Silver (Wicked Woods #3) (7 page)

At that point, things turned to utter chaos. Vampires poured from the house, many of them with teeth and nails reddened by whatever they had been doing to the wolves.

Josh’s werewolves ran from the trees, smashing into them, while Carol and the others seemed to have shaken off the effects of the silver at least wel enough to fight. For a second or two, the space around Briony was a writhing mass of figures trying to harm one another.

At that point, someone grabbed her around the waist. Fearing that it might be a vampire, Briony tried to fight, but whoever it was knew what they were doing, and dragged her back into the trees like she was nothing. Was it Kevin, trying to protect her?

Briony turned as soon as the arms around her let go.

It wasn’t Kevin, but someone she knew and did not expect to see.

“Aunt Sophie? What are you doing here?”

Briony wanted to ask her great aunt so many things, but she wasn’t sure that there was time. Even as Aunt Sophie let go of her, a pair of vampires rushed from the trees at them. They were young, and wore modern clothing, but Briony did not recognize them. It did not matter.

Whoever they were, they obviously weren’t there to make friends. Briony fel back into a guard position. Even as she tensed for the battle to come, though, a very familiar form leapt past her, kicking out at one vampire hard enough to smash it back before thrusting a stake at another. It burst into the cold flames of its death even as Briony recognized the newcomer.

“Fal on? Aunt Sophie, what are you doing with Fal on?”

“Oh,” Aunt Sophie’s voice was light, like Fal on wasn’t stil struggling with his second opponent, “he helped me out of a bit of a tight spot with Pietre. He must be very devoted to you, you know, if he is prepared to hang out with an old fogy like me on the off chance of seeing you. Now, excuse me one moment.”

Aunt Sophie stepped past Briony to where Fal on was stil struggling with the second vampire, took out a stake, and plunged it into the creature’s chest in one smooth motion. It was almost casual, and yet the creature was dead in an instant.

For a brief moment after the vampire died, stil ness reigned within the little space they occupied, but then Briony couldn’t contain herself any longer. She threw her arms around Fal on in a hug that would have driven the breath from someone who actual y needed to breathe. She stared at him, just drinking in his presence.

“It’s so good to see you again.”

“You too,” he replied, his hands going to her face as he kissed her, brushing over it like they might learn every contour of it. “That’s because I was worried about you. And this is just because I want to.” He kissed her again. Briony let herself melt into his lips, not even caring that Aunt Sophie was standing right there for the first few seconds.

Eventual y though, the thought that she was being watched brought Briony back to her senses long enough to look over at her great aunt.

Aunt Sophie gave her a knowing smile. “I’l just leave the two of you to get reacquainted, shal I? Remember what I said, Fal on. Keep her out of the fight.”

With that, she slipped off between the trees, moving with more grace than a woman her age had a right to, leaving the two of them alone.

For a long moment, they just stared at one another.

Briony got out the first words. “Fal on, I was so worried. I haven’t seen you since…”

“Since our double date at the fairground,” Fal on supplied for her. “And I should be the worried one. I panicked when I couldn’t find you, Briony. Even Aunt Sophie was gone. I thought something terrible had happened to you.”

“We were with the werewolves. It’s a long story.”

Fal on nodded. “I know. Your great aunt has fil ed me in on most of it. Though I wish you could have cal ed.”

Briony kept her arms around him. She liked being this close to the vampire. “There wasn’t a chance, and anyway, we weren’t sure who might be listening. How did you find me?”

“Your great aunt. She took a lot of tracking down too, but at least she was able to guess where you might be.”

Fal on went very quiet for a second. “With al the attacks around town, I was so scared that something might have happened to you, Briony.”

“Attacks?” Briony pul ed back from his arms. “I knew things would get worse without the werewolves there to stop things, but they have become that bad?”

“They’ve become worse than bad,” Fal on said. He hesitated once more.

“What is it?” Briony wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it. “Who did they hurt? It’s not Maisy or Steve, is it?” More names came to mind. People from school. People she had only seen days ago, but who seemed like they were from another life, after everything that had happened. The uncharitable part of her found herself hoping that if it had to be anyone, it would be Pepper, the school’s head cheerleader. Briony squashed that impulse. Even Pepper didn’t deserve that. Besides, something told her that life would never reserve anything quite that cruel for her occasional tormentor.

Fal on shook his head. “It’s not Maisy, or Steve.

Anyone like that. It’s George. They turned him into one of them, Briony. He’s under Pietre’s control.”

“
No
.” Briony could hardly think of a worse fate for the diner owner, given how much he had hated the monsters al around the town. George would rather die than have something like that happen to him. “Is he… did you…”

“Stake him?” Fal on shook his head. “Not fatal y, anyway. Your great aunt wants to give him a chance. See if there is a way to get him out from under Pietre’s influence.”

Briony found herself smiling at that, even though it meant that George was stil one of the undead. “Aunt Sophie giving vampires chances. Who would have thought it?”

“I’m glad she gave me one,” Fal on replied, just before the sounds of battle cut through the trees. The growling of angry wolves came complete with screams and battle cries. It sounded like, far from hitting and running, the werewolves had managed to get themselves caught up in a ful blown battle back there. Did they have the strength and numbers to win it? Even with the number of vampires around the house probably lower than it had been at the ambush, Briony didn’t know for certain. And the longer things went on, the more chance there was of reinforcements showing up.

“It seems like it is time for us to go,” Briony said, turning back towards the fight and hefting her sword. “They sound like they wil need our help.”

She took a step, but almost instantly, Fal on’s arms wrapped around her waist, halting her forward motion. The movement pressed them almost intimately close to one another, and Briony might have appreciated it a lot more, had Fal on not just stopped her like that. As it was, it just made her brows narrow.

“What are you doing, Fal on?”

