by Kailin Gow
Briony wanted to point out that she wasn’t exactly taking things easy herself, but that wasn’t the kind of thing you said to people you worked with, and anyways, she had just started. So she took out the trash, hauling it around to the dumpsters behind the diner. It at least meant that she had a minute away from the rush.
“Now look what we have here.”
Briony turned, and found herself facing the girl who had complained about her burger. Carol, was it? She must have followed her outside. But why would she?
“Stupid little girl. Can’t even get simple things right.”
“Look,” Briony said, raising her hands, “I’m really sorry about that.”
“You will be,” Carol growled, and it was a growl. Carol’s eyes narrowed, and she fell to the ground. In a second, she had changed, leaving a wolf where she had been standing. A wolf with shimmering fur that then leapt straight at Briony.
Briony scrambled for her cross, moving automatically after all the drills with her great aunt. The trouble was, a few days didn’t make her any kind of expert, and the wolf was already mid-leap. It slammed into Briony, knocking her backward so that she fell with it on top of her, its slavering jaws just inches away. Briony abandoned the attempt to get to a weapon, concentrating instead on just keeping those teeth away from her. And, as they moved steadily closer, Briony knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
Chapter 10
And just like that, it was easy. Carol was yanked off Briony in a rush. The sudden release of the wolf’s weight came as a shock. The handsome college guy with the dark hair and hazel eyes had just picked up the wolf by the scruff of the neck, flinging it at the far wall of the alley, where it hit with a yelp before changing back into the girl, Carol. She staggered, holding onto the wall for support, but by that time, Briony had her silver cross in her hand, the point extended. Carol took one look at it and ran.
Briony wasn’t in the mood to run after her. Instead, she put her weapon away and let the cute guy help her to her feet.
“Ok, so you’re not shocked by the sight of a werewolf,” Briony said.
“Nor are you. I see from the cross that you’re a hunter too.”
“Trainee.”
He was obviously another member of the Preservation Society. “You must work out a lot to be able to fling a wolf around like that.”
“A bit.”
That wasn’t much of an answer, but Briony let it go. Besides, there was nothing wrong with modesty, even if the simple breadth of the young man’s shoulders made it clear that he didn’t have much to be modest about in that regard.
“More than a bit. I’m Briony.” She held out her hand, and her rescuer took it.
“I’m Kevin. Are you ok?”
“I’ll be fine,” Briony assured him, though one thought did strike her. Had the werewolf drawn blood? Was there a chance that she was infected? She looked down hurriedly, struggling to breathe. What if she became one of them? What could she do? Aunt Sophie would be furious. Actually, Aunt Sophie would probably come after her with a silver-loaded shotgun. Briony ran her hands over herself like someone swarming with fire ants.
“Briony.” Kevin’s hands caught her wrists, forcing her to stillness. “Calm down. I don’t see any cuts. You’re perfectly safe.”
Briony let out a sigh that was deeper than she had intended. “Sorry, I must look really stupid.”
“There’s nothing stupid about being scared. Particularly not if you think you might become a werewolf. There aren’t many things worse than thinking you might end up one.”
“You sound like you know,” Briony said. “You’ve hunted a lot of them?”
Kevin paused, and then shook his head. “Not exactly, but I know some of them. Carol there was probably ok before she was infected. You end up having to fight your temper all the time. And your hunger. It isn’t easy.”
That sounded odd, and it took Briony a moment to realize that she hadn’t expected to hear sympathy there. After all, hunters hunted monsters. They didn’t empathize with them. Briony could just imagine how badly Aunt Sophie might react if she heard someone being so sympathetic towards the creatures. She would probably hit the roof.
And yet… didn’t it make sense to have some sympathy for them? Briony guessed that many werewolves and vampires didn’t have the choice about becoming what they were. How would Briony like it if she were to suddenly start turning furry and having to deal with the urge to bite people? Not that Aunt Sophie would ever give her the chance.
“Are you sure you’re ok?” Kevin asked. “Only you faded out there for a moment.”
“Sorry, just thinking,” Briony said.
“Somehow, I doubt it.” Kevin grinned showing his perfectly white teeth. He had to know how good-looking he was, to get away with smiling like that. “I’ve got to be going. I have things I should be doing.”
“Chasing monsters, throwing wolves about and rescuing damsels in distress?”
“Laundry, mostly.”
Well, presumably even heroic rescuers had to do that kind of thing sometimes. Briony nodded towards the diner.
“Are you sure you won’t come back inside? Whatever you want is on me. It’s the least I can do after that.”
Kevin shook his head, glancing down at his watch. It was a rugged thing that looked like it had been through the wars. “No, I really do have to get going. Thanks for the offer though. I hope you’re all right.”
With that, he left, going back down the alley and disappearing from sight. Briony thought about going after him. But what would that achieve? Besides, she had to get back to-
“Briony! Where are you? You’re supposed to be taking out the trash, not stopping to read War and Peace!”
Briony sighed, and headed back into the diner. Phil was waiting for her.
“Where have you been? There are customers waiting.”
“Sorry. Small werewolf emergency.”
