CHAPTER NINE

I am due at court," Cain said in a bored voice, beginning to walk along the opposite side of the long pool to collect his blade. "If you do not get dressed, you will not be permitted to go with me."

"Well, like I told you," Carlos said, keeping up with Cain's leisurely strides, "I ain't staying here by myself."

"You have nothing to fear," Cain said, his tone weary as he fastened a low-slung gold belt and sheathed the blade against his hip.

"I'm not scared of nothin'," Carlos said, his voice beginning to escalate with frustration. "But you ain't leaving me here to be lion bait, or some other foul--"

"Then get dressed," Cain commanded. He folded his arms over his chest and waited. "You gonna make me?" Carlos said, folding his arms to match Cain's stance.

Cain shook his head and stepped down into the pool. Carlos braced for the attack, sure that Cain was crossing the divide between them. But suddenly Cain stopped and submerged himself beneath the blue energy-filled space and was gone.

Dumbstruck, Carlos spun around, expecting Cain to suddenly materialize in a sneak attack. But soon it became apparent that he'd really gone. Growling lions tore his focus away from the strange pool and sent it ricocheting around the room in search of a weapon. But rather than two snarling sphinxes entering the chamber to attack him, a long-legged dark beauty strode toward him in a white Grecian gown.

Initially, he didn't know what to make of her, and he backed up a bit, just in case she transformed into something deadly. After where he'd been, he wasn't about to allow a pretty face or a voluptuous body make him sloppy.

"Hola," she murmured, pausing at the foot of the pool to curiously stare at him.

"Que pasa?" Carlos said in a wary tone, looking her up and down. She was such an odd combination of contrasts that her beauty had a temporarily mesmerizing effect. Her eyes were jewel green, but her skin as smooth and dark as black coffee. Her waist-length, jet-black hair and the hue of her skin made the white fabric of her gown practically shimmer. The thin gold ropes that separated her heavy, pendulous breasts added radiance to her overall appearance. But her smile was a devastating flash of white with the merest hint that her eyeteeth were a bit longer than normal human dimensions. She had Amanthra, or something close to it, written all over her. Maybe it was the fluid way she'd moved across the marble floor without effort in a tight-fitting dress, he wasn't sure. But the fact that she knew enough about him to hail him in Spanish worried him. "Word is out down in the valley that Cain's younger brother just tumbled into our realm. I thought I would stop by to inspect the rumor myself."

"I ain't his brother, by any stretch of the imagination, sis," Carlos said, watching her like a hawk. "So you need to state your business and be out."

She smiled, sighed, and sauntered over to a poolside bench and sat down, then reclined in leisurely repose. "Why are Neterus always so suspicious?" she murmured, but seemed totally nonplussed by his rebuff. "I see Cain left you in here all alone."

"He had something to do," Carlos said, keeping an eye on her and occasionally glancing at the door. "You his woman? That why the lions didn't rush you?"

She chuckled and shook her head. "No. Just a friend. I pose no threat. They only attack if they sense a threat or block an entry if he's in here and does not wish to be disturbed."

"What do they eat?" Carlos said, using his chin to motion toward the entrance. The fact that Cain had left him and might not return for a while began to add to his worries. All he had to do was remember his own pit bulls from the Chairman's chambers, and sooner or later the animals had to be fed. He wasn't trying to be dinner.

"What everything else in this realm consumes," she said with a sly smile. "Energy."

He looked at her with a distrustful sidelong glance. "Yeah, right. Those monsters out there eat pure vibe and don't chow down on two or three bodies a night. Gimme a break, sis, and be real."

She laughed and flopped onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. "You are just adorable."

"Come again?" Now she was seriously getting on his nerves.

She rolled over on her side and rested her head on her hand, propping herself up on one elbow. "Sweetheart, have you not noticed there is no food or water in this realm?"

Carlos stood still and then slowly stooped down to dip his fingers into the pool. A tingling sensation rippled through them into his palm and up his arm, making him draw back his hand as though he'd been burned. He knew he'd seen energy coming off of it, running through it, just like the grass, but assumed that beneath all the illusion mind games Cain was playing, there had to be something that was real.

"I don't understand," he said quietly, wishing he hadn't admitted that to some strange female, but needing to know more than his pride needed a shield at the moment. If he didn't eat, didn't drink soon, after expending all the energy he had, the blood hunger would come back.

"We absorb what we need through radiation. The second sun. We have evolved to the point that slowing down the mental and spiritual capacities for basic bodily functions is unnecessary."

Carlos walked over to a bench adjacent to her and sat down slowly. If this chick wasn't lying, that meant that in a matter of days he'd die of dehydration or starvation, and what would become of him if the blood hunger hit?

