself for battle, but was shocked when Carlos walked over to one of them and hugged him.
"Talk to me," Carlos said.
"They got your cop," a tall, light-skinned vampire said. "You told us to watch your back, keep an eye out in the territory for anything shaky - and we did. Man, we heard the abduction, your marked man's energy dipped and his mind was screaming, and got to his house as fast as we could. It was definitely master energy lingering. Only thing left was his crucifix on the garage floor."
"Damn!" Carlos shouted. His gaze swept the bulked vamps.
Damali eyed the transaction. She was sure that she recognized the lead vamp from the drag race that had gone down at Carlos's old club. He was empire building, had made lieutenants. Fear collided with fury within her. This was not the man she thought she knew. She understood that he had territory to control, but somehow she could also feel that it was expanding. She and Carlos definitely needed to talk.
"We're picking up two lower levels with a human team coming toward your lair. Them, we can handle."
Carlos shook his head. "Me and my lady haven't fed yet. Leave them to us. We got this. See if you can find a tracer on which way they took the cop."
Panic coursed through Damali. She looked at Carlos's expression and noted how glassy his eyes looked. The man was obviously high, blitzed on Neteru. He wasn't making logical decisions. She already knew which cop they were probably talking about. He'd turned Berkfield, an innocent, into a vamp helper? When?
The leader of the small group nodded as Carlos flashed molten images of continents in the air with a wave of his hand. "Check the atmosphere. Dust from their lairs would have left a scent marker, Yonnie. I'll school you as we go along." With two snaps, the hounds were at Carlos's side, swooping in to land with a snarling thud. "They ate a coupla sniffers." He stroked one of the beast's head. "Bath Sheba, baby, tell Daddy where your dinner came from."
Again, red flaming continents appeared in the air. Damali watched in total awe as the extent of Carlos's powers, and the new hierarchy surrounding him, was revealed. The dogs sniffed the air, and bleated out agitated barks as their brutish snouts neared the apparition of Australia.
"Want us to take a team there?" the junior vamp asked.
Carlos shook his head. "Reinforce my territory borders here, in South America, and in the Caribbean. If some bullshit came across the water from the Aussie's camp, I will address it myself."
The small squad of vampires all nodded, and then vanished. Oddly, they hadn't reacted to any Neteru scent. Confusion throttled her. Carlos walked in an agitated circle. Damali just stared at him as his hounds also disappeared. Although they hadn't spoken upon it, the issue was burned into their awareness; finding the biblical key was paramount.
Suddenly an explosion rocked the house, and in two seconds Carlos was pure motion. He bound over the edge of the balcony, hovering in the air for a few seconds, before he transformed into a huge, black bat. She stared. Her man had turned into something with large leather wings and moved at a blurring speed, then had vanished. Something rational told her not to just try to leap behind him. The sixty-foot drop, alone, would kill her... maybe; or at the very least would shatter her legs. She had to take the long route
49
