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  Briony felt the mist in the center of the gate part for them, and then they were standing on grass. Briony slid from Kevin’s back, looking around. Inevitably, on this side, the area around the gate contained a small meadow with a stream running through it, complete with wildflowers and a few unnaturally vibrant trees dotted here and there on the grass. All the potential ways to Palisor looked like that. For those searching for Palisor, it made it harder to guess at where there might be a gate. For Briony right then though, it made it impossible to figure out a way back to Wicked.

  Assuming that they were close to Wicked. They assumed that all the portals to Palisor from their world were close to Wicked, but what if they were really hundreds of miles away? Or a thousand? Who was to say that they weren’t on the other side of the world completely? No, Briony told herself, the dragons wouldn’t have gone through if the portal couldn’t get them close to the location of the scepter.

  “Do either of you know where we are?” Briony asked, wanting to be certain. She wanted to know how quickly they could get back to the Edge Inn from where they were. She knew that they ought to head straight for the scepter, but right then, she wanted to get back to the place that had been home first.

  Kevin transformed back into his human self, looking around. “I know the spot,” he said. “Fallon and I have been here before.”

  “We’re close to the werewolf king’s home,” Fallon said. “If we walk quickly, we should be able to get to it without too much trouble.”

  Kevin sniffed the air. It was an odd gesture when he was in his human form, yet it was one that strangely suited him then. “I don’t think that there’s any need to go anywhere. Wait.”

  Almost as soon as he said that, a howl cut the air. More howls followed it. They stopped almost simultaneously, and a series of large, heavily furred forms padded out from the trees. A huge black wolf was at their head, padding along with the confidence that came from being the alpha male of the group. It was followed closely by a much smaller wolf and almost a dozen others, which spread out in a half circle around the gate, sitting down on their haunches and regarding them with the too intelligent stares that marked them out as so much more than normal wolves.

  Briony found herself remembering in that moment how frightened she had been the first time she found herself surrounded by a ring of werewolves. Many of her other times around this particular pack had not been good ones either. They were wild and dangerous, occasionally even savage. There had been times when Briony hadn’t wanted to see any of them ever again. Now though, she smiled.

  “We’re home,” she said. “We’re really home.”

  The werewolves were proof of that. They sat there at the edge of the clearing for a second or two longer, and then began to transform one by one. There was Josh, the handsome preppy looking and manipulative king of the werewolves, who nodded a welcome to Briony and gave Kevin a cautious look. There was Brian, the college-aged brother of Josh, who had made it clear that he liked Briony, and hadn’t reacted well when she’d told him that she wasn’t interested in him. There was Josh’s sister Carol, the brown wavy-haired werewolf girl who had never liked Briony much. From the look Carol gave her now, that hadn’t changed, despite Briony’s role in helping to save Carol from Pietre’s vampires before she left for Palisor. The whole werewolf family was there, or at least what remained of it. Carol’s twin brother Channing was dead, killed by vampires.

  One more werewolf transformed, the small one that had been padding along beside Josh. Briony had known who it would be even before it transformed into the familiar form of a young, sandy-haired boy with bright blue eyes. Even so, it wasn’t until he did so that Briony smiled and threw her arms wide to hug him.

  “Jake!” she said as she hugged her half werewolf, half vampire little brother. “I am so glad to see you again.”

  Chapter 6

  Briony hugged her brother, glad to see him once more. She pulled back to look at him. Nothing had changed, of course. She hadn’t been gone for that long, and in any case, no matter how long she was gone for, Jake would not change. He was stuck as he was forever. An awkward prepubescent vampire and werewolf.

  “You seem sad,” Jake said, “and there’s something different about you, Briony. What is it?”

  Briony opened her mouth to reply and Jake obviously saw her fangs, because he turned to Fallon and started to leap at him. Briony reacted on instinct, grabbing her little brother. It shouldn’t have worked. He should have been able to break free easily, yet with her newfound strength, Briony had no problems holding onto him.

