Carmilla sighs, her fingers sweeping over the spines of books as she passes them in the bookstore aisle.
Shoulda taken some of the books from Laura's father's library with me when I left.
As if on cue, the door to the store flies open and in comes her tiny charge, stumbling and tripping over her own feet.
Carmilla hadn't realized how much she missed the girl until now. She had continued looking for anything about this ritual and how to stop it without alerting Mother. She wanted to make things right with Laura.
It'd been a quiet few weeks and her Mother stayed off her back, assuming everything was fine. Assuming Carmilla was still planning to hand Laura over.
Boy, was she wrong.
Laura barely manages to avoid crashing into a bookcase as she barrels down the aisle right past Carmilla, who chuckles and shakes her head.
"Where's the fire, cutie?" she chances joking. She walks up to Laura, who's opening and closing random books. "Hope it's not in here."
Laura turns, confused before she recognizes Carmilla. Her face lights up for a moment, but it quickly fades. "Are you stalking me?" Laura asks, flipping through another book. Carmilla can't quite read her tone, so she proceeds carefully.
"Wow, I've heard of speed-reading, but this is a whole other level," Carmilla quips. "And no, for the record, I am not stalking you."
Laura huffs and goes for another book.
"Cupcake, what are you doing?" Carmilla asks, amused when Laura's tongue pokes out during her concentration.
Laura slams the book closed and goes for another one before thinking better of it. She looks at Carmilla, her eyes narrowing. "Have you seen any suspicious-looking books?"
Carmilla raises an eyebrow. "I mean, The Very Hungry Caterpillar was staring at The Giving Tree weird around lunchtime..."
Laura groans and grabs another book while muttering, "Useless whitelighter."
"Yeah, but I'm your useless whiteligher," Carmilla teases without thinking and Laura halts in her movements, slowly looking up at Carmilla, whose eyes widen. "I-I... I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."
Laura starts to reply when something catches her attention and she brushes past her. Carmilla follows her, trying not to mess this up.
"Laura, I really didn't mean to–– I'm sorry––"
Laura walks to the end of the aisle and opens a book with a blank black cover on the floor. There's a big gust of wind and she's pushed away, dropping the book as a figure slowly emerges from its pages.
Within seconds, a demon growls. "Thank you for freeing me, foolish girl. I just barely finished feasting on the last one."
Laura freezes, coping with the fact that she is too late to save the girl she was sent to rescue.
The demon takes advantage of the hesitation and rushes at Laura, shoving her into the bookshelf with enough force that it's knocked over. People on the other side scream and customers start fleeing the store.
Carmilla helps Laura up and she mumbles her appreciation, trying to catch her breath.
The demon rushes at the storeowners and Laura darts out from the fallen bookcase, running up behind him.
"Stop!"
It halts and looks at her, confused.
"Get back in the book," Laura commands.
YOU ARE READING
Forever Charmed
FanfictionLaura Hollis is a half-witch, half-human who's just graduated from Magic School. She joins her friends' coven, but they're overly protective of the newbie, especially since Laura doesn't have any powers. When her new guardian angel Carmilla shows...
