Midnight (32 page)

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Authors: Ellen Connor

Tags: #Science Fiction, #Romance, #Fantasy

BOOK: Midnight
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Young Joseph scowled. “We’re
not
monsters. If we were, we wouldn’t be talking right now.”
“Pardon me if I don’t take your word on that. I have a town to protect.” She shrugged. “Finish your food. Then you’ll be split up. That’s how it has to be if you want to stay.”
Connie clutched her mother’s hand. “I don’t want to go.”
“Go get four bravos to escort them,” she told Chris, who wore an expression of silent fury.
“I need to talk to you,” he said. “Right now.”
Damn him, why was he interfering? This was still her town, and she was responsible for its safety. It fell on her head to decide who stayed. They didn’t look dangerous, but why else have that old saying about wolves in sheep’s clothing? He didn’t get to change established policies just because he could make her come. Arrogant bastard.
With an angry nod, she let him draw her aside, behind the bar.
“¿Qué?”
“You’re not going to put these people through the ordeal you foisted on me. Just look at them. They’re so exhausted they can barely sit, let alone hurt anyone.”
“Or maybe that’s what they want you to think.” She folded her arms, eyeing him with a faint sigh. Sometimes she believed he hadn’t spent enough time around people to be familiar with all the ways they could lie and betray you. “Peltz could’ve sent them in to murder all of us in our sleep.”
“Those are
children
.” The scorn in his voice raked her like hot coals. “You seriously think that’s a possibility?”
“The fact that you don’t only proves you know little about this world. You spent your time wandering around and not getting involved. When things got tough, you moved on, because why fight, why care, why build?
This
is why. Valle is my home and I will do whatever it takes to protect it.”
“Even from nonexistent threats, apparently.”
“Do you remember that baby girl you delivered? I’m not letting anything happen to her. I don’t care if you think my rules are stupid. They keep us safe. What have
you
accomplished?”
Hurt flared in his eyes before he locked it down. She didn’t back off, though; she couldn’t. “Nothing worth mentioning, I guess,” he said. “Certainly not what I thought I had.”
“Now, are you getting those bravos like I asked, or do I need to choose another second?”
“This conversation’s not over. We talk when I get back.” He stalked from the
taberna
, the line of his back taut with fury.
She didn’t care. Whatever it took to safeguard Valle, she would do it.
When she returned to the table, the family had finished their meal. Jacob held up a hand. “There is no need for tests. I admit it. We can shift. But we’re peaceful folk, and we’d like nothing more than to make a home. We’ve been looking for safety for a long time.”
That was new. She’d never had skinwalkers confess to what they were, but judging by the way Connie clutched her mother’s hand, they had done so to save their children from a harrowing experience. That earned them credit in her estimation, but it didn’t entitle them to stay. Nothing would.
“There has to be a sanctuary like this for your kind,” she said. “But it’s not here. I need you to move on. You seem normal now, but I can’t take the risk that you’ll lose control of your beasts and butcher us all.”
“Why doesn’t she like us?” Connie whispered.
“Because we’re different.” Her mother raised her chin. “Can you just let us sleep on the floor tonight? We’ll be gone in the morning, I promise.”
Reluctantly Rosa shook her head. “I’m sorry. Everyone in Valle knows the rules. If I make an exception for you, it sets a bad precedent.” She hesitated. “There are some caves not far from here where you can find shelter.”
She turned to find Viv at her shoulder with a basket of supplies. Though once she would have forbidden this much help, she didn’t interfere when the older woman placed it in Colleen’s hands. Rosa turned her back, unwilling to watch or forbid the aid being granted. No, they didn’t seem like monsters. Not right now. Not until they changed and forgot they were human. Keeping folks such as these around would be akin to making love to a loaded gun.
By the time Chris returned with the bravos, the family was gone. To the caves, she hoped, and not to perdition, but they couldn’t remain in town.
“What have you done?” he demanded.
Oh, you do not take that tone with me, in front of the others.
Rosa glared daggers at him and gestured for everyone to disperse. Then it was just the two of them, but she didn’t kid herself that the others had granted them complete privacy. They would be lurking within earshot, waiting to see if this was when Chris tried to take her power for his own. She hadn’t expected this of him. Not Cristián.
“Don’t ever do that again,” she bit out. “I’m still
la jefa
, even if you sleep with me.”
He cast his eyes heavenward in disgust. “You think
that’s
what this is about? My God.” His tone said she was ridiculously stupid, which hurt nearly as much as this betrayal. “This is about your complete lack of human decency. That was a family, not a threat. You’ve been on the defensive so long that I don’t think you can discern real danger from false alarms.”
A slow burn blazed up in her chest and worked its way to her throat, giving her words a ferocious edge. “No? But you see, the skin-walkers were not monsters when we first met them, José and me. They were
people
, like this family you feel so sorry for. And in their animal forms, they tore him to bits and devoured him. Afterward they may have wept, sorry for what they did. But I didn’t get to see that. Our kind is better off apart from theirs.”
“That’s superstitious bullshit. What you’re espousing is no different from segregation. I’d think you, more than anyone, would see the wrong in what you’re doing.”
“Me,
more than anyone
? Why? Because I’m Guatemalan or—”
A former whore.
She did not speak the words aloud but she didn’t need to. He completed them with his expression, and it infuriated her.
“So I’m to have learned some great gift of generosity and humility from my former life? No, I learned to survive, and I do it well.
That’s
the lesson I learned.”
“Well, maybe it was the wrong one.”
“Ah, so you judge me now? With your many, many degrees in a world that no longer values them? Because clearly I am ignorant, and you know everything. How foolish of me to think my experiences mean something when I have you to tell me right from wrong.”
“Don’t get emotional on me. I’m trying to have a rational discussion about why it’s wrong to exile a family!”
“If you feel so bad for them, and it’s so terrible here, then go. Join them.”
THIRTY-TWO
 
