Shifter (7 page)

            “It sounds serious,” Carol said. She rolled her eyes. “Not more vampires.”

            Kevin shook his head, trying to stop himself from pulling back. It wouldn’t exactly work, asking Carol to be his fiancé while shying away from even her touch.

            “No, it’s not that, but it is serious,” he said. He tried to work out how much to tell her. Would she go along with it if he explained everything? Would she agree to simply pretend? The truth was that she had no reason to pretend. Especially not when it meant tricking her brother. Which meant that Kevin couldn’t afford to explain all the details, even though that would end up hurting her later on. Was he okay with that?

            “I hope this isn’t going to be all about
Briony
, then,” Carol said. “Because these days, it seems like it’s always either vampires or her.” She rearranged her clothing again, but not to cover her any better. “I bet we could think of better things to talk about than your ex if we wanted.”

            Yes, Kevin decided, he was absolutely fine with it.

            “Actually,” he said, “I wanted to talk about us.”

            “Us?” That seemed to make Carol pause. “I didn’t think there
was
an us. I mean…” she bit her lip. “I didn’t think you noticed me.”

            “It’s pretty hard not to,” Kevin said, absolutely truthfully. “And with Briony not here, I’ve been thinking about you a lot more recently. That, and I’ve been thinking about what you said before, about me being nearly a king. I’ve been thinking about that a lot. And I can’t deny that there’s something between us. I think it’s something big.”

            Carol looked up at him carefully. “What are you saying, Kevin?”

            “I’m saying…” Kevin took a breath, steeling himself to force the words out. “Carol, will you marry me?”

            The kiss caught him by surprise. Carol threw her arms around his neck, but didn’t move up on tiptoes to kiss him. Instead, she pulled him down to her level to kiss him, her mouth rough, almost fierce, against his. Her hands tangled in his hair almost painfully, and Carol seemed to enjoy the small sound of protest he made, at least if the way she kept kissing him was anything to go by. Her tongue started to explore his mouth hungrily.

            Kevin had to admit that there was something about being this close to a powerful, aggressive woman like this. One who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to take it. It was something that was surprisingly attractive, and Kevin could feel himself responding when Carol’s hands started to drift lower than his chest.

            “Of course,” Carol whispered to him, her voice husky, “once you become the king, you’ll need someone to show you the ropes. Someone to guide you. I hope you’re prepared to listen when a woman tells you what to do, Kevin.”

            But there was still Briony to consider. Whatever Carol made him feel, it wasn’t even close to the way he felt every time he was around Briony. It wasn’t the same. Which was why Kevin pulled back as Carol moved to continue her seduction.

            “No,” he said, “I can’t.”

            Carol raised an eyebrow. “No? You aren’t feeling shy, are you?”

            “It’s not that. It’s…”

            “It’s the fact that you’re using me to try to manipulate my brother?” Carol smiled, and then suddenly her leg was hooked around Kevin’s, so that when she shoved him, he went stumbling to the floor. Carol followed him, kneeling above him. Her fingers traced over his chest again, only this time her nails dug in hard enough to make Kevin wince. “Did you think I was stupid, Kevin?”

            “What?” Actually, there had been part of him that had thought it wouldn’t be a problem to trick her. Carol had always been so impulsive, and Kevin had been banking on her going along with another decision without thinking too hard.

            She slapped him then. Not hard, but not playfully, either. Above him, her features contorted into a brief expression of anger. “That’s for trying to manipulate me, for not paying attention, and for thinking the way all stupid male werewolves seem to.”

            “Carol…”

            “Shh!” She put a finger to his lips, and a playful edge seemed to return to her. “You’re going to have to learn not to interrupt. Another thing that you men never seem to get the hang of. Take my brothers. Brian was always talking over me, and Josh… he always assumed that since he was the clever one and I was just a girl, I had to be stupid. You’ve heard the way he talks to me.”