There probably weren’t many people Briony could say that to in the expectation of any sympathy. Phil the cook was one of them, thankfully.
“Oh. Why didn’t you call out? I would have come and helped.”
“There wasn’t time. Besides, I had help, and it’s fine now.”
“You weren’t bitten, were you?”
Briony shook her head, and tried not to pay attention to the way Phil’s hand was creeping towards a rack of knives. “I’m fine. Just a bit shaken up. Hardly even that.”
The cook nodded. “That’s good. Still, it’s best to be careful. Now, can you get back out there? We have three tables waiting to be served.”
That, Briony would ponder afterwards, was the thing about vampires and werewolves and the rest of it. They didn’t stop normal life. At least, they didn’t stop what passed for normal life in the diner. You could be as badly shaken up as you wanted about nearly having been bitten, but table four still needed more fries, and the old guy at table six still wanted to hear all the specials before settling on the burger that he always had.
In a way, it was comforting. No matter how odd things got, there would always be one little corner of the world where the biggest problem was whether Percy had remembered to bus the last table properly, and whether the customers’ orders were coming out correctly.
Thinking of that, Briony looked over to the table where Carol and her two companions had sat. The young men were gone, suggesting that perhaps the female werewolf had doubled back as they had left. Presumably, they had been werewolves too. After all, who else ate raw hamburgers?
If they were, then they had been a lot nicer than their friend. Which begged the question once more of whether all these creatures were as evil as they seemed. If they didn’t have at least some control, then wouldn’t it be impossible for them to hide? Wouldn’t they be rampaging out in the open, rather than hiding in the shadows? Despite her fears about Aunt Sophie’s reaction, Briony resolved to ask her about it once she got back to the inn.
It didn’t go quite as badly as Briony had thought. Aunt
Sophie didn’t actually hit the roof, for example, though she did give Briony a careful look and sat her down at the kitchen table.
“You’re asking if werewolves and vampires can ever be good?”
“I suppose so,” Briony said. She related what had happened that day.
“One of them attacked you, Briony.”
“And two of them didn’t. They were actually kind of nice. At least, one of them tried to calm the female one down.”
“But he didn’t do anything to stop her when she came after you,” Aunt Sophie pointed out. “He could just have been trying to make sure that nothing happened in a public place. Remember, they aren’t stupid.”
Briony nodded, even so, she couldn’t help wondering. “It’s just that they seemed so normal, and if anyone can get infected, then that must mean at least some good people do.”
“That’s true,” Aunt Sophie said. She moved over to the kitchen counter, turning on the kitchen’s kettle. “And maybe you’re right. I have thought about this a lot over the years. Maybe they are just nice, ordinary people in an awkward situation. But one thing they will never be is normal.”
“No?”
“Think about it, Briony. They become what they are, and suddenly they have a whole world of new hungers and instincts to deal with. It’s too much for most of them. For almost all of them. That is why we hunt them. They might not want to hurt anyone now, but can we say that a week from now, or a year, they won’t be ripping someone’s throat out?”
It seemed a harsh way to put it, but Briony thought back to the vampires and werewolves that had attacked her since her arrival in town. Whatever they had been when they had been human, when they had attacked, they had been ruled by far darker instincts.
Aunt Sophie took her hand. “It can be hard, at first. You find yourself thinking of them, and what it must be like to be hunted down. Be strong though. Remember what it must be like for their victims. For the people who just… disappear.”
Aunt Sophie didn’t actually say “for your parents” but Briony knew that was what she meant. She was right, of course. How could you trust someone when you knew what they might do at any moment? You couldn’t. Even so, there was a part of Briony that rebelled at the idea of just hunting people down and killing them. How did that make them any better than the monsters?
“It’s good to see that your lessons are paying off, anyway,” Aunt Sophie said. “Fighting that werewolf off without a scratch. Well done.”
“Um…,” muttered Briony, shifting uncomfortably. “Actually, I didn’t do it alone. I was in a lot of trouble until another hunter showed up.”
“What other hunter?”
“His name’s Kevin. You must know him. He’s kind of tall, and broad-shouldered. Dark-haired. He picked up that wolf like it was nothing. He must spend a lot of time training.”
Briony knew the moment Aunt Sophie looked puzzled that something had to be wrong.
“Kevin, you say?”
“That’s the name he gave me. Why, is there something wrong? Is he, like, someone I shouldn’t be hanging around?”
“It’s not that,” Aunt Sophie said. “It’s just that, as far as I know, the Wicked Woods Preservation Society doesn’t have anyone in it named Kevin.”
Chapter 11
There wasn’t much point, in the end, in speculating on who Kevin might be. He had shown up, he had saved Briony, and there was no reason to suspect that she would ever see him again. Admittedly, there was a part of her that felt a little disappointed by that last thought, but Briony did her best to quash it. She even went along with it when her great aunt suggested that what she probably needed was an early night, heading to sleep a good couple of hours before she normally would have.
For some reason, perhaps the part where Briony had laid awake thinking about werewolves and vampires, angry girls in diners and strange young men who came along just when she needed them, the early night didn’t exactly refresh her. She went to school feeling almost as tired as she had on her first day there.
