by Kailin Gow
“It isn’t your fault.” Fal on doubted that the words would have much effect on Aunt Sophie. After al , he was only her great-niece’s vampire boyfriend. Stil , it was what Briony might have said if she had been there, and Fal on owed it to her to make the effort. “Sooner or later, you have to trust someone.”
“Yes.” Aunt Sophie looked serious for a moment, but then smiled. “And who would have thought that the someone in question would ever be you, young vampire?”
“Here we are though.”
“Indeed. Now, to find my niece before something happens to her.”
Fal on nodded. “You know where she wil be, then?”
Aunt Sophie shrugged. “I know where the battle site was. It is somewhere to start looking. If she is not there, then she might be with the wolves, or with that brother of yours.”
“Or captured,” Fal on said, his hands screwing into fists. “Or dead.”
“But we wil not think like that until we know for sure.
Wil we, young man?”
Fal on was a little taken aback by the sharpness of that rebuke, but he shook his head anyway. “No, ma’am.”
“Good.” Aunt Sophie gave Fal on a long look. “We wil be heading for a battle ful of blood and death. And werewolves. More werewolves than you have met in your life. Wil you be able to handle that, Fal on?”
Fal on hadn’t even considered that. With the scent of blood on the breeze, would he be able to control himself?
With so many werewolves about, would he be able to keep his instinctive hatred at bay?
“For Briony, I wil .”
“Very wel then.” Aunt Sophie looked around. “First, we need transport.”
It didn’t take them long to find the old truck George used when he was on business. It was a dul , rusty red, and looked like it had been through at least one smal war at some point. There were boxes in the back, and, at a faint twinge from the part of him that responded to silver, Fal on took the time to open one of them.
“Weapons, Mrs. Edge. It looks like George might have been getting ready for a battle.”
“More likely, he was restocking the weapons cupboard when they took him,” Aunt Sophie said. “And then they couldn’t move them out of the truck. Poor man. Now, let’s hope this thing is as old as it looks. Modern ignition systems take forever to get going when you don’t have the key.”
Fal on watched in amazement as she broke the window on the driver’s side with her elbow, unlocked the door, and had the truck hotwired in less time than it took him to get around to the passenger side. It was not the kind of skil you expected someone like her to know. Or at least, not someone like she appeared to be.
“You may wish to buckle up,” Aunt Sophie said, revving the engine. “I don’t exactly intend this to be a gentle jaunt.”
Fal on caught the serious note in that, and did as he was told. He was glad of the extra restraint when Aunt Sophie set off at a speed that made a mockery of the local limits, taking corners so fast that Fal on was frankly surprised that the aged truck made it around some of them.
Once Aunt Sophie got it beyond the town’s limits and onto the roads through the wood, things got, if anything, even more terrifying. She powered the truck along at a pace that most ral y drivers would have been happy with, throwing up sprays of mud with every turn.
“Mrs. Edge? Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Fal on asked.
“What are you complaining about?” Aunt Sophie cut the wheel, sending them skidding around a bend. “It’s not like a car crash would kil you.”
“It would hurt though. A lot.” Fal on winced as they narrowly avoided a tree. “Do you always drive like this?”
“When my family is in danger, I do.” She slowed, and final y pul ed up by the side of the road. “We wil have to do the last part on foot.”
Aunt Sophie hopped lightly from the trucks’ cab and started rummaging through the boxes in the back. Fal on was briefly reminded of an older woman rooting through the contents of a garage sale, except that very few garage sales sold silver bladed swords, crossbows made from various advanced polymers, and high tech telescopic sights. Aunt Sophie affixed the latter to her crossbow, and picked out a quiver ful of silver tipped bolts.
“Quietly now,” she said, and set off through the trees.
She made hardly a sound, and Fal on found himself glad that Briony’s great-aunt had never seriously decided to try to kil him. She was a lot more dangerous than she looked.
