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Shimmer

The Wicked Woods

 

Book 2

 

kailin gow

 

 

PRAISE FOR THE WICKED WOODS

 

 

 

 

Another addicting new series from Ms. Gow. Briony is the perfect mix of kick-butt teen heroine, flaws, and teen angst. The town of Wicked is vivid, and the colorful inhabitants there are at once familiar, yet new. I love the relationship between Aunt Sophie and Briony best, but the two hot brothers vying for Briony’s love spices things up, too!

 

Naya's Girls Night Out Book Picks

Intrigue, mystery involving a missing family, creepy setting, colorful characters in an idyllic resort-like town and a paranormal plot filled with twists and turns delivered in a fun and engaging style; the Wicked Woods is now one of my favorite *spoiler* werewolf young adult series. The family relationship theme, the handling of difficult teen high school issues such as bullying and trying to fit in puts this teenage series in the must read for teens book list.

 

Amber Johnson, age 24

 

 

Mysterious, scary, fun, funny, and promising. Wicked Woods rock!

 

Susan, early 20s.

 

I’m hooked. Wicked Woods is a fictitious place, isn’t it? You could have fooled me. Like Forks in Twilight, I totally thought this was a real place. Gow’s world-building is amazing. Briony seems so real in how she thinks and acts. I can’t tell you how much I love Aunt Sophie. Truly a book and promising book series where the women, young and old, are amazing.

Scarlett, YA Fantasy Book Club

 

Other Book Series Available from the same author of The Wicked Woods

 

 

the phantom diaries

 

What happens to the Phantom after the tragedy at the Paris Opera House is the basis for this fantastic tale of The Phantom Diaries, loosely based on Gaston Leroux's classic, The Phantom of the Opera, but with a new tale and a modern twist. This new series for older teens and young adults is told through the eyes of 18 year-old Annette Binoche, who lands a job at the New York Metropolitan Opera House as a seamstress' assistant only to become the lead singer of the Opera House, with the help of the mysterious, yet highly-seductive Phantom.

 

 

dark memories (the phantom diaries, #2)

 

The evil presence has permeated every core of Annette Binoche's life, attempting to destroy everything and everyone she holds dear. Can she break free from its hold and regain the trust of her friends and family? Eric is forced to confront his past, while Annette is forced to decide on her future. Will it include Eric, Aaron or Chace? Or no one at all?

 

 

 

 

Bitter Frost

 

All her life, Breena had always dreamed about fairies as though she lived among them...beautiful fairies living among mortals and living in Feyland. In her dreams, he was always there the breathtakingly handsome but dangerous Winter Prince, Kian, who is her intended. When Breena turns sixteen, she begins seeing fairies and other creatures mortals don t see. Her best friend Logan, suddenly acts very protective. Then she sees Kian, who seems intent on finding her and carrying her off to Feyland. That's fine and all, but for the fact that humans rarely survive a trip to Feyland, a kiss from a fairy generally means death to the human unless that human has fairy blood in them or is very strong, and although Kian seemed to be her intended, he seems to hate her and wants her dead.

 

 

 

Forever Frost (The Frost Series, #2)

 

Breena's entry into Feyland is marred by danger and beauty. A prisoner in her own palace, she longs to see and touch her forbidden prince Kian. Yet her heart is also still with her friend Logan. The discovery of a long-lost figure in Breena's life propels Breena into the heart of fae politics. In a stunning turn of events, Breena suddenly finds herself faced with the most heartbreaking decision in her entire life.

 

 

Silver Frost (The Frost Series, #3)

 

Enter the world of Feyland, where beautiful strong fairies have been at war for years. Breena, the beautiful half fairy, half human princess from Oregon, has ascended to her rightful place in Feyland, as Queen of the Summer Kingdom. Being Queen isn't at all what she expected. Now the weight of Feyland falls heavily on her shoulders. The landscape of Feyland is scattered with the silver blood of fairies, turning the once whitish blue frost of the Winter Kingdom to silver frost, and danger lurks everywhere including within her own court.

 

Secretly in love with her intended Winter Prince Kian, now Breena is faced with the realization of war, and the possibility of Kian as her greatest enemy. To help her navigate through the politics within her court and Feyland, help comes in the form of an old friend. Before she knows it, Breena's heart is torned between two loves, just as torned as Feyland. The fate of Feyland depends on her choices, can she make the right ones even if it means turning away from her love forever?

 

 

The Stoker Sisters

 

Two sisters... Born during the time of Jane Austen... Set to marry for advancement, but escaped their fates by becoming vampires. Now vampires in the 21st century, hunted by a sect of rogue hunters, the sisters meet a mysterious boy who holds the key to their destinies.

 

 

 

 

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Shimmer

The Wicked Woods #2

 

kailin gow

 

Shimmer, Wicked Woods #2

Published by THE EDGE

THE EDGE is an imprint of Sparklesoup LLC

Copyright © 2010 Kailin Gow

 

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or  mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

 

For information, please contact:

 

THE EDGE at Sparklesoup

P.O. Box 60834

Irvine, CA 92602

www.sparklesoup.com

First Edition.

Printed in the United States of America.

 

ISBN: 1597486329

ISBN: 978-1597486323

 

 

 

 

DEDICATION

 

 

For my amazing team of editors, cover artist, PR and marketing team. Thank you for helping me continue the story of Briony and the people of Wicked Woods.

 

Thank you to my husband, who every month, takes me up to the mountains and into the woods to this little town that inspired Wicked Woods. The town is fascinating, yet the woodland beyond is even more fascinating. Who lives in that vast wilderness, I do not know…I only know that whatever you do, enjoy your trek…into the woods, the wildly wicked, Wicked Woods.

 

 

 

Prologue

 

 

 

Briony did not know much about Wicked Woods when her parents and little brother went out to Great Aunt Sophie and Uncle Pete’s bed and breakfast inn at the edge of the Wicked Woods in Wicked, Massachusetts. She was able to avoid knowing more about the Wicked Woods by attending cheerleading camp instead, rather than visit her elderly relatives with her family. That had been months ago, and now Briony wished she knew more about Wicked Woods, wished she had bothered before her parents and brother Jake went missing there. If she wasn’t so caught up in her cheerleading, her high school social life, and drive to be popular there; her parents, Jake, and Uncle Pete might still be here today. If she had known about the inhabitants of Wicked Woods, she would have warned them, kept them from going. But it was too late.

 

And everything was different.

 

 

 

Chapter 1

 

How long had it been? How long had Briony been sitting in this armchair, in this pointless, old-fashioned room that served as her prison now that the master of Wicked’s vampires had captured her? Had it been hours? Longer? However long it was, it was enough that her tears had run out long before. Even with her family transformed into the undead, even with Kevin and Fallon locked in the room opposite of hers, even with them all at the mercy of a vampire who clearly did not care whom he hurt, the tears couldn’t last forever. Nothing could.

The furniture, including the armchair that she sat on, had the look of things that had been magnificent a hundred or more years ago, and which had been left almost ignored since. There was not much dust anywhere, which showed the house was occupied enough for dust to not collect.

Briony found an old mirror in the corner, set with ornate scrollwork and with a sconce for a candle just in front of it. She did her best to collect herself as she stared into the blue eyes reflected there, running her hands through the honey blonde mess that a couple of tangles with vampires and a brief session of being threatened had left her hair in.

She had to stay calm. Had to think. Lives might depend on it. Her life, for a start. And Kevin’s. And if Fallon was not technically alive, then that didn’t make the thought of losing him any easier. The last Briony had seen of him, he had been chained to a chair with silver, while his werewolf brother was a semi-conscious mess after being bitten by Pietre.

All of this because the master vampire hadn’t liked how his relationship with Aunt Sophie had ended decades earlier? More than just this too, because Pietre had targeted Briony’s whole family in an effort to get to her great aunt, had set them up, picked them off, turned them into his kind, attacked their town… it was insane. There must be something else that he did not tell. Of course, it must have something to do with Aunt Sophie.

Almost as insane as the notion that Aunt Sophie would have willingly gone out with a vampire of any kind in the first place. Yet that was exactly what she had done. Briony was as sure of it as she was of anything in her life. Aunt Sophie had as good as said it, back when Fallon had nearly bitten Briony after the Homecoming Dance. The only part she hadn’t mentioned was that her boyfriend was a crazy, powerful, freakishly dangerous vampire who was likely to want revenge because Aunt Sophie had tried to kill him. On the whole, Briony rather wished that she had.

Briony took another look around the room. The remains of the chair she had been tied to were still there, broken into ragged fragments by the force with which Pietre had ripped her from it before, on his way to make her watch as he bit Kevin. Some of the pieces of wood looked sharp enough, and long enough, that she might be able to use them as stakes if she wanted to. The only question was: did she want to? Did she dare to risk it?

Briony padded around the thick carpet of the room, trying to think. Some small part of her told her to go back to the armchair, curl up, and let the rest of the world sort things out for once. Briony did her best to ignore it. She could not afford to just sit there, could not afford to just give in to despair, even if there seemed to be plenty of it to go around at the moment.

For one thing, it seemed like it would be only a matter of time before Pietre came back and started snacking on her. He obviously wanted to. He had come close before, and the thought of that mouth closing down on her throat made Briony shudder in revulsion. She could not let that happen. She would not let that happen.

More importantly, Briony was determined that she would never let Pietre get around to what came next. She wouldn’t let him turn her into something like… like Fallon? A small part of her demanded an answer. Like your family? Briony shook her head. They hadn’t had any choice in it. Briony would die before she let Pietre do that to her.

More than that, she would die before she let Pietre do something like that to hurt Aunt Sophie. She could just imagine the pain it would cause her, knowing that her last remaining relative had been transformed into one of the things she hated so much, knowing that her duty would be to drive a stake into Briony’s heart before the hunger got too great for her great niece to handle. It would be an impossible choice.

The only question, really, was why Pietre had not done it already. Biting Briony made sense, after a fashion. Changing her into a vampire made sense. Even just killing her would make sense, though it wasn’t really the sort of sense Briony liked. Leaving her alone in a nicely furnished room while he did other things just… didn’t.

The answer probably lay with Aunt Sophie again. If Pietre had turned the rest of her family, and she still had not come for them, then maybe he thought that transforming Briony too was not the answer. Pietre wanted Aunt Sophie to come to him, after all, to beg for forgiveness for all that he thought she had done wrong before he killed her. Maybe he thought that having the last of her relatives alive and well as a hostage might do the trick.

If so, Briony knew that she could not stay there. She had to find a way to escape before Aunt Sophie found herself lured to her doom. Before Pietre decided that Briony was not any further use to him, too, because he looked like the kind who might kill her in front of her aunt just to get a reaction. She had to do something, and she had to do it fast.

Her silver cross was gone, taken from her back in the woods so that the vampires could take her prisoner in the first place. She had no way out of the room. Even if she could get away, hadn’t Pietre told her that they were miles away from anywhere safe? Far enough away that the vampires could hunt her down if she ran?

“Stop it.” Briony told herself aloud. “Don’t say what you can’t do. Think about what you can.”

She started by snatching up a couple of the pieces of chair from the carpet, wincing as splinters stuck in her hands. Still, at least it showed that they were sharp. They weren’t as good as the silver blade that would have come out of Briony’s cross at the flick of a catch, but she had spent enough time learning to fight with stakes under the tutelage of her great aunt and George, the ex-military diner-owner.

She had weapons, at least. Now for the question of getting out of the room. Briony tried the door. It didn’t budge.

Briony took a step back, let out a deep breath, and kicked the door as hard as she could. It shuddered, but did not give. She kicked it again, then again, stopping when she realized the door had been extra reinforced.

What did that leave? Three options, as far as Briony could see. She could wait for Pietre to return, hope that she was quick enough with the stake to stab him in the heart, and then walk out. That sounded like an incredibly bad risk, and one that would probably get her killed or worse if it went wrong. Much, much worse, if he decided to turn her or torture her.

Then there was the window. It did not have bars on it, so presumably Briony could break through it and climb out, but one look confirmed a twenty foot drop below. How far would she get with broken bones resulting from a fall like that? Besides, how would it help Fallon or Kevin? Not to mention her family.

That left finding some way to pick the lock, assuming that Briony could find something to pick it with, and work out how you went about doing it. It wasn’t like she had a hairpin readily to hand. A quick search of the surrounding room did reveal an ancient manicure set though, containing an old nail file, a couple of pairs of nail scissors, and some tweezers.

Briony spent the next ten minutes working on the lock. Or trying to, at any rate. It wasn’t like she actually had a clue what she was supposed to be doing. Weren’t you supposed to jumble the tumblers around until they went into the right spot? Something like that, anyway. Only the prospect of what might happen if she did not get the door open before Pietre came back kept Briony working at it.

As a result, she was close to the door when she heard a thump from the other side of it, followed by an almighty crash of splintering wood. Footsteps sounded outside the door. What was it? Was Briony too late? Was Pietre coming back? Had he already come back to amuse himself by beating up the boys? That might account for the crash. Briony winced at that thought.

She also snatched up her improvised stakes again. If this was it, then she was at least going to try to kill Pietre. After all, he might not be expecting an assault the moment he came into the room, so there had to be at least a chance that it could work.

Briony found her thoughts cut off by another crash, this one from just beside the door to her room. The wall buckled, and then exploded inwards as something hit the wood and plasterboard from the other side. Briony leapt back, raising her stakes in an effort to defend herself as a figure ploughed through the resulting hole, filthy with debris, his shoulder length dark hair caked with blood.

Briony paused as she realized who it was. “Kevin? What are you doing?”

“Starting an escape, obviously.”

“While attracting every vampire in the place. You didn’t want to use the door?”

Kevin shook his head. “They reinforced the doors. They forgot that these houses sometimes have thin walls, though. Idiots.” Kevin held out his hand to her. “So are we getting out of here or not?”

Chapter 2

 

Briony took Kevin’s hand gladly, easing with him through the hole that he had created in the wall. She made it through just in time to see a vampire, a young man in his twenties, arriving. He was obviously there to see what all the noise was about.

Kevin threw himself at the vampire without warning, tackling him to the ground, his hands going to the creature’s head, forcing it well clear of his throat. Apparently, the blood loss from Pietre’s drinking hadn’t slowed him down much. The vampire struggled beneath the young werewolf, rolling so that it was above him and then rearing back, its fangs out for the bite that would follow.

It didn’t get the chance. Briony stepped forward smartly and slammed one of her makeshift stakes into the creature’s back, driving it forward with all the force she could muster. As she did so, Kevin shoved it back, making sure that it impaled itself fully on the splintered point. The creature burst into cold flame, burning into ashes.

“Great teamwork,” Kevin said, hauling himself to his feet and brushing off some of the debris. “Now, let’s get out of here.”

“What about Fallon?” Briony asked. Kevin did not say anything. Briony reached out to grab his arm. “I said-”

“I heard what you said, Briony. What about Fallon?”

Despite everything, despite the fact that they had been fighting full on when the three of them had been captured, that was enough to shock Briony. “Kevin, Fallon is your brother.”

Kevin shook his head. “He was my brother. Now… now he’s just one of them.”

Briony did not know what to say to that. How was someone supposed to react when their family had been turned into one of the walking dead? It briefly occurred to her that she of all people was in a position to know, but thinking about what Pietre had said he’d done to her parents and brother didn’t make things any easier. She settled for standing there, her hands on her hips.

“I’m not leaving without making sure that Fallon is ok, Kevin. You can go if you want to.” Briony stepped forward.

For a moment, just for a moment, Briony thought that he might actually do it. Or worse, that Kevin would try to drag her out of there for her own good. Maybe he got a sense of just how bad an idea that would be though, because he nodded to the room that had held him. “He’s still in there.”

Briony squeezed through the gap in the wall, doing her best to avoid the jagged edges of the wood. Fallon was indeed still there, chained to a chair and looking over to Briony with a lethargically lolling head. That probably had a lot to do with the silver chains wrapped around him like some giant cocoon. Briony looked to Kevin with something close to disgust then.

“You just left him like this?”

“It’s not like I can touch the chains, Briony. Besides, he is one of them. They won’t hurt him.”

“Except that they will, Kevin. He killed another vampire to protect me. They’ll kill Fallon if he stays here.”

Kevin had the sense not to say anything then, at least, moving to keep an eye on the corridor outside the room while Briony worked to get the chain off Fallon. It wasn’t tight. Presumably, the other vampires had thought that the silver in it would be enough. Or maybe, they had simply had difficulties holding it long enough to get it any tighter. In less than a minute, Briony had peeled the last of it from Fallon’s seated form. The young vampire stared up at her. His eyes were red with hunger.

“Come on, Fallon,” Briony said. “Let’s get you out of here.”

Fallon nodded, started to stand, and then collapsed back into the chair. Briony looked over to Kevin.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“How should I know? Maybe the beating he took has taken it out of him. Maybe it’s the silver. I do know we need to hurry, Briony. More vampires will be here soon. If Fallon can’t make it…”

He didn’t actually say it, but Briony saw his gaze go to the stakes she held. Briony shook her head. “No, Kevin. I won’t do it. I won’t.”

“So you’ll leave him here like you should have before?” Kevin demanded. “Or were you planning on carrying him out of here while I fight them off?”

Fallon made another effort to stand. It was as unsuccessful as his first. “Need… blood…”

Briony had already guessed that part. Which was why she was busy rolling up her sleeve.

“What are you doing?” Kevin demanded.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Briony shot back, keeping her attention on Fallon. He looked so weak. So utterly helpless. “I’m going to feed him.”

“You are not going to feed that thing.”

Briony whirled on Kevin then. “That thing is your brother! In any case, you don’t get to tell me what I will and will not do, Kevin. Now, if you can’t bring yourself to deal with it, get back to watching the door.”

Kevin did not move.

“I’m waiting,” Briony said.

Kevin shook his head. “Someone has to make sure that he doesn’t rip your throat out and leave you to die.”

“What?” Briony demanded. “The way a werewolf would?”

That made Kevin flush with anger, but he stepped back to their makeshift door, going back to keeping watch. Briony didn’t care right then. She had more important things to concentrate on than the feelings of a guy so callous that he could cheerfully abandon his own brother.

She held up her bare left arm to Fallon, having decided that she would probably need the left for fighting. “Here, Fallon. Feed. Be strong again.” He did not bite. Briony moved her arm closer, until Fallon’s lips brushed the skin. “It’s all right, Fallon. I want you to-”

The bite was sudden, Fallon’s fangs piercing her skin in an instant of pain that Briony fought not to recoil from, though given the way his hands clamped around her arm, Briony doubted that she could have, even if she had wanted to. Fallon lapped hungrily at the wound, and Briony could feel the pulse of her blood flowing into him, could feel some fragment of her life going to sustain his.

The strangest part was how good the whole thing felt. Briony had assumed that would have had something to do with vampire hypnotism, with trickery. This though… it didn’t feel like something false. It simply felt almost sensual. There was something almost beautiful about the feel of Fallon’s lips on her flesh, about the heat of the blood as it passed his lips. About knowing that he was claiming some precious part of her as his own.

“That’s enough,” Kevin said, moving closer.

It didn’t feel like enough to Briony. It barely felt like a start. Barely felt like the first whisper of everything it could be.

“That’s enough!” Kevin insisted. He yanked at Fallon, and Fallon spun, hissing at him. Kevin didn’t seem to care. “You’ll leave Briony too weak to run, you idiot!”

That produced a tense moment, in which Briony thought that they might fight again, but finally, Fallon nodded. That was good, at least, because now that he wasn’t actually feeding, Briony was starting to feel the dull ache of where he had bitten. At least the bite itself was not too much, just a couple of neat holes in her skin, right at the crook of the elbow. They were not bleeding, which presumably meant that vampires had something in their bite to help coagulation when they were done. It probably made their food last longer.

Briony recognized that thought as one that she probably would not have had if she were thinking completely clearly, and she shook her head to try to shake off the fuzzy feeling. Maybe Kevin had stopped things just in time, though Briony had to admit there was still a part of her that wanted to ask Fallon for more. Far more. She found herself wondering then if the stories about bites giving vampires more power over people were true.

There wasn’t time to consider it, though, because they still had to get out of there. The three of them squeezed their way out of the room, just in time to meet another vampire, obviously there looking for the first. It was another young man, and Briony recognized it as one of those who had helped to capture her.

“Oh good,” he said, “you’re escaping. I’m sure even Pietre won’t mind if we hurt you a little for escaping.”

He leapt, straight at Briony. She dropped back, raising both stakes in an effort to impale him, but he seemed almost to change direction in mid-air. Briony lashed out with a low kick and he danced back. Unfortunately for him, that took him straight towards Fallon.

Fallon grabbed the other vampire’s arm, twisting in what looked like some sort of arm lock. The vampire twisted and wrenched, trying to break free, but that just gave Kevin the chance to grab it from the other side. Together, the two brothers hoisted the vampire until it was pinned to one wall, its feet off the floor.

“Quick, Briony,” Kevin said, “stake it.”

“Wait!” it squirmed in their grip, its feet kicking. “Please, I can tell you about your family!”

Briony thought about that. About her parents reduced to something like this. About what Pietre had done to her younger brother. She shook her head. “I don’t want to know.”

The stake slid in easily this time, under the ribs and into the heart. Briony found herself staring into the vampire’s eyes as it died, then as the flames claimed it. What she hoped she would see, she did not know. Whatever it was, it was not there. She took a shuddering breath.

“We need to hurry.”

The boys nodded, their instinctive hatred put aside for the moment at least as they followed in Briony’s wake, letting her lead them from the house that had brought them so much pain.

Twice more, as they made their way from the building, vampires attempted to attack them. The first time, it was one of the ones who insisted on wearing old-fashioned clothes, and who was presumably older than many of the others. He leapt from the shadows, and succeeded in getting a hold on Briony, but Kevin and Fallon pulled him off between them. Briony drove the stake home as he hissed and threatened them.

The second time, it was a woman who looked just a little older than Briony did. For all her speed and strength, she clearly hadn’t spent much time learning to fight. When she lunged at Briony, it was clumsy, and Briony stepped aside. A quick hook of her foot around the vampire’s ankle was enough to send her sprawling, and then Briony was on her, plunging a stake into her heart without so much as blinking. She did not even wait for the fire to claim the vampire this time, but instead strode straight for the front doors of the house. Fallon looked like he wanted to say something then, but Briony cut him off with a look.

“Come on,” she said, “we’re done here.”

Chapter 3

 

From the outside, the vampires’ house looked even worse than it had from the inside. Paint peeled in bubbling strips and windows had boards over them. Maybe that was deliberate, a ploy to keep away prying eyes.

Trees surrounded the house, thick enough that they blocked all sign of anything beyond them. Pietre hadn’t lied when he had said that they were far from help.

Fallon and Kevin were just a step or two away from her, Kevin breathing heavily in the open air, Fallon giving no sign of breathing at all. They looked at one another with the by now familiar contempt, but underneath it there was a level of understanding that said each one knew exactly what the other was thinking.

Fallon turned to Briony, shrugging out of his coat. “Give me your jacket, Briony.”

“What? Why?”

“Because it’s you that the vampires want, and when they come, they will use scent as much as sight to track us.”

It took Briony a moment to get it. When she did, she shook her head. “You’re going to draw them off? Fallon, you can’t.”

“I can. I have to. Now, give me your jacket.”

Briony did it, hating the idea even as she knew that it was probably her best chance for survival. “What about my scent, then? You think they won’t notice that there are two of me running about?”

“That,” Fallon said, “is where Kevin comes in.”

