Another strange noise stopped her in her tracks. Nena bumped hard into her back. She stumbled forward but caught herself before falling.
She heard slurping. Then a moan, followed by a gag.
Carolina’s muscles tensed. Whatever it was, it was feeding onsomething.
She crept behind a thick oak and peered around the tree.
A figure sporting an elegant cloak hovered over some sort of body. The copper tang of blood tainted the air. Carolina squinted, hoping to get a better view through the darkness.
The figure shifted, and she could see the prone body on the forest floor was that of a buck. Two gaping holes lay open on the animal’s neck and blood oozed out. Carolina’s nails dug into the bark of the tree.
The monster let out a guttural groan.
Her hands itched to sink a stake into the fiend’s heart.
“Stay here,” she mouthed to Nena.
Nena gripped her cast-iron pan harder and nodded once.
Holding her breath to quiet her pounding heart, Carolina slithered around the trees. A twig snapped underfoot.Shit.The creature’s head shot up, its spine going straight. It turned in her direction, slowly.
Carolina didn’t waste a second. She sprinted forward, readying the machete. Her body slammed into the monster’s. She used her entire weight and strength to tackle it to the ground. The sediento didn’t fight back, didn’t even lift a hand to protect itself. It simply huffed a dramatic breath as they crashed into the earth.
Carolina was on top of the sediento at once, her machete to its neck.
The hood of the cloak fell from its face, and she had to hold in her gasp of surprise. The sediento was a young man, maybe even the same age as her. And he was…handsome.So much so, her heart gave in to a little flutter.
The wretch had a well-kept mustache, like the young men she’d seen in Nena’s socialite papers. He was utterly human-lookingand more beautiful than any boy she’d ever witnessed before.A waste.
With a growl, she dug her blade into the soft flesh of his throat. A tiny squeak escaped his lips. His fingers wrapped around her wrist with his beastly strength. He jerked her body off him, and she tumbled into the dirt.
“Oh no,” he said. “I didn’t mean to…”
Carolina smacked into the trunk of a tree, her teeth rattling in her skull. The sediento was to his feet in an instant, moving toward her. He was tall and slender but with wide shoulders that spoke of strength.Well, she was strong too.
She readied her weapon, ignoring the pulsing headache blurring her vision. “Enjoy these moments, bloodsucker,” she spat. “For they will be your last.”
The boy put his hands up in surrender.
“I—I didn’t mean to throw you like that,” he stuttered. His voice was smooth as silk. Shock ran through her. She’d never heard one of them speak. “I promise,” he said, inching closer to her. “I mean you no…”
Nena ran from her hiding place, screeching like a mother hen. She raised the pan and cracked the vampiro hard across the face. The sediento staggered, his hands going to his cheek.
“Hells below!” he bellowed.
He was calling to the other devils, beckoning them to assist him. “Not on my watch,” Carolina growled.
She scrambled to her feet and swung the machete at the sediento. His eyes went wide with disbelief, but he skittered away just in time.
“Wait!” he shouted.
She swung again and again. Each time, he dodged heradvances. She snarled with frustration. Her arms were already tiring. She hadn’t fully healed from the attack a month ago, the attack where her abuelo had been viciously cut down.
Fiery rage burned within her at the thought.
“You will die this night,” she snarled, grabbing her rope.
“But…I’m already dead.”
