"Asaro,.Catherine.-.Redshift.21.-.Ave.de.Paso" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asaro Catherine)

"He?" My cousin scowled. "Why do you smell like liquor?"
"I drank some rum."
"When did you start messing with that shit?" He stepped closer. "I told you never to touch it. You know what happens when men see a pretty girl like you drunk? It makes them think to do what they shouldn't be doing."
"It was part of the ceremony."\
"Ceremony?" He looked around, taking in the candle stubs and pine needles scattered on the ground. Then he sighed, the fist-tight knot of his anger easing. In a gentler voice he said, "There isn't no one here. I checked the whole area."
"Then why did you shoot?"
"It was a deer. I missed it."
I stared at him. "You shot at a deer with an Uzi?"
"It surprised me. I've never seen deer here before."
"What if it had been me who surprised you?"
He touched my cheek. "You know I would never hurt you."
"You didn't shoot at a deer. It was Yahval Balamil."
His smile flashed in the darkness. "Did I hit him?"
"Don't make fun of me."
"You're mine," the Earth Lord whispered.
With a cry, I jerked back and lost my balance. I fell to the ground and rolled down the hill like a log, with mesquite ripping at my clothes. When my head struck a rock, I jolted to a stop and my sight went black. A ringing note rose in the air like a bird taking flight, then faded into faint guitar music.
"Tina!" Manuel shouted, far away.
"Mine," the Earth Lord said. "Both of you." A snake hissed near my ear.
"Stop it!" I struck at the dark air.
"Oiga!" Now Manuel sounded as if he was right above me. "I won't hurt you."
My sight was coming back, enough so I could see my cousin's head silhouetted against the stars. He was kneeling over me, his legs on either side of my hips. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Why did you scream?"
"Mine," the Earth Lord murmured.
"No!" I said.
Manuel brushed a lock of hair off my face. "I didn't mean to scare you."
Smoke was forming behind him, tendrils coming together in the outline of a stag.
"Leave him alone!" I sat up, almost knocking Manuel over, and batted at the air, as if that could defeat the smoke and protect my cousin.
"What's wrong?" Manuel stayed where he was, his knees straddling my hips, his thighs pressing on mine. He grabbed my hands, pulling them against his chest. He held them in his large grip while he caught me around the waist with his other arm. "Tu eres bueno, Tinita. It's okay."
The smoke settled onto him, a dark cloud soaking into his body, smelling of incense. Curls of smoke brushed my hands where Manuel held them, my legs where his thighs pressed mine, my breasts where his chest touched mine. The invading darkness seeped into him.
Manuel jerked as if caught by the smoke. Then he pulled me hard against himself, his breath warm on my cheek, his body musky with the scent of his jacket, his shirt, his sweat. He murmured in Tzotzil, bending his head as if searching for something. I turned my face up—and he kissed me, pressing his lips hard against my mouth.
I twisted my head to the side. "No."
"Shhh . . .," he murmured. "It's all right." He lay me back down on the ground, his body heavy on mine, like the weight of the dead.
"Manuel, stop!" I tried to roll away, but he kept me in place.
"Mine," the Earth Lord said. "Both of you."
"No. Go away!" A breeze wafted across my face, bringing the smell of sagebrush—?
And candles?
Manuel kissed me again and pulled open my jacket with his free hand. "Akushtina," he whispered. "Te amo, hija."
"Not like this." My voice shook as I struggled. "You don't mean it like this."
"Soon," the Earth Lord promised. The snake hissed again.
Panic fluttered across my thoughts. I still smelled candles. That scent, I knew it from when we had lived here. Luminarios. On Christmas Eve my mother had filled brown bags with dirt, enough in each to hold one candle. She lined the paths and walls of the front yard with the glowing beige lanterns. My mother's love in a paper bag, warming the darkness while distant whippoorwills whistled in the night.
"We can go together." Manuel moved his hand over my breast. "Together."
"Manuel, listen." I was talking too fast, but I couldn't slow down. "Do you remember the luminaries?"
His searching hand stopped as it reached my hip. "Why?"
"Remember what we swore when we were watching them? About family? How we would protect each other?"
He lifted his head to look at me, his memory of that time etched on his face. The smoke that had funneled into his body seeped out again. It swirled around him, as if trying to go inside and finding its way blocked by the power of a memory. Finally it drifted away, into the night. Somewhere an owl hooted.
Manuel made a noise, a strangled gasp he sucked into his throat. He jumped to his feet and backed up one step, still watching me. Then he spun around and strode away. Within seconds the shadows of the hill had taken him.
I got up to my knees and bent over, my arms folded across my stomach, my whole body shaking. A wave of nausea surged over me, then receded. What if he had gone through with what he started? It would have destroyed us both.
What had he meant by We can go together? Go where?
Then I knew. Under the earth. Forever.
I scrambled to my feet and ran up the hill. It wasn't until I came over the top that I saw him, a dark shadow by the truck. My hiking boots crunched on the rocks as I walked. I stopped in front of him and looked up at his face.
Once I had seen a vaquero forced to shoot his horse after a truck hit it on Interstate 10. The dying animal had lain on its side, dismay in its gaze until the cowboy ended its pain. Manuel had that same look now.