The results were impressive. Maisy twirled in a pretty green dress that made her look almost delicate, smiling broadly. It was the happiest Briony had seen her. As for the dress Briony’s great aunt passed her…
It was dark, and sleek, and fell almost to floor length in a swirl of pleats and folds. Above them, it gathered tightly with silver embroidery across the bodice and shoulders, leaving Briony’s arms bare. When she tried it on, her hair spilled across it, its lightness a highlight against the black of the fabric.
“How do I look?” Briony asked. Maisy actually gasped. Even Aunt Sophie nodded.
“Beautiful, dear. Come and see in the mirror. You too, Maisy.”
Standing beside one another it was like a study in contrasts. Maisy looked like a delightful fairy in the brightness of her dress. Beside her, Briony looked like a blonde princess as elegant and poised as she had ever dreamed of looking. She tried to imagine herself dancing with Fallon in this dress. Yes, she thought, they would certainly draw a few stares.
That thought made her hesitate.
“Um… you don’t think that it’s a bit too much, do you?”
“I’d rather have that than there being too little of it,” Aunt Sophie said primly, but then smiled. “You’re thinking of how some of the other girls will react?”
Briony bit her lip. “One other girl, mostly.”
Maisy grabbed her arm. “Oh, you have to wear it! It’s perfect for you. And Pepper will be far too busy being homecoming queen to bother.”
“She’s homecoming queen?” Briony asked.
“She’s always homecoming queen. You know this is the right dress, Briony.”
“Your friend is right, dear,” Aunt Sophie added. “Besides, I have just the shoes to go with it. They should fit you perfectly.”
That seemed to be that. Briony would go to the ball. She wondered for a moment if Cinderella’s godmother had been quite so brisk and determined. She also found herself wondering what kind of shoes Aunt Sophie could possibly own that would go with this dress.
They turned out to be black. Very, very black. And also tall. That had a lot to do with the heels, which were some of the highest Briony had seen, and which tapered to sharp looking points.
“Wooden heels, of course,” Aunt Sophie said. “Just in case there’s a repeat of what happened at the football game. One kick with these, and there’s no more vampire.”
“One night dancing in them, and there’s probably no more ankles.”
“You’ll be fine,” Aunt Sophie promised. “Now, shouldn’t you be getting off to the diner?”
That was the thing about the build up to homecoming. Real life didn’t stop. It just acquired new reasons to be busy. Because Claire and Tracey wouldn’t stop pestering her until she agreed, Briony found herself signing up to help out with homecoming when it came to getting things ready. Because Pepper was involved in the organizing committee, that mostly meant the boring jobs, like blowing up several hundred balloons. Even so, Briony noticed that the other girl was starting to keep her distance.
The wait for homecoming seemed to last forever. There were so many jobs to be done, so many other things that demanded Briony’s attention. There was a test in Math, which Briony did well…thanks to all the time spent hanging around with Maisy, who had the best grades in class. There was stocktaking down at the diner, which involved a couple of hours spent with a clipboard and a flashlight in one of the storerooms, trying to remember not to hit Percy when he decided to try and startle Briony by jumping out on her.
When the night finally came, Briony felt like she had been waiting for it for years. And here it was, rushing up on her almost too fast. Fallon would be at the house in less than an hour, and she still needed to get ready. That took time. Briony wanted to look perfect, because this was bound to be a special night. Eventually though, she was nearly there, needing only to strap on Aunt Sophie’s shoes when the sounds of an argument downstairs floated up to her.
Were they under attack? Was something else wrong? Briony thought she could hear Fallon’s voice. Picking up the shoes, she ran down, heading for the hallway.
Aunt Sophie was there, holding her silver cross at arms length. Fallon was there too, wearing a tuxedo that would probably have fitted him perfectly had he not been crouched in a corner, one hand over his eyes.
“Vile creature! Coming near my niece! It’s time for you to die!”
