“That would be best. Tell me, has anyone in your family mentioned your great-great-great-grandfather? I’d like to know what sort of man he was.”
“His name was Vidal. He would never do anything to harm his family. That is all you need to know.”
Lalo crossed his arms.
Her irritation spiked. “Most everything in el pueblo burned down after Alma was turned. If thereisany documentation about him, it would be in a sacred location—the one building that will never burn because everyone will do whatever it takes to save it.”
“The church? The library?”
She shook her head. “La cantina.”
Lalo snickered but then recovered that uptight scowl he seemed to prefer. He stuffed his legs into the pants. He was around the same height as Abuelo, but the fit was wrong. The moment he buttoned his breeches, they slid off his hips and pooled at his feet. Carolina huffed. She dug into her abuelo’s armoire and pulled out a belt. She swept forward, yanked up his pants, and shoved the tip through the loop.
Lalo had gone perfectly still, save for the notch on his throat that bobbed up and down.
“We should talk about boundaries,” he rasped. “That is, if you don’t want me to go feral.”
She ignored the sudden quickening of her heart rate when he spoke so quietly. Her fingers cinched the belt tight. “Care to have another sparring session to test my skills against your ferociousness?”
“Lucky for you, I possess self-restraint.”
Carolina laughed. Something she had done more in the past few minutes than she’d done in the last few weeks. She turned to shut the armoire. She peeked over her shoulder as he slipped the borrowed shirt over his head. She couldn’t help but appreciate a final glimpse of his abdomen. Of those muscles taut beneath his brown skin.
“We should go before dawn breaks,” she said, needing to set her mind back to rights. “The rain has started. You will be sheltered from the sun, but we should sneak away before everyone rises.”
“Are we safe leaving the town walls?” he asked. “Do sedientos attack often?”
“Iwill be fine. I can’t say for sure how you will fare.”
Lalo gave her a deadpan glare.
“We should be perfectly safe with so many of father’s guard milling about. Getting past them, undetected, worries me the most.”
They snuck out of her abuelo’s room, and Carolina shut the door with an almost imperceptible click. She halted when she heard signs of life. Her family was already beginning to wake. Even after a chaotic night, the house stirred to life before the roosters crowed. She shouldn’t be surprised.
The sizzle and pop of breakfast cooking over the fire andwhispers of chisme already floated into her ears. She could hear her younger siblings arguing about who got their chilaquiles first and could smell the tortillas frying on the aged skillet. This warmth, the constant bickering, the gossip, the hushed staccato of her mamá’s and papá’s whispers, was all she ever wanted. She never wished to leave Del Oro for this very reason. She wanted the noise, the arguments, the messiness of her family always.
She gazed up at the vampiro and caught him watching her.
“What?” she whispered.
He shook his head. “Nothing. You just looked, I don’t know, sweet for a moment there.”
“Iamsweet. Just not to monsters. Or most people.” She shrugged. “I’m an acquired taste.” Grabbing his hand, she tugged him forward. His skin was soft and warm. So unlike the tales of sedientos and el pueblo boys she grew up with. She wondered how his fingers might feel fluttering across her cheek.
Stop that,she scathed.Stop thinking about his hands and his lips and his damn chest. You should be focusing on finding the true original sediento. On ending them so your family can live in peace, and you can prove to your family how wrong they were to count you out.
“We can’t go through the kitchens or the front of the house, but there is a side entrance most people won’t use. Are you friendly with dogs?” she asked.
“Not particularly.”
“Well, let’s hope ours are partial to you. There are five of them. Big beastly things my papá uses for hunting sedientos.”
Lalo blanched. “Gods, help me.”
They had just landed on the first floor when she saw her mamá approaching.
“Shit!” Carolina turned and shoved Lalo into the roombeside them with brute force. He tripped over the rug and fell backward. Carolina slammed the door shut just as Mamá caught a glimpse of her.
