Silver - By Kailin Gow Page 0,32

their feet, and Briony found herself more than grateful when Fal on started to lend a hand. It was fun, watching him charm customers as he waited on them, and seeing him carry orders through with that effortless grace of his.

The arrival of the next day meant a return to school.

In the face of questions about where she had been, Briony pretended that she had been il at home. It seemed like the best way to deflect attention, though it meant that once again, she found herself facing a smal mountain of notes to catch up with in every class. Couldn’t the supernatural world attack at a convenient time just once?

Despite the work, it felt good to be back. To have something normal in her life, even if it was just talking to Maisy and Steve by the lockers between classes, or explaining to people that no, she was fine now. Briony was actual y slightly surprised by how many people had missed her when she had been gone. Several of the others from the Drama society made a point of welcoming her back, while even Claire gave her a quick hug when she thought Pepper wasn’t looking.

Briony caught up on some of the gossip with Maisy when she got a moment. Apparently, Maisy was doing wel in the cheerleading squad, despite Pepper’s occasional unpleasantness. Other people, whose names Briony hardly remembered, had hooked up, or broken up, or managed to get themselves into trouble around the school.

“I suppose it al seems a bit mundane next to werewolves and vampires,” Maisy said towards the end of it.

Briony smiled. “No, I think it’s perfect. It’s nice to know that there is a normal life out there, even if I’m not the one living it.”

Yet for the next few days, that was exactly what Briony did. She went to classes. She did her work at the diner. In fact, she did slightly more than her fair share of work at the diner, because that meant that she didn’t have to go back to the inn quite so often. Even with Jake taking one of the rooms there, it stil felt too empty. Working, there were moments, just moments, when Briony could almost forget al about that.

The moments didn’t last long, though, and by the end of the week, Briony was beginning to feel a little frustrated.

Surely there should have been some sign of vampires around the diner by now? Some sign of them in the town, at least? Yet they simply weren’t there. To the people of the town, it must have seemed that several of Wicked’s more prominent citizens had al decided to go on vacation at the same time, yet nobody seemed to think it was odd. Maybe they had just become that good at ignoring things.

At the start of the second week, Jake announced that he was going to start looking for the vampires more actively, trying to sniff them out through the forest, and maybe asking questions of the hangers-on who stil seemed to be around the town. As dangerous an option as that sounded, Briony was wil ing to let Jake try it if it did something to improve their chances of getting Aunt Sophie back.

For her part, she simply had to keep going as she was. Keep working at the diner and going to school.

Balancing those two was difficult enough, without adding more to her load. Stil , at least things were peaceful.

And then, on the Wednesday of the second week, they weren’t. Briony was working her normal shift at the diner after school. Jil , the diner’s other waitress, was working with her, while Fal on had gone into the kitchen to fetch an order, when Briony heard the crack of a breaking glass. She turned to see Jil nursing a cut hand from where the glass had broken in it.

Briony was about to go over and offer to help with cleaning the wound up when a shape streaked past her and leapt. Briony barely had time to recognize George before he smashed into Jil , bearing her backwards as his teeth flashed out. Several of the customers cried out in shock at the sight, frozen to their seats with surprise.

Briony knew she didn’t have that luxury. She had to do something. Briefly, just briefly, she thought of the silver blade of the cross she wore. It was what George had said to do if he attacked someone, after al . But no, Briony couldn’t