Chris hadn’t felt so angry or defenseless since Ange’s death.
That Rosa could dredge up such an extreme reaction—akin to watching a dear woman die—showed just how much control she wielded over his emotions.
And, oh, he was tempted. How easy it would be just to cut ties and walk into the desert wilderness, on his own again. No responsibilities. No chance of failure.
The sparks in her eyes, however, said she expected so little from him. That hurt. And it hurt that she expected so little from the world. But right then, he was beyond being generous or understanding.
He turned on his heel and stalked out.
Perhaps it was progress that Rosa followed. “Where are you going?”
Her hushed question sounded a lot like panic, but Chris couldn’t trust it. Maybe it was just that he wanted to hear she’d give a damn if he left.
“For a walk,” he said.
Frustration lengthened his steps, increased his pace. He had just reached the outside rear of the
taberna
when Rosa grabbed his arm. “I asked you a question,
bravo
.”
Chris caught her wrist and her shoulder, spinning her against the stucco wall. For all her strength and stubbornness, she was still a petite woman—one he’d caught completely off guard. Her struggles didn’t faze him.
“Don’t move,” he growled. “You’ll break your arm.”
“Let go of me.”
He pulled her arm back until she froze. “Not until you listen.”
“I’ll kill you for this,” she said, but her words held a tremor of fear.
“I’m taking that chance to make a point.”
“About your precious skinwalkers?”
“No, about you.” Softly, as he would have that morning, he kissed her temple. She kicked against him but his hold didn’t budge. “Not everyone uses their strength to hurt, Rosita. I’ve shown you that from day one. All this time, I could’ve overpowered you. Used you. Worked against you. But I didn’t.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“That you still don’t trust me. Worse, you expect me to hurt you. You expect me to leave at the first sign of trouble—which, believe me, is tempting right now.”
He released her and stepped back, arms wide. She turned against the wall, hands pressed flat against the stucco, twisted features hurling hatred like machine-gun fire.
Chris had let her go, but he didn’t relent his real assault. “Get used to it. I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me. And I will make a human being out of you yet.”
“Human?
You
crawled out of the desert like an animal.”
“You think I don’t know that? I’m breathing again, Rosa. Because of this place and because of you. The fact that I’m fucking
shredded
right now proves I’m alive, probably for the first time in years.”
“So what does that mean? That I’m not?”
“You live here with your rituals and rugs and homemade wine. It’s all very pretty and you’ve done amazing work to make it so. But you flinch at shadows and cringe away from the world. It’s changed around you, but you haven’t changed at all. You’re still the same scared girl who sold herself—”
“Shut up!”
“And who watched her brother—”
She launched at him, all curses and shrieks. Chris caught her, but momentum threw them both to the ground. Her forehead connected with his so hard that he saw stars. Teeth sank into his forearm. He grabbed her braid and yanked. After a quick roll, he had her pinned beneath the length of his body.
“It’s still early, but this is very public,” he panted. “Rosa, don’t do this.”
“Get the fuck off me. And don’t touch me.”
“No problem.” He rolled off her and stood, dusting his jeans. “But I’ll be back. See, there’s a family out there in the caves in need of medical attention. My lamp’s out there too.”
“You’re going to give it to those skinwalkers?”
“Nope. I’m gonna trade it to Wicker for a bottle of vodka, and then I’m going to get so drunk that I can’t stand up.” He offered her a hand.
“Get away from me.” She scrambled up, wiping a speck of red from her lip. “You said you don’t use your strength against me, but you just did . . . and to teach me a lesson, no? You’re not the man I thought you were, Cristián.”
Her judgment stung because that hadn’t been his intended lesson. Maybe once she cooled off, she’d realize that he hadn’t hurt her in return—not even when she drew blood.
Despair welled in his chest. Despite their physical closeness, despite her obvious caring, she still didn’t give a damn what he thought. He might have been promoted to chief consort, but when push came to shove, she still disregarded his opinions.
With a muttered curse, he stalked away. He returned to his room and grabbed his bag of medical supplies. The town was waking up, some stumbling, some blinking in the dawn. Those awake at this mad hour made way for him as he strode toward the gate.
Rio was on duty—one of Valle’s most loyal foot soldiers. If Rosa told him to lock Chris out for good, Rio would do it. Was there anything the boy wouldn’t do for her? And by his actions, was Chris acting the traitor she believed him to be?
But over and over, he couldn’t disavow his conviction. Not every skinwalker posed a threat. Sure, he’d gone through certain wariness when Jenna first shifted, but he’d seen her goodness and sacrifice firsthand. He knew it like he knew the stretch of his own skin. In the post-Change world, he grabbed on to
any
certainty.
As dawn tinted the desert in shades of red, he also admitted that Rosa might never give in on this point. What would he do then? Stay in Valle just to prove her wrong? She’d discounted his contributions without the slightest hesitation, making him wonder if anything he did would get through to her. It was possible that no amount of steadiness—hell, no amount of love—would make this better.
He kicked a rock with a tense curse.
The caves were only a few meters away now. He’d come this far. Might as well do his damn job.
“Hello? Jacob? Are you in there?”

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