Butthis . He knew this was much different, and it felt way more complicated.
Shit.
She walked ahead of him on the road. Conversation had slowed to nothing at all, and they trekked along the dusty trail. They'd been walking for nearly an hour since leaving the ghost town and seen nothing at all except mountains and cacti and dirt. Not even one car had come along.
He watched her move along at a clip. She never complained about her feet, or that she needed to take a break. She now carried her jacket, and he focused exclusively on her perfect ass in her tight dark blue jeans as she moved along ahead of him.
The ass of the enemy, he thought absently. Which suddenly stopped in its tracks.
She got the map out and looked at it.
He'd been so focused on watching her walk that he hadn't even noticed the big black tree they'd come up to.
It was well over twenty feet tall, with a thick trunk leading to hundreds of sharp branches. The whole thing was the color of coal, and it bore no leaves, as if it had been on fire once and died but still refused to give up. It was surrounded by a low fence, and a plaque was attached to the trunk.
ASESINO DEL MONSTRO
Legend has it that this tree was enchanted by a Navajo tribal chief as protection against forces of evil thatcould threaten theland that surrounds it. While the treedoes not show any outward signs of life, it continues to grow at a rateof one inch per annum, which makes it a true Arizonian mystery.
"Pretty," Quinn said.
Janie was looking at the map again. "According to this, we need to go west toward the bird thing. If it's to scale based on what we just walked to get here, I figure it's about fifteen miles away. And then past the desert ridge we should get to the big rectangle with the X on it. Simple."
They could hear a humming sound.
Quinn listened. "The highway must be over there."
"We can hitch a ride." Janie looked at her cell phone again. "I can't believe there's still no service. I seriously need to go with another service provider."
Quinn walked around the circumference of the tree. "Sure is ugly."
"It fights evil."
"So it says. I wonder how it works."
A scorpion moved toward the park bench to the far right of the tree. They were the scariest bugs he'd ever seen, and they seemed to be everywhere in the state. He turned to look at Janie instead of at the ugly tree behind him. She made for a much better view.
He forced a smile. "So, now what?"
She just stared at him, her eyes growing wider by the second.
"Janie?"
"Quinn," she said quietly. "Walk toward me right now. Don't turn around."
"What?"
He felt something brush against his leg, and he looked down.
It was black and thin, and hard as a rock, and twining around his ankle. It looked like a branch from the tree. Another branch did the same to his other ankle.
He looked over his shoulder and his heart thudded against his rib cage. TheAsesino delMonstro had leaned over in his direction, all of its sharp branches now pointing at him. The thinner branches had grown and escaped from the fenced-in area to touch him.
Monster killer.
He tried to yank away from it. "I can't move," he said, looking up to meet Janie's wide-eyed gaze. She had her gun out. The branch tightened at his ankle.
Another branch wound around his chest as if it was an anaconda, the sharp tip of it raising to eye level. It seemed to be assessing him. The branch around his chest felt dry and brittle but still strong enough to snap him in half if it chose to.
"Quinn!" Janie shouted.
Then the branch reared back and thrust at his shoulder, piercing his flesh. He yelled out in pain.
He was going to die. The tree was going to tear him apart.
Janie shot once, and the branch around his chest dropped to the ground. Another shot and his right leg was free. A third and his left was free. He scrambled away from the tree as fast as he could, holding a hand to his wounded shoulder.
The tree seemed to hiss and growl at them, and Janie felt a tingling magic sweep through the air. It hurt like hell. And then the tree was still and as dead as it looked when they first arrived.
There was a bench to their left, and Janie helped Quinn over to it. She felt as shocked as Quinn looked.
"I told you to move." Janie's words were sharp and curt. "When I tell you to do something, you should do it."
"Noted."
She pulled his black T-shirt down and away from his shoulder and inspected the wound. She let out a long exhale. "It's just a scratch."
"Sure as hell doesn't feel like just a scratch."
"You're damn lucky. It must have only been checking you out."
He snorted. "To find out how much of a monster I was. Well, it sensed it, didn't it? That I'm a vampire?
The tree was programmed right. You should have let it do what it had to do and kill me."
She slapped him. He looked at her with shock and held a hand up to his face. "What the hell was that for?"
Her face felt flushed, and she knew her eyes must look glossy from the tears she was holding back.
"Don't talk about yourself like that. You don't deserve to die that way."
"Of course I do. I'm a monster, Janie."
"You're a vampire. That's true. But you're not a monster. I've seen lots of vamps—and a hell of a lot of humans too—that deserved death more than you do." Every word she said was the truth. He didn't deserve to die. Not from the tree, and not from her boss's orders. "Why do you have to be so stubborn?"
"How can you say that after what happened last night?"