Page 10

CHAPTER 10

Carolina

“Why are you here?” Carolina’s voice cut through the quiet like the dagger in her hand.

The sediento blinked but said nothing. The coward was too frightened to speak. Good. He should fear her.

She dug her blade deeper. “I asked you a question.”

“You said if I spoke, you’d turn me to dust. I’d very much like to remain in this form, so I choose to stay silent.”

She rolled her eyes. “You just spoke. And far too much.”

“I apologize. I don’t know what the proper protocol is for one holding a weapon to my throat.”

“And yet, here you are, speaking so freely when, a second ago, you were clammed up.”

“What do you want from me, se?orita?”

Her eyes went to the door. It was still ajar from when she’d slipped in. She nudged it closed with her toe, waiting for the soft click of the latch.

“Tell me what you are doing here,” she ordered.

The sediento’s lips flattened. “You invited me, remember?”

She shook her head. “No, pendejo. I mean here, here. In DelOro.”

Carolina’s neck ached from tilting her head up at him. She didn’t like that he made her feel small. She was one of the shortest people in her entire family and had often been teased for it. Not that she cared. But she didn’t want this leech to assume he had the upper hand because of her size. Carolina straightened her spine and pressed close enough to feel his warmth.

Her brow furrowed. Warmth? She thought the dead were as cold as the ice sculpture of Abuelo. Her hand went to the monster’s chest. Heat radiated from him.

“How can this be?” she whispered to herself.

“Se?orita,” he said, his voice thick and raspy. The notch on his throat bobbed. His eyes glazed with hunger.

Carolina pulled her hand back like she’d been burned.

“Why are you warm to the touch? And your eyes are brown, not ghastly red. What are you?” she demanded.

“A great hunter should understand her prey, no?”

Irritation sizzled beneath her skin.

She should have stuck her blade into his heart the first chance she had.

“Enough of this.”

She raised her dagger and brought it down.

The beast ducked out of the way, and her blade sank into a book of poetry behind him. She gasped. “That’s my favorite anthology!”

He flinched. “I’m sorry, but…”

His words were cut off as she flung a second dagger at him. He dodged to the right, but it grazed his shoulder before smashing into her mamá’s vase. The two halted, waiting for the fiesta to go quiet and for people to come running in. But the horns and laughter still resounded.

“You will pay for that,” she growled.

“But you threw it!” He had his hands up in surrender as she stomped toward him.

She grabbed her skirts and lifted them up.

The sediento had the nerve to appear scandalized. “Se?orita, please.”

She pulled the reata from her thigh.

“Not this again.” He tried to back away, but there was nowhere for him to go. “Can you not speak like a reasonable…”

Carolina snapped the lasso into the air, catching him around his wrist. She tried to jerk him forward, but he did not budge. He wrapped his fingers around the braided leather and pulled. Carolina’s breath came out in a huff as she slammed into his torso. Her fingers splayed over his chest. She tried to push herself off, but he enclosed her in his arms.

“Let go of me,” she ordered, squirming against his grasp.

Stars above, did he have to feel so…so…good? His hold was strong and the muscles beneath his shirt and coat were hard but not in the bulky way of the men in her family. He felt…right.

“I will not release you until you agree to talk to me like two reasonable humans should.”

“You are not human, though. You’re a monster.”

“Ah sí. But which of us is trying to kill the other?”

She struck with her forehead, landing hard against his face. A single drop of black blood dripped from his nostril.

Shock fell over his features. “That hurt.”

“Yes, well. That was the point.” She dug the heel of her boot into his foot, and he hissed.

His eyes bulged as she swung her knee into his nether parts. He made a strangled sound and released her. She stumbled and tripped on the rug. Carolina yelped as the weight of her dress yanked her backward. Her head was inches from smacking into the heavy desk her father kept his ledgers on, when fingers dug into her arms. The sediento pulled her up so fast, her mind spun. They were nose to nose, her hands grasping at his chest. His arms held her tight against him. She panted, but he stood frozen in place as if making a single movement might break him.

