Silver - By Kailin Gow Page 0,52

mouth in a great gout that caught at least three of the vampires, incinerating them before they even had a chance to scream. He ploughed forward into them, and whipped round in a frenzy of teeth and claws and lashing tail. Seeing it, Briony realized how much he had held back when fighting her and her friends before.

Yet even that ferocious charge wasn’t enough to keep the vampires at bay. They were old, and they were fast. Fast enough to slip past Archer even as he slew another of their number with rending claws. One vampire leapt onto the dragon’s back, hammering at his scales with punches that would have crumbled brick. More vampires surged forward to engage the remaining four of them.

“Briony,” Fal on said. “If you end up going through the gate and not coming back, I just want you to know…”

“Don’t say it. I a m going to come back,” Briony insisted. “My life is here, I can’t leave you, Jake, and my friends…Kevin. I’m going in, getting Aunt Sophie, and coming back. I have to lead the Wicked Preservation Society, and make sure the diner runs smoothly. I even have to make sure the show wil go on in the school play!

Miss Smith would be very upset if I got trapped on another world before opening night.”

Even as she said it, Briony darted forward, straight at one of the vampires running for them. It obviously had not been expecting the move, because it wasn’t able to stop before Briony plunged her cross blade deep into its heart. It fel back, already dead. Fal on matched the move with a desperate leap at a trio of the creatures, disappearing into a brawling, struggling mass that at least kept them back from Briony. Briony was about to move forward and strike them from behind when the next vampire came at her.

This one, a woman who looked only a little older than Briony, but dressed like something from the nineteenth century, was more cautious than the one Briony had kil ed.

She knew how to fight, too. She feinted to charge, waited until Briony tried to thrust at her, and then slipped to the side, bearing Briony to the ground. She reared up, her fangs bared.

Kevin’s wolf form hit her from the side, smashing the vampire away from Briony and nearly tearing her head from her shoulders. He paused, looking back at Briony as if to check that she was al right, and at that moment another vampire flung itself at him.

Jake jumped past Briony to intercept the move, and he, Kevin and the vampire went down struggling. Jake bounded clear, obviously looking for a better angle. He didn’t see Pietre step up to him until it was too late.

“Time to die, boy.”

Pietre seized Jake, and his viciously sharp nails drew a howl from Briony’s brother that was painful just to hear. Briony did the only thing she could think of. She launched herself forward, lifted her foot, and kicked Pietre as hard as she could.

It knocked him back from Jake, at least, but her brother slumped to the ground. Was he unconscious?

Worse? With no thought except of revenge, Briony lunged at the master vampire.

He caught her wrist easily, twisting it until Briony had to either drop her weapon or watch her arm break. She let go.

“Shal we get going to Palisor, Briony?”

Briony looked past Pietre and saw Archer’s great dragon head turn towards them. It seemed that she was about to be rescued. Yet at the same time, she saw Kevin further back, fighting a group of the other vampires now and losing, badly. It was no kind of choice.

“Archer, help Kevin!” The dragon hesitated only a moment. “The werewolf!”

This time, he turned, and let go another great gout of flame. Only this one was needle sharp and precise, picking off the vampires around Kevin one by one. As the heat touched them, it burst across them, the fire burning them up in just seconds.

Seconds were al Pietre needed though.

“Come along, Briony.” He dragged her physical y towards the stil open gate. Briony tried to resist, but Pietre just twisted her wrist cruel y, making her cry out.

“I wish Aunt Sophie had staked you and finished you off back at the house.”

Pietre smiled, and there was nothing pleasant about it. “When we get through, I am going to find Sophie, and I am going to make her watch while I drain you dry. Then, when I am done with