Aunt Sophie raised her hand after a little while, gesturing for Fal on to look ahead at the road before staring through her crossbow sight. Ahead, Fal on could see figures crowding the road, and his superior senses al owed him to get at least a vague impression of who they were.
They were split into two groups. One, on their feet, consisted of vampires, some of whom Fal on recognized.
Most were far older than him, though a few he was less certain about.
“That’s Mr. Johnson who owns the bakery,” Aunt Sophie said as she kept staring down her binocular.
“George gets his hamburger rol s from him. And that’s Marjorie Simpson. Her husband is on the local council. No wonder they have been giving the Society so much trouble recently, if they’re al in with Pietre.”
Fal on watched the people out on the road for a moment longer. “They’re more than that, Mrs. Edge. They’re vampires. Look at how they move.”
“You’re right, and that just makes it worse. I should have spotted this, Fal on.”
Fal on did not reply, because he was too busy watching the second group of people. They were obviously captured werewolves, judging by the way the vampires kept them kneeling on the muddy road. As Fal on watched, the vampires started moving among them, separating them into two groups.
“What are they doing?” Fal on asked.
“I don’t know,” Aunt Sophie admitted. “It looks like they’re asking them some kind of question. Honestly, George, why couldn’t you get some proper binoculars? I can’t see a thing. Fal on, can you see Briony down there?”
Fal on had to shake his head. “It’s too far to be sure.
I’l have to get closer.”
He started to move forward, and found Aunt Sophie’s hand on his arm. “Don’t be foolish, young man.
They hate you as much as any of us now. You’l be torn to shreds if you just wander up and start asking about my great-niece.”
Fal on shook his head. “I can’t see Pietre or his main lieutenants. If I’m lucky, the others won’t know who I am.
They’l just see another vampire, and they’re too busy guarding the werewolves to pay attention.”
“It is stil too dangerous,” Aunt Sophie insisted.
“It’s for Briony. She has to be safe.”
“Then I wil have to come closer too, to cover you.”
Fal on shook his head. “That’s a bad idea, Mrs.
Edge. I’m one of them, but your scent wil be different. Too human. Wel … almost human.”
There was a long, awkward silence.
“You shouldn’t listen at doors, young man,” Aunt Sophie said at last.
“It explains a few things though.” Fal on kept his eye on her now that he had said it. This was the kind of secret that might make her want to lash out. “Even when I was at the Inn, Briony’s parents said that she was special. What is she, Mrs. Edge?”
Aunt Sophie shook her head. “I’m not going to tel you that. Not with what you are. Maybe Briony wil one day, but I wil not. Assuming that she is even like me. It can be hard to judge, given that our strength comes as we age.”
The crossbow she held lifted, just a fraction. “Is that why you have been hanging around her then, vampire?”
“You know it isn’t, Mrs. Edge.” Fal on didn’t move. “If you real y thought that, you would already have pul ed the trigger, after al .”
Aunt Sophie lowered the crossbow again. “True.”
Fal on looked over to the waiting crowd of creatures.
“I love Briony,” he said. “Would you tel her that? If I don’t…”
“You’l be able to tel her yourself if you make it back in one piece,” Aunt Sophie said firmly. “So cut out that kind of talk, young man, and do what you need to.”
Fal on nodded and crept forward, doing his best to stick to the cover of the trees. He found his first corpse a minute later; a strong looking man who had fal en with dozens of wounds. The stench of blood was almost overwhelming. So close, Fal on had to fight the smal part of him that wanted to taste it. To abandon his search and drink it down. He forced himself to walk on quickly.
Ahead, he could see that the other vampires had finished separating the surviving werewolves into two groups. There didn’t seem to be anything to tel between them, but there was obviously some reasoning behind it.
One group sat sul enly on one side of the road, while the other…
The vampires attacked that one in a blur, and Fal on braced himself to watch the carnage. In a fair fight, the werewolves might have been a match for their captors, but not like this. This would just be slaughter.