            Kevin had, though as he remembered it, Carol was mostly trying to persuade him to hurt Briony at the time. That or coming up with ideas that had more to do with her anger than anything else.

            “All of you men seem to be the same,” Carol said. “You see a werewolf girl like me and you try to treat me like something out of the nineteenth century. Like I don’t
matter
, and like I can’t possibly come up with an idea that might be worthwhile.”

“What about Channing?” Kevin asked. “He didn’t treat you like that.”

            That got a wince of pain from Carol. “Channing was better than the rest of them. He understood. He…” she shook her head. “But he’s gone now, and we aren’t going to talk about him.”

            “Then what are we going to talk about?” Kevin asked. He wondered if he could roll Carol off him. She was smaller and lighter than him, but she knew enough about fighting that it would be hard to do.

            She leaned down and kissed him again then. This kiss was softer and gentler than the first one had been, but it was no less controlling. Kevin jerked his head away, risking the possibility of another slap, but Carol didn’t seem bothered. If anything, she smiled.

            “I like that. You aren’t some weakling who’s going to give up just like that. You’re worthy of me, Kevin. You’re the only man around here who is. But even you… I won’t let you control me and manipulate me like that. I won’t let you
use
me like that. Which is why it’s probably a good thing that I’m the one with all the cards here.”

            “Are you going to let me up?” Kevin asked.

            “Why, when I have you where I want you?” Carol shuffled a little higher on his chest and pinned his arms. “In every sense.”

            “So what do you want?” Kevin asked. Carol was obviously enjoying this. Far too much for his liking. Yet what could he do about it? Besides, she was right. He had tried to manipulate her.

            “Haven’t you been paying attention?” Carol asked. “I want all those big bad wolves in our pack to have to do what I tell them. I want them to stop ignoring me. I want them to get down on their knees the way they so obviously want to every time they look at you. And for that, I’m going to need you.”

            “How?” Kevin asked.

            “Exactly the way you already offered.” Carol slid off him then, moving to lay beside him on the grass, propped up on one elbow, so that to anyone watching they would have looked like a happy couple enjoying the sun. “We’re going to get married, Kevin. And before you start complaining, remember that you suggested it first. You’re getting what you wanted.”

            She reached out to stroke his face. “And I want you to know that I
do
want you. If I’d thought that you’d give yourself to me willingly… that you actually cared about me rather than
her
… I just want you to know that, so you don’t think it’s all about the power.”

            “What power?” Kevin demanded. “It sounds like you’re offering to make me the werewolves’ king.”

            “There you go thinking like a man again,” Carol said. “Deciding that you must be more important. You’re a
bitten
wolf. You’re a powerful enough alpha to make a play for the throne, but
I’m
the one who was born a werewolf. You wouldn’t be king, Kevin. You’d just be a consort.”

            “And you?”

            Carol smiled. “I have no parents. Two of my brothers are dead, and the one who’s left is too busy playing around in other worlds to look after his people. I think the werewolves need a new queen.”

B
riony headed back to her room with Archer in tow, practically running through the palace in search of a good place to leave from. In her room, she checked that the head of the scepter was safely stowed around her neck, and then started to hunt through the room’s furniture in search of her old clothes. There was no sign of them though.

            “It looks like I’m going to have to go home like this,” she said aloud, trying not to think about how she’d look walking down the main street of Wicked dressed like something out of a Renaissance Faire. Then she looked at Archer and smiled. Somehow, she suspected that flying in on a dragon would make people stare a little more than the dress.

            “Come on Archer, let’s get going.”

             She strode over to the open window and the balcony beyond. It would be easy for him to transform there, and then… then they would be on their way, looking for a gate to take them back. Briony didn’t have full control over them yet, so they’d have to find one, but if anyone could find a route back to Wicked, Archer could.

            “Briony? What are you doing?”

            Briony turned to see Fallon coming back into the room. He was staring at her like he knew that something was wrong. Maybe he did. “I thought Sophie was giving you and Josh the tour.”