A growl came from Briony’s waist level, and Briony looked down to see the huge, powerfully built wolf there. She had not seen him transform.

“Werewolf scent is a powerful thing,” Fallon said. “Hold tight to Kevin, Briony. Hold tight and they will never pick your scent out from his.” Fallon knelt by his transformed brother. “Get her to safety or I will kill you for it.”

That got another growl, but it didn’t matter. Fallon was already running out into the trees with more than human speed. He was gone in less time than it took to blink. Briony wrapped herself in his coat, hoping that the young vampire would be all right. Beside her, Kevin yipped.

“I know, I know,” Briony said. “I’m coming.”

Climbing onto his back was like snuggling into a soft duvet, except that duvets didn’t generally leap forward, plunging through forests at speeds that made Briony cling on for dear life. She dug her fingers into the fur at Kevin’s neck, wrapping her legs around his waist and hoping it would be enough to keep her from falling as trees flashed past. At this speed, falling off would not just hurt, it would probably break something.

How long did they run like that, with Briony keeping her head pressed down, away from the threat of low branches? How long did Kevin bound along in strides that treated distance like it did not matter? An hour? More? Wherever they had been, it had certainly been well away from any sign of life if they could run like that without meeting anyone.

For all that time, Kevin did not slow. Briony was aching just with the jolting that came with hanging on, but Kevin kept going, only the slight harshening of the wolf’s breathing giving any clue that their flight was taking its toll.

Finally, though, Kevin’s lope became a jog, and then a walk. He came to a halt in a small clearing that was bare of anything but fallen branches. Briony slid from his back gratefully, forcing her legs to untangle and remember how to stand. She tried to shake some feeling into them by walking to the edge of the trees and back.

It only involved looking away for a few seconds, but when she looked back, Kevin was in his human form once more. He was panting for breath, and sweat glistened on his skin. Briony could see quite a bit of that, because his shirt was in tatters, hanging open to give her an impressive view of tanned muscled flesh. Briony realized that she was staring, and blushed.

“The change can be a little rough on clothes sometimes,” Kevin explained. Briony handed him Fallon’s jacket without a word. Kevin raised an eyebrow. “Are you really so ready for me to cover up?”

Briony felt her blush deepen as Kevin peeled off the remains of his shirt and used it to wipe away the worst of the sweat. There wasn’t an inch of him that lacked muscle, and Briony felt her eyes lingering even once he had put on the jacket and zipped it up. He had the most gorgeous perfect body, and as her eyes took it all in, all she wanted to do was run her hands over his skin.

“Better?”

“I wouldn’t say better, exactly,” Briony admitted. “But it is getting hot around here.”

That got a chuckle from Kevin. “So, do I make a cute wolf?”

It wasn’t as a wolf that Briony was thinking about him, and even if she had been, then cute wouldn’t have been the word she would have chosen. As a wolf, Kevin had been all power and restrained energy. To say that he had been anything less just would not have been honest.

Kevin seemed to take the lack of an answer as a sign of some kind. At least, he moved over to Briony, taking her into his arms. She felt the heat rising off his skin, mingling with her own. Briony half-expected to be swept up in a passionate kiss, but this was no more than a gentle touch of lips to her forehead. She had closed her eyes, waiting for more of his kiss, and when he didn’t move, Briony threw her arms around his neck, pulling his face down to hers. Halfway down, Briony didn’t have to do any pulling. Kevin was already kissing her cheeks, her jawline, and then lips, hungrily with his full animal wildness. Briony was kissing him back just as fervently, her fury, her pain, fear, relief, and happiness all rolling out into the kiss. Finally they stopped, breathless.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what I was, Briony. It must have been a shock.”

“You could say that.” Briony kept hold of Kevin as he started to pull back. “But it’s okay. Why did you say you were a hunter, though?”

Briony felt Kevin’s muscles move beneath the jacket as he shrugged. “It seemed like the best way to explain how I knew about this world without mentioning the word ‘werewolf’. You had just been attacked by one.”

That was true. Briony could just imagine how she would have reacted had Kevin let slip what he was so soon after Carol’s attack behind the diner. Even so, there was a small part of her that could not help feeling a little disappointed that Kevin hadn’t found a way to say something afterwards.

“When did Fallon tell you that he was one of those… things?” Kevin asked.

“Homecoming.” Briony pulled back from him then. “Do werewolves really hate vampires that much?”

“More than you could know,” Kevin said, though Briony could hear the regret there. Apparently, he didn’t like it any better than she did. “It’s a predator thing, I think.”

Briony had forgotten for a moment that he had been planning on becoming a veterinarian. Of course he would know about this sort of thing. “How do you mean?”

“Tigers, Lions, whatever… they all kill other predators when they find them, even if they don’t make good prey. It cuts down the competition. Werewolves and vampires, I suppose it’s the same kind of thing.”

“So how did you come to be a werewolf when your brother is a vampire?” The question was out before Briony could help herself. It was obviously the wrong thing to ask, because Kevin tensed. Briony moved closer to him, slipping her arms around him. Her hands slid under his jacket to the small of his back. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Kevin shook his head. “It’s okay. It was the night when… well, you know which night it was.”

Briony knew. The same night her family had gone missing. The night Fallon had been transformed into one of the undead. The night all of this had started for her. “Yes, I know.”

“That… it wasn’t just vampires. We had wandered into the middle of this huge fight. Vampires and werewolves hunting each other, killing each other. It was awful, Briony. There was so much noise. So much chaos.”

“It’s all right, Kevin.”

The werewolf shook his head. “No, it’s not. We were split up somehow. In all that, how could we stay together? Then, before I knew what was happening, one of them was coming out of the trees at me. It knocked me down, bit me…” Kevin sighed. “What I don’t get is how I survived. I can only guess that maybe the werewolf wanted this to happen to me, because if even an ordinary wolf had wanted me dead, I would have been. Against a werewolf? I had no chance.”

“Just be thankful that you did make it out.” Briony decided to push things, just a little. “You and your brother.”

“Fallon didn’t make it out. He is one of them now. A vampire.”

“And you hate him? Just like that?”

Kevin shook his head. “I don’t want to, Briony. But when I woke up after the fight, I felt so different. More alive, hungrier, awake for the first time with senses that could really let me know the world.”

“And the hatred was there then?”

Kevin nodded. “It hasn’t left me since. It was ingrained in me from the beginning, this natural instinct to hate vampires.”

Briony winced at that. What could she do to convince him? Vampires and werewolves were natural enemies. Like cats and dogs. Could she even hope to overcome that kind of instinctive response? “Kevin, your brother has just drawn away a whole horde of vampires. He has risked his life to save us.”

“To save you,” Kevin corrected. “And I’m not too sure about ‘life’. He is one of the walking dead, Briony. You need to remember that.”

Briony pulled back from him then. “I’ll remember what I like, Kevin. Fallon has never done anything to hurt me.”

“Really? There is a bite mark on your arm that says otherwise. He will kill you, Briony! Can’t you see that? He was my brother, but now he is just a creature that lives to feed. That kills to feed. I thought when I stayed around that maybe I might find him. That he might be alright.”

Briony reached out to put a hand on his arm. “You did find him, Kevin.”

“I found a vampire!”

“And he found a werewolf!” Briony could not stop herself from shouting. It seemed like the only way to get through to him. “How do you think he felt?”

Kevin was silent for what seemed like a long time, not looking at her, not looking at anything in particular. “You don’t understand, Briony. When I found him… I wished that they had killed him. Even death would have been better than him becoming one of those creatures.”

Briony winced at that, turning away from him.

“Briony, what is it?”

Briony swallowed back a sharp comment. She knew Kevin wasn’t trying to hurt her. “The master vampire, Pietre, he said that my family had been turned. How do you think I feel, hearing you say how evil they must be?”

Kevin put his hands gently on her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Briony. Do you think he meant it?”

Briony nodded. Pietre had not only meant it. He had enjoyed telling her such a horrible truth. “The question is what I do now. I mean, everything Aunt Sophie has taught me, everything you’re saying now, says that I should hate them, that I should want them dead.”

“And you don’t?”

Briony shook her head. “If they were here now, I would just be glad I could touch them again, talk to them again. I don’t think that I could ever hurt them.”

That got a moment of silence from the werewolf. “Never? Not even if they were hungry? Not even if they were going to kill you to feed?”

Briony did not answer. Partly, it was because she did not think a question that crass deserved an answer. Partly, it was because she did not believe that any of her family would ever do something like that, no matter what they were turned into. Mostly though, it was because she did not know the answer.

She simply did not know.

Chapter 4

 

After a while, it seemed that Kevin had his breath back, and even Briony was eager to get moving. After all, their rush through the woods might have given them a substantial lead on any following vampires, but that did not mean they were even close to being completely safe yet.

“How far are we from town, do you think?” Briony asked.

Kevin looked around, as though the trees offered clues that Briony could not see. Maybe they did. After all, she wasn’t exactly the world’s greatest expert on the natural environment, while Kevin... well, presumably you picked up a lot as a wolf. “Maybe another mile or two that way.” He nodded in a direction that looked the same as all the others.

“So let’s go. The sooner we get back, the sooner Aunt Sophie can get on my case for getting caught.”

Kevin bit his lip then, and Briony knew that things were not going to be that simple.

“What is it?” she asked.

“The vampires want you, Briony, so they will be making an effort to watch for you. They will have spies out, servants. Going back to your great aunt’s inn would just make things easy for them.”

“So you’re saying that I should stay away? How long for? A week? A year? Forever?”

“Not forever. Just until they stop searching quite so hard.”

Briony was not sure how long that would be. After all, Pietre had managed to carry a grudge against Aunt Sophie for years without any sign of his anger ebbing. Briony was sure that he could keep up the hunt for her longer than a day or two. Still, it made sense that she should keep clear of anywhere the vampires might think to snatch her from, at least for now. Being taken would cause Aunt Sophie too much pain. Briony nodded.

“Where did you have in mind?”

“My place isn’t far from here. You can stay there until it’s safe to go back.”

Briony tried not to think about what Aunt Sophie would say to that. Briony going to stay at the home of a boy Kevin’s age without so much as asking her? It did not sound like the kind of thing her great aunt would have approved of. Particularly not if she happened to notice the way Briony’s eyes kept being drawn back to the flashes of muscled chest showing through Kevin’s torn shirt.

On the other hand, Aunt Sophie was one of the few people whom Briony knew would take “I was hiding from vampires” as a good excuse, and Kevin did have a valid point about the dangers of going back home.

“Okay,” Briony said. “Is your place going to be safe though? Won’t they think to look for you?”

Kevin shrugged. Briony struggled to tear her eyes away from the way it made his shoulders move. “If the vampires around here knew where I lived, I would probably be dead already. It’s not that easy to find.”

As they set off again through the trees, that proved to be an understatement. The walk there was not too bad, but there was no sign of the trees thinning. If anything, they thickened as Kevin led Briony on a route that would have seemed to be almost random if Kevin had not been treading along it so surely.

Briony did not see the cabin until they were almost on top of it. It nestled at the top of a slope, just yards from the trees. A rough track to one side was the only suggestion that it was connected to the outside world at all. The cabin itself was roughly built, but solid looking, with the appearance of somewhere that could survive almost anything the elements threw at it. A scarred pick-up, more rust than anything, stood to one side of the building.

“Home sweet home,” Kevin said with a smile. “I hope you like it. I’m renting it for the summer, so there shouldn’t be any problems with people coming around.”

“You got it for the location, then?” Briony joked.

“Well, it’s easier to hide the part where I’m a werewolf when there’s no one nearby to hide it from. I’m still just about close enough to town that I can get there when I need to spend some time around people. Come on in. There’s a spare room towards the back, and I can probably find enough extra blankets somewhere.”

Briony couldn’t help but smile at the excited note there. Kevin was obviously enjoying the prospect of playing host. Or at least of playing host to her. That thought made Briony glad that there was a spare room. Things could quickly have become… awkward without it.

As it was, the spare room was not exactly the kind of thing Briony would have chosen. It was, in fact, almost spartan in its rough-hewn furniture and lack of comforts. It was not the kind of place Briony was used to, and it certainly did not live up to the pleasantness of the Edge Inn, but Briony supposed that beggars, or at least people hiding from vampires, could not be choosers.

Kevin was as good as his word, and quickly found enough spare sheets and blankets to make the little room’s bed seem at least vaguely palatable, though Briony wished that he had made the effort to find a new shirt first, given how distracting he was in his current state.

He did at least deal with that afterwards, heading off to shower and grabbing a spare white shirt from a pile of completed laundry on his way. Since there was no one else around who might have done it, Briony guessed that werewolves were obviously more domesticated than they seemed, although Kevin radiated heat and wildness. Briony gulped. He was the sexiest guy she had ever kissed. Yes, she cared for Fallon – sweet, sensitive, kind and polite Fallon; but every time she was with Kevin, her body temperature seemed to go up whether from their angry repartee or from just knowing he was around.

Briony’s gaze followed Kevin most of the way to the bathroom, but she had the sense to shut her imagination down after that, heading over to one of the windows and looking out over a landscape that was mostly a carpet of treetops when seen from above. It was an impressive view of Wicked Woods.

Was Fallon out there somewhere? Was he still running from the vampires who would surely have followed, trying to hunt Briony down? Briony felt a tiny knot of guilt in her stomach at the fact that Fallon had put himself in so much danger for her. If the other vampires caught him, they would almost certainly kill Fallon after everything he had done. Briony could only hope that Fallon had been able to run fast enough to get away.

To distract herself from that thought, and because it was hard to tell how long it had been since she last ate, Briony wandered towards the cabin’s tiny kitchen. Unfortunately, the level of domestication that had Kevin neatly ironing shirts didn’t seem to run to stocking much food in the refrigerator.

“Hungry?” Kevin asked, moving up behind her and slipping his arms around Briony’s waist. He smelled wonderful…clean, warm, with a hint of spicy musk. Briony leaned back against Kevin, grateful for the sense of safety that his presence provided.

“Not for anything in there.”

“Now you know why werewolves eat people,” Kevin joked. “It’s that or the milk.”

“Is this the real reason you spent so much time in George’s Diner, then?”

“Not the only one,” Kevin said, so close to her ear that Briony could feel his breath on it. “Believe me.”

Briony carefully disentangled herself from him, turning to face Kevin. “Well, you’ve got another reason to go there now. Two more reasons, in fact. I’m starving, and we should probably let Aunt Sophie know that I’m okay.”

Kevin shook his head, taking a step back. “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea, Briony. I mean, if the vampires are going to be watching your home, then won’t they be watching the place where you work as well?”

“So we can’t go out?” Briony wondered how George would react to her not showing up to her next shift at the diner. Probably by firing her, if she knew him. The ex-soldier was a good man, and a vital part of the society that hunted supernatural creatures around Wicked, but he liked order. He would not be happy at Briony running off with no explanation. “Come on, Kevin, I need to tell someone where I am.”

“Then we will just have to tell someone else. Someone who can get a message to your great aunt. Unless you just want to phone her?”

Briony shook her head. Some things required the personal touch. “I suppose…”

“Yes?”

“Well, they can’t be watching all my friends, can they? They probably don’t even know about most of them. My friend Maisy knows about all of this, but she is still kind of on the edge of it. I suppose she could give Aunt Sophie a message without making anyone suspicious.”

Kevin nodded. “That could work. In the meantime, go take a shower, and I will try to think of somewhere to eat out that won’t have vampires staring at it.”

Briony raised a teasing eyebrow. “Are you saying I smell bad?”

“You’ve just run through a forest. Besides,” Kevin wrinkled his nose theatrically, “werewolves have very sensitive noses.”

The shower was good, even if Briony had to get straight back into her old clothes afterwards. It wasn’t like she could borrow from Kevin. The werewolf was so much bigger than her that it would have looked ludicrous, and anyway, Briony was not sure what kind of message that would have given him.

She got a pretty good idea of the message he had already received from his choice of restaurant. It was nice; nice enough that Briony felt a little self-conscious walking in wearing clothes she had been running through a forest in. Nice enough that, with the candles at the table and the low lighting, it practically screamed “date” at her.

Kevin seemed to spot the nervousness that came with that, because he reached out and took Briony’s hand. “Just relax and enjoy the evening, Briony. No pressure.”

That turned out to be surprisingly easy to do. Kevin was very fun to be around, and the restaurant was wonderful, not to mention far enough away from anywhere Briony might normally have eaten that there wasn’t any chance of being interrupted by vampires. Soon, Briony found herself laughing and joking with Kevin, and flirting more than a little, making sure that her hand brushed his whenever she could manage it. It felt a little strange being so self-conscious around Kevin now, after having kissed him so passionately before.

The meal passed in what seemed like a blink, and Briony didn’t feel like heading back to the cabin, or even like rushing over to Maisy’s house to enlist her help. Not just yet. She needed just a little longer away from thoughts of vampires and death. Instead, she suggested that they walk down to the lake where Kevin had shown Briony the mated swans once before. And if it also happened to be the spot where he had first kissed her… well, Briony didn’t mind that too much either.

They stood looking out over the water for a while, Briony’s hand in Kevin’s. He turned to her, looking like he might be about to say something, and Briony cut it off with a kiss. Kevin had been so in charge last time they had kissed, so in control, that Briony wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine. Pulling his head down to hers, she kissed him for what felt like hours, but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes in reality. When she finally pulled back from his lips, she left her arms around his neck. Kevin’s were around her waist, pulling her to him.

“That was…” he began, and Briony giggled at the thought she could leave the big, tough werewolf short of words. But words or not, there was no denying the animal attraction they felt for each other.

“It was, wasn’t it? Should we stay here all night, just kissing until someone moves us on?”

She meant it as a joke, but only just. Kevin shook his head ruefully. “I wish. We have a message to give to this friend of yours, remember?”

Chapter 5

 

Maisy’s house was a small, detached place in a suburb of Wicked where not only were most of the houses identical to one another, but so were the majority of the cars in the driveways. The lawn out front was as neatly tended as those of its neighbors, while the whitewashed fences practically shone in the darkness as Briony and Kevin crept closer.

They were on foot, having left Kevin’s truck at the end of the street so that they could get a clear view of everything around the house as they walked up to it. In a move that seemed like something out of a spy movie to Briony, Kevin actually insisted on walking past the house once without stopping so that they could check for any potential watchers. Briony went along with it, but when Kevin suggested that they could sneak in around the back to avoid prying eyes, she vetoed the idea.

“Kevin, the only people likely to be watching us are the neighbors, and what are they going to do if they see strange kids sneaking around? They will call the police. What would we do then? Besides, if any vampires were spying on Maisy, we would have spotted them by now.”

Without waiting for an answer, Briony strode up to Maisy’s front door and rang the doorbell. The lights were on in the house, so Briony was fairly confident that someone would come to the door. She hoped it would be Maisy, if only because it might be difficult to explain to one of the other girl’s parents why she needed to see her urgently at such a late hour without mentioning vampires.

As it was, Briony was in luck. Maisy opened the door, dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and socks that were such a lurid shade of pink they pretty much overwhelmed everything else. Maisy peered up through her glasses at Briony, and then over at the spot where Kevin stood.

“Briony? What are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story. Can we come in? It’s important.”

Maisy nodded and stepped aside. “My parents are out of town for a day or two, so I’ve got the house to myself. Steve is in the living room.” She nodded to Kevin “Who’s this?”

It occurred to Briony that might be almost as long a story. Still, she said, “This is Kevin. I’m staying with him at the moment. He’s Fallon’s brother. Oh, and he’s a werewolf.”

Maisy gave Kevin a longer look then. “Well, that sounds complicated. Um… should I be reaching for the silver cutlery then?”

Briony shook her head. “He’s helping me, Maisy.”

“Fair enough. He is kind of gorgeous.”

“Hey!”

That came from one of the rooms of the little hallway they currently stood in, and Briony smiled as she recognized the voice. She raised an eyebrow at Maisy though.

“So you’re all alone here with your boyfriend while your parents are away? Are we interrupting anything?”

Maisy shook her head. “Not unless anything means watching the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy back to back.”

It wasn’t exactly what Briony had been thinking of, no. On the other hand, it was exactly the kind of thing she could see her two friends doing when left alone together. You could lead the geeks to water…

“Come on through,” Maisy said. “I was just going to make coffee.”

She led the way through a home that was almost startling in its ordinariness. It was just the kind of place Briony could imagine almost any family living in, and it reminded her more than a little of the place she had lived in with her parents and brother before she had come to live with her great aunt. After a few days of inns and diners, creepy old houses and rustic cabins, it was almost comforting to be back somewhere that was simply… normal.

The living room was large, and featured a couple of sofas, a big coffee table, and a TV on which some kind of climactic battle was currently frozen in place. Steve was tucked into one corner of one of the sofas, a detritus of popcorn and packets of chips scattered around much of it. He waved as Briony and Kevin came in.

“Hi, Briony.”

“So,” Maisy said, “coffee? Or maybe something to eat? There’s plenty of chips, and there’s probably some dip here somewhere, if Steve hasn’t put his foot in it again.”

“That was once.”

Briony smiled at that and shook her head. She saw Kevin do the same. “No, thanks. Actually, I need to talk to you. It’s important.”

“Preservation Society stuff?” Steve asked, and Maisy gave him a sharp look. “What? I heard Briony say he was a werewolf when you were at the door, so it’s not like I’m revealing some big secret.”

“You might have been.”

The minor argument ended with Maisy snuggled up on the sofa next to Steve, so maybe the idea of endless hours of fantasy and sci-fi was more romantic than Briony had supposed. She took one half of the other sofa, and Kevin got the other.

“So what brings you all the way out here to see me?” Maisy asked.

“I need you to get a message to Aunt Sophie. I can’t phone her, because the phones might be bugged for all I know, and I can’t go myself, because vampires might be watching.”

“Whoa,” Steve said. “It sounds like you’re in a lot of trouble.”

“If you call being captured by vampires trouble,” Kevin said. He looked over at the TV screen, where an assortment of warriors were still frozen mid sword swing. “Is that any good?”

Briony supposed she should have expected what happened next. No breathless cries of “Vampires?” or “Captured?” Just blank looks from Maisy and Steve.

“Is it any good?” Steve echoed. “Is it any good? It’s a classic!”

“You mean you haven’t watched it?” Maisy asked. She looked over at Briony. “Are you sure he’s Fallon’s brother? Because he certainly doesn’t sound like it.”

He did, however, sound like a werewolf. Which was to say that Kevin growled at that, the sound rumbling out through the room. Briony guessed that he didn’t like being compared unfavorably to his vampire brother, even in the realms of sci-fi knowledge.

Briony reached out to put a hand on his arm. “Relax, Kevin. These are my friends. You two, if you could maybe focus for a minute? I’m fairly sure I said that we were captured by vampires.”

This time, it got the right response. Steve gave her a worried look, and Maisy half-rose from her seat in shock.

“Oh, Briony, that’s terrible. What happened? Did they hurt you? How did you escape?”

Briony decided that the simplest way was to tell them everything that had happened, from their capture by the woods, to waking in the old house as prisoners, to Kevin being bitten by Pietre, Briony letting herself be bitten by Fallon, and the three of them escaping.

“So what are you doing now?” Maisy said, with a glance over at Kevin. “You can’t just hide out at Kevin’s cabin forever, can you?”

“No. That is why I need you to get a message to Aunt Sophie. Nobody watching will suspect you, and maybe she will be able to come up with some ideas that will help.”

