Page 118 of Fanged Embrace
Water droplets splattered over us in a sudden, pattering shower—that quickly grew to a steady downpour. It soaked through my clothes and dripped from my hair, drenching bothof us in a matter of moments. When River finally released my lips, I tilted my head to the sky.
I closed my eyes as rain tracked a path down tear-streaked cheeks, washing away the remnants of my furious drive for revenge. It was over, and my enemies were dead. The organization was in shambles and their leaders were no more.
River held me with gentle reverence, a guardian angel with spiked, bony wings. Adrenaline left my body in a rush, and left me lying limp and tranquil in her arms. The rain poured down around us where we huddled on the rooftop and the city stretched out below—unaware of the war we’d been waging. The war we’d won. Now it was over. I’d carried out my revenge, and finally—finally I was free.
59
River
A few weeks went by in the blink of an eye, faster than I could foresee with my future vision, and looking back, so much had changed in so little time. The attack on the facilities had left many wounded, but with the threat of the organization finally obliterated the Leyore coven was stronger than ever, and we’d earned ourselves a few new allies, too.
Valerie and her hybrid crew were working tirelessly alongside our coven to repair the damage done by the organization, dismantling the last few laboratories operating in the city. With the leaders of the organization taken out, the remaining facilities were splintered, easy to pick apart one by one. Scientists and squadrons of armed guards were arrested, all of them to be put on trial to answer for their crimes.
It wasn’t always a black and white process, however. There were nurses and nannies who had worked for the organization, some of them thralled into doing the organization's bidding, and others who genuinely believed what they were doing was right. Making sure justice was served was going to be a long,arduous process, but worth it in the end if it meant the stain of the organization was wiped away for good.
Caden and Arlon helped out too, leading human teams in to make arrests once the supernatural parts of the scandal had been wiped clean. The two of them led investigations on Marcus’s many connections—rooting out the humans responsible for turning a blind eye while the organization snatched children from foster care and clinics. Those investigations led to widespread scrutiny of the way orphaned and vulnerable children were cared for and new policies were put in place to ensure this catastrophe could never happen again.
The rescued captives themselves were all handled with care, though it took many, many meetings to decide what to do with them. They were all traumatized, terrified, and in various stages of grief. Some of them were still struggling to come to terms with what happened to them, and some of them—like Laurie had been—were hellbent on revenge. Others simply wanted to go back to the facilities, the only home they’d ever known. For the time being, all of them were housed at the Leyore coven headquarters (which had quickly become more of a boarding house than a grand hall) but that wasn’t a long term solution.
What they all needed was healing, and that process would look different for everyone, which was where I’d stepped in with a suggestion: a clinic of sorts, but a kind one. A place where they could all live, learn, and adjust to the wider world with all the support they could ever need. A place where I could put my newfound powers to use and help people sort through their memories—healing scars and softening auras.
We hadn’t worked out all the details yet, but the rest of the coven was onboard with the idea. Leah and Addison were happy to step in and work as doctors—both of them committed to understanding how best to care for supernatural bodies.Jordan was prepared to throw as much money as necessary at the project and Sky was already talking about hosting music classes. It would take time and a lot of adjustments, but we were all ready to put in the work.
When I’d brought it up with Laurie she’d gone quiet for a while, long enough that I worried I’d said something wrong. But when she looked at me with tears in her eyes, and a fragile smile wobbling on her lips, I understood. This kind of care and consideration was what she’d needed when she broke free of the organization. Arlon had done his best, but he didn’t know how to help her, because she didn’t fit the victim mold he had constructed in his head.
These rescued captives would be given something she should have had—a place to figure out their healing journeys for themselves, with support when they needed it and privacy when they didn’t.
I crossed my legs where I sat at the bar, deep in my musing, tracing my finger absently around the rim of my glass. I’d insisted on getting Laurie out of the house, and the bar held memories, which was why I chose it. It was the location that set everything into motion, the bar where I’d gone looking for Laurie and missed her, where she set off to find me instead. Now, Laurie herself sat beside me, snapping her fingers in front of my nose to draw my wandering attention.
I blinked rapidly and jerked my head to the side to find her leaning on her elbow, sipping her drink through a straw with a pointedly loud slurp.
She raised a brow. “Are you having a vision or has my rambling left you braindead?”
“Very funny.” I rolled my eyes and turned fully to face her. I rested my hands on her knees, stilling her leg where it bounced against the bar stool. “Just… trying to wrap my head around everything. It’s been a wild few weeks.”
Laurie dropped her gaze, toying with her straw. “Yeah.”
I looked her over, assessing the tired slant of her brow, the way she chewed her bottom lip, swirling her straw around in her drink. It sent ice blocks tinkling against the glass.
For the most part, Laurie was looking better. Her harsh, angry features had softened since the incident on the rooftop, like she’d finally set down all her fury. The incident had leftmeshaking at the time, horrified at just how close she’d come to dying alongside her enemy, and terrified at what could have happened had I arrived on the scene seconds later than I did.
But she’d done it, she did what she set out to do and I’d been there to catch her when she fell. The moment Marcus died, and the rest of his associates went down in flames, her revenge mission had come to an end, and while the rest of us ran damage control around the city, Laurie was free to finally let herself rest.
A faint smirk quirked my lips up at the corners. The helicopter crash had made headlines, and whispers about underground labs and unnatural experiments had spread rapidly through the human world after the attack on the facilities, which meant Hunter was once again put to work. She had her hands full, wiping minds and influencing gossip all to keep the panic at bay—and she was not very pleased with the task.
It was mild relief knowing that I alone could not be held responsible for all the work piled on her shoulders, but, when I really thought about it, this all started back when a certain stranger had rifled through my bag—and I’d been certain Hunter would kick my ass for giving her a new mind to wipe. Now she had hundreds to sift through. I could only hope she didn’t trace the source of her headache back to me, because the ass-kicking would be monumental.
My smirk quickly dissolved into a grimace at the thought and I shook my head, returning my attention to Laurie. The bruising around her neck had faded to a faint yellow, but thesight of it still made my chest ache. I’d lamented to her about the matter, wishing my vampiric power could have been the art of resurrection—so I could kill Marcus twice. She seemed to think it was funny but I’d been dead serious about the matter.
When I examined Laurie again I found her still fiddling with her straw, absently kicking a heel against the leg of the barstool. My lips thinned to a concerned downward tilt.
While it was true that she was looking better, she still wasn’t healed—far from it. Her enemies were dead and she could finally put her gun down, but she was still haunted by what had transpired. Killing Marcus should have been a relief for her, and in a way, I supposed it was—she was finally free from the burden of her mission, she could rest easy knowing that she’d avenged her daughter—but now she was looking a little lost.
She floated around our home with a vacant look in her eye, walking around like everything that came after I’d held her on that rooftop was nothing more than a dream. Now that she’d fulfilled her self-imposed purpose, and hadn’t died like she’d planned to that day, she didn’t know what to do with herself. It was like she didn’t know how to keep living, and she still wasn’t even sure if she wanted to.
Time and time again I caught her staring at nothing in particular, and her aura radiated a new flavor of wistful melancholy. It wasn’t an obvious change, but I knew her well enough by now to know that she was wrestling with something. But every time I brought it up, Laurie insisted that she was fine. That she just needed some time to process everything. So I let her be.
We spent every night together, wrapped tight in each other's arms, and I’d lifted just about every awful shard of memory she had left to hand me—all except one. Every time I dove into her mind, she’d keep that specific memory hidden, guarding it like a dragon guards its hoard. I had my suspicions as to why.
