Page 36 of Fanged Embrace
I had to hope that got the point across, for the sake of my own sanity. I had to keep her warmth at bay, even as she crushed me closer to her chest. Even as I sank into the sensation, incomprehensibly comfortable in the conclave of her arms.
“Understood.” River sighed. The gun quivered in my grip until her fingers closed over mine, guiding the weapon down. “But you can save the attitude for when we get out of here.”
For a second, my fingers fought her, unsure whether to cling tighter or fling the gun across the room. Undecided but unwilling to make a choice, I let the steel slip away for now, surrendering the weapon until I could find the nerve to lift it again.
“—Hunter, call Jordan for backup. If there are people trapped in here we need to get them out. Maxine, keep pressure on it…” River’s voice reached someone else, not me. The words folded into the hum in my eardrums.
None of it mattered; my body had been hollowed out, and I couldn’t find the strength to wriggle out of her arms. The overhead lights flared too brightly, bleaching the corridor white; streaks of red smeared across the scene like spilled paint. Every guard had been taken care of, one way or another.
My vision hazed, and the room dissolved into bleeding shapes of scarlet and milk-pale glare. I buried my face in the crook of River’s neck, breathing in the scent of her despite my earlier sentiment, letting the darkness behind my eyelids close over everything.
The gun, the guard, and the bullet in the barrel, restless to reach its final resting place.
19
River
As someone with the ability to see multiple timelines unfolding before me, I think I can be trusted when I say things could have gone a lot worse. The version we stood in—blood-slicked, battered, and bruised, but still breathing—was one of the better outcomes.
I shifted Laurie in my grasp and the slight movement had her fingers sliding instinctively along the smooth satin of my gown, curling fists in the fabric. Her breath on my neck came in short bursts and her pulse still fluttered at my sternum, fast and frantic and human.
She’d gone quiet. The storm cloud surrounding her had receded inward, subdued for now, but still brewing. I could almost feel the thunder rumbling under her skin.
Guards lay strewn about like discarded toys, some dead, most merely incapacitated. The few still conscious had Hunter to deal with. She picked through the wreck, prying into minds and gathering what she could from their memories before knocking them out cold.
When she finished up with the last one, she met my eyes, striding over and wiping blood from her knuckles. Her crumpled suit was speckled with red, and she wore it like a walking fresco painting.
“Jordan and the rest of the crew are en route—four minutes,” she muttered, clamping one hand over the slash at her ear, and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “All those guards? Paid muscle. No reinforcements coming.” A thin smile flickered, but it was gone in a breath. “The lab directors were tipped off hours ago, though. The people running this place knew not to show up.”
Frustration sparked behind my ribs. “Of course.” We could shut down this facility, but the real architects behind this place were slipping right through cracks we hadn’t sealed yet. But there was no point fretting over that now. We had more pressing issues at hand.
For starters, Laurie had a gun.
By the looks of it, it was no ordinary weapon, either. I glanced down at it, still gripped in one hand and pointed away from the both of us. It wasn’t like any firearm I knew.
The barrel was matte black, etched with tiny, glowing glyphs. Experimental tech. How she got her hands on it I had no idea, but it definitely hadn’t been built by mortals, and it was certainly not designed for a mercy shot aimed at a creature like me. It was a weapon built to wreak havoc.
It would seem this tiny, temperamental woman had a few tricks up her sleeve.
She saved you. The thought barreled through my skull a second time, no easier to swallow on repeat. Out of everyone in this tomb of concrete and cruelty, this fragile human had yanked me out of the reaper’s jaws. Still, considering her mortified reaction to taking the shot, it was probably best to keep the weapon far away from Laurie for the time being.
“Uh, here.” I offered the gun to Hunter, grip-first. “Hold on to this for me?”
She pinched it between her fingers and eyed it with the kind of apprehension you’d give a grenade. Then her gaze raked over Laurie, still a dead weight in my arms. Hunter’s expression was searching and her raised brow told me she expected clarification on exactly what this unassuming human was doing here in the first place.
Yeah, good luck with that.I was wondering the same thing.
“Goddammit, Max! The dress is a lost cause—let it go.”
Both Hunter and I looked to the left, where Maxine was lamenting the loss of another pretty dress while Ethan wrestled to bind her wound.
“This is one of my favorites,” Maxine warbled, still slumped over on the floor, pale as new parchment paper.
“You can live without it if it means notbleeding to death.” Ethan knelt beside her, tearing what remained of her pink glittering skirt and looping strips of fabric tight around the gushing hole in her shoulder. “Leah will have my head if I let you die because of this.”
Blood soaked through in seconds, but Maxine still managed a theatrical eyeroll at the improvised bandage. “Leah understands that real fashion is life and death.”
“Priorities, Maxine.” I turned back to Hunter who had her head in her hands in vexation at her partners’ antics. “You two take her; I’ve got Laurie. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