He looked at her squarely, now really needing whatever information she could give. "I noticed you had a slight fang crest-- Amanthra overbite."

She nodded and sat up, holding him with her hypnotic gaze. "I am a hybrid. Is that a problem for you?" Her matter-of-fact tone carried no shame or anger, nor did her strangely pretty eyes.

"No, no problem," Carlos said, beginning to regret his offensive question. "I just wanted to be clear about who I was dealing with."

"I know all of this must be very disconcerting," she said, her eyes becoming sad. "I am no Amanthra, however." She lifted her chin a bit higher.

"Hey, listen, I'm sorry. It's just the green eyes, the slim angle of fang, too thin for vamp, not wide enough for general-purpose demon... I'm in a real strange place, I need to know what's up, and you walk in unannounced. I wasn't trying to signify, but you understand where I'm coming from?"

"I do. Then let us begin again. My mother was a sacrificial virgin, thrown to my father--a dragon deity," she said proudly. "But she was so gorgeous," she added with a wistful sigh, "he could not bear to roast her or simply feed off of her. I was the result. My father is a bit rash and has his bad days, but he does love his girls." She chuckled as Carlos stood slowly.

"Amanthra? I should have slapped your face." She stood and folded her graceful arms over her breasts. "I am a goddess, thank you very much. Dark realms, never. My family would never consort with that type."

For the first time in what felt like a long while, Carlos didn't know what to say. But it fit. Gorgeous East Indian human exterior. Dragon eyes, that at first glance could be easily mistaken for Amanthra. "I definitely owe you an apology, then."

Her lush mouth became friendly again as she gave him a dashing smile. "Do not worry. I do not breathe fire."

He chuckled and waved his hand before him to bid her to sit again across the pool from him. "So, you and Cain are friends. I'm sorry that I offended what has to be his prettiest buddy."

She sat with a shy smile. "Actually, he did ask me to leave court to check on you. He thought a female presence would offer you less concern, and might keep one of his male friends from having to endure an unnecessary battle."

Tension made Carlo stare at her hard. Okay, if Cain had sent some half-dragon chick in here to put a hit on him, he had no problem smoking her, too, if it came to that.

"He was worried that you would panic, start breaking things to make a weapon, and then try to hurt his pets as you left--even though you are not his captive. They do not eat meat, and are pure energy, but they do bite." She sighed. "He did not wish for you to be harmed in his home." Feeling completely foolish, Carlos looked down at his hands. "I'm tired. I need to eat soon, or at least get something to drink, and I wanna to go home."

"Then go home," she said quietly. "Why stay, if this realm makes you so sad?"

"How?" He stared at her very, very hard.

"You are a Neteru. Do you not know how to focus your energy to go back through the rip?" She stood, covering her mouth with her hand and began to pace in an agitated line along the edge of the pool. "That is the entire debate at court as we speak. Only Cain can tune in to the Neteru frequency and hold the harmonic to cross--but he must be pulled by one anchored in flesh. This is why he rules this realm."

Carlos stood as several mental building blocks began to fall into place for him. The fact that Cain hadn't lied grated him, but that was good to know. Second issue was, Damali's call might have definitely been accidental--and, given her voice hitting high notes, if it rippled in this pool across realms, he couldn't truly blame the brother for crossing over to her. The fact that Cain also didn't lie when he said he was a Neteru and was also a king, that jacked with his pride, but he had to let that go for the moment. The more important questions remained: Why did these entities want to leave a relatively cool environment to cross over, and how the hell was he gonna get out of there before he starved to death?

"Listen," Carlos finally said, trying not to pace with the gorgeous hybrid who was now wringing her hands. "I haven't learned how to focus my energy on this side yet to get enough velocity going to hit that barrier, or even to see where it is."

"I know where the barrier has thinned," she said quietly, and stopped pacing to look at him. Her eyes flickered "It is not an actual rip."

"If you show a brother the door ..."

She held up her hand. "Only if you promise to call me by name through it with you, when the time is right."

Carlos smiled. In any realm, a deal was a deal. Let the negotiations begin. "Why would you want to go to a place with chaos and disease and filth and--"

"Because," she said quietly, wrapping her arms around herself. "There is no sensual sensation in this realm." He just stared at her.

"Just like there is no food for one to taste the succulent juice of a dripping piece of fruit... or for our more aggressive inhabitants to savor the salty emulsion of blood on their tongues--"

"Hold up," Carlos said, slightly offended. "No blood. I knocked the spit out of Cain and his nose bled. Don't play, or we can end this conversation right now."

