Page 45

CHAPTER 45

Lalo

They barreled up the mountain as fast as the horse could go with two riders clinging on to his back and tree roots growing thicker underfoot like angry spiderwebs. The trunks and branches of the great oaks twisted and stretched at odd angles, making a clear path impossible to find.

Lalo urged on the horse, cutting left and right. He held on to Carolina with all his might, watching in horror as she writhed in torment.

“How much farther?” she asked through her clenched jaw.

He wasn’t sure. Lalo knew they needed to reach the peak of Devil’s Spine, but that was all the information he had.

A tiny clump of pink and white flowers caught his gaze, a shock against the deep green moss and black trunks. “Star lily.”

His mind scoured over everything he had read. Alma’s body had been found in a field of star lilies. And the lover’s daggers both had engravings with star lilies on the blades.

Was it a coincidence? Fate? A small ache thrummed in Lalo’s chest. Had Vidal planted fresh flowers here? Might the original sediento still have some of his humanity left?

A shadow bolted through the trees. Then another.

“We have company,” Lalo said.

“Here.” Carolina pulled her revolver from its holster. “I haven’t wanted to use this because I didn’t want to alert anyone of our location, but I think we are past that now.”

Lalo took it.

“Remember to—”

“I know, Carolina,” he said. “I’ve done this before.”

“Don’t get cocky now.”

Hope filled his chest. If she could tease him, it meant she wasn’t completely lost to the poison eating away at her life force.

“Can you hold on to the horse’s mane yourself?” he asked.

Her hands reached forward, and she clasped the coarse hair.

A chupasangre bounded onto the path behind them. Its glowing eyes focused. Its snout frothed. When it drew closer, the beast leapt forward. Lalo pointed at the monster’s chest and fired. The chupasangre exploded in smoke.

“There’s a fork within the trees ahead!” Carolina yelled.

Lalo’s attention snapped forward. Left seemed less ominousby far. He could see a bit of moonlight filtering in from the canopy. The vegetation was sparser and less inclined to tear them apart. The right of the fork was darker and a much tighter squeeze. Bare branches stretched like witches’ fingers, ready to pick them apart.

There was no way they could bring the horse in. But the star lilies sprouted at the mouth of the right fork.

“We go right!” he hollered. “We have to dismount and run for it!”

“Carolina!” Se?or Fuentes’s voice reverberated around them.

What would he do if he saw his daughter had been bitten? Would he cut her down on the spot?

Something blasted from behind them. A bullet whizzed right past Lalo’s ear.

“They’re trying to shoot us!” he yelled.

“It’s a warning,” she said. “If they were trying to hit us, we would have holes in us already.”

The horse skidded to a stop just before the path split into two. Lalo hopped off the back and helped her down. He eased her against a tree and set to work loosening the knots that held the satchel with their supplies in place.

Another bullet screamed through the air. This time, it sank deep into Lalo’s shoulder.

He gasped at the sudden shock of fire eating away at his muscle.

“No!” Carolina screamed. She shoved off the trunk and limped toward him, grabbing him by the shoulder.

He howled.

“Bloody hell, Carolina!”

“I’m sorry!” She pressed her hands over his body, searching for the wound. “I thought you’d been hit in the heart.”

“My shoulder. It’s just my shoulder.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank the gods.”

“Thank the gods?” he cried, his tone incredulous. “I’ve been shot! Again!”

“And I’ve just been bitten by a damn vampiro. We will both survive, remember? You and I, we keep on fighting.”

He opened his mouth to rebut but jerked his attention toward the woods behind them. Voices tumbled through the thicket. More gun blasts rocketed.

Lalo and Carolina ducked. But the bullets weren’t aimed in their direction.

“They must be shooting at the chupasangres trying to get to me,” he panted.

“Now’s our best chance to run,” Carolina said. “Can you move?”

“Yes,” he rasped. The blood he’d drank from her earlier was still working its magic on him. He could feel the wound sealing itself at that very moment. But the bullet was lodged into his bone and the wooden fragments kept the power within him from working to its full potency.

He draped Carolina’s arm over his uninjured shoulder. Together, they hobbled toward the dark woods that resembled a nightmare come to life.