She couldn’t help but feel every single point where his skin or clothing touched hers. She knew she should be revolted. His ilk took her grandfather away. They’d murdered her favorite person in the entire world. And yet, she hadn’t shoved him back.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his tone achingly gentle.

Her eyes searched his. “Why would you save me like that?”

She would have cracked her skull on the corner of the desk and been an easy meal for the beast.

“Because I am not what you think. At least, I am not trying to be.”

“Explain,” she said. “And fast.”

Neither of them made any effort to move from their embrace. She understood why he didn’t let her go. He didn’t want to die. But why wasn’t she pushing him away?

“I was turned just over a month ago,” he said. “By my calculations, I have a few weeks until my body gives in, either to a final death or to the thirst. I am surviving by feeding off animal blood. I refuse to harm another human. I’d rather die than truly become one of the monsters we both hate. I have traveled all this way because I think…” He gulped. “I hope I can find a way to reverse what has been done to me before it’s too late.”

“As soon as you’ve been turned, your humanity is gone. There is no cure.” Her mind went back to the last night her abuelo was alive. She thought of the sediento to first attack her, too. He had once been her cousin. He had once been an ordinary seventeen-year-old boy she envied because his parents always supported him. When she faced him in the courtyard, he was nothing more than a monster lost in bloodlust. But what if there had been a way to cure him? Lorenzo might be with his family now. She hardened herself against the sorrow before her heart ached. “You may as well let me kill you. You are as good as dead already.”

“I can’t,” he said simply. “My sister’s life depends on me finding what I came here for. I’m not only searching for a remedy. I’m trying to rid the world of sedientos for good.”

Carolina scoffed. “Like I would believe that.”

His eyes darkened. “You sound like the policía.”

“You are a sediento, se?or. If we purge the world of your kind, that means you will be gone as well.”

“I will worry over that once I know my theories are correct.”

“What sort of theories do you have?” she asked.

His eyes lit with hope. “I can show you. There are a number of transcripts and journals at my home. I have learned almost everything there is to know about sedientos.”

The fact that she was entertaining this was ridiculous. He was playing her. She wasn’t sure how or why. But if he knew things about the monsters that plagued her pueblo, shouldn’t she at least ascertain what they were before thrusting her dagger through his heart? There was so much the people of Del Oro didn’t know about los vampiros. Like where they came from. Why they started coming. And why they continued to return.

“Do you know the origins of your kind?” she asked. Her eyes slipped to his lips. She didn’t know why. She didn’t ask them to.

“I think I do,” he said somberly.

“Tell me.”

“I will, if you promise to—”

The doors to the library opened. In walked her papá and Rafa deep in conversation. The two men froze. Carolina gasped in horror. She and the sediento were chest to chest, breathless as if they’d just been engaged in a lover’s kiss.

She pushed him away. “Papá, this is not what you think.”

She saw the reata sprawled near the sediento’s foot. She took Lalo’s arm, hiding the rope under the hem of her dress.

Papá glared at them. The muscles of his jaw flexed and unflexed as did the fists at his sides. Rafa looked equally enraged. Standing tall and large beside her father, his handsome face was etched with possessive ire.

“You dare dishonor me in such a manner,” Papá growled. “Stealing away to be alone with some man I do not know.”

“I…” How could she explain this? How could she possibly articulate to him what was truly going on without telling him everything she’d been up to? If she did that, he’d stop her mission to prove how good of a hunter she truly was. Papá would kill Lalo on the spot, and she’d be even more of a disgrace than he thought her to be for bringing a sediento into their home and hesitating.

Her pulse rushed through her ears. Sweat coated her skin.

She blurted out the first idea that bubbled to her brain. “We are in love!”

“What?” all three men said in unison.

She spun to Lalo and narrowed her eyes at him while she was turned away from her father. “Tell them, mi amor,” she said through her false grin.

He gaped at her, and she squeezed his arm.

He forced a smile.