"He bled?" she said, her breaths deepening. "Cain bled?"

"Uh, yeah," Carlos said slowly, watching desire make her eyes begin to more than flicker, but glow.

"We have been platonic friends for years," she said quietly, her gaze going to the massive bed at the far end of the room. "Do not toy with me. You are sure he bled?"

"Sure as I'm standing here," Carlos said, baiting her with the titillating information. "But then it suddenly dried up and vanished after we started walking deeper into the glen."

She stared at Carlos and licked her lips and put a trembling finger to her mouth. "His energy and structure normalized, then, once he returned... but do you still bleed?"

Carlos chuckled. "I don't know. Do I?" Her eyes closed as her hand slid down her throat. "Do you understand that I am a being fully initiated in the tantric practices?" She opened her eyes very slowly and began to cross the pool, her gown flowing out to float along the unseen current as she stood waist deep in the middle of it.

"Do you understand that at one time I was a Council-level master, now a hybrid, with a little Neteru in me?" he said, dropping his voice to a sensuous octave. "And I am also fairly certain that I still bleed, baby. So, where's the door?"

"Come into the pool for just a little while, and I will show you."

"I never did a dragon, and don't know what y'all do. You're flesh eaters, right? Like everything charcoal roasted, so--"

She shook her head and closed her eyes, allowing the blue current to wash over her arms. Gooseflesh pebbled her flawless skin and made her nipples strain against the sheer fabric of her gown. "You can take the bite," she whispered. "As well as deliver it. And I do eat flesh, but not in the manner that would ever injure you."

"Naw, see," Carlos hedged, needing space to get the terms of the deal set before committing to anything too kinky. "Here's my problem. You and my so-called brother, Cain, are platonic friends--only because, for whatever reason here, you can't be more than that. Why start what can't be finished, right? But I think the man might have a problem if he came back home and found someone who can definitely finish what he started, in his pool, in his house, serving serious Kama Sutra... since you told me that's what you like... I do remember a lot of Eastern philosophy from my old throne days... but, I digress. He'll have issues if I do his very fine woman-friend in here, when he can't. Feel me?"

"He will not object. Jealousy and envy has long been banished here. It is pointless, just as attempting to possess an individual is. He will not hurt you." Her eyes searched Carlos's face, then raked down his body so harshly they almost felt like her neatly manicured nails. "Step into the pool. Just once. I will take you to the barrier and help you with my energy to cross it. Right now, you are too weak. You need to eat, rehydrate your flesh. Rest. The human form is severely strained on this side, which is why it is dangerous for all but those with Neteru in them to be here. I will help you, if you promise, once you are stronger, that you will call for me."

This woman was making too much sense. If he stayed, he'd starve. The longer he stayed, the more at risk he was to any scheme Cain had to off him. If he was the only one bleeding, and there were more like her around, who knew what flesh eaters, blood suckers, or however many other dangerous combinations existed? This was not the place to be as the only one with a pulse. Carlos stepped down into the water and watched her shudder as he neared her.

An immediate magnetic ripple disturbed the surface, eliciting a groan from her. Tingling sensations made the hair stand up on the nape of his neck and his forearms. But it was so freaky. He was waist deep in what felt like and looked like water, but at the same time, he wasn't wet. Too bizarre. Not to mention she was truly beautiful and clearly starved for touch in a way that didn't make sense. He was thinking that there oughta be a law as he came close enough to kiss her, and she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck at the same time her mouth covered his and her legs wrapped around his waist.

Her tongue nearly choked him as she devoured his mouth, and her soft lips came away with blood upon a gasp, full dragon fangs presented. Her head dropped back, jeweled tears rapidly spilled from the corners of her eyes as he held her and stroked her hair.

"What's your name?" he asked quietly, wondering why in the world a realm like this had been created. What could the purpose be to make entities this physically attractive, so seemingly honorable in temperament, but then deny them the basics?

"Zehiradangra," she murmured, pulling his earlobe into her mouth.

He chuckled against her throat. "Pronounce it, so I can call you right."

She licked her lips, and stared deeply into his eyes, holding his face between trembling palms. "You really will call me, won't you?"

"A deal is a deal," he said quietly, his hands sliding down her back to cup her bottom.

"You taste like salt," she said with a soft sigh. "It has been so long... skin," she said, allowing her fingertips to trace his brows and then luxuriate themselves in his hair. She kissed his eyelids. "You pronounce it, Ze-hir-ah-dan-gra," she whispered sexily into his mouth. "You won't forget me?"

"Not likely," he chuckled. "But I'm in big trouble already and this is only gonna make my domestic situation worse."

