04 Silence

by Kailin Gow

  Silence

  The Wicked Woods – Book 04

  By Kailin Gow

  DEDICATION

  For my awesome editors, cover artist, and theEDGEbooks.com team. Thank you for helping me make the story of Briony and the townspeople of Wicked, MA come alive.

  PROLOGUE

  For years, there was nothing. No town. No lake, except for the one that was crafted by human hands, dug and blasted with dynamite. No settlers, for those tribes that came to the area always did so on the way to somewhere else. For years, so many years that counting them becomes meaningless, there was nothing there but the endless expanse of trees.

  Or at least nothing most humans knew about.

  From time to time, other creatures would come, stalking through the trees, or flying over them, or flitting through them only when they were certain that nothing else was watching. Creatures that had names in the tongues of other places, but here in Wicked, were simply dangerous things to be avoided. Things which humans have come to known as monsters or the unexplained. They came in their ones and twos, not knowing why they came at first, but simply knowing that they had to.

  Where the rumor came from is uncertain. Like so many rumors, it seemed to start without an architect, and then spread like the fires that would occasionally sweep through the trees in summer. It spread all the faster for jumping between ears that could hear so much better than a human’s could.

  Wherever it came from, the rumor was clear.

  This place, so far from anywhere and so empty, was different. It called to everything that wasn’t quite human, or had once been human and it drew them in.

  It felt like home….this place this vast expanse of trees, valleys, rivers, and streams…this wilderness which will be name after one of the original settlers, aristocratic creatures from the old world, The Wickhams, known as the Wicked Woods.

  More visitors came to look for themselves. A few, those that could pass unnoticed, even stowed away when humans from the old countries came along to “discover” it or to lay claim to it. As they came, and saw, and stayed, more rumors found their way back.

  Rumors of gates, and of ways to places where humans had not claimed everything with steel and knowledge.

  More than that, the rumors started to make a simple claim. This was where it started. For everything that knew the old magic, or which didn’t fit into the human world, this was where it began. And where, eventually, they would return. That message spread, even reaching human ears and bleeding into their folklore as yet another fantasy to go alongside the fanged things or the loch ness. Just another thing as fictional as their monsters.

  The monsters knew better. The promise was enough to bring them, light things and dark, to the small place called the Wicked Woods. They came until the woods groaned with them. Until even the burgeoning community at the heart of the rumors could hardly cope with them. They searched, looking for a way through the gates. Looking for a way back. Into the Wicked Woods they went, looking, searching for the fabled land of Palisor.

  The monsters searched long enough that many gave up and forgot about it, arguing that it could never happen. That this was their world and that their place was in the shadows. They said that no one would ever make it through the gate.

  And then someone did.

  Chapter 1

  Fallon lashed out upwards with the broken piece of wood he had been using as a stake, and the last of Pietre’s vampires above him died, its mouth opening in a silent “O” of a surprise that a vampire so much younger than him have managed to staked him.

  Would he be that surprised when death finally came looking for him?

  Not if the battle kept raging the way it had been. Pietre’s vampires had fought viciously, clawing and biting, striking and then moving away with lightning fast speed. Fallon had found himself fighting with three at once, and he was almost as shocked to still be there as the vampire he had just staked was to lose.

  Fallon struggled out from under the creature as it died, cold flames turning it to ashes. He knelt, and then forced himself to a standing position, looking around at the meadow where the gate to the other world of Palisor had stood. What he saw was carnage.

  There were no bodies. Vampires didn’t leave bodies. Yet there were splashes of blood on the grass where they had died, and drifting swirls of ash as the wind claimed what was left of them afterwards. There were even blackened sections of grass and dirt where the dragon, Archer, had incinerated some of Pietre’s creatures.

  Fallon grimaced. He thought that psycho vampire he had fought for an hour and then finally staked, was the last of Pietre’s evil follower. There were a few of Pietre’s vampires left. A couple kept his brother Kevin’s wolf form at bay, while the smaller form of Briony’s brother Jake snapped at their heels. Of Briony herself, there was no sign. That meant one of two things. Either she had gone through the gate, or…

  Sudden anger touched Fallon, and he charged forward at the remaining vampires. He heard the sound of someone yelling at the top of their voice, and only realized as he struck at the first of the vampires that it was himself.

  The creature turned enough that the first blow did not go cleanly through the heart, and it struck out at Fallon. Fallon didn’t care. With Briony gone, it simply didn’t matter. He took the slash of claws on his arm and attacked again, in a furious assault that the older creature nevertheless managed to fend off, twisting and parrying again and again, its fingers forming a web of sharp edges.

  Jake hit it from the side, rending and tearing at the vampire, but Fallon brushed him off.

  “Where is Briony?” he demanded. “Where is she?”

  The other vampire laughed and lashed out with a kick that forced Fallon to stumble back. It charged forward, forcing Fallon to block attack after attack.

  Even then, some of his hits made it through, scoring deep lines on Fallon’s shoulders, his chest, and his back.

