“Do not mock me you…you…”What word was worse than “life-sucking prick”?
“Deplorable demon?” he suggested.
“Do not finish my sentences, you deplorable demon!”
“I will happily stop, when you cease trying to murder me!” He ducked, and her lasso missed its mark.
“Never!” She flicked her wrist and this time the reata found its home, wrapping around his waist. His mouth fell open. Digging her heels into the dirt, she yanked so hard, he lost his footing and dropped to all fours.
“Señorita, please…if you would just…”
Stars above, he was attractive. She’d never seen any magazines or weeklies with a face so fine. He wasn’t ahe.She had to remind herself. He was anit.An abomination. A thing to be destroyed. But it was rather hard when he was so striking.
“What are you waiting for?” Nena yelled. “Kill him already!”
“Shut up, Nena!” Carolina held her dagger to him. “Your death will be slow and vicious,” she said to the sediento.
His eyes bulged. “These lands are free to hunt, are they not? I saw no signs saying otherwise. I have done nothing wrong.”
She laughed bitterly. “Your very existence is wrong, devil.”
A muscle in his strong jaw flexed. Her traitorous knees weakened at the sight. And in that moment, in that wretched second ofdistraction, the sediento spun around and ran. He pulled the rope out of her hand, sending her toppling into the dirt once more.
“Bastard!” she screamed.
Carolina flung the knife. The gleaming blade flipped through the air and sank into a tree just as the sediento dipped low.
She hit the ground with her palm. “Dammit!” Carolina climbed to her feet and gave chase. She burst through the brush but he wasn’t there.
“What the hell?”
Fingers clenched her shoulders from seemingly out of nowhere, pushing her against a large tree. The sediento’s hands were strong on her arms but not in a crushing way as she had felt once before. He towered over her, but she would not be intimidated.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked, his voice laced with panic.
She scowled, although he wouldn’t see it, considering most of her face was covered with her makeshift mask.
She could hear Nena thrashing behind them. Carolina needed to keep him distracted long enough for her cousin to come with the frying pan in hand.
Carolina raised her chin and forced herself to meet his eyes. Eyes, she realized, that were honey brown. Not glowing blood-red.How could that be?
“What are you?” she asked. “Why do you not have the devil’s eyes like the rest of your ilk?”
Alarm clouded his features. “Are there other vampiros here? What do they look like? Does one have red hair?”
How dare he ask her questions?Heshould be answering toher.
She kneed him hard in his groin. He hunched over with a startled moan.
“That really hurt!” he wheezed.
“That’s the point, pendejo!”
She dug her fingers into her boot and pulled out another throwing dagger. Seeing what she was doing, the sediento bolted away. She flung the blade and watched as it found its target, sinking deep into his shoulder.
He cursed—more like screamed—but continued to run.
Carolina shoved a low-lying branch out of her way as she dashed after him. When she made it to a clearing in the woods, she jerked to a stop. She surveyed the area, spinning in circles.
