“Whenever the veil between the Land of the Dead and the Land of the Living is breached, these creatures sneak through. This is great news!”
“Your idea of great news and mine are vastly different.”
Lalo grunted in pain. “It means we are on the right track. Chupasangres hunt for whatever doesn’t belong in this realm.”
“Like a sediento?”
“Yes,” he wheezed.
“Like you?”
He cursed.
The trees were ahead. They might make it. They had to.
Lalo’s horse whinnied as a dark mass surged beside it. The creature’s body was long and hunched. Where fur should have been lay thick black scales, like crocodile skin.
“Carolina!” Lalo let out a horrified yelp when the chupasangre swiped at him and his steed. “Help!”
She dug her hands into the bag she’d strapped to her horse and pulled out three gleaming obsidian daggers. She threw the first one. It bounced off the chupasangre’s reptilian hide.
“Come on,” she growled.
Taking a deep breath as her abuelo always taught her, she let the second dagger fly. It somersaulted into the air just as the monster shoved off its hindlegs and launched itself toward Lalo. The blade sank deep into the beast’s exposed chest. The chupasangre crashed into the dirt and exploded into a plume of dark smoke.
“Carolina!” Lalo cried. Half his face was exposed. Boils were festering and popping on his cheeks and neck. “Behind you!”
She whirled around. Flung the dagger. Watched as the blade found its mark and another beast exploded into the ether. But there was no cause to celebrate, more monsters were coming.
“We’ll never make it!” she screamed. “They’re too fast.”
“Stop the horses!” Lalo yelled.
“What? Have you lost all sense?”
“Stop the horses, now!”
From the journal of Friar Alejandro Ibarra
The gods’ bloodhounds, also known as chupasangres in the west of Abundancia, serve one purpose: to hunt and destroy whatever may disrupt the balance between the realms of the living and the dead.
A human has nothing to fear of these elusive creatures. Unless they have broken into the Land of the Dead, of course. Or perhaps aren’t so human at all.
CHAPTER 39
Lalo
His skin sizzled. He writhedin agony. The pain was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. He was living through a rampaging wildfire. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. The torment was too great. But he’d fight through hell and back to keep Carolina safe. She’d gotten them far enough for him to take over.
The covering flung back yet again as Carolina jerked at the reins and they came to a sudden stop. His full face and neck were exposed to the blazing sun. An explosion of heat seared through his entire being, cutting to the very wick of his soul. Bellowing, Lalo jumped off his horse. He dug his head into his shoulders and ran for Carolina who stood, readying to fight the chupasangres.
Lalo spared no time by explaining himself. He scooped her into his arms, held her tight against his body, and bolted for the trees.
“What are you doing?!” she shrieked.
“Is it not obvious?!” He gritted his teeth and kept his eyeslocked on the spindly branches ahead. His thighs pumped as the power of Tecuani thrummed through his veins.
“Holy shit, you’re fast!”
