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Synopsis

The Darkness descends with the arrival of the Armageddon in the tenth novel of L. A. Banks's bestselling Vampire Huntress Legend series.

After the battle at Masada, the Neteru team returns to San Diego believing forty-thousand demons had been eradicated and that Lilith's spawn has been killed. But somehow the treacherous little creature got away. Just as had been prophesized at the dawn of the Armageddon, the anti-Christ has been born and will soon rise to power.

Rewarded for her creation, Lilith is given the daylight bite and power to make Councilmen day-walkers. Having Fallon Nuit and Sebastian able to withstand sunlight is a huge problem, especially when they are adding new master vampires at record breaking levels. Meanwhile the dark realms are healing and adding to what had previously been wiped out--feeding off the dark energy of the newly created anti-christ who is only waiting to emerge.

Excerpt

Chapter 1

Damali walked slowly along the beach behind the house, hanging back as Carlos said good-bye to his friend. The battle between her instinct to take the head of a clear and present threat and her desire to honor her husband's request twisted her stomach into knots. She could feel the entire household manning battle stations as each Guardian awakened to their own internal sensory guidance.

No less than she would have expected, Marlene sat up in bed first, eyes wide, third eye vision sweeping and then honing in on Damali's to question the SOS vibration she'd clearly felt. The insistent contact between Marlene's seeking vision and her second-sight unlocked the interior of the house for her in surreal imagery. Like a bad and hazy dream, Damali could mentally see the unfolding chaos in her mind's eye coming to her in fits and starts, and she took in a deep breath to summon calm as she continued trudging twenty-five yards behind Carlos and Yonnie.

Like a giant ebony cobra, in one fluid move Shabazz had slowly unfolded from the lotus mediation position he'd been in, locks crackling with raw fight energy, the look in his eyes deadly. His expression said it all: The house had been breached--unacceptable.

Mike had heard the thud on the roof and was already packing ammo as he came down the hall with Inez. Damali remembered seeing his bald head jerk up when Yonnie first hit the skylight in the roof, but the potential of immediate danger had blotted out the rest of the imagery until now.

She didn't need to watch the trajectory of events mentally, however. The past informed her better than any second-sight ever could. Mike was on the move. Pissed off. A six-foot-eight, two-hundred-and-seventy-five-pound human bear made of pure muscle was in the hall of their compound; Big Mike wasn't having a homestead breach any more than Shabazz was. Her girl, Inez, was right behind him, too, her short self toting a handheld Uzi. Damali groaned inwardly and then turned away from Carlos and Yonnie to head back toward the house before shots were fired.

This was the part that she wasn't sure Carlos understood, as much as she empathized with his dilemma. This was finally home.

The entire family had envisioned every room, every detail of the massive San Diego beachfront property. They'd all prayed for a place to call home, and everything had been made manifest, right down to the sprawling ten acres that surrounded the mansion and the pristine mountain view beyond it. It was something to come back to after the battle in the Holy Land. This was sanctuary. This was what every man and woman on the team, from the eldest to the youngest, had dreamt of for years. A place that was like a citadel, but that was also not like the old maximum security prison-type compound from years ago... or the cramped, crazy dwelling they'd survived in during the rough stint in Arizona. This was a home where dreams could flourish and peace could reign supreme. And not a Guardian in the joint was having any mess come to their door.

In her soul she knew the brothers were prepared to take a Masada-inspired last stand here this morning if they thought a daywalker had come calling. The vibe reverberated through the air and pierced her skin like tiny knives. Live free or die trying.

"Oh, shit..." Damali let her breath out hard, and then picked up her pace and hurried back to the house.

Rider met her at the door with a sawed-off shotgun resting on his shoulder. Tara stood behind him with a 9mm lowered at her side, but the look in her eyes said it all--she knew. Damali held up one hand and let out a weary breath, watching younger Guardians hustling down the steps over Rider's and Tara's shoulders. Couples fell into Full Metal Jacket formation, flanking the windows and doors. For a moment all Damali could do was watch them.

Jose and Juanita parted like pros, clutching weapons while silently doing one-handed leaps over opposite banisters with Jose giving Juanita the two-finger silent signal to take the window while he headed for the deck. J.L. and Krissy hugged the wall and squared off with vents and fireplace openings, splashing each one with holy water before backing up to train a weapon on it. Bobby and Jasmine headed for the back door to lend support to the senior couple, Berkfield and Marj, who were already in the kitchen, strapped. Mike and Inez were out in the pool area, securing the lower decks, and Damali cringed knowing that Shabazz and Marlene had taken the roof. This was ten minutes past real bad.

