04 Silence (14 page)

When Marcus gave his instruction, Briony felt Kevin’s wolf form tense beside her. She knew, without having to ask, exactly what he was planning to do. He would leap into the vampires, snapping and snarling, trying to drive them back long enough for her and the others to run. It was suicidal, but for her, he would do it.

“Kevin, no,” Briony begged. “Please, no.”

It was too late though. Kevin leapt at the first vampire to move forward in a blur of fur and aggression, jaws open to bite, body arching through the air. The vampire raised an arm with casual confidence, jamming it forward to block the bite and give it time to attack Kevin while he was occupied, apparently unconcerned until the very moment when Kevin’s teeth closed on his forearm.

The vampire screamed.

It
pu
lled
back, wresting clear of Kevin’s grip as it did so, but it seemed that the damage was done.

The vampire’s whole hand and arm were swol
len
to abnormal proportions, and it was holding them with its other hand as it cried out in pain. It
fell
to its knees, the veins on the arm standing out and almost black against its skin. And worse, that blackness was spreading. In a matter of a few heartbeats, every vein in its body was like that, and a second after that, it
fell
back onto the floor, blue flames claiming it as it died.

The rest of the vampires looked on in horror, and Briony had to admit, she could understand it. That was a horrible way to die. It was more than that, though. It was a way that meant vampires, ancient, powerful vampires, were more vulnerable than they had ever been before.

Even Marcus seemed impressed. “So it is true,” the savage vampire said. “The werewolf’s bite
is
poisonous to vampires.”

“Of course,” Vigor said. “You thought I had lied?”

“You are a hugtandalf. Weak. Pathetic. You would do anything to save your skin. Not that you have.” Marcus glared around at the vampires in the room. “I told you to
kill
them.”

The vampires seemed reluctant to start
forward.

“I
will
kill
any of you who does not fight,” Marcus
be
ll
owed.

They attacked then, charging forward out of sheer fear of their leader. Vigor leapt forward to meet the first of them, his sword cleaving right through the startled-looking vampire. Vigor looked almost as shocked as it was and swung his sword at another. It
fell
as quickly as the first.

“It’s too easy,” he said above the noise of the battle.

Briony looked at the dying vampires in the instant before they burned. Their clothes weren’t the oddly medieval ones of Palisor. “It’s because they’re from my world,” she yel
led
back, dodging an attack from a vampire before Kevin tore it from her. “They’re weaker than your ones. Younger.”

Young enough, in fact, that Briony might have some hope of fighting against them. Brandishing her stake, she picked out a vampire in modern clothes and struck out at it. It was
still
fast,
still
deadly, but at least this time it was slow enough for her to see what it was doing. One movement, another, and then Briony was driving her stake up into the creature’s heart. It
fell
back, already dead.

Behind her, Archer and Fletcher were fighting their way through the horde of vampires, moving in almost perfect unison. There wasn’t room in the opulent suite for them to transform, but they were
still
able to whirl and move, step and strike, leaving a trail of dead vampires in their wake.

Vigor, meanwhile, seemed to be enjoying himself, using Pietre’s vampires to distract the older ones of Palisor, shoving them into the way while he fought with strength and cunning, sword to sword with some of the most dangerous creatures in the room.

Even he didn’t create the kind of havoc Kevin did, however. He tore through the vampires like they were barely there, lashing out with teeth and clawed paws, delivering scratches and bites to any vampire foolish enough to get in his way, so that vampire after vampire died with their veins bursting with the black poison. The ones who remained unbitten scrambled over one another in a bid to keep out of Kevin’s way, only coming forward when Marcus shoved them in his direction.

All
except one. Briony spotted Pietre from the corner of her eye, moving towards Kevin with predatory grace and a sword in his hand. She didn’t have time to reflect on how cruel it was that he should have been one of those to get through to Palisor, but instead started to move to intercept the attack. A black clad vampire stepped into her path. Briony lashed out, not wasting a second as she staked it in a single movement, but by then…

The sword swept up and then down, plunging through the shoulder of the wolf and sending blood spraying.

“You should never have come through, wolf. With that bite of yours, you are far too dangerous to leave alive here in Palisor.”

“No!” Briony charged towards Pietre as Kevin slumped to the floor, thrusting her stake at the master vampire’s back. He deserved to die. More than any vampire Briony had met, Pietre deserved to die.

At the last minute, Pietre spun, catching Briony’s wrist easily and twisting it painfu
lly
up behind her back. “
Hello
, Briony.
Tell
me, how does it feel to know that you can’t save your precious wolf? He is wounded beyond
all
help, you know.”

