Silence - By Kailin Gow Page 0,30
brushing Briony’s hair just barely. “Shal I tel you about the world we inhabited as humans, my brother and I? A world a thousand years before Rome was more than a cluster of houses? In that world, there was no room for the weak. It is a lesson my brother forgot.”
Briony shook her head.
d. “Oh, you don’t like that?” Marcus said. “It is true. Barron has been pushing his brand of weakness on us for years, tel ing us that we should hold ourselves back. That we should feed only on emotions and stay meek so that the Hugtandalfer would not hunt us down for taking their blood.” He stood, looking terrifying in his furs and leather. “Wel , it stops today. We need to be strong.”
“For when you have the scepter?” Briony guessed.
“Ah, of course you would know about it.”
“I only know what Barron told me,” Briony said. “He told me what you wanted with it, nothing more.”
Marcus regarded Briony careful y, his hair fal ing across his eyes so that he looked even more barbaric than before. “You don’t know its location?”
Briony shook her head. “No. I swear.” She did her best to swal ow her fear. “What do you plan to do with me?”
“Ah, what a question. What should I do with you?” Marcus was behind Briony then, his hand catching her hair, pul ing her tight back against the chaise lounge. “Perhaps I should show you some of the things that my brother and I did with Roman matriarchs when that city final y fel . It would be a fitting tribute to his memory, don’t you think?”
Briony steeled herself, and did not respond.
“Such a brave one,” Marcus said, relaxing his grip just a little. “Trying to be, anyway. Your fear real y is delicious, girl.” Marcus laughed then, letting go of Briony completely. “If you are truly Waltham’s heir, then you wil be of use to us. If not, then I wil wring every last drop of fear and pleasure from your body before I kil you. I wil take your blood too. Thanks to my blasted brother, I have had to restrain myself for far too long there.”
“What about us?” One of the other vampires asked.
“Oh,” Marcus said casual y, as though it was nothing. “You’l al get your turns with her. Besides, I know you, Tribrand. You’l be lapping up the waves of fear with the best of them while I feed.”
The other vampire shrugged. “Waste not, want not.”
“I am Waltham’s heir,” Briony said, trying to regain some control of the situation. “So, if you need the scepter, I can get that for you. You’l have to let me go to get it, though.”
“Do you think I’m stupid, girl?” Marcus demanded. “You just told me that Barron told you what we planned to do with the scepter. Do you real y think that I would believe Waltham’s heir would go along with that? It would go against everything Waltham stands for.”
“But we both want the same things,” Briony said. “I want to see peace among vampires and hugtandalfs, peace among vampires and humans. If it makes you human, the scepter wil bring that, right?”
At the very least, Briony thought, it would do something to weaken this terrifying vampire to the point where he wouldn’t be such a threat. He would merely be a muscular man with a bad attitude and worse taste in clothes. If anything, Briony was even more wil ing to help make Marcus human than she had been to help his brother.
To Briony’s surprise, Marcus began to laugh. It was a ful -throated laugh, the kind of laughter that Briony could imagine coming from some barbarian warlord on the demise of his enemies.
“Barron, Barron, Barron. My brother amused me so much, sometimes.”
“Perhaps you should have kept him alive then,”
Briony suggested.
Marcus moved back around until he was in front of her, kneeling before Briony, just inches away from her. “Did I ask for your opinion? Such a naïve vampire hunter, and she thinks to tel me what to do.”
“I don’t understand,” Briony insisted. “Isn’t getting the scepter a way for vampires to return to being human? That’s what Barron told me. He said that he didn’t want to have to fight constantly. He didn’t want people to see him as a monster anymore.”
Marcus reached up to wipe the beginnings of a tear from Briony’s eye. “As I said, my brother was weak. He and those that fol owed him might have