Silver - By Kailin Gow Page 0,15

though, Josh looked over at the door. “From the sounds of it, dinner is almost served.”

Briony’s ears weren’t as sharp as the werewolf king’s, but a second later, she caught the sound of muffled scuffling from beyond the far door. It opened to reveal Brian dragging in what appeared to be a young couple in their early twenties. Both were dressed as Goths, with multiple piercings and tattoos. Both had their hands bound, and rough gags were stuffed into their mouths.

“What is this?” Briony demanded, unable to keep from raising her voice.

Josh ignored her, looking over at Brian. “It went okay?”

“We snagged them on the edge of town,” Brian replied. “No problems.”

Briony couldn’t contain herself. “But-”

“If it helps,” Josh said, “they are some of the ones who help Pietre and his like.”

“No, it doesn’t help. What are you going to do? Just feed them to Jake. He’l kill them.”

Josh shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

Briony couldn’t believe that he could be so cal ous.

She looked past him to Jake, in the hope that he at least would be sensible about this, but his eyes were red with the hunger, and they didn’t so much as flicker from the two humans he’d been brought.

“No,” Briony found herself saying. “I won’t let you do this. I’l -”

Josh nodded to his brother. “Brian.”

The werewolves were quick. Briony had to give them that. They grabbed one of her arms each and lifted her without effort, hauling her from the room. Brian held her pinned against the far wal as Josh let go.

“You wanted your brother wel . This,” a muffled cry came from the other room, “is how he gets wel . We don’t like doing this kind of thing, but those two are our enemies.

Now, you can stand there, or you can go outside, but do not try to tel me that this wasn’t the only option.”

Briony knew she couldn’t stand there. Knew she couldn’t stay thinking about what had to be happening just the other side of that door, so she hurried outside. Maybe she could find Kevin. Maybe he could help her stop this madness before…

She turned the corner of the house to see a scene of utter carnage. Wolves snarled and snapped at one another as they scrabbled over the remains of something.

Something large and red and bloody. For a moment, Briony’s heart leapt into her mouth. It wasn’t… it couldn’t be human.

It wasn’t. Another second’s scrutiny made it clear that it was just a deer, but even so, the scene was a terrible that it was just a deer, but even so, the scene was a terrible one. Was Kevin in there somewhere? Even if he wasn’t, other people she had met would be. Unable to take it anymore, Briony ran back around to the porch, huddling down on it as she tried to get the images out of her head.

She tried not to think about what her own brother had to be doing at that moment. She put her head in her hands, trying to drive the thoughts out, and stayed huddled in that position until the yipping of the wolves faded.

“Briony?” It was Kevin. Briony wasn’t sure that she could look at him right then. “Briony, what’s wrong?”

Briony shook her head. “Just… Did you want something, Kevin?”

Kevin walked over to Briony and folded her into his arms. “You look a little pale. Is there something…”

Briony forced herself not to say anything about what Josh had just done. Either Kevin would lash out on her behalf, and that would get them both kil ed, or he wouldn’t see the problem, and that would be far worse. Better to ignore it. Better to pretend it didn’t happen. Even if it did.

“I’m fine, Kevin. Real y I am. Maybe just shaken up a little from the battle, but I’m okay now.” She looked directly into Kevin’s eyes. “You wanted to tel me something?”

“Josh wants us.”

“What does he want?”

“He says that if you want to prove yourself, you might get the chance. It seems that Carol is alive.”

Chapter 6

It wasn’t easy, going back in there after what Briony knew had happened. It wasn’t easy seeing Josh standing there like everything was normal. It certainly was not easy having to look Jake in the eye after what Briony suspected he had done. Yet she didn’t dare ask him outright. He was her brother, and she loved him, but she wasn’t about to ask if he was kil ing people now. It was a coward’s