Page 36 of Little Fangs

Across from me was a wooden door, with smoke coming in from above and beneath. And to my right, a window with a dark film over it. The more I looked around the room, the more I notice—a single bed with dinosaur bedding, and small, dimly glowing stars. This had been Micah’s room, but there were no teddies, no toys, nothing of him.

“Fuck,” I let out, pressing a finger into the side of my jaw, feeling only the slightest bit of relief from the way I’d pressed at the muscle. “I’m coming for you.” My hands curled to fists, the tension in my wrists burning, but it felt good. I felt ready to prove a point.

Standing tall, I looked at the window. It was front of the house from what Micah had told me. First floor. As I stood, staring out, the film over it obscured a lot of what I could see—perhaps because it was still daylight, and of course, not ideal for a vampire.

With my fists ready to strike, I backed away from wanting to punch through the window. I looked around once more, the flames closing in, and my brain struggling to process everything in the heat of the moment. Above me was a metal curtain rod, no longer holding any curtains.

It worked a charm. One hit from the tip and the window shattered, letting light pour into the room, and giving me a view to my truck outside—and two black SUVs at either side of it.

Climbing out of the window as the room filled with flames and black smoke was like opening a pressure cooker. The window was now a space for the smoke to break free, and where all the flames were trying to merge, trying to feast their greedy needs on the oxygen.

Outside in the dirt, I stood staring at the smoke dancing around in its fancy swirls. Screams came, muffled behind wood. I tried tilting my head, but the adrenaline that had fueled me this far was spent.

Grabbed by two powerful forces, I turned slightly, recognizing neither of them. They wore dark purple suits. A man on one side, a woman on the other.

“We’ve got a human,” the woman said.

“Seems to be another one of their victims,” the man added.

They carried me up the path to my truck, and then Micah was there, running up the road toward the cars, screaming my name.

Dropped at the gate, I now had a view of the house engulfed in flames.

“Oh my god, you’re okay,” Micah screamed. His supernatural speed had him zip-zapping in front of me and around my body, as if investigating me. “I told you not to go. You should’ve listened. They were gonna hurt you.”

I stared at him now, into his tearful eyes. I let out a sniffle and sucked in a little breath before placing a hand at his chin and caressing him. “I’m okay,” I said.

“You’re not okay,” he said, stroking my face, then he pulled back and showed me the black smoke that had attached itself to my skin, before wiping it off on my chest. Now smiling. “You were gonna get yourself killed by—” He glanced at the two figures I’d felt at either side. “The Council.”

I glanced over my shoulder at one, then the other. They nodded at me. “I—thank you for carrying me over here.”

The click of a car door opened.

“Master,” Micah said, suddenly standing.

“I’m not—” I said, turning to her.

A woman with an elegant wide-brimmed black funeral hat and an organza bow on the front stood there. She wore red circular glasses perched on the tip of her nose and a head-to-toe black and gray pinstripe suit. Long brown hair fell in waves and curls, flowing down her back and parts of her chest. Micah practically pulled me to my feet.

“Ludmila,” she said, holding a hand out to me. “I’m sure you’ve heard of me.”

I had, in fact. Before Micah told me she’d turned him, I knew of Ludmila from the town. A benefactor of all sorts. We’d never met. I only met anyone if they were in my very specific path.

“A pleasure,” I said, wiping a warm, clammy hand down my trousers before holding it out to her. “I’m not sure if you’re responsible for this, or—”

She chuckled. “Well, I don’t really wish to impart Council knowledge on a human,” she said. “But I ascended to the Council, and we received a distress call from Muriel, a familiar I’d left behind.”

Micah nodded. “Harlan saved me,” he said, cuddling up at my side. “If it wasn’t for him, they—they would’ve killed me.”

The two bodyguard vampires, staring only ahead, hissed.

“I thank you on behalf of the entire vampire community,” she said. “You see, there are rules when a coven settles, and the rules are strict. Don’t kill humans and never kill a fellow vampire.”

“Are they—” Micah asked, gulping. “Dead in there?”

Ludmila removed her glasses, folding them before placing them in the pocket on the front of her suit jacket. “I should hope so. Victor and Emily did a sweep, made sure they had committed those acts before condemning them.”

I had so many questions, my jaw ached and tensed with the want to ask them all.