Shifter (Wicked Woods #6) Read online

  “And then you couldn’t open it again. You still don’t have full control over the kingdom. You need to unlock the power of the scepter for that.”

  “So you’ve backed me into a corner,” Briony said.

  Josh nodded. “That’s what politics is. Being pushed and pulled in directions you don’t want, trying to make the best of it. I know. I know that better than anyone. Do you think I wanted to be a king?”

  “So you’re going to make Briony suffer because your life didn’t turn out the way you wanted?” Fallon demanded.

  “I’m not going to do anything now,” Josh said. “Because when we’re married, I want us to be happy. I’m not going to force Briony into this. But Briony, you need to start thinking. Without the power of the scepter… well, how are you ever going to get home to see all those people you care about so much? If you ever want to see them again, you’ll marry me.”

  Chapter 5

  Kevin rushed with Jake back towards George’s Diner, leaving Carol behind with the other werewolves at the school to deal with everything that had happened there. It wasn’t ideal, but maybe having to help out a bunch of frightened kids would at least remind Carol that people who weren’t werewolves still mattered. Maybe. After that, Kevin had left her with instructions to head back to the mansion and wait for him. With this new threat from Pietre, they couldn’t take the risk of straying away from home.

  It seemed, when they got to the diner, that George had taken the same attitude. Outside, the holy water sprinklers were running, sending up sprays of water that Jake had to dart between. Inside, there were dozens of people, far more than would normally have been there in the middle of the day. Kevin recognized a lot of them as members of the Preservation Society, their vampire killing weapons carried openly now, but there were other people there too. Ordinary people, probably, who had just found out how dangerous their town really was.

  Maisy and Steve were there too. Briony’s two geek friends were sitting at one of the diner’s tables with a small pile of weaponry between them, apparently arguing good naturedly over which of them was better with them.

  “How can you be better than me with a crossbow when you’re wearing glasses?” Steve pointed out. He’d cut his dark hair shorter recently, and seemed to have lost some of the slender softness that he’d had when Kevin first met him. Apparently, the fight against the vampires had been good for him. Or maybe it was just that he wanted to look good for Maisy.

  “I think it must just be that I have better hand eye coordination than you do,” Maisy countered. She kept her dark hair tied back in pigtails, her round glasses doing a lot to mask actually quite pretty features. Like Steve, she seemed a little fitter, a little harder, than she had when Kevin had first met her. All the fighting with vampires and running around in the woods have strengthened them in more ways than physically.

  “What are you two doing here?” Kevin asked.

  Maisy answered. “We were heading over to school after a study break when we saw the vampires. There were too many to fight, and this seemed like the best place to defend.”

  “When in doubt, run away,” Steve added. It probably wasn’t just a personal motto. The Preservation Society had survived as long as it had mostly by knowing that in a fair fight, there was no chance of its members winning against vampires. That was why they didn’t fight fair.

  Actually, Steve and Maisy had helped to change that a little. Neither one was much in a fight, but they were both clever, they’d both watched far too many sci-fi series, and Steve in particular liked to tinker with things. The result was that the Preservation Society now had more than a few inventive toys that might just allow its members to fight vampires more smartly. Like the sprinklers outside.

  “It looks like no one has attacked this place,” Jake said, looking around at the people there. A few of them looked at him cautiously, but those were mostly the ones who didn’t know him.

  Kevin nodded. “I guess Pietre is more interested in hitting easy targets right now.”

  “Why?” Maisy asked. “What’s going on?”

  “Pietre is trying to create more vampires,” Kevin explained, sitting down. “He’s obviously scared of something, he was talking about something the Hugtandalfers control that might be able to destroy vampires.”

  “Does Briony know what it is?” Maisy asked.

  “She’s on the other side again, in Palisor.” Kevin hesitated. “With Josh.”

  Maisy reached out to put a hand over his. She obviously knew how much it hurt for him to be so far away from Briony. But this wasn’t about his feelings. They had to focus on getting Briony back, on stopping what was happening in Wicked, and on dealing with Pietre. That was why Kevin reached into his back pocket, searching for something he’d found while going through the werewolves’ old things. It had seemed older than the rest. Stranger. He just hoped it had survived all the transformations he’d gone through since.

  It was a piece of parchment, which he unfolded carefully, putting it down on the table between them. There were lines scratched on it, coming off a central stave.

  “What’s this?” Maisy asked.

  “I was hoping you could tell me,” Kevin said. “I was looking through the werewolves’ records, looking for clues, and this is obviously the oldest thing there. I can’t read it though.”

  “This really is old,” Maisy said.

  “Well,” Jake said, coming over to join them, “Josh’s family go back to the original werewolves, so that makes a kind of sense.”

  “Is there any way you can translate it?” Kevin asked.

  “Maybe,” Steve said, pulling out a laptop from under the table. “I mean, there are translation programs for most things, even languages you wouldn’t believe. The only problem is if this is a language nobody on Earth has ever spoken, like one that’s exclusive to Palisor?”

  “Palisor and this world are linked,” Maisy pointed out. “And Archer was able to talk to us, so why would there be languages no one could read?” She started to look over the fragment of parchment.