  “What have you done to Briony?” Jake yelled at Fallon. “You’ve turned her! You’ve made her like us. I’ll kill you. I swear I’ll kill you.”

  That might have been funny to someone else watching it, a tiny kid like Jake threatening Fallon, but being half werewolf and half vampire made Jake ferocious enough that he might just be able to carry out his threat.

  “Jake,” Briony said, “calm down.”

  “I’m not going to calm down. He’s turned you into a vampire like us.”

  “No,” Briony said with a shake of her head, “he hasn’t.”

  “But you’re stronger than you were,” Jake said. “You’re stronger, and you have fangs, and…”

  “I’m like Aunt Sophie, Jake,” Briony insisted. “I’m not a vampire. I’m like she is. I’m a hugtandalf. A fanged elf.”

  “What?” Jake asked incredulously. “Is there really such a thing? And if she’s a fanged elf, and you’re a fanged elf…”

  Briony hadn’t been expecting to have to do this so soon, but there didn’t seem to be any other choice right then. She turned Jake around, holding him by the shoulders.

  “I’m still your sister,” she said, “and you’re still my annoying little brother. I still love you. It’s just that it turns out you’re my half-brother. It’s complicated.”

  “You’re saying that Mom…”

  “She didn’t cheat on Dad. She was pregnant with me when she met him. They didn’t tell us. I guess they didn’t know what to say.”

  “Yes,” Jake said, with a sudden smile. “I guess it would be kind of hard explaining to you about not being human.”

  “But we knew that part anyway,” Briony pointed out. “We just didn’t know what kind of non-human I was. Now we do. It really doesn’t change anything, Jake.” She shook her head. “No, that’s not true. It changes a lot, but it doesn’t get you out of being my brother.”

  “And you’re sure Fallon didn’t do anything to you?” Jake asked.

  Briony nodded. “I’m sure.”

  “You know,” Carol said from over by the side of the clearing. “We can all hear you over here. I wish I couldn’t. I think I’m going to throw up.”

  “It’s good to see you too, Carol,” Briony shot back. It occurred to her that she didn’t have as much to fear from the werewolf girl anymore. She could be a total bitch, quite literally, given what she was, but now, Briony was strong enough to handle her. “Have you been getting yourself captured by any vampires recently?”

  Carol glowered at her and started forward, but she stopped, looking over at Kevin.

  “Hey, Kevin. You came back. I was getting worried.”

  “I’m fine,” Kevin assured her. He didn’t sound particularly encouraging, but he didn’t shut Carol down completely either. Briony guessed that after what he had seen between her and Fallon by the entrance to the gate, he was still angry. Briony could understand that, but she didn’t see what she could do about it. She also didn’t see why even that would have him expressing an interest in Carol.

  “Am I going to be the last one here everyone greets?” Josh asked, stepping forward past his sister towards Briony. He was half joking, but Briony knew that he was deadly serious. Josh cared about his family, about his pack, but he also cared a lot about his position in that pack. He was royalty, and he didn’t like other people forgetting. Especially not someone like Kevin, who might actually be strong enough to
take his position off him if he wanted it. “I am the king around here, after all.”

  “Actually, you aren’t the only royal here, anymore,” Fallon said.

  Briony wished that he hadn’t said anything. It was the kind of comment that could only make things more complicated. Especially with Josh. With the others, Briony knew where she stood. Carol hated her. Brian wanted her to accept him as a potential boyfriend. With Josh though, things were always more complicated. He was on their side, but he still liked to play games.

  “Really?” Josh asked. “What do you mean?”

  Briony looked around the assembled group. “It doesn’t matter, Josh.”

  “I think it does.” There was just a hint of steel there.

  Briony sighed. She ought to have known that he would react like that. “It’s a little complicated,” she said, “but it looks like I might be the heir to a kingdom on the other side of the gate. My biological father was… well, the king of the hugtandalfer. It doesn’t mean anything here.”

