The Wicked Woods

by Kailin Gow

  Briony nodded.

  “And she’s fine with it?” George asked in disbelief.

  “She allowed us to go to the dance together,” Briony said.

  “Well…you’re her niece. She’s very protective of you so if she trusts this vampire around you, then he is probably alright.” George scratched his head. “What I do know about Sophie is, after all these years, that if she thinks someone is alright. She’s usually right.” George extended his hand. “Thanks…Fallon, is it? Your tactic was clever and fast-thinking.” Fallon shook his hand.

  “To be honest, I didn’t really think it through.” He reversed Briony’s sword, passing it back to her. Briony accepted it gratefully.

  “Well, I have been doing some thinking,” George said, “and I think it’s probably time for what we in army circles call a tactical withdrawal.”

  Fallon nodded. “They’ll be here very soon…the rest of them.”

  George nodded. “And we don’t want to be here when they come back.”

  Chapter 18

  They scrambled back to the Edge Inn, all three of them, glancing back as they ran to check that the shadows between the trees were still just shadows, and not a horde of vampires about to descend on them. They stayed just as they were though. It seemed that the vampires had done enough with them for one night. At least, Briony hoped so.

  There were still surprises in store though. No sooner had they reached the safe, comforting presence of the Inn than two shapes barreled out of the darkness at them. George raised his crossbow. Even Briony had her sword half up before she saw who it was.

  “George, don’t shoot. Maisy? Steve? What are you doing here?”

  The two of them were warmly wrapped up, carrying torches and maps. Maisy spoke.

  “We heard that Tracey had gone missing, and… well, we know she is your friend, and we wanted to help look for her. Um… if I ask what all the weapons are about, am I going to like the answer?”

  Briony didn’t get a chance to reply, because another shape detached itself from the darkness. It was a man in his twenties, his skin pallid, his eyes already glowing red in the dark. Another vampire then. Briony raised her sword again.

  “You won’t need that,” the man said.

  “I doubt that,” Briony replied.

  “I simply have a message.”

  “What kind of message?”

  “A message for Fallon here, and a message for you.” The vampire turned to Fallon. “We saw what you did to the others, traitor. Slaying your own kind. Our master has cast you out for that. Any of us who sees you has the right to your blood.”

  The vampire stopped for a second.

  “What was the message for me?”

  The vampire smiled eerily before lunging for Briony at a frightening speed. Unfortunately for the creature, Briony reacted on instinct, thrusting with the blade straight into its heart. The body fell and burned to ashes. Briony let out a deep breath. That was that then. All dealt with. Except…

  Except that Maisy and Steve were watching from just a few feet away, shocked expressions on their faces.

  “Um…” Briony tried to think of a lie that might work, decided that there probably wasn’t one, and decided to try the truth instead. She looked to George, who shrugged. Apparently, this was going to be up to her. “I think I should probably explain a few things.”

  “I think you probably should,” Maisy agreed, Steve leaning heavily on her. “Just help me get Steve inside first. I think he’s fainted.”

  As it happened, Steve recovered quickly enough that Briony didn’t have to help haul him inside, because he was able to walk. What he was not able to do was stop staring at the sword Briony held. Eventually, out of sheer irritation, Briony settled for tucking it out of sight under the sofa.

  After that, while George watched from the windows for signs of the others, Briony did her best to explain. She explained about vampires. She explained about werewolves. She explained, in great detail, all the strange things that had happened to her since she showed up in the town of Wicked. Briony even explained some of the ways of killing vampires, mostly because the other two looked like they needed the extra reassurance that they could be killed. Finally, Briony explained about the preservation society, and what it did.

  “So Tracey has been killed by a vampire?” Maisy asked.

  Briony nodded. “A group of vampires, yes.”

  “And we can’t tell anyone this because…?” Steve began.

  Maisy punched him on the arm. “Because no one would believe us, idiot. They would think we were making things up, or insane. Or maybe they would think that we had something to do with killing her.”

  “You mean like in season three of Vampires in Space?”

  “You mean season two, don’t you?”

  Steve looked sullen. “I do not.”

  “Actually,” Fallon put in. “I’m fairly sure that it was season two, but that’s not the point.”

  “No,” Maisy said. “We get that.”

  Briony was impressed. “You’re taking this a lot better than I did.”

  Maisy shrugged. “Well, we are confirmed sci-fi geeks, remember. All this stuff being out there… it is actually kind of cool. So, where do we sign up for this society of yours?”

  That took Briony a little by surprise. “You want to join?”

  “Of course we want to join! Out there, fighting against the forces of darkness! Who wouldn’t want to? It will be so epic, won’t it Steve?”

  The boy nodded so vigorously, Briony thought his head might drop off. “Totally. I mean… vampires? Ok, so they might have been done to death on TV, but an actual society dedicated to fighting them? This is going to be amazing!”

  “I don’t think you two get it,” Briony said. “This isn’t a TV show. It is real life. You can really be hurt, out here.”

  Maisy nodded. “We know, Briony. But you haven’t been, have you? Besides, after what they did to Tracey, I don’t think hanging around pretending that nothing is happening here is going to keep us very safe.”

