Jennifer felt it, tensing. Other than that, she didn't move.
"We have an offer for you."
"And an untouched gift."
Cesar grunted in recognition, putting his weapon back under his pillow. When he yawned lazily, the twins grimaced in distaste as bad breath mixed with the other strong odors.
"So, you have returned. I did not think you would."
A candle flared to life, giving them a better view of the Mexican and the thin, bloody girl at his feet whose swollen face and blood-crusted thighs said she had passed a rough night in Cesar's tent.
"What happened to you?" the slaver demanded, getting a look at their bandages as he pulled up his cruddy jeans. The material was tacky with dried blood - the girl's from the look of her. "Who attacked you?"
"A Witch," the bald brothers answered together.
The lightly-bearded Slaver grinned hesitantly as he lit a cigar. Cesar had never really sure about these two, and he studied their faces while pulling on muddy boots. If not for the good work they had done for him in the past, he would kill them here and now. "A bruja?"
They nodded at the same time, dark eyes full of hatred. "Yes, magic."
"Spells. A Witch."
Cesar's slanted eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what they could hope to gain from such a lie. When he found nothing, he let himself consider what it could do for him. He was no stranger to the occult and its mysteries, and if the twins were telling the truth, if they had found what the old world hadn't, his plans to seed America with his bastards and control it through them would be unstoppable. "You have seen this?"
The twins nodded together and told him everything that had happened. They offered no excuses for their failure, didn't talk up their actions, and it convinced the Mexican. The mercenaries believed what they were saying. Was it possible? A real Witch?
The three men tensed suddenly, turning as the flap opened to reveal a stocky, gray-eyed Mexican with crisscrossed gun belts, and an ugly scar that stretched across his forehead and ran over the top of his right eye. It cut his face in half and gave him the appearance of someone who liked causing pain. "Everything is okay?"
Cesar waved him in with his deformed hand. The twins ran scornful eyes over his broken, yellow teeth, baggy shirt, and torn, muddy pants, but saw him for what he was - a possible threat to their plans.