Starglow Basin Soto.

he’s still reeling from the news. their last bargaining chip. dematerialized. lifted. 

how the fuck does that happen?

juarez tells him it’s osiel. niño thinks it’s the new bitch; too pretty, he points out. juarez grunts in agreement. 

soto squeezes his eyes shut, as if that would banish their ghosts from his mind. but it’s a different kind of ghost that comes fumbling around the borders he’s securing — and were it not for the fact she had once FED him, soto would have killed her then and there. 

because she was one of them. 

her leg’s busted and she looks like she’s rode through the desert for days. he sniffs the air; nothing but stale sweat and acrid body odor. 

que ha occurido? he queries distrustfully, one ear turned back to the two ghosts bickering about her arrival in the back of his skull.