04 Silence

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.

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 occasiona
lly
sweep through the trees in summer. It spread
all
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
called
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,
valleys
, rivers, and streams…this wilderness which
will
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, eventua
lly
, 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
small
place
called
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.

Fallon
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 fina
lly
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.
Fallon
had found himself fighting with three at once, and he was almost as shocked to
still
be there as the vampire he had just staked was to lose.

Fallon
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.

Fallon
grimaced. He thought that psycho vampire he had fought for an hour and then fina
lly
staked, was the last of Pietre’s evil
follower
. There were a few of Pietre’s vampires left. A couple kept his brother Kevin’s wolf form at bay, while the
sma
ller
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
Fallon
, and he charged forward at the remaining vampires. He heard the sound of someone
yelling
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
Fallon
.
Fallon
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
Fallon
brushed him off.

“Where is Briony?” he demanded. “Where is she?”

The other vampire laughed and lashed out with a kick that forced
Fallon
to stumble back. It charged forward, forcing
Fallon
to block attack after attack.

Even then, some of his hits made it through, scoring deep lines on
Fallon
’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
small
wolf, and
Fallon
had
all
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
Fallon
clung on.

With a mighty effort, he forced the stake home, letting go of it as the vampire died.

The other one was
still
struggling with his brother. It was doing
well,
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
Fallon
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.
Fallon
wouldn’t even have to do anything. It would be so easy to just stand there. So easy to just-From beside
Fallon
, 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
Fallon
had plenty of time to push it from his brother.

That done, he stood and simply stared out over the meadow. There was
still
no sign of Briony. Nor of Archer, the dragon-shifter. Did that mean that they had gone through the gate?
Fallon
had urged Briony to do it if there was no other choice, but had it actua
lly
come to that?

Or was her body out there somewhere, hidden in the grass? Had they failed, had
he
failed, to keep her alive? Just that thought was enough to make something ache within
Fallon
, 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
tall
,
muscular, dark-haired frame.

“Did you see what happened to Briony?”
Fallon
demanded.

Kevin shook his head.
Fallon
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,
Fallon
. We’re
all
hurting here.”

Fallon
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
well
have been flying.
Fallon
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
Fallon
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
Fallon
had said to Briony, he hadn’t wanted that.

Just as he started to
fall
,
Fallon
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,
Fallon
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
Fallon
’s shoulder.

“What are you doing?” his brother demanded.

“Looking for Briony,”
Fallon
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
Fallon
. 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
Fallon
to shake his head rather than giving his brother the fight he so obviously wanted. “I think Pietre is
still
out there.”

Jake looked up at
Fallon
sharply. “Where?”

Fallon
pointed. “That way, I think, but he’s trying to hide.”

“Then
we
’ll
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.
Fallon
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
Fallon
didn’t look for him directly. Instead he tried to pay attention to
sma
ller
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?
Fallon
stared at it for a
full
second before he realized that there was the faint print of a man’s shoe in the mud before it.
Fallon
took a deep breath.

“Kevin! Jake! Pietre’s here!”

No sooner had
Fallon
said the words than the air near the bush shimmered, and Pietre appeared.

The old vampire shot
Fallon
a vicious look before turning and sprinting deeper into the forest.

Fallon
fol
lowed
automatica
lly
. 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 actua
lly
had Pietre on the run. Though thinking about it like that only made
Fallon
wonder why Pietre
was
running. Ordinarily, he would have thought nothing of turning to fight with
Fallon
, secure in his age and strength, but now he fled.

Was it just that he knew he was outnumbered?

No,
Fallon
could see the way Pietre held his arm now, the way it hung limply. He was hurt, vulnerable.
Fallon
put on a surge of speed. Pietre matched it, but he didn’t
pull
away. The fight must have taken a lot out of the older vampire, though he
still
managed to keep ahead of
Fallon
.

It didn’t matter. Two shapes burst from the undergrowth ahead, and both Kevin and Jake bore Pietre to the ground. They
fell
with him,
still
in their human forms, grappling and brawling in the seconds it took for
Fallon
to make up the distance.

Fallon
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.

Fallon
stepped forward.

Jake and Kevin succeeded in
rolling
Pietre over onto his back.
Fallon
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, a
nd probably hundreds of others.

Fallon
’s.

Fallon
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,
Fallon
couldn’t feel anything in that moment except satisfaction that this was fina
lly
going to end.

“Wait!” Pietre said. He wasn’t begging, even then. He was issuing a command.

Fallon
looked down at him with contempt. “No.”

“
You
’ll
wait if you ever want to see Briony again.”

Fallon
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 rea
lly
risk
killing
Pietre if he might know a way to help?