at all, but the former gunman remained where he stood. The elder vampire watched in despair as Wash finally took to his heels, holy terror lending speed to his flight.
Glava opened his eyes at the sound of approaching boots. Raising his head, he stared into the cold brown eyes of the hunter. Mart Duggan stood beside her, his raised crucifix sending more waves of crippling pain through the vampire's body. Cora Oglesby held only her saber. Around them, the night was silent, as if the rest of the world had ceased to exist. Not even the stamping of a horse's hoof disturbed the frigid air as vampire and hunter regarded each other.
"How the mighty are fallen," Cora finally said.
"Just like your husband," Glava replied, managing a sneer through his pain. "Did you say those same words to him as you shot him in the face?"
"Wasn't no need," Cora said. "He wouldn't have heard me if I had, not with his soul trapped inside your filthy body."
"Where he has served me for ten years," the vampire said. "If you kill me now, his soul will be forever lost to this world. You will never see his face again."
Cora drew her arm back and slapped him across the cheek with the flat of her blade. Glava tumbled sideways, landing face-first in the packed snow. "I ain't about to let him suffer just to give my own selfish self peace of mind." She knelt down, grabbed a fistful of Glava's hair, and jerked him upright. She pressed the point of her sword into the vampire's suit just above his heart.
"This is for my Ben."
Cora slid the saber through his chest in one fluid motion even as Glava opened his mouth. His reply became a hell ish wail, thin and piercing, that filled the empty streets with the voice of the damned. The men on horseback clapped their hands over their ears, and Mart Duggan winced and turned his head, but Cora Oglesby never flinched. She kept the sacred blade in her hand as the vampire's body writhed around it. Smoke burst forth from Glava's mouth and nose, rising in a great cloud above their heads. As it rose, the cries of a thousand liberated souls filled the air. Their voices grew fainter as the smoke, caught in the breath of a night breeze, melted into the stars. When the last voice had faded into the distance, the golden glow was gone from Glava's eyes.
Planting a boot on the vampire's shoulder, Cora pulled the saber out of the lifeless corpse. The blade shimmered in the moonlight as she brought it down once more. She wiped it clean on the hem of Glava's suit, slid the blade home, and turned to face the cluster of men. They all stared at her open-mouthed, faces frozen in amazement. Even Mart Duggan's blue eyes were wide in his pale face.
A grin blossomed across her lips. "Why the long faces, boys?" Kicking back with her heel, she drove a silver spur into the dead vampire's side. "Ain't got nothing to worry about no more." She held out her hand toward the marshal, and he handed her the spent revolver. She slipped the silver barrel back into her holster and pressed her way through the crowd of horses to where her own mare stood waiting. The two lawmen followed, quiet prayers still falling from Sanchez's lips.
Cora climbed into the saddle and looked down at them, her grin never wavering. "Go on home, you two. Get some sleep for a change." She tapped Our Lady's sides with her heels and walked the mare back to the group of men on horseback. James Townsend sat atop his big carriage horse, the cross in his hand all but forgotten.
"My God, Cora," he said when she rode up next to him.
"Why is your jaw hanging?" she asked. "Ain't that what you and Harcourt wanted?"
"Yes, but to have witnessed such an event…" James said, his empty hand groping for words. "The scholars at Oxford will never believe my account of this."
"Don't forget to talk up your part in it," she said. "If you boys hadn't been awake when I came calling tonight, I might have had to do all the work myself."
James let out a small chuckle. "I will be hard-pressed to convince them of my credentials as a vampire killer."
Cora shrugged. "I'm sure you'll bring them around." She held up a hand to halt his reply. "Before you get to all that writing and