Shimmer (Wicked Woods #2)

by Kailin Gow

  “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 fe
w 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.”