04 Silence (2 page)

“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?”

Pietre lay looking up at his younger captors.

For a moment, just a moment, he had been convinced that the vampire boy might actua
lly
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 fina
lly
, 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 even 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
te
ll y
ou.”

The werewolf and the half-vampire abomination let him. Pietre smiled to himself.
he
would have
allow
ed 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
a
ll.
“You have to understand that I haven’t actua
lly
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.”

That was it. Just play on their stupidity. Remind them of how much they needed him. Pietre went from sitting to standing, smoothly adopting the pose of a man giving a lecture to three students. The better to stay in control.

“Palisor is the source for us.”

“What does that mean?” the abomination, Jake, asked.

Pietre smiled. “I’m glad you asked that, young man.” Though he would be gladder
still
with the pathetic creature destroyed as it should be. “You know that we do not fit with the rules of this world. It takes something extra,
call
it magic, for us to exist at
a
ll.

Palisor is a world
full
of that magic, and when the gate appears, it flows into the world.” He looked at the boy,
Fallon
. “Like blood into one of our kind.”

“That’s not important,”
Fallon
shot back, “and if that’s a
ll y
ou have-”

“Did I say that?” Pietre demanded. Even trapped like this, he was not going to let some barely-turned whelp speak to him like that. The abomination asked the next question.

“Do you know how do we get in now that there’s no dragon, no Briony and no Aunt Sophie?”

Pietre smiled. “That’s a good question, young Jake.” Not that he planned on answering it right away.

No, the key was to draw this out. To give himself time to recover. Pietre had to be ready for the moment this ended. As soon as they had their answers, the three boys would undoubtedly stake him, after
a
ll.
At least, that was what Pietre would do in their place.

“You know that my own plan for entering Palisor focused on Sophie Edge, of course. I waited for years for her or someone like her. After that, it was relatively easy to get close to her. Once she started to change into what she rea
lly
is, the natural attraction she felt for my kind made that straightforward.”

Pietre paused, letting that sink in. He had been playing this sort of game with people decades before the young men around him had even been born.

“What natural attraction?” Jake asked.

Ah, perfect. “Why, the intrinsic attraction
all
of Sophie’s kind feel for vampires, even as they know they ought to hate them. It is why Sophie loved me so much.” Pietre turned his smile on Kevin. “It is why your Briony loves
Fallon
so much. Why she finds him so much more attractive than you.”

The glance from the werewolf to his brother wasn’t much, but Pietre caught it nonetheless. So, apparently, did young
Fallon
. So, Pietre was right about the young vampire…there was potential for him after
a
ll.

“Don’t listen to him, Kevin,” the boy said, “he’s just trying to cause trouble. Trying to get us to fight with one another so that he has a chance to get away. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Pietre spread his hands. “Just because I want you at each other’s throats in a particularly literal sense don’t mean that I’m speaking anything but the truth.”

“You’re lying,” Kevin said.

“Rea
lly
?” Pietre raised an eyebrow. “But didn’t dear Briony lose interest in you
very
suddenly, Kevin?

Didn’t her interest in your brother always seem at odds with what he was? Wasn’t she very quick to go back to him?”

Fallon
took a step towards Pietre. “Shut up.”

Pietre stepped back to match it. It wasn’t the time to fight. Not yet. No. Now was the time to take a guess. “Why should I? Or don’t you want your brother to hear?
Tell
me,
Fallon
, what were you and Briony doing when you spotted the dragon? Just talking or something more… tantalizing?”

The little flicker of
Fallon
’s eyes was enough to
tell
Pietre that his shot had hit home. Even better, Kevin moved from Pietre’s side to confront his brother. Sometimes, it was
all
so easy.

“What were you doing?” the werewolf demanded. “Are you the reason Briony returned her ring to me?”

“What Briony does is her business,”
Fallon
shot back.