Maisy nodded. “Sure, I can do that. I can probably pick you up some clothes, too. I mean, you’ll need more than just those.”

Briony hadn’t thought of that. “That would be good, thanks.”

“Until then, come with me, and maybe I’ll have something that will fit you.”

Briony looked from Kevin to Steve.

“We’ll be fine,” Kevin assured her. “Go on.”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed, “and while you’re gone, I can educate wolf-man here about great films that any normal person would have watched by his age.”

That was more or less what Briony was afraid of, but she let Maisy lead her upstairs anyway, to a room where the walls were plastered almost evenly with posters of good-looking guys from bands and pictures of strange creatures that Briony didn’t want to look at too closely.

It turned out that Maisy didn’t have much that would fit Briony, given that the other girl was several inches shorter. Still, Briony came away with a loose fitting skirt and a baggy t-shirt that would at least do until Maisy could get something better from Aunt Sophie.

“So,” Maisy said as Briony got changed, “what is it that you aren’t telling me?”

“What?”

“Briony, I know you. There is obviously something bothering you, and it isn’t just that vampires might want you dead. It isn’t even that you like the hunk down there as well as his brother.”

Briony blushed. “Maisy…”

“So what is it?” Maisy demanded. “Am I, or am I not, your closest friend in Wicked? In the whole world, even?”

Briony nodded. She was kind enough to point out that there weren’t that many alternatives.

“Well then, you have to tell me. It’s practically a rule.”

“You made that up,” Briony said, but then paused. She wasn’t in the mood for joking. “Pietre, the master vampire, said something about my family. Something I didn’t want to hear.”

Maisy shrugged. “Who cares what some vampire says? Unless it’s Fallon, and even then… you really let him bite you?”

“He needed the blood.” Briony tried to say it as flatly as she could. Like it hadn’t felt like so much more than that. She actually believed that Maisy might be fooled for an instant. Could she not have had slightly less perceptive friends? “Besides, that’s not really the point.”

Maisy gave her a look that made it clear Briony wouldn’t be getting away with it that easily, but she gave in for now. “All right then, what did the evil vampire master say?”

“He said that he had turned my family into vampires just like him.”

That got silence as a response. Maisy sat down on the edge of the bed, and patted the spot beside her. When Briony eventually sat there, Maisy took her hand.

“And you think that he was telling you the truth?”

Briony nodded. Then shook her head. “I don’t know, Maisy. But what if he is?”

“Then you deal with it. You’re strong, Briony. You won’t let this stop you. Besides, you said that he turned them into vampires like him, as though that’s the only option. What about vampires like Fallon?”

“I’d rather they weren’t vampires at all,” Briony pointed out, and Maisy squeezed her hand.

“I know, but sometimes we don’t get what we want. Come on. We’d better get downstairs before this werewolf of yours eats Steve.”

“He’s not my werewolf,” Briony said, but Maisy was already giving her another of those looks.

“Of course he isn’t. I’ve seen how he looks at you.”

When they arrived downstairs, Kevin and Steve actually seemed to be getting along well. Or at least, Steve was still in one piece. When he saw Briony, Kevin paused to give her an appreciative smile that made Briony’s heart lurch.

“We should get going,” she said, but to her surprise, Kevin shook his head.

“No, we are all right here for a while. It has to be better than spending time stuck in that cabin of mine.”

Briony was about to protest that it wasn’t so bad, and that alone in a cabin definitely had possibilities, but by that point the film was running again. She spent the next few hours curled up on the sofa with Kevin and the others, and there was something immensely comfortable about it. So they weren’t pressed quite as close as Maisy and Steve were, but Briony could still feel his presence beside her, and she was grateful for it.

Eventually though, it was time for the pair of them to head back. Kevin paused at the door, whispering something to the others. Briony, not liking the sudden secretiveness, asked him about it almost as soon as they were out of the door.

“What was that you said?”

“It’s not important.”

“Let me be the judge of that,” Briony said.

“I just told them to be careful. The vampires… you know where their home is now, Briony. They will want to kill you now more than anything. I wouldn’t want your friends getting hurt. I wouldn’t want you getting hurt.”

Briony took hold of his arm. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

Of course, it might have convinced him more if Briony believed it herself.

Chapter 6

 

The night was not a comfortable one for Briony. She would much rather have been back at the Edge Inn, in her own bed, but that did not look like it was going to happen any time soon. It was the weekend, so at least she did not have to worry about going into school for a couple of days.

The more Briony thought about that, however, the more it felt like she was letting fear take control of her. Yes, she would be safe in Kevin’s cabin, for the time being at least, but what good was that if it meant that she could not live her life? What good was it if Briony never got out beyond the cabin’s four walls for fear of being grabbed by vampires?

Briony was grateful about staying in Kevin’s cabin, but she had to let Kevin know how she felt. It was time she went back to school, back to work, and back to her old life again.

Kevin gave her a soft kiss when she walked into the kitchen the next morning. The delicious smell of eggs, sausages, and pancakes had drifted into the guest room, waking her up. Kevin looked at Briony’s soft still-sleepy eyes and silky honey blonde hair and kissed her again. “I’m used to being alone, but I can get used to this…” he pulled her closer and kissed her again. Briony smiled. Kevin had prepared breakfast while Briony was still asleep. Briony could definitely get used to that. She sighed. Kevin’s body so close to hers, his warmth and strong arms made her feel so safe. She wanted to stay in Kevin’s arms forever, but she noticed a familiar duffle bag on one of the kitchen chairs. Hers.

Kevin noticed her glance. “I just went to pick up some of your clothes,” Kevin said. “I managed to have a chat with George too. He’s renovating the diner today. After hearing about what happened to you, he’s adding some security measures. Because the diner’s closed, he is inviting all the staff down to the lake, and holding a party on his boat. I thought you might like to go.”

Briony jumped at the chance. In next to no time, she had changed into a pale sundress and sandals, and they set off towards the lake. The moorings for it were close to the edge of town, and Kevin parked his truck by them, leaving the two of them with only a short walk to the spot where George had docked his boat.

It was an impressive boat. If it wasn’t quite on the scale of a full-blown yacht, it was still more than large enough to hold George at the wheel, Percy and Phil up on the deck, and Jill, carrying her little girl Sarah, down by one of the rails. Not to mention Aunt Sophie, who hugged Briony tightly as she came aboard.

“I hear that you’ve had an eventful night, darling.”

“Very.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re safe.” She glanced at Kevin as though she might say something more, but she left it at that. “Come and have some lemonade. I made it myself.”

The boat pulled away from the dock, riding out towards the center of the lake. As it did so, a couple of extra faces appeared from below deck.

“Maisy? Steve?”

“It seemed like a good idea to have the two of them along,” Aunt Sophie said. “Especially after they went to such trouble to tell me what had happened to you. Come along, you two, there are sandwiches here somewhere, assuming George hasn’t dropped the hamper over the side.”

“Drop it over the side?” George called from back by the wheel. “What do you take me for?”

“George, I’ve been asking myself that question almost from the moment I first met you.”

Maisy and Steve were both looking a little tired. Obviously the Lord of the Rings marathon had taken its toll. They chatted about nothing very much as the boat pulled out further, well away from land. It seemed peaceful, there on the water, with the swans around them and little Sarah giggling at something her mother had said to her. By the time George dropped anchor at the center of the lake, Briony was feeling more relaxed than she had for at least the last couple of days. Probably longer. Particularly since Kevin had an arm around her. Briony didn’t even look at her great aunt’s expression

“Don’t relax too much,” Kevin whispered. “This is business as well as pleasure.”

Briony was about to ask what he meant when George came up onto the deck, passing around sandwiches from a hamper. Briony bit into hers gratefully, though what George had to say next almost made her choke on it.

“We’re here,” George said, “because this is the only place I could think of where we can be sure no one will observe us.”

Aunt Sophie took over. “These are dangerous times. Until recently, the vampires around Wicked were content to stay reasonably quiet. Now, however, they have become much more active. Just the other night, my great-niece barely survived an attack.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Briony started to say, but Kevin squeezed her hand. “Okay, maybe it was.”

“The vampires are getting clever,” George said. “I’ve got a team in the diner now to sweep it for bugs and other surveillance devices, after we found one there the other day. Frankly, we wouldn’t have found that if Percy hadn’t spilled fat from the fryer on it by accident.”

The kitchen hand contrived to look both proud and slightly embarrassed at the same time.

“They’re also reinforcing my office, so we can be sure of at least one safe place should the creatures attack,” George finished.

Aunt Sophie took over again. “Even so, we can’t afford to be stuck on the defensive against these creatures. It is clear that, if we wait too long, they will pick us off one by one. Not to mention the damage that they could do in the town.”

Briony decided to ask the obvious question. “Is there any chance that we will get any help against them if they start doing that?”

George snorted. “Hardly. I made another attempt at trying to convince the town council just this morning. The moment I mentioned vampires they laughed me out of the room. They think I’m just some crazy old man.”

“Don’t we all?” Aunt Sophie said with a smile.

“The point is that we won’t be getting any help there. Not now.”

“Worse than that,” Aunt Sophie added, “my comment wasn’t entirely in jest. The council now seem to think that the Preservation Society is full of dangerous eccentrics who want to stir up a panic about imaginary creatures. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t cause nearly as much trouble for us as the vampires.”

All of which sounded very bleak to Briony’s ears. It certainly explained the sudden need for secrecy. The trouble was, despite everything now ranged against them, it wasn’t like they could simply give up. This was where they lived.

“So what do we do?” Briony asked. “What did you mean when you said that we need to go on the offensive?”

“Oh, that’s obvious,” Steve said. “It’s just like episode twenty of…”

He stopped. Mostly because Maisy had chosen that moment to step on his foot. Aunt Sophie smiled in a way that seemed remarkably wistful to Briony, and Briony found herself wondering if it reminded Aunt Sophie of how things had been with Uncle Pete.

“I should think that it is obvious what we need to do,” Aunt Sophie said. “We now know where the vampires have decided to lurk, so we go there, and we kill every last one of them.”

“That might be easier said than done,” Jill observed, shifting Sarah to her shoulder. The little girl looked sleepy. Briony was a little surprised that Jill let her hear things like this. Then again, it was probably better than growing up believing the lies about vampires and werewolves not existing.

“George has made much the same point,” Aunt Sophie said. “Though in rather stronger language. Which is why I felt we should all meet and discuss options.”

A thought struck Briony. Or a memory, at any rate; of Kevin and Fallon fighting furiously. Maybe it was having Kevin so close to her that did it.

“There might be another way,” she heard herself say. The others looked at her expectantly. “Well, vampires and werewolves hate each other, don’t they? So why not let the werewolves know where the vampires are, then step back to let them fight each other?”

Aunt Sophie considered it for a second. “It might work, certainly. And it exposes us to less danger. Of course, there is the question of how we get a message to the wolves.”

George leaned over and whispered something to her. Aunt Sophie looked past Briony to Kevin, and Briony felt his touch on her tense.

“Is he? Well then. It seems that we have our answer.”

Chapter 7

 

With things finally decided, most of the others went back to enjoying their afternoon on the boat. Briony, however, couldn’t help feeling a little worried about Kevin, and what might happen as he tried to contact other werewolves. Would they trust him? Would they want anything to do with him? After all, he had thrown one of their own around to help Briony shortly after they had first met. He had stopped the werewolf Carol, who came after Briony at the diner, from biting Briony the first day Briony met Kevin. Would they take that as badly as the vampires had taken Fallon lashing out at one of his own?

Briony raised that question as Kevin was going over a few of the details with George and Aunt Sophie.

“I’ll be fine,” Kevin assured her. “No one cares much about the odd brawl. After all, werewolves spend a lot of time fighting among themselves.”

“Oh, that makes me feel so much better.”

“I’m certain the young man will be all right,” Aunt Sophie said. She managed to sound a little concerned, which is more than Briony thought she might have managed for a werewolf. Then again, she was probably just thinking about how much it would hurt Briony to have yet another person close to her hurt.

“I’ll be fine,” Kevin repeated.

Briony thought for a moment. “Do you even know the right people among the werewolves to get a message to? I mean, do they have a leader of some kind?”

“There’s a werewolf king,” George said from the wheel. “An alpha wolf. Kevin will need to speak with him.”

“Of course,” Kevin said, “that runs into the slight problem that I don’t know anything about him. I ran with a couple of the local groups for a week or two when I was first turned, but I didn’t stick around long enough to get to meet the king. Some of the stuff they did…”

His voice held a haunted note as he tailed off. Briony put her hand in Kevin’s, ignoring the look Aunt Sophie gave her as she did it.

“That’s fine,” George said. “I think I know more than enough to let you find him.”

“And should it come to it,” Aunt Sophie added, “I’m sure you could always sniff him out in the forest. Or simply ask one of the other young werewolves in town. There seem to be plenty of them around these days.”

Was there an edge to that? Briony wasn’t sure whether it was intended as just a comment, or as some kind of reminder to her of what Kevin was. She decided to ignore it. Kevin didn’t.

“There are a lot in human form, Mrs. Edge. Trying to fit in. Trying not to get killed. Would you rather we did that, or would you rather we went out into the woods and gave in to the hunger?”

“At least in the woods there aren’t ordinary people around, young man.”

“Nobody to keep them human inside, more like. Nobody to remind them that they aren’t just animals.”

George coughed pointedly. Both Kevin and Aunt Sophie glared at him. “Is this really the best time to have this discussion? We have a nest of vampires to deal with, remember?”

The two of them gave up their argument reluctantly. Maybe it helped that Briony still was holding Kevin’s hand. She doubted that her great aunt wanted to have that particular conversation again. Aunt Sophie went off to play with Jill’s daughter Sarah, while Kevin wandered over to Maisy and Steve. Briony stayed where she was as George started to guide the boat back to shore.

“I will say this for you, girl,” George said. “You’re not someone to make things easy for yourself.”

“That’s true,” Briony admitted.

“Just be sure that you know what you are doing. I hear you spent the night at that boy’s place?”

Briony nodded, more than a little embarrassed to be having this conversation with her boss. “It wasn’t like that. Kevin was just trying to keep me safe.”

“I don’t doubt it,” George said. “Just remember that there’s more than one kind of safe.”

Briony started to ask him what he meant by that, but she was pretty sure she could guess. She had to admit too that George had a point. Being that close to Kevin was certainly… tempting.

“Come back to the diner with us,” George said, apparently changing the subject. “Come and see how the ‘renovations’ are going. It will give you some more time to reassure Sophie that everything is all right, and that she can leave you where you are for a few days, until it’s safe to come back.”

Briony nodded. It was probably a good idea. Besides, she wanted to see how things at the diner were. When they got back to dry land, she and Kevin followed George and Aunt Sophie down to the diner while the others headed home. Briony knew that something was wrong the moment George began to run. She followed automatically, with Kevin keeping up easily and Aunt Sophie surprising them both by matching them stride for stride.

As they got closer, Briony began to make out the scene that had George so worked up. A uniformed police officer stood out in front of the diner, a middle-aged man in an expensive looking suit next to him. On the ground in front of them, flashing silver in the sunlight, were weapons. All the weapons that had been so carefully hidden away in George’s office. There were knives and crossbows, short swords and silver wire garrottes. Everything that the Preservation Society kept stored for use against the creatures it hunted. The weapons had been thrown down carelessly, like they were simply garbage to be discarded on the sidewalk.

George reddened as he came to a halt in front of the men, and Briony didn’t think it was from the running. “What is the meaning of this?”

“We were rather hoping you could tell us,” the man in the suit said. “After all, it isn’t every day that you see an arsenal like this left lying around where anyone might get hurt. Officer Harrigan?”

The police officer straightened up. He was a big, bulky man, who looked like he probably got used as a battering ram on police raids. “Yes, Councilman Jones?”

“You can serve the notice now.”

“Yes sir.” The police officer reached into a pocket, handing George a piece of paper.

As George read it, he went from red to practically puce. “You can’t do this. You can’t just take what’s mine.”

“The law says we can, sir,” the police officer said.

“Oh, don’t go around being polite to these crackpots, Harrigan,” Councilman Jones put in. He turned to George. “We’re confiscating these weapons, and if you try to stop us, Harrigan here will arrest you all for obstruction. Is that clear?”

Briony started to reach out to put a restraining hand on her boss’s arm, but Aunt Sophie beat her to it. “Yes, I think we can safely say that we all understand exactly what is happening, thank you.”

She watched the two of them with a level expression. Briony did her best to match it as the two men collected the scattered weaponry and loaded it into the back of a waiting car. It wasn’t a squad car, and it looked far more expensive than most of the people in Wicked could have afforded, so Briony assumed it was probably the councilman’s. She filed the information away for future reference.

“Briony, Kevin,” Aunt Sophie said once they were gone, “let’s get inside and see what has been going on. Come on George.”

The four of them headed into the diner. At least nothing seemed to be out of place there. Briony had half-expected the whole place to be ripped apart, with smashed furniture and broken crockery. Instead, the diner looked exactly as it usually did before the start of business each day. Even when they went through to George’s office, there was nothing much different. The secret cubbyhole that served as a weapons stash for the Preservation Society was open, and someone had cleaned it out, but beyond that nothing seemed to have been touched. Of course, that was more than bad enough.

“So much for them doing any renovations,” George said, and then swore. Briony could only imagine how embarrassing it must be, having been taken in by fakers like that.

“Do we know who the workmen were?” Aunt Sophie asked. “I know you, George. I can’t imagine that you would let just anyone into this big a secret.”

George looked embarrassed. “There was a guy who came into the diner not that long ago. He said he was from a group like ours out on the west coast, passing through on business. He knew things that most other people wouldn’t have, and he didn’t seem to be asking for information, so I figured he was probably who he said he was.”

“He recommended the changes?” Aunt Sophie prompted.

“He got talking about the security measures they’d had put in. And I-”

“And you had to keep up with the Joneses.”

George nodded. “It sounded like a great idea. Silver plates in the walls. A Faraday cage around the office so that no one could intercept communications. Impressive stuff. He put me in touch with a company that could get it done quickly. I checked them out, obviously, but I must not have done enough.”

He sank back into his office chair, looking dejected.

“What did the man who came in look like?” Briony asked.

“Maybe forty, pale blond hair. Nothing special, though I suppose he probably counted as good looking. Just a guy in a nice suit.”

“Pietre.” Briony, Kevin and Aunt Sophie said it at almost the same time.

George raised a questioning eyebrow.

“You’ve just met Wicked’s most important vampire,” Aunt Sophie explained. “He’s one of the oldest in North America, turned at the time of the first settlers in America…yes, he was on the Mayflower. Though why he would bother coming along himself for a stunt this petty is beyond me. It seems like a terrible risk.”

“He probably meant it as a message,” Briony guessed. “Another way of telling us that he can get to the people close to you. By the sounds of this, he was planning it even before I was taken.”

Aunt Sophie nodded. “It makes sense. You are certainly doing a good job of getting into his head, Briony. Even so, I can’t help feeling that there must be more to this.” She shook her head. “It can’t just be personal. But right now, I simply can’t imagine what else it might be.”

George stood, going over to the stuffed moose’s head on one wall and pulling the lever that closed the hidden door. “There’s no point in worrying about it now. Let’s settle for getting this place ready to open. I’m not going to let these things scare me into staying closed.”

Briony was glad to hear that. George being active and in control was better by far than George feeling sorry for himself. Even so, there was one question she had to ask. “With all the weapons gone, what can the Preservation Society do now?”

“We do what we always do,” Aunt Sophie said. “We use our wits, and we fight as best we can.”

Chapter 8

 

With the vampires’ move against the diner, Briony didn’t dare go back to school immediately, and Kevin insisted that she could not go home to the inn. As such, she spent most of the next few days in Kevin’s cabin, becoming increasingly frustrated by the long periods she had to wait alone there. Kevin spent much of his time out trying to make contact with the werewolves, approaching small groups of them either in town or deep in the woods.

Briony had to admit that worried her. Getting to spend time alone with Kevin had been great at first, but one of the big attractions Kevin had over his brother Fallon was that there did not seem to be the ever-present threat of being bitten. Since he had gone out looking for other werewolves, though, something seemed to have changed in Kevin. There was something even more imposing and physical about him than usual whenever he was near, and he had dropped more than one hint that he wanted to take their relationship further.

It wasn’t somewhere Briony was willing to go with him. Not yet, at least. Kevin had claimed that he understood when she had said as much, and had even seemed understanding about it. Even so, cooped up in a tiny cabin with him, there was a sense of something pushing at the two of them every time they were together. Kevin obviously sensed it too, because he started spending more and more time away from Briony, away from his home.

Finally, Briony decided that she had to do something about it. Over dinner, she declared to Kevin that she would be going back to school.

“After all, I can’t stay away forever. And it will get me out of the cabin.”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

Briony had expected Kevin to argue. Especially since he was the one who had insisted that she come to stay there in the first place. “You don’t think it’s too soon, do you?”

Kevin shrugged. “You have to go back at some point, Briony.”

That seemed to be that, though it did not feel to Briony like they had even begun to talk it through properly. Shortly afterwards, Kevin headed out, not saying where he was going. Briony could guess. It would be another attempt to get close to the Werewolf King. So why couldn’t he just say that? Did he really have to be so secretive about it?

It was late before Kevin got back, dirt crusted on his face from his time in the woods. Briony went to brush it off with her thumb, and Kevin caught her wrist, pulling her into a fierce kiss as though he couldn’t get enough of her. His hands trailed down her spine, finally resting on the small of Briony’s back. For a moment, just for a moment, Briony thought that they might drift further. As Briony kissed Kevin back, matching his passion, her hands began roaming under his shirt, feeling the smoothness of his hard chest and stomach. When her hands moved to the small of his back to pull his hip closer to hers, Kevin groaned and suddenly broke away from her, taking a step away. The two of them stood staring at one another, breathing heavily, eyes still hot with desire.

“I think,” Kevin said, his voice thick, “that it might be a good idea if you went back to your great aunt’s house.”

Briony could not help agreeing. Even with more distance between them, she could practically feel the connection between there. She could certainly feel the urge to close the distance once again. “Don’t want me around anymore?” Her voice was soft and vulnerable, filled with yearning.

“Briony…” Kevin didn’t finish that thought. “You should get your stuff together,” he said thickly. Briony could see the strain in his face as he ran his hand through his hair, trying to gain control.

“Now?”

Kevin nodded. “I’ll be around if you need help. I won’t leave you without protection, but I can’t do this. I can’t be this close to you and not…”

He didn’t finish that either, but he didn’t need to. Briony felt the same way about him, too. The physical attraction was too strong. She wanted him much too much. Was it her hormones or was it truly that she was supposed to be his mate…like those swans? But they both knew the physical pull they had toward each other was getting stronger and stronger. If she couldn’t pull back now…

Briony collected her few belongings in a couple of minutes, and Kevin drove her back to the Edge Inn. Aunt Sophie met Briony at the door, drawing her into a hug.

“It’s good to have you back, darling. I thought you were going to be staying with your werewolf longer, though. Nothing happened, did it?”

“No.” That was, Briony suspected, kind of the problem.

Aunt Sophie gave Kevin a cool look, but did not say anything as she brought Briony inside. Briony heard the rumble of Kevin’s truck as he drove off.

“Well, for nothing, it certainly seems to have left you quiet. Come on, I’ll make us some cocoa, and you can tell me all about it.”

Briony had not realized how much of a home to her the Edge Inn had become until then. Sitting there talking to Aunt Sophie in its kitchen felt so much more comfortable than the cabin had. Once she got upstairs and into her own bed, she was asleep in seconds.

