The Red Wolf (The Wolf Fey #2) (17 page)

“I think it’s time you left. We don’t have any rooms. Try someplace else.”

“That isn’t very friendly,” the woman said, frowning.

“Like I said, try someplace else.”

Something about the couple changed then. They were still smiling, but to Briony, those smiles looked a lot more predatory. The way their canine teeth suddenly looked a lot longer probably had something to do with it. They started to take a step forward.

So fast that Briony barely saw it, Aunt Sophie reached into her robe and drew out two objects. One was a glass vial, which she waved as though the contents were dangerous. The other was, of all things, a large silver crucifix. It looked to Briony like a moment from some bad horror movie, except that the visitors
did
look scared, and they
did
reel back from the sight of the cross.

They hissed like angry cats, but didn’t come any closer. Aunt Sophie uncorked the vial in her hand, and they scrambled backwards as if they were in a film that was being rewinded. They turned, running into the nearby woods and vanishing from sight in the darkness.

Briony stood there staring where the couple had been a few minutes ago, her brain and body paralyzed to the reality of what she had witnessed with her own eyes. It couldn’t be true. They only exist in movies, books, and folklore. She bit her lips. She could scream, or faint, or try running up to her room and barricading the door, but those all struck her as stupid things to do. Instead she settled for a nervous grin, trying to remain calm for Aunt Sophie.

“Um… were those… vampires?” She said it in the tone of someone fully expecting, and frankly rather hoping, that her great aunt would tell her not to be so silly.

Instead, Aunt Sophie nodded as she shut the door. “They were.” She paused and then said with a wry smile. “Welcome to Wicked, Briony.”

“And that’s the welcoming committee, is it?” Briony was starting to feel a little light-headed.

“Oh, they’re nothing. Amateurs who can’t get the hang of the fact that you don’t wander around wearing evening dress if you want to prey on people. It’s the ones that look just like you or me that are the problem. Well, them and a few… other things. You get all kinds in Wicked.”

They certainly did. Briony considered fainting, but thought better of it. Somehow with Aunt Sophie around, Briony felt she needed to hold herself together. Aunt Sophie wasn’t the crying or fainting type, and for some reason, Briony wanted her to see she can be strong, too.

“Um… what’s in the vial?”

“Holy water, obviously. I bless up a big batch now and then. I’ll tell you, Briony, my life got a lot easier the day it became possible to be ordained a minister over the Internet. Also, it’s kind of useful when we have couples come through looking to get married.”

“Yes,” Briony said, “it would be.” Briony kept her voice calm, making sure her eyes didn’t widen in surprise. What the heck was Aunt Sophie? Certainly Aunt Sophie had a double life the family didn’t know of…blessing a batch of holy water?

Aunt Sophie put an arm around Briony’s shoulders. The bottle of holy water pressed up against Briony’s back, so it wasn’t entirely comforting.

Vampires? Howling things outside her window? A vast woodland just steps away from this inn…where her entire family disappeared? Anyone with some kind of sanity would have high-tailed it out of the same place where your family disappeared, right? No, not Aunt Sophie. Briony couldn’t hold her question back any further. “Why does anyone stay in a place like this?” she suddenly blurted.

Aunt Sophie just smiled. “I can see that this has been a bit of a shock for you, but you’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep. C’mon, back to bed. You have school in the morning and you’ll want to make a good impression.”

Briony let herself be shepherded back upstairs to her new room. With everything that had just happened though, sleep proved even more elusive than ever.

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