Except that, somehow, it wasn’t. One of the werewolves, a young man with sun bronzed skin and clothes that didn’t quite match the season, started to shift.
Only he didn’t shift into a wolf. Instead, he expanded, fil ing space as he grew, the deep gold of his tan turning into the burnished gold of reptilian scales. Several vampires found themselves flung back as the change continued, leathery wings sprouting from the creature’s back as it grew to nearly ten feet tal at the shoulder. A huge tail swept around, smashing one of the slowest vampires from its feet.
They ran, and Fal on didn’t blame them. Faced with something like that, some monstrous creature out of a storybook, what else could the vampires do? Even the remaining werewolves ran. In the chaos, the creature bel owed, its roar echoing through the trees in the seconds before it took to the air, those powerful wings sending it skywards.
Fal on was too stunned to do anything but stumble back to Aunt Sophie.
“Did you… did you see that?” he demanded.
Aunt Sophie nodded, her expression grave.
“What was it?”
“A Draco,” Aunt Sophie said. “A dragon shifter. In these woods, that can mean only one thing. It came through the gate.”
“Gate?” The conversation seemed to be leaving Fal on behind. “What gate.”
“The same one my father came through. The gate between worlds. We need to fol ow that dragon, young man.
If Pietre gets to it before we do, things could be very dire indeed.”
Chapter 4
The clearing was one of the most peaceful spots Briony had ever spent time in, but she knew it couldn’t stay like that. Around Wicked, there would always be something to shatter any il usions of safety. Though Briony had to admit, she wasn’t expecting the form that the fresh danger came in.
The creature - the dragon, Briony’s brain supplied, in the absence of any better word… swooped low over the clearing she and Kevin stood in, slowing as its wings held fast against the air, coming to rest on the grass in a motion far too smooth for something of that size.
“Run, Briony!” Kevin yel ed, but Briony found herself ignoring him. How could something like this exist? Then again, how could she ask a question like that while standing next to a werewolf?
“Briony,” Kevin insisted.
“Wait, Kevin,” she shot back. “There’s something about it. Something familiar.”
The creature moved towards them, its reptilian head moving sinuously with every step. It looked… almost like it knew Briony. Even so, Briony found her hand tightening on her sword. She hadn’t exactly expected to end the day by adding “dragon-slayer” to the things she had accomplished, but she wasn’t about to stand there and let it kil them, either.
The dragon came to a halt several yards away, just staring at the two of them. Briony felt Kevin tugging at her arm.
“Come on. If we back away slowly, we might be able to get back to the edge of the woods.”
Briony shook her head. “I think it’s cleverer than that.” She raised her voice. “Do I know you? Do you want something from me?”
The creature snorted, but its great head rose and dipped, just once.
“Where then?” Briony demanded. “Where do I know you-?”
She didn’t get the chance to finish her question, because a cluster of fur covered forms burst from the trees, yipping and snarling as they bounded towards the golden-scaled creature.
“Wait!” Briony cal ed. “No!”
If she was worried about the dragon’s safety, though, there was no reason to be. The creature whipped around in a circle, forcing the wolves back with the threat of being clubbed aside by its tail and then leapt into the air, its wings beating in a hurried take off that had it away from the clearing in seconds. Briony couldn’t help admiring the power of the thing, even as it fled.
“Wel ,” Kevin observed dryly, “that isn’t something you see every day.”
“That’s one way of looking at it. Did you see the way it nodded, Kevin?”
“I saw. It’s intel igent. More than that, it knew you.”
And the others had to go and drive it away before Briony could find out where she knew it from. She didn’t know whether to be angry with them, or simply grateful that they were prepared to attack a creature that size to “help”
her, even if they didn’t know what they were getting into.
As Briony thought that, some of the wolves in the clearing started changing back into their human form, leaving her facing a smal group of young men and women whose clothes were in various states of disarray. Briony couldn’t help looking at the front of the group, where Josh and his brother Brian stood. Through the fresh gaps in their clothing, Briony could see that the werewolf king and his brother were a lot more muscular than they appeared, built more like athletes than anything else.
