onehanded before, and she was already tired from the day's ride. Maybe something was up there after all, and Cora really hadn't wanted to make the climb. With each rung, that possibility seemed more and more likely, but Victoria would not be outdone. Grumbling to herself, she continued to move up toward the barn loft.
Near the top, she paused when a thought struck her. Suppose there really was a vampire in the loft? Would Cora be able to climb up quickly enough to help? Would she even bother? She already had everything she needed: the location of the man called Fodor Glava. Maybe she would just abandon Victoria to her fate now to save herself the trip to England. Victoria stole a quick glance toward the ground. The old hunter still stood guard in front of the door, but for how long?
Still, Victoria had no choice: it was either check the loft or climb back down and accuse Cora of treachery to her face. She had better odds of surviving a vampire.
The ladder brought her through the hole in the loft floor. Victoria paused when she reached it, taking a look around. A single window admitted a stream of grey light into the interior, illuminating bales of hay that were strewn about in no apparent order. In the semi-dark, they looked like a herd of squarish beasts sleeping away the day.
After a few moments passed with no visible movement, Victoria finished the climb and cautiously stepped off the ladder. Her footsteps sounded hollow on the boards, and she forced herself not to think about the expanse of nothing beneath her. It would only make her giddy, and she needed all of her wits if there was anything up here. Taking the crucifix back into her left hand, she began exploring the loft.
Near the ladder lay a coil of rope she mistook at first for a snake. Rolling her eyes at herself, she walked over to the nearest hay bale. It seemed ordinary, and nothing hid behind it. The same was true of the others she inspected. With each non-discovery, her fears wilted a little more.
Coming around the last of the bales, she paused. There was something lying in the far corner. It was probably just a pile of rags, but it looked wrong somehow. Long and thin, like a person hiding beneath a blanket. It was too small to be either the blue-eyed man or his enslaved ghoul. Still, it was in the corner farthest from the window. It made her uneasy, but curiosity soon overcame her caution, and she moved to investigate.
The closer she came to it, the more the object resembled a sleeping person. Pausing a few feet away from it, she reassured herself that it was probably just a bundle of hay or farm tools wrapped in a burlap sheet. If it was a vampire, surely it would have attacked her by now. Nothing to fear.
Stepping up to the lump, she prodded it with the toe of her boot. It didn't move. More confident now, Victoria slid the crucifix into her belt and reached down. The burlap was rough on her fingers as she pulled it back.
The face of a young girl emerged.
Victoria cried out in surprise, jumping backward. She tripped over her own boots and fell onto the floorboards, her gun sliding off into the shadows. Scrambling on to her hands and knees, she turned for another look at the bundle, a mixture of terror and revulsion twisting her face.
"What is it?" Cora's voice drifted up from below, but Victoria barely heard. Her mouth had gone dry, like someone had stuffed her throat full of cotton. Shallow breaths escaped her lungs as she stared, transfixed by the creature under the burlap.
She had thought it was the face of a young girl, perhaps ten or eleven years old. Some parts still retained the girl's features: soft brown hair, delicate eyebrows, and a thin nose. The similarities ended there, however. A snarl of sharp teeth clustered like broken twigs in the girl's mouth. Some of them had skewered her lips as they grown, punching through her skin like knives through fabric. The skin itself was waxy and bloodless. The girl's eyes were closed, and her chest did not rise and fall with her breathing, yet Victoria was certain that the creature wasn't dead.
"Dammit, girl, what's happening up there?" Cora called.
The girl's eyes snapped open.
Victoria's breath caught in her throat as it looked at her. She could see the