Page 51 of Fanged Embrace
The organization was doing all kinds of experiments—on humans and supernaturals alike. They were turning other supernaturals to create hybrid-like beings. Elven-vampires, vampire-shifters, anyone they could get their hands on. But they were also having humans give birth to hybrids, which is exactly how Mary came about.
It was how my own child was born.
“Who exactly is this Doctor they all talk about?” River’s voice was a whisper in my ear, snapping me from a morbid string of thoughts as we crossed from one cot to another. “Do you know him?”
I kept my eyes straight ahead, ignoring the flicker of memory coiling in my peripheral. Of a vampire man in a crisp white lab coat, handsome and smiling like an old friend—and all the while slicing up his specimens without a second thought.
My hands balled into fists in my jacket pockets. “He’s a monster.”
River said nothing more, but her mouth settled into a grim line as we paused at the next cot. An older vampire waited for us there, turned a few years ago judging by the size of her fangs. She didn’t exude the same simmering hunger the others did, and her eyes flitted about the great hall with dull disinterest. Until her gaze settled on me.
“I know you.” She hissed the words out, and I stopped in my tracks.
The vampire woman clambered forward and River stepped in front of me, suddenly on high alert as the woman strained to peer past her.
“I know you,” she rasped again, and lifted a finger to point straight at me. “Experiment T-33.”
Boulders crashed down on my back at the title.Mytitle. My designation at the facility when they’d tried to strip me of my original name.
No, I grappled with myself internally, wrestling my writhing thoughts into submission,that’s not you. That’s not who you are. You are Laurie Montgomery and you are never going back.
It helped, slightly. Until the vampire woman delivered her next words. With real fear on her face. “The Doctor still talks about you. He’s never stopped looking for T-33.”
The rush of panic that slammed into me sent me stumbling back a step.
River glanced down at me, erecting a cautious hand between the woman and myself. She looked ready to whisk me out of there at a moment’s notice, jaw set hard like she was holding back her fangs. “Laurie, what is she talking about?”
“I–” I stared at the woman as my mouth went dry, any explanation I could muster withering in my throat. “It can’t be?—”
My pulse roared as images flared bright and garish behind my eyelids. The Doctor in his lab coat, this time stained a vibrant red. How he’d held my hand, and proudly told me I had potential. That I was special. That I could never be replaced. I had believed him once—until I realized I was just another victim of his heinous experiments.
He was still looking for me. Two years I’d been gone, and he still wanted me back.
River kept her eyes on the woman, but her whisper wasdirected at me. “We can step away for a moment. Take a break–”
“No.” Anger erupted inside me, lighting my nerves on fire. Anger at myself for ever trusting that evil man. Anger that, after all this time, after everything he’d done, some small part of me still wanted his approval. Some small, sad part of me was triumphant. Proud that he had never been able to replace me.
It was a terrible thought and I shoved it down, kicked it into the corner. I brought my fists out, angrily elbowing River aside. “I’m perfectly fine?—”
“No you’re not.” I barely had time to yelp before River’s hands clamped around my waist and hoisted me into the air—all kicking legs and flailing fists—and threw me over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “We’re taking a break.”
“Put medown!” I pounded a fist against her back, burning bright red at the ridiculous position.
But River only gripped me tighter, dodging my frantic kicks, and patted a condescending hand on my back. “In a bit. You can get back to sleuthing later. For now, we’re going to go do something else.”
The slight smugness in her delivery had my fury burning all the brighter.
And so I kicked. I yelled. I hurled insults and death threats and every curse word in my vocabulary—and River ignored it all as she carried me past the cots of gawking hybrids, through the massive doors at the entrance, and out into the street.
25
River
Carrying Laurie over my shoulder might have been a step too far, but her aura had been going haywire and she looked just about ready to explode. I had to get her out of there somehow, and over my shoulder like a particularly feisty rag doll was the quickest way to do that.
Now she simmered in stony silence in the passenger seat of my car, and I kept one eye on her while I drove. Her back was stiff, her hands clasped tightly in her lap. When she looked my way I offered a tentative smile, but all that got me was an eye roll before she returned her gaze to the window.Oh, she’s pissed.
I fixed my eyes on the road. Fiddled with the radio. Tapped out a tune on the steering wheel.