"She is jealous?" The hybrid beauty looked at him seeming confused.

Carlos nodded and smiled as he dragged his nose along her neck and watched the energy in her skin ripple. The slight caress made her thighs clench around his waist tighter in a rhythmic pulse that woke up his nature.

"If you come through the barrier, you'll have to get acclimated quick, then be on your way. My woman is a little on the crazy side, and also wields an Isis blade, comprende? She don't play, and has taken down more than dragons, all right?" He pulled back and stared at her to be sure she understood. "On the other side, it's real territorial, and you seem like a real cool sister, but she ain't having it. We clear?"

She nodded and touched his mouth. "Your eyes," she whispered, hers beginning to slide closed, "are beginning to turn." Her pelvis pressed against his harder. "May I?"

He hesitated. A throat strike from a dragon? "Ah... I don't know. What's the mix do to a brother on the other side?"

She was practically panting and he could see an opalescent sheen beginning to cover her brow. Her nails were beginning to gouge into his shoulders as she held him tighter.

"Could possibly help your flight patterns, improve navigation in the air... allow you to walk on mist," she whispered, "and to disappear at will." She offered him her throat. "You will not come out of this breathing fire... unless you want to."

While what she'd told him didn't seem all that far removed from his current skill set, still, there was the not so small matter of Damali being truly pissed off. Although he could fully explain how this was a necessary evil to get him back on the other side, lately Damali hadn't been very reasonable at all. Plus, with Cain just waiting for him to mess up, and Damali being so outdone about the whole Juanita thing... if he came home with a dragon bite... decisions, decisions. But it was not about staying here.

Before the beauty in his arms could draw another breath, Carlos leveled the sudden strike first. Her shriek almost shattered lair marble. He'd forgotten about the dragon's voice as artillery before flames. But he kept the siphon hard and strong. It was either mark her or get marked himself He was not going home like that, sexy as she was. This had to be a one-way kinda thing--let her get off, then he'd go home, take a shower, and explain it all later.

Oddly, as he drew what had the consistency of blood into his mouth, and played with the tasteless substance on his tongue, he could feel himself getting stronger as she scrabbled at his back, arched, and ground her hips in a frenzied circle against him. Natural instinct kicked in; he knew what she wanted. Problem was, how to give her that and still have a valid alibi when he got home.

He pulled out of the siphon, found the front of her gown, and slit it with a fang as he held her steady with one arm around her waist. His mouth immediately covered the hardened tips of her breasts, sweeping them with his lips, as his free hand drifted along her backside to find and enter her valley.

Her response was an elongated wail of ecstasy. He almost looked up to see if Cain was crossing the floor with a long blade. Shit... this was not the place for a man to get caught with his pants down. He didn't care what she said about the brother being cool. As she began working on his zipper, nearly ready to rip his jeans, he made another fast decision without time to weigh the consequences.

Now it was true, he'd never mind locked with a dragon before, but there was a first time for everything, he reasoned. He pulled his hands away from her body, held the sides of her face, gripped her mind as tightly as he could, and then found her opening again as he mentally entered her.

She nearly passed out in his arms and her nails dug into his shoulders. This time when his hand slid against her mound, it was wet and not his imagination. He pushed her against the side of the pool for leverage, almost forgetting that the seduction was supposed to be phantom. There was something about a woman's voice hitting that decibel that fractured a man's reason. When she bit him, he saw stars. Her siphon dredged a deep moan up from his diaphragm and made him blanket her against the marble pool-side. He'd forgotten how good a real plunge felt. Carlos quickly glanced over his shoulder, waiting to hear the chime of a blade being unsheathed, but immediately brought his attention back to the woman writhing beneath him as he moved against her.

"As soon as we're done, you have to take me to the barrier," he said on a heavy exhale. "Your man is about two seconds from rolling in here."

"I don't care," she said, panting with her head back. "He could behead me now, and I would not care!"

Okay, somebody had to get rational. His primary question had been answered. Cain, like all men, didn't play this bullshit, no matter what their women said. That reality seriously dulled the throb in his erection. A strategic bite, a mind thrust, she released so hard she'd bitten her own tongue--he was out.

"C'mon, baby, I know you're still floating in the aftermath, but you gotta take a brother to where he can live and not die."

She pressed her face to his chest and sobbed. "I'll take you anywhere you want to go, oh, sweet Neteru."

Carlos rubbed her back, looking over his shoulder. "All right, all right, baby," he said, kissing the top of her head.

"You had not even entered me," she whispered, and began sobbing again.