They were so nearly over the edge that for a second, Pietre was tempted to give them just that little extra push. It wouldn’t take much, and then he could use the chaos to rid himself of two nuisances. Three, if he could get a clean strike at Briony’s brother.

Pietre tapped his foot against the underbrush, trying to decide. Sadly, he could see at least one better way to play things. Oh
well
…

“It is simply what Briony is,” Pietre said in his most carefu
lly
soothing tone. “I am sure that it is not deliberate.”

Kevin turned to him, and for a moment, Pietre thought that he had misjudged things. That the anger werewolves always felt around his kind would
spill
over. Somehow though, the boy managed to get a grip. Not bad, for a mere animal.

“What’s going on with Briony?” Kevin demanded. “What is she turning into?”

Pietre smiled. “Certainly not a shifter like you. She is more of something along the lines of our kind.”

It was delightful to watch the way the young man froze. “No, not Briony!”

This was a knife edge, of course. Push too much, and the boy would give up completely. Too little, and he would be insufficiently on edge for Pietre’s needs. Pietre forced a laugh. “Does that make her less attractive to you, shifter? If she were to become a vampire, would you
still
love her?”

“Of course.” Such sincerity in that reply. The boy actua
lly
believed it.

“But you loved
Fallon
here before he became a vampire,” Pietre pointed out. “He was your brother. Your closest family. Yet after he became one of my kind you couldn’t stand him.
All
because he was a vampire. Do you rea
lly
think Briony would be so different?”

“Briony
is
different,” Kevin insisted. “She isn’t a vampire. She’s nothing like you.”

“Oh, she’s a little like us.” Pietre was enjoying himself again. Now for the important part. “When you enter Palisor,” he said, “it
will
be practica
lly
all
fanged ones. What
will y
ou do then, boy?”

It took a second for that to have the desired effect, but when it did, the effect was obvious. The werewolf went very
sti
ll.
“What do you mean, ‘when I enter Palisor’? I thought I couldn’t.”

Pietre shook his head. “I cannot. Nor can your brother or young Jake here. No vampire can enter without a key, which means either Sophie or Briony, plus one of the dragons.”

“No vampire can,”
Fallon
said.

“Exactly.” Pietre looked around the little group.

“Palisor’s inhabitants detest vampires. We are from darker powers. Shifters, on the other hand…” Pietre looked at Kevin steadily.

“Are you saying that I
can
enter?”

Oh, give the boy a prize. Pietre had practica
lly
laid it out on a plate for him, and he only just got it?

Still,
what did he expect from a creature for which advanced thinking probably revolved around which rabbit to chase next?

“Shifters are different,” Pietre confirmed. “After
all,
the dragon is just another type of shifter, and it got through easily enough. It is simply a question of finding the gate once more.”

“So I find the gate,” Kevin said, “I go through, find Briony and Aunt Sophie, and then bring them both back?”

“Isn’t that what I’ve just been saying?” Pietre demanded. “But then, I assume you’re deaf to most things that aren’t dog whistles.”

He stepped back as the werewolf’s hands
balled
into fists.

“So what do you get out of this?” Kevin asked.

“Why are you
telling
us this?”

“Me? Oh, I want to live as much as the next man. More, probably. Living is a habit, you know. The more you do of it, the more you want to. If
telling
you
all
this
will
help me live a little longer, then it is what I
will
do.”

“And if it helps you get into Palisor,”
Fallon
said, “so much the better.” Pietre grinned. “Clever boy.”

“You need either Aunt Sophie or Briony back to let you in,” the young vampire continued. “That’s why you’re helping.”

“True. Though it doesn’t change any of what Kevin here must do. Does it, Kevin?”

The werewolf slowly shook his head. “How do I find the gate again? Do I just drink from the stream?”

Pietre laughed. “Hardly. This is the difficult part for you, boy. The gate moves around. It does not open in the same spot twice in succession. For finding it…
well,
the simplest way is to fol
low
a dragon, but who knows when another one of those
will
show up?”