  Josh looked at her for several seconds, and Briony could almost see him trying to work out what that information meant for him.

  “Well,” he said, “that definitely makes things more interesting, doesn’t it? And your absence seems to have had one or two other beneficial effects. We haven’t seen Pietre for a little while. Or most of his vampires.”

  Briony shook her head. “I’m not sure that will last. He went to Palisor in search of power. Now, he may have come back.”

  “So you couldn’t even take care of him while you were busy playing princess?” Carol demanded. “And you don’t have that aunt of yours.”

  Josh shot his sister a look that made her fall silent, but Briony had to admit, the werewolf girl had a point. She’d gone over to Palisor in the hope of bringing back Aunt Sophie so that she could help to stop Pietre. Now, not only had she failed to bring back Aunt Sophie, but Pietre might well be back, and a much worse vampire than him, in the form of Marcus, definitely was. Life was about to get complicated around Wicked. More than usual.

  “What I don’t get,” Kevin said, “is what you’re all doing out here. Why come all the way to the gate?”

  Brian answered that one when his brother didn’t seem inclined to. “We saw the dragons. Two of them this time.”

  “That would be Archer and Fletcher,” Briony explained. “They’re dragon shifters, not just dragons. They can become human when they want to. Does that mean you know which way they went?”

  “You need to follow them?” Josh asked, taking over from Brian once more.

  “They’re friends,” Briony said. “Plus…”

  “Yes?”

  Briefly, Briony wondered how much to tell Josh about what they were doing back there. For all that the werewolf leader was their ally, the wellbeing of his people came before anything else for him. If Briony told him about the scepter, wouldn’t he want its power as much as anyone? No, she decided, she had to take the risk. Josh with the scepter wouldn’t be nearly as bad as Marcus with it.

  “There’s an item we’re looking for,” Briony explained. “A scepter. It contains the power of hugtandalfer royalty, and would allow whoever held it to control the gates between their world and ours. A vampire, a very powerful vampire, has come across searching for it, and if he finds it, he will be able to bring across all his kind from the other side, or lure over vampires from here with the promise of Palisor. With both groups of vampires working together, we wouldn’t be able to stop them.”

  “This vampire is as powerful as Pietre?” Josh asked.

  Briony shook her head. “Marcus is thousands of years older than Pietre. He could kill him easily, and he’s far more dangerous.”

  “We have been tracking a vampire,” Josh revealed. “We caught its scent as we were looking for the dragons, but we lost it again. It was close enough to the gate that we decided to wait here to see if anything else would come through. This vampire, it wore furs?”

  Briony nodded. “That sounds like him. Actually, all his men dress the same, but as far as I know, Marcus is the only one to make it through. Even if it isn’t him you need to be careful. All his vampires are old and very strong.”

  Josh nodded. “But as you said, none of them have made it through.”

  “I hope not.”

  “If none of them have made it through,” Carol asked, “can one of you answer a question? Who are they?”

  She pointed, and as Briony turned to follow the line of her pointing finger, figures stepped from the woods around them. They were tall, powerful-looking figures dressed in furs, chainmail and other pieces of armor. They all had the long hair and cruel expressions of Marcus’s vampires, and they all carried weapons.

  How had they gotten there? Briony realized the answer to that almost at once. They had followed Marcus. She had been so glad that no vampires had managed to follow her, Fallon and Kevin through the gate, but those had been only some of Marcus’ followers. Others of them had already made it across after their leader, following him and the dragons through the gate. They must have been waiting in the woods for orders from Marcus. That, or they were guarding the area around the gate as much as the wolves were.

  One of their numbers stepped forward. Unusually for Marcus’ vampires, this one was a woman. She was over six feet tall, and dressed in the same furs that the others were. Her long, pale blonde hair was tied back in a waist length braid running from one side of her head. The other side was shaved to reveal a swirling, spiraling tattoo. She carried a sword that curved almost delicately.

