Free Shifter by Kailin Gow

again. She just had to go back. Though that… she thought about the sight of Carol and Kevin kissing. Just the memory of the image hurt. How could Kevin have done that? With her ?
                Was this how he felt every time she kissed Fallon? How Fallon felt when she was with Kevin?
                There was one other reason she wanted to go back then. She wanted Pietre gone. It wasn’t enough to just keep protecting people from him anymore. He wasn’t going to stop until he was killed. And if Briony wasn’t prepared to unleash the end of the vampires to do that, if she couldn’t bear to lose the others who would be killed, then that meant she owed it to the world to finish Pietre off herself.
                Fallon looked into her eyes, and in that moment, Briony knew that he’d guessed exactly what she had planned. She couldn’t keep anything hidden from him, not then. “You’re not planning to take on Pietre alone? No, you can’t. Not like that.”
                “I have to.”
                “Well, you aren’t doing it alone,” Fallon insisted. “I’m coming with you. I’d go to the ends of the earth for you. I can definitely go back to Wicked.”
                “Fallon…”
                Fallon kissed her then. He pulled Briony to him sharply and kissed her passionately, holding her against him while he did it. He didn’t seem to care that Archer was there, or that someone might walk in and see them. He didn’t seem to care about anything but her. He pulled back, still staring into her eyes. Once, that might have caught her, entranced her, just through the power that vampires had. Now, there was nothing holding Briony there but how beautiful Fallon was. That was enough though.
                “I know the feeling that you’re getting from the scepter. I know that everyone thinks that it has somehow chosen you to be with Josh, but that doesn’t matter to me. All that matters is what you want. What’s in your heart, Briony?”
                Briony stalled, trying to think. The truth was that she didn’t know what was in her heart. If she did, her life would be a lot simpler than it was. She did know who wasn’t in her heart though.
                “Are you saying that I should just ignore what the people of my kingdom want?”
                “Yes,” Fallon said, simply. “If it isn’t what you want. It isn’t what you want, is it?”
                Briony shook her head. “No. It’s not just Josh. I can’t marry him when it would mean the deaths of all vampires. It would kill Jake, George…”
                “Me.”
                “Yes,” Briony said, and then Fallon kissed her again. This kiss was softer, sweeter.
                “You still care about me then?” Fallon asked.
                “You know I do.”
                “It’s hard to tell, sometimes. But you… you’re the only girl I’ve ever loved, Briony. I’ve never wanted anyone else. And it’s more than that. You’re the reason I manage to stop myself from hurting people. You’re my reason for staying good. Every time it feels like the hunger might be stronger than me, I think about how you’d look if you knew. I think about how much it would hurt you.”
                “It shouldn’t be about me,” Briony said. She wasn’t comfortable with Fallon putting that much on her, because what would it mean if she didn’t end up with him. “You should do the right thing because it’s the right thing, not because of me.”
                Fallon shook his head. “But it isn’t about that for us, Briony. Look at George. He’s stayed good because of how much he loves Sophie. Jake… he loves you and Sophie. Every vampire I’ve heard of who doesn’t feed on humans manages it because they love someone. It’s like that love reminds us