Silence - By Kailin Gow Page 0,5
Just talking or something more… tantalizing?”
The little flicker of Fal on’s eyes was enough to tel Pietre that his shot had hit home. Even better, Kevin moved from Pietre’s side to confront his brother. Sometimes, it was al so easy.
“What were you doing?” the werewolf demanded. “Are you the reason Briony returned her ring to me?”
“What Briony does is her business,” Fal on shot back.
They were so nearly over the edge that for a second, Pietre was tempted to give them just that little extra push. It wouldn’t take much, and then he could use the chaos to rid himself of two nuisances. Three, if he could get a clean strike at Briony’s brother.
Pietre tapped his foot against the underbrush, trying to decide. Sadly, he could see at least one better way to play things. Oh wel …
“It is simply what Briony is,” Pietre said in his most careful y soothing tone. “I am sure that it is not deliberate.”
Kevin turned to him, and for a moment, Pietre thought that he had misjudged things. That the anger werewolves always felt around his kind would spil over. Somehow though, the boy managed to get a grip. Not bad, for a mere animal.
“What’s going on with Briony?” Kevin demanded. “What is she turning into?”
Pietre smiled. “Certainly not a shifter like you.
She is more of something along the lines of our kind.”
It was delightful to watch the way the young man froze. “No, not Briony!”
This was a knife edge, of course. Push too much, and the boy would give up completely. Too little, and he would be insufficiently on edge for Pietre’s needs. Pietre forced a laugh. “Does that make her less attractive to you, shifter? If she were to become a vampire, would you stil love her?”
“Of course.” Such sincerity in that reply. The boy actual y believed it.
“But you loved Fal on here before he became a vampire,” Pietre pointed out. “He was your brother.
Your closest family. Yet after he became one of my kind you couldn’t stand him. Al because he was a vampire. Do you real y think Briony would be so different?”
“Briony is different,” Kevin insisted. “She isn’t a vampire. She’s nothing like you.”
“Oh, she’s a little like us.” Pietre was enjoying himself again. Now for the important part. “When you enter Palisor,” he said, “it wil be practical y al fanged ones. What wil you do then, boy?”
It took a second for that to have the desired effect, but when it did, the effect was obvious. The werewolf went very stil . “What do you mean, ‘when I enter Palisor’? I thought I couldn’t.”
Pietre shook his head. “I cannot. Nor can your brother or young Jake here. No vampire can enter without a key, which means either Sophie or Briony, plus one of the dragons.”
“No vampire can,” Fal on said.
“Exactly.” Pietre looked around the little group.
“Palisor’s inhabitants detest vampires. We are from darker powers. Shifters, on the other hand…”
Pietre looked at Kevin steadily.
“Are you saying that I can enter?”
Oh, give the boy a prize. Pietre had practical y laid it out on a plate for him, and he only just got it?
Stil , what did he expect from a creature for which advanced thinking probably revolved around which rabbit to chase next?
“Shifters are different,” Pietre confirmed. “After al , the dragon is just another type of shifter, and it got through easily enough. It is simply a question of finding the gate once more.”
“So I find the gate,” Kevin said, “I go through, find Briony and Aunt Sophie, and then bring them both back?”
“Isn’t that what I’ve just been saying?” Pietre demanded. “But then, I assume you’re deaf to most things that aren’t dog whistles.”
He stepped back as the werewolf’s hands bal ed into fists.
“So what do you get out of this?” Kevin asked.
“Why are you tel ing us this?”
“Me? Oh, I want to live as much as the next man. More, probably. Living is a habit, you know. The more you do of it, the more you want to. If tel ing you al this wil help me live a little longer, then it is what I wil do.”
“And if it helps you get into Palisor,” Fal on said, “so much the better.”
Pietre grinned. “Clever boy.”
“You need either Aunt Sophie or Briony back to let you in,” the young vampire continued. “That’s why you’re helping.”
“True. Though it doesn’t change any of what Kevin here must do. Does it, Kevin?”
The werewolf slowly shook his head. “How do