  Briony nodded. That made sense. “There are still things you need to see.”

  “Like?” Maisy asked.

  Briony nodded to Fallon, who opened his mouth, revealing fangs. Briony wasn’t sure what reaction she was expecting from her friends. Shock, maybe. Disbelief? Not for Maisy to lean forward, peering into Fallon’s mouth like a particularly overeager dentist.

  “That is so cool. Where do the fangs go when they are not out like this? I mean, do they retract, or do they just appear by magic, or what?”

  Steve got in on the act. “So you’re a vampire? Does this mean you’re stronger than the whole football team put together? Do ordinary weapons bounce off you? What about sunlight? No, that can’t hurt you. I’ve seen you walking around in the day.”

  Slowly though, the two ground to a halt. Maisy raised her hand like she was in class.

  “What is it, Maisy?” Briony asked.

  “Well, we’re meant to be part of a society for hunting vampires, right?”

  “Not until after I’ve spoken to Aunt Sophie about it,” Briony said, but when she looked over to George, he nodded. “But yes.”

  “And Fallon is a vampire?”

  “I am,” Fallon said.

  “So shouldn’t we…be trying to stake you, or something? No offence.”

  “That,” Aunt Sophie said from the doorway, “is where things get a little complicated.”

  Briony jerked around. Aunt Sophie had Jill with her. It could have been worse. Almost any of the other members of the society, for a start. Briony decided to make some introductions quickly.

  “Aunt Sophie, you have met Maisy, and this is Steve, her boyfriend. They kind of… showed up.”

  “Ah,” her great aunt said, “yes, that can be awkward. And they want to join the society?”

  Briony nodded.

  “Yes,” Aunt Sophie said, “people sometimes do. Maisy, Steve? I think it is probably time that you went home,
dears. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

  The pair looked at one another and then hurried from the Edge Inn. Aunt Sophie turned her attention to Fallon.

  “I see you are back, young… man.”

  “Yes, Mrs. Edge.”

  George moved closer to Aunt Sophie, whispering to her. “And George here tells me that you saved both him and my niece.”

  “Yes, ma'am.”

  “Well then. I suppose that earns you something. You are welcome here, until you do something to make yourself unwelcome. Run along now too though. You probably won’t want to be here once my colleagues show up.”

  Fallon hurried from the room without so much as a backward glance. Briony found herself faintly disappointed by that. Could he really leave that quickly, without even saying goodbye to her? Briony supposed that it probably had something to do with the fact that various vampire hunters were going to start showing up again soon, but even so, would a quick “bye, Briony” be too much to ask? Was Fallon still convinced that he could not be around her? Or maybe he blamed her for costing him his place in the vampire world. Briony had heard the threat to him as well as anyone.

  For a while though, Briony had to forget about it as the various members of the preservation society wandered back in, coming back in the pairs they had left in, looking tired, bedraggled, and serious.

  One by one, they recounted what they had found in the woods. Almost none of the others had run into anything but shadows and distant noises. The vampires had been there, but they had been playing games. Taunting the hunters and moving on. Or, to look at it another way, distracting them enough that they could attack Briony and George without opposition. The only other pair that had come under any kind of attack had been the one consisting of Jill and Aunt Sophie, and they had dealt with a trio of vampires easily enough, killing one before driving the others away.

  It left Briony wondering why those two pairs had been the ones targeted. Presumably, the vampires could have attacked any of the others, but they chose not to. Something was definitely going on. The trouble was, she did not know what. Nor, from the looks of it, did anyone else. It wasn’t a comfortable thought.

  Eventually, the others left, getting rides with one another or driving off alone into the dark, leaving Briony alone with Aunt Sophie.

  “I think what we both need,” her great aunt declared, “is a late supper. Cheese on toast, I think.”

  She hurried off to the kitchen to make it, and at that moment, someone knocked on the door. Briony, remembering the first time she had gone to the door at night, wasn’t exactly eager to go, but she had her cross, and the sword, and Aunt Sophie was busy. With an almost infinite degree of caution, Briony went to the door and pulled it open.

  Fallon stood there, a bunch of flowers held out to her. They were an odd mixture, not roses or anything else Briony might have thought of as normal for a bouquet, but stranger flowers, night flowers. They weren’t exactly pretty, but somehow, they were right.

  “Fallon? What are you doing back here?”

  He kissed her without a word, and it was a good kiss. It was sweet, delicate, almost… apologetic. Somehow, Briony knew that this was his way of saying sorry for everything that had happened. His way of telling her how much he still wanted her. When Fallon finally pulled back, sprinting off into the night again, Briony turned to see Aunt Sophie watching her.

  “Complicated indeed.”

  That was more or less what Briony was thinking. Particularly since, now that the kiss was done, she found herself thinking of Kevin, and the way he had kissed her. At the time though, she hadn’t thought of him at all.

  Complicated. That was one way of putting it.

  Chapter 19

  Fallon was back at school the next day, as though nothing had happened. As far as the school was concerned, he had simply been ill for a few days and had to catch up on the work he had missed. Beyond that, hardly anyone remarked on his absence and return.

