hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Leave the kid alone, Fal on. We’re al hurting here.”
Fal on shook his head at the rebuke, and tried to think. There was one obvious way to be sure.
Pushing down into the floor, he bunched his muscles, and leapt. He leapt the way he had leapt with Briony on the way to the glade, so high and long that it might as wel have been flying. Fal on leapt clear above the level of the surrounding trees, looking down, scanning for any sign of Briony. Alive or otherwise.
Nothing. No trace of her anywhere that Fal on could see. The young vampire didn’t know whether to feel delight at that, since it meant that Briony was almost certainly alive, or despair, since the odds were that she had passed through the gate in the chaos of the battle. Despite what Fal on had said to Briony, he hadn’t wanted that.
Just as he started to fal , Fal on caught a flicker of movement in his peripheral vision. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to set him leaping again, trying to get a better view. This time, Fal on couldn’t see anything, though he strained the limits of his better than human senses. There seemed to be nothing except the trees, their shadows, and the rustling leaves.
As he landed, Kevin put a rough hand on Fal on’s shoulder.
“What are you doing?” his brother demanded.
“Looking for Briony,” Fal on snapped back. He couldn’t help the anger in his voice. Without Briony there to remind him not to feel the anger, it was hard not to hate the werewolf in his brother. “The way you should be. But there’s nothing there.”
“What do you mean by that?” Kevin demanded.
“I thought I saw something, but there isn’t…”
A thought came to Fal on. Hadn’t Pietre been able to wrap the shadows around himself? To disappear when he wanted? Hadn’t he used that ability to sneak up on them in the woods in the first place?
“Forget that,” Kevin said, his anger obvious.
“What do you mean ‘the way I should be’?”
“Not now.” It took a real effort for Fal on to shake his head rather than giving his brother the fight he so obviously wanted. “I think Pietre is stil out there.”
Jake looked up at Fal on sharply. “Where?”
Fal on pointed. “That way, I think, but he’s trying to hide.”
“Then we’l just have to flush him out,” Kevin said. His expression hardened. “You had better be right about this.”
They ran into the forest, splitting up. Fal on watched as closely as he could for any sign of the master vampire. With that talent for disappearing, Pietre wouldn’t be easy to spot, so Fal on didn’t look for him directly. Instead he tried to pay attention to smal er things, from the disturbance of branches where there was no wind to the snap of twigs underfoot.
There. Was that bush moving in a way it shouldn’t? Fal on stared at it for a ful second before he realized that there was the faint print of a man’s shoe in the mud before it. Fal on took a deep breath.
“Kevin! Jake! Pietre’s here!”
No sooner had Fal on said the words than the air near the bush shimmered, and Pietre appeared.
The old vampire shot Fal on a vicious look before turning and sprinting deeper into the forest.
Fal on fol owed automatical y. There was no way that he was going to give Wicked’s greatest supernatural menace time to hide again. No way that he was going to give up the chase the one time he actual y had Pietre on the run. Though thinking about it like that only made Fal on wonder why Pietre was running. Ordinarily, he would have thought nothing of turning to fight with Fal on, secure in his age and strength, but now he fled.
Was it just that he knew he was outnumbered?
No, Fal on could see the way Pietre held his arm now, the way it hung limply. He was hurt, vulnerable. Fal on put on a surge of speed. Pietre matched it, but he didn’t pul away. The fight must have taken a lot out of the older vampire, though he stil managed to keep ahead of Fal on.
It didn’t matter. Two shapes burst from the undergrowth ahead, and both Kevin and Jake bore Pietre to the ground. They fel with him, stil in their human forms, grappling and brawling in the seconds it took for Fal on to make