Page 63 of Fanged Embrace

The Doctor barely twitched. He didn’t so much as blink. Not once did he take his eyes off me, even as blue-white light erupted from his palms.

He brought his hands together with a resoundingclap, and a crackling circle of electricity rippled outward. The electric charge bent and whizzed right past me, his prized experiment protected from harm, but the pulse hit River and her partner like a sledgehammer and threw them both off their feet.

River slammed into a metal table, denting the tarnished steel. The other woman was thrown into the wall. Both of themslumped to the floor, twitching violently. Sparks danced across their prone bodies, crackling and sizzling with a smell like burnt hair.

My heart stopped at the sight, but I couldn’t summon my voice, couldn’t force my feet to carry me closer.

Arlon, thankfully, was saved from the blast, no doubt a tactical decision on the Doctor’s part. I knew what that small mercy meant. He kept my friend safe from an attack that would have killed him—so now I was in his debt.

“Your friends are very rude.” He dropped his hands to his sides, still alight with stray sparks. “Come, Laurie.” There was an edge to his words now, irritation apparent in the set of his jaw. “Enough of this nonsense. Lower the gun.”

I was speechless, paralyzed. If I didn’t cooperate, he could hurt them. Really hurt them. They would die because of me, and it would be just like before.When I ran from him and the facility the first time, I lost something precious.My eyes were fixed on River, my pulse thrumming in my ears.If I were to run from him now… I could lose even more.

It would be my fault. It was always my fault. All of this pain and suffering andloss. I brought it on myself.

“Laurie—now.” The Doctor raised his voice and I flinched, slowly dragging my gaze back to him.

All of my time spent fighting, two years of my new life spent running from my past—for what? What was it all for? What was the point?

I’m so tired.

I drew in a breath. The barrel wavered, then drooped. My shoulders caved. Failure seeped through my bones as I lowered my arms, and the gun—my only trump card, my last shot at revenge—hung useless at my side.

“Good.” The Doctor switched tones, switched tactics. His voice was warm with praise, and I hated the effect it had on me. That small flicker of hope that maybe this time, if I couldfollow his orders without complaint, his kindness would be genuine.

He stepped closer, close enough for me to smell the sterile tang of antiseptic and that cloying, flowery scent of his. “Now we can start fresh.”

I couldn’t look away, my eyes fastened to those rings of sickening green.

“But first,” he paused, one step away from me, and reached for the barrel of the gun, “a test of loyalty.”

He didn’t take it from my hand. Instead, he guided it upward, directing the barrel at a new target. At the lithe, beautiful woman lying incapacitated on the floor. The kind vampire woman, who had gone out of her way to protect me at every turn.

River’s eyes fluttered open, hazy gaze meeting mine—pupils blowing wide when she noticed the barrel pointed at her heart.

The Doctor’s voice in my ear was quiet, clipped. Expectant. “Prove to me you’re ready to come home.”

My fingers tightened around the grip. It was unthinkable, impossible. Not after everything she’d done for me, not after all of her kindness, everything she gave without expecting anything in return.

I understood then what the Doctor really wanted. Taking me back to the facility by force wouldn’t work for him—he knew I would fight him for the rest of my life. He wanted me to come willingly. He wanted me to cut off every connection with the outside world, so that I would have no one to depend on but him—and no one to blame but myself.

River’s eyes were locked on mine. Not hateful or angry, but steady, trusting. Certain.

In them, I saw the short time we’d spent together. Every twist of fate that had our paths crossing, over and over again. I saw her cluttered home stuffed to the brim with trinkets. I felt the bulge of the spare key tucked into my back pocket.

An invitation to come home.

I closed my eyes and remembered the sound of rain—a steady downpour of water—and what that sound meant to me. I heard it in my head, drowning out everything else, and I made my decision.

In the split second it took for my lids to fly open, I lifted the gun.

I aimed it directly between a set of luminous green eyes, set wide and incredulous under furrowed white brows… and pulled the trigger.

31

River

Looking back at the timeline of events, we had only really known each other for a few days—but I trusted her. I trusted her completely.