“Let the Princess go.” Vigor stepped between them and Kevin, his sword held level. The vampires around them seemed content to leave him alone while he did it. They had seen what he could do with a blade, after
a
ll.
“I
will
make your end quick, if you do.”

Pietre laughed. “I’m sorry, I must have misheard. Excuse me for one moment.” He looked around the room. “Everybody stop.”

Amazingly, they did. Perhaps it was just that so many of them were Pietre’s vampires. Perhaps it was simply that strange charisma he seemed to have, but they stopped. Marcus didn’t seem happy about it.

“What are you doing, youngling? Who are you to say that my vampires should stop?”

“Oh, shut up. If you want to argue about whose vampires they are, we can do it later. Though you might want to remember that I have more vampires than you. For now though, I want to listen to what the young man in the armor has to say.” He turned his attention to Vigor. “Did you
call
Briony a princess?”

“She is her royal highness, Princess Briony of Palisor,” Vigor said, “and this is your final warning. Release her.”

“Now this is surprising,” Pietre said. He leaned close to Briony. “Who would have thought it? You, a princess. Which makes the idiot with the sword what? Your knight?
Another young man for your collection?”

“I,” Vigor said, “am Prince Vigor of Palisor. You are in our lands, stranger. Release the Princess.”

Pietre laughed. “You keep saying that. Why should I, boy? I have Briony and you’re
telling
me to let her go, but rea
lly
, why shouldn’t I just snap her neck if you don’t drop that sword of yours? Go on. Drop it.”

Vigor’s face flushed, but he dropped his sword. “Very
we
ll.
”

“You see,” Pietre said with a glance across at Marcus, “
all
this ‘
kill
them
all
’ nonsense is tota
lly
unnecessary.”

Vigor smiled and brought his hands together. Blue light flared between them, reminding Briony of nothing so much as the flames that consumed vampires when they died. “But then, I don’t need a sword to k
ill you
.” let Briony’s eyes widened as Vigor drew his arm back like a
baseball
pitcher.

“I can easily break her neck before you can throw,” Pietre pointed out.

At that, the Prince stopped. But he did glance off to the side with a faint smile. Archer and Fletcher cannoned into Pietre, tearing him away from Briony and throwing him back into the horde of vampires.

Fletcher plunged after Pietre, while Vigor snatched up his sword again and fol
lowed
suit. It seemed that the battle was back on again.

Briony didn’t care. She knelt by the prone form of Kevin,
still
bleeding on the floor of the suite, hardly noticing the violence taking place around her.

“Don’t you dare leave me, Kevin,” she whispered.

“He doesn’t have to, Princess,” Archer said, moving to kneel beside her. “Not if you heal him.”

“Heal him?” Briony asked. It was hard to think with Kevin there like that. “Heal him how? I could get some vampire blood, I guess, but-”

Archer shook his head. “You don’t need to. Hugtandalfers can heal, Princess.”

“So we need Vigor.” Briony looked across to where the Prince was fighting at least three vampires, including Pietre. Somehow, she doubted that he would be done any time soon. But if it meant Kevin’s life, she would go over there and drag him out of the battle herself.

“You aren’t listening,” Archer insisted. “
All
of the Hugtandalfers can heal to some extent. You can heal him, Briony.”

“Me?” Briony leaned forward, trying to keep pressure on the wound to Kevin. It was what you were supposed to do, wasn’t it? She tried not to think about the blood slipping between her fingers. Slipping out of Kevin as his life dripped away. “What can I do? I’m not even fu
lly
Hugtandalfer. Vigor has been quick enough to point that out.”

Archer shook his head, stood briefly, and shoved a vampire who was getting too close away from them. “He doesn’t know what he is talking about.

Or he wants it to be true, so that he can claim you aren’t Hugtandalfer enough to rule. Your Hugtandalfer side is more than strong enough for this, though.

You’re of Waltham’s blood. He’s the oldest, strongest Hug in Palisor. Trust me, Briony. Palisor needs a ruler who is of Waltham’s blood. He alone was the Champion for Palisor against these vile creatures.

You are his only blood born. You just have to fu
lly
realize it.”

“What do you mean, ‘realize it’? Like Aunt Sophie did?”

“Exactly that,” Archer said. “If you become your
full,
Hugtandalfer self, you
will
be able to heal Kevin. You
will
know how to do it instinctively. I hadn’t wanted this for you so soon though. It means becoming more Hugtandalfer than you might be ready for.”

