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Houston, Texas Present day
LaShawna left the house early in theon the bus to school, she waited until she knew Aunt Belle would be on her way to work, and she doubled back What was the use of school these days? School hadn't kept herfro it out of their one Now she was living with tired old wo their hands and called on Jesus Grandma and Aunt Belle didn't know her world School and church didn't keep nobody safe
Today she would go back ho that hadn't been stolen or broken, then she was out of her o live with her boyfriend, or wherever It didn'tas she didn't have to answer to people always asking her if she was all right That was a stupid question anyway - who could be all right after their o?
She trudged around the corner, hoping that her brothers would be asleep Worse than worrying about them, she just hoped Sylvester wouldn't be ho anyway - first getting herher brothers to help him with his business They were the last ones who could tell her anything about anything
She peered up at the dilapidated aluminuet to see you before you died," she whispered She went up the steps and inserted the key in the door
In her heart, given the way her brothers and Sly rolled, she kneas dangerous to enter while they were asleep If they woke up startled, a shotgun blast would end her life But that wasn't altogether a bad thing, either
Steadying her nerves, she pushed on, half hoping to die, half hoping to find soht have had, had already been picked over by Sly, her brothers, crack buzzards, her aunts, family - andfor anything of value What she'd set in her heart as a treasure to find was so not sentimental or valuable to anyone but her
LaShawna headed for the kitchen, a place that her ood A place that had seen laughter and good cooking once The place where her aunts would gather - before her ht up in the madness Before Sly moved in
But as she crossed the threshold to the tiny kitchen, LaShawna froze A screaht A warm trickle of urine wet her jeans She couldn't move or breathe
Herout theThe back of her baby blue burial dress was slit from the neck to the hem where the undertaker had dressed her Every disk in her mother's frail, knotted spine pushed up beneath her ashen brown skin Her hair was flattened in the back as though she'd been lying down for a ht danced across LaShawna's eyes as she wobbled and grasped the doorfra away slowly
"Baby, don't be scared It's Mo around "Cairl Can't nobody raise you but me 'Sides your brothers didn't have what I needed, neither did Sly But that's okay You here now, honey"
Silent horror transforirl re to what had to be a ghost Everything in her told her to run, but her legs wouldn't cooperate Yet, it was her mother's voice It was her! What if her randmother always prophesized about?
"Momma, I missed you so much but you supposed to be in Heaven!" LaShawna cried out, covering her face
A groan and a thud made her jerk her attention behind her She stumbled backward until her spine hit the adjacent wall as she watched Sylvester's body collide with the post at the top of the steps, catch the banister, and tule of entrails from his slashed-open stomach behind him Her eldest brother crawled to the top of the steps and simply slid down them No face He just left a bloody streak in the stair carpet
This time LaShawna screalowing black-green, twisted teeth distending her gaunt, worn face LaShawna pivoted and dashed for an escape Claws snatched her arainst the shut door Putrid breath covered her, and she escalated her futile screaone deaf from the fever pitch of her own shrill voice
"I didn't go to Heaven, baby," a deep, demonic voice rasped "I went to Hell instead"
The local newspapers said that a horrible fa affiliations the fae The coil to end the violence But old folks and preachers who knew better whispered on porches about the devil and his damned
The Gullah Islands off the South Carolina Coast Present day
The night to Marlene's old safe house path proved worthless, as far as ihtgown daed as she sucked air in through her mouth, shuddered, and placed her hand over her heart She peered down at Carlos, who hadn't moved It was odd the way he slept like the dead whenever she had these drea awake The Sankofa tattoo on her back tingled eerily
She glanced at Carlos's neck, where he'd received the invisibleof a male Neteru There was an identical one at the base of his lowed silver since Philadelphia, not even when they made love Hers never came alive anymore, either
It also no longer sent guiding uely or tingled like a pinched nerve when the night terrors swept through her, as if struggling to communicate with her chakra system to no avail She wondered if either of theirwhen lit not that that was an issue, it see these days Latex had been a te answer She wasn't about to tempt fate
Da for the tattoo, hoping that it would rise beneath her skin as it should, would move to let her know that it was still alive But her hand touched the sh all that was Neteru within her was slowly dying
Why was this happening? She'd even helped Raven into the Light in a quiet parting that now allowed Marlene to sleep peacefully Da for soht had been swift,laced with a point-blank stab fro ether turn into light, a prayer on both wo was private, the heavy soul transfer done neatly She'd keep her word It was an act of kindness, and it delivered a tortured soul that Heaven wanted back where it truly belonged So why the nightmares?
Suddenly, there wasn't enough air in the room
Full daylight filtered through the s, but didn't chase away the lingering shadow of terror The sensations evaporated so slowly that she could alhtmare was always the same
The ground near her feet would yaide, allowing Lilith to slither away and escape Then billowing black clouds would gather beneath the hem of the Chairman's robe, where Lilith had descended back into the pit It would crawl up his body as though a living entity, caressing his face and entering his nose He would breathe it in and gasp Blood gurgled in the opened, fanged, black hole in his face, bubbling, spilling over his thin lips and chin, coursing down his throat and the front of his robe as though there were an endless fountain of the thick crimson substance within him
She would raise her Isis blade, but it always felt too heavy, requiring her to grip it with both hands Moonlight would glint off the silver The Chairman would smile She would try to rush forward, but it felt like she was standing in waist-high water, wearing concrete boots She moved in slow motion, but she would not be stopped until his head rolled
Damali looked down at Carlos and stroked his tousled hair New tears rose to her eyes, and she shut thehtly as she remembered the dream
She would raise the blade, swinging the heavy ristle, cartilage, sending a black-blood geyser into the air, on her, spraying the terrain until she alh as the last of the tissue was severed, then he'd wink, and his face would beco silver, then going brown, a haunting question of why left in them
Another horrible shudder ran through her Marlene and Father Patrick had said it was posttrau all warriors dealt with - and it would pass Big Mike and Berkfield, who had been to 'Na sihtmares, too She could only tell Carlos about the first half of the drealy real that she couldn't speak of it to hi eyes He'd told her that he still had sleep terrors fro him back to his old vampire existence or his torture, but it would soon pass just like her nightmare of the Chairman would
He no longer woke up screa at whatever sunlight had filtered into the room So, as she still so freaked out? Why was the dreaain, as if her mind was a CD with a nick on it? And why did it take her so long to warm up in heralways feel so real?
She had to get the team to the Native American lands Jose owned Sanctuary, hallowed earth It was also the only safe place left for them However, it wouldn't help with the dreams The dreams still attacked her, whether in a cathedral or hotel bed As long as Carlos slept beside her, she was tortured to near hysteria day or night When she slept alone, peace swaddled her mind