Kailin Gow - Wicked Woods 04 - Silence, page 1
Silence
The Wicked Woods #4
kailin gow
Silence (Wicked Woods #4)
Published by THE EDGE
THE EDGE is an imprint of Sparklesoup Inc.
Copyright © 2011 Kailin Gow
Al Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Only authorized retailers may sel this book in electronic format. If you purchased or received this book through an unauthorized retailer, it is an il egal and unsafe copy. Please respect the work of the author and do not distribute il egal y. Thank you.
First Edition.
Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN: 978-1597486347
DEDICATION
For my awesome editors, cover artist, and theEDGEbooks.com team. Thank you for helping me make the story of Briony and the townspeople of Wicked, MA come alive.
Prologue
For years, there was nothing. No town. No lake, except for the one that was crafted by human hands, dug and blasted with dynamite. No settlers, for those tribes that came to the area always did so on the way to somewhere else. For years, so many years that counting them becomes meaningless, there was nothing there but the endless expanse of trees.
Or at least nothing most humans knew about.
From time to time, other creatures would come, stalking through the trees, or flying over them, or flitting through them only when they were certain that nothing else was watching. Creatures that had names in the tongues of other places, but here in Wicked, were simply dangerous things to be avoided. Things which humans have come to known as monsters or the unexplained. They came in their ones and twos, not knowing why they came at first, but simply knowing that they had to.
Where the rumor came from is uncertain. Like so many rumors, it seemed to start without an architect, and then spread like the fires that would occasional y sweep through the trees in summer. It spread al the faster for jumping between ears that could hear so much better than a human’s could.
Wherever it came from, the rumor was clear.
This place, so far from anywhere and so empty, was different. It cal ed to everything that wasn’t quite human, or had once been human and it drew them in.
It felt like home….this place this vast expanse of trees, val eys, rivers, and streams…this wilderness which wil be name after one of the original settlers, aristocratic creatures from the old world, The Wickhams, known as the Wicked Woods.
More visitors came to look for themselves. A few, those that could pass unnoticed, even stowed away when humans from the old countries came along to “discover” it or to lay claim to it. As they came, and saw, and stayed, more rumors found their way back.
Rumors of gates, and of ways to places where humans had not claimed everything with steel and knowledge.
More than that, the rumors started to make a simple claim. This was where it started. For everything that knew the old magic, or which didn’t fit into the human world, this was where it began. And where, eventual y, they would return. That message spread, even reaching human ears and bleeding into their folklore as yet another fantasy to go alongside the fanged things or the loch ness. Just another thing as fictional as their monsters.
The monsters knew better. The promise was enough to bring them, light things and dark, to the smal place cal ed the Wicked Woods. They came until the woods groaned with them. Until even the burgeoning community at the heart of the rumors could hardly cope with them. They searched, looking for a way through the gates. Looking for a way back. Into the Wicked Woods they went, looking, searching for the fabled land of Palisor.
The monsters searched long enough that many gave up and forgot about it, arguing that it could never happen. That this was their world and that their place was in the shadows. They said that no one would ever make it through the gate.
And then someone did.
Chapter 1
Fal on lashed out upwards with the broken piece of wood he had been using as a stake, and the last of Pietre’s vampires above him died, its mouth opening in a silent “O” of a surprise that a vampire so much younger than him have managed to staked him.
Would he be that surprised when death final y came looking for him?
Not if the battle kept raging the way it had been. Pietre’s vampires had fought viciously, clawing and biting, striking and then moving away with lightning fast speed. Fal on had found himself fighting with three at once, and he was almost as shocked to stil be there as the vampire he had just staked was to lose.
Fal on struggled out from under the creature as it died, cold flames turning it to ashes. He knelt, and then forced himself to a standing position, looking around at the meadow where the gate to the other world of Palisor had stood. What he saw was carnage.
There were no bodies. Vampires didn’t leave bodies. Yet there were splashes of blood on the grass where they had died, and drifting swirls of ash as the wind claimed what was left of them afterwards. There were even blackened sections of grass and dirt where the dragon, Archer, had incinerated some of Pietre’s creatures.