            “She was. I slipped away to see you.” He moved forward to catch hold of her elbow. “What’s going on, Briony?”

            “I have to go back to Wicked,” she explained. “I saw it in one of the reflecting pools they have here. Pietre is transforming people, and I can’t allow that.”

            What she didn’t say was that she couldn’t stay there when that would mean marrying Josh. When it would mean unleashing whoever it was who would kill all the vampires, including Fallon, Jake and George. It was easier to think about the need to protect the people of Wicked, and to concentrate on the way she was meant to be heading up the Preservation Society. She couldn’t do that in Palisor.

            She couldn’t see Kevin again here either. Josh had been wrong about that part. She didn’t have to marry him to see Kevin again. She just had to go back. Though that… she thought about the sight of Carol and Kevin kissing. Just the memory of the image hurt. How could Kevin have done that? With
her
?

            Was this how he felt every time she kissed Fallon? How Fallon felt when she was with Kevin?

            There was one other reason she wanted to go back then. She wanted Pietre gone. It wasn’t enough to just keep protecting people from him anymore. He wasn’t going to stop until he was killed. And if Briony wasn’t prepared to unleash the end of the vampires to do that, if she couldn’t bear to lose the others who would be killed, then that meant she owed it to the world to finish Pietre off herself.

            Fallon looked into her eyes, and in that moment, Briony knew that he’d guessed exactly what she had planned. She couldn’t keep anything hidden from him, not then. “You’re not planning to take on Pietre alone? No, you can’t. Not like that.”

            “I have to.”

            “Well, you aren’t doing it alone,” Fallon insisted. “I’m coming with you. I’d go to the ends of the earth for you. I can definitely go back to Wicked.”

            “Fallon…”

            Fallon kissed her then. He pulled Briony to him sharply and kissed her passionately, holding her against him while he did it. He didn’t seem to care that Archer was there, or that someone might walk in and see them. He didn’t seem to care about anything but her. He pulled back, still staring into her eyes. Once, that might have caught her, entranced her, just through the power that vampires had. Now, there was nothing holding Briony there but how beautiful Fallon was. That was enough though.

            “I know the feeling that you’re getting from the scepter. I know that everyone thinks that it has somehow chosen you to be with Josh, but that doesn’t matter to me. All that matters is what you want. What’s in your heart, Briony?”

            Briony stalled, trying to think. The truth was that she didn’t know what was in her heart. If she did, her life would be a lot simpler than it was. She did know who
wasn’t
in her heart though.

            “Are you saying that I should just ignore what the people of my kingdom want?”

            “Yes,” Fallon said, simply. “If it isn’t what you want. It
isn’t
what you want, is it?”

            Briony shook her head. “No. It’s not just Josh. I can’t marry him when it would mean the deaths of all vampires. It would kill Jake, George…”

            “Me.”

            “Yes,” Briony said, and then Fallon kissed her again. This kiss was softer, sweeter.

            “You still care about me then?” Fallon asked.

            “You know I do.”

            “It’s hard to tell, sometimes. But you… you’re the only girl I’ve ever loved, Briony. I’ve never wanted anyone else. And it’s more than that. You’re the reason I manage to stop myself from hurting people. You’re my reason for staying good. Every time it feels like the hunger might be stronger than me, I think about how you’d look if you knew. I think about how much it would hurt you.”

            “It shouldn’t be about me,” Briony said. She wasn’t comfortable with Fallon putting that much on her, because what would it mean if she didn’t end up with him. “You should do the right thing
because
it’s the right thing, not because of me.”

            Fallon shook his head. “But it isn’t about that for us, Briony. Look at George. He’s stayed good because of how much he loves Sophie. Jake… he loves you and Sophie. Every vampire I’ve heard of who doesn’t feed on humans manages it because they love someone. It’s like that love reminds us what it’s like to be human. It’s that love that makes the difference.”