School the next day felt almost the same. For all that Pepper and her little gang of friends tried to make Briony feel like she didn’t fit in, there was a definite sense of coming home as she walked through the gates. Of course, most homes didn’t come complete with a week’s worth of lessons to make up, but you couldn’t have everything.

Maisy and Steve were there, quickly welcoming Briony back. Even Claire, of whom Briony had seen very little since her friend Tracey’s death, gave her a slightly brittle wave from the edge of Pepper’s cluster of friends. Maisy was full of questions when she heard about what had happened at George’s diner.

“The master vampire came there himself?”

“I guess he wanted to make a point,” Briony said. “He’s showing us that his vampires could be anywhere. Besides, this thing he has with Aunt Sophie, it is obviously very personal. He seems to be targeting everything she holds dear. I mean, he’s already captured me once.” Briony shuddered at the memory of it.

“It sounds like he won’t stop trying, either,” Steve guessed. “I mean, you must be the most important person your Aunt Sophie has left.”

“I hate to think what they might have done to you if Kevin and Fallon hadn’t been there,” Maisy added.

Briony nodded at that, but she could not help the flash of pain that went with thinking about the two of them. “I don’t suppose Fallon has been back to school, has he?”

Maisy shook her head. “I haven’t seen him.”

Neither had Steve, which worried Briony. Was Fallon just lying low the way she had, or had something worse happened? Had he managed to outrun Pietre’s vampires? The thought that he might not have gotten away was a frightening one.

The first class was history, which Briony might have enjoyed more if she had been able to keep up with the required reading. As it was, she did her best to keep out of sight as the teacher talked and asked questions, taking down notes and discretely asking Maisy at the end if she could copy her notes from the previous classes.

After history, there was biology, which Briony found quite boring at the best of times. That had a lot to do with their teacher, Mr. Kramer, whose idea of a good lesson seemed to involve talking in a flat monotone for the whole hour, while expecting them to keep up with all the details. About the only interesting thing was generally the question of how the man could keep the drone going without the apparent need to take a breath.

So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that Briony settled into her seat next to Maisy. She turned to ask if it would be all right to copy notes from this class too, and while her eyes were off the front of the class, a ripple went through the other students. Well, the female students at least.

Briony turned to try to see what all the fuss was about, and felt her mouth drop open. Kevin was there, standing at the front of the class in a pale button-down shirt and dark slacks that made him look, if anything, even more handsome than he usually did. Briony could feel his eyes on her, and she tried to think of anything else besides the last time they held each other. With his hair pulled back, and his eyes gleaming with mischief and mystery, he looked devilishly handsome. The other girls in the class certainly seemed to notice as he took his place at the front. Even Pepper seemed to be looking at him with an interested, even calculating, smile. It would probably be the first time ever that she bothered paying attention in class.

“Hello class,” Kevin said. “Mr. Kramer had to leave due to a family emergency, so I’ll be your substitute teacher for a few days.”

That one actually got a cheer from some of the girls. Briony could not help a small pang of jealousy. Even if she hadn’t been ready for things to move as fast as they had been with Kevin, that didn’t mean that she was willing to let the likes of Pepper ogle him. That was her job.

“Okay, class. Settle down and we’ll get started.”

The lesson seemed to pass in double time for Briony. Kevin’s voice was delicious to listen to, and to her surprise, he seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. But then, hadn’t he said that he was planning to go on to become a veterinarian? Whenever he asked questions, hands shot up, eager to answer.

All too soon, the class was done with, and people filed out. Well, most of them did. A surprising number of girls seemed to have found questions that they desperately needed to ask after class, so Briony had to wait a while before she was alone in the classroom with Kevin. When the last of her classmates left, she kissed him without thinking about it, wanting to make up for the abrupt way things had ended the night before. Kevin seemed to have the same idea, and it was a while before they were able to step back from one another.

“We shouldn’t,” Briony said. “What will the school say if they think you’re seducing its pupils?”

“I’m not sure I care,” Kevin said. “It’s only been one night, and already I miss you.”

That was sweet. Even so… “What are you doing here, Kevin? Besides playing up to teenage girls’ fantasies of gorgeous young teachers, I mean.”

“I’m gorgeous?” Kevin grinned.

“Don’t say that like you don’t know it.”

The grin broadened, then disappeared as suddenly as it had come. Kevin looked earnest. “I said that I would keep you safe, Briony, and I meant it. I can’t exactly do that if I’m not close.”

“How did you even persuade the school to hire you? I mean, you’re barely nineteen. Aren’t you supposed to have graduated from college to be teaching?”

Kevin smiled slowly. “I was at Harvard by sixteen.”

“What?”

“Just call me the family prodigy. I was about to graduate when…”

“When you got turned into a werewolf,” Briony finished for him.

Kevin nodded.

“So you lost everything?”

“I wouldn’t say everything,” Kevin said, slipping an arm around Briony. “After all, I found you, didn’t I? You bring out more in me than I might have believed, Briony. My soft side, my animal side. Everything.” He paused and then whispered softly, his warm breath caressing her ear. “I think I love you.”

Briony opened her mouth to reply, but she did not get the chance. Kevin’s mouth was on hers again, and that was more than enough to drive all thoughts of what she had been about to say out of her head.

.

Chapter 9

 

After school, Briony went home to change for work. Home. That had such a great sound to it, and it was what the Edge Inn had become, thanks to Aunt Sophie’s efforts. Being back there after staying with Kevin was like seeing an old friend whom Briony had not even known that she had missed.

Not that she would be seeing the place for long today. Her shift at the diner started soon, so there would only really be time to shower, change, and rush back out of the door. Briony hustled in, calling out to let Aunt Sophie know that she was back. There wasn’t any reply.

That was odd. Briony had taken her great aunt’s car to school, so it wasn’t like she’d driven anywhere. In any case, there was the inn to run, so Aunt Sophie should be busy with that. Maybe that was it. Maybe a guest had shown up while Briony was at school, and Aunt Sophie was busy taking care of them.

Somehow though, Briony didn’t believe it. Aunt Sophie had found a spare silver cross hidden in a drawer, and given it to Briony to replace the one she’d had to abandon in the woods. Briony clutched it tightly as she moved through the inn, looking for her great aunt. There did not seem to be anyone there, though at the same time, there did not seem to be any sign of disruption. All the rooms were arranged with the same pin-sharp neatness Aunt Sophie liked. All the furniture was where it should be. Having seen Aunt Sophie fight, Briony had to believe that there would be some serious signs of damage if anyone tried to attack her here.

Briony was up in one of the guest bedrooms when a sound came to her from outside, the scrapes and shuffling of someone, or something, moving around outside the front entrance. Briony edged over to the window, being careful to keep out of sight and using the curtain to shield her as she peered down to where the sound seemed to be coming from.

Shadows shifted around the inn as something darted between the trees beyond it. Briony knew as well as anyone what that meant. It had happened on her first night there, when two vampires in old-fashioned clothing had tried to force their way in, only to be driven off by her great aunt. Now, of course, Aunt Sophie was not there to protect her, but Briony knew a lot more than she had then. She could fight a lot better, too.

Even so, Briony jumped when she heard the doorbell. She had to force herself to stay calm, not to panic. With a tight knot of fear in her stomach, she hurried downstairs, opening the door just enough on the chain to peer out. There didn’t seem to be anyone around.

There was, however, something on the doorstep. It took Briony a moment to recognize the crumpled cloth there, but when she did, she had the door open in a flash to snatch up the jacket that lay there. Her jacket. The one she had given to Fallon as he ran to confuse their trails. It was grubby from everything that had happened in the forest, but that was not the worst of it. That part came when she saw the reddish black stains down one side. The kind of stains that could only be blood.

That made Briony glance around again, in anger this time. Was someone watching this? Watching to see how much it would hurt her to see that jacket stained with Fallon’s blood? Was there someone out there who knew what had happened to him, and whose only response to it had been this? Had they already done something to Aunt Sophie?

Briony knew that the smart thing to do would be to go back inside, bolt the doors, and call for help. With luck, George or one of the other Preservation Society members would be there quickly. For once though, she didn’t want to do the sensible thing. She’d had enough of being scared by these things, and she wasn’t about to let the vampire who might know what happened to Fallon get away while she sat inside cowering.

Briony pulled the crucifix from around her neck and activated the catch to extend it into a silver blade. Compared with all the things that had been taken from the Preservation Society’s arsenal, it wasn’t much of a weapon, but wasn’t Aunt Sophie always saying that surprise was a better weapon than all of those put together? What vampire would expect her to chase it through the woods? Would expect Briony to jump out on it in the trees?

Her mind made up, Briony sprinted forwards, reaching the tree line quickly. Ahead, she thought she could make out the shape of her prey, darting from tree to tree, shadow to shadow. It was quick, but it looked small. Smaller than her. Briony knew that did not necessarily mean she had the advantage in strength, not when dealing with vampires, but it might be an advantage nonetheless.

Briony crept forward, moving as silently as her sneakers would let her. She knew that it was vital not to make any sound if she wanted to take the creature by surprise, and she needed to do that. She needed the chance to question it, and for that she would need to incapacitate it quickly. That meant a surprise attack. Using the trees for cover, Briony slipped closer.

She was just yards away now, as close as she could reasonably get without alerting the thing. It was indeed smaller than her, slightly built, with short dark hair. It wore old-fashioned clothes that were slightly too big for it, as though they had been borrowed from a slightly less undersized vampire. Briony tensed herself to attack.

At that point, the vampire turned, ever so slightly, and Briony saw his face. She almost dropped her weapon.

“Jake?”

It came out before Briony could stop herself. Then again, given that her little brother was standing just a short way away, pale and clear-eyed and quite obviously a vampire, Briony felt that she was probably entitled to be a little bit shocked. The feeling seemed to be mutual, because Jake jumped at the sight of her, landing in what was probably supposed to be a fighting stance. Of course, the fact that Briony was holding a weapon that could kill him probably had something to do with it.

“Jake? It’s ok. It’s me, Briony.”

That didn’t really have the desired effect, because Jake bared his fangs, snarling in a way that didn’t really fit with the thirteen-year-old brother Briony knew and loved. Not even on the occasions when Briony had been in his room without asking.

“Jake, seriously,” Briony said. She lowered the silver blade. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“But I might hurt you, Briony,” her brother said. “You have to stay back!”

Briony shook her head. “You’re not going to hurt me. I’m your sister.”

“That doesn’t matter. I am so hungry. I’m always so hungry.” That was little more than a whine, though it was an achingly familiar one. How many times had Briony heard it when their mom and dad hadn’t let Jake do something?

“Jake-”

“No, Briony. Stay back. I can’t control it. They tell me it is worse for me because I’m not an adult, like that’s supposed to help. Like I’m ever going to get any older.”

Briony felt the first hint of tears at that. It was bad enough that her little brother had been turned into one of these creatures, but to spend the rest of eternity trapped at thirteen? To have all a vampire’s hungers as well as all the madly ranging hormones that came with being that age? Briony could barely imagine it. Her brother was still at the awkward stage before his first real growth spurt, still small and awkward. Worse, he would stay like that forever.

“I’m not going to come closer, Jake. Not if you don’t want me to.” Briony paused before asking the obvious questions. “Are Mom and Dad okay? Are they vampires too?”

Pietre had said it, of course, but Briony wanted to hear it from someone she trusted. Despite what he was now, that included Jake. When her brother nodded, Briony did her best not to show any hurt.

“What about Uncle Pete?”

Jake shook his head. “I don’t know why Pietre turned Mom and Dad, but whatever it was, he didn’t want Uncle Pete around. He killed him, Briony.”

That wasn’t something Briony had been hoping for. She found herself wondering how she would break the news to Aunt Sophie. For now though, there were other things she needed to know.

“Jake, are you living with Pietre? Doing what he tells you?”

“Not exactly.” Jake didn’t seem happy to be talking about it, but it just seemed like the usual unhappiness of a brother being questioned by his elder sister. Briony found that she almost missed it. “He made us, and there’s a connection there, but… well, things aren’t exactly simple now. There’s trouble brewing, and not everyone agrees with him.”

“What do you mean?” Briony asked.

Jake shrugged.

“Jake, it might be important.”

“I mean that vampires might be pretty dangerous, but there are supposed to be rules. The thirst is… it is more than almost anything, but it isn’t everything. There are things most vampires do not do. One of them is that you only turn people who are in their prime. No one wants to be old forever.”

“Or thirteen,” Briony said softly.

“Or thirteen,” Jake echoed. “But Pietre broke that rule, and now not everyone is happy with him. Of course, I’m still stuck like this.”

“Oh, Jake.” Briony opened her arms and took a step forward, wanting to fold her brother up in a hug and tell him that everything would be all right. “I’ve missed you, you know. All of you. When you first went missing, it was like everything just… collapsed.”

Briony took another step forwards, but Jake practically leapt backwards. “Briony, I said don’t! I’m starving. I will rip you apart. I won’t be able to stop myself.”

Briony tried not to let the hurt she felt at that show on her face, but she obviously didn’t do a very good job of it, because Jake winced.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I have to go now.” He darted towards the nearest trees, but stopped a few paces from them. “We still feel, you know.”

“I know,” Briony said, thinking of Fallon.

“Under all the hunger, we’re still us. We still love you.”

Jake made to leave. Briony almost forgot what she had followed him for.

“Wait,” she called after him, just in time. “This jacket you brought. Do you know where the vampire who was wearing it is?”

Jake shook his head. “I found it abandoned in the forest. I brought it over because I recognized it. I thought that if your jacket was here, then you would be. I guess I wanted to see you.” He hesitated for a moment. “They say I shouldn’t want that. That it is better to make a clean break. I’m supposed to keep away from you, from Aunt Sophie, from everybody.”

Briony wanted to say that it was okay. That it was so much better knowing that he wasn’t completely gone. She wanted to say it, but there wasn’t a chance, because Jake chose that moment to sprint off, deeper into the woods.

 

Chapter 10

 

Briony could only stand and stare as her little brother sprinted away into the trees, low branches snapping and leaves falling as he hurried from her. Seeing him like that was a wrench, after all, who wanted their brother to be a vampire? Still, it was far better than him being dead. At least this way, there was some hope.

For a moment, Briony considered running after her brother, but she stopped herself. Jake was long gone by now, the trees swallowing all signs of him almost as soon as he had run from her. At the speed he had been running, Jake could be anywhere by now.

Besides that, there was a small part of Briony that did not want to risk running after Jake when he had only just told her how hungry he felt. What if he really couldn’t control himself? What then? Briony felt ashamed to think that about her own brother, but she could not help it. In any case, she was thinking about him as much as herself. Briony could only guess how Jake would feel if he ended up biting her by accident, but she knew it wasn’t something her little brother would be able to put aside lightly.

No, the best thing to do was definitely to head back to the Edge Inn. Maybe Aunt Sophie would be home by now. If so, she would definitely want to hear everything. Briony turned to walk back, and it occurred to her just how far she must have run into the woods in her need to show Jake that she had not been afraid. That had been stupid. What if there were other vampires out there? Did Briony really want to hand them an advantage by walking straight into a place where she would not be able to spot them coming?

Almost exactly on cue, a twig broke somewhere not far from her. It wasn’t easy to pin down the exact direction in the woods, because the trees made the sound echo through them until it sounded like it came from everywhere at once, but Briony got the distinct impression that whoever it was had managed to get between her and home.

Something moved up in one of the trees, a good ten feet above her, largely hidden by the foliage. Briony didn’t even try to convince herself that it might just be a bird. Birds were not that big. She clutched her silver-bladed crucifix tightly, reminding herself that she wasn’t unarmed. Wasn’t helpless. Any vampire or werewolf jumping down from that tree would find itself running straight into a silver blade coming up to meet it.

What then, though? Briony could probably handle a single vampire, but what if there turned out to be more than one? She saw something move in the tree, and as it leapt down, she made her decision. She ran.

Briony cut sideways into the trees, not wanting to let herself be chased deeper in the forest, but knowing that the creature would try to keep between her and the inn. Running through the forest was not easy, and Briony had to concentrate every step of the way to avoid the debris of low plants, tangled roots and fallen branches that threatened to trip her. Falling would not be good. Not when she could hear running footsteps behind her, trampling through the undergrowth.

They were getting closer, too. Briony started to zigzag through the trees, trying to make it harder for whatever was chasing her to judge which way she would be going next, deliberately picking out the hardest route she could in the hopes that it would be slowed down enough for her to get clear.

Luck wasn’t with Briony. She felt her foot catch on a tree root, and only just stopped herself from sprawling headlong. The stumble was enough. Briony tried to dodge sideways as the footsteps closed the last strides, but it wasn’t enough. Strong arms closed around her in a tackle that bore both her and her pursuer to the ground.

Briony spun on instinct, turning so that she wasn’t pinned down in the dirt of the forest floor and driving herself up to her knees. As she did so, Briony shifted her blade held in a reverse grip, ready to pierce the heart as she whirled. Her attacker seemed to have anticipated the move, because a hand clamped down on her forearm, blocking the strike. Briony started to twist free, ready to stab from another angle, when she realized who it was on the forest floor with her.

“Fallon?”

“Briony, it’s okay. Please, don’t be afraid.”

Briony sagged with relief, laughing as she let herself fall into Fallon, holding him tight.

“You idiot. I could have killed you. I thought you were… well, I’m not sure what I thought you were. What were you doing chasing me?”

“You’re the one who ran off,” Fallon said. “I was just trying to keep up long enough to get you to stop.”

“By tackling me.”

“Yes. Sorry about that.”

Fallon didn’t sound all that sorry about it. Then again, it did leave them pressed close together on the forest floor, so Briony wasn’t entirely sorry about it either. She put her silver cross away, tucking it carefully out of sight to make things easier for Fallon. Briony kissed him without thinking, relief pouring out of her that Fallon was alright.

“I’m glad you’re safe,” Briony said. “My brother delivered my jacket to the inn. I thought…”

Fallon put a finger to her lips. “I know. I heard you talking to him. I’m safe now, Briony.”

He was, and it lifted a weight from Briony’s heart to know it for certain. When Fallon had not made contact after their escape, she had been so worried that the worst might have happened to him.

“Why didn’t you get in touch?” Briony demanded. “It has been days.”

“I didn’t know where you were,” Fallon said. “You weren’t at the inn. You weren’t at your job. I thought about trying to leave a message with that great aunt of yours, but until I knew that you had gotten back safely, it didn’t seem safe. I mean, what if she thought I had done something to you?”

Briony hadn’t thought of it like that. Her attempts to keep off the radar with Kevin had stopped Pietre from finding her, but they had not exactly made things easy for Fallon either. He was right about Aunt Sophie too. As it was, she had quickly known that Briony was safe, but if she hadn’t, and Fallon had been the last person Briony had been seen with? Aunt Sophie would have staked him.

There was only one thing Briony did not get. “Why did you spend your time hiding in a tree back there? You could have just shown up openly.”

Fallon shook his head. “Not with your brother there.”

There was a strange note in that. A note almost of… fear.

“Fallon? What is it?”

Fallon shook his head. “You can’t trust him, Briony.”

“He’s my brother, Fallon. Of course I trust him.”

Fallon pulled back from her and stood up. “He’s a lot more than that.”

Briony stood up too, still puzzled. “A vampire? I know about that.”

“Oh, he’s more than that.” Briony didn’t know whether to be happy or worried when Fallon started to unbutton his shirt, peeling it back to reveal three clear claw marks across his chest. “Jake might be a vampire, but that isn’t all. He’s a werewolf too.”

Briony could not help wincing as she saw the wounds. They weren’t bleeding, but they looked angry and scabbed over. “Is that even possible? I mean, can you be both?”

“Apparently. At least, he was a wolf when he did this.”

“Oh, Fallon.” Briony hugged him then, and she couldn’t help the moment when it turned into something more, when their lips met again. This kiss was longer, deeper, and Briony did not want it to stop, even though eventually it had to. “I’m glad you got away from Pietre’s vampires. It was brave, leading them off like that.”

“It was close,” Fallon admitted. “I might not have made it if it wasn’t for… well, a werewolf.”

“Jake?” Briony asked it automatically, but Fallon shook his head.

“Someone else. A friend of his. Apparently, being both, he can make friends everywhere. I don’t know how he does it. Something like this, it ought to be an oddity, even a deformity, but your brother uses it to his advantage.”

Briony nodded. “Jake always was clever.”

“He must take after his sister.”

That earned Fallon another, brief, kiss. It wasn’t enough to distract Briony’s attention from the wounds on his chest though. “If even Jake’s werewolf friends are ready to help a vampire, why did he do this to you?”

Fallon shrugged. “I made a mistake. I thought he could control himself. The werewolf who helped me told me about Jake when I asked why I wasn’t being killed. When I heard about him, I wanted to meet him. I thought he could lead me to your parents.”

“So what went wrong?” Briony asked. She could hardly imagine her brother turning on someone like this. Even after the way he had reacted around her, she couldn’t imagine this.

“I forgot about your jacket,” Fallon said. “I was still wearing it when we met, and he obviously recognized the scent.”

“He thought you’d hurt me,” Briony guessed.

Fallon nodded. “He leapt at me, and I had to run. He chased me for… it had to be days, just stalking me through the woods. Sometimes, he would be a wolf. Sometimes, he would look like a boy. I knew that the only way I could stop him would be to kill him, and I just couldn’t do that to you.”

Briony did not know what to say to that. Fallon had been hunted for days, and he had still not wanted to do anything to upset her?

“He’s just a kid, anyway,” Fallon said. “The trouble is, he’s a kid who’s a vampire. And he has all of a werewolf’s instincts as well. That’s why he’s so dangerous.” He kept going before Briony could disagree. “He didn’t give me a chance to feed, so I got weaker and weaker. Finally, he caught up with me. I only got away because I abandoned your jacket. He changed back, and it was like he couldn’t place it. I think that whatever is happening with him is playing tricks on his mind.”

Briony shook her head. She couldn’t believe that. She wouldn’t believe that. Even though Jake hadn’t exactly been normal with her, he had still been Jake. Still been her brother. Yet hadn’t he told her that he had just found the jacket? He had not mentioned anything about chasing Fallon. What if he couldn’t remember it?

“We should get back,” Briony said. “I need to see if Aunt Sophie has shown up. I’m just hoping that it’s something to do with the Preservation Society.”

“There’s trouble?” Fallon asked. At least he didn’t press her any further about Jake. “Is it Pietre?”

He held her hand as they walked, and Briony did her best to explain about the things that had happened in the past few days. Though she found herself saying very little about Kevin’s role in them. Briony could guess how Fallon would react to mentions of his brother. Instead, she told him about Pietre using the civilian authorities to strike at the diner, about the Preservation Society’s meeting out on the lake, and about the possible danger to Briony now that she knew the location of the vampires’ home.

Fallon nodded. “In that case, we should probably get back before anything else happens.”

 

Chapter 11

 

They hurried back, mindful that the woods were not a safe place to linger. Even Fallon seemed a little afraid out there, and Briony had to keep a firm grip on herself to keep from starting at every sound in the darkness. All the time she had spent in Wicked, and she still had not quite gotten used to the idea that woods were not silent places, but teemed with unexpected noise and movement. Still, they would be safe once they reached the inn.

At least, that was what Briony thought right up to the point where they emerged from the trees to see the Edge Inn’s door hanging open. Briony was sure that she hadn’t left it like that when she left to chase her brother through the trees, which meant…

“Someone has been in there,” she said.

