Page 48 of Fanged Embrace
I left Laurie hovering in the doorway and crouched at the foot of the cot, weaving ease and solace into my words. “Can you tell me your name?”
The girl’s aura rose to a treble note, tense and quivering with caution. I should have expected that. She was a hybrid after all—she could probably sense that I was a vampire. I wasa stranger to her, a supernatural one at that. My presence, even with my comforting powers, would not put her at ease.
But it wasn’t her aura that concerned me the most—it was Laurie’s.
I glanced back.
Laurie’s aura had darkened to the deep blue of tumultuous seas, storm clouds boiling under her skin. She stared at the girl like she was seeing a ghost. Her eyes were glassy, lips parted, shoulders drawn taunt. A memory—bad, razor-sharp—was yanking her out of the room.
“Laurie?” I kept my tone neutral so I wouldn’t spook the kid, or Laurie herself. “You with me?”
No response.
I turned back to the child, already ready to abort the interview. “Hang on a minute, sweetie. We’ll be right back?—”
“Let me talk to her.”
The words came abrupt and breathless from Laurie, like the first gasp of air after holding your head underwater. I hesitated, glancing between the two of them. “Laurie, I don’t think?—”
“I’m fine.” She stepped fully into the room, walking on shaky legs.
The girl kept her eyes on both of us, but she did not balk at Laurie’s approach.
Laurie paused beside me where I crouched—and then she did something I had not anticipated. She put her hand on my shoulder, light and fleeting, but the contact crackled right through me. It was the first time she had ever made contact of her own volition.
The act itself was incredibly mundane, but coming from her, it felt sacred. A solitary door left slightly ajar. An invitation to venture deeper.
Her eyes were still focused on the girl, and her next words were a quiet murmur. “I know how to handle this one.”
I wanted to protest. The storm clouds behind her eyes werewhipped into a frenzy, her aura rippling outward in cresting waves. But the certainty in her voice stilled me. I sank back on my haunches and watched as Laurie settled on the edge of the cot, tucking her knees under her chin to match the girl's position.
“Hey,” she whispered, wrinkling her nose. “Is it just me or does this place smell worse than the laboratory?” She cut a glance back at me and my bewildered expression, then faced the girl again with a quiet chuckle. “Must be all the goddamn vampires.”
I wasn’t sure if I should be offended that she inadvertently told me I stank, appalled that she swore in front of a kid, or surprised when the little girl covered her mouth and giggled.
Before I could take my pick, Laurie spoke again. “I guess they didn’t give you a name back at the facility, huh?” When the little girl’s face fell, Laurie leaned a little closer. “Hey, it’s okay. That just means you get to pick one out for yourself. So what’ll it be?”
The girl looked pensive for a moment, staring down at her knees with a slight frown. “I had a name—my mom gave me a name. Before she went away.”
I wasn’t quite sure what either of them were going on about, but Laurie only nodded with a pained smile. “Well, what did your mom call you?”
“Mary,” the girl whispered, and two fat tears promptly rolled down her cheeks. “But she went away. And then nobody called me Mary anymore.”
“Well, Mary is a lot easier to remember than—” Laurie tilted her head to glimpse the girl's wristband and wrinkled her nose again in a theatrical grimace, “Hybrid P-74. God, they’ve really got no imagination back at that facility, huh?”
The girl fiddled with her wristband and mutely shook her head.
Laurie watched her for a beat, before she sighed andstraightened out her legs, swinging them casually off the edge of the cot. “Mary it is, then. That’s how you can introduce yourself from now on. And trust me, there are plenty of nice people here waiting to meet you.”
The girl—Mary, I guess—glanced past Laurie, cautiously looking me up and down. “Is she nice?”
Laurie looked down her nose at me and raised a brow, snorting out a laugh. “Eh, she’s all right. Bit of a nutcase though.”
“Excuse me?!” I rose from my crouch, playing into the bit and pressing a hand to my chest. “I’ve been nothing but kind to you and that’s what you have to say?”
Laurie gave a haughty shrug and looked away and the little girl let out another cautious giggle. Her aura had relaxed to a dull vibration, timid but a little smoother than before. Laurie’s was still a raging thunderstorm, but she seemed to hold it contained by sheer force of will.
I watched them both, spell-bound by Laurie’s ability to put the girl at ease, even without the help of supernatural talents. She knew exactly how to speak, how to sit, and where to send her gaze to make the girl feel as comfortable as possible. Like she wanted to be the person she herself had needed when she was in this situation.
