Silence - By Kailin Gow Page 0,42

way back

along the road to the diner before stopping. They had to talk about this.

“Looks like they’re trying to cover it up again,” Pete said.

Jil shrugged. “Did you real y expect anything else? I thought there might be one or two vampires about though.”

“There aren’t,” Fal on said. “I would have spotted them.” He looked at Maisy and Steve. “Is it true that you’ve found a way to find them?”

Steve nodded. “We’re al set. Wel , nearly.”

“Good,” Fal on said. “Because I can’t wait much longer.”

Chapter 17

“So, how does this device work again?” Kevin asked Steve, who passed him what looked like a perfectly ordinary touch screen phone. Kevin looked over at Fal on who was standing a little ways away with his arms crossed. Fal on had cal ed him immediately to get him into town, saying he had found a way to find the vampires coming into town. And best of al , a way to find locate gates to Palisor.

“Wel , first, I thought it would just be a case of looking at the environment. You know, things that signal gates, things that vampires like around them, that kind of thing.”

“But then,” Maisy said, looking at Steve with pride, “Steve realized that if we could tap into a live satel ite feed, we could put an infra-red filter over the images, letting us see people’s heat signatures. And obviously, vampires don’t give off as much heat as other people, so every time this spots something that looks human, but doesn’t give off heat, it highlights them.”

Kevin nodded, and looked down at the screen. Sure enough, there was a large, purplish blob where Fal on stood. “So can we set it to find concentrations of vampires?”

Steve nodded and adjusted a couple of

things on screen. “There. Just fol ow the directions that come up.”

Kevin thanked him, then he and Fal on set off together through the woods, keeping one eye on the screen while simultaneously looking out for vampires around them. It was slow going, checking and re-checking the screen as they made their way through the undergrowth, yet the device seemed to be clear that there was a large concentration of vampires ahead. When Kevin zoomed out on the map, he could even see it; a scatter of dark spots moving about like bees in a hive.

Soon, and they found themselves getting close to an area that looked familiar to Kevin. There was an open pasture ahead with flowers and a brook that Kevin was sure was the one where the gate had opened before. Kevin and Fal on looked at each other.

“Why would the device lead us here?” Fal on asked.

“I guess Steve must have got his settings wrong,” Kevin guessed. “He said before that it could find places the gate might open. He must have accidental y set it to search for them.”

Kevin started to check the device, even though he wasn’t entirely certain how it worked. Fal on nudged his arm and pointed.

“Kevin, look.”

Kevin fol owed the line of Fal on’s finger and saw it. A dragon, heading straight for the clearing in which they stood. It was huge, with blue and green patches.

“Is that the one you saw before?” Kevin asked.

Fal on nodded. “We need to get out of the clearing.”

Agreeing, Kevin ran back with him into the trees, trying to stay hidden as the great beast landed in a flurry of wings. The last thing they wanted was to be spotted. With an inrush of air its form changed, the dragon shifted into a young man whose spiky blonde hair had blue streaks running through it for an effect that was striking, almost punk.

Without pausing, the transformed dragon walked to a spot beside the brook. Mist rose from the ground, swirling up more than ten feet from the ground.

It thickened, and Kevin started to see the outline of stone within it. The dragon was summoning a gate.

Kevin could hardly believe their luck. They had gone looking for vampires, but they had stumbled upon something far better. Something that might let them get to Briony and bring her home.

Kevin looked at Fal on, who nodded. They tensed themselves to run for the gate.

Before they could actual y do it though, figures started to emerge from the gate. They were powerful y built, wearing furs and scraps of chainmail, carrying weapons that looked hundreds of years out of date.

And they were vampires. Kevin was sure of it.

One of them stepped forward to grab hold of