  “Could they be some kind of hieroglyphics?” Kevin asked.

  “They look more like Oggam to me,” Maisy said. “That’s like the closest thing to a written form most of the old celtic languages, like gaelic, had. Try that, Steve.”

  Steve did, though the two of them argued over a few of the letters as they went, gradually putting it into Steve’s computer and letting that work out a translation.

  “Right,” Maisy said. “It’s not exact, because I don’t think that the language is quite the same, and anyway, the people who make these programs don’t seem to have had vampires and werewolves in mind…”

  “But?” Kevin prompted.

  “Well, it probably says something like ‘when vampires were first made, they were filled with so much evilness that they sought to rule the world, dominate all, and make all those not vampires into slaves or food. Then the werewolves emerged to fight them, to be a guardian against the vampires of the dark. First, the werewolves fought against them over prey, but when they discovered the world of Palisor, stumbling through a…’ well, it has to be the gateway, doesn’t it ‘…they gained power. The people there sought werewolves as guards and companions. The most powerful of the werewolves was always the consort of whoever took the crown, and the blending of their powers created a force that drove the vampires from Palisor, destroying those who did not flee.”

  “That would explain why Pietre was worried,” Steve said.

  “But I’m not sure it helps us,” Kevin replied, shaking his head. “I was hoping for something that would tell me how to get back into Palisor without a dragon.”

  Steve looked puzzled. “I thought shifters could go through?”

  “Only one at a time,” Kevin said.

  “Like kids in a store?” Maisy said. “But that’s…”

  “I guess werewolves are too powerful,” Kevin said. “That, or maybe even the Hugtandalfer are worried about what would happen if the
thing that could destroy the vampires were unleashed. Take another look at the fragment I got from Josh’s place. Is there anything about getting around the restriction?”

  Steve shook his head. “There’s just what Maisy read out.”

  “So I can’t get in?”

  “Not unless you could get Josh to come out,” Maisy suggested.

  Kevin nodded. “You’re right. But what could get Josh to come out of Palisor willingly? What would make him give up everything there? Give up Briony?”

  “His kingdom,” Jake said. “You know how much Josh likes being in charge here.”

  Kevin took a deep breath as an idea hit him. “You’re right. He’s always so careful about reminding people that he’s in charge. Even when he left me here, he made such an effort to say that I was only filling in. If he thought I was taking over here, then he’d have to come back to try to reassert his claim.”

  “And try to kick your ass,” Jake pointed out.

  Kevin shrugged. “He could try. Right now, I’d like a chance to get my hands on him. He tricked all of us.”

  “So how are you going to take his kingdom off him?” Maisy asked.

  “Well, for a start, I’m going to declare myself king,” Kevin said. “The first of a whole new line of werewolves. He’ll hate that when he hears about it.”

  “If he hears about it,” Steve pointed out. “He’s on the other side of the gate, remember?”

  Kevin shrugged. “They found out about Briony even while they were over there. They can see here a lot easier than we can see there.”

  “Okay,” Maisy said, “maybe he’d find out. But why would the werewolves accept you. I mean, I know you’re alpha, but can you just declare that you’re their king? Don’t you have to have royal blood, or something?”

  “Or he could marry into royalty,” Jake said, with a thoughtful expression.

  Maisy and Steve both looked at him, smiling as they obviously caught on to whatever idea Briony’s brother was having. It took Kevin a moment longer.

  “What are you three… on no. No. I am not marrying Carol.”

  “But it’s the perfect solution,” Jake insisted.

  “Perfect for whom?” Kevin demanded.

  “Well, for all the vampires who aren’t a threat to humans,” Maisy pointed out. “I mean, if there’s genuinely something out there that can destroy all vampires, do you want it here? It could kill Jake.”

  “Even so…”

  “And he’s protective of his sister,” Jake added. “That alone might be enough to get him to come back here.”

  “It would be if I were going to marry her,” Kevin said. “But I’m not. Do you think I’d betray Briony like that?”

  “You’d be doing this for Briony,” Maisy said. “You heard what we translated. Josh is probably in Palisor even now, trying to find a way to get her to marry him.”

  Kevin shook his head. “Briony would never do that. She wouldn’t agree to marry him.”

  “She might if it would save her entire kingdom,” Steve said.

  “And maybe she won’t get much of a choice,” Maisy added. “You did history at school, right? Princesses never got a lot of say in who they married. If it’s like that with the Hugtandalfer…”

  “Then it could already be too late,” Steve finished for her. “And it isn’t like you’d actually need to marry Carol. Just kind of announce the engagement, at least enough that Josh will believe it and come back.”

  “It would have to be a long engagement,” Kevin said, shaking his head as he said it. Was he really considering this?

  “It would have to be a short engagement,” Maisy countered. “Josh won’t come back if he doesn’t think there’s an immediate threat.”

  Kevin thought about that for a moment or two, trying to think of a way around it, but he knew that Maisy was right. It was only when he was married that he would be in a position to declare himself the werewolves’ king officially, and it was only the threat of that which would bring Josh back.

  “Okay,” he said at last. “I’ll do it. But this is strictly pretend. There is no way I’d actually do something like this. It would hurt Briony too much.”

