Chapter Text
I remembered the day my brother brought back a puppy from the border. Skittish thing, malnourished to the point where his bones stuck out like bushels of grass on the dunes down by the Gulf. His left ear had been gnawed off and whatever fur he had left clung to my clothes as I chased him down the street. I wanted to help, but even back then running after a creature whose speed—despite its pitiful state—outmatched mine, was bothersome. Running after a newborn was worse.
“Fucker, cut it out!” I screamed after the man as I chased him over the hill, wondering if he even understood me. With the Repatriation sending hundreds of farm hands and Mexican Americans down here, English had become more widespread. But I doubted that the bearded vagrant cared much for his new competition’s tongue.
He must have thought he died and went to heaven when Maria crawled into his tent.
I ducked my head and pushed my legs to their limit, not hesitating for a second when the white streak finally stopped, halted by the sweet smell of clean blood that the wind carried over from the farmhouse nearby. I rammed my feet into his back and tore his legs off before his rabid instincts could push him towards the family, who was still soundly sleeping in their beds. They wouldn’t for long though if he didn’t stop wailing soon.
“¡Silencio, cabrón!” I tried my luck again, this time in Spanish, but he kept squealing. A lamp flickered on inside the house, throwing a solitary ray of light out the window.
Time to get out of here.
I threw the bastard over my shoulders and grabbed his legs with my left before running back to the encampment. His harrowing screams echoed in my ears, loud enough that I contemplated removing his jaw for a second. But that would only give me one more thing to carry and my hands were pretty full already.
Luckily, his cries and clawing subsided to a low whimpering the moment we entered Jasper’s reach. I could feel my anger melt away as well. It was instantly replaced by the calm melancholy that usually kept the newborns in check. Jasper must have slipped for this dumbass to get away in the first place.
He was sitting on an overturned crate in the middle of the camp now. Staring down at the dirt on his boots, he resembled the old veteran he was more closely than his eternal youth should have allowed. He didn’t move, even as I dropped the runner and his broken pieces in front of him. The newborn’s hand immediately twitched towards his legs, desperate to stop the pain that being separated from them caused.
“Any trouble?” Jasper’s voice was smooth like liquid honey, but the lack of emotion ran a shiver down my spine. I’d have to come up with something to lift his spirits later. But right now, there were other priorities. Like the four newborns standing in a circle nearby, occasionally growling.
“No, though we interrupted that poor family’s beauty sleep.”
That finally made my friend look up. His eyes were glowing red, just like mine. Feeding had been good recently; easy, with the Great Depression supplying desperate people in a sheer endless stream. Nobody missed them.
“Don’t worry, they didn’t see anything,” I assured him.
Jasper clenched his jaw and returned to staring at his boots. “Good. Take them back, I’ll deal with the rest.”
I looked around the small campsite. Tents were ripped, crates shattered, and bags torn open. Clothes mixed with body parts in the dirt. It was a mess but judging from the three females who were finally all dressed in trousers, it had been worth it. That would only be a small mercy for Jasper, though. “Are you sure? I can take care of it.”
“I said ‘go’, Peter.”
Stubborn fool.
I hustled the old man to his feet and shoved him towards the group in the back. His legs were already reattached and able to break his fall. I wish it went that quickly for me these days. “Everyone, follow me. And if one of you thinks about running, you can ask him what a bad idea that is.”
There was some hissing and crouching from the group, but they fell in line and followed me without another incident. At least for now. Their true colours would only show once we were out of Jasper’s reach. Not something I was looking forward to.
xxx
To my surprise, the way back to the hacienda was more or less uneventful. The boy, he couldn’t have been much older than fifteen, jumped the younger one of the two Mexican girls about halfway through, but he quickly learned his lesson when I took his hand for it. It was wiggling in my pocket now, anxious to reunite with its owner. I would keep it for an hour or so, set another example.