"I know, I know, baby. Next time. On the other side. Let's both live so that can happen, cool?"

"You are wise," she whispered, covering his mouth with a slow deep kiss that he didn't have time for.

But he obliged, and lifted her down off his waist with care. "Okay, now, you have to pull yourself together so we can get out of here."

She nodded and wiped her glistening eyes. "But you did not have a chance to fully satisfy yourself. How could I deny you--"

"Baby, I'm cool," he said, holding her upper arms. "This time was all about you, okay? So, the door--"

"Such selfless sacrifice," she wailed, holding him around the waist. "Never in all my--"

"C'mon, girl," he said, kissing her face, her eyelids, and the bridge of her nose as the lions growled. "Holmes is about to walk in here--"

She jerked her head up, seeming totally paralyzed by fear for a moment. "Under the surface," she said quickly.

Carlos immediately obliged her, his heart pounding. What the hell could clear blue energy do to hide them? But he watched as Cain strode by, took off his blade, dropped it on a bench, and glanced around, perplexed. He heard Cain bellow his name, but the sound of Cain's voice was muffled. Zehiradangra squeezed her eyes shut and put one finger to her lips. As Cain walked back down the other side of the pool, she thrust Carlos's head deeper beneath the surface.

Electric-like sensations were making his hair stand up as though static was yanking it from the roots. She kept pointing down, as though trying to tell him to go further and follow the current. Girlfriend didn't have to tell him twice.

But he had to admit that he was a little messed up when she suddenly elongated, and opened a six-foot pair of silvery wings, and her entire form became a voluptuous, pastel, scale-plated water dragon. Damali was gonna kick his ass, for sure. The she-dragon glanced back with an apology in her jewel-green eyes, and slung her seashell-smooth tail toward him to hitch a quicker ride.

A hundred thoughts fought for dominance as he hung on, increased in speed, and finally dropped in a clearing surrounded by mountains. He stood quickly and watched her transform from the lithe creature into the dark, voluptuous beauty she'd been.

"I didn't want you to have to see that," she said quietly. "It's better than what I can turn into," he said, touching her face. She was all-right people. "I thought your man wasn't jealous, though?"

She swallowed a smile. "All right, I lied."

Carlos laughed.

"Oh, he is not that bad. We used to have regular trysts before this became a prison void of sensation." She swept her arms out and let them fall with a sigh. "Then, after trying and trying until it became too excruciating to dwell upon it, we found a comfortable compromise." "Which was?" He had to hear this one.

"All of us are in the same predicament. We became friends. Share each other's secrets. Use our minds to give each other joy through laughter. Share sentiment through sound, music... please the eye with the beauty of art." She smiled and kissed him gently. "When we get hungry for the sensual, we absorb knowledge. The unplundered original texts of the Library of Alexandria are here, the University of Timbuktu, Luxor, and Karnack, plus all the floor plans for every architectural achievement... we build, we learn, we... love from afar."

"That's terrible," Carlos whispered, really meaning it. "I'll bring you over to our side, I promise."

"He would have been angry, not because you touched my physical being, but because he and I are such old friends, and... in a very short time, you had touched my mind and my spirit. Do you understand?"

He didn't. Carlos admitted that by shaking his head slowly. He thought Cain was about to wig because his hands were all over her and he'd punctured her jugular.

She smiled patiently. "My friend would never deny me sensual pleasure, knowing how rare a commodity that is. That is an easily forgivable offense. The flesh is weak." She cupped Carlos's face. "But when I opened my mind to you, shared my fantasies... the mind lock breached his trust. That was our private sanctuary, that was something neither of us expected." She allowed her hand to fall away, and she wrapped her arms around herself as tears began to form in her eyes. She pursed her lips before speaking. "In order to let you do that, I had to trust you-- something that was only his. Do you not understand, when you give someone your complete trust, you have indeed given them your heart. You have given them profound love. He felt the invasion the moment I crossed the line, and that is what brought him home."

She walked away and pointed to the edge of a cliff. "The rip is there."

Carlos glanced at it, but his eyes then returned to her sad face. "I'm sorry," he murmured, "had I known . . ."

"But I understand why you did it." She smiled as two tears streamed down her face. "You did not want to breach the way trust is conveyed in your realm. The claim to the body is offered as the ultimate trust, but fantasies, friendship, caring... these are elements that are freely exchanged in your world. But here, where the body is etheric, energy can fuse at will with other bodies and it is considered matter that will shift, change, and be of no consequence. But fantasies are closely guarded and cherished, as are dreams and hopes, and alliances... there is a matter of honor, to be sure."