  Jake snapped at the creature’s legs, going in low to slash at their tendons with his teeth. The vampire turned, aiming a kick at the small wolf, and Fallon had all the opportunity he needed. He stepped in close; so close that it might have seemed like an embrace to anyone watching, and drove his stake into the creature’s back, angling up under the ribs.

  For a moment it wasn’t deep enough. The creature tried to spin and fight, but Fallon clung on.

  With a mighty effort, he forced the stake home, letting go of it as the vampire died.

  The other one was still struggling with his brother. It was doing well, too, because it had managed to wedge an arm under Kevin’s throat, keeping the werewolf from baring his teeth. With enough time, the old vampire might even have been able to win.

  A treacherous, primal part of Fallon wanted to urge the vampire on…wanted the vampire to win and end Kevin. Kevin was always there. Always in the way.

  Things would be so much simpler between him and Briony without the added distraction of his brother to contend with. Fallon wouldn’t even have to do anything. It would be so easy to just stand there. So easy to just-From beside Fallon, Jake gave a low growl.

  “I know. I know. It was just a thought.”

  He retrieved his stake from the battlefield’s freshest pile of ashes, stepped over to the struggling pair in one smooth burst of speed, and plunged his stake into the other vampire’s heart. It froze in place for the second before it died, and Fallon had plenty of time to push it from his brother.

  That done, he stood and simply stared out over the meadow. There was still no sign of Briony. Nor of Archer, the dragon-shifter. Did that mean that they had gone through the gate? Fallon had urged Briony to do it if there was no other choice, but had it actually come to that?

  Or was her body out there somewhere, hidden in t
he grass? Had they failed, had he failed, to keep her alive? Just that thought was enough to make something ache within Fallon, as deep and hard as if he had been staked. He started off around the glade, wanting to make sure. Needing to make sure.

  In the time it took for him to start that, the other two had transformed back into their human forms, that of a young boy of thirteen for Jake, and Kevin’s familiar tall, muscular, dark-haired frame.

  “Did you see what happened to Briony?” Fallon demanded.

  Kevin shook his head. Fallon didn’t want to think about the hurt expression on his brother’s face in that moment.

  “I think…” Jake began. “I think she and Archer went through the gate.”

  “You think, or you know?”

  Kevin moved up next to Jake, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Leave the kid alone, Fallon. We’re all hurting here.”

  Fallon shook his head at the rebuke, and tried to think. There was one obvious way to be sure.

  Pushing down into the floor, he bunched his muscles, and leapt. He leapt the way he had leapt with Briony on the way to the glade, so high and long that it might as well have been flying. Fallon leapt clear above the level of the surrounding trees, looking down, scanning for any sign of Briony. Alive or otherwise.

  Nothing. No trace of her anywhere that Fallon could see. The young vampire didn’t know whether to feel delight at that, since it meant that Briony was almost certainly alive, or despair, since the odds were that she had passed through the gate in the chaos of the battle. Despite what Fallon had said to Briony, he hadn’t wanted that.

  Just as he started to fall, Fallon caught a flicker of movement in his peripheral vision. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to set him leaping again, trying to get a better view. This time, Fallon couldn’t see anything, though he strained the limits of his better than human senses. There seemed to be nothing except the trees, their shadows, and the rustling leaves.

  As he landed, Kevin put a rough hand on Fallon’s shoulder.

  “What are you doing?” his brother demanded.

  “Looking for Briony,” Fallon snapped back. He couldn’t help the anger in his voice. Without Briony there to remind him not to feel the anger, it was hard not to hate the werewolf in his brother. “The way you should be. But there’s nothing there.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Kevin demanded.

  “I thought I saw something, but there isn’t…”

  A thought came to Fallon. Hadn’t Pietre been able to wrap the shadows around himself? To disappear when he wanted? Hadn’t he used that ability to sneak up on them in the woods in the first place?

  “Forget that,” Kevin said, his anger obvious.

  “What do you mean ‘the way I should be’?”

  “Not now.” It took a real effort for Fallon to shake his head rather than giving his brother the fight he so obviously wanted. “I think Pietre is still out there.”

  Jake looked up at Fallon sharply. “Where?”

  Fallon pointed. “That way, I think, but he’s trying to hide.”

  “Then we’ll just have to flush him out,” Kevin said. His expression hardened. “You had better be right about this.”

  They ran into the forest, splitting up. Fallon watched as closely as he could for any sign of the master vampire. With that talent for disappearing, Pietre wouldn’t be easy to spot, so Fallon didn’t look for him directly. Instead he tried to pay attention to smaller things, from the disturbance of branches where there was no wind to the snap of twigs underfoot.

  There. Was that bush moving in a way it shouldn’t? Fallon stared at it for a full second before he realized that there was the faint print of a man’s shoe in the mud before it. Fallon took a deep breath.

  “Kevin! Jake! Pietre’s here!”

  No sooner had Fallon said the words than the air near the bush shimmered, and Pietre appeared.

  The old vampire shot Fallon a vicious look before turning and sprinting deeper into the forest.