  Chapter 6

  Briony looked over at Josh and said the only thing she could think of. “I need time to think about all this.”

  “Every moment you waste is a moment when there are still vampires in the world,” Josh pointed out.

  “And I need time to decide what I want to do about that,” Briony replied. “Don’t try to pressure me any more than you have Josh. You’ve done enough.”

  Josh nodded, almost to himself. “I hope so.”

  Sophie stepped over to him and Fallon. “I think that for now, boys, my niece would like some time alone. Come on, I don’t know about you, but I want to get to know the layout of the Cloud Palace.”

  Josh started to shake his head. “I don’t…”

  “It wasn’t a suggestion,” Sophie said, her hand clamping down on his forearm. The three of them left. Briony guessed that her great aunt was planning to have a talk with the two of them, but right then, she couldn’t think of anything Sophie could say that might change anything. Josh knew what he wanted, and he’d put her in a position where she didn’t have many choices. As far as she knew, he was right. Without the full power of the scepter, she wouldn’t be able to control the gates enough to either leave or bring Kevin into Palisor. Not that she knew that much about the gates, even then. They were just things that had been in the way when she’d been trying to get Sophie back or get back home.

  But she could think of someone who probably knew a lot more.

  Briony found Archer in an enclosed courtyard garden, with climbing flowers covering the walls and sunlight streaming down between the towers of the palace to reflect off a deep pool set in the middle. The dragon was in his human form, that of a gently, almost mischievously good looking boy around her age with white blond hair and golden tanned skin. Today, he wore a white tunic decorated with designs picked out in gold, which seemed to ripple as he turned to her.

  “Briony, there you are. You’re just in time.”

  “In time for what? Archer, I wanted to talk to you.”

  But Archer put his finger to his lips then and pointed to the pool. He might be the dragon bound to her, but that didn’t always mean he did what she told him. On the other hand, so far, he’d always done what was in her best interests, so Briony went along with it for the moment, staying quiet and staring at the limpid water.

  It didn’t stay still and clear for long. Instead, it shifted, ripples appearing on the surface, joining together and shifting until they became images. Briony wasn’t sure what she was looking at until she caught sight of Pietre, the master vampire’s features utterly unmistakable there in the water.

  “It’s showing us Wicked?” Briony asked.

  “Yes.” Archer nodded to the water. “It shows us snatches of what is happening there, or anywhere else.”

  Briony kept watching for a moment or two while Pietre stood in front of a group of other vampires. They were busy feeding on people they’d dragged into an alley. No, Briony realized, not just feeding on them, because they were giving their victims blood as well as taking it. They were transforming them openly, in the middle of Wicked.

  Briony clenched her fists at that sight. She could feel anger bubbling up inside her. Anger and frustration, because there wasn’t anything she could do to stop Pietre from here in Palisor. Though that wasn’t true, was it? She could stop him right now, if she only married Josh. But then Fallon would die. The thought of that choice made her feel sick.

  “Why are you showing me this, Archer?” she asked. “Are you trying to get me to marry Josh?”

  Archer shrugged. “That’s your choice to make, not mine. I’m your dragon. Whatever you decide, that doesn’t change. I just thought you’d want to see Wicked again. This…” Archer gestured to where the vampires were bringing in another citizen of Wicked, and another. “This is
just what’s happening there.”

  “But what’s happening there is that Pietre’s going berserk,” Briony said. Then she shook her head. “No, it’s worse than that, because that would just be mindless. This… it’s like he has some kind of plan. It’s systematic, and he’s worse than ever. I thought, after everything that had happened with Marcus, and Sophie…”

  Archer shrugged. “Someone like Pietre doesn’t change easily.”

  “But he’s changing plenty of people,” Briony said. “We can’t let him do that, Archer. He can’t keep changing people into vampires. Where is the Preservation Society?”

  The pool shifted briefly, showing an image of people crammed into George’s Diner.

  “I guess they’re doing what they can,” Archer said, “but they aren’t as strong as the vampires. Kevin is there, with the werewolves, leading them. Maybe they can do something before the vampires get to the gate.”

  “The gate keeps vampires out,” Briony pointed out. “That’s what it’s there for.”

  “It might,” Archer said. “Then again, it might not.”

  Briony stared at him. “What are you saying, Archer?”

  “The gate is… unstable.” Archer paused. “I can’t think of a better way to say it. It comes and goes, and I can feel the weakness there. Your father’s prohibition against the werewolves seems to be intact, but the rest of it… I think maybe the vampires could come through if they wanted.”

  “Is there anything we can do about that?” Briony asked, and then saw the look on Archer’s face. “Let me guess. If I marry Josh, I’ll have the power?”

  Archer spread his hands. “Sorry. I know it isn’t what you want to hear. I mean, it isn’t certain, but the prophecy…”

  “I’m starting to hate that prophecy,” Briony said with feeling.

  Archer nodded. “I’d kind of guessed that. I could be wrong though. We all could. The truth is, no one really knows what’s happening. We haven’t seen this before. Everything could be different than the way we think. Anyone who tells you that they know exactly what you need to do next is a liar.”