showed up when you did. What I can't puzzle out is why you thought it best to just stand there and gape at me instead of lending a hand."
Victoria's face burned. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."
"Well, ain't too much of a loss. Vampire's dead, and you probably would have wound up shooting me."
"I resent that," Victoria said. "I'll have you know that I defeated one of these creatures on my own after you left me in the barn. It very nearly killed me in the process."
Cora snorted. "You're making that up."
"I will prove it to you," Victoria said. "The corpse is still up in the barn loft along with my crucifix."
"You dropped my crucifix?" When Victoria nodded, Cora shook her head. "You're like to kill us both, you know that? What kind of vampire hunter goes around dropping their weapons like they was cow dung?"
Victoria straightened her back. "It wasn't intentional. Besides, I don't call myself a vampire hunter, so I don't really see how that applies to me."
"You're one now whether you call yourself it or not," Cora said, "though calling yourself one might make explaining what happened to your throat a bit easier."
Victoria touched her neck, suddenly remembering the bite wound. Pulling a red bandana from her trouser pocket, she tied it around her throat. Cora smirked at her before she stepped out of the bedroom and started down the stairs.
The jingling of the hunter's spurs rang in Victoria's ears. A vampire hunter? Her? The title sounded ominous, something to carve on her tombstone after her untimely death. She shook her head. Whatever else she may be, she certainly wasn't a vampire hunter. Killing one vampire didn't make her one any more than killing a squirrel with a stone made her a squirrel hunter. Cora was just trying to rattle her.
"Get on down here, Vicky." Cora's voice echoed in the hallway. "We got us work to do."
Victoria laid a palm on the butt of her gun and made her way down the stairs. Cora stood in the living room, wiping her saber on the dead woman's dress. Gore streaked the floral pattern. She slid the blade back into the sheath at her side and turned to Victoria "Bastards got all my guns off me."
"What?"
"Ain't rightly sure how it happened. This one jumped out at me in the barn, and I followed it into the house," she said, shoving the corpse with her boot. "Had it in my sights when the other feller got me from behind. Lost my rifle when I went down."
"Yes, I saw it over there," Victoria said, pointing.
Cora nodded. "I managed to get that one off me before the lady had her a chance to join in. Got my Colt out and blew her away, and the other one lit out up the stairs. I chased it on up and saw that both doors was open. I checked the left one first, not thinking straight, and the damn thing got me from behind again. My gun went flying out my hand again, and I didn't get my sword out long before that got knocked away, too. We went around a few times, dancing about each other like tom cats in a spat, and that's about when you showed up."
"Was this encounter unusual, then?" Victoria asked. "It seems that they were able to sneak up on you a number of times."
"Well, I ain't no spring chicken no more," Cora said. "In case you forgot, been a good while since I've done this sort of thing. My old bones got some rust on them now, and they take to creaking a good deal more."
Victoria nodded, feeling slightly guilty for having asked. Cora had to be at least twenty years her senior, and her years had been hard-won in this unforgiving frontier. Looking at the hunter's leathery, sun-browned face, Victoria became aware of her own pale skin. Her hands were soft and unwrinkled, not wiry and gnarled from use. In that moment, she felt more out of place than she had standing on the streets of Albuquerque in her finery. She may have bought boots and denim trousers, a horse and a gun, but she wasn't of this world and never would be.
"Well, we should get them horses put away," Cora said. "Mind fetching my rifle for me?"
Without looking up, Victoria picked up the weapon and handed it to her.
"Much obliged." Cora slid the rifle into place on her back. "Now then, let's have