Page 44 of Little Fangs

“Then we can deal with that,” he said. “But I don’t think they are.”

“But sometimes I even forget to brush them,” I whispered.

“And I remind you.”

“What if they can’t do the thing and make them longer?”

“And what if they can?”

His voice soothed me, or perhaps it was Misty’s gentle purring.

The town was pretty in the day. I’d never gone beyond the gates when I lived at the manor. The brothers always told me horror stories, and since Ludmila had always given them more permissions, they knew more about the world. I’d been stuck inside, stuck in feelings, stuck in myself.

The fun sticker-plastered window of the dentist’s office came into view as we parked. I clenched and turned my head away. “I don’t think—”

“No getting out of it now,” he said. “But I brought someone with me to help?”

“Who?” I asked, turning my head at record speeds. Ludmila? Muriel? Misty? Instead, Harlan was holding the teddy he’d bought me from the thrift shop. He wiggled it in my face and then pressed it to my chest where I clung onto it.

I didn’t let go of the teddy the entire time we were in the dentist’s office. Not once did it leave my arms. I was given a check-up, and then they went at my teeth with a bunch of tools that buzzed and whirred, before they did something with this white cream substance, and a blue light they held to my mouth.

Daddy stayed and nodded with a smile every time I glanced at him in the seat beside me. Special circumstances chair. He held my hand throughout it, talking to the dentist as he put those metal objects in my mouth.

And for the first time ever, throughout all the spiked emotions, and trying to deal with so much going on, I could look at myself in the hand mirror and smile with confidence to show off my fangs.

“Happy with it?” the dentist asked.

“You look great,” Harlan said.

I had normal-sized fangs now, they looked real, and they were, like real fangs. And my teeth were whiter than they’d ever been. “Thank you,” I said, running my tongue along my teeth, now feeling each tooth individually in my mouth.

“Thanks, Dr. Hines,” Harlan said, shaking the man’s hand.

“It’s a real pleasure,” he said. “I don’t usually get to work on vampire fangs much. We’ll need you back in a couple of months to see how they’re holding up. The bonding should last for a few years, so no worries about that, just be careful of biting too hard or grinding your teeth. But you’ve got great teeth. Although, after the polish, they might be sensitive.”

The dentist pulled out a pot of sugar-free suckers, then a sticker pile, from which I picked the one that read “good boy.” The sucker was heart shaped and cherry flavored. Turned my tongue almost completely red as I devoured it on the drive back to the cabin.

“Painless,” Daddy said as I was busy sticking my tongue out, trying to look at it.

Then I noticed the detour we were taking by the old manor. There were people with boxes and a moving-in van. I stared out the side window for a long while, trying to figure out if I knew any of them. I didn’t.

“I thought they’d sell after the damage,” Harlan said.

“I didn’t think they’d send anyone else,” I grumbled.

“Who are they?”

We were already far away from the manor when I stopped staring off into space. “The Council,” I grumbled. “They give people houses in safe zones. But they’ve got to be ranked highly for a manor of that size.”

“Maybe we can introduce ourselves one day.”

I groaned, squeezing the teddy in my arms. I didn’t want to talk to new vampires. “I think I’m happy just living in our bubble,” I let out. “Is that okay?”

“Whatever you want, baby,” he said, stroking the side of my arm as he turned off down the dirt trail toward the cabin. “Besides, if they want to meet, they know where we live.”

“I suppose it would be nice to show my fangs off to other vampires,” I said, trying my best not to be so negative. I grew up conditioned to have my vampire brothers’ and sisters’ backs, to always be on the side of another vampire. I supposed I’d been too hurt by it all. “But you’re the only one for me,” I said, slipping my fingers into his and holding his hand with a tight grasp.

There wasn’t anything I imagined I could want more than time with Harlan, but then Misty greeted us at the front door, and I supposed there was something more—it was time with them both, it was family.