Even as Briony watched, her great aunt pressed the catch on her cross that made its sharpened point extend. Briony rushed forward without thinking, raising her shoes in a parry that caught the descending blade.
“Aunt Sophie? What are you doing?”
“Out of the way before he kills us both, you foolish girl.”
“Kill us? Why would Fallon kill us?”
“Because your date is a vampire, of course!”
Briony wanted to tell her great aunt that she was being stupid, and that of course Fallon wasn’t a vampire. Two things stopped her. One was the thought that Aunt Sophie probably wouldn’t react that well to being called stupid the next time they sparred together. The other, more important consideration was that Fallon was still cowering back from the cross. It might have been because no one, vampire or otherwise, reacts well to the thought of being stabbed through the heart, but somehow, Briony found herself doubting it.
“You’re a vampire?”
“Briony, I-”
“I want the truth, Fallon, and I want it now.” Briony could hear the coldness of her own voice.
Fallon stood still, suddenly looking sad. After a pause, he looked up, meeting Briony’s clear direct eyes. “Yes. I’m a vampire.” Fallon stood straight, handsome as ever in his black tuxedo with a wry smile that had rather more in the way of fangs than Briony remembered. “I’m sorry.”
“You will be!” Aunt Sophie promised, hefting the silver blade again. Despite the leaden feeling in her stomach, Briony shoved her great aunt back.
“Stop this! Just stop this!”
“Briony-”
“And you shut up too, Fallon! I need to think!”
How long she stood there, her hands balled into fists, Briony didn’t know. Thoughts swirled around in her. How could Fallon not have told her? But how could he, once he knew who she was? He had saved her, hadn’t he? Or was that all part of some bigger plot? Was Aunt Sophie right? Should they kill him?
“This explains why you were hanging around with me rather than the popular girls, at least,” Briony said, and there was more bitterness there than she intended.
Fallon looked hurt, or was that just another act? “Briony, it’s not like that.”
“Then what is it like?”
“You aren’t seriously going to listen to him, are you?” Aunt Sophie demanded.
“Yes. I… can’t you see that I want to believe him?”
“I wanted to believe a vampire once. It didn’t end well.” Aunt Sophie paused, and then sighed. “Oh, very well. Why have you been hanging around my niece, vampire?”
Fallon looked from Aunt Sophie to Briony and back. Briony could almost see him trying to work out what might work.
“Don’t lie,” Briony said. “Please, whatever else you do, don’t lie now.”
Fallon nodded. “Then the answer to that, at least at first, is because her father asked me to.”
Aunt Sophie looked affronted. “Joseph asked you to stalk his daughter? She wasn’t even here with the rest of her family. Or are you saying that he’s still…” she didn’t finish it.
“I don’t know, Mrs. Edge. The last I saw of them was in the woods, the night they… the night my brother…”
“It’s all right, Fallon,” Briony said.
He shook his head. “It’s not. It’s really not. That was the night this happened to me too. Before that, Joseph…Briony’s father and I were separated from the others. He told me that if he… didn’t make it, I needed to make sure his family were all right.”
“He meant his wife and son,” Aunt S
ophie said. “And I see you failed there.”
Fallon looked down. “Yes, I did. I couldn’t even save myself. That night was all confusion and chaos. I lost track of Joseph, Mary, Jake, and Pete. I lost track of my own brother. They…the vampires turned me before I knew what was happening. I’m sorry to break the news to you, but I still don’t know what happened to everyone. The only thing I knew was that I made a promise to Joseph. And then, I heard that his daughter, Briony, had come to live with you, and I… I knew what I had to do.”
“And where did you hear that?” Aunt Sophie asked.
“You know where, Mrs. Edge. Aren’t some things best left alone?”
Briony saw her great aunt glance to her. “Maybe you’re right.”
“And that’s all it was?” Briony asked. “You wanted to look after me? Fallon, I told you that I didn’t want a pity date. I certainly don’t want a bodyguard.”