“Briony,” he said, not letting her go, “wait. Didn’t you hear Aunt Sophie? She doesn’t want you going back there.”

“But I have to,” Briony insisted. “We both have to.

There are too many people there. There’s Jake, and Aunt Sophie, and Kevin-”

“I only know what Aunt Sophie said,” Fal on countered, not loosening his grip even slightly.

“And why do you care what she says?” Briony demanded. “She could even be in real trouble in there, Fal on. Even most of the werewolves won’t be happy to see her. She could be hurt.”

The vampire shook his head. “Somehow, I doubt that. You of al people should know how dangerous she is, and you don’t even know the whole story. Right now, I think she could walk into that house and kil almost anything in it.”

He waited for a moment before continuing. “Besides, she’s not joining in the whole fight. She’s just doing one particular job.”

“One…” The answer came to Briony even as she started to ask. “Aunt Sophie is going after Pietre, isn’t she?

She’s going to try to kil him while the battle is going on.”

Fal on didn’t answer immediately, but eventual y nodded. The movement brought his lips tantalizingly close to Briony’s skin. She tried not to be distracted by that thought, though it wasn’t easy.

“Why?” She demanded. “Why here? Why now?”

“She said something on the way over about him having done enough damage. About wanting to end it.”

“Then Aunt Sophie wil need our help,” Briony argued. “You know how dangerous Pietre is. Let me go, Fal on. I’m going after her.”

“No. She was clear about that. Not just when she left, but before. You’re the key to this, Briony. I don’t know how, but you are, and it is vital that you stay safe, no matter what happens in that house. She said that you would understand eventual y, even if it doesn’t make sense now.”

For a moment, just for a moment, Briony considered doing as her great aunt had asked. As Fal on so obviously wanted her to. It gave her an excuse not to be in that roiling mess of violence. Yet what would she be if she stood back while those she cared about were in danger? How would she ever live with herself if they died? Slowly, and so gently that Fal on didn’t fight it, Briony started to unpeel his fingers from her.

“I have to do this, Fal on. There are times when you can’t just stand at the side. Besides,” she added with a smile that was probably a little more eager than she felt,

“I’m missing out on the chance to kick some vampire butt here.”

With Fal on’s grip loosened, Briony turned, grabbing Fal on’s shirt with her free hand and pul ing him to her in a kiss far more passionate than their first. It seemed to surprise him, but Fal on was al too ready to go along with it.

Briony made it last for several seconds, before remembering that she had to get going.

“You know,” Fal on said as she pul ed back, “I think I like it when you’re in this kind of mood.”

Briony smiled. “I don’t have any reasons for that one, like you did, but I think it wil do, don’t you?”

“Definitely. Briony-”

“Don’t say it, Fal on.”

“I was just going to say good luck.”

Briony grinned at that and started back towards the battle, Fal on moving smoothly alongside her, obviously determined to protect her. They didn’t run. Until she knew what was going on where, Briony didn’t dare run out into the middle of it blindly, and Fal on kept pace with her. Stil , she knew they couldn’t take too long. It wouldn’t do any good trying to join in if the battle had ended by the time she got there.

Briony made it to the edge of the trees and saw chaos al around. Jake was there, fighting with one of Pietre’s vampires and winning easily. Kevin appeared briefly in the middle of a melee, his shirt gone completely, and then disappeared once more as he changed forms again. Briony saw a gap, and had started to step out, her sword raised, when Fal on’s fingers clamped down on her wrist.

“Fal on! I thought we had… ”

“Look.” He pointed, and Briony fol owed the line of his finger upwards. For a few seconds, she found it hard to spot much beyond a yel owish blob in the sky above, but gradual y, it grew closer, and Briony was able to make out more. She watched the steady beat of great golden wings, watched the dip and rise of the golden scaled body between them, and recognition dawned. For the space of a breath, despite the fury raging al around her, Briony could only stand and watch in awe as the dragon approached. It was moving quickly. More than that, it was flying straight at them. Straight at the battle.

No, Briony realized, though she couldn’t begin to explain how she knew it with such certainty, not straight at the battle. Straight at
her
.

The dragon flew low. Low enough that Briony could make out every nuance of its form, from the individual scales, to the claws that curved like knives on each foot.

Since it was flying directly towards her, those claws appeared more and more menacing. Even so, Briony could only watch, transfixed by the sheer majesty of it. Fal on didn’t seem to be faring much better.

A couple more beats of those great wings, and it was over them, skimming the trees around them with its tail as it flew. Briony kept close to the trunk of the one nearest her, since it offered at least some protection if the creature dove and tried to snatch at them.

It did neither though, climbing away from the trees and wheeling off in a new direction. Briony let out a breath, and then jumped as Fal on touched her arm.

“It’s here.”

“What is? The dragon? You know about it?” Briony couldn’t stop the surprise that fil ed her voice.

“I was with Aunt Sophie when it shifted into that form in town. She had us trying to fol ow it. She said it was important.”

“It shifted?” Briony echoed. “You mean that it’s like…”

“Like a werewolf.” Fal on nodded. “It has a human form too. Come on, Briony.”

“Hold on,” Briony said, resisting that tug on her arm.

“You want
us
to fol ow it? Just like that?”

Fal on nodded. “Your great aunt didn’t explain much, but she did say that it might lead us to somewhere that needs to be kept safe. We need to hurry, Briony.”

Stil , some part of Briony held back. There was stil a fight going on around the house, even if it had stopped briefly so that everyone could stare at the creature flying overhead. She should be helping with that, not chasing after things at random.

“Why are you two stil standing there?” Aunt Sophie ran into view, two shaggy-haired wolves beside her as she loped along. Briony recognized one as Kevin, and the other, so much smal er than him, had to be Jake. “Didn’t you see it?”