Carlos rubbed his hands down his face. What she had told him was so profound he was at a loss for words. "Aw, baby... then why did you let me do that? I'm so damned sorry, because I've gotta leave you here, now, with a very pissed off, very strong--"

"You still do not understand, do you?"

Carlos stared at her, feeling so stupid he could have kicked himself.

"I could sense that you would not give me your body the way I needed you to," she admitted calmly, without emotion. "I was leveraging you, and I knew it." She closed her eyes. "Cain cares for me so, and felt that you were young and given to excess, so he gave you to me as a friendship gift."

"He what?" Carlos folded his arms over his chest, so indignant that he almost walked away from her. "Hear me out," she said quietly. "He knew you wanted to go home, and has no interest in keeping you in his lair. But for all the years of friendship between us, he told me, 'Go to him, Zehira... let him pleasure you and then send him home. Let him give you what I cannot in this realm, for you are my dearest friend.' "

She covered her mouth and caught a sob as Carlos remained stunned and speechless. "Neither of us understood how attached you were to the young female one of your kind. It had been so long, we had forgotten the flesh bond of the earth plane... and I lost my perspective, needed release so badly that I betrayed my friend. I let you into my mind, did not care that you entered it, as long as you would topple me over the edge of raw sensation." She walked away, covering her face with her hands, weeping into them and sputtering as she spoke. "He was so generous, so trusting, and that I did this to him for a moment of flesh pleasure--oh, how can I face him and explain? I have dishonored him in his own lair!"

"Okay, okay," Carlos said, worry for her safety now knotting his stomach. "Is there any way you can get him to blame it on me? Like, like, tell him I mind raped you, just went in and sucked your brain out through your ear, whatever. Tell him the silver-tongued bastard he tumbled through the rip with did it out of spite because he'd flesh kissed his woman. I can't let you take this kinda weight, but I need to get back on my side to go up against him before I starve to death. I don't know... But baby, I can't leave you over here to get your head--"

"He will never believe that a mere unseasoned vampire--young Neteru hybrid could bend the will of a centuries' old goddess!" She walked in a mad circle. "You? A kid? Take my mind against my will? Oh, by the gods, be serious!"

"Damn, that hurt, sis," Carlos said, truly meaning it. He rubbed his jaw, contemplating the older woman who'd just told him something he'd never thought he'd hear a woman tell him with such unblemished honesty. It stung like a slap, but he still didn't want to leave her ass-out. "Well, still, we need a plan to keep you safe, so lemme go get enough juice to pull you through, and you lay low until we can sync up a signal so I can extract you, so he doesn't--"

"He won't kill me!" she shrieked, covering her face as her head dropped back. "He'll shun me!" Bitter sobs wracked her body. "He has the most brilliant mind in the entire kingdom! He won't touch a hair on my head." She wiped her eyes with both fists and then brought her voice to a normal, decibel. "He will very simply refuse to mind lock with me ever again. I will no longer be his friend. I will be denied the silver fire within his brilliant synapses... his voice inside my head . . ."

"Wow... he's all that in the head?" Carlos asked, gazing out toward the barrier.

"You cannot even begin to fathom where centuries have allowed his mind to go," she whispered. "To be denied that... he might as well take off my head when I go back to him."

"Well, if it'll make you feel better," Carlos said, almost speaking to himself, "he got all up in my woman's head, too. So, where I come from, fair exchange is no robbery."

"He did what. . ."

The low, threatening timbre of the she-dragon's voice held such quiet, unmasked pain and disbelief that Carlos looked at her but backed away. It had not been his intent to start any additional drama, and the comment was only borne from his own heightening insecurity of what a mind lock with Cain might have done to Damali. He was not playing games when he'd said it.

"Yeah," Carlos admitted, too weary to cover up the truth with a he.

"Had been coming to her for years, I understand, bringing her music, coaxing her gift... then finally found the rip, I suppose, and had her in his arms--in our fucking house... the only thing that I'm pretty sure didn't go down all the way was the flesh violation. But what do I know?"

Carlos's voice trailed off as he thought about it and remembered the erotic charge in the room. He balled up his fists at his sides as angry at himself as he was at Cain. He'd been the one to violate Damali's trust, not Cain, and her trusting, innocent heart was the most special thing about her. How many lies had he told that woman time and time again... ? She was right. From the drugs, to the vamp turn, to the throne elevations, to making Yonnie a lieutenant, to getting Damali pregnant at the vanishing point, to taking another tumble on Level Six, and doing Juanita on her back deck. If this older woman standing near him was right, and a soul and mind violation weighed as heavily in the higher realms as they obviously did, then he understood a little bit more now why Damali wasn't hearing shit from him.

