Page 107 of Fanged Embrace
I kept my mouth shut but catalogued every detail of the exchange, already scheming ten steps ahead on how to get my hands on it again. Then, with a wry smile loaded with snark, I strode through the detector; it stayed mute. I was officially weaponless and at their mercy.
When I made it through the detector without a hitch, the second vampire man offered an approving nod, then flanked me as we approached the elevator paneled in black glass. The same guy tried guiding me by the elbow, but the moment his fingers made contact, I jerked free.
“Touch me again and you’ll lose a finger.” I hissed the words out through gritted teeth. “I can walk perfectly fine by myself.”
I was no longer a child, and I wouldn’t let them treat me like one. I wasn’t property either, and I wouldn’t stand their hands anywhere near me. I lifted my head, held it high. It seemed River had rubbed off on me more than I’d expected. I found myself feeling suddenly defiant, steadfast. I may have been their prisoner, but I would not let them push me around.
The vampire man withdrew his hand, lips thinning to a line and looking at his buddy for guidance. The other guy just shrugged, like this was nothing but a mild temper tantrum that should be treated as such. Neither of them challenged me. Funny what a willing sacrifice can get away with.
The first guy brushed past me, and with one keycard swipe the elevator doors hissed open. I swallowed my stifling panic and stepped inside. My escorts positioned themselves beside me like bookends—one to the left of me, one to the right—and the lift rose with a whisper, acceleration so abrupt I felt my stomach dip. I counted the seconds, gauged the distance to my gun on the guy’s hip.
Meanwhile, my body was seized by a bad case of the jitters, but to my immense surprise, I didn’t crumble. I was afraid, yes, but that fear felt suddenly distant. It was overtaken by a deeper desire to see this through and protect the one person who had come to mean the world to me. That determination spurred me on, kept the horror of what I was getting myself into at bay. It also made me annoying.
“Sooo….” I piped up when the elevator numbers kept climbing, while I noted, silently, that we were headed for the top. “I’ve been calling you guys ‘the organization’ for two years now, and ‘Exercitus Biomedical’ is obviously a front, so—uh, what are you actually called?”
I earned a blank stare from the guy on my right.
“Right, classified.” I nodded sagely, clasping my hands at my back so they couldn’t see them tremble. “Never mind then.”
When silence settled again, I glanced at the guy on my left. “Okay, what about your names? The two of you. This seems like a fairly long journey up, so we may as well get to know each other.” He said nothing and I leaned further into his line of vision. I waved a hand in front of his nose. “Helloo?”
The vampire man finally exhaled quietly—an unspoken “Please shut the fuck up.”
Fine.I dropped my hand, folded my arms instead. He would forever be immortalized in my head as ‘Creepy lobby man #2’ and he had no one to blame but himself. I was about to state as much when the elevator dinged and we finally ground to a halt.
I looked up at the numbers. Top floor.
The fear shivered up my spine again, plain terror returning with a vengeance. I didn’t move, not even when the elevator doors slid open, and the crisp, white hallway beckoned beyond. I stared at the single white door waiting for me at the far end.
Eventually, Creepy lobby man #1 pushed at my back. The jolt sent me staggering forward with my steps echoing on the tiled floors. I jerked around to snap a complaint but the doors were already closing on the two vampires, both of them probably relieved at finally leaving me behind. And then I was alone.
And this was all too real.
I forced a step forward, and then another—and then stopped. The hallway seemed to twist and warp before my eyes, stretching longer and longer until the door at the far end was a distant pinprick. I was panicking, I could feel it, and without River around to soothe me it was overwhelming. It swallowed me whole, seized my limbs and left me paralyzed.
I swallowed hard, wrestling to get a handle on myself. I ordered my feet to move; I managed the slightest shuffle. My pulse picked up to a loud roar, blood rushing in my ears. My erratic heartbeat whipped my terror into a frenzy, like a raging storm around my head.
I couldn’t think, I couldn’t breathe, but I had to keep going. Ihad to see this through. For River, for her coven. I had to protect them, and that meantreaching the goddamn door.
I managed one step. Then two more.
The ground tilted beneath my feet and I swayed, but didn’t fall. I shook my head, blinked back the fog from my eyes, and kept going. I repeated a silent mantra with every strained footfall:For River. For River. Do it for her.On and on, one foot in front of the other, until the door rushed up to meet me. Hesitation would allow room for paralysis, so I lifted my hand the moment I reached it. I gripped the handle despite the screaming terror in my head, and I flung the door wide open.
I caught the faintest murmur of conversation, before a hush settled and all eyes within that room fastened on me. I stared back, breath stilling in my lungs as my mind rushed to assess the scene.
I was looking at a boardroom. A single, staggering window pane formed the far wall, framing the sprawling cityscape. A table of smooth glass ran the room’s length, long and shiny, reflecting the punishing white of the ceiling lights. Twelve figures sat perfectly spaced around that swath of glass, twelve monsters in fancy suits.
Some wore sly smiles, others looked bored out of their minds. Some of them were vampires, some of them supernaturals I’d never seen before—all of them looked deadly in their own unique way, but my focus tunneled to the figure at the head of the table.
He rose slowly, his face lined with faint wrinkles that deepened when he smiled. “Ah, Ms. Montgomery.”
I stared, confused and conflicted, because this man did not look like the monster I’d imagined. He just looked like a man. A middle-aged, friendly man, unaware that he was surrounded by keen-eyed vultures waiting to pick him apart.
His eyes were an easy brown, laugh lines crinkling the corners. His hair was fading to gray, combed carefully to theside. He looked… human. But then his smile stretched wider, and I glimpsed the sharp points of his teeth, just a little too prominent, a little too knife-like, and my breath hitched in my throat.
“Lorelai.” The man, the monster in hiding, bowed his head. “Welcome home.”
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