darted between the onlookers, already searching for its next meal. Before it could settle on one of them, Cora shouted and raised her rosary. "Get out of here!" she yelled at the men. "Get before this thing settles on you for its next drink."
Wilson's posse needed no further urging. They fled in all directions, horses pounding up clouds of dust. The few onlookers not among their number also heeded her advice and took to their heels.
Soon, the area around Wilson's body was empty but for the creature and the two hunters. It eyed them with hatred and desire, but the rosary in Cora's outstretched fist held it at bay. Snarls bubbled through the blood on its lips. Staring into its feral face, Victoria almost found it more frightening than the monsters they had fought at the ranch. Those, at least, had lost their humanity enough to look like monsters. This one still clung to vestiges of his human appearance, making the inhuman fury in his eyes all the more unnatural.
"Back, you damned thing!" Cora's voice rang out dry and tough in the hot evening air. "Run your scrawny ass out of my town, or I'll do it for you!"
The creature hissed in reply, bearing bloodstained teeth that still looked too human. It backed away from the hunter like a wildcat, spine arched and limbs trembling. Cora urged her frightened mare forward. The horse tossed its head and whinnied. Turning her spurs inward, the hunter punched her heels into the animal's ribs. It sprang forward, bearing down on the creature and its victim. Victoria heard Wilson's bones snap like dry branches beneath the mare's hooves. The vampire darted to one side and fled down the street.
"Wake up, girl!" Cora yelled at her. "We got us a spook on the run!"
Without thinking, Victoria spurred her own mare forward. The two women thundered down the street - now quite empty - in pursuit of their quarry. Even at a gallop, they had trouble keeping up with the vampire; its arms and legs were dark blurs beneath its body as it fled from them.
They quickly reached the outskirts of Albuquerque. Victoria knew the train station was somewhere off to their left, but the vampire was leading them eastward. Once again, the New Mexico desert opened up before her eyes, its thirsty plants nothing but silhouettes in the dwindling light. The vampire charged headlong into the wilderness, gravel flying from its heels. Even after the creature itself disappeared into the scrub, the cloud of dust it kicked up was all the trail they needed.
Cora took the lead, guiding her galloping mare around hidden obstacles with practiced ease. Riding just far enough behind her to avoid the hunter's dust cloud, Victoria bent low over her mare's neck. Around them, the desert had become a smear of dark blues and greens and browns. She did not have any idea what lay in this direction, but somewhere out there, far beyond the horizon, was the Atlantic Ocean. Each drumming stride of her mare's hooves brought her a little closer to home. The thought gave her a small measure of comfort. If Cora's plan worked, they would be heading this way again in the next day or two, relaxing in a rail carriage as they discussed a strategy for bringing justice to the black shucks.
Lost in thoughts of home, she nearly rode into Cora. Only the hunter's panicked hollering brought her back to the present. Victoria pulled on the reins as hard as she dared, her mare voicing its objections loudly. The animal stopped less than a foot from Cora's mount and champed on its bit in protest.
"Got us a problem," Cora said.
Looking beyond the hunter, Victoria's heart sank. The two of them stood at the edge of a small cliff. Below them, the desert stretched out like a great dark ocean. From the look on Cora's face, Victoria could guess what the problem was.
"It went down there?" she asked.
The hunter nodded. "All lickety-split. Ain't rightly sure if it climbed down, jumped off, or sprouted a damn pair of wings, but this is where the trail ends."
"Vampires can fly?"
"Some say so," Cora said. "Turn into bats or some such. Ain't never seen it myself."
"So what do we do now?"
"Ain't much we can do, way I see it. This here cliff don't taper off for a spell in either direction. By the time we got to the bottom, all we'd find is a bunch of scrub and a cold trail."