Fallon nodded. “We should stay clear then. Call for help.”

“I’m not going to be kept out of my home by this, Fallon. We are safer inside, anyway. And what kind of help could we call? No, I am going in there. Wait here if you want.”

Of course, Briony knew that he wouldn’t stay there, not when she was about to step into somewhere that was potentially dangerous. Knowing that was part of what made it so easy to step inside to face whatever had been done there.

They hadn’t been gone long, but it had been more than long enough for someone to wreck the place. Furniture lay broken into jagged fragments. The screen of the TV was smashed, and a shattered picture frame nearby suggested how it had been done. Tables lay upside down by the walls, as though they had been flung aside.

Her hand on her cross, Briony walked through into the kitchen. If anything, it was in a worse state. Nothing seemed to be where it was supposed to be, and at least one of the kitchen cabinets had been ripped down from the wall and used as a projectile. It looked like some kind of natural disaster had hit the place.

Except, of course, there was nothing natural about it. It had to be vampires. Was this mess the aftermath of a fight, or simply the kind of systematic destruction Briony could imagine Pietre delighting in.

Had Jake been a part of it? Briony did not want to believe it. After all, he had said that her family wasn’t on Pietre’s side despite what had happened to them. But he had lured her away… no, she wouldn’t believe it. He was her brother, despite everything that had happened. He wouldn’t do this to her, or to Aunt Sophie.

At that thought, Briony realized that she hadn’t checked whether her great aunt had come back. She could be in here somewhere, hurt, or bleeding, or worse.

“Aunt Sophie?” Briony called out. She repeated it again, louder this time. She moved from room to room, calling out for her great aunt, but there was still no sign of her. Fallon followed in Briony’s wake. “You don’t think something has happened to her, do you, Fallon?” Briony demanded.

Fallon reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. “Was Aunt Sophie home?”

Briony shook her head. “I couldn’t find her before.”

“Then there’s no reason to think that she would have come back.”

Even so, Briony decided to check the rest of the house. She wanted to be sure, not just that Aunt Sophie wasn’t there, but also that the vampires hadn’t left any surprises for them in the house.

“What I don’t get,” Fallon said, “is how anyone got to do this. A private residence like this should be safe. Vampires would need to be invited in.”

“Maybe they had help,” Briony replied. She found herself thinking of the human sympathizers vampires were supposed to have. Before, Briony had been able to feel slightly sorry for anyone that stupid. Now though, if Briony ever found any of them…

She and Fallon started to straighten up what they could as they made their way around the inn, putting things back the right way up, moving furniture back to where it should be. It was not much, but at least it made Briony feel like the place was hers again, and not just somewhere that vampires had destroyed. There was not time to do anything to really tidy the inn, though, because they still had to keep checking for Aunt Sophie.

They got as far as the hallway, and a bolted door that led down into the Edge Inn’s basement, before Fallon put out a hand to stop Briony.

“There’s something down there.”

“Aunt Sophie?” Briony asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. We could barricade the door,” he suggested. “Trap it there.”

Briony shook her head. “We need to go down there, Fallon. Even if it’s not her, it’s something. I can’t just walk away knowing that there’s something down there that shouldn’t be. We have to deal with this.”

Briony tried to make her tone resolute. She wasn’t going to budge on this. This was her home now, and it was bad enough that something had wrecked it. She wasn’t going to let it take up residence in the basement too. Besides, if Fallon couldn’t be one hundred percent certain that it wasn’t Aunt Sophie down there, Briony couldn’t afford to risk it. From the state of this place, she could be in real trouble.

“All right,” Fallon said after a few seconds, “but at least let me go first. I can survive a lot more than you can, Briony.”

That made some sense, even if Briony did not like the idea of sending Fallon in to face her danger for her. The young vampire opened the door, trying the light switch that stood at the head of a series of steps downwards. Nothing happened, but instead of waiting until Briony fetched a torch, he just plunged down into the dark.

Briony hurried after him, hoping that the light spilling down the steps from the hallway would be enough. In the darkness, her steps seemed to echo more than they should have. Fallon was just visible ahead of her, a darker outline against the blackness. Briony hoped that whatever was down here, it wouldn’t be a threat to them, because she wasn’t sure how much use she would be when she couldn’t see what she was fighting.

A growl came from the side, deep and rumbling. Briony stumbled as Fallon pushed her back, away from something that she could not see. What about Fallon? Vampires could see in the dark, couldn’t they? Did he know what was down there?

A larger shape smashed into the vampire, carrying him back into the darkness. The sounds of violence came to Briony then in snarls and barely human hisses, grunts of effort and sounds of pain. Briony heard flesh smack into flesh in a blow that made her wince just to hear it, and Fallon cried out.

“Fallon?” Briony stepped forward into the darkness, trying to help, but she couldn’t even see. Even with her eyes as wide as Briony could get them, she couldn’t make out more than two vague silhouettes struggling with one another, rolling over and over as first one, and then the other, got the upper hand. If Briony tried to intervene with her cross blade, she could end up stabbing Fallon just as easily as his opponent. As for trying to take on whatever it was unarmed, that sounded like a good way to get herself killed.

Briony knew that she needed light. Without it, she couldn’t help, so she sprinted back up the stairs, heading for the kitchen, where she knew Aunt Sophie kept at least one flashlight in case of emergencies. Briony just hoped that it had batteries in it. She found it in only seconds, but with Fallon fighting below, it felt like far longer. Running back down to the cellar, Briony turned the beam from the torch on the two combatants, recognizing the second of them instantly.

“Fallon, wait! It’s Kevin!”

They ignored her. Of course they did. It wasn’t like the two of them could ever put aside their instinctive hatred of what the other had become long enough to actually think. Briony considered throwing herself between them, as she had when they had been preparing to fight before. The trouble was, then, they hadn’t been in the middle of their battle, just at the start. This time, Briony didn’t think her odds of surviving would be as good.

Kevin rolled above his brother, bringing his fist down once, twice, in meaty blows that looked like they should have driven Fallon into the basement’s concrete floor. Briony grabbed the nearest thing she could find, an aged fire blower that looked as likely to explode as to work, and sent a stream of flame close enough to them to singe eyebrows. The two of them reeled back from each other, turning to face the new threat and only pausing when they realized that it was Briony.

“Now that I’ve got your attention, do you want to stop tearing pieces off each other long enough to tell me what is going on?”

The two of them looked exhausted by their battle, which intrigued Briony. Did vampires have any breath to run out of? That thought found itself pushed aside by the state Kevin was in. There were huge tears in his clothes, and in the flesh beneath too, from what Briony could see. There was a wound in his throat that had obviously come from a vampire’s fangs. She rushed over to him.

“Kevin? What happened? Fallon, you didn’t-”

“Like he could,” Kevin said. “This was Pietre. I came by to check on you, and he was here. Here, like he owned the place, standing in the middle of the living room. We fought. I almost had him, too, but then he shoved me down into this cellar and bolted the door from the outside.”

“You look terrible,” Briony said, reaching out to put an arm around him. “Come on, we’ll get you upstairs. Fallon, help me.”

The vampire gave his brother an angry look, but he did as Briony asked. Soon, Briony had Kevin sitting on the remains of the sofa in the living room, bandaging the wound on his neck as best she could.

“Made a bit of a mess here,” Kevin said. His voice sounded weak, and he looked very pale. Fallon had retreated to the kitchen, claiming that he was going to keep tidying up, but obviously just wanting to keep out of his brother’s way. Briony went in there to speak with him, leaving Kevin to doze on the sofa. He looked very pale.

“Fallon, we have to do something. Your brother’s hurt.”

“I suppose we could always put him out of his misery,” Fallon said.

“Fallon!”

“What do you want me to say? What help can we give him?”

“He needs medical attention.”

Fallon shook his head. “And let the world know we exist?”

“The Preservation Society, then,” Briony insisted. “George will help.”

“This is the same George who hunts werewolves?”

Briony shook her head. “It’s not like that. He knows Kevin now.”

Fallon looked somehow affronted by that. “So he’s stepped into the Preservation Society’s trust just like that? What else has he taken over from me, Briony?”

“I don’t know what you-”

Fallon’s hands were on her arms then. “Of course you do. Just tell me this, Briony. Did you ever care for me?”

“If she didn’t,” Kevin said, appearing in the doorway, “do you think I would have spent my time looking for you, this past week? Do you think I wouldn’t kill you?”

Briony could see Fallon biting back an angry response. “We still can’t go to a hospital,” he said. “Which leaves one thing, doesn’t it? Vampire blood.”

“Vampire blood?” Briony echoed.

Kevin answered her. “Get enough in you, and it will turn you into one of them. Less than that, though, and it will help someone heal.”

Fallon made a face. “Just don’t think that this is going to be a regular thing. Not after taking Briony from me.” He bit down on his own wrist, and blood started to flow. “If she weren’t watching, I’d leave you to die.”

“If Briony weren’t watching, one of us would die,” Kevin agreed.

Chapter 12

 

Fallon and Kevin both left after Fallon had healed his brother, leaving Briony to get things at the inn back into good shape. Aunt Sophie arrived about halfway though, helping Briony to put things right once she got over the shock of seeing her home like that. It was one of the first times Briony had ever seen her great aunt rattled.

“Where were you?” Briony asked.

“I’d just popped out for some things,” Aunt Sophie replied. “It was a good thing I wasn’t here, by the looks of it. What happened?”

Briony told her about Pietre and Kevin. For some reason, though, she did not tell her great aunt about Jake. Maybe it was the thought of trying to tell her that Uncle Pete was dead, or maybe it was just worry over what Aunt Sophie might do if she learned that Briony’s brother was some kind of vampire/werewolf hybrid.

“It was just as well the boy was here, then,” Aunt Sophie said, “though I wish he’d made less of a mess.”

“Fallon’s back too.” Briony tried to say it flatly, but it didn’t really come out that way. Aunt Sophie had the tact not to press too hard though.

“That’s going to make things complicated. Not that they were ever simple. Come on. Things will look better after a good night’s rest.”

They didn’t. Not really, anyway. After all, no amount of sleep could do away with the fact that vampires were targeting them. As Briony went to school, she kept glancing back over her shoulder, all too aware that there was nothing to stop the creatures from striking while she was out. There was no way that Pietre would just give up after all these years.

Once she was at school, though, Briony forced herself to push those thoughts away. It wasn’t like she could do anything from there, and Aunt Sophie could look after herself. Besides, there were plenty of other things to focus on. Fallon, for one. Briony had not expected to see him, but he was there in the hall as though he had never been away, chatting to Maisy and Steve. When Briony got close enough, he slipped an arm around her shoulders and kept talking about some sci-fi show to the others. It was the kind of casual closeness that Briony might have expected back before he had left at homecoming, breaking Briony’s heart and before Kevin.

Then, it had felt normal, even reassuring. Now though, it felt strange to Briony, even forced. Not that it seemed that way on Fallon’s part, but he couldn’t just walk back in and really expect things to be as they were, could he? Apparently, he could. At least, he treated Briony exactly as he had before he’d left, even going so far as to steal a brief kiss from her before he set off for his first class. Briony didn’t have time to complain.

“So,” Steve said, “are you two back together or what?”

Briony did not have an answer for that. Thankfully though, Maisy chose that moment to provide a distraction.

“Briony, are you trying out for the cheerleading squad after school?”

“That’s today?” Automatically, Briony’s eyes sought out Pepper Freeman, the head cheerleader. Surrounded by her usual gaggle of friends, the blonde-haired cheerleader wasn’t hard to spot. She laughed at a joke that was probably at someone else’s expense. On the fringes of the group, Claire, Briony’s one friend amongst them, laughed along even though it was obvious that the dark-haired girl didn’t really get the joke. But then, Briony suspected that Claire didn’t get a lot of things.

“Yes,” Maisy said. “You are trying out, aren’t you? Claire talked me into giving it a try. Even dragged me along to some practice where I had to learn the routine for the try out. She was so… enthusiastic about it.”

That sounded like Claire. That kind of enthusiasm had been more or less how Briony had found herself talked into going to one of the school’s football games with Claire and her friend Tracey…the game where Briony had ended up killing her first vampire. That seemed like such a long time ago now. Back before Tracey had been killed.

“So, are you going?” Maisy insisted.

Briony nodded automatically, even though she had missed out on learning the routine. She was not going to miss out on a chance to try out just because her life happened to be full of supernatural creatures. After all, she had been one of the stars of the team back at her old school.

“Absolutely. Even if I’d probably have to lock Pepper in a cupboard somewhere to get in.”

They had English class after that. Fallon was not in Briony’s first class, but in the second, it was again like he had never been away. He didn’t even seem to be behind in any of his work, which didn’t strike Briony as very fair. After all, it had taken her a lot of effort to catch up for all the days she had missed. Fallon continued to treat Briony as though recent events hadn’t happened, too. He sat next to her in class, and caught her eye whenever he could, and generally acted like he was still her boyfriend. Like Kevin did not exist.

It was so obvious that by lunchtime, even Maisy was ready to comment on it. She cornered Briony in the lunchroom, away from everyone else.

“This thing with Fallon is getting weird,” she said. “I mean, it’s like he’s just assuming that things are back to normal, just like that.”

“I know,” Briony said.

“So, is that what you want?”

“I… don’t know.”

“Ok,” Maisy said, “well, how do you feel about Kevin?”

“I don’t know,” Briony said again. She was more than aware that it was any kind of answer to the question. “I was almost ready to get back together with Fallon when we were all taken hostage by Pietre, but since then? Kevin has been there. He was there when we thought Fallon wasn’t coming back. He was there when I needed somewhere to hide. He was there, and Fallon wasn’t. I know it wasn’t his fault, but I had to move on or…”

Maisy looked like she might say something, but stopped herself, nodding back over Briony’s shoulder. “Hi, Steve. Hi, Fallon.”

The two boys showed up with their lunches, and Fallon was friendly. Briony watched him carefully, looking for some sign that there was something else underneath it, but there didn’t seem to be anything but a genuine desire for things to be all right again.

“You know,” Fallon said after a minute of minor chat about who was doing what in the school, “we should all go out together. Maybe tonight?”

“Like a double date?” Maisy asked.

“Exactly.”

Briony was already shaking her head. “I can’t. I have to work down at George’s diner. I have a lot of missed time to make up.”

“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind,” Fallon said, but then seemed to think about it. “Okay, maybe he would. But what about if we did something on the weekend? There’s that amusement park for the tourists. I’ve never been there. It could be fun. It might be nice to do something that’s just fun for once.”

Briony tried to think of a way out of it automatically, but nothing came to mind.

“It could be good,” Steve said. “I’ve never been either.”

“I don’t think anyone who’s actually from Wicked has been there,” Maisy said. “It’s kind of the rule with these things, isn’t it? If you live there, you don’t go to them.”

“I don’t know…” Briony began.

“Come on, Briony,” Fallon said. “You need something that isn’t about vampires, or werewolves, or work. You have to have some time for fun.”

To Briony’s surprise, Maisy and Steve both nodded. Whose side were they on?

“You do look like you could do with a good day out,” Maisy said.

Briony put up her hands in surrender. “All right. All right. I’ll go.”

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch, and the four of them hurried to their next class. Biology. It was only when they were halfway there that Briony remembered just who would be teaching it. Her stomach started to knot. Somehow, she doubted that a lesson featuring Fallon and Kevin in the same room would be fun.

It was every bit as bad as Briony had feared. The moment Fallon sat down next to her, his hand ‘accidentally’ brushing hers, Kevin’s eyes narrowed. From there, things only got worse. Kevin asked questions relating to previous lessons, and then picked Fallon to answer them, regardless of whether he had raised his hand. He delivered his lesson in short, clipped sentences, a scowl never leaving his face. When one of the boys towards the back whispered something to a neighbor, Kevin shot him such a furious look that the boy practically yelped in fear.

About halfway through, Briony found a note sliding across in front of her. Just one glance at Fallon told her who had pushed it her way. Since when did my brother teach high school, it read.

Briony wrote the words He’s here to protect me. Pietre could strike anywhere underneath, and pushed it back to him. Fallon’s expression tightened as he read it, and he screwed up the piece of paper. When Kevin chose that moment to ask him yet another question, Fallon’s reply was in a cold tone that Briony was sure even the other students understood what was going on.

When the bell finally went for the end of class, Fallon didn’t move from his seat. Briony stayed put too, knowing that she could not just leave the two of them alone together as everyone else left. That was the kind of move that would lead to a fight. Maisy raised a questioning eyebrow, obviously wanting to know if she should stay too, but Briony shook her head.

“I’ll see you at tryouts,” she promised.

“You’d better be there.” Maisy looked serious. “I’m not doing that alone.”

She left then, and finally, it was just Kevin, Fallon and Briony in the classroom. The tension was palpable.

“If you two fight here,” Briony warned, “it will cause so much trouble.”

“Like he doesn’t deserve it,” Fallon snapped back. “Coming here on the pretext of protecting you, pretending to be a teacher, and all so he can steal you away from me.”

“I’m not the one who ran off,” Kevin said. “Whatever there was between the two of you, I’m the one who has been protecting Briony. She’s mine now.”

Briony brought her hand down on a desk so sharply she thought it might break. “Stop it, the pair of you. For your information, I don’t belong to anyone.”

“Sorry,” Kevin said, looking away.

“Sorry,” Fallon echoed.

Briony took a breath. “Fallon, I’m glad you’re back, but for a long while, you weren’t here. Kevin came here to protect me, and he did a good job. We can’t just pretend things are like they were before.” She sighed. Now, you’re coming with me, because I’m not leaving the two of you alone together.”

She walked out of the class, and Fallon followed. He stopped her halfway down the hall. “I’m not asking for things to be the way they were,” he said, “but I know you feel for me, Briony. I know what was between us in the woods, and before the vampires took us. I just want a chance, Briony.”

Briony could not bring herself to say no. Couldn’t do anything but nod. Fallon started to say something, but Briony stopped him.

“I have to get to tryouts.”

She ran, and so arrived only a couple of minutes late, to general glares from everyone except Claire and Maisy. It went… well, better than she had expected, given that she didn’t know the routine and the head cheerleader had it in for her. Even so, Briony was hardly surprised when the last cheerleading spot didn’t go to her. She actually smiled when Maisy got it.

Even so, there was a part of her that could not help cracking just a little as the others welcomed her friend to the team. Once, that would have been her almost automatically. Now… was there any part of her life that Pietre and those like him couldn’t damage? Briony sat on the bleachers and watched the others, and vowed that the next time she saw the master vampire, this would be just one of the reasons she would stake him.

Chapter 13

 

As soon as she’d had the chance to congratulate Maisy on getting into the cheerleading squad, Briony rushed from the gym. The last thing she needed was to spend her time with the likes of Pepper gloating that she wasn’t good enough. Briony certainly didn’t want anyone seeing the tears that were starting to glaze over her vision.

It was stupid, getting upset like this over cheerleading. Running out of a gym and leaning back against the wall and crying, just because she hadn’t got into some team. Stupid, after all that had happened. It wasn’t like someone had taken her family from her again. It wasn’t like someone had died.

Getting angry about it did not help though. If anything, it made things worse. Briony found herself getting upset because she was getting upset, and that was the stupidest part of all of it. Could things get any worse?

“Briony? What’s wrong?”

Oh great. She had to think it, didn’t she? And now here was Kevin, just in time to see her crying over nothing. Like that was attractive.

He folded her into his arms, holding her close enough that Briony could feel the strength of his muscles with every ragged breath. This close, she could pick up the scent of his skin, rich with soap, and work, and undertones of the forest. Briony wished that she could stay like that forever.

“What is it, Briony?” Kevin repeated, gently tilting Briony’s head until her gaze met his. “You can tell me, you know.”

Briony shook her head. “It’s stupid.”

“Somehow, I doubt that,” Kevin said.

“I’m crying because I didn’t make the cheerleading squad. Is that stupid enough?” Briony pulled back from him, slumping back against the wall and letting herself slide down it until she was sitting.

Kevin was silent for a moment as he moved to sit beside her. “That’s not all of it though, is it?”

Until he said it, Briony didn’t realize that it was true. She nodded. “It’s like… I can’t have anything normal anymore, Kevin. I used to have this nice life. Family. Friends. I was in the cheerleading squad, and no one tried to pick on me the way Pepper does. Then I had to come here.”

“What’s wrong with here?” Kevin asked.

“Everything. It is like everything I care about has been taken away from me. And it never stops. First my family is supposed to be dead. Then they’re vampires, and it turns out a master vampire has it in for Aunt Sophie. Then my brother turns out to be some kind of hybrid vampire and werewolf, who can’t control himself because of it. Even when I start to make friends, I find myself worrying about what will happen to them. I mean, look at what happened to Tracey.”

Kevin reached out for her hand. The feeling of his fingers entwined with hers was all Briony could focus on for the next few seconds.

“Tracey’s death wasn’t your fault, Briony.”

“Wasn’t it?” Briony demanded. “How do we know? Pietre has been targeting everything around me, from George’s Diner to my family. Why not my friends? Not that I have friends at the moment.” Briony winced as she heard herself. “Okay, so I’m feeling really sorry for myself right now.”

Kevin smiled. “Just a little. But it’s all right to be upset sometimes, Briony. You just have to remember that this wasn’t your fault. It was Pietre’s, and he isn’t even after you. He’s after your great-aunt.”

“I guess,” Briony said.

“You know it, because it’s the truth. It isn’t even Aunt Sophie’s fault. She can’t control what someone like Pietre will do, so why should you think that you can?”

Briony shook her head. “I don’t think that. It’s just… stuff like this, it should be separate, somehow. Fighting vampires, and werewolves, and the rest of it, it actually sounds kind of cool, right up to the point where it means that I don’t get to have friends. Right up to the point where I can’t have a normal life. Sometimes, I wish that things were back to the way they were when I lived back in Florida.”

Kevin kissed her then. It seemed like a big risk to Briony, kissing her out in the hall where anyone could see, but he didn’t seem to care. “Things change, Briony. You can’t stop them, and you’ll drive yourself crazy if you try.”

“So I should just accept what Pietre has done?” Briony demanded.

Kevin shook his head. “I’m not saying that. Pietre has done unforgivable things to a lot of people, myself and Fallon included. He will pay for that. But no matter what we do, it won’t make the world the way it was before all this began. All we can do is try to stop him from making things worse.”

“And in the meantime, I’ve got to try not to be the girl who breaks down because she can’t make the cheerleading squad?” Briony guessed.

It got a brief laugh from Kevin, who reached out to brush the last of the tears from her cheek. “Why would I tell you to be brave about it? You’re already one of the bravest girls I know.”

“Only one of?”

“You’re special, Briony. So you didn’t make the cheerleading squad? So what? My guess is that you can achieve almost anything if you try. And I think you should try to find something, because right now, what you need most is something normal in your life.”

Briony raised an eyebrow. Where was she going to get anything normal in Wicked? The town was to normal what she was to particle physics. “You had something in mind?”

Kevin smiled, and started to fish in his pockets. “Maybe.”

“What are you looking for?”

“It’s a surprise,” Kevin said.

“I’m not in the mood for surprises, Kevin.”

“Well, you’ll just have to get in the mood for them, won’t you?” He retrieved a folded flyer from a pocket and passed it to Briony. “I saw this earlier, and I thought you would be perfect for it.”

Briony unfolded the flyer to find herself staring at a notice announcing auditions for the school’s production of Little Red Riding Hood.

“Kevin, I can’t act.”