And less human. Archer did not mention it, but Briony knew what he meant. Was she ready to accept that? To give up on the thought that she might ever be just a simple human girl again. Briony looked down at Kevin, whose breath was coming in short,
sha
llow
gasps now, and she knew the answer to that without even having to think about it.

“That doesn’t matter,” she said. “But I can’t just realize my true self, or whatever it is, can I? I mean, it took Aunt Sophie years to get to that point.”

“She didn’t have a dragon,” Archer said. “I told you that when we first met, remember? That dragons were there to help the Hugtandalfer become more.
I
’ll
help you, Briony. You just have to say yes.”

Briony didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

Archer took Briony’s hands, moving her away from Kevin slightly. Briony couldn’t help looking back at the wounded werewolf as he did so. She was so proud of him, loved him so much. He had come for her across worlds, and despite the feelings that
still
flickered in her for
Fallon
, that meant so much.

All
the more reason to do this, then.

“What do I have to do?” Briony asked.

Archer moved her hands to his neck. “Hold on. I need to transform.”

“In here?” Briony looked around at the
milling
vampires, and then up at the ceiling. Not that far up, though. “Archer, there isn’t room. You can’t transform here. You need more space.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Archer said. “Just worry about your own transformation.”

“How do we do it?” Briony asked. So far, Archer hadn’t said anything other than that he could do it. He certainly hadn’t explained how.

“Dragons move magic about, Briony,” Archer said. “How else do you think we can open gates?
All
I need to do is
pull
in enough magic, and since I’m your dragon, you can take it right into yourself.”

“And how do I do that?”

“
Call
to it, Briony. Just
call
to it, and it
will
come. Now, hold on.”

Archer transformed, scales and powerful muscles appearing under Briony’s fingers as his dragon form appeared, leaving her to cling on for dear life. She was right, too. There wasn’t enough room for a dragon in the room, not even one like Archer who wasn’t
full
grown yet.

Then Archer kicked out at one of the castle
walls
, and there was suddenly a lot more room.

Stones
fell
away, leaving an opening through which Archer jumped, his wings opening in flight.

For a moment, Briony thought that he had tricked her. Thought that this was a ruse to get her safely away from the battle now that Kevin was too badly hurt to let them win it. In that moment, Briony hated Archer for abandoning Kevin like that. It was only when Briony realized that they weren’t going anywhere that she calmed down a little.

Archer’s wings beat furiously, almost hummingbird fast, as the great creature hung in the air before the exposed room. Briony could feel his skin tingling, almost as if there were electricity running beneath it. Only it wasn’t electricity, she realized. It was magic. Raw, untamed magic.

Briony put both her palms to Archer’s scales. What had he said? That she had to claim it?

Well,
she could do that.

“I accept it,” Briony yel
led
above the rush of the wind. “I accept it
a
ll.
Whatever this means, I take it. I am the daughter of King Waltham, and this is mine to take. Whatever power he has to wield against these dark ones, whatever power there is to heal, I accept it.”

Power shot into Briony like a lance. It was hot and cold, dark and light,
all
at the same time. It was possibility in its purest form, and it was so much more than that. It was fire, streaming through every
cell
as it changed her, and yet it didn’t hurt. It was magic.

Purely, simply magic, pouring into Briony, flowing through her until she was sure that she glowing with it.

Was this what it had been like for Aunt Sophie? Had she felt this moment, when everything was so perfect? Or did Briony get something more from it because her dragon was pushing the power into her, forcing the change faster than it might have happened otherwise? Briony simply didn’t know.

It didn’t matter. What mattered was that she could feel herself changing, moment by moment. Her Hugtandalfer fangs were out, while her whole body felt different. Lighter somehow. More in tune with the world around it. Briony could see some of the combatants in the room below staring up at her. Did the process look that spectacular from the outside?

Archer flew in to set Briony down in the room, transforming once more so that he could rejoin the fight and knocking a pair of vampires back with a jumping kick that kept them
well
away from Briony.

Vigor, meanwhile, had paused in the middle of an intricate passage of swordplay, locking blades with one of the older vampires while he stared at Briony.

“So it’s true,” Vigor said quietly, “You are King Waltham’s daughter. You are one of us.”

He shoved the vampire he was fighting back and beheaded it, but Briony wasn’t paying him any attention... her mind clearly focused on one thing.

Her eyes were fixed firmly on Kevin, who lay there,
still
in his wolf form, on the floor. Briony knew what she had to do. She knelt by Kevin and pushed the faintest pulse of power into him, as gently as breathing.

The effect was quick and there was no longer a wolf there. Instead, Kevin lay on his front in human form, looking around at Briony weakly. He smiled, just barely.