"He gave her his music?" the she-dragon asked in a faraway voice.

Carlos closed his eyes. Mutual pain was a very deep thing. "I'll bring you over the barrier, so you can get with somebody else."

"Thank you," she whispered in a shaky voice. "But there is no one else for me but him."

Carlos looked at her, wishing he'd never disclosed Cain's mental encroachment. "I'm so sorry. You deserve better."

"As do you," she said in a quiet tone.

"I'll live. On my plane, a little fantasy never hurt anybody."

She came to him and touched his cheek, pity in her eyes. "It is better that you do not understand."

Carlos grabbed her wrist as she attempted to draw her hand away, but he didn't hold it in anger, just firm enough to make her know he needed more answers.

She looked down and hugged him, as though someone had died, and pressed two fingers to his lips. "Go home, kind lover." She nodded toward the cliff. "Your mind is too young to sort through that level of hurt. Let me show you the thinning area--"

"You know how the mind works, what is imagined is always worse than what is."

She stared at him, as though deciding. "No. It is not. Not always."

She pulled him into a gentle embrace and petted his back. "The mind has a way of creating selective, sentimental memories. It closes a wound after time, as long as that wound is not deep enough."

"She slept with him, didn't she?" Carlos found himself holding onto the beautiful creature as his breathing went shallow.

"No," she said, rubbing the pain away from his back.

Carlos let his breath out hard. "All right," he said, slowly recovering. "You were scaring me."

"I am going to go home, will address my issues with Cain, he and I will talk, and come to an understanding. If he continues to visit the young female from your world, and give her his music, then I will make decisions that must be made."

"Sho' you right, sis," Carlos said, feeling much improved. "Tell him to keep his ass home, I'll do the same. He don't mess with my woman, I won't mess with his. Everybody can be at peace. Things can go back to normal. Damali won't call him no more, I . . ." He stopped his diatribe for a moment. "I will call you, though, because you are my friend, and I promised I would. But not for spite, just to give you options you deserve to have. Even if I can't be the one to ever do you, is that fair?"

"That is more than fair," she whispered, her large jewel eyes still glittering with tears. "You are a gentle lover," she whispered. "Selfless."

"Are we friends?" he asked, pushing her mussed hair over her shoulder.

"Forever friends," she said quietly. "Tumble over the edge, and when you feel like you are moving too quickly, grab onto the bands of light before you hit the bottom of the ravine... they will give, a rip will open, and you will be back where you entered."

Carlos nodded. "Thanks, friend," he said quietly. "I just wish you would tell me what I'm up against in her head, so I have a fighting chance."

Maybe it was the way she covered her mouth and closed her eyes, her fingers trembling over her lush lips that made him have to know.

"You don't," she said gently. "And, because you are my friend, I am asking you not to do this to yourself, young, gentle, sweet, sweet lover, do not. Sometimes knowledge is a damaging thing, not powerful at all." She stared at him. "On this, ignorance is bliss."

Carlos swallowed hard, unshed tears suddenly in his throat for unknown reasons. "Tell me. What did he do to her? You know, now, don't you? I can see it in your eyes. You've been picking up his vibe since I slipped and told you by accident." Carlos could feel his voice about to break. "That's why he isn't coming, he knows I'm here about to roll, but also knows that he can't face you, can't stand here and accuse you without having to answer some hard questions himself. Right?"

Zehiradangra touched his cheek and walked to the edge of the cliff and stared out at the surrounding mountains, giving Carlos her back as she spoke. "He will not come here to challenge you or me, now that I know."

"What went down, Z? Just tell me, okay? Then I'm out."

"He filled a trust void within her that you had left... the most profound gift one can do for an injured friend. He came to her when she needed him most, a strong, admirable shoulder to lean on when her mate had betrayed her... and he filled her heart with hope that in time there could be another after you who could make her feel the way you once did. I envy her."

"He did all that in one or two visits?" Carlos raked his hair and began walking in an agitated circle.

She nodded without any resistance in her body as her arms dangled lifelessly by her sides. Her voice was monotone and flat, carrying the numbness of a broken spirit.

"How can he face me when he cocreated with her through her music and his, a pure fusion, with her in his arms? There is no more sensual act than cocreation, bringing forth the inner gifts bestowed from On High with another... more so than even physical conception. It is pure Light. He enlivened her body through her mind as his swept the heat of melody through it, releasing resonances not heard on your side."

Her voice faltered and she swallowed hard. "Her spirit opened to accept a trusted act of cocreation... her mind opened to accept his warm friendship, knowing he would not hurt her within that sublime surrender--that was not his intent."