Kevin raised an admonishing finger. “Now stop that. Just remember what I said about being able to do anything.”

“Except act,” Briony shot back. “Seriously, Kevin.”

“But you have the perfect experience for it.”

“What experience?” Briony had to admit, despite everything, she was finding herself at least a little interested.

“Well, who else here has spent her time wandering through a dangerous wood, looking out for big bad wolves while on the way back to their elderly relatives?”

“So much for normal,” Briony said. “Besides, something tells me that if a big bad wolf came calling on Aunt Sophie, she’d have a new wolf-skin rug. Particularly if she found out that he had just called her elderly.”

“Come on, Briony,” Kevin insisted. He stood and pulled Briony to her feet with him. “You can’t tell me that it wouldn’t be good to be involved in something.”

Briony thought about telling him no, but she stopped herself in time. The part of her that was rejecting the chance felt far too much like the same one that was trying to cling on to her old life. Maybe Kevin was right. Maybe she did need to adapt, to do something new. Still, she could see at least one obvious problem.

“Kevin, the auditions for this have already started. I missed out on the cheerleading because I didn’t have time to learn the routine. How am I going to do any better here?”

“Really? My guess is that you missed out on the cheerleading because Pepper Freeman is too stuck up to ever let you in. I do pay some attention to what’s going on in this school, you know.”

“Okay, maybe,” Briony said, “but that still doesn’t mean I can waltz into someone else’s auditions late and hope to get a part.”

“Why not?” Kevin asked. “After all, you’ve got a teacher on your side. Now come on.”

He set off, not letting go of Briony’s hand, forcing her to follow. He led her on a direct route to the school’s auditorium, only letting go of her arm once they were at the door. From the inside came the sounds of someone acting, or at least of someone shouting their lines slowly.

“Thank you Ida dear,” a woman’s voice said, “I think possibly I’ve heard enough there.”

Briony followed Kevin in. The auditorium was not huge, and it had the look of somewhere that hadn’t had much attention since it had been built a decade or so before. There was a stage at the front, where an assortment of students Briony mostly didn’t know were going through lines with the aid of their scripts. In front of the stage stood a middle-aged woman who seemed, for some reason Briony couldn’t work out, to be under the impression that she looked her best in a garish assortment of brightly-colored layers. She looked over as the two of them entered.

“Oh, hello Mr. Dante. Who’s this?”

“This is Briony, Miss Smith. She was just telling me how she was far too awful to ever get into your play.”

“Is that so?” She turned a scowl onto Briony. “Well, dear, I think you’ll find that I get to decide whether you’re awful or not. I am the director here.” A smile broke through, and Miss Smith lowered her voice. “Seriously though, you can’t be any worse than Ida. Now, grab a script from the pile, do your best to get familiar with… oh, let’s go the whole hog and have you read Red’s part for now, and we’ll see how you do in twenty minutes or so. It should give me time to persuade Ida that she’d like to help behind the scenes.”

It reminded Briony a little of Claire. Plenty of enthusiasm, no hint of nastiness, and also no chance to say no. Before she knew what she was doing, Briony found herself picking up a badly photocopied script and doing her best to remember Red Riding Hood’s lines. By the time Miss Smith called her over to read, Briony hardly felt ready.

Still, she gave it her best try, leaving her script at the side and trying to project the right emotions. There was the note of obliviousness for the parts where she was supposed to be walking through the forest, then the confusion over her ‘grandmother’s’ odd appearance, then fear at finding a wolf. Though there, Briony couldn’t help a little note of defiance. After all, if she had found a wolf had eaten Aunt Sophie, it wouldn’t have had time for all this “The better to eat you with” business.

Afterwards, she looked to Miss Smith. “Was that all right?”

“All right?” Miss Smith clapped her hands. “It was wonderful. It seems we have our Red Riding Hood. Be at rehearsals tomorrow lunchtime.”

Briony left, slightly stunned by the speed with which it had happened. She had the lead? Just like that? Kevin met her outside the auditorium.

“You see, I told you you’d be good. Apparently, Miss Smith was amazed that you’d memorized the script. How did you do it?”

“Oh, I just tend to remember things I read,” Briony said. “My parents used to say I was born with a photographic memory.”

Kevin laughed. “You say that like it’s nothing. So you’re a fearless vampire slayer, you can act, and you have a photographic memory? I told you that you were special, Briony.”

Chapter 14

 

The strangest part about the next few days was how quiet they were. Well, possibly quiet wasn’t the right word for it, because they were more than busy enough to leave Briony exhausted at the end of the day. There was her schoolwork to think about, and her work at the diner, and plenty of rehearsals for the play. Apparently, Miss Smith had decided that they needed all the practice they could get.

There wasn’t, however, much sign of activity from either vampires or werewolves. George and Aunt Sophie kept up Briony’s training as best they could, but there weren’t any reports of attacks around the town, or even of vampire sightings. Where normally, the Preservation Society would have found itself called on to check on reports of vampires at least once or twice in the week, now they found themselves left with nothing to do but wait.

At first, it worried Briony a little. It felt unnatural, coming after so many strikes against them, and she could not help thinking of it as the calm before the storm. Still, as days slid into one another with no sign of violence, Briony started to let herself relax just a little. If Wicked’s various supernatural denizens felt like taking a vacation, she wasn’t about to take it for granted. It wasn’t like she was short of things to do after all.

The rehearsals for the play took up a lot of her lunch times, and Briony found that she enjoyed getting into her part, making the most of her time on stage. She even liked helping the others there with their parts, and found herself making friends with people she had only noticed before as faces at the back of some of her classes.

Much like Maisy and Steve, they did not seem to care that Briony didn’t fit in with the popular crowd. Most of them hardly seemed to notice that there was a popular crowd. They were all far too busy trying to make the school production of Little Red Riding Hood the best it could be with no discernable budget, a cast whose enthusiasm mostly outweighed their acting ability, and a set that occasionally fell over if they did not tie it in place properly. They might have been vaguely aware that there were people who did not spend their lunches making sets or arguing over stage directions, but they didn’t particularly seem to care.

Miss Smith was very encouraging through it all, telling everyone that they were doing wonderfully well, injecting enough enthusiasm into proceedings for about three people, and almost never getting annoyed when things went wrong. She was particularly encouraging towards Briony, saying that she had a knack for her part. Briony found herself pleased by the praise, though she also recalled Kevin’s joking comment about her having experience when it came to running away from wolves.

Briony continued to see a lot of both Kevin and Fallon. In fact, most of the time, it seemed that whenever one of the Dante Brothers wasn’t around, the other was. Kevin resumed his old habit of coming to the diner while Briony was working, ignoring the occasional cautious looks George gave him. Fallon found her between classes or at lunch. Each seemed determined to ignore the attention the other was paying Briony, treating her like she was going out with whichever one of them she happened to be with.

Biology classes were still tense, though after the near fight in the first one, it had settled down into more of a sullen tension than outright arguments. Kevin still picked out Fallon for awkward questions, but Fallon was able to answer most of them without difficulty. Briony guessed that he was taking special care to prepare, so that his brother would not be able to make him look foolish in front of Briony. So that it didn’t spark any more arguments between the two, she took care to sit apart from Fallon in the class, leave before Kevin could talk to her at the end, and generally stay as neutral as she could.

Briony knew it was not an arrangement that could last. At some point, she would have to decide between the two, if only because it wasn’t fair to keep both of them wondering. The trouble was, she genuinely could not make up her mind. Fallon was closer to her own age, and she liked him a lot, but Briony could say that about Kevin, and in any case, there wasn’t the risk of being bitten that came with dating a vampire.

Briony wished that she could talk it over with someone, but there weren’t many candidates. Maisy was increasingly busy with the cheerleading squad, because Pepper seemed to be determined that the new intake would be up to speed well before the next game. Most of her new friends in the play probably wouldn’t have reacted well to mentions of werewolves or vampires, and as for Aunt Sophie, Briony wasn’t sure that this was an area where she wanted to ask.

Briony did briefly ask Jill, her fellow waitress at the diner, for whom she had agreed to do some babysitting. Jill needed to go out one night, and had to find someone to look after her daughter Sarah. Briony had agreed readily. The toddler played around the base of the sofa in Jill’s home, laughing at something Briony could not guess at. Briony had asked then if she could have Jill’s advice.

“So what’s the problem?” Jill asked.

“There are these two boys…”

“Let’s see, that would be the cute werewolf you showed up to George’s boat with? And…”

“His blonde vampire brother.”

“Ah. And I thought I was the only one who could end up with problems when it came to men. So you’re trying to decide between them?”

Briony nodded.

“And, let me guess, you think you really like both of them.”

Another nod.

“Well,” Jill said, “I’m probably not the best person to be giving advice on picking the right man, given how quickly Sarah’s father ran off, but it seems to me that there’s a lesson there. Finding someone you really love is important, but you have to be sure that it goes beyond that. You have to be sure that they will still be there, still be the right person for you, later on too. Anyway, I have to get going, or I’ll be late.”

“Where are you going, anyway?” Briony asked.

“Evening classes.” Jill smiled at her as she said it. “What, you didn’t think you were the only one round here working up to college, did you? Some of us are just a little older than others.”

She was out the door then, leaving Briony to spend an evening looking after Sarah. It was fun, and the toddler was no trouble, going to bed and getting straight to sleep after Briony read her a story. If only everyone in her life was so cooperative.

Unfortunately, Briony was not too sure whether Jill’s advice solved anything for her. She had the feeling that both Kevin and Fallon had the potential to be great boyfriends, even if they both also had the potential for problems too. As far as Briony could see, there was nothing for it but to keep going as she was, hoping that a solution would present itself.

Things went on as normal then, with the rounds of training, school, the play and the diner running into one another until Briony was too busy to think about anything very much. Not the two boys. Not her vampire family. Not anything. With days so full, Briony spent most of the week getting home to Aunt Sophie late, having something to eat before going straight to bed, and collapsing into sleep almost straight away.

By the time the weekend arrived, Briony was ready for nothing more strenuous than sleeping late to try to recover. She was sleeping like the dead when the doorbell chimes went off, waking Briony while she was still trying to pretend that the outside world didn’t exist. Briony heard the muffled sound of footsteps outside her room.

“Briony,” Aunt Sophie said, “are you awake? That vampire of yours is here with your two young friends. They’re saying something about going over to the amusement park.”

Briony groaned as she remembered.

“I could tell them that you’re too lazy to get out of bed, if you’d like.” Trust Aunt Sophie to have no mercy on her.

“I’ll be down as quickly as I can,” Briony called, struggling from bed to find that it was well past the time she would normally have woken. She showered and dressed in record time, practically running downstairs to find Fallon, Maisy and Steve waiting for her in the living room.

“Are you ready to go?” Fallon asked.

“Just about.”

“We thought you’d forgotten,” Maisy said. It was good to see her after spending so little time with her and Steve at lunch.

“I had, sort of. Are we driving down together?”

They did, in the end, and Briony had to admit that the day was a fun one. The amusement park wasn’t particularly large with just a dozen or so rides and some stalls in between. Several of the larger rides weren’t even running, closed during what was a quiet season for out of town tourists. Even so, it was fun, and it wasn’t like they had to in long lines for any of the rides.

Steve and Maisy spent most of the time curled close together on the rides, while Fallon was a little more circumspect, slipping his hand into Briony’s whenever he could, and stealing a kiss at the end of the park’s roller coaster that did almost as much to take her breath away as the drops and turns had. After that, they wandered around some of the stalls, and Steve had a try at the coconut shy. Only once he had missed half a dozen times did he declare that he’d had enough and let Maisy have a try. Briony smiled to see her friend hit first time.

Briony surprised herself by trying an old-fashioned test your strength machine. She didn’t quite make it ring, but after all the training she had been doing recently, she certainly did a lot better than she had thought she would. When Fallon took his turn, the main difficulty for him seemed to be making things look harder than they were. More than human strength was just so unfair, sometimes.

They arrived home alright, and Briony finished the week the happiest she had been in a long time. The best part was that the week that followed was almost as good. Not that it featured anything as special as their double date. Day followed day, and nothing happened. Things were almost… ordinary.

Now, if only it could stay that way.

Chapter 15

 

The week of the play arrived, and Briony found that she was starting to get nervous about it. What if something went wrong? What if her costume suddenly would not fit, or everyone forgot their lines simultaneously, or she caught a cold? Briony found herself smiling, because when her life had slowed down to the point where the worst she had to worry about was the prospect of things going wrong with her play, things were definitely going well. It was nice not to have to deal with vampires and werewolves for a while.

Well, most vampires and werewolves anyway. It was a Friday night, and Briony had promised Kevin that she would let him take her to dinner as part of her current ‘give both Fallon and Kevin a chance’ policy. It was going to be somewhere a little out of town, apparently, because Kevin was still pretending to be her teacher, and they wanted to avoid awkward questions. Briony had managed to get the night off from George just for this date.

Unfortunately, Kevin hadn’t told her what kind of restaurant it was going to be, so Briony didn’t know whether she needed to dress up or not. On the one hand, she knew that Kevin would probably find her beautiful no matter what she wore. On the other, it was always nice to have an excuse to dress up a little, and she would probably feel very stupid if she wandered into a nice restaurant wearing the wrong thing. But wouldn’t Kevin have mentioned it if she needed to?

Briony sat in her room with her closet open, trying to make a decision. She had just about decided to stay dressed as she was, in casual jeans and a dark sweater, when a tapping noise came from the window. Could it be Kevin? Briony shook her head at that thought. Why would Kevin sneak around like that?

There was only one way to find out, so Briony made her way over to the window, picking up her silver bladed cross on the way just in case. What she saw through the glass when she opened the curtains almost made her drop it again. Jake was out there, level with the window with no sign of a ladder to support him. Her half vampire/half werewolf brother was hovering in midair.

Briefly, Briony dragged the curtains closed, threw herself back onto the bed and tried to ignore the whole thing. Maybe he would just go away if she… no. The tapping on the window came again, louder this time. Reluctantly, Briony dragged herself over to the window once more, opening the curtains for another look. Jake was still there. He mimed tapping an imaginary watch. Apparently, he didn’t have all night.

Briony took a deep breath and opened the window, though she was careful not to invite Jake in. He had said himself that he did not have perfect control, and brother or not, Briony knew she could not risk it.

“Jake? What are you doing here?”

Jake licked his lips nervously. “I needed to see you. I know I shouldn’t, but…”

He left it at that, but it was obvious something was bothering him. He looked almost the same as he had when a couple of kids at their last school had started picking on him and he wanted Briony’s advice. Though somehow, this seemed more serious.

“What is it, Jake?” Briony asked, trying her best to sound sympathetic.

Jake ignored the question, peering around the room from his spot outside it. “I see Aunt Sophie gave you the same room she gave me. Hey, I don’t suppose there are any of my old books left in here?”

Without waiting for an answer, he stepped past Briony and into the room. Briony wouldn’t have had time to raise her crucifix even if she had thought to.

“I think there are some in a box under the bed,” Briony said. “I thought vampires weren’t supposed to be able to go places they hadn’t been invited?”

Even as she said it, she found herself thinking of Pietre, who had somehow managed to get into the inn to fight Kevin. Jake shrugged, abandoning his literary search for the moment. “I stayed here, remember? Where you’ve been while you were alive counts too.”

“So because you’ve been here before, there’s nothing to stop you coming back?” Briony considered the implications of that. She’d already seen that Pietre could get in, but now any other vampire that had ever stayed there in their human life could too?

“You don’t need to worry too much about vampires other than Pietre,” Jake said. “They aren’t that big a deal.”

“Well, excuse me, but I happen to think that vampires being able to get into my room whenever they want is pretty… hang on, I didn’t say anything about that.”

Jake shrugged. “You thought it though.”

Briony forced herself to make a joke out of how well her brother knew her. “So you can read minds now?”

“A bit. If I concentrate, and if the other person isn’t making an effort to stop me.”

“I was kidding. And you can levitate too, I see.”

Jake spread his hands. “What can I say? I’m just that multi-talented.”

“So not all vampires can learn to do this?” Briony found herself hoping against hope that they couldn’t. They were dangerous enough without that kind of extra ability.

“Vampires vary, just like people. They will have all kinds of different talents. I’m not even sure I got the mind-reading from being a vampire. The rumor is that Aunt Sophie is quite special. She can do it too.”

Briony was about to shake her head and tell Jake to stop being stupid when she found herself thinking about it a little more. When they sparred, didn’t it always seem that Aunt Sophie knew what she was going to do almost before Briony did? Didn’t she sometimes manage to guess what Briony was going through regardless of how Briony tried to hide it?

For now though, it wasn’t the most important thing.

“Why did you come here, Jake?”

“Can’t I just want to see my sister?”

Briony smiled. “You could, but you never did when you were alive. Not unless there was something you were about to get into trouble for and you wanted me to help you out with Mom and Dad.”

At the mention of their parents, Jake winced.

“What is it, Jake?” Briony sat down beside him, ignoring the danger. If Jake wanted her dead in a room this size, there wouldn’t be anywhere to run in any case. “Has something happened? Has something happened to them?”

Her brother nodded, but he did not answer beyond that.

“What, Jake? Or are you going to make me play twenty questions?”

“They’re dead.” The words came out quietly, but the impact was still as great as they had been the first time Briony had heard them, back in Florida. It felt like a vice had clamped around her heart, squeezing down until she could hardly take the next breath.

“What?” she demanded. “How can they be dead? They’re vampires!”

Jake gave her a sharp look. “You should know as well as anyone that doesn’t make them unstoppable, not when…”

“What?” Briony demanded.

“It was Pietre.” Jake looked down at his hands, twining his fingers in knots as he spoke. “I said before that you don’t have to worry about other vampires coming here. That’s because it’s just not the way they operate.”

Briony nodded. “You said something about that before, out in the woods. About our parents standing up to Pietre because he wouldn’t follow the rules.”

“They aren’t exactly a moral code,” Jake said, “because they’re more about not doing stupid things that would attract attention, or start an outright war, but Pietre has been ignoring them. I mean, look at me.”

Briony bit her lip. She knew what he meant, because Jake had told her that too. Vampires were not meant to make new vampires as young as her little brother. Not when they would be trapped at the age when they turned forever. Not when it would make it harder to control themselves.

“That’s why you should be safe here. Vampires aren’t supposed to target hunters at home. If they come after them, then they’re fair game, but going where they live… that’s the kind of thing most vampires won’t do.”

Briony tried to steer things back around to Jake’s news. She had to know what had happened. “So Mom and Dad were against Pietre…”

Jake nodded. “Them and a few others. When they heard what he was doing to you and Aunt Sophie…the terrorizing… they decided to go along to Pietre’s home and… I don’t know, force him to stop, I guess. I went with them, even though I spend half my time with the werewolves these days. Things…” he looked away “…went wrong.”

Briony knew he wanted to leave it at that, but she had to hear it. “What happened, Jake?”

“They were waiting with stakes when we showed up. They didn’t even give us a chance to talk.”

“So Mom and Dad…”

“They were the first ones killed. They were popular, but it wasn’t like they were old. They weren’t strong enough to stand up to Pietre. None of them were.” Jake was looking past her now, and Briony knew that he was seeing it all again. Hearing the screams. “They killed almost all of them, Briony…the good ones. Vampires led by Mom and Dad to revolt against Pietre.”

Briony turned her brother’s face to look at her. “You’re safe now, Jake. They can’t hurt you. You got away.”

Jake’s fists bunched, and Briony had to force herself not to jump back from him. She wouldn’t show her brother that he scared her. That would hurt him too much. “You think I wanted to?” Jake demanded. “I fought. I wanted to keep fighting. I wanted to be with them, Briony. But someone had to tell you, had to warn you.”

Briony could hear the guilt there, and she laid her hand over Jake’s, squeezing it. “I’m glad you got away, Jake. I couldn’t have stood hearing that all three of you had died. Not again.”

“Just Mom and Dad.”

“Yes.” That pain surged for a moment, just under the surface. Briony knew that if she let it go, it would swamp her. Her parents being vampires did not matter to her in that moment. All that meant was that she had to grieve for them twice over.

“We have to get you out of here,” Jake said. “You and Aunt Sophie.”

“I have to run again?” Briony asked. She shook her head. “I’ve spent too much time running, Jake.”

“This is different. If you thought Pietre wanted to hurt you before, that is nothing. After all, now, you’re the daughter of the vampires who tried to rebel against him.”

Briony shook her head. “I’m done with being scared. Besides, where could we run? George’s Diner wasn’t safe, and Kevin’s house would only be a temporary solution, even if I thought that we could persuade Aunt Sophie to stay at a werewolf’s home.”

Jake grinned then. It was the mischievous grin he’d sometimes had before he’d been turned.

“What?” Briony demanded. “Only one of us is a mind reader here, remember.”

“I was just thinking that you’re going to have to think of a way to persuade her, because there’s only one safe place I can think of, and that’s the home of the Werewolf King.”

Chapter 16

 

Briony did not bother even trying to hide her shock. “You know where the Werewolf King is? We’ve been trying to get in touch with him, but there has hardly been any sign of him.”

Her brother shrugged. “I doubt he would be advertising where he lived.”

“Secretive is one thing,” Briony said, “but Kevin has been looking for him without success practically since I got back from Pietre’s lair. How did you find him?”

“Your boyfriend is a lone wolf. I’m not.”

Jake seemed so confident and matter of fact about it that Briony had to accept that he probably could take them to the Werewolf King if he wanted to.

“Are you sure they won’t just kill us as soon as they see us?” Briony asked. “After all, Aunt Sophie and I aren’t exactly the biggest friends to their kind.”

“I can think of one of them you’re extremely friendly with,” Jake pointed out, and Briony felt herself blush. Her little brother shouldn’t say that kind of thing. “Besides, from what I’ve heard from them, the two of you fascinate the werewolves. At the very least, I think they are hoping to pick up some tips on dealing with vampires. Plus, they’d like to find out why Pietre is so obsessed with the pair of you.”

Briony laughed at the thought of werewolves being that interested in what seemed like a simple piece of gossip. “That one’s easy enough to answer. Aunt Sophie is his ex. She dumped him way back.”

Jake shook his head. “If it were that straightforward, it wouldn’t be that big a deal. The fact is, there’s more to it… much more.”

He looked for a moment like he might go on, but then he looked past Briony, sniffing. In an instant, he had repeated his levitating trick, holding a position in one of the corners by the ceiling like a spider. Jake stared at the door with a wary expression.

It swung open to reveal Aunt Sophie, wrapped up in her robe and wearing her pink slippers, a stake in her hand. Her expression, when she looked up at her great nephew, didn’t have a trace of pity in it.

“I never said it was alright for you to give away my secrets, vampire.”

“Aunt Sophie-” Jake began.

Her expression remained stony. “The boy I was an aunt to is dead.”

Briony knew that she had to intervene, because the last thing she wanted was her brother and her great aunt fighting. She stood, moving over to Aunt Sophie and placing a restraining hand on the arm that held the stake.

“Aunt Sophie, does it really matter if other people know this secret of yours?”

“It does if the werewolves find out. Don’t kid yourself, Briony. If we ever manage to find them, they won’t help us out of some sense of altruism. They will help us because they want to know what we do. If my secrets start being bandied about, how much use to them do you think we’ll be then?” “Now,” Aunt Sophie said, “are you going to tell me what this vampire is doing in my home?”

Briony winced as she noted that her great aunt did not use Jake’s name.

“Jake came here to warn us and to tell us my parents are dead. Pietre killed them, and will be coming for us soon.”