  “Marcus said you would come, girl,” she said with a smile. “Come, there does not need to be violence. Give yourself to us. We will drink from you and take you to him.”

  Briony squared her shoulders. “You think it will be that easy? We have werewolves with us. You know what werewolves do to vampires, don’t you?”

  The female vampire laughed and shook her head. “I think that if everything were as it is in Palisor, the puny vampires here would not live very long. And even if you have werewolves… well, werewolves can die too. They can be new furs for us to wear.”

  She twirled her sword in an elegant circle, making it hum through the air. Briony drew the sword she had taken from a fallen vampire.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said.

  The female vampire looked at the blade. “That is Barlus’ sword. You bested him? Still, he was weak, and you will be punished for it. I will deliver you to Marcus sniveling on your knees now. The only question remaining is whether you wish your friends to die.”

  Kevin stepped forward. “Who said that any of us were going to die?”

  He transformed into a wolf, even as he sprang forward at the waiting vampires. Behind him, Josh’s pack followed suit.

  Chapter 7

  The vampires came forward in a rush, charging so quickly that Josh’s werewolves were barely able to react. They simply weren’t ready for vampires so much more deadly than the waifs and strays Pietre had turned into his kind over the years. Briony saw one of the vampires smash a short axe into the side of a werewolf she did not know, while Josh himself barely avoided a cut aimed at his head.

  The female vampire who seemed to lead this bunch in Marcus’ absence charged at Briony. She did not use her sword, but instead drove an open handed blow into Briony’s sternum, knocking her to the ground and forcing her to roll. She managed to scramble to her feet in time to avoid a kick.

  The vampire smiled. “You are fast, girl. Good. I would not want this to be too easy.”

  “It won’t be easy at all,” Briony promised, lunging with her sword.

  The vampire avoided it, then slapped a second thrust aside with the curved blade she held. She swung a riposte at Briony that made Briony dance back hurriedly to stop herself from being beheaded. The vampire didn’t follow the blow up though, and Briony realized that she had one advantage at least. The vampires wanted her alive. They weren’t going to try to kill her, even when Briony was trying t
o kill them.

  They weren’t being as gentle with the werewolves. Axes and swords rose and fell with more than human speed, forcing werewolves to jump aside. Where they couldn’t get clear, blood flowed. The line of werewolves around the clearing buckled, Josh’s pack being forced back by the weight of the charge.

  “Soon, you will be alone,” the female vampire promised Briony. “Then, I will carve my name onto your flesh, so that when Marcus receives you, he will know that it was Freya who captured you. Perhaps he will even let me drain you when he is done with you.”

  Freya swung her sword in a complex figure eight attack then, battering against every parry Briony made. Each clash of steel on steel sent shockwaves down her arm, yet now, Briony was able to withstand them. More than that, knowing that the vampires did not want to kill her gave her an advantage. Perhaps a crucial one. She rushed forward almost suicidally close to Freya, ignoring the vampire’s sword. Sure enough, Freya did not make a killing thrust at Briony, but settled for merely catching Briony’s blade with her own.

  It was what Briony had been hoping for. She kicked out as hard as she could, catching Freya in the stomach and knocking the vampire away from her. She spun and skewered another of Marcus’ vampires through the heart, stepping aside as cold blue fire leapt up to claim it.

  The werewolves were fighting back too. They shifted back and forth between their human and canine forms as they thought, so that one moment a vampire might be grappling with a young man or woman over a weapon, and the next they might be facing a wolf biting at their throat.

  For the moment at least, the sheer surprise of that seemed to be allowing the wolves to hold their own, because Marcus’ vampires had not fought werewolves in a long time, yet it was clear that the situation could not last. The vampires were faster and stronger than Josh’s pack were used to dealing with, plus they were well armed. Not with silver, admittedly, so any wounds from their swords and axes should heal quickly, but the vampires inflicted damage on a massive scale, making it hard to tell what would heal and what would not. Even as Briony watched, a vampire skewered a werewolf in its wolf form.