Carlos almost wanted to weep... he vividly remembered when his baby girl had turned her throat to him in sublime surrender, unafraid that he would hurt her, even when he bore fangs. He'd scored her throat, nearly flatlined her pulse... and yet, another man with even stronger vamp DNA in him had scored her with pure sound and light, and never hurt a hair on her head. His stomach was doing cartwheels. Oh, God, help him... this brother was gonna pull her for sure.

Zehiradangra shuddered as Carlos neared her and held her shoulders, nestling her spine against his torso. Yet her voice remained calm, detached, as the vision poured over him in pain-filled waves.

"With those two things, she sang for him, and it ignited his flesh-- and hers--and were it not for a thin remaining thread of love and respect for you... and, I suppose, his for me, she would have . . ." Zehiradangra jerked her head back as Carlos's fingers touched her temples and trembled. "Don't do this to yourself."

Carlos ignored her warning and allowed his palms to slowly flatten against the sides of her head. "I did this to us," he whispered. "I made her go here, so I have to know how bad it is. I'll never know peace until I understand where I went wrong or how this happened. I have to fix this."

"If you touch me and go into my mind, you will never know peace, my sweet. You cannot fix this. It is broken and already almost beyond--"

"I got this. Me and Damali go way back. I ask your permission to see."

"Cain is beyond comprehension, lover. You are not prepared... he is--" "Messing with the wrong one, me. Crossed into my yard. My territory. He might be seasoned as shit over here, but to me, he's just a new motherfucker on my block, and that's my woman. Aw'ight?"

She nodded with a sigh and covered Carlos's hands with hers, keeping her back to him. "I will be here for you, after. You will need a friend. That 1 promise you."

"Cool. 1 can handle it, though."

But no matter how much bravado he'd put in his voice, or how much he'd told himself he could take just about anything he might see as long as this brother hadn't actually slept with Damali--the older woman was right. This was almost worse than if she'd been caught in the act.

He was not prepared to really experience the sensual exchange that had gone down. Carlos dropped his forehead to the back of Zehiradan-gra's neck as the impressions cut him to the bone. He almost pulled his hands away as he saw what Damali had seen on her deck, and then felt Cain's loving, healing balm sweep that all away. Melody filled him up, brought tears to his eyes, and he squeezed them shut.

The sound in his head became multicolored light, which converted instantly to waves and bands of gut-wrenching pleasure. He could feel Damali's skin heat nearly sizzle, as her fully naked form pressed against Cain's, her body arching like it had only arched for him, thunderous orgasms quaking her womb, her wet scent sending spirals of rage through him that collided with the invading male's scent as her nose dragged along his collarbone, just like he'd shown her! Every erogenous zone on her fired red, then went liquid-hot silver, her Sankofa climbing up her spine one vertebra at a time, her hands splayed across a massive, muscular back... oh Jesus, no... he didn't take her there!

Cain's deep breaths of sudden need ripping his gums--Carlos's own incisors lowered, his chest becoming tight with agony, his woman battling to breathe, trying to do the right thing, slipping fast, wanting to hold the line, but wondering why she should have to... Her voice a razor of uncut desire setting off a perfectly synced release, Cain's with hers, so intense that all Carlos saw beneath his lids for a moment was a blinding, blue-white nova.

Carlos pulled his hands away from Zehiradangra's head and drew in several shaky breaths.

"And he never even bedded her," she whispered. "Never breached your mate throat mark, out of respect--because she was not ready to accept his bite," she said, her voice becoming very far away. "Never took her to his lair, where everything is sound vibration at the cellular level... down to atomic structures. I remember when it was he and I and this realm had sensation... he was magnificent, then, in the flesh. This is what hurts me so badly," she said without turning. "He must really love her, to be so close, to want her so badly, but to force himself to back away... just because a small whimper within her mind begged him not to make her violate you. He could have done that very easily, in her condition. It was his choice not to, as well as hers. She did not have toxic silver in her veins to create a barrier, only pure endorphin rushing within her."

Zehiradangra turned to look at Carlos's stricken expression. "Cain has not been with a woman in longer than you could imagine, and was in an apex heat in the flesh density, but honored her request." She sighed, her tone sad and philosophical. "I cannot remain furious at my friend, I suppose. And yet, he offered you to me, and now I understand why... the man is fair. It was a gesture of repayment for the near miss and transgression."

Carlos didn't need to know any more, nor did he wait for further instructions about how to get back to the other side. His toes flexed at the edge of the cliff, tiny pebbles bit at his feet as he opened his arms, tears streaming down his face, and he just let himself fall forward.