Silver (Wicked Woods #3) (10 page)

With every minute that passed, Briony found herself fighting against the frustration of it. Darkness was starting to fal , and they stil hadn’t reached their destination. Briony tried not to think of al the things that might have happened to the master vampire in the time they had been gone from his lair. Who would have thought that she would ever care about what happened to him?

They got closer to the site of the old house, and Kevin slowed. Briony slid down from his back as the others paused in the trees. It was so dark now that Briony could only just make out Jake and Fal on. Yet further on it seemed lighter, the trees ahead pierced by an orange glow.

“What is it?” Briony asked. She didn’t raise her voice. She knew the others would hear her.

Kevin transformed and moved to stand by her.

“Fire.”

Briony smel ed it then. The faintest drift of smoke on the breeze, reminiscent of campfires or the cozy, log burning fireplace in the inn’s lounge. Except that this scent did not bring with it feelings of warmth and comfort.

Briony rushed forwards, ignoring the others as she ran to the edge of the trees. There ahead lay the house, or what remained of it, anyway. Flames licked at it, leaping up around door frames and spurting in flares from gaps in the roof. The fire crackled and spat as it ate the structure, loud against the near silence of the forest beyond the clearing.

“No.” Briony couldn’t stop the horrified sound escaping. “What
happened
here?”

“There’s no sign of the werewolves,” Kevin said.

“The battle must have finished a while back.”

“No sign of any vampires, either,” Fal on added.

“Though that might be harder to tel . We don’t exactly leave bodies.”

Yet something had happened there. Houses didn’t burn themselves down, and the very lack of bodies was some kind of clue. It meant that someone had found time to clear away the carnage left by the battle, or at least relocate it inside where it could burn with the rest of the structure.

That sparked a horrible thought in Briony. “Do you think there is anyone left in there? I mean, trapping someone inside when you set light to it would be a good way to kil them, wouldn’t it?”

Both Fal on and Kevin nodded. “Vampires can be kil ed by flames, if the fire is hot enough,” Fal on said.

“And werewolves are just as vulnerable to fire as anyone else,” Kevin added.

Briony stood staring at the flame-ridden building.

Jake moved to stand beside her.

“You can’t go in there, Briony,” he said.

“I’m not thinking of going in there.”

“Yes you are,” her brother countered. “I know you.

But it’s too dangerous, even for Aunt Sophie.”

As if to make his point, a section of roof col apsed inwards, letting fresh flames flicker up in the night sky. Even from as far back as they were, Briony could feel the heat of it.

“But what if Pietre is in there?” Briony demanded.

“Then he’s probably already dead.”

And ordinarily, that would have been a good thing.

Ordinarily, Briony could quite happily have stood by while a whole nest of vampires burned. Yet here, her hopes were burning up with it.

Kevin stepped past her. “I’l go,” he said.

Briony grabbed his arm. “No, Jake’s right. You’l burn.”

Kevin shook his head. “I think there’s an area near the door that’s clear. I can at least take a quick look.” He bent down to kiss her, and it was tender, too tender. “You need this, Briony.”

He sprinted towards the house, and Briony watched him.

“He has to play the hero, doesn’t he?” Fal on demanded, and moved in front of Briony. His kiss was harsher, more ful of need, than his brother’s had been. “So you don’t think Kevin is the only brave one in this family.”

He streaked off after his brother, with that inhuman speed vampires had. Where Kevin ploughed in through the open door, Fal on dove through a window. Al Briony could do was stand there dumbstruck. How could they be so stupid?

“It’s not often that you find people who are literal y prepared to run into a burning building for you,” Jake observed.

“It’s not funny, Jake. What if they don’t come back?”

Her brother didn’t have an answer for that as they stood, and waited, and waited. It was too long. Far too long.

Two shapes burst from the burning building almost simultaneously. Fal on was covered in soot and ash, while Kevin’s shirt was actual y smoldering, until he took the time to drop and rol . Briony rushed forward.

“Kevin, Fal on, are you hurt?”

They both assured her that they were fine.

“There’s no sign of Pietre though,” Kevin said.

Fal on shook his head. “Same here. There’s some ash, but I can’t even tel if it’s vampire, or just the building.

There’s no sign of any werewolves.”

Briony thought about it. They could assume that Pietre had died in there, but that didn’t get them anywhere.

In any case, she suspected that if anyone had managed to survive the day’s events, he had. Besides, something about this burning had his feel to it. The feel of someone cleaning up, dealing with things, and moving on.

Of course, even if al this meant was that Pietre had decided to relocate his base of operations now that the werewolves knew about it, then the job of finding him had just become a lot harder.

They started to head back to the inn, not knowing what else to do. They couldn’t stand around the burning building al night, and there didn’t seem to be anywhere else useful to go. Briony had wanted to walk back, but Kevin pointed out that it was dark, that it had been a long day, and the sooner she got back home, the better.

Briony wasn’t so sure about that. What was there at the inn for her now that Aunt Sophie wasn’t there? Its size would only serve to emphasize the emptiness of it while she tried to find a way to get her great aunt back. To emphasize how alone she was once more.

They reached the inn quickly, and Briony left the boys at the door. She was too tired for the kind of one-upmanship that would result if she tried to kiss either Kevin or Fal on goodbye. After a day spent on battles, riding werewolves across forests, and dealing with Aunt Sophie’s disappearance into another world, Briony was too tired to do anything except fal straight into bed and sleep. Even then, thoughts of how she might go about locating Pietre buzzed around her dreams.

She woke early, to the sound of movement downstairs. Vampires? Or maybe some of Pietre’s human al ies? Even Josh might think he had reason to send some of his people, especial y after the way Briony had left in the middle of their rescue attempt. Whoever it was, they probably did not have good intentions. Briony did not hesitate. Pausing only long enough to pul on a robe over her nightclothes, she took the silver edged sword from the spot where she had left it against the wal and crept down.

