by Kailin Gow
When they were done, Briony surveyed herself in a mirror. She could hardly believe that it was still her. She wore a dress of red silk and velvet, with delicate cream slashes coming through here and there. Her hair, meanwhile, had been turned into a small work of art with the aid of pins and clips. Aunt Sophie had undergone an almost equal amount of work, though she was in a delicate dress of gold and lace. It seemed more practical than Briony’s, not trailing along the floor, and even her hair was simpler, in a single braid down her back.
Aunt Sophie looked at Briony for a second, and then burst out laughing. “What do you look like?”
“Me? We both look like someone’s idea of princesses.”
Still, it wasn’t like they had time to do anything about it, and Briony had to admit that they looked pretty good, so they headed back to the main tower, where the banquet would be held. It took them a couple of false starts, but they finally found something that looked like a banqueting hall. Certainly, there were tables set out for food.
Except that the room was empty…
Or not quite empty. Aunt Sophie walked over to one of the tables and picked up what looked like a crooked dagger. She took one look at it, grabbed Briony by the hand and ran as fast as she could with Briony in tow, only stopping when they were well clear of the room.
Out of breath, Briony looked up at her great aunt. “What was that about?”
Aunt Sophie actually looked scared. “That, Briony, is Palisor’s worst nightmare. The vampires who have made it here, that is one of their weapons. It’s a warning, I think.”
“I heard people mention vampires before,” Briony said.
Aunt Sophie paused, but then nodded. “If you think Pietre is hard to fight, think again. Vampires that make it through into Palisor are older, stronger, and hungrier than he will ever be. And since you are currently the only unchanged human here… this could get bad, Briony.”
At those words, Briony felt her heart fall. Palisor was beautiful, but it seemed that even here she wasn’t safe. Even here, she would have to be the thing that she had been forced to be back home.
A vampire hunter.
Chapter 7
With Pietre gone, Kevin, Fallon and Jake could only stand there. Kevin knew as well as anyone how dangerous the master vampire could be, yet he had escaped once again. And with him gone, their hopes for getting Briony back seemed to be in tatters.
Kevin shook his head. No, he wouldn’t accept that. He couldn’t accept that. Though right then, he wasn’t sure what they could do.
Fallon paced back and forth. “I’m going to go.”
Kevin resisted the urge to comment on what a good thing that was, or to ask whether he was going to join up with Pietre.
“Where are you going?” Jake asked.
“I’ll start with the diner to check in with George,” Fallon said. He looked away.
“And after that?” Kevin asked.
“Pietre isn’t the only master vampire in the world. Given the activity around here, he might not even be the only one in the area. Another master wouldn’t know about me, and he or she might have what we need to get into Palisor. After all, they probably want to as much as Pietre.”
Kevin thought for a moment, cocking his head to one side. “If you’re wrong, they’ll kill you.”
“You say that like you wouldn’t rejoice.”
Kevin shrugged. “Just an observation.”
Though the truth was, he wasn’t sure how he would feel. The contradictions stacked up inside him like a house of cards, and Kevin wasn’t sure which way they would fall when they finally did. Fallon was his brother. Fallon was a vampire. Fallon was trying to help them. Fallon was far too close to Briony. It was an impossible not to deal with, so Kevin didn’t. Instead, he just stood there while his brother sped off.
“So what do we do?” Jake asked.
“I don’t know,” Kevin admitted. “I guess we should look for anything that might tell us more about Palisor in general, but if we want anything useful, we’ll have to go to someone who knows about the history of our world.”
“There’s always Josh,” Jake suggested. “Even if he doesn’t know, he might know someone who would.”
That was a possibility, Kevin had to admit. The werewolf king seemed to know a lot about Wicked thanks to the histories kept by his family. Not that seeing him would necessarily be that comfortable.
After all, it hadn’t been so long since Josh had been declaring Briony a prisoner. Though hopefully, the attack on the vampires’ home would have dealt with that problem.
There didn’t seem to be too many other options in any case, so Kevin nodded. “Let’s go.”
They ran in wolf form, cutting through the forest with clear purpose. Kevin drank in its scents as he ran.
The scent of small creatures in the undergrowth, the scents of patches of flowering plants, the marker scents of larger animals, trying to tell the world that they were strong, and that this was their territory. Kevin would have laughed if he could have. Compared to his werewolf form, no normal animal counted as truly strong.
Soon, the two of them arrived at the manicured square of lawn with the werewolves’ mansion at its center, changing back to human form as they moved closer. Kevin looked around cautiously as he did so.
After leaving the battle with Briony, he didn’t know what kind of welcome they would get. When the door swung open ahead of them to reveal Josh, Brian and Carol, Kevin tensed.
Josh stepped forward. “Kevin, Jake, it’s good to see you. I’m glad you came through the battle unscathed. Man, that was a victory, wasn’t it? We burned down their house, got Carol and the others back, and nearly got Pietre himself.”
“Aunt Sophie and Briony nearly got him, you mean,” Jake pointed out.
The werewolf king nodded. “You’re right there. I was… hasty, deciding that they had betrayed us.
