Silence - By Kailin Gow Page 0,22
past, we might be able to do more to predict what wil happen.”
Kevin thought about the journals of the werewolf kings. Would they have enough information? He didn’t know.
“For now,” he said, “concentrate on the basic search. If we can do more later, we wil .” Kevin’s eyes lit up as another thought came to him. “If you knew what to look for, you could also find Pietre and the vampires this way, couldn’t you?”
“Maybe,” Steve admitted.
Kevin got up right as the bel signaling the end of lunch rang. He patted Steve on the shoulder and grinned at Maisy. “I was beginning to think it was hopeless, but now I think we may have something.”
Maisy and Steve both smiled, and Maisy leaned across to kiss Steve. “Final y, we do something for the society that’s helpful.”
She moved over to Kevin, looking up at him with serious eyes. “Look Kevin, I know how you’re worried about Briony. So am I. We’l get her back. We need her, she’s a big part of Wicked now, and we won’t lose her. We can’t.”
Kevin nodded. He hoped that Maisy was right.
He real y did. The thought of losing Briony weighed on him like a pocketful of lead. “Let me know when you find something,” he said. “Until then, I’l be out trying to see if I can come up with anything else that might help.
And be careful.” Already a couple of the goth students were looking across at the three of them. “If Pietre learns that you might be able to track him down…”
“Don’t worry,” Steve said, “we’l be careful.”
“Or I wil be anyway,” Maisy added. “And I’l try to make sure that Steve is, too.”
Chapter 9
Abandoning the banqueting hal , Briony ran with her great-aunt through the hal s and corridors of the castle. They stopped at each room, searching for signs of the Hugtandalfer servants and nobles who should have been there. Yet there continued to be no sign of them. Had the sudden threat of vampires driven them into hiding, or was something else going on?
“We’l need weapons,” Aunt Sophie said.
Briony hadn’t even thought of that. Back home, she would have had ready access to weapons designed specifical y with vampires in mind. Here though, what was there that they could use?
Aunt Sophie grabbed a chair in the next room they came to. It was a beautiful thing, almost a work of art, but Aunt Sophie broke it without any hesitation, handing one of the legs to Briony to use as a stake.
Briony guessed that kil ing vampires came before having nice furniture. Now, they just had to work out what was going on.
“Where are King Waltham, Archer, and the rest of them?” Briony asked. “I mean, if there are vampires here, shouldn’t there be knights or something to defend the place?”
Aunt Sophie shrugged. “I don’t know any more than you do, Briony. At a guess, I would say that, the people here aren’t used to being attacked by vampires in their own court. Just the sign of a dagger was enough to scare them away from the banquet, so I don’t know if we wil get any help from that quarter.”
Aunt Sophie shook her head then. “Looks like we have our work cut out for us, Briony. I suspect that half these elves haven’t seen a vampire in so long, they’ve forgotten how to fight them.”
That certainly explained some of the comments before, about Briony and Aunt Sophie showing up at just the right time. Though Briony wasn’t so sure about it being perfect timing from where she stood. Showing up just in time for a fight with vampires was not her idea of fun.
“Are you sure that we’re up to this?” Briony asked. She didn’t mean to sound defeatist, but there was no way of knowing how many vampires might have managed to find a way into the castle. It could be just the two of them against an army, for al they knew.
“Up to it?” Aunt Sophie laughed, and Briony couldn’t help reflecting again that this new, younger version of her was a little brasher than she had been.
“I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t felt this good in…
wel , forever. Right now, I feel like I could take on any vampire. Now come on. We’re wasting time.”
She set off again at a run, and Briony struggled to keep up. They were moving so fast that Briony could barely look where she was going as she ran. So