“It is as it seems, Se?or Fuentes.” The sediento straightened his coat. “I apologize for being so rash, for disrespecting you in this way, but one look at Carolina and I knew she was meant to be mine forever.”

“You what?” Rafa said, squaring his shoulders. “You’ve only been acquainted for a few moments.”

“And what is a few moments when our souls have known each other since the beginning of time?” Lalo said. When the men’s faces went slack, he stiffened. “It is a line from Don Pío Parra’s sonnet. Have none of you read…” His words trailed off when Rafa cracked his knuckles, the sound like cannon fire in the quiet room. “No, I don’t suppose you have. Well, I for one believe when one finds the person who is their match in both wit and, um…”

He turned to Carolina for help, but she offered him nothing. She was too stunned by him reciting that poem. She had read that very line too many times to count.

“Are you betrothed, then?” Rafa asked.

Papá chuckled, incredulous. “Of course they aren’t. My daughter will only marry a man of my choosing.”

Carolina’s hackles raised. “I am fully capable of deciding my own fate, thank you very much.”

“Your fate has been decided, hija,” Papá said through his clenched jaw. He clapped Rafa’s shoulder. “My godson has already made an offer for your hand. And I have accepted it.”

“ An offer? What am I, some prize hog to be bartered for? My answer is no, in case you’re wondering.” Carolina gripped Lalo’s arm tighter. “Besides, Lalo has already asked for my hand, and I have accepted. Right, Lalo?”

She shot daggers at him with her gaze.

“Yes. Indeed. I…I’d like to…” He shoved out the last two words as if they pained him. “Marry Carolina.”

Carolina hoped Papá was buying this charade, but Lalo’s acting abilities were lackluster.

Papá glared at Lalo like a bull readying to charge. “You would ask for my daughter’s hand without speaking to her family first? To her papá! What type of man are you?”

Lalo blinked rapidly. “I…I suppose I was thinking with my heart, not my head.”

“Yet you are a scholar. And I find you here, in the arms of a betrothed young woman.”

“I never said yes to Rafa’s proposal. I haven’t even heard his proposal.” Typical of her parents to assume they knew what was best for her. To lie and deceive and make deals with her “best interests” in mind. As if she couldn’t decide for herself. Why did no one believe in her? Her father so easily dismissed her dreams, and her mother went right along with him. Not even her brothers or uncles stood up for her. The only two people in the world to ever even consider what she wanted out of life were Abuelo and Nena.

She clenched her fingers around Lalo’s forearm. “I will marry whomever I want. When I want. If I want.”

Papá’s face hardened. “You will do as I say.”

“Perhaps I should leave you two to discuss this family matter in private?” Lalo suggested, now looking physically ill.

“Oh, Lalo,” Carolina said, adding a little break in her voice. She was indeed a magnificent performer. She’d been shedding false tears most of her life to get herself out of chores or trouble. Similar tears filled her eyes now. “Do not let our affection for each other be tarnished by my papá and his antiquated ways.”

She kicked the reata under her skirts beneath the desk before rushing forward and seizing her father’s sleeve. “Please, Apá. You and Mamá were a love match and see how happy you are. Shouldn’t I be able to choose who I desire?”

Papá’s eyes softened. He placed his hand over hers. “Mija, I have already given my permission to Rafa. And he has promised to take you to Los Campos as soon as his father is well.”

“Los Campos!” she screeched. “That’s at least two weeks’ ride away.”

“It’s actually four,” Lalo muttered.

She glared at him before turning back to her papá. “That’s too far from home. No, I won’t do it. I won’t go.” She loved Del Oro. She loved the people and the gentle change in seasons. She loved walking through the pastures and plucking wildflowers with Nena to weave into each other’s hair. She loved her life here. She would not be forced to leave. “Lalo adores me. He said he will do anything to have me as his bride. He will not stand for this.”

Papá’s nostrils flared. “Oh really?”

Lalo shook his head. “I think what Carolina meant was—”

“Enough.” Rafa began to roll up his sleeves. “We will settle this like men.”