Silver - By Kailin Gow Page 0,40

his poor control, he can’t stay around you permanently. I can.”

Briony smiled up at him. “So long as you keep control over other hungers.”

“I wil .” Kevin looked solemn as he said it, and Briony found herself believing it. It would be good to have him around, and Briony had already seen that, alone, she wasn’t any match for Pietre. If the master vampire decided that he was getting bored of waiting, did Briony real y want to be alone?

“Al right,” Briony said. “But what about the rest of it.

The dragon, and the society?”

“I’l help you to look for the dragon,” Kevin promised,

“and so wil the rest of the Preservation Society if you ask them. I think you’l find that they are a lot happier about you running them than you might think, Briony. You just have to have the confidence to actual y lead them.”

Somehow, Briony doubted that it would be that simple.

“Whatever happens,” Kevin promised, pul ing her close, “I wil be right here for you. You aren’t alone, Briony.”

“I know.” She kissed him then, and wanted to keep kissing him, but she managed to pul back. “I should get back to the diner. Jil can’t hold off the rush al evening.”

“I bet she can manage just a few more minutes,”

Kevin suggested. His lips barely brushed hers.

Briony grinned. “You know, I bet she probably can.”

Chapter 15

Kevin left when Briony went back to her shift, saying something about a special surprise before he moved in and asking her to meet him for dinner when she was final y finished at the diner.

“That would be nice,” Briony said.

“Great, I’l pick you up as soon as you’re done here.”

Briony spent most of the rest of her shift thinking about what it might be that Kevin had planned. Knowing him, it could be almost anything. Briony ran different scenarios through her head as she worked, and it made the time go that much faster.

Briony obviously wasn’t the only one thinking about it though. Ten minutes before the end of her shift, Fal on final y stopped his game of cat and mouse with her line of vision and walked up to her in the kitchen as she was fetching an order. Pete the cook looked up from the ovens, but didn’t say anything.

“What did Kevin want?” Fal on demanded.

“That’s none of your business now, is it?” Briony knew it would probably only cause an argument, but Fal on couldn’t dump her, spend the day avoiding her, and then expect to be told every detail of her life. She moved to step past him.

Fal on stayed in the way. “Briony… ”

“If you must know, he’s taking me out to dinner.”

Fal on rol ed his eyes. “Of course he is. With me out of the way, he’s final y getting ready to make his move on you.”

Briony shook her head. “It’s not like that.”

“Isn’t it?”

Briony thought about asking him along. They needed to sort this out, and they couldn’t do that if they spent their time avoiding one another. Maybe if the three of them sat down and just talked-

“Is the boy bothering you, Briony?” Pete asked, interrupting her thoughts.

Briony shook her head. “No. I don’t think he is.”

Fal on looked suddenly hurt. “Wel then. Kevin can do what he wants. I know where I stand, at least.”

“What?” Briony asked.

“My feelings don’t even matter to you anymore? I thought we had more than that, Briony.” He turned and stalked out.

“Wait, that wasn’t what I…”

It was too late though. Fal on was gone. So much for making things up.

“I’m kind of glad he’s gone,” Pete said.

Briony found herself surprised. Normal y, Pete didn’t get involved in the things that went on in the diner beyond his nephew Percy.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” the cook said. “He seems a fine enough boy, for what he is, and if I can work with George now, I can deal with him hanging around.”

“There’s a ‘but’ coming, isn’t there?” Briony guessed.

The older man nodded. “Some people in the Preservation Society aren’t exactly happy with everything that has been happening recently, Briony. Not anyone in the diner, you understand, but some of the others further out.

They’ve been saying that we’ve been getting too close to the monsters, and that’s why we’re in this mess.”

“But that’s-”

Pete held up a hand to stop her. “I said that’s what people have been saying, not what I think. The trouble is, what people say is important sometimes. Like how they’ve been saying that you’re