Silence - By Kailin Gow Page 0,52

it had opened, she had failed. Though, judging by the way Aunt Sophie lashed out at the surrounding vampires, she was determined to make up for it.

For a moment, Aunt Sophie paused,

looking around the crowd of attacking vampires, and Briony saw her eyes lock onto one of their number in particular. Pietre. But then, it was always Pietre for Aunt Sophie, wasn’t it?

Aunt Sophie charged forward, her blade

clashing against the one that had stabbed into Kevin.

Briony did her best to keep up, determined to keep the rest of the vampires off her great-aunt while she finally, finally dealt with Wicked’s master vampire. A growl from beside her told Briony that Kevin had fol owed too.

“Sophie,” Pietre said, and for once his voice didn’t hold that habitual y mocking note of his,

“you’re as young as the day we first met.” He parried another attack, and then reached out to try to touch Aunt Sophie, but she stepped back. “You look just like you did when we fel in love, my darling.”

“I. Am. Not. Your. Darling!” Each word was punctuated by a fresh slash from Aunt Sophie’s sword.

Pietre parried them al . “You taught me to do this. Remember, Sophie?”

Kevin started forward towards the vampire, but Briony held him back, pointing him towards another group of the creatures. This was something Aunt Sophie needed to do alone.

“No,” the newly young Hugtandalfer woman said, shaking her head. “You can’t be here. Not after everything I’ve been through to keep your kind out.

“How did you even get through?”

“You’re angry with me, Sophie?” Pietre asked, stil just parrying. Aunt Sophie was intent on her attack now, to such an extent that Briony had to step around her, knocking away a vampire who would have struck her from the side otherwise.

“Of course I’m angry with you. You’ve kil ed hundreds of people. You kil ed my husband.”

“He didn’t deserve you!” Pietre got himself back under control, stepping out of the way of a thrust.

“You’re angry with me? I should be furious with you.

You’ve been holding out on me, Sophie. You knew about Palisor, and how I wanted to come here so badly, but you never let me get near.”

Briony staked the vampire who had

attacked Aunt Sophie. In the meantime, her great aunt sent a furious combination of thrusts Pietre’s way.

“You just wanted to destroy Palisor and then Wicked,” Sophie said. “You just wanted what you always wanted. Power.”

“Not for power,” Pietre insisted, locking swords with Aunt Sophie so that she could not strike him. “For us! How could I become the man you wanted me to be without Palisor? How could I be anything other than a monster? How could I be the real me?”

“I found out who the real Pietre was years ago,”

Sophie said. “It was never about us, Pietre. Just you.

Always just you. You kil ed Pete, you kil ed my niece and her husband, but not before you had turned them.

You turned George, kept Wicked in terror of you. You did that, Pietre. Just you. You’l never be the man I want.”

She shoved Pietre back then, aiming a thrust at his heart, but Pietre spun aside, dropping his sword as he trapped Aunt Sophie’s sword arm and grabbed her hair, wrenching her neck tight. Briony, engaged as she was trying to fight off the surrounding vampires, couldn’t do anything but watch as Pietre pul ed Aunt Sophie’s neck taut, his mouth heading for it.

It touched her neck in a delicate kiss.

“I have done some real y bad things, Sophie,”

Pietre said, “but what I have done, I have done as a vampire. Because I was a vampire. The darkness was too much for me. Yet here… here I can be more. I need the light of Palisor, the peace. That’s why I wanted to get here so badly. I would do anything for it.”

“You think that a trip to Palisor is enough?” Aunt Sophie demanded, shoving Pietre back.

Pietre nodded. “I have heard that vampires here lose their need for blood. With that comes control.”

“You mean you stil haven’t figured out how to control your bloodlust after al these years?” That voice came from the door, traveling to where Briony stood, Kevin beside her, fighting back the vampires as best she could. It was the one voice she hadn’t thought to hear in this place. Not in a mil ion years. But there he was. Fal on.

Even Kevin looked happy to see him there, while Aunt Sophie actual y smiled. It seemed that Briony’s great