Silence - By Kailin Gow Page 0,3

up the distance.

Fal on paused on the edge of that fight. He’d dropped his stake somewhere along the way, but it was easy enough for him to reach out and snap a sturdy looking branch from a nearby tree. The end was wet with sap, but it was jagged enough for his needs.

Fal on stepped forward.

Jake and Kevin succeeded in rol ing Pietre over onto his back. Fal on stood over him. Like this, injured and in the grip of the others, Wicked’s master vampire didn’t look like much. Yet how much pain had this ordinary looking creature caused? How many deaths had he been responsible for? Those of Briony’s parents, Tracey from school, and probably hundreds of others.

Fal on’s.

Fal on stood there for a long moment. Staking vampires in the heat of battle had been one thing, but he had expected staking someone in cold blood, even someone like Pietre, to feel different. Somehow though, Fal on couldn’t feel anything in that moment except satisfaction that this was final y going to end.

“Wait!” Pietre said. He wasn’t begging, even then. He was issuing a command.

Fal on looked down at him with contempt. “No.”

“You’l wait if you ever want to see Briony again.”

Fal on hesitated. He knew the other vampire had to be lying. He knew there was nothing someone like Pietre could do to help him get Briony back. Yet could he risk it? Could he real y risk kil ing Pietre if he might know a way to help?

“We need him alive,” Kevin said, though he didn’t loosen his grip on Pietre. “We need him alive, Fal on.”

Fal on almost, almost did it anyway. But for Briony, he would do anything. Even let something like Pietre live. With a sigh of disgust, Fal on tossed his freshly made stake away into the undergrowth before moving close enough to Pietre that the master vampire could no doubt know how he felt.

“You had better not be lying. Now, what do you know about what has happened to Briony?”

Chapter 2

Pietre lay looking up at his younger captors.

For a moment, just a moment, he had been convinced that the vampire boy might actual y stake him. Pietre hadn’t known in that second whether to feel fear at his possible end, embarrassment that it would come at the hands of one so young, or just a faint sliver of pride that final y, one of his creations had the ruthlessness it took to take what was his. Fal on had potential, Pietre had to admit.

Of course, Pietre had stopped him easily enough with that comment about the girl, but what did he expect? The boy stil thought that he was in love with her. Now the only question was what to do next.

“If you don’t start talking soon,” the vampire boy’s brother said. “I’ll stake you.”

Ah, werewolves. They never could get the hang of the fact that they were nothing compared to vampires. Stil , maybe the boy had a point. As embarrassing as it was to admit it, injured as he was, Pietre doubted that he would be able to simply fight his way clear of al three of them. The damage to his hand did not seem to be healing as quickly as it should, while even his torso throbbed with pain where Briony had kicked him. He had underestimated Sophie’s niece Briony. She was a strong one… looks were deceiving on her…very pretty to the point where one would think she was al looks and no substance, but the exact opposite was true. She had too much substance, which was why she was such a thorn in his side…turning vampires and werewolves into al ies like the young Fal on and his werewolf brother Kevin. He looked at the two brothers, both too good-looking and too much in love with the same girl for their own good.

Fal on, the blonde one with the angelic face, and Kevin, the dark rugged one whose body was the most perfect body Pietre had seen for a male in centuries.

Pietre smiled to himself. Briony had her work cut out for her with these two. If he was a girl in her situation, he would have a hard time choosing, too. Of course, being the vampire that he was, he would choose Fal on and destroy Kevin. Thinking of which…

perhaps next time he sees Briony, he would turn her, as he had always planned. In the meantime, he would find a way of using her,