Silence - By Kailin Gow Page 0,27
look. “There was a time when I wanted to become human again, but that was long ago, and since finding Palisor, I am glad to be what I am… a vampire.”
Barron’s fangs extended and he came in close to Briony’s neck. So close that she was sure he would bite. She even started to twist out of his way, but in an instant, Barron was gone. He was standing up away from her, a lock of blonde hair in his hand. He’d taken it from her. Barron took out a handkerchief and placed the hair in it, wrapping it up, before handing it to Elise.
“Give this to one of the courtiers,” Barron said.
“They wil get the message to Waltham without you having to run about anywhere.”
“Except back here,” Elise said. “I’l run al the way. I won’t be long.”
Barron’s eyes were fixed on Briony again.
“Take your time. There’s no hurry. So long as Waltham gets the message, it does not matter.”
Elise grimaced. “Yes, Barron.”
Barron didn’t look at her even then, but Briony did. The vampire girl gave Briony a hostile look. One that promised retribution in the near future, before speeding off. Frankly, with Barron stil so close to her, Briony suspected that she had bigger problems.
Chapter 11
Briony watched Elise go, blurring off from the room. She didn’t know whether that was a good thing or not. On the one hand, it got rid of a vampire who had already asked to taste her blood. On the other, it left her alone with Barron.
Barron smiled over at her. “I knew your mother quite wel , you know.”
“How?” Briony asked.
“I watched her when she first entered Palisor from the mortal world. I thought she would be the one to help us.” Barron’s eyes clouded over. “She was your age, young, confident and very lovely. I see where you get your looks, Briony.”
Briony wasn’t sure that she wanted another vampire around her who spent his time complimenting her. Not when they invariably wanted something from her, at least.
Barron went on. “I thought I was the first one to see your mother come through the gate. When she came over, she was lost, and I helped her get her bearings. For a while, I was intoxicated by her, the smel of life, the feel of warmth on her skin. It made me remember what it was like to be human…so long ago before I found Palisor.”
“Shouldn’t finding Palisor make you want to forget everything about the mortal world?” Briony asked. “Isn’t that’s why you’re here?”
Barron smiled slowly, “On the contrary, I am like al the vampires who have made it through here – the old ones, the ancient ones. We yearn for this place so much so precisely because it offers us the ultimate gift, the ultimate power here in Palisor.”
Briony knew she had to ask. “What is that?”
“Life.” Barron said it simply, but Briony could hear the yearning in it. That was what the vampires wanted here? Just to be alive? To be human again?
“Don’t underestimate it,” Barron said, obviously reading her mind once more. “To become human again, to feel blood, our own blood, rushing through our veins again… there is something special to that, Briony. And we could achieve it so easily.” Barron moved so that he caught Briony’s chin, turning it up to look at him. “We simply need the scepter, and someone who is stil human enough.”
“Which means I am the way to meet both of those needs,” Briony guessed.
Barron nodded, obviously pleased.
“Precisely.”
Briony laughed to herself.
“What is it?” Barron asked. “You’l have to think more clearly if you expect me to understand.”
That, Briony decided, could quickly get annoying. “It just occurred to me that Pietre and the others like him spend so much time trying to get here, thinking that it wil make them more powerful vampires, and here you are saying that the big prize of Palisor is to be human once again.”
Barron shrugged. “Even among creatures
as long lived as us, lore shifts and changes. Stories don’t say what they original y did. Meanings shift.
People mishear, or hear what they want to. I am sure you have seen it before.”
The stories about vampires and
werewolves back home sprang to mind. Stil Briony wanted to be clear. “So, if you get the scepter, you wil turn back into mortals once again?”
Barron nodded. “Assuming that we have a human around so that the scepter can have a life essence to copy and give to us.”
“So why fight with the Hugtandalfers?”
Briony