Everything within the house was in order, the scramble effective and the way it was supposed to happen... yet the cosmos was out of alignment and there was no fighting that with conventional demon-hunting weapons. Until Carlos came back with more information, there was no way to know how to take down a daywalker permanently, the range of its powers, or how many had been made. The questions were endless.

"Stand down," Damali said flatly, garnering confused looks from those Guardians within earshot. "Carlos got this."

Incredulous gazes followed her as she brushed past her stunned teammates and headed for the kitchen. She heard the fallback order ripple through the house behind her and knew a near mutiny was close at hand. For this she needed coffee, not herbal tea. Before she could fill the pot with water, the entire team, sans Carlos, had piled into the kitchen behind her.

"That was Yonnie out there! His signature is in my sinuses, tell me I'm lying?" Rider hollered. "And unless my eyes are playing tricks on me and this is a very, very bad dream, D--a fucking vamp councilman is taking a daylight stroll down the beach with your husband!"

"I know," Damali said as calmly as possible, and then added enough water to the huge pot to make enough coffee for everybody. What else was there to say? She didn't have a clue at the moment what was going on, and was trying her best not to freak out. While she gathered her thoughts, she continued making coffee very methodically, and then put on a teakettle for Marlene and Shabazz. Her actions were mechanical, by rote, something she'd seen Marlene do a hundred times, if once, to quell mass hysteria in the compound.

"You know?" Shabazz said slowly, parting the group around her as he neared her. A blue-white swath of electrostatic charge spread across the floor before him like a crackling blue carpet as he approached her. "You know?"

Damali closed her eyes and then turned away from the sink in a slow pivot. She'd seen Shabazz upset before, but this was definitely a first.

"Yeah," she finally said, now staring at the senior Guardian whom she loved like a father. How could she get 'Bazz to understand that she had to wait? The look in Carlos's eyes alone was enough for her. As much as her husband had seen, as many bodies as he'd had to drop, rarely had she witnessed tears just rolling down his face at the mere prospect of doing what had to be done. The struggle within Carlos was obviously as visceral as the one now raging within her.

Yet she couldn't explain all of that in front of the team. Nor could she tell them how fearful she was that maybe this time her husband was in more danger than even he understood... a newly made daywalker was with him: An entity that had clearly embedded himself in Carlos's heart--the very way the vamps got to you. This entity was like a brother, like Alejandro, and she knew Carlos couldn't make that necessary snap decision to smoke him in a blink of an eye... the same blink that could possibly cost Carlos his life. The team had no idea how much she wanted to bolt from the kitchen, Isis raised, and head for the beach. Her husband's life was on the line, and she could feel every regret he owned blistering her skin. But she would honor his request this time, even if it killed her--or him.

"Carlos has a plan," she finally said, stalling for time. "You oughta know that much about him by now."

All eyes were on her, and trigger fingers remained twitchy in the kitchen. This wasn't just her and Carlos's home; it was everyone else's, too. Each Guardian truthfully had just as much right to defend it as she and Carlos did, team protocols notwithstanding. The thin line between an all-out beach assault and this very tense kitchen conference was sheer trust and family respect. Period. Therefore, to keep the peace, she had to give the team a plausible explanation, even if she didn't own one.

"Yolando hit our bedroom skylight about ten minutes ago and we went up to put him out of his misery and to commend him to the Light. But he didn't burn." Damali's gaze raked the enthralled group around her. "Barely smoldered. Carlos is out there with him now, gaining critical intel. He'd made his boy a promise--he'd be the one to take his head if and when the Harpies came for him.... They didn't come this morning, and from the little bit I've heard, we definitely need more information. So, we wait."

Jose nodded and was the first to stand down. "C never led us wrong, and Damali is right. If these SOBs are walking by day now, we need to know under what circumstances, how quickly the daylight bite is spreading... maaan."

Disgruntled Guardians muttered their agreement with Jose as the team slowly fanned out to lean against stainless-steel appliances and the center island butcher-block counter.

"This is beyond bad," Marlene remarked sullenly. "I knew it had been too quiet...

Copyright © 2008 by L. A. Banks

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