“I always knew you were special.”

“Shh,” Briony said, wrapping her arms around him, feeling the love that she felt for him.

Except that it wasn’t just love. It was the magic too, pulsing just beneath the surface with every thought Briony had of how much she cared about Kevin. Was that what magic was? Love? Briony wanted to think so in that moment as she held Kevin to her and let the warmth of intertwined love and power wrap around them.

That wasn’t just a figure of speech. Light extended from Briony, pushing out in a half sphere that cocooned her and Kevin. One of the vampires touched it and jerked back, burned by it. The power wasn’t there to burn, though. It was there to heal.

Briony pressed her hands to the wound on Kevin’s shoulder, one on top of the other. His skin felt cool to the touch now, but almost as soon as Briony noticed it, warmth started to pour into him. She paid attention to the edges of the wound, and they started to close up, healing with tremendous speed. The wound faded from a gash to a scrape, and then to a mere pink line on the skin. A second after that, and there was no sign that Kevin had ever been injured.

Briony bent to kiss Kevin, knowing now that she loved him. They had both been transformed by their journey to Palisor, him becoming what was needed to defeat vampires, her coming into her Hugtandalfer heritage, yet they were both, in so many ways, exactly the same people. Briony was
still
herself, even if she was a princess now, and she
still
loved Kevin as much as she ever had back in Wicked.

Even a trip to a strange and impossible world couldn’t change that.

It seemed that Kevin felt the same, because he turned over as Briony went to kiss him, wrapping his arms around her and drawing her into a kiss of his own. It started out gently, but Briony could feel the need there, and soon, it was as passionate a kiss as she had ever had from Kevin. For the seconds it took, Briony felt like there wasn’t anything in the world except the two of them, safe inside the bubble of Briony’s newfound magic. She was so happy just to be back in Kevin’s arms once more that Briony wished the whole world around them would just go away, leaving this moment to the two of them.

But it wouldn’t. Even as Briony and Kevin broke from that first kiss, Briony caught sight of Archer and Fletcher fighting back to back against more vampires, while Vigor swung his sword in diagonal cuts that served as attacks and parries at the same time. They fought with a strange lack of noise now, as though they knew that the fight was too serious to waste energy shouting on, while the vampires attacked with the eerie, almost spider-like quiet of their kind. As much as Briony wanted to shut out the world in those moments, she knew that she had to help, and that Kevin remained their most dangerous weapon against the creatures.

She stood, clutching her stake, and attacked, Kevin at her side. Between them, they cut a renewed swathe through the vampires, hardly having to stop. Briony actua
lly
found it easy, darting between the creatures and avoiding their blows while Kevin snapped at them and forced them to dodge back. Had the transformation done something to improve her reflexes, as
well
as giving her the means to save Kevin?

Briony didn’t know, but she did know that, even with whatever had happened to her, there were
still
too many vampires to fight. Kevin was a powerful threat, but he seemed sluggish, so soon after being healed, and the vampires knew now that they needed to avoid him. How long would it be before another of their number snuck in close to strike at him?

Even Vigor didn’t seem to be doing as
well
as he had. Marcus had joined the fight in earnest, and now the Prince and the master vampire fought blade to blade with truly frightening speed and skil
l.
Vigor was good, there was no doubting that, but Marcus had centuries of experience and ferocity on his side. Not to mention a whole host of other vampires, whom Archer and Fletcher were having to keep at bay while Vigor fought.

How long could they hope to last like that, when for every vampire they
killed,
another two arrived to take its place? Briony didn’t know, but as she staked another, barely avoiding a lunge of its fangs, she suspected that it couldn’t be long.

Then though, Briony spotted something.

The door to the room was open, and through it slipped two familiar shapes: Aunt Sophie and King Waltham.

They moved around to the rear of the vampires, obviously seeking the optimum spot from which to strike. Briony’s heart rose to see Aunt Sophie there, because there was almost no one she would rather have at her side in a fight.

She was slightly more worried to see the King, given how
unwell
he was. Surely a battlefield wasn’t the right place for someone who had barely been able to get out of bed just a few hours ago?

Even so, Briony couldn’t help feeling a wave of joy at his presence too. He had come for her. As sick as he was, she was his daughter, and he was not going to leave her in the hands of vampires. Who could ask for more than that?

Briony nodded to herself. Her now dead parents back in Wicked
still
mattered a great deal to her, but she was Hugtandalfer now, and there was no denying that King Waltham was her father. More than that, Briony wouldn’t want to deny it. She had a father prepared to take on vampires for her, and she was proud of him.