We were greeted by the usual anonymity and aggression that occurred whenever I took a group feeding, while the others had to stay behind. However, the other newborns were older, some of them rapidly approaching their one year-mark, and thus wise enough to know that airing those feelings was a bad idea. Still, two of the older ones cornered the vagrant when I closed the barn door behind us. I let them, filing it under fight training. After all, it would be a while before Jasper showed up to give them their first instruction, with the mood he was currently in.
I settled on a chair by the window, keeping an eye on the scuffle to make sure they didn’t accidentally go too far and kill the old man. Following the newborns’ fighting had lost its excitement a long time ago. And with the types of recruits Maria was recently amassing, it couldn’t have been further from becoming interesting again. Of the eighteen newborns I currently had to watch, ten were either too young or too old to turn into formidable fighters, and the rest were women. Well, there was one—Mateo if I remembered correctly—who could maybe become half-decent. He was scrawny and on the younger side, but he was tall, topping both me and Jasper in height. If he only knew how to use those unnaturally long limbs of his properly.
“What are we waiting for?”
I turned my head and found the source of the silvery voice to be one of the females we had taken out. Maria had shoved her into the barn two days ago; I remembered because I was surprised to see someone with hair as pale as mine. Her recent choice of newborns spoke to Maria not planning any conquests soon, and that usually meant she didn’t wander far to collect recruits. I had no idea how a white American ended up with us.
“Orders,” I replied, one eye still trained on the fighting threesome. Their moves had slowed down, it was only a question of minutes now before they grew tired of it.
“Orders to do what?”
Good question. I had no idea. And neither did Jasper, I had asked him on multiple occasions.
For the first two and a half years that I had been around, Maria constantly pushed for more. Monterrey wasn’t enough, we needed Saltillo as well. Then San Luis Potosí, Laredo, San Antonio and eventually Austin. When we weren’t fighting, we were either training or feeding. There was rarely a quiet moment. But these days, it was mostly just waiting. Six months had passed since our last battle and Maria hadn’t mentioned expanding to Jasper once. So, we waited. For her to finally come up with a new plan or another coven to find the courage to challenge us.
“It’s okay to say ‘I don’t know’ every once in a while.”
The newborn’s voice pulled me from my thoughts again. My eyes abandoned the three troublemakers and focused on her. She was very pretty, in a delicate way. But then, all female recruits were beyond beautiful. Still, there was something about her. She was merely a few days old and should have barely been able to string together a few words. And yet, she did not only form full sentences but also managed to call me out on my ignorance. It was remarkable.
I chuckled. “Well, I guess ‘I don’t know’ then.”
The woman returned my smile and took another step in my direction. She was tiny, but unlike some of the other females we previously had, her body seemed to be developed to the point where calling her a girl would have been an insult. It was as if someone had taken a woman and shrunk her to the size of a teenager. Still, I didn’t doubt that she would not have no issues snapping me in half.
“We will have to wait and see then,” she said. “Do you mind if I wait with you?”
Usually, I would have issued a warning to keep her from coming closer about now. But somehow, I didn’t mind her approaching. The possibility to converse in my mother tongue was enticing, especially since Jasper had become more and more taciturn lately. And so, I allowed it.
She stopped a few feet away and sat down beneath the window. The moonlight illuminated her hair, almost blending it with the fairness of her skin. It was forming all types of unruly shapes, likely due to leftover gel that had survived the last days. It was difficult to make out how long it was in the pale light, as it disappeared just below her chin. But I suspected that it couldn’t be much longer than mine. Otherwise, Maria would have cut it before changing her. Unless she doesn’t care about that anymore too.
There was an amused look in her ruby eyes as I passed over them, and I wondered if she had noticed my staring. If she did, however, she chose not to point it out. Instead, in another strangely civil gesture, she held her hand out in my direction and introduced herself. “I’m Charlotte.”
“Peter,” I returned and took her hand, silently hoping she wouldn’t crush mine.
She didn’t.