Silver - By Kailin Gow Page 0,12

emotion than that in front of the people he led. “Where is everyone else?” She asked. “I saw Channing running with you. Where is he?”

“A vampire got him.” It seemed that Brian didn’t have the ability to contain his emotions as wel as his brother. “We were running, and it just leapt out.”

“Carol is missing too,” Josh said, gently waving Brian into silence. “So are lots of others.”

“I thought I saw Jake helping her,” Briony said.

“Maybe she got away then.” The werewolf king’s tone did not sound hopeful. Maybe he just didn’t want to get up the hopes of the rest of his pack. For her part, Briony couldn’t feel any genuine sadness at the thought of Carol being gone. Not after the times the werewolf girl had attacked her. Stil , Channing had seemed okay, and she could guess at the pain Josh and Brian had to be going through at the thought of lost family. She knew that pain too wel herself.

That thought brought the obvious question to mind.

“What about Jake? Have you seen him? The last I saw, he was jumping into the trees, but after that, I lost sight of him.”

What would she do if he were gone now? Briony had already grieved for him once, but that wouldn’t make it any less painful to lose her little half vampire/half werewolf brother.

“He’s fine, Briony,” Josh assured her. “Or he wil be, at least. He was pretty beaten up when he final y caught up with us, but we got him back to the mansion. It’s what took us so long to catch up with you. You can see him when we go back there.”

Briony let out a breath she hadn’t known she had been holding. “Thank you for that.”

“He’s as much one of us as anyone else,” Josh said.

“Besides, after what just happened, we’l need every werewolf we can get.”

Briony had been putting off the question, but she asked it then. “How many people did you lose, Josh?”

The werewolf king shook his head. “Too many. The ambush let them kil so many before they could fight back. I won’t know until I get home exactly how many of us escaped, but if the numbers here are anything to go by, I’m not sure we have enough to do more than defend ourselves now. Maybe not even that.”

Briony couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for Josh there. Almost his first decision as the ruler of the werewolves, and it had cost the lives of so many of his subjects. That had to be hard.

Josh moved closer, lowering his voice. “Briony, I have to ask. Do you know who tipped off the vampires?

They knew we were coming, and there are only so many people who could have let them know. So do you have any guesses? Either of you?”

His eyes swept over her and Kevin, and Briony had to fight against the urge to voice the thoughts that she’d had during the battle about why Aunt Sophie wasn’t there. About why she had wanted to keep Briony out of the danger.

“I don’t know anything,” she said instead.

Josh nodded. “I can understand that. You want to protect the people closest to you. So do I.”

He didn’t say Aunt Sophie’s name, but Briony knew whom he meant.

“She wouldn’t betray us like that,” Briony said. Even to her own ears, it didn’t sound entirely convincing.

“Emotion can make us do funny things.” Josh kept his voice low. “Make us ignore reason. Take my brother over there. You’ve told him how things are, and someone you care about is standing right next to you, yet he stil looks at you like you’re the whole world.”

“That’s not the same thing as Aunt Sophie sel ing you out,” Briony countered.

“Isn’t it? My point is this: what do you think Brian would do for you if you asked him?”

“He didn’t even bother stopping Carol from attacking me at the diner.”

“He didn’t know about that until afterwards,” Josh said. He looked at Briony intently. “Now don’t dodge the question. What would someone like Brian do for you?”

Briony knew the answer to that one. If she let him think that he had a chance with her, he would do almost anything.

“That isn’t the same thing, Josh, and you know it.”

The werewolf king shook his head. “I’m not sure I do.

Are you certain that you don’t know anything, Briony?”

“She told you that she didn’t,” Kevin put in. His tone was as calm as Josh’s, but Briony could hear the