For a moment, Briony saw the mask of Aunt Sophie’s expression crack, just a little. “I’m sorry, darling. Truly.” Her gaze flicked over to where Jake was still perched up by the ceiling. “So now there is nothing holding him back?”

Jake nodded. “Exactly. We have to get out of here before his vampires can get to you.”

Aunt Sophie’s eyes narrowed. “You say ‘his vampires’ like you aren’t one of them now. Or was it just an accident that you got away?”

“Aunt Sophie!” Briony couldn’t help the little note of disapproval there. “Jake is here to help. He’s going to take us to the Werewolf King, where Pietre won’t dare go.”

“That’s right,” Jake said, still not coming down. “I want to help.”

Briony could see that there was a part of her great aunt that wanted to believe it, but Aunt Sophie had fought too many vampires and werewolves to completely trust them.

“It’s a place where no vampire would dare go,” Aunt Sophie pointed out. “Which begs the question, of course, of how you know so much about it, my vampire so-called nephew. It sounds less like a plan to keep us safe than one to lead us into a trap.”

She stepped forward, pulling free of Briony’s grip with an ease that made Briony feel fairly stupid for having grabbed her in the first place. She raised the stake, and seemed to be looking for some way of getting close enough to Jake to drive it home. Thankfully, just reaching him would have involved clambering rather awkwardly onto the bed, so for the moment, at least, it was still a stand off.

“It’s not a trap!” Jake insisted. Briony wasn’t sure whether he sounded more scared or angry.

“So why would the werewolves trust you, vampire?” Aunt Sophie demanded. She and Jake started a curious game of cat and mouse, Jake edging around the ceiling, while Briony’s great aunt waited for him to get close enough to stake.

“Because I am a werewolf.”

“You’re a vampire.”

“I’m both.”

“That,” Aunt Sophie said, “is impossible.”

Briony decided that it was probably time to intervene. “He is a werewolf, Aunt Sophie. So could you maybe stop chasing him? We really don’t want him changing in here.”

“How do we know for sure that he’s a wolf?” Aunt Sophie insisted.

“Jake chased Fallon for days as one,” Briony said. “He thought that Fallon had hurt me, and he hunted him. He was a wolf almost the whole time.”

That created a brief lull in things, during which Jake called over to Briony.

“Do you know that Fallon watches you now? I see him at night, watching this place.”

“And what are you doing there?” Aunt Sophie demanded. She resumed her angling for a better position. “Spying for the vampires? If you’re really a werewolf, why don’t you change right here?”

Jake shook his head, scuttling away from the older woman. “You wouldn’t want that. I don’t have any control. I don’t even remember, most of the time. I didn’t remember hunting Fallon.”

“So we should just trust you?”

“Yes!”

“Hello? Is anyone there?” Briony started as she recognized Kevin’s voice. He was obviously there for their date. Not that it was going to happen now, of course. Not after everything else. Still, at least his arrival meant that Jake and Aunt Sophie temporarily stayed still.

“Up here, Kevin,” Briony called out, deciding that she needed all the help she could get. A few seconds later, the werewolf arrived. He looked, Briony had to admit, gorgeous. The dark slacks and light shirt he’d chosen set off the darkness of his hair and hazel eyes, while the shirt was just tight enough to give a suggestion of the muscles beneath. It seemed a pity that any time Briony spent with Kevin this evening would be spent running away from the oncoming vampire attack.

“What’s up?” Kevin asked. He glanced over at Jake. “Literally.”

“Kevin,” Briony said, “this is my brother, Jake. He’s part vampire, part werewolf.” An idea occurred to her. “You can smell that, right?”

Kevin nodded, and if he looked like he might be about to point out to Briony the impossibility of what her brother was, he at least trusted her enough to go along with what she wanted. Kevin made his way over to Jake, edging carefully between him and Aunt Sophie before standing on tiptoes to get his scent from as close as possible.

Briony watched the emotions play across Kevin’s face as he did it. First the doubt, then the surprise, and then finally the certainty.

“So is he a werewolf?” Briony demanded.

Kevin nodded. “He’s a wolf. I don’t know how, but he’s a wolf.”

Briony’s great aunt opened her mouth to say something, but Briony had had enough. “Aunt Sophie, Jake is everything that he says he is, so just put the stake down. He’s like this because Pietre was stalking you, remember.”

That was a low blow, and Briony felt sorry for it almost as soon as she said it, but it worked. At least, Aunt Sophie let the stake in her hand fall to the floor. After a few seconds, Jake edged his way down to the carpet, looking warily at his great aunt the whole time. When she silently stepped forward to hug him, Briony could not help a smile.

“So now what?” Briony asked once they were done.

It was Jake who answered. “Now, we go to the Werewolf King and ask for help.”

“The Werewolf King?” Kevin asked. “Did I miss something?”

Briony smiled. “Yes, sorry. I think our date tonight is probably off. Though I must admit that I’m a bit worried by the thought of just walking into the werewolves’ lair.”

“We’ll be fine,” Jake insisted. “The werewolves are okay, once you get to know them.”

“I’m just hoping that they’ll give us the chance,” Briony admitted. “I know we have to get some help against Pietre now, but will they want to help us?”

Kevin nodded. “I think they will. At least, they will probably listen to us. After all, you will have two werewolves along with you, and you will be offering them the chance to strike a decisive blow against the vampires. They would be crazy not to want the Preservation Society on the same side as them, especially when your Aunt Sophie has already made life so difficult for Pietre that he wants her dead.”

Briony was about to point out that it wasn’t quite like that, but Aunt Sophie chose that moment to speak up.

“Oh, very well. We’ll go. I suppose with all of us there, nothing much can happen. Or at least, it can mostly only happen to other people. Just give me a chance to go and get changed, then let the rest of the Society know what’s happening.” She paused at the door, looking back at Kevin. “You, young werewolf. You’ll keep an eye on my great niece, you understand? I know you would never let anything happen to her, but I want to be clear about that.”

Kevin nodded. Briony thought that she could detect the faintest hint of a smile there. “Yes ma’am.”

“Well then,” Aunt Sophie said, “that’s all right. I’ll go get ready for our visit to the werewolves.”

She wandered out. Briony decided that she might as well wait outside. She was not surprised to see Kevin tagging along beside her. Half joking as his answer had been, it was obvious that he was taking the promise to keep her safe seriously. Briony let him kiss her.

“So, we’re off to see the king,” he said as they parted. “You do take me to some of the most interesting places, Briony.”

“Disappointed that we aren’t going on our date?”

“Somehow, I suspect that this is going to be even more interesting.”

Chapter 17

 

Aunt Sophie eventually reappeared wearing practical, dark-colored clothing and carrying a bag. The four of them set off, with Briony, her great aunt and Kevin following behind Jake as he set the pace through the trees.

The route Briony’s little brother took through the woods was a long one, and Briony quickly found her legs aching. She tried not to complain about it, though Kevin obviously noticed. He shifted form, allowing Briony to ride on his back for much of the rest of the journey. Jake did not shift, but then, Briony guessed that he would probably be worried about losing control. Aunt Sophie certainly watched him closely.

It took nearly an hour before they arrived at a steep upward slope, covered thickly with trees. There was a kind of path, but it twisted and turned, leaving Briony glad that they had Jake to lead the way. None of them would ever have found this place otherwise. Jake stopped.

“We’re getting close,” he said. “Your boyfriend should probably change back.”

Briony nodded and got off Kevin’s back. In seconds, he was standing there, lamenting the fresh tears in his shirt from the shift in forms.

“Every time.”

“Come on,” Briony said, taking his hand. “The sooner we get there, the better.”

They hurried on, rounding another of the switchbacks in the path behind Jake. What Briony saw there made her pause. Ahead lay a dark gash in the earth of the hill, overgrown around the edges, but clear, and deep, and utterly black.

“The Werewolf King lives in a cave?” Briony asked. It made sense, she supposed. She had a vision of some grizzled middle-aged man, as much animal as human, living in practically Stone Age conditions as he gave in completely to his wolf side.

Jake laughed. “Not exactly. Just on the other side of it. You’ll see.”

He led the way towards the cave without any hesitation, but Briony saw that Aunt Sophie was not exactly hurrying to keep up.

“It would be a good place for a trap,” the older woman said.

Briony shook her head. “Jake wouldn’t do that.”

She followed her brother without stopping now. It was dark in the cave, but Kevin was by her side, and it appeared that he could see in the darkness of it well enough. As for Jake, he hurried forward and then came back to them like an overeager puppy desperate to move along. Maybe he was more werewolf than vampire after all.

It occurred to Briony that, in one way at least, her great aunt was right. Not about Jake, but about how effective this cave would be as a place for a trap. It had twists, and turns, and branching paths that would make it hard for anyone to get through if they did not know the way. It had blind corners that would make it easy for werewolves to defend. It was, in short, a great way of guaranteeing the safety of whatever lay beyond.

What did lie beyond was enough to make Briony catch her breath as she stepped out into the moonlight. An old mansion stretched at least three floors above, at the end of an exquisitely maintained stretch of lawn. Unlike the place Pietre used as a home, it had a well-cared for look, as though the people who lived there genuinely cared for the place. Lights showed in several of the windows.

So much for any thoughts of living in caves, Briony thought, as Jake hurried across the lawn. Briony did her best to keep up.

“Come on,” Jake said, “I know they’ll be glad to see you.”

If Briony was not entirely sure about that one, she did not have time to voice the sentiment, because Jake was already ringing the doorbell. She looked over to Kevin.

“They live at the other end of a hidden cave, and they still need a doorbell? Who do they think is going to show up unannounced?”

“Us?”

She supposed he had a point there. Along with Aunt Sophie, they joined Jake on the porch to wait. It was about ten seconds before the door swung open, revealing a pleasant-looking, sandy-haired man in his thirties, who wore a pale blue cashmere turtleneck sweater and dark blue jeans. His eyes, Briony noticed, were the kind of yellowish green you got with dogs sometimes.

“Your majesty,” Jake said. Briony just smiled, masking her surprise. So the Werewolf King was not what she had expected at all. The grizzled woodsman theory flew out the door, because if this was the Werewolf King, he looked more like a member of the local country club than anything.

“Jake, stop trying to embarrass me.” The man sounded genuinely pleased to see her brother. “I wasn’t sure you’d be back so soon.”

“I said I would, Josh.”

“Yes, I guess you did. And you’ve brought guests.” Briony barely caught the faint sniffing of the air. “So we have two humans and,” he looked to Kevin, cocking his head to one side, “another wolf, Jake?”

“I’m Kevin,” Kevin said, stepping forward to offer a hand for the Werewolf King to shake. “It’s an honor to finally meet you, your majesty.”

The man shook his head. “I get enough of that from Jake when he’s trying to make fun of me. It’s Josh. Just Josh.”

“Good to meet you then, Josh.”

“I don’t think I know your pack, Kevin.”

There was a slightly uncomfortable moment then, but Kevin recovered well. “I don’t have one.”

“Well,” Josh said. He seemed to Briony to have that natural charm that some politicians had, “you’re welcome here anyway. In any case, you aren’t exactly a lone wolf, are you? Unless my nose deceives me, this one,” he nodded to Briony, “is your mate.”

“His what?” The words escaped Briony before she could stop them. “I think you’ve made some mistake. I’m still in school. I’m not exactly ready for-”

The Werewolf King stopped her with a raised hand. “Relax,” he gestured for Briony and the others to come inside, “it’s just the term we use. The human one would be… girlfriend, I think. And you do have Kevin’s scent on you. He’s obviously marked you as his.”

“Has he now?” It was Aunt Sophie who spoke this time, giving Kevin and then Briony the kind of look that suggested she was considering saying one of those faintly embarrassing elderly relative things she occasionally took pleasure in. Briony forestalled it with a sharp look at Kevin.

“What’s going on?”

Kevin gave her an apologetic glance. “I just wanted Fallon to have a reminder of where we stood.”

“Which is currently in a werewolf’s hallway,” Aunt Sophie put in, “so perhaps we should finish the introductions before you two have a tiff?” She nodded to Josh. “I’m-”

“I know who you are, Mrs. Edge.” The Werewolf King seemed very certain of it. “I assume this is your great niece, Briony?”

“How did you know?” Briony asked.

“Jake has mentioned you. Please, come through to the living room. Can I get you some refreshments?”

It all seemed far too pleasant and normal. Briony was fairly sure that it all had to be an act on some level, even though she really couldn’t see how anyone could maintain all this as just an act. Pietre’s suaveness, for example, always came with a slightly wrong note to it, while this just seemed… nice.

The living room they ended up in had a trio of couches arranged at angles around a fire. The fire had a dog basket in front of it. She sat at one end of that couch with Kevin. Aunt Sophie and Jake took separate ones. No sooner had they done so than a man dressed in a full butler’s outfit came in with glasses of lemonade. Briony took hers gratefully.

“Will that be all, your majesty?”

“Yes, thank you. Could you possibly find the others and send them in?”

“I believe they are waiting for the opportunity, your majesty. I will send them in directly.”

It all sounded a bit stiff and formal to Briony’s ears, though she noted that Josh winced slightly each time the man used his title. He didn’t seem very comfortable with it at all.

‘The others’ turned out to consist of three werewolves a good deal younger than their king. Only a little older than Briony, in fact. And very familiar with it. Two of them were college age guys, one dressed in preppy fashion and the other much more casually in ripped jeans and a tee shirt. As for the girl, she had very familiar frizzy brown hair and dark eyes that-

“You?” Briony exclaimed at the sight of the werewolf girl who had attacked her behind George’s Diner. What had her name been?”

“You.”

Something very close to a growl rose in the dark-haired girl’s throat, but Josh was suddenly standing in front of her.

“Carol, calm down please. And apologize to our guest.”

Carol looked past her king to Briony. “I’m sorry.”

The words didn’t sound very sincere, but they seemed to calm things down a little. Carol stepped back.

“So, you have already met Carol,” Josh said. “Do you also know Brian and Channing?”

Briony nodded. “Though I didn’t know the names.”

“I’m Brian,” the preppy one said.

“And Channing is Carol’s twin,” Josh added. “You three know Jake, of course. This is Kevin, another local wolf, and Sophie Edge. You may have heard of her.”

From the little note of fear that showed in Carol’s eyes, Briony guessed that she had, at least.

“So these three are…” she prompted.

Josh shrugged. “My younger siblings. All of the line of Wickham wolves.”

“The what?” Briony asked.

The preppy college guy, Brian, answered. “What my brother means is that we’re from an old family of werewolves. Very old. Our family came over on the Mayflower. It’s a very proud lineage.”

“Like anybody cares,” Carol said.

Josh shot her a dark look “I care. I just wish that there were more of us left.”

That did not sound good to Briony’s ears. Apparently, she was not the only one.

“What happened?” Kevin asked.

Josh shrugged. “Vampires happened.”

“We hate vampires,” Carol said.

“Hate them,” Channing echoed.

“They’ve been targeting us for a while,” Josh continued, ignoring his younger brother and sister. “It came to a head a few months ago, in the battle where… I got to be king.”

“You mean where they killed Mom and Dad,” Carol snapped. At another look from her brother, she mimed zipping her mouth closed and shoved her hands into her pockets. Just for a moment, Briony felt some sympathy for her. No wonder she was so angry, if her parents had been killed too.

“It was a battle with a lot of consequences,” Josh said. “Jake, for example. And there were more humans who got caught up. It wasn’t possible to keep track of what happened to them.” He looked over to Kevin. “Since you are new around here, I assume that you are one of them.”

Kevin nodded. “So was my brother. He’s a vampire now.”

“He’s against Pietre though,” Briony added, when it didn’t look like Kevin would.

“It’s nice to know someone else is,” Josh said after a second. “Though I suspect that’s why you’re here.”

“If they’re not here to murder us in our beds,” Carol said.

“Apologize, Carol.” There was nothing pleasant in Josh’s voice this time.

“I will not.” She stalked from the room.

“Ignore her,” Josh said with a sigh. “She wasn’t very trusting even before… everything. As for Pietre, you hate him as much as we do, I guess.”

Briony nodded.

“Then you are all welcome here.” He looked over to Aunt Sophie. “I suspect there are things even we can learn about killing vampires from you. After all, it takes a lot to bring one to his knees the way-”

He stopped at a shake of Aunt Sophie’s head.

“Not here,” she said. “Not now. Not with Briony in the room.”

Briony opened her mouth to protest, but the Werewolf King nodded. “I can understand that, I suppose. We all have our secrets, and it is late in any case. Let me show you to where you can get some sleep.”

That sounded very, very good to Briony, and the others followed Josh from the room with almost equal enthusiasm. As she was making her way down the corridor outside the living room though, Carol stepped out of a side door and into her path. The werewolf looked at her with a look that was only a step away from hatred.

“You might have my brothers and that cute werewolf of yours fooled,” she whispered sharply, “but don’t think I’m so stupid, hunter. I’ll be watching you.”

Briony thought about replying, thought even about attacking, but there wasn’t really any chance. As quickly as she had stepped out, Carol was gone again.

Chapter 18

 

The next two days were busy ones at the werewolves’ house. They were filled with planning, meetings, and frequent phone calls to gather support. Josh seemed convinced that now was the only moment when they could truly stand against Pietre, and so he was rallying round every werewolf he could find. Aunt Sophie, meanwhile, spent her time either teaching fighting techniques to the werewolves there or keeping in contact with the members of the Preservation Society. They would have a part to play, when the time came.

In fact, Briony seemed to be the only one there who didn’t have much to do. Even Kevin and Jake were busily involved in the planning stage. For some reason though, Aunt Sophie wouldn’t let Briony get involved, and she had to spend a lot of time either in the opulently appointed bedroom assigned to her or just wandering around the house killing time. Neither kept her interest for very long.

Brian, the preppy college-aged werewolf brother, seemed to notice, because he went out of his way to make sure that Briony was comfortable. He sat and talked with her, and showed her where the house’s small library was, and was generally just around while the others were off getting ready for whatever it was that would come next.

If Briony was absolutely honest, there was a slightly uncomfortable edge to the attention. She almost got the feeling that Brian liked her. Really liked her. It wasn’t exactly something that Briony was looking for from him. Not that Brian wasn’t a great guy, and he had been the one to try to talk down his sister Carol back in the diner, but Briony already had enough problems trying to balance the werewolf and vampire brothers already in her life, without adding anyone else to the mix.

She didn’t come out and say that, though. Briony was not certain that Brian felt that way about her, for one thing, and she did not want to hurt his feelings if he did. Besides, this was not the time to do anything that might start stirring up conflicts between the hunters and the werewolves. Not when they needed each other so much.

Maybe the weekend would have been pleasanter had someone thought to tell Carol that too. The female werewolf seemed to be around Briony almost as often as her brother, and it certainly was not to make sure that Briony was all right. More or less the opposite, in fact. Wherever Briony went, Carol would be there, not interfering but obviously watching her. She hardly said two words to Briony the whole time, but her meaning was clear. She did not trust Briony. She certainly did not welcome her into her home.

Briony did her best to ignore the attention. Carol’s suspicions were only natural, given that Briony was a member of the Preservation Society. Besides, she had some pretty good reasons to be angry with the world. After all, Josh had told them about the death of his parents, and Briony knew as well as anyone what that could do to some people. She could cut Carol some slack, so long as the werewolf girl wasn’t actually a threat.

Briony did not see as much of Kevin as she would have liked over the two days they were there. Not through any fault on his part, admittedly. He tried on several occasions to make time to spend with Briony, whether it was watching TV together in the werewolves’ living room, or going for a walk around their garden, or just trying to find a quiet corner of the house, untouched by the constant preparations.

Somehow, though, it never quite seemed to work. Another of the werewolves would wander in and change the channel, or would have questions about Kevin’s past, or would have an urgent message from Josh and Aunt Sophie. There always seemed to be something in the way of them spending time alone together, generally showing up just at the moment when Briony most wanted to move closer to him and kiss him deeply.

Often, it seemed to be Carol or Brian doing the interrupting, though to Briony, it seemed that they had very different approaches. Brian was almost apologetic about it each time, apparently unwilling to hurt Briony’s feelings even as his interruption did exactly that. Carol, on the other hand, just did not seem to care. Oh, she was sweet enough to Kevin, but it was obvious what she was trying to do, wasn’t it?

Briony tried talking to Aunt Sophie about it that night, out on the werewolves’ porch, but the older woman just shrugged.

“Briony, we are so close. We cannot afford to let personal feelings get in the way now. Not when the werewolves could be the key to finally stamping out Pietre and his vampires.”

“I’m not planning to fight with her,” Briony said. “I’m just wondering if you think I should maybe say something to her. To let her know that I know what she’s going through.”

Aunt Sophie gave her a curious look then. “Do you think that would help, Briony?”

“I don’t know. She just seems so… angry all the time.”

“Angry, or jealous?”

“What?” Briony had not expected that from her great aunt. “Why would she be jealous?”

Aunt Sophie shook her head. “You really can’t see it? It is obvious that she likes that werewolf boy of yours. She has certainly been following him around whenever she hasn’t been busy staring at you.”

Briony hadn’t known that part. In fact, she had not even considered the possibility that Carol might have been seriously thinking of making a play for Kevin. Yes, she had called him cute, but that had just seemed like something designed to get under Briony’s skin.

It was working.

“So you don’t think I should say anything?” Briony asked.

“Some things are better left unsaid,” Aunt Sophie said. “After all, how would you feel if Kevin went and warned off the young man who has been following you around all day?”

“What? Brian? That’s different.”

Her great aunt shrugged again. “If you say so, darling.”

“He’s just being nice.”

“And if Carol were to go around being nice to Kevin?”

Briony had not thought of it quite like that. Did she need to talk to Kevin? To reassure him that everything was all right? No. She shouldn’t have to do that. If he truly cared about her, he would trust her. Briony noticed that Aunt Sophie was staring at her. She decided to take her opportunity.

“Talking of things that are being left unsaid-”

“I’m not telling you the whole story of what lies between me and Pietre,” her great aunt shot back.

“Why not?” Briony demanded. “It’s obvious that almost everybody else knows, so why shouldn’t I?”

“Because some things, I don’t want you to know.”

That didn’t seem like any kind of answer to Briony. She squared up to her great aunt. “I could just go and ask one of them, you know. I’m sure Jake would tell me if I really wanted.”

Aunt Sophie shook her head. “He won’t. I asked him not to.”

“Someone else then. Someone will tell me.”

Aunt Sophie’s hands were on her shoulders then, forcing Briony to look directly at her. She didn’t shout. It might have been better if she had shouted. “Briony, I’m asking you not to try and find out. Not because I do not trust you. Not because I do not love you either. Quite the opposite.”

“Then why?” Briony asked.

By the light of the porch, Aunt Sophie’s smile had a brittle edge to it. “Perhaps because I’m embarrassed? There are some facets of my past I really would prefer my teenage great-niece not to know the details of, in case she starts thinking what a stupid old woman I am.”

“I would never think that,” Briony insisted.

Her great aunt’s smile turned genuine. “I hope that’s true. Now, let’s go back inside. Maybe you can snatch twenty minutes alone with that boyfriend of yours if you’re lucky.”

Briony wasn’t that fortunate. Kevin was in the living room, accompanied by Jake, Carol, Channing and Brian. Carol was sitting next to Kevin, and Briony could barely persuade her to budge up enough to let her squeeze in too. Even that much came with a barely disguised glare in Briony’s direction.