Maybe that was why Briony missed the posters at first, though given how brightly colored they were, and the way they were plastered across every available surface, it seemed hard to believe that she could have. Briony stopped, reading. It was an announcement for the school’s homecoming dance, a week away, written in bright tones that made it hard to look at.
“I don’t know why you’re looking at that.” Briony hadn’t heard Pepper approach. “It’s not like anyone would be stupid enough to want to go with you. Or maybe you’re going to go with those freaks you call friends? Make a threesome of it? I’m sure you would make a perfect third wheel.”
Briony sighed. She didn’t need this. “Whereas you will, no doubt, be the center of attention.”
“Of course.” Pepper stepped closer. Without her entourage around her, she seemed smaller, but not much nicer. “I know you’re jealous. A jealous little hopeless pathetic new girl with no family but a crazy aunt.”
A flash of anger spiked through Briony then, and her fists clenched. After everything Aunt Sophie had taught her, it would be so easy to teach this stupid girl a lesson in manners. Unfortunately, Pepper spotted what was on the horizon.
“You’re actually thinking about hitting me, aren’t you? Go ahead. I would love to see you suspended. Maybe even arrested. Maybe you would make some friends who were more your type down in the jail, rather than hanging around here, trying to pick up my friends.”
The important thing, Briony knew, was to stay calm. It was a lot easier now that Pepper had given her a clue what this was really about.
“You don’t like the thought that people might like someone other than you, do you? What is it? Afraid that given a choice, the people you’ve been pushing around will go elsewhere?”
Pepper’s eyes flashed, and she brought one hand around in what was probably meant to be a slap. Briony caught her wrist easily, not striking out, not twisting it. Just holding it while looking at Pepper as levelly as she could.
“Go away, Pepper. Just go away.”
The other girl twisted against Briony’s grip for a moment, but she wasn’t strong enough to break it. Typical. The one person Briony wished was a real monster, wasn’t. Briony stared angrily into Pepper’s eyes. Just months ago before her family’s disappearance when Briony’s high school life seemed perfect, she was like Pepper, the Queen Bee of her school. All that can change in a matter of minutes. Though Briony was never mean to others just for the sake of being mean, she understood Pepper…the insecurity that comes from not being the prettiest, the best, the center of attention. Briony left it just a second longer before letting go.
“I’ll get you for this,” Pepper promised, and Briony shook her head.
“No, you won’t. Or do you think it would go down well with the principal, learning that you’ve been bullying me?”
“No one would believe you.”
Pepper hurried off anyway, and Briony let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. That was the thing about people like Pepper. They were only strong so long as you let them be. They certainly didn’t like the thought that their actions might have consequences. Briony doubted that she would try anything again soon. If she did, Briony would welcome the chance to show Pepper not to mess with a slayer.
Not that it made her feel much better. Briony trudged along the halls to her locker, opening it with a leaden clang. Pepper was right. She would be on her own this homecoming. Once, Briony had looked forward to that kind of dance in the knowledge that it would be the most important social night of her year. Now… how many guys would risk the wrath of Pepper by asking her out? How many guys even knew her enough to want to?
“Hello, Briony.” Fallon stepped up next to her with a warm smile.
“Is this the day for people sneaking up on me or something?”
“Who else has done it?”
“Oh, just Pepper. She was… being her usual self, I suppose.”
Briony felt tears sting
her eyes, and she started to turn away from Fallon. His hand brushed her cheek, turning Briony back to face him.
“Hey, what is it?”
“Nothing,” Briony tried.
“This,” Fallon countered, brushing a tear away with his thumb, “is not nothing.” He took Briony by the hand, leading her to a seat and crouching beside her. “Now, are you going to tell me what’s wrong? I can’t imagine it is just Pepper. There’s no way someone as stupid as that would get to you on her own.”
Briony wasn’t sure. Pepper was more than nasty enough. But Fallon was right about one thing. There was more than just that swirling around in her head. “It’s this, Fallon. All of this. This place. This town. It’s so crazy, and so dangerous.”
“It’s all of that,” Fallon agreed.
“And I wouldn’t mind that on its own,” Briony added, “if everything else could make some kind of sense. But it doesn’t. Things just keep piling up. There’s moving here, and Pepper, and things attacking me for no reason, and my family…”
Briony tailed off as more tears came. Fallon took her hand.
“I met them, you know,” he said.
“You did?”
“I was staying up at the Edge Inn for a few days. I didn’t hear that they had disappeared until afterwards, but it was terrible news. They seemed like nice people. They kept an eye on my brother and me. I’m sorry.”
Briony didn’t know what to say to that. She didn’t think that she could talk about her family without more tears making an appearance, and she didn’t want to do that in front of Fallon, let alone the rest of the school. She concentrated instead on the other thing there.
“You have a brother?”
Fallon was silent for a moment. “I hope so.”
“What does that mean?” Briony asked.
“He went missing around the same time as your parents. I haven’t been able to find him since.”
“That’s…” Briony didn’t have the words.
