won't die if poisoned!" Sebastian hissed. "You will writhe and suffer the effects as it eats your insides out, but you will not perish!"
"Aw'ight, so my bad."Yonnie flopped back against his throne. "There were so many things I wanted to do before this bullshit went down."
Fallon reached for a goblet and then knocked his against Yonnie's."Strange that we are only now coming to a strained peace accord, you and I, when it is so near our end.Ironic,n'estce pas? "
Yonnie nodded, his gaze holding Nuit's."Oui. But don't get it twisted. I ain't done hatin' your foul ass yet. But given the circumstances, at the moment, we cool."
Nuit smiled. "That is what I most admire in you, Yolando. Rare, that quality of steadfastness and blunt honesty . . . has a ring of the old Councilman Rivera to it. If there was anything I wanted to accomplish before being terminated from office, it would have been settling the score with that impossible-to-kill bastard." Nuit sighed. "Alas, but we are still on a sinking ship together, gentlemen."
"Maybe if we all . . ." Sebastian's words trailed off as the floor began to rumble.
Sebastian foolishly tried to transport out by gathering a dark energy funnel around himself, but the bats refused to respond to the command so close to dawn. They desperately flew counter-clockwise to his funnel directive in an attempt to get him back to his throne for safety. But as he fought to go in the opposite direction, the floor cracked, splattering blood from the rich veins in the marble. The conflict left the bats winded and they simply dropped Sebastian to sprawl in the middle of the floor.
Yonnie just shook his head and took a deep sip from his goblet.
Nuit coolly regarded Sebastian's shriek as Harpies poured out of the floor fissure, their little gray-green gargoyle bodies moving like a swift, demonic tide to cover Sebastian.
"Stop fighting them," Nuit said, resigned. "There is nowhere to run."
Yonnie stood as Sebastian's screams became piteous begging to be released. Poised to begin fighting, he battle bulked and took aim to blow away anything that approached with a black charge.
"There aremillions of them," Nuit said, standing to walk right into the skittering, screeching Harpie swarm."Adieu, mon ami," he said with a petulant nod. "It has been, as you say, real."
Yonnie watched in pure disbelief as the forms of both councilmen were overrun by gray-green creatures until they couldn't be distinguished from the thicket of screeching, scrambling bodies that dragged them into the fissure. Cold sweat made Yonnie's suit beneath his council robe cling to his body. He lifted his chin as Lilith's voluptuous silhouette caught his peripheral vision. She sashayed forward as her Harpies began to climb up Yonnie's body.
"You bitch," Yonnie murmured. "One day, me and you . . ."
She laughed and made the crowd of Harpies remove their squirming bodies from his face so he could see."How about this morning, then?Me and you, topside, lover?" She blew him a kiss and then turned and walked away.
Her laugh collided with Yonnie's echoing yell. "No!"
Carlos propped himself up on one elbow and stared down at Damali. He traced her arm, watching the perspiration he'd left there glisten in the new dawn light. Speckles of radiant white Light energy still danced in her velvety locks and made her cinnamon-hued skin shimmer. Her kiss-punished mouth made his own hunger to taste her lips just one more time, but he would wait.
There was something so absolutely peaceful and yet surreal about watching the colors in her aura float over her soft, beautiful skin while she slept . . . and although he had very pressing, selfish reasons to wake her, he couldn't. Not when she was so sated and unburdened by worry. That was a gift he'd never take from her. The sleep of the innocent was something to treasure.
His wife had rebuilt the team, had gotten everyone to envision a real home in order that it could manifest-and not just a barracks-type compound like before. A real home was what they now shared inSan Diego . His baby had even brought back their music after the insane battle atMasada . The healings she'd done on the emotional and spiritual level were so profound that he simply kissed her shoulder and laid his cheek against it for a moment. This woman deserved her rest, he told himself. They'd been at it all night.
Snuggling down next to Damali, he kissed her hair and drew her tighter into their spoon