Briony looked away. Why did the werewolf men she knew always have the most perfect male bodies? She sighed. Given that she had already had to tel Brian once that she wasn’t interested in him, it wouldn’t be fair to the col ege age werewolf to let him see her staring at him like that. Besides, Briony thought as she shifted her gaze to Kevin, if she wanted to ogle muscular young werewolf men, she had one of her own to stare at.
“There’s a cache here somewhere, isn’t there?”
Josh asked, and one of the werewolves behind him confirmed that there was. “Get it then.”
Soon, he was handing spare shirts to Brian and Kevin, while buttoning up one of his own. Around him, most of the other werewolves made some effort to make themselves more presentable, although a few hardly bothered at al .
Briony wanted to rebuke the werewolf king for chasing off the dragon as he had, but she knew better than that. Josh was new to being king, and it wouldn’t be right to do something that would make him seem weak…
especial y not after the kind of defeat they had just suffered.
Instead, she settled for just saying, “That was something else, wasn’t it?”
Josh nodded, and Briony got the feeling that he had guessed what she had wanted to say. The smal smile he gave her definitely seemed like a thank you for not saying it.
“I think it’s the first time that we have had a dragon show up, certainly. Though there have been stories of other things.”
“What kind of things?” Briony asked.
Josh shrugged. “Al kinds of things. Things that you don’t find in this world. My family has always believed that these woods are special.”
“You make the appearance of a dragon sound like it’s something normal,” Kevin added. He also put his arm around Briony. It seemed that Kevin wanted the other werewolves to know where he stood… that Briony was his girl.
Josh just shrugged again. “In this town, I hardly think it counts as that out of character. What’s a dragon on top of everything else?” His expression turned suddenly seriou
s.
“We need to talk about the battle.”
Briony had been wondering when it would get to that. Josh’s tone was stil calm, but she could hear some of the sadness at the edges of it. Maybe the werewolf king didn’t get to show more emotion than that in front of the people he led. “Where is everyone else?” She asked. “I saw Channing running with you. Where is he?”
“A vampire got him.” It seemed that Brian didn’t have the ability to contain his emotions as wel as his brother. “We were running, and it just leapt out.”
“Carol is missing too,” Josh said, gently waving Brian into silence. “So are lots of others.”
“I thought I saw Jake helping her,” Briony said.
“Maybe she got away then.” The werewolf king’s tone did not sound hopeful. Maybe he just didn’t want to get up the hopes of the rest of his pack. For her part, Briony couldn’t feel any genuine sadness at the thought of Carol being gone. Not after the times the werewolf girl had attacked her. Stil , Channing had seemed okay, and she could guess at the pain Josh and Brian had to be going through at the thought of lost family. She knew that pain too wel herself.
That thought brought the obvious question to mind.
“What about Jake? Have you seen him? The last I saw, he was jumping into the trees, but after that, I lost sight of him.”
What would she do if he were gone now? Briony had already grieved for him once, but that wouldn’t make it any less painful to lose her little half vampire/half werewolf brother.
“He’s fine, Briony,” Josh assured her. “Or he wil be, at least. He was pretty beaten up when he final y caught up with us, but we got him back to the mansion. It’s what took us so long to catch up with you. You can see him when we go back there.”
Briony let out a breath she hadn’t known she had been holding. “Thank you for that.”
“He’s as much one of us as anyone else,” Josh said.
“Besides, after what just happened, we’l need every werewolf we can get.”
Briony had been putting off the question, but she asked it then. “How many people did you lose, Josh?”
The werewolf king shook his head. “Too many. The ambush let them kil so many before they could fight back. I won’t know until I get home exactly how many of us escaped, but if the numbers here are anything to go by, I’m not sure we have enough to do more than defend ourselves now. Maybe not even that.”