Fal on grimaced. He thought that psycho vampire he had fought for an hour and then final y staked, was the last of Pietre’s evil fol ower. There were a few of Pietre’s vampires left. A couple kept his brother Kevin’s wolf form at bay, while the smal er form of Briony’s brother Jake snapped at their heels. Of Briony herself, there was no sign. That meant one of two things. Either she had gone through the gate, or…
Sudden anger touched Fal on, and he charged forward at the remaining vampires. He heard the sound of someone yel ing at the top of their voice, and only realized as he struck at the first of the vampires that it was himself.
The creature turned enough that the first blow did not go cleanly through the heart, and it struck out at Fal on. Fal on didn’t care. With Briony gone, it simply didn’t matter. He took the slash of claws on his arm and attacked again, in a furious assault that the older creature nevertheless managed to fend off, twisting and parrying again and again, its fingers forming a web of sharp edges.
Jake hit it from the side, rending and tearing at the vampire, but Fal on brushed him off.
“Where is Briony?” he demanded. “Where is she?”
The other vampire laughed and lashed out with a kick that forced Fal on to stumble back. It charged forward, forcing Fal on to block attack after attack.
Even then, some of his hits made it through, scoring deep lines on Fal on’s shoulders, his chest, and his back.
Jake snapped at the creature’s legs, going in low to slash at their tendons with his teeth. The vampire turned, aiming a kick at the smal wolf, and Fal on had al the opportunity he needed. He stepped in close; so close that it might have seemed like an embrace to anyone watching, and drove his stake into the creature’s back, angling up under the ribs.
For a moment it wasn’t deep enough. The creature tried to spin and fight, but Fal on clung on.
With a mighty effort, he forced the stake home, letting go of it as the vampire died.
The other one was stil struggling with his brother. It was doing wel , too, because it had managed to wedge an arm under Kevin’s throat, keeping the werewolf from baring his teeth. With enough time, the old vampire might even have been able to win.
A treacherous, primal part of Fal on wanted to urge the vampire on…wanted the vampire to win and end Kevin. Kevin was always there. Always in the way.
Things would be so much simpler between him and Briony without the added distraction of his brother to contend with. Fal on wouldn’t even have to do anything. It would be so easy to just stand there. So easy to just-From beside Fal on, Jake gave a low growl.
“I know. I know. It was just a thought.”
He retrieved his stake from the battlefield’s freshest pile of ashes, stepped over to the struggling pair in one smooth burst of speed, and plunged his stake into the other vampire’s heart. It froze in place for the second before it died, and Fal on had plenty of time to push it from his brother.
That done, he stood and simply stared out over the meadow. There was stil no sign of Briony. Nor of Archer, the dragon-shifter. Did that mean that they had gone through the gate? Fal on had urged Briony to do it if there was no other choice, but had it actual y come to that?
Or was her body out there somewhere, hidden in the grass? Had they failed, had h e failed, to keep her alive? Just that thought was enough to make something ache within Fal on, as deep and hard as if he had been staked. He started off around the glade, wanting to make sure. Needing to make sure.
In the time it took for him to start that, the other two had transformed back into their human forms, that of a young boy of thirteen for Jake, and Kevin’s familiar tal , muscular, dark-haired frame.
“Did you see what happened to Briony?” Fal on demanded.
Kevin shook his head. Fal on didn’t want to think about the hurt expression on his brother’s face in that moment.
“I think…” Jake began. “I think she and Archer went through the gate.”
“You think, or you know?”
Kevin moved up next to Jake, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Leave the kid alone, Fal on. We re al hurting here.”
Fal on shook his head at the rebuke, and tried to think. There was one obvious way to be sure.
Pushing down into the floor, he bunched his muscles, and leapt. He leapt the way he had leapt with Briony on the way to the glade, so high and long that it might as wel have been flying. Fal on leapt clear above the level of the surrounding trees, looking down, scanning for any sign of Briony. Alive or otherwise.
Nothing. No trace of her anywhere that Fal on could see. The young vampire didn’t know whether to feel delight at that, since it meant that Briony was almost certainly alive, or despair, since the odds were that she had passed through the gate in the chaos of the battle. Despite what Fal on had said to Briony, he hadn’t wanted that.
Just as he started to fal , Fal on caught a flicker of movement in his peripheral vision. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to set him leaping again, trying to get a better view. This time, Fal on couldn’t see anything, though he strained the limits of his better than human senses. There seemed to be nothing except the trees, their shadows, and the rustling leaves.
As he landed, Kevin put a rough hand on Fal on’s shoulder.
“What are you doing?” his brother demanded.