She found Kevin, Jake and Fal on sitting in the kitchen. Kevin was cooking bacon and eggs, while the other two were sitting at the kitchen table. Al three looked over as Briony entered, and Briony was al too aware that she was holding the sword. Al too aware of what she was wearing too, given the way Kevin and Fal on were watching her every movement.

“What are you three doing here?”

“We thought you’d want to start looking for Pietre,”

Jake said.

“Plus I wanted to make you breakfast,” Kevin added.

Today, he was dressed in a nice checked shirt and jeans, so he had obviously been home to change. Fal on, on the other hand, looked like he could have been standing outside al night. Perhaps he had.

“That’s great,” Briony said. “I’l just go and get dressed.”

She had a shower first, of course, since she stil smel ed of smoke from the burning house. Then she picked out a royal blue t-shirt and dark jeans, adding a pale sweater before she headed back down. By the time Briony got back to the kitchen, breakfast was ready. She ate hers hungrily.

“We al have ideas about finding Pietre,” Jake said.

“You do?” Briony hadn’t been sure that they had any options left, now that his lair was gone.

Fal on nodded. “He’l need to tel the rest of the vampires where his new power center is. He won’t tel us, but there are ways we can find out.”

“Like approaching people we know are vampires,”

Jake said.

“Or getting the information from a few of those human fol owers he has,” Kevin added, taking a piece of toast. “It wouldn’t be hard to persuade them.”

“It might be harder than you think,” Briony said.

She’d already thought of al those options the previous night, and dismissed them. “If Pietre is going underground, then he won’t exactly leave people who know where he is out on the street. He’l tel them to keep out of sight.”

“Or he’l make them disappear,” Kevin said. He put his toast down. “You know, suddenly, I don’t have so much of an appetite. I thought we had this worked out, but you’re right. There are stil so many problems.”

Briony nodded, though she didn’t stop her own breakfast. After everything that had happened, she was so hungry that…

“That’s it,” she said.

Jake looked across the table at her. “What is?”

“Where do we know Pietre has access to?

Somewhere that has been closed off to other people, and is stil near the center of the town?” When the boys didn’t seem to get it, Briony finished her thought. “The diner. It’s the perfect place for him.”

The others looked a little doubtful, but in the absence of any better ideas, they went. Briony drove, with Jake in the passenger seat and the other two in the back. Briony had left the sword at home. It wasn’t the kind of thing she could be seen carrying around town, so she would just have to rely on her cross with its hidden blade if it came to violence.

Parking in front of the diner, the four of them slipped inside. The front seemed empty. Maybe it hadn’t been such an obvious place for Pietre to go after al .

“I was so sure he’d be here,” Briony said.

Kevin put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We stil haven’t checked the back.”

Briony shook her head. “If Pietre were here, he would have heard us by now.”

Even so, they went through to the office. Briony went in after Fal on, and stopped dead in the doorway. George stood against the far wal , pinned to it by a stake and utterly stil . Briony couldn’t help wincing at the sight of her friend and former employer like that.

“I told you that we had to stake him,” Fal on said.

“But he’s not dead?”

Fal on shook his head. “If he were, then there wouldn’t be a body. He’s just weak from the lack of blood. I can’t believe Pietre just left him like this.”

“I can,” Jake said, and Briony found herself agreeing. It would be just like the master vampire to abandon someone like this if they failed him.

“Can we do anything for him?” Briony asked.

Kevin moved up beside her. “That might not be such a good idea, Briony. If we take the stake out, he’l be mad with the lack of blood. He’l be weak, but he’l be desperate.

George wil attack any potential source of blood.”

“Like me, you mean.”

Kevin nodded.

“I don’t care,” Briony said. “George deserves better than that. If you and Fal on hold him, I should be able to take the stake out without a problem.”

“And then what?” Fal on asked. “He’l stil need blood to recover.”

“I’l fetch something,” Jake said, and hurried off before Briony could say anything. What did her little brother have in mind? Briony wasn’t sure that she could take a repeat of the scene at the werewolves’ house. She would stake George properly before she al owed that to happen.

For now though, there wasn’t anything to do except try to help him. Briony stepped forward, wrapped her hand around the stake, and pul ed.

George’s head came up, and red eyes locked onto her. A feral sound escaped him. Briony pul ed harder, bracing her foot against the wal as she yanked it clear. It gave way with a suddenness that made her stumble back, but that was just as wel , because George lunged forward, straining against the grips of the two brothers as they struggled to hold him pinned. In a sudden change of tack, George jerked around to attack Kevin, forcing the werewolf back.

“Get out of here, both of you,” Fal on said, grabbing both George’s arms and pinning him once more. “I’m strong enough to hold him, but having you two around is just going to make him worse.”

Briony did not need to be told twice. She and Kevin retreated to the safety of the diner’s front, and Briony let him wrap his arms around her.

“It’s like there’s nothing human left in there,” Briony said sadly.

“We aren’t human, Briony. None of us are. But you find a way to care for us anyway.” Gently, Kevin tilted Briony’s head and kissed her. “Anyone else would have given up on George.”

“We stil might have to. What do you think Jake is going to…? ”

“I’m back!” Jake blurred through the door, holding a large box. “I stole this from the butcher. It stil has plenty of blood in it. It should help. Why are you out here?”

“The smel of our blood was too much for George,”

Kevin explained.

“Then I’d better get in there.”

Jake hurried through to the office. Thanks to the soundproofing, Briony couldn’t hear any of what was going on inside. She was more grateful for that than she could have believed, even if it meant that al she could do was sit out there and wait while Kevin held her.