Fallon shook his head. “It stopped being that the moment I saw you, Briony…looking so sad and lost, but still proud and beautiful… But I know you have no reason to believe me. Actually, I know you have good reason to just stake me with those… shoes…”
“That was the plan,” Briony said, and she couldn’t help a small smile. It came along with an answer. “No. That is the plan. Come on, Fallon. You’re taking me to the homecoming dance.”
“Briony!” Aunt Sophie looked incandescent. “I cannot allow you to go to the dance with a vampire! He might do anything.”
“He might have done anything at any point in the last few days too,” Briony pointed out. “But he hasn’t. I’m not asking you to trust Fallon, Aunt Sophie. I’m asking you to trust me. Trust that I can make this decision.”
Aunt Sophie looked between them. “I could just stake him now.”
“You’d have to go through me to do it,” Briony said. Her great aunt’s eyes narrowed.
“No, Briony,” Fallon said. His grip on her shoulders was gentle, but inexorable as it moved her to one side. “I won’t let you get hurt in this.”
Briony wanted to tell him that he didn’t let her do anything, but she had the sense to pause. Aunt Sophie was looking thoughtful, a sudden change in her whole stance and expression.
“Interesting. Fallon… Fallon… are you the boy who stayed here with his brother?”
“I am, ma'am.”
Aunt Sophie nodded. “As I recall, you were a polite enough boy. And you have been kind to my niece this last little while. Very well. You may go to the dance with her. Have Briony back before midnight though, or I will kill you.”
Chapter 13
The drive to the dance was a quiet one. Briony had been so quick to tell her aunt that she would be going, but now, she couldn’t help feeling at least a little nervous. She felt guilty for that. Fallon was Fallon. He had spent most of the past couple of weeks around her, and it wasn’t like he’d ripped her throat out even once.
They stopped just short of the school hall, and Briony saw Fallon patting his pockets, as though he were looking for something. He finally found it, in the shape of two boxes. The first turned out to be a corsage, pale white against the darkness of Briony’s dress once she put it on. It went with it so well that Briony had to wonder if he’d known what she would be wearing.
“Maisy told me,” Fallon explained without being asked. “I think she wanted this to be perfect. I don’t know if there’s much chance of that now though.”
“We can try,” Briony said, reaching out for his hand. “After all, it’s not like you’re about to lunge over and bite me, is it?”
Fallon was silent just a little too long.
“Fallon?”
“The hunger is there, Briony. It’s always there. So soon after being transformed, I need a lot of blood. I have been feeding on animals, things I could catch, lesser things. But it is barely enough, and you look so… tempting tonight.”
Briony edged back in her seat, just a little. She needed something to distract Fallon, and she needed it quickly.
“What’s in the other box?”
“What? Oh, right. I had forgotten.” Fallon opened the second box, which was much smaller than the first. Gold gleamed inside it. “You’ll have to take it out. I can’t.”
It was a crucifix. A small, golden crucifix. It hung from a chain of fine, golden links as Briony drew it out of the box. Fallon had his eyes firmly shut.
“Why would you buy me this?” Briony wondered aloud. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“I wanted you to be safe. Even from me. Here, if I keep my eyes closed, I can probably help you to put it on.”
Briony thought about pointing out that she already had the silver slayer cross George had given her, although it didn’t go well with her dress. She wasn’t wearing it though, and had it neatly tucked into her silver evening bag.
Fallon slipped the chain around her neck, fastening the clasp by feel. The movement brought him so close that Briony could smell the clean scent of the soap he used. Funny, she had almost been expecting an undertone of blood. The necklace, once it was in place, hung low enough to be partially hidden by Briony’s dress. Fallon pulled back and opened his eyes.
“Well,” Briony joked, “at least I know you won’t be looking anywhere you shouldn’t.”
