Page 47

CHAPTER 47

Lalo

Bones and rocks crumbled on top of his body as he crashed into hard earth, sealing him in a dusty tomb.

“Carolina,” he rasped, the sound less than a whisper.

She’d never hear him. Not from underneath so much rubble.

Lalo shoved at the stones crushing him. He pushed and dug and clawed his way out. As he thrust the last rock off his chest, he assessed the scene before him.

He was in a massive cavern. Limestone walls curved upward, revealing various pockets like the one he’d fallen through. Moonlight trickled in from above. If his body weren’t screaming with pain, he’d be able to scale up the stones.

“No!” he heard Carolina cry. “Leave me be!”

Her father’s shouts of anger echoed off the walls.

“Don’t touch me!” Carolina shrieked.

Gritting his teeth, Lalo tried to get up. He had to get to her. He had to explain to her father what was going on. If he could explain to Se?or Fuentes what he was, could show him there was a way to end vampiros for good, then surely he’d see the amazing feats his daughter had made to save them all and he’d want to help her instead of controlling her.

He opened his mouth, ready to call after Se?or Fuentes and his family when a gravelly voice cut through the darkness.

“What do we have here?”

Lalo froze.

Glowing eyes broke through the darkness. A slender figure slinked into view. He wore breeches and a simple shirt but nothing more. His black hair was pulled back and tied at the nape of his neck. If it weren’t for the blood-red irises, he might look like nothing more than a young man not much older than Lalo himself.

The vampiro knelt beside Lalo. He sniffed. “Why has one of Maricela’s children come to my lair?”

Shock tore through Lalo. “You know my maker?”

The sediento chuckled. “I am her sire. Yours too, my boy.”

So this was Vidal. In Lalo’s mind, he’d always pictured some beastly fiend with a snarling maw. But this man appeared as human as Maricela did. He was evidently well fed. Lalo couldn’t even fathom the number of souls he’d taken and discarded over the centuries.

He needed to die.

Lalo reached into his pocket. His stomach plummeted when he realized he’d lost the lover’s dagger. It must have slipped from his grasp during the fall.

Voices raised from above, but they were growing fainter.

Vidal’s head snapped skyward. His fangs glistened in the darkness. “You have brought me offerings, I see. Maricela is often charitable with her gifts. She has always been a dear child to me.”

An almost gleeful purr rumbled from his throat. Vidal slowly rose, his nails expanding into claws. He was going to hunt Carolina and her family. Lalo couldn’t let that happen. Not without warning.

“Wait!” he yelled.

Vidal stopped. “You dare speak to your maker with such insolence? I am hundreds of years old, boy. I can snap your neck in the time it takes your pitiful heart to beat once.”

“I do not fear you, Vidal,” Lalo said. And, to his surprise, he meant every word. He was not afraid of some monster. Or what that monster could do to him. What truly terrified Lalo, above all else, was leaving this beautiful world worse off than when he’d entered it, was leaving Carolina and her family without a chance to fight back. If he was going to die tonight, he would at least help the girl he loved first.

“I will end you like I ended Maricela,” Lalo said.

A growl came from the original sediento. “What did you say?”

“I killed your child. I sank my blade deep into her throat.”

Vidal turned his full body to Lalo.

Gone was any hint of humanity. Only a vampiro stood before Lalo now. A vicious killer ready to tear into its prey. Good, Lalo thought, let him keep his focus here and not on Carolina . Perhaps she’d have a chance to prepare her family for what was coming.

“Maricela deserved it,” Lalo taunted, seeing the fiery wrath in Vidal’s eyes. “And you will meet a similar fate.”

Viper fast, Vidal struck. He sank his fangs into Lalo’s shoulder and drank him in. Lalo clenched his jaw, dug his claws into Vidal, but the sediento didn’t budge. Vidal searched for Maricela in his memories. He would not have to go back far.

Vidal ripped his fangs from Lalo’s flesh.

“You killed her!” he hissed, his mouth dripping with saliva and Lalo’s blood.

“And I would do it again!” Lalo spat.

Vidal threw up his arms and roared. Lalo’s skull felt like it might cave in.

Come, he heard in the recesses of his mind. Come, my children. They killed your sister.

Vidal was calling his sedientos to him.

Lalo had to cut off his maker’s summons before every blasted sediento in Abundancia heard his command. He sank his claws and fangs into the vampiro. As the two sedientos collided with rage, three words tore from Lalo’s lips, “Vidal is here!”