When you see them again, tell them that they are welcome here.”
The others nodded behind him, though Carol was perhaps a little less enthusiastic than her brother.
She looked like she had been crying, though so soon after losing her twin brother Channing, that was probably understandable.
“Where is Briony?” Josh asked.
“That’s sort of what I wanted to talk to you about, talk to t Kevin replied. He looked at the other two. He wasn’t sure how much he should trust them.
Brian had already made it clear how interested he was in Briony, while Carol had never liked her. He certainly didn’t want to spread around the knowledge of the gate to Palisor any more than he had to. “Can we talk in private?”
Josh might have caught the flick of Kevin’s eyes to them, but he nodded. “We can talk in my office.”
He led the way through to the small, pin neat room, gesturing for Kevin and Jake to take seats on comfortable armchairs that sat in front of an antique desk. Josh sat behind it, looking to Kevin a little like a principal who had agreed to allow a couple of kids to speak to him. But then, Josh had always been big on reminding people of his position.
“What did you want to speak to me about?”
Josh asked. “I take it that this is something to do with what happened to Briony and Sophie Edge? My sources tell me that Mrs. Edge hasn’t been seen in a while, and if you’re here without Briony…”
He left that hanging. A gap that just demanded to be filled.
Kevin looked straight at the werewolf king.
“Have you ever heard of Palisor?”
Josh’s eyes flickered, just a little. “What about Palisor?”
Kevin didn’t flinch. “So you have heard of Palisor?”
Josh shrugged. Kevin wasn’t sure how much he believed that casualness. “Only from my parents.
Bedtime stories for young werewolves.”
“What did they tell you about Palisor?” Jake asked.
Josh paused. “If I tell you, you’ll allow me some questions of my
own?”
Kevin nodded.
“Good,” Josh said. “Then Palisor is supposed to be a paradise for all supernatural creatures.
Somewhere they don’t have to worry about what humans think. Somewhere that they all seek, consciously or unconsciously. As I said, it is simply something my parents told me.”
“And their parents before them,” Kevin guessed.
“True. And if I remember well, there was a distant rumor about a way through being near Wicked, but you know how these things go.” Josh stopped.
“Now it’s my turn to ask questions. How did you hear of Palisor?”
“From Sophie and Pietre,” Kevin said. “And you’ve seen the dragon shifter.”
The Werewolf King nodded. “Yes, I have seen the dragon shifter. He became friendly with our kind, blending in so flawlessly that we all thought he was a werewolf at first. You’re saying he’s from Palisor?”
Kevin nodded wordlessly.
Josh drummed his fingers on the desk top.
“We’ve seen other shifters before here in Wicked, of course… jaguars, foxes, and so forth. I must admit, a dragon was a new one. I should have guessed.”
“He led Briony through the gate,” Jake said. “If you know how to find a way into Palisor, we need your help to get through to get her back.”
Josh was still for several seconds. “What makes you think I know how? I told you, Palisor is just a fable to me.”
Kevin shook his head. “You know something. Pietre has been looking for this place for centuries. That must mean something to you. It’s why he has stayed in Wicked Woods all these years, hoping to find a way in.”
“Why would he do that?” Josh asked, but then waved the question away. “Oh, don’t answer that. Pietre will always look for a way to make vampires stronger and more powerful, especially against the wolves. So Palisor has something that will benefit him.”
Kevin nodded. “From the way Sophie and that dragon defended the gate against Pietre, it definitely seemed like there’s a reason they don’t want Pietre to make it into Palisor. But don’t dodge the question. What do you know, Josh?”
The Werewolf King’s eyes narrowed.
“Remember whom you are speaking to.”
Jake interrupted. “Help us out here, Josh. Please.”
Josh nodded, got up, and walked over to a bookshelf. He didn’t take anything down off the shelves, but simply moved the whole thing aside to reveal a space beyond it. Not quite a secret room, just a little corner of one blocked off by the shelves. Boxes sat within. Josh took a dusty leather book from one of them.
“This room contains journals for every werewolf king since the Wickhams arrived here” he said. “This one is my great-grandfather’s. Since becoming king, I’ve been trying to learn what I can of my heritage. I can’t say that I was very interested in it before that.”
“You had other things to do,” Kevin guessed.
“I had a whole life planned out. College, Wallstreet, life in New York.”
“And then you had to come back here to be king.”
Josh shrugged. “I wanted a normal life, but things rarely work out as planned. Anyway…”
Josh flipped through the pages of the journal, finally coming to a stop about halfway through.
He read aloud. “Palisor is the source of power and renewal for paranormals. It is meant as paradise, a peaceful kingdom where paranormals can be free.
The darker paranormals such as vampires are not allowed within. The keepers of the gates to Palisor must guard against them through each generation.”
“So Aunt Sophie must have been a gatekeeper,” Jake said. “That explains why she stayed even after everyone disappeared in the Wicked Woods.”
Everyone. Such a small word to take in himself, his parents, his uncle. Not to mention Kevin and Fallon. So much had seemed to start that day, but in fact, it had already been in place for centuries.
Kevin might have asked about that, but a thought came to him.