The arrival of the next day did not improve things significantly. There was another strategy meeting, to which Briony was not invited, in the morning, so she spent most of it out in the garden, wandering among the plants that grew at the edge of the trees. She was still there when Kevin, Brian and Carol all came out from the house, apparently arguing. Briony couldn’t help noticing that Carol had thrown one arm around Kevin’s waist.

“She can’t,” Carol insisted.

“I’m sure she can,” Brian shot back, “and we all need the practice before this gets serious.” His eyes flicked over to Kevin as he said it, and Briony caught the unfriendly look there. That was all right though, because Kevin’s matched it. Maybe Aunt Sophie was right about Brian’s motives after all.

“What’s going on?” Briony asked.

Kevin started to answer, but Brian beat him to it. “Oh, my sister just doesn’t believe your Aunt Sophie’s claims about the way she fights. She doesn’t think any human could best a vampire without some sort of trick. Or a werewolf.”

Briony shrugged. “If she wants to spar with Aunt Sophie, I’m sure she’d learn quickly enough.”

Carol preened. “She’s too busy, apparently. Too scared, more like.”

“Carol!” Brian snapped. He turned to Briony. “I’m sure she’s not, but I am eager to see some of this fighting, if you’re willing to show us.”

Briony knew that she should say no, but she didn’t. Instead, she shrugged.

“Who wants to partner with me?”

Brian started to take a step forward, but Kevin edged in front of him. Carol sighed and stepped around them both.

“If we’re going to go through with this joke, I’ll do it.” She glanced at Briony. “So what do you want me to do? Try to punch you?”

“Sure, that w-”

The punch came almost impossibly fast, but Briony had been expecting it, and was already moving out of the way. Her foot hooked behind the werewolf’s, using the momentum of her swing to send her stumbling. Carol whirled with hatred in her eyes.

“Carol, enough.” Brian stepped between her and Briony. “Briony, are you all right?”

Briony was not surprised to find Kevin moving in front of her. “Maybe you had better concentrate on your sister, Brian.”

“I wasn’t talking to-”

“Enough.” Briony only said it quietly, but it cut things off effectively. “Kevin, come with me. Brian, can you keep Carol here?”

The werewolf nodded, but he did not look happy about it as Briony took Kevin away to another corner of the lawn.

“What is wrong with you, Kevin?” Briony asked. “I had that under control. Well, Brian did, anyway.”

“Yeah, I noticed. He’s around a lot, isn’t he?”

That made Briony laugh.

“This isn’t funny, Briony.”

“Yes it is,” she said. “It’s hilarious. You are actually jealous of me and Brian, when there is no me and Brian. But I bet you haven’t noticed the way Carol has been looking at you.”

Kevin looked uncomfortable. “I had, actually. I just didn’t want to turn her down flat in case it caused problems.”

“More problems than us both being jealous for no reason?” Briony demanded. “More problems than Carol trying to show you that she’s bigger and tougher than me? Look, if it makes you happier, I’ll tell Brian that I’m not interested, and you can do the same with Carol, okay?”

Kevin started to nod, but as it turned out, neither of them had time to tell anyone anything, because Aunt Sophie chose the moment to show up on the back porch.

“There you all are,” she said. “Come on. We’re waiting for you out front.”

“Who’s waiting?” Briony asked.

“Why,” her great aunt said, “our werewolf army, of course. It’s time for Pietre to get what’s coming to him.”

Chapter 19

 

It wasn’t quite an army, but Briony was surprised at how large of a group it was. The forest in front of the Wickhams’ house featured more werewolves than she had ever seen in one place before, a hundred at least. There were people there from all walks of life; old and young and everything in between. Briony even recognized a few from her school. Some were in human form, while others paced the edges of the trees as shaggy wolves, their fur shimmering in the wind.

Josh stood before them, and for the first time, he looked like a king to Briony. He stood there with a steady dignity that said clearly that he knew exactly what he was asking his followers to do, to risk, and he was asking it anyway. He had swapped his usual light turtleneck for a dark green one and camouflage pants.

Briony and the others moved to stand near him, with Aunt Sophie taking up a spot right next to the Werewolf King. As she did so, Josh began to speak.

“You all know why you’re here. Pietre and his vampires have been a threat to us for decades. For centuries.” He looked to where Aunt Sophie stood. “So, quite frankly, have the hunters. Well, it seems that we get to do something about both problems today. The hunters, we will fight alongside in newfound friendship. The vampires…”

“We will kill.” Aunt Sophie’s voice carried out clearly.

“Now, it might be that you don’t think this is worth it,” Josh said, “or maybe you’re afraid of the danger. I don’t blame you. There is a lot to be afraid of. So I’ll say this. If anyone here wants to leave, they can, and I won’t think any worse of them.”

No one moved.

“Then the plan is simple. We know where Pietre’s lair is. We will approach it through the woods unseen, and hopefully, we will catch Pietre and his closest companions together, without having to face every vampire in this town at once. Then, once it is done, we will mount a watch and wait for any stragglers to return. Is everybody ready?”

A roar went up from the assembled crowd. Those that were already wolves howled. They were ready.

It took a minute or two longer for Briony to be ready. Aunt Sophie reached into the bag she had brought with her, passing Briony a silver-edged sword, a short crossbow, and a quiver full of wooden tipped quarrels. Only then did they set off walking through the trees. The wolves melted into the forest around them.

“Nervous?” Kevin asked Briony, and Briony found herself nodding. “Good. I’m glad I’m not the only one.”

The walk was a long one, and for much of it, Briony did her best to stay close to her great aunt, her brother, and Kevin. The Wickham werewolves were harder to spot, moving back and forth through the trees, conveying messages along the line of would-be fighters. Briony could feel the weight of the sword in her hand. She had fought before, obviously, but she had never been in a full-scale battle. Would she be able to use it when the time came?

She thought of Pietre, and suspected that she would.

The journey wore on, and Briony had only the confidence of the others to go by when it came to knowing that they were even going in the right direction. How much longer would it be?

A howl from the trees interrupted Briony’s thoughts. She wasn’t sure why, because the werewolves’ travel had been full of yips and barks, howls and shouts, all designed to keep everyone going according to the planned route. This one was different though. This one had pain in it.

Aunt Sophie whirled towards her, a strange expression on her face. “Wait here, Briony. Whatever else happens, wait here.”

Briony did not have time to argue, because her great aunt was already off, running towards the sound. For a woman her age she moved quickly, and Briony soon lost sight of her in the trees. Josh and his family set off too, while Jake leapt into the foliage above, skipping from tree to tree like a skimmed stone. In less than a minute, Briony and Kevin were alone.

Briony took a step towards the trees. Kevin put a hand on her arm.

“We should wait,” he said. “It could be dangerous.”

“We’re on our way to a battle, Kevin. It’s meant to be dangerous.”

Kevin shook his head. “Your Aunt Sophie told you to wait here. We don’t even know what’s going on.”

“So we don’t know if they need our help,” Briony countered. “Kevin, I’m going. You can follow or stay here. It’s your choice.”

She set off in the direction that the noise had come from, and wasn’t surprised when Kevin’s large wolf form bounded alongside her. Briony moved forward as quickly as she dared without making too much noise. Kevin had been right on one count at least. They didn’t know what was going on.

Whatever it was, it was enough to bring out more shouts and howls from further into the trees. Some of them sounded like shouts of anger, while others had a tone that spoke of people in sudden agony. The combination amounted to just one thing. A fight.

Briony rushed forward then, and saw the battle unfold as she got closer. Except that it was not a battle so much as a series of ambushes. Vampires leapt from the trees, landing on werewolves and slashing with knives that gleamed silver. They tore at throats with their fangs and struck at fur-covered forms with fists and feet. Even as Briony watched, one vampire plunged a blade into the chest of a young woman in combat fatigues while another slashed at her throat. The werewolf never had a chance.

How had it happened? It was obvious that the vampires had ambushed them as they advanced through the trees, but how could they have? How could they possibly have known that they would be coming?

Briony did not have time to think about it, because a pale form detached itself from the shadows and flew at her, a dark dress billowing in the still air. Briony ducked on instinct, raising her crossbow and pulling the trigger automatically as her endless training with Aunt Sophie took over. The vampire attacking Briony gasped as the bolt struck her chest, crumpling into a heap amongst the undergrowth with blue flames leaping up to claim her.

Briony turned at the sound of furious growling behind her, seeing Kevin struggling to fend off a pair of vampires. They had leapt on him, rolling and striking in a whirling mess of a fight. Briony hefted the sword she held, slashing out at what she hoped was vampire. An inhuman shriek told her that she had connected, even as the creature she had struck detached itself from Kevin and lashed out at her. Briony struggled to evade the rush, but managed to turn at the last moment, sliding her blade’s point into the creature’s side and up into the heart.

Briony whirled to see how Kevin was doing, and saw that he had already killed the remaining vampire. He seemed to be all right, though there was no time to stop and check how much of the blood on him was his own. Instead, Briony plunged forward into the melee, trying to catch some glimpse of Aunt Sophie, of Jake, even of one of the Wickhams. She swung her sword on instinct whenever one of the vampires came close, not even bothering to check whether her blows were lethal or not. Still, she could not see what was happening.

For brief seconds, the battle seemed to roll away from her, and Briony plunged her sword into the ground point first while she struggled to reload her crossbow. It wasn’t the best weapon for such close combat, but if Pietre was there somewhere, Briony wanted the chance to send a shot his way.

A vampire tackled her just as Briony managed to pull the string back, sending them both sprawling to the forest floor. Briony struggled as it tried to pin her, its hands wrenching her head back until her neck formed a taut line. Briony actually found herself grateful for that. If it was trying to bite her, then she had time. More time, at least, than she would have had if it had simply used its strength to snap her neck or crush her skull.

Briony twisted towards it on her back, using her feet on its hips to keep the vampire at least a little way from her. The creature was a young man, not much older than her. His face already had blood on it. Who had he killed? Someone Briony knew? Even Carol deserved better than that.

With an effort, Briony started to reach down to the cross underneath her shirt with her left hand. The vampire’s fingers closed over her wrist in a grip so hard that Briony thought she felt the bones there creak.

“That won’t work,” the vampire said. How dare it sound so calm about the whole thing?

Briony smiled. “Distractions aren’t meant to.”

Her right hand whipped down to the quiver at her waist, pulling out a quarrel and thrusting it forward as hard as she could. It plunged into the vampire cleanly, and by now, Briony was good at hitting the heart first time. The creature fell back, dying, and Briony snatched up her sword again.

At the sound of movement near the next tree, she raised it, but stopped herself at the sight of Kevin, back in human form once more.

“Briony, there are too many of them. We have to retreat.” Briony shook her head, but Kevin pointed past her. “Look.”

Briony looked, and saw something that she was sure would haunt her nightmares afterwards. The battle ahead was furious, with no sign of quarter from either side. And the vampires were winning. Werewolf bodies littered the ground, probably cut down in the first moments of the fight, and now the remainder were hopelessly outnumbered.

“We need to run,” Kevin insisted, and in just seconds, his wolf form was beside her again. Briony knew what he wanted. Could she do it though? Could she just climb onto that broad back and abandon the others like this?

Did she really have a choice?

Another vampire, a woman whose dress sense clearly hadn’t changed since the nineteen-twenties chose that moment to attack. Briony killed her with two swift movements of the sword she held, and made her decision. There was nothing more she could do there.

She clambered onto Kevin’s back, and he ran. Ran as only a werewolf could run, eating up ground with the sort of speed that could outpace deer and run down almost anything set against it. It was all Briony could do to cling on to both Kevin and her sword. Trying to look around at the same time seemed almost impossible.

Even so, Briony caught glimpses. Josh yelling at the others to retreat, then taking to his heels with his brothers. Jake smashing a vampire twice his size from its feet so that Carol could get clear before leaping back up into the canopy. More werewolves, precious few of them, running for the safety of the deep forest while vampires pursued them.

Where was Aunt Sophie? Was she dead? And how had the vampires known that the werewolves would be coming? As Kevin kept running, Briony did her best to hope. To hope that her great aunt was alive. To hope that the others would get to safety. And above all, to hope that she was wrong about the thought that had occurred to her.

Aunt Sophie had not wanted to go to the werewolves. She had hated them as much as the vampires, with Kevin as the only possible exception. Even her own great nephew had received a frosty reception from her at first. She would not have wanted the werewolves to win easily. Wouldn’t it have made more sense for her to set the vampires and werewolves up to destroy one another?

Briony did not want to believe it. She really didn’t. Yet the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. Aunt Sophie had done everything she could to keep Briony outside of things there, even alluding to some ‘secret’ just to keep her uninvolved. She had even told Briony to wait away from the battle from the very first howl, as though she had known what was happening. Then there was the past to consider. Werewolves and vampires fighting, with Aunt Sophie’s family trapped in the middle? It sounded far too familiar, didn’t it? Far too much like what had happened to Briony’s parents.

None of it was proof. Not exactly. But taken together, it seemed to present a convincing picture of Aunt Sophie’s betrayal, however much Briony tried to ignore it. Besides, there was the fact of her disappearance from the fight to consider. If Aunt Sophie hadn’t betrayed them, if she hadn’t tried to get them killed, where was she?

 

Epilogue

 

Darkness. Not a comforting darkness, either. Not the darkness that said that Sophie Edge was still under the covers in her own bed. Not even the kind of darkness that said she had been abandoned after being hit over the head, and that it was now simply dark out in the forest. This was, instead, the kind of tight, pressing darkness that you got when someone had taken the time to blindfold you tightly. It probably said something faintly depressing about her life to date that Sophie was in a position to recognize it.

She wasn’t in a position to move. The constricting feel of ropes wrapped tightly around her saw to that, keeping her locked upright in the chair she sat upon. Once, perhaps, Sophie might have been flexible enough to slip free of something like that. Now though, she just had to wait, and curse her age, and try to think of a way out of whatever happened next.

“Comfortable, Sophie?”

It was Pietre’s voice. That was hardly a surprise. After all, who else would want her a prisoner like this? Well… probably quite a few people, after the life she had led, the monsters she had fought. Still, Pietre had definitely been at the top of the list.

“Not going to answer me?” Pietre asked.

Sophie would have shrugged if she could have. “What should I say? That I’m happy as I am? Do I need to ask why you’re doing this?”

Pietre’s voice was lower then in the darkness, but closer. Practically in her ear. “It has been a long time, Sophie. Too long. I grew tired of waiting.”

“Nobody made you,” Sophie said. She wasn’t about to make this any easier than it had to be. “You could have done what normal people do, and moved on. Have you heard of that, Pietre?”

She felt his fingertip drift along the line of her cheek then. The line of her throat. There were a lot of memories in that touch. Just for a moment, Sophie could imagine herself thirty years younger. She shuddered.

“No games, Pietre,” she snapped.

“Games?” the vampire’s tone was light. “Who says that I am playing games, Sophie? This is about stopping the games. Stopping your games.”

“I’m not playing any games with you, Pietre. I never was.”

The silence that followed that was so absolute that Sophie might almost have thought she was alone. She knew better than that, though. In another second, Pietre had her by the arms, just inches away from her.

“What would you call it when you spend your time lying to yourself, Sophie?” Pietre demanded. “What do you call it when you ignore the truth even as it stands in front of you?”

Sophie steeled herself. “I call it making a mistake right, Pietre.”

“We were not a mistake!” There was the crunch of something a little way away as Pietre hit it, or threw it, or did whatever else to it he needed to deal with his anger. He had always had a temper on him. Since she could not move, Sophie just had to wait until he came back again. “It’s time you faced up to the truth, Sophie. My patience isn’t endless.”

Sophie laughed at that. “Your patience barely has a beginning.”

“No? Then what do you call all these years?”

“A good start?”

Pietre did not get angry then. He did not shout. Instead, his voice sounded the way it always did in Sophie’s memory. Pleasant, with just that faint accent to make it exotic. Enough to carry her away completely if she let it.

Once, anyway.

“You belong with me, Sophie,” Pietre said. He was close to her again. So close. Another inch, Sophie guessed, and his lips would have brushed hers. “We’re family, destined to be together.”

“We are no such thing.” Sophie shook her head as she said it. Pietre stopped the movement by taking her head in his hands.

“You swore an oath.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“It was still an oath.”

“I was young, and stupid. Definitely stupid to swear anything to you.”

“It. Was. Still. An. Oath.”

Sophie sighed as Pietre pulled back from her. “Do you think that repeating it slowly will make it matter any more? I am not that girl, Pietre. Or any kind of girl, at my age.”

“You are. Or you were. You swore, and now that the time comes to live up to it, you try to wriggle your way out.”

That was an idea. Working on the ropes might not be much use, but it was better than listening to Pietre pontificate.

“Whatever oath you say I swore-”

“You swore it! You swore it and then you broke it like I didn’t matter.” For a moment, anger gave way to hurt. The kind of hurt that had love behind it. But then, where did Sophie think the deepest hate came from? “You… broke my heart, Sophie.”

Sophie nodded. There did not seem to be much else to do. “I know.”

“Why? Why did you do it? Why did you abandon me for your… Pete? It’s obvious that you cared. He even had the same name!”

“That’s a coincidence.”

“Is it?”

Remembered emotion welled in Sophie then. Memories of tender moments. Of the hurt when it all went wrong. Of having to make a decision. “I didn’t love you, Pietre. Not enough, anyway.”

“Liar.” The accusation was not loud. It did not need to be.

“It wouldn’t have worked, Pietre,” Sophie said. She could not help the note of regret that crept in, even here, even now. “I was a hunter, and you were what I hunted. It simply wouldn’t have worked.”

“It would if you had kept to your oath,” Pietre insisted.

Sophie felt his hands on her head again then, sliding under the blindfold and pulling it from her. She blinked in the light and drank in the sight of him. Even after all this time, she could not help taking a moment to do that. Sophie cursed herself for it.

For his part, Pietre just kept staring at her, looking into her eyes as though she could not keep him out easily. As though he could read her every thought. Maybe he just thought that he knew her that well. Maybe he was simply that deluded.

“I gave up so much for you, Sophie,” he said after long seconds of silence. “So much, yet the moment Peter came along, the moment you found a human replacement for me, you abandoned me. You abandoned the family around you.”

Sophie shook her head. “They weren’t my family. As for abandoning you, Pietre… well, I’ve already said that I was young. Maybe I shouldn’t have left the way I did.”

“You shouldn’t have left at all.”

“Yes, Pietre, I should have. I had to. You want to know what I saw in Peter? I saw a chance for a normal life. A life where I did not have to give up my life and become one of you. I didn’t want to die, Pietre.”

“You would still have been young. Still have been my Sophie.”

Sophie shook her head again. “I would have been dead, Pietre, and life is far too precious for that. I couldn’t have just given it up. Not for you, not for anybody.”

Pietre looked furious. “I was ready to! Don’t you remember how I fought for you? How I got myself staked trying to protect you from vampires I should have cared about, should have obeyed? If it had been just a little higher, it would have struck the heart. What then, Sophie?”

For a moment, she did not reply. It took too much effort to keep from saying that maybe it would have been better. That fewer people would have died as a result.

“I might as well have been staked when you left,” Pietre went on. “We could have been so happy, but no, you had to leave. Did you ever care?”

He didn’t give Sophie time to answer that, but instead walked past her and out of sight. He had obviously gone to fetch something. Sophie took the time to look around, and when she did, it didn’t take more than a second to recognize her surroundings as George’s office. She was in the diner, then. The moose head was on the wall in its usual spot, and the table was where it always stood. The cubbyhole was open, though it was also still empty. There was nothing that would help her there.

The obvious question came to Sophie then. Why were they in the diner? Had something happened? An attack on it? Had Pietre snuck in, or had something worse befallen the place? Sophie could not hear the sound of customers beyond, so the diner obviously stood empty. At least, she hoped it did. The only alternative seemed to be a diner full of the dead, more victims of Pietre and his kind. Sophie just hoped that George and Phil, Percy and Jill were okay.

“Now then,” Pietre said from somewhere behind her, “you’re probably wondering why your little attempt to murder me in my home went so badly, aren’t you?”

Sophie hadn’t been thinking of it, in truth, but she should have been. The vampires had been waiting for them, and that meant…

“A traitor?”

“You guessed it.” Pietre sounded pleased by that. “You always were the clever one. Though not clever enough, apparently, to keep clear of werewolf scum.”

“Who was it, Pietre?” Sophie demanded. She ran through the possibilities. That part-vampire nephew of hers, perhaps? Her great niece’s vampire ex-boyfriend? Would she have told him about what was going on? Maybe one of the werewolves had betrayed their own kind. “Who told you?”

“I can almost see your mind working, you know,” Pietre said. He moved back into view. “It must be so difficult for you. Who did you trust that you shouldn’t have? Who got past your defenses? It must be hard. Especially at your age. You must be wondering if you are finally starting to lose your edge. I should have turned you years ago.”

Sophie kept a tight rein on her anger. It wouldn’t do any good. “Just tell me, Pietre.”

“Tell you?” Pietre shook his head. “I would much rather simply show you.”

He beckoned to someone beyond Sophie’s range of vision. As they stepped forward to stand beside Pietre, Sophie could not stop a gasp of surprise.

“George?”

The ex-military man looked almost, almost the same. He was still large, and broad-shouldered, though now there was an edge of grace to his movements. His hair was still greying, though now it was paler, almost white. If Sophie hadn’t been looking for the signs, she wouldn’t have spotted them.

“You’re a vampire now, I see, George.”

She said it as calmly as she might have remarked on him getting a new haircut, but inside, Sophie was screaming.

Pietre smiled in a way that made it clear he knew exactly what she was feeling. He reached out to pat George on the shoulder. “I turned him shortly after you and that niece of yours ran off again. I asked myself who you would be likely to contact, and the answer just popped into my head.”

“You’re a monster-”

“And now, so is George.” Pietre’s smile widened. “He didn’t like it at first, but he doesn’t really have the same resistance to authority that your family have had. Besides, he became a lot more cooperative once I explained the situation between the two of us.”

Sophie looked over to George. The big man just stood there, staring.

“George, whatever he has told you-”

“Pietre told me you are his wife,” George said. “Are you going to deny it?”

That was the problem, of course. It was hard to deny what was true.

“I wish I had known before,” George said. “It would have made a great joke in the Preservation Society. Sophie Edge, married to the most hated vampire in the region.”

The thought seemed to amuse Pietre too, or at least he laughed. “Well, there will be plenty of time to tell them.”

That made Sophie go cold. “What do you mean, Pietre?”

The vampire leader stalked over to her. “I mean that it’s time to disband the Preservation Society, Sophie. Or at least to give it the proper perspective on life as a vampire.”

“How?”

“How do you think?” Pietre countered. “George here can get the members to meet with him anywhere he wants. After that, it shouldn’t be too big a problem to turn them.” He licked his lips. “We’ll start with dear Briony, I think. Her blood should be every bit as sweet as yours, Sophie.”

Sophie closed her eyes. Not Briony. As much as she wanted Briony to be strong and well-trained as a slayer, Sophie worried about her. Perhaps she should never have gotten Briony involved in the Preservation Society. But having the knowledge that came with her slayer training was the best bet Briony had to survive what was to come. If Briony was like Sophie, which Sophie guessed she was, then Briony had inherited the “gift”, too. That was why Pietre married her, besides his protestation of love. It would be a matter of time before Pietre discover the truth about Briony, and then Wicked Woods would never be the same.

 

*******

Wicked Woods continues in

Book 3 of Wicked Woods

 

 

 

Silver

July 2011