Ramon is watching us now with more interest. Perhaps he senses there is something passing between Culebra and me.

How do you want to do this? I ask Culebra.

He hesitates only a moment. I think I would like to watch. See him suffer. Are you hungry?

Yes. Please. Vampire purrs.

Culebra takes a step back. “Good-bye, Ramon.”

I take a step closer.

Ramon looks puzzled. I have no weapon to threaten him, yet he feels threatened. His eyes are shadowed with fear. He looks past me to Culebra. “You don’t have to do this. Let me go. I will make things right with Luis and Pablo. I will tell them the truth.”

Culebra shakes his head. “It is too late. You killed my family. You were willing to sacrifice me for a lie to save your own skin.”

“Not for me. For my family. For Maria and Gabriella.”

I sidle closer. “And where is Maria? She did not try to warn you that I was free. Why do you think that is? Do you think she found out what you’ve been doing for Luis? About the girls whose lives you’ve ruined?”

“I had no choice.” But there is no remorse in Ramon’s voice. No trace of guilt.

“Do you know who Adelita is?” I ask, keeping my voice as low and human as possible.

His eyes snap to me. “That crazy bitch? I’ve never seen her before.”

I’m right beside him now, so close my lips nuzzle his chin. “Are you sure?”

Ramon begins to see and feel and hear the changes taking place in me. The heat from my skin, the teeth at his neck, the timbre of my voice morphing from human to animal. “I don’t know her. What are you doing?”

I take a nip, right at the jawline, let the blood trickle onto the collar of his shirt. “Sure you do,” I manage to say. If I don’t get this out quickly, I’ll miss my chance. Vampire is clawing her way free. “You took her from her village with two other young girls. Promised them jobs. Promised to return them home. You did neither. Two are dead. You have to answer.”

He looks into my eyes—vampire eyes, golden, slit like a cat’s. “¿Dios mio, lo que son?” he whispers.

I glance at Culebra, give him one last chance to intercede on Ramon’s behalf.

Culebra stands stiffly upright, his face rigid in its resolution. He gives a tiny shake of his head.

“What am I?” I whisper then. “Vengeance.”

Anna is gone. Vampire rips into his throat, cutting his scream short. He struggles, but he’s already weak from the snakebite and it takes only one hand to hold his head while steel jaws clamp down, seek the carotid artery, sever it with teeth that saw back and forth until the blood is freed.

Will his blood taste of the snake?

Vampire lets it flow into her mouth, sampling. It tastes like any other human blood—full of warmth, vibrancy, life. It flows like sweet, fresh water drawn from a well. There’s no hint of evil beneath the skin. No hint of death and treachery. I put both arms around him as his body slumps into mine. Hold him up, shake him, make sure he’s conscious. I draw my head away to look into his eyes. He sees. He’s aware.

He’s afraid.

I glance back at Culebra.

His face is stern. He meets my eyes and nods.

Vampire smiles at Ramon. In a dim corner of the human Anna’s mind, a picture of a son driven to suicide and two dead girls lying in the back of a truck comes into sharp focus. It’s all vampire needs.

She turns snapping jaws back to his throat to finish the job.

CHAPTER 49

RAMON SAGS AGAINST ME, DEADWEIGHT, THE LAST flutter of his heart going still. I step back and let his body drop.

Vampire is reluctant to relinquish control, but Culebra is close and his urgency comes through.

We have to go.

I let my head fall to my chest, shake it to clear away the animal and look up at Culebra with human eyes.

“Thank you,” he says.

“It was for your family. And Adelita.”

“I know.”

Culebra hands me a rifle and we start after Max. There hasn’t been a sound from the villagers, not a light has gone on in any of the shacks. It’s full dark now, and as I glance back at Ramon’s body, a shadow among shadows, I wonder if anyone will venture out to see if he’s really dead.

Or maybe no one cares.

I stop to pick up the duffel, thinking it’s beginning to feel like an extension of my arm.

But thanking Max for packing it.

Culebra and I move quickly and quietly through the brush. He doesn’t seem to have any trouble seeing in the dark or keeping up with me. It’s not long before I hear footfalls ahead and know we’ve almost caught up to Max.

From the direction of the road, the sound of an approaching vehicle moving toward the village. I tilt my head.

“I think Luis’ men are returning. We’d better hurry.”

We pick up the pace, trotting through the underbrush, oblivious to the growls and hisses that rumble around us as we disturb other night predators on the prowl. We are not challenged and in minutes, we see Max ahead.

He hears our approach and peers into the darkness. “Anna?”

“Right here. Luis’ men are at the village. I don’t know how long it will take them to learn what happened from the villagers. They don’t know who we are, but they know we have Luis. They’ll come looking for him.”

Luis has been listening. He looks behind us. “Where’s Ramon?”

“Dead,” Culebra says.

Luis spits at the ground. “He was a traitor. He lied to you. He brought you here to die. Let me go and Pablo will reward you. You were a good soldier once, Tomás. You could be again.”

I think Culebra is going to ignore Luis. He stares at him, no expression at all on his face. Then, with a single, quick thrust, he slams his rifle butt into Luis’ gut.

Luis doubles over, unable to draw a breath as the air rushes from his body, gasping until his face is blue from lack of oxygen.

Culebra grasps a handful of Luis’ hair and yanks him upright. “Your brother called me a traitor once, too. And had my family killed. Ramon told you lies about me and you believed him. When I left the cartel, I left this life behind. I took my vengeance in my own way. I never came after you or your brother. You and Ramon should have left it alone, Luis.”

Luis struggles to breathe, his chest heaving. Culebra shoves him away and he collapses on the ground, rolling into a fetal position in an effort to force oxygen into his lungs.

Max takes Culebra aside. “We don’t have time for this. When we get to Ramon’s, you can beat the shit out of him. Hell, I’ll help you. But we have to get there first.”

Culebra’s eyes are still on Luis, but he gives in with a grudging nod. He reaches down and hauls Luis to his feet. When he prods him with the barrel of his rifle, Luis moves. Unsteadily, at first, but faster as he catches his breath.

Adelita trots beside me as we resume our trek. “Is he really dead?” she asks.

“Yes.”

“Did you kill him?”

“Yes.”

“The way you killed the bastardo in the truck?”

I let my eyes find hers in the dark. Her expression is neutral. No fear. No unease. “Do you know what I am?”

She hesitates only a moment. “I think so. ¿Eres vampira, no?”

“And that doesn’t scare you?”

She raises her shoulders. “You have not hurt me. You have protected me. The evil in this place resides in the souls of men. Like Ramon and Luis.”

“They can’t hurt you anymore. Max will see to that. If you want, he can get you into a program across the border.”

Adelita’s expression sobers. “Then who will stay to protect other girls? To tell the world what is happening here?”

I remember the conversation we had when I convinced her to stay put while I went back to help Culebra in the village. “You can do both,” I tell her. I think of Stephen. “I know just the person who will help you.”

She lapses into silence, perhaps considering if such a thing could be possible. I’m silent, too. Wondering if introducing Adelita to Stephen is the last conversation Stephen and I will have.