Page 11 of Fanged Embrace
My chest seized, and my back went ramrod straight.River. She’s here.I was right about her. It had to be true. She was working withthem. She was one of them. Why else would she be there?
Forcing back a shaky breath that would no doubt give awaymy position, I shifted slightly and peered at the trio edging slowly through the wreckage. As my eyes adjusted, I could make out three shapes. One lithe and wiry, another much the same—but there was something off about that one. It was a woman, I was sure, but her body was swathed in a swirl of unnatural darkness, trailing shadows like living tentacles.
My blood ran cold.That’s… not normal.And another figure, shorter than the others, her posture tense. She tossed her hair and murmured something to the one cloaked in shadows. I noticed a flash of sharp, pointed teeth.
An echo of white corridors and metal tables slammed into my mind, an avalanche of memory—of fangs.I clamped a hand over my mouth, but a stifled gasp burst between my fingers. Not human. They werenothuman. Which meant they were just likethem.
Dizziness clutched my head, gripped my throat, threatening to haul me into a flashback.No, no—keep it together, Laurie.I curled myself tighter, heart thudding so loud I was sure they’d hear it. But they were focused on each other.
“…pretty obvious who trashed this place.”
I recognized that low, measured tone from a few nights back. Her expression was lost in the shadows of the store, but I could picture that placating look on her face. Long lashes. Dark brown hair tumbling down her shoulders. River.
I had to get out of there.
I tried backing away, stepping carefully over a cluster of broken furniture. But my shoe crunched on a fragment of plastic—and out there in the darkness, all three silhouettes went still. Unnaturally still.
Then the woman clouded in swirling shadow—Dylan, they’d called her—whipped around in my direction. Her voice was a hiss, and her stance predatory. “Someone’s here.”
Panic swelled, scorching hot in my veins. Instinct roared at me to run and a half-strangled noise escaped my throat. Thenthe other two turned, and in the faintest trickle of light, I saw three sets of glinting eyes focus directly on me.
No, no, not again.I jerked upright and jolted into a sprint, rushing blindly back the way I’d come. But they converged behind me in a heartbeat. I could feel their presence at my back—and panic in my veins. It would atrophy my muscles if I paused for even a second. But I was lost, disoriented, and I couldn’t find the exit.
Every wrecked aisle looked exactly the same in the dark.
I hit a dead end, a blank wall, and turned to glimpse my pursuers. They crossed the space between us and I was cornered.Cornered.My mind reeled, flashes of old captivity fueling my terror.They’re going to take me back, I don’t want to go back. I won’t go back?—
“Wait—that’s…” Someone was speaking, but I was scrambling for an escape, a weapon, a time machine to wind back the clock to before I decided to do this alone. This was my penance for being reckless. They were going to take me back.
“Hey,” the calmer voice—River—called out, a note of alarm in her tone. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
Like I’d believe that.I fumbled for anything: a shard of glass, a broken chair leg, something that could serve as a weapon.Why didn’t I bring a weapon?My trembling fingers seized a snapped metal bar from the floor and I brandished it wildly. “Stay—stay back!”
I swung it from one shadowy figure to the next, screeching through gritted teeth, “I know what you are, and I won’t go back! Iwon’t?—”
The other woman advanced a fraction, hands raised to subdue me. Shadows danced around her arms. Ihatedthe way that darkness looked, too eerily reminiscent of my nightmares. That all-encompassing darkness that swallowed me whole.No, please.A strangled sob threatened my throat and my chest heaved to keep up with my rapid pulse.
“It’s okay.” The fanged woman, the shorter one, tried to approach. Her hands were moving strangely. She looked almost regretful. “We just?—”
That was it; I couldn’t handle it. I let out a ragged scream, winging out my makeshift weapon in frantic, wild arcs. My body moved on primal instinct—flight or fight, and flight was impossible. It was only bared teeth and bloody knuckles that could save me now.
But there were three of them, and I was alone. The odds weren’t stacked in my favor. My vision blurred with panic.
“Wait.” The third figure—River herself—slipped forward, weaving between her companions.
When she reached for the pole in my grasp, I swung again. I put my back into it. But she batted it away, and it glanced off her palm like it was nothing. The adrenaline left my body in a rush and the crash that followed left my knees weak. It didnothing. I could donothing. They had me.
I backed up until my shoulders hit the wall behind me.
“We’re not your enemies.” River kept her voice low, a gentle hush that wormed its way past my terror, and raised her palms up in a universal sign of surrender. Her eyes flicked to the dented pole in my hands. “Can you put that down? Please?”
My chest heaved, my head spun, and black dots crowded my vision. They had fangs, they had powers.They’re not human.Why wouldn’t they just disarm me? They clearly had the advantage. But River took another slow step forward, witch hazel eyes fixated on me—bright and vibrant even in the gloom.
“Hey,” she murmured, “I’m River, remember? We’ve met before.”
I sucked in a breath, pressing my back to the wall. My legs buckled and locked again and tears burned hot in my eyes. She was one of them. She was a monster just like the rest.
But she’d also seemed… not cruel. Not monstrous at all. Some faint thread of rational thought reminded me that she’d let me return her things, and she hadn’t attacked me. She stood in front of me now, and she clearly had the upper hand—and shestillhadn’t attacked me.
