Carmilla raced up the path, grinning when Laura's hold tightened across the back of her neck. They had plenty of time to get back to the castle, but Carmilla hadn't survived this long without knowing how to take advantage of a situation. Besides, the tiny human was, well, tiny, and light.

They cleared the forest a few minutes later and the lights of the village were easy beacons to her night vision. She slowed down to stroll as their little path joined a well-traveled road leading into the village center.

Laura squirmed in her arms until she stopped to lower her to the ground.

"Um, thanks," Laura said. "But I should probably walk from here. I'm sure we can get a couple of horses in the village."

Carmilla raised one eyebrow as she started walking again. "Get as in not pay for?"

Laura looked guilty. "I don't carry money around. I'm sure they'll know who I am though."

Carmilla sighed and stuffed a hand into the waistband of her riding pants. She pulled out a small cloth bag and shook out a handful of silver coins. "Should be enough for one horse."

"You could probably just take one. No one here could stop you."

"And that, Hollis, is just how easy it is for us to recruit humans. Treat them even remotely fairly, and they come in droves to get away from you aristocrats."

Laura hung her head and walked in silence. Carmilla reached out and took her hand.

Laura looked up, a tear glistening in her eye that she wiped away with an angry brush. "I would have sent someone back to pay them or return the horse."

Carmilla reached up and stroked her tear-stained cheek. "I think you would have. Maybe that's why I pulled you out of that river and spent a very uncomfortable day buried in my own self-dug grave."

Laura's eyes widened. "Oh! Oh! That's how you stayed out of the sun?"

Carmilla smirked. "I don't naturally smell like dirt and wet leaves. Second thing I do when we get back is take a long bath."

"Second?" Laura asked.

Carmilla frowned. "Yeah, the first thing is kill Kirsch."

Laura stopped, pulling Carmilla to a halt by their joined hands. "I don't think he did it."

"Sweetheart, you are far too trusting. Why wouldn't it have been him? He built the bridge, he could easily have set explosives in the framework."

Laura waved a finger. "But he wouldn't have known we would go visit that bridge. You didn't agree to go until the night before."

Carmilla gently pulled Laura along into a slow walk again. "That gave him an entire day to set it up. Seriously, who else would it have been? Not your love-sick Danny. She wouldn't take that risk with you."

"There's nothing between me and Danny!" Laura said.

"Okay, okay." Carmilla hid her smile.

"Sometimes I think you're just jealous," Laura said with a smirk.

"Weren't we discussing who's trying to kill you?"

"Us," said Laura. "I think it's time we admit maybe someone is after both of us."

They were in the village proper now, and Carmilla sensed the people watching them from closed shutters. She remembered this village on the night they invaded. Insular group, didn't put up any kind of fight. Then again, the only ones capable of fighting were probably pulled in to the castle area to protect the ruling family.

"There's a farrier along the eastern road," Carmilla said. "He'll either have a horse for hire or know who does."

After a short walk and a shorter negotiation, they rode out of the village bareback on the back of a brown quarter horse, easily sturdy enough to take two small women on its back. Carmilla sat in front holding the reins, with Laura behind her, arms wrapped around her waist.

"You know, I could have lead the horse," Laura said. "I am a good rider."

Carmilla smirked. "I like it this way."

Laura leaned in, her breath a whisper against Carmilla's ear. "I bet you do."

Carmilla put her heels to the horse. The sooner they got back to the castle the safer they'd both be. Something was shifting between them, and she wasn't quite sure she was ready for that.

A couple of hours hard ride kept Laura quiet until they rode through the castle portcullis. Word spread before them, and Jean-Paul greeted them at the steps to the main hall.

"Enjoying an evening's ride?" he asked, helping Laura off the horse.

Carmilla swung her leg over and jumped down. "Glad to see you were worried about us."

Jean-Paul gave her a quick bow. "You weren't in any real danger. That was our first clue."

Two figures stepped out into the darkness. Even backlit, Carmilla knew it was Danny and Kirsch. She whipped around Jean-Paul and had Kirsch by the throat and up against the hall's stone outer wall before anyone else had a chance to react.

"Maybe I'll send you back to my brother, piece by piece," she growled.

Laura was at her side, hands holding her arm. "Please, Carmilla. We don't know if he had anything to do with it."

Carmilla felt her resolve slipping and swore softly. How had she let this tiny human get under her skin?

Jean-Paul stepped up on her other side. "We actually do know the culprits, and it wasn't him."

Carmilla let Kirsch go, and he dropped to the ground, gasping, with Danny bent over him. Well that was a change. She stepped around them both and stomped into the hall. "Two hot baths, then a meal, then you tell me what the hell you are talking about." She paused to look back at Jean-Paul. "And don't let that Zeta bastard out of this hall until then."

She needed the dirt out of her hair, and a certain human out of her thoughts for a time.