shoved to one side with all her might. The girl was incredibly strong, but she still only weighed as much as a child. Her cold fingers remained clamped round Victoria's throat as they rolled over.
Now lying face-to-face on the floor like lovers, Victoria looked into the girl's eyes. They were alive with lust, even through the thin white film covering them. The girl's fingers moved, one hand slipping from Victoria's neck. Fangs parted. Victoria sucked in a desperate breath. Pain exploded through her neck as the girl's teeth sliced into her. She heard a faint slurping sound, and she knew she was dying.
Gritting her teeth, not knowing what would happen, she shoved the revolver's barrel into the girl's side and pulled the trigger.
The recoil threw the gun out of her grasp. At once blind and deaf, Victoria lay stunned. She could breathe again, but that was all she knew. Seconds passed. Her vision began to clear, the bright purple streak left by the barrel's flash fading into the shadows. Another breath, choked with gun smoke.
A fit of coughing took her, and she curled into a fetal position while her body expelled the smoke and the panic and the feeling of cold fingers around her throat. She tried to pull herself up. A hand, a knee, a push against the rough wood. Soon she was kneeling, leaning against a bale. Hay tickled her ear. A final spasm shook her small frame before releasing her.
As the ringing in her ears subsided, she could hear a faint, gurgling moan. Her eyes went wide, searching the loft for its source. Catching sight of her gun lying on the floor, she crawled toward it, her boots making hollow thumps against the boards.
With the revolver again in her hand, she rose to her feet. Her pulse pounded in her temples. She could feel a warm trickle of blood flowing down her neck. Dabbing at it with her hand made it sting, and her fingers came away sticky. She would need to tie it off, but not now. She had to find the source of the sound and silence it once and for all.
Following the moans, she soon came upon a ruined heap of flesh. The girl lay on her side, rocking back and forth. A dark liquid dripped from her teeth, blood mixed with something thicker. The bullet had torn a hole in her dress and into her chest. Smoke poured out of the wound, as if the girl's soul were leaking out of her and drifting up among the rafters. The eyes rolled toward Victoria, still full of hunger and rage.
Looking down on her broken foe, a sudden wave of pity washed over her. Despite its grotesque features, it still looked more like a young girl than a monster. The revolver shook in Victoria's hand. For a moment, she didn't see the girl's' fangs or her filmy eyes. Instead, she saw a dying child, weeping with what strength she had left, her body ripped apart by Victoria's gun.
Dropping the revolver, Victoria turned her head and retched.
When the feeling passed, she wiped her mouth and retrieved her gun. The girl reached for her, fingers like claws. A moan of rage bubbled out between jagged teeth. Victoria's mouth was a thin line, and her blue eyes were dark with purpose. She centered the revolver's barrel between the girl's milky eyes and pulled the hammer back. When the gun kicked, she was expecting it. The flash from the barrel lit the loft like a bolt of lightning, and the thunder shook dust down from the rafters. As her vision cleared, she saw the girl's lifeless eyes staring back at her.
Air left her lungs in a deep sigh. Victoria holstered her gun and tried to shake the sting from her hand. Turning from the dead girl at her feet, she made her way back to the ladder. The daylight had all but disappeared from the window. Peering outside, Victoria could see an angry mass of clouds churning overhead. Cora's words echoed in her mind; if they were going to finish their business before it rained, they needed to hurry.
"Cora," she called out when she reached the ladder. "Are you there?"
No answer. Victoria crouched by the opening and looked through. The barn appeared to be empty. "Cora?"
Silence.
Placing a boot on the ladder, Victoria began her descent. She glanced over her shoulders as she climbed, searching for any sign of the hunter or another one of those creatures. Aside from the