“Looking for Briony,” Fal on snapped back. He couldn’t help the anger in his voice. Without Briony there to remind him not to feel the anger, it was hard not to hate the werewolf in his brother. “The way you should be. But there’s nothing there.”
“What do you mean by that?” Kevin demanded.
“I thought I saw something, but there isn’t…”
A thought came to Fal on. Hadn’t Pietre been able to wrap the shadows around himself? To disappear when he wanted? Hadn’t he used that ability to sneak up on them in the woods in the first place?
“Forget that,” Kevin said, his anger obvious.
“What do you mean ‘the way I should be’?”
“Not now.” It took a real effort for Fal on to shake his head rather than giving his brother the fight he so obviously wanted. “I think Pietre is stil out there.”
Jake looked up at Fal on sharply. “Where?”
Fal on pointed. “That way, I think, but he’s trying to hide.”
“Then we’l just have to flush him out,” Kevin said. His expression hardened. “You had better be right about this.”
They ran into the forest, splitting up. Fal on watched as closely as he could for any sign of the master vampire. With that talent for disappearing, Pietre wouldn’t be easy to spot, so Fal on didn’t look for him directly. Instead he tried to pay attention to smal er things, from the disturbance of branches where there was no wind to the snap of twigs underfoot.
There. Was that bush moving in a way it shouldn’t? Fal on stared at it for a ful second before he realized that there was the faint print of a man’s shoe in the mud before it. Fal on took a deep breath.
“Kevin! Jake! Pietre’s here!”
No sooner had Fal on said the words than the air near the bush shimmered, and Pietre appeared.
The old vampire shot Fal on a vicious look before turning and sprinting deeper into the forest.
Fal on fol owed automatical y. There was no way that he was going to give Wicked’s greatest supernatural menace time to hide again. No way that he was going to give up the chase the one time he actual y had Pietre on the run. Though thinking about it like that only made Fal on wonder why Pietre was running. Ordinarily, he would have thought nothing of turning to fight with Fal on, secure in his age and strength, but now he fled.
Was it just that he knew he was outnumbered?
No, Fal on could see the way Pietre held his arm now, the way it hung limply. He was hurt, vulnerable. Fal on put on a surge of speed. Pietre matched it, but he didn’t pul away. The fight must have taken a lot out of the older vampire, though he stil managed to keep ahead of Fal on.
It didn’t matter. Two shapes burst from the undergrowth ahead, and both Kevin and Jake bore Pietre to the ground. They fel with him, stil in their human forms, grappling and brawling in the seconds it took for Fal on to make up the distance.
Fal on paused on the edge of that fight. He’d dropped his stake somewhere along the way, but it was easy enough for him to reach out and snap a sturdy looking branch from a nearby tree. The end was wet with sap, but it was jagged enough for his needs.
Fal on stepped forward.
Jake and Kevin succeeded in rol ing Pietre over onto his back. Fal on stood over him. Like this, injured and in the grip of the others, Wicked’s master vampire didn’t look like much. Yet how much pain had this ordinary looking creature caused? How many deaths had he been responsible for? Those of Briony’s parents, Tracey from school, and probably hundreds of others.
Fal on’s.
Fal on stood there for a long moment. Staking vampires in the heat of battle had been one thing, but he had expected staking someone in cold blood, even someone like Pietre, to feel different. Somehow though, Fal on couldn’t feel anything in that moment except satisfaction that this was final y going to end.
“Wait!” Pietre said. He wasn’t begging, even then. He was issuing a command.
Fal on looked down at him with contempt. “No.”
“You’l wait if you ever want to see Briony again.”
Fal on hesitated. He knew the other vampire had to be lying. He knew there was nothing someone like Pietre could do to help him get Briony back. Yet could he risk it? Could he real y risk kil ing Pietre if he might know a way to help?
“We need him alive,” Kevin said, though he didn’t loosen his grip on Pietre. “We need him alive, Fal on.”
Fal on almost, almost did it anyway. But for Briony, he would do anything. Even let something like Pietre live. With a sigh of disgust, Fal on 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?”
Chapter 2
Pietre lay looking up at his younger captors.
For a moment, just a moment, he had been convinced that the vampire boy might actual y 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 final y, one of his creations had the ruthlessness it took to take what was his. Fal on 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 stil 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. Stil , 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 al 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 al 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 al ies like the young Fal on 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.
Fal on, 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 Fal on and destroy Kevin. Thinking of which…