  Fallon followed automatically. There was no way that he was going to give Wicked’s greatest supernatural menace time to hide again. No way that he was going to give up the chase the one time he actually had Pietre on the run. Though thinking about it like that only made Fallon wonder why Pietre was running. Ordinarily, he would have thought nothing of turning to fight with Fallon, secure in his age and strength, but now he fled.

  Was it just that he knew he was outnumbered?

  No, Fallon could see the way Pietre held his arm now, the way it hung limply. He was hurt, vulnerable. Fallon put on a surge of speed. Pietre matched it, but he didn’t pull away. The fight must have taken a lot out of the older vampire, though he still managed to keep ahead of Fallon.

  It didn’t matter. Two shapes burst from the undergrowth ahead, and both Kevin and Jake bore Pietre to the ground. They fell with him, still in their human forms, grappling and brawling in the seconds it took for Fallon to make up the distance.

  Fallon paused on the edge of that fight. He’d dropped his stake somewhere along the way, but it was easy enough for him to reach out and snap a sturdy looking branch from a nearby tree. The end was wet with sap, but it was jagged enough for his needs.

  Fallon stepped forward.

  Jake and Kevin succeeded in rolling Pietre over onto his back. Fallon stood over him. Like this, injured and in the grip of the others, Wicked’s master vampire didn’t look like much. Yet how much pain had this ordinary looking creature caused? How many deaths had he been responsible for? Those of Briony’s parents, Tracey from school, and probably hundreds of others.

  Fallon’s.

  Fallon stood there for a long moment. Staking vampires in the heat of battle had been one thing, but he had expected staking someone in cold blood, even someone like Pietre, to feel different. Somehow though, Fallon couldn’t feel anything in that moment except satisfaction that this was finally going to end.

  “Wait!” Pietre said. He wasn’t begging, even then. He was issuing a command.

  Fallon looked down at him with contempt. “No.”

  “You’ll wait if you ever want to see Briony again.”

  Fallon hesitated. He knew the other vampire had to be lying. He knew there was nothing someone like Pietre could do to help him get Briony back. Yet could he risk it? Could he really risk killing Pietre if he might know a way to help?

  “We need him alive,” Kevin said, though he didn’t loosen his grip on Pietre. “We need him alive, Fallon.”

  Fallon almost, almost did it anyway. But for Briony, he would do anything. Even let something like Pietre live. With a sigh of disgust, Fallon tossed his freshly made stake away into the undergrowth before moving close enough to Pietre that the master vampire could no doubt know how he felt.

  “You had better not be lying. Now, what do you know about what has happened to Briony?”

  Chapter 2

  Pietre lay looking up at his younger captors.

  For a moment, just a moment, he had been convinced that the vampire boy might actually stake him. Pietre hadn’t known in that second whether to feel fear at his possible end, embarrassment that it would come at the hands of one so young, or just a faint sliver of pride that finally, one of his creations had the ruthlessness it took to take what was his. Fallon had potential, Pietre had to admit.

  Of course, Pietre had stopped him easily enough with that comment about the girl, but what did he expect? The boy still thought that he was in love with her. Now the only question was what to do next.

  “If you don’t start talking soon,” the vampire boy’s brother said. “I’ll stake you.”

  Ah, werewolves. They never could get the hang of the fact that they were nothing compared to vampires. Still, maybe the boy had a point. As embarrassing as it was to admit it, injured as he was, Pietre doubted that he would be able to simply fight his way clear of all three of them. The damage to his hand did not seem to be healing as quickly as it should, while ev
en his torso throbbed with pain where Briony had kicked him. He had underestimated Sophie’s niece Briony. She was a strong one… looks were deceiving on her…very pretty to the point where one would think she was all looks and no substance, but the exact opposite was true. She had too much substance, which was why she was such a thorn in his side…turning vampires and werewolves into allies like the young Fallon and his werewolf brother Kevin. He looked at the two brothers, both too good-looking and too much in love with the same girl for their own good.

  Fallon, the blonde one with the angelic face, and Kevin, the dark rugged one whose body was the most perfect body Pietre had seen for a male in centuries.

  Pietre smiled to himself. Briony had her work cut out for her with these two. If he was a girl in her situation, he would have a hard time choosing, too. Of course, being the vampire that he was, he would choose Fallon and destroy Kevin. Thinking of which… perhaps next time he sees Briony, he would turn her, as he had always planned. In the meantime, he would find a way of using her, even just the mere mention of her name to these boys… to stir up some trouble.

  Better just to talk now and wait for a better opportunity.

  “You want to know about Palisor? Well, let me sit up and I’ll tell you.”

  The werewolf and the half-vampire abomination let him. Pietre smiled to himself. he would have allowed himself nothing. But what did he expect? They were barely more than children. They still hadn’t learnt the most important lesson the world had to offer yet, which was that kindness and weakness were the same thing.

  “Better,” Pietre said aloud, rubbing his injured wrist. He should probably have guessed that a dragon shifter would be that strong. He’d heard the legends, after all. “You have to understand that I haven’t actually been to Palisor. It is a difficult place for vampires to enter, but it seems I know more about it than the three of you.”