  Mostly, that was because they were all too busy talking about what had happened to Tracey. The official story was that she had been walking in the woods, had tripped over, and had hit her head. If there were strange marks on her body, well… she had been walking through an area with a lot of thorn bushes. Of course she was going to have acquired one or two scratches and wounds as she fell.

  Briony was hardly able to believe how easily people swallowed such a flimsy explanation. It said nothing about what Tracey was doing out there, and if people really couldn’t tell the difference between fang marks and thorn scratches, they couldn’t have been looking very hard at all. It seemed almost like an insult to the other girl that people couldn’t know the truth about her death.

  They couldn’t though, and that was that. Even though Claire was distraught at the loss of her best friend, crying in the hallway and hardly looking at anyone through lunch, even though a few people raised the thought that Tracey must have been up to no good to be out in the woods on her own, there simply wasn’t any way that they would believe what had really happened.

  It had to be enough that Briony knew the truth. Or rather, that Briony, Fallon, Maisy and Steve knew the truth. Briony had expected the latter two to be quiet today, as the implications of everything that had happened sank in. Instead, they seemed eager, asking Briony questions about the preservation society until she pointed out that it was really Aunt Sophie they should be asking, and that in any case, the middle of a busy school probably wasn’t the best place to be talking about it.

  Fallon was quieter, but his presence was a comfort. Just having him near made Briony feel safe, even if Fallon was now as much under threat from the vampires as she was. In class, she would seek him out, letting her hand slide into his when no one was looking, sitting close enough to feel him pressed against her when they were.

  It drew stares from the people who had taunted her over what they thought had happened at the dance. No one commented, though. Today was about Tracey, and even the likes of Pepper knew that. Briony actually saw her trying to comfort Claire at one point. Briony took her own turn a little later, towards the end of lunch, when Claire was alone except for Ross. Claire looked up as Briony approached.

  “Oh, Briony, did you hear about Tracey?”

  “I heard,” Briony said. A small wave of guilt pressed at her, but she ignored it. She wasn’t the one who had hurt Tracey. She had just been the one to kill a couple of the vampires responsible. “I’m sorry. I know this must be hard.”

  “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now. I mean, she was always the brains. I… I’m just the stupid one.”

  “You’re not stupid,” Briony assured her, patting Claire’s arm.

  “Was it like this when your family…” Claire clearly couldn’t bring herself to say the word.

  “When they died,” Briony said. She nodded.

  “Only worse, probably,” Claire guessed. “I’m being silly, aren’t I? Crying like this when you’ve been so brave?” More tears started to fall.

  “She was your friend,” Briony said, not knowing what else to do. “You’re entitled to be upset. If you need anything let me know, ok?”

  Briony hurried out of there as quickly as she could. She felt sorry for Claire, she really did, but the last thing she needed was someone bringing back memories of her own losses. Especially with those losses being so recent. She sought out Fallon instead, eventually finding him in the school library, hunched over a book. It was the first time she had seen him quite that studious. Briony tiptoed forward as quietly as she could.

  “Vampires have very good hearing, you know,” Fallon said, without looking up. Briony sighed and settled into the chair next to him.

  “I just saw Claire.”

  “It is harder for the people left behind, isn’t it? And for you, being reminded, I’d guess.” Fallon seemed to get these things at once. Briony liked that about him. Of course, he had his own losses.

  “Yes,” Briony admitted. “And it’s hard having to lie to her.”


  “It’s better than the truth.”

  “True. Still trying to catch up on your work?”

  “A bit,” Fallon said, looking up from his books. “I will be done soon though. Are you working at the diner today?”

  Briony shook her head. “George decided that I deserved the night off. Jill’s covering my shift.”

  “Well, can we maybe do something? You know, together?”

  Briony cocked her head to one side. She had not expected Fallon ever to be that tongue-tied. It was kind of sweet. “You mean like a date?”

  Fallon nodded. “Exactly like that. Very nearly, anyway.”

  “You have something in mind, don’t you?”

  “Let me drive you back from school and you’ll find out.”

  Briony nodded. It was fine by her. Aunt Sophie had the car today anyway, because she needed to run errands. “I’ll see you after school.”

  It proved to be a long wait. Time seemed to drag out deliberately until the bell, and even then, Briony thought that she might not be able to fight her way through the crush of leaving students. Finally though, she made it to the parking lot, where Fallon collected her in a roughed up SUV.

  “It’s hard to think of a vampire having a car,” Briony said, as she got in.

  “I nearly didn’t,” Fallon said, “except that this was going cheap. You know how vampires in the movies always have tons of cash for their castles and the rest of it? Not so true in real life…unless they’ve lived long enough to accumulate wealth and invest wisely.”

  Briony smiled at that. Would she have felt the same way about Fallon if he had been some super rich foreign count, born a hundred years before? It was impossible to know, though she suspected that the idea of going out with someone that much older than her, however young they looked, would have been a bit… creepy.

  Fallon drove along happily, one of the local radio stations blasting out of the speakers as they headed back in the direction of the Edge Inn, and then beyond it, along the edge of the woods. He refused to say where they were going, except to say that Briony would see. Finally, he brought the SUV to a halt at the roadside.