Lock let Lillith situate on his shoulder before he climbed up the second rope ladder to the bridge. He got up just in time to see the end results of Carmilla's attack. Shock kicked her off, and actually seemed content for a few seconds, as it looked like she'd won. Lock noticed that Shock was missing her hat, and at first assumed that it got knocked off in the fight.

Then Carmilla spoke. If Lock wasn't already chalk-white, he would have gone pale.

"...Oh, no," he said quietly. "She [i]didn't[/i]."

Even from here, he caught the look of fury on Shock's face. With Carmilla down on one knee, the oldest trickster saw a wicked opportunity and grabbed for the vampiress's hair, making sure to grab near the root. Shock then forcibly turned Carmilla's head as far as she could.

"Unlike those cauldron-stirrers," she said coldly, "I don't [i]need[/i] magic."

She stepped down on Carmilla's calf to keep her kneeling.

"Or did you forget why half this town [i]fears me[/i]?"