“There is that,” Fallon said. “We should go in now. I think everyone else should get at least a brief chance to see how wonderful you look tonight.”
“You don’t exactly clean up badly yourself.”
Apparently, other people thought the same, because they attracted more than their fair share of stares as they walked into the dance together. The festivities were already in full swing, with the dance floor crowded with couples. Maisy was off in one corner with Steve, who didn’t seem to be having much success when it came to dancing. A quick glance around the rest of the floor revealed Claire, in a short dress that had probably cost a lot more than it appeared to, and Tracey, in the kind of overblown, glittery thing that only she could ever have gotten away with wearing. Ross and Bill, dancing with them, didn’t seem to mind.
Pepper was in the middle of a group of admirers, already wearing the homecoming queen’s crown at the top of an ensemble that looked like it tried just a little bit too hard. Briony didn’t feel any disappointment at that. Everybody had who it would be, and in any case, maybe it would be a good thing. If Pepper had a clear sign that she was still popular, maybe she wouldn’t feel quite so threatened by Briony’s presence. Her homecoming king was one of the jocks from the football team. Briony didn’t know his name.
“Would you like to dance?” Fallon asked.
“Is this the part where you turn out to know dances that are hundreds of years old?” Briony asked with a smile.
“Hardly. I was only turned a month or so back, remember? So unless the gavotte is a vampire power people don’t talk about much, I’m stuck with what I knew before.” Fallon thought for a moment. “Which isn’t much, when it comes to dancing.”
That at least turned out to be a lie, because Fallon danced at least as well as Briony did, seeming to catch the rhythm of the music and let it flow through him as he moved. Briony did her best to keep up, and despite her great aunt’s shoes, she felt she did quite well. They moved together, and Briony found that she could almost forget for a moment what Fallon was, what was going on in this strange little town.
Almost, but not completely. The slower dances were the worst part. Other couples pressed together tightly, close enough that it was often hard to see where one began and the other ended. Pepper’s partner was certainly enjoying it. Briony and Fallon, on the other hand, found themselves further apart, hardly touching when they should have been close, stiffly formal when they should have been at their most natural.
The strangest part was that it wasn’t even Briony doing it. There should probably have been some part of her reminding her of just how unnatural Fallon was, but for the moment she just wanted to forget that. She didn’t want to spend the dance with the vampire who had admitte
d to hungering after her. She wanted to spend it with Fallon, who liked her when almost no one else did and who swapped critiques of odd sci-fi programs with her friends.
The trouble was that every time Briony tried to move closer, Fallon edged back. Was it the cross? No, that was safely hidden in the folds of Briony’s dress. So it had to be something else. His hunger then? Was he really afraid of being that close to her? Briony considered simply kissing him, there and then, right in the middle of the dance floor. Maybe that would get across to him how she felt.
She didn’t do it though. Instead, after a while, Briony excused herself and headed for the bathrooms. Maisy was already there.
“Wow,” she said, “that dress looks even better tonight than it did in the store.”
“Thanks. You’re looking happy.”
“Oh, I am! Steve finally got the hint and kissed me. It was wonderful, Briony…”
The next five minutes filled themselves with talk of Maisy and her boyfriend. Somehow, it made Briony feel better. She practically bounced back out onto the dance floor, finding Fallon off to one side and taking his wrist firmly.
“Now, you’re either going to dance with me properly, or we might as well go home now.”
For a moment, just a moment, Briony actually thought he might go for the second option. Then though, another slow dance began, and Briony pulled him close.
“There, that’s not so bad, is it?”
“Bad isn’t exactly the word I’d choose, no,” Fallon admitted.
“Then shut up and dance with me.”
Fallon did, and Briony reveled in the feeling of him pressed close to her now as they moved to the music. Before, Fallon had been elegant, cool, and distant. Somebody to watch, but something separate. Now, it was like he was a part of Briony, or rather like the two of them were one being, drifting through the crowd of other dancers to a single beat.
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