Shifter by Kailin Gow Read Free Book Online

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