“What about Briony? How did she figure into this?”
“If she’s related to Mrs. Edge, and we agree that Sophie Edge is one of these gatekeepers, then it is possible that she may be a gatekeeper, too,” Josh said. “My great-grandfather’s journal does suggest that it is hereditary.”
Jake shook his head. “But I’m related to Aunt Sophie. Why aren’t I a gatekeeper, then?”
“Good question.” Josh looked at Jake. Really looked at him for several seconds. “Which makes me wonder. You two are so different. I mean Briony is…”
“Gorgeous,” Jake said bluntly, clearly unhappy about it. “And I’m not. I never will be. I’m awkward, and will always be forever awkward, stuck as half-vampire and half-werewolf for all eternity.”
“I didn’t mean it like that, Jake,” Josh said. “We all went through that awkward stage, but have you ever felt Briony was different…from you or anyone else?”
Kevin nodded. “She is.” Of course, he knew exactly how different Briony was.
Josh tapped his fingers against the book. “I’m not just talking about looks. There’s something else.
Something that I have been sensing since the moment I met her. Something I suspect we all have.”
“Yes,” Kevin said. “We know.”
Jake looked distraught. “I’m not sure I do. Are you saying that Briony is totally something else? That she’s not really my sister?”
“No, I’m not telling you that,” Josh said.
“She’s definitely have some human in her, but she’s something else, too.”
Kevin found himself thinking back to Pietre’s taunts about Briony being closer to vampire than human. “Josh, if you know what she is, tell me straight. Is she a vampire?”
Josh laughed at that. “From what I can see, she’s about as far from that as it’s possible to be. Assuming these journals are correct, then what she is would be closer to one of the fey.”
“The fey?” Kevin asked. “Like a fairy? Holy-”
“She doesn’t have all the features,” Josh said, “so I could be wrong. But maybe a form of it. I don’t know much about the fey, though. As you can probably guess, trying to grow up normal, this fantasy stuff was never really my thing.”
Kevin stole a glance at Jake, who nodded.
They could both think of two people who were about as heavily into that kind of thing as it was possible to be.
“And that’s all I know,” Josh said. “Now, excuse me, because I have a lot to do. Saving the others was one thing, but all this means that a new concern has sprung up. Pietre’s new lair, wherever it is, seems to be attracting a lot of old vampires. A lot of powerful vampires. Until you brought me this, it didn’t make sense. But now, well, I can see that master vampires would flock here, if they knew that there was a way to Palisor. Our war, far from being over, seems to be just beginning.”
Kevin couldn’t help a little twinge of fear at that.
He suppressed it, though. He had more important things to deal with. Like seeing a couple of people who might know more than he did about the fey.
Chapter 8
For Kevin, the hardest part was waiting, rather than running straight to meet with Maisy and Steve. He met them at the school, to avoid the kind of attention that showing up at their houses would bring from their parents. Of course, walking into a school and cornering a couple of the students could have brought its own problems, but Kevin was able to arrange a meeting to talk to the principal about possibly doing more teaching work there as a cover for what he actually wanted. That meeting actually went quite well.
Apparently, the students had loved him, and the principal was willing to overlook his sudden disappearance as a result. It was enough to make Kevin wonder what life would have been like had he not been bitten. Would he have just settled into a job like this? Would he have been happy doing it?
Kevin pushed those thoughts from his mind. He needed to fi
nd his favorite two geeks. It was a long shot, trying to find out more from them, but with any luck, some nugget of valuable information would have lodged itself in one of their brains, disguised as a TV or fantasy game reference. At the very least, both Maisy and Steve deserved to know what was going on with Briony. She was their friend too.
Since it was lunch, Kevin found them in the cafeteria, and sat down at their table. Both Steve and Maisy looked up in surprise to see him sitting there with them. Apparently, they hadn’t heard that he was in the school.
Maisy took the lead. “Hey,” she said. “What are you doing here? Where’s Briony?”
Kevin reached out, snagging one of her fries. “That’s what I need to talk to you about.”
“That sounds ominous,” Steve said.
Kevin shrugged. “I guess it depends on whether you call disappearing through some sort of gate into another world ominous or not.”
“Another world?” Maisy just stared at him for a second or two, as though waiting for a punch line.
“You’re not joking, are you?”
Kevin shook his head. “I wish I were. Briony went through it after Mrs. Edge, along with a kid who can shift into a dragon.”
“And you just let that happen?” Maisy demanded.
“There was kind of a battle going on at the time,” Kevin pointed out. The excuse didn’t seem to cut much ice with Maisy. “Look, I’m doing my best to get her back.”
“What did the gate look like?” Steve asked.
Apparently, the disappearance of Briony was one thing, but the sudden appearance of gates to other worlds was something else entirely. “Are we talking Stargate here, or windows to another reality, or what?”
“Steve,” Maisy said warningly.
Steve looked across at her. “You can’t tell me that you’re not interested. Gates to other worlds? It sounds like any fantasy gamer’s dream.” He reached out towards Maisy’s fries, but she slapped his hand away. “You let Kevin steal some.”
