Chapter 10

Carmilla wakes up covered in sweat and gasping for air. Her hands instantly fly to the warm body lying between her legs with her head on her leather-covered thigh. Her heart starts to slow its pace as she reaches forward puts her hand flat on Laura's chest. She can now hear and feel her heart beat. The dream she had was so real, was Ell behind her dream or was it her own fucked up way of saying that she needed to take care of whatever was going on. She sighs and runs her fingers through the long brown hair in her lap. She leans her head back against the cold wall and signs again, hoping that it will take the memory of the dream she had just had.

The girl in her lap signs with her and snuggles her face deeper into Carmilla's leg, hugging the well-toned thigh. The feeling of the girl being so sweet and puppy like gave the normally cold vampire a small jolt of happiness. After seeing herself lose Laura she knew that she had to do anything and everything in her power to protect her. She runs her fingers through the girl's hair again and she watches as her green eye slowly flutter open.

"That feels good." She nuzzles into Carmilla's hand and looks up at her. As soon as she makes eye contact with Carmilla she knows that the woman has something on her mind. She sits up and gives her a worried look.

"Hey what's wrong?" Laura sits up and watches Carmilla's face as three different expressions cross her face. First she had a look of worry, then fear, and finally a slight calmness. Carmilla continues to run her hand through Laura's hair a few more times.

"I just have a few demons fucking with my mind." Carmilla pulls Laura closer to her and hold her frame against her. Just the feeling of the warm body that is Laura's gives the worried vampire a bit of relief and calmness. She nuzzles her nose into Laura's brown hair and takes a short inhale, taking in the smaller girls scent. Laura wraps her arms around Carmilla's thin, malnourished frame, and hugs her close.

"What's going on with you Carm? Tell me your dream." The raven haired woman shakes her head lightly and gives Laura the softest smile she has ever seen on the Victorian woman's face. The smile almost scared the young girl because she knew if Carmilla was smiling like this that something was up and she wanted to make what was going on last.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about some stuff." Carmilla leans back against the wall and goes to closes her eyes.

"Come on Carm you know you can tell me everything and I won't judge you, I mean I watched you eat a Dutch ghost for crying out loud." She watches a smirk cross the very feline face and then fade away slowly in the silent room. Laura continues to stare at the girl until her chest stops moving to simulate breathing. As she lays her head back down on Carmilla's leg the older woman takes one last peak at the girl before closing her eyes again. All her thoughts flooded her mind at one time as she closed her eyes. Was it just a dream of was Ell trying to threatening her, was it just her worried mind or was that something that Ell could actually do. Carmilla sat there and pondered for a moment before dosing off.

*sleeping the rest of the night through*

When Carmilla wakes up Laura is still asleep in her lap. She lifts the sleeping girls head up and slides out from under her, knowing that she won't wake her. As she lays Laura's head down on the blankets she had been sitting on she notices a small scratch on her face. The vampire looks at the small nick in the girl's skin and rage builds up in her stomach. She knows that Ell would have no problem harming Laura now that she is a vengeance demon. The Ell she once loved was gone and had been changed into this monster that would hurt a girl that had nothing to do with her, just because Carmilla happened to fall in love with her.

The moody vampire sighs and lightly rubs a finger over the scratch. She takes tip of her thumb into her mouth and bites it till she draws blood. She then watches as a small drop falls to Laura's cheek, right on her cut. The drop sits there for a moment and Carmilla watches the small pin point of red as it is sucked into Laura's skin. She then backs up from the girl a little, knowing what is next. All of a sudden Laura's eyes shoot open and she sits straight up out of a deep sleep.

"Holy crap I am really awake!" she looks at Carmilla and takes her face between her hands.

"Like, I haven't felt this good ever! I am pretty sure I could climb the walls if I was spider man but I'm not spider man if anything I would have to be spider woman but then people would think we were together and I think that is so stupid that people always just assume that two hero's with their names being even close to each other must be together. No that is stupid I think if anything I would want to be a wizard." She gasps and shakes Carmilla's head slightly, causing her eyes to have a hard time focusing.

"Oh my god do you think I would be a Gryffindor? I would be sooooooo happy!" And then just as quickly as she had awoken Laura seemed to have hit a brick wall in her activity and her hands slowly slide down Carmilla's face and plop down on the tops of her own thighs.

"Geez what was that? It was like I had the most amazing adrenaline rush ever and then a feeling of calmness just punched me right in the face." The vampire smirks at her and stands up.

"Just a little trick I learned living as long as I have." Carmilla holds her hand out to Laura and the young girl takes the help up.

"Gee thanks grandma, what was it, a cracked egg over my head?" The comment causes the girls to laugh together.

"No, just a little vampire trick." Carmilla then wipes off the small bit of residue where the blood once was to see that the small scratch is now gone. She licks the blood off of her thumb before Laura's eyes can understand what was on Carmilla's finger.

"What was that?" Laura gives her a confused look as she stands and dusts off her pants.

"Nothin' you just had some dirt on your face." Laura looks at her almost afraid.

"Okay first you are being an old woman and now you are being my mother, I am sorry but this is weird." Laura then starts to walk towards one of the hallways. Looking down one side, then the other.

"Uh, Carm the halls changed again." Carmilla sighs heavily and walks over to the hallway that Laura is looking down. On one side there is light coming from the end of it. On the other side it is dark and a strange scratching noise is emitting from it.

"This seems strange. I think you need to stay back and let me check things out." Carmilla starts down the end of the hallway where the scratching noise is coming from. Laura grabs her by the arm and pulls her back .

"Yeah because you doing that worked so well last time when you ended up tied up and helpless and then molested by your ex who took over my old room mates body." Carmilla looks into the girl's forest green eyes and gives up on the argument.

"Okay fine, which way would you like to go princess?" Laura looks at her with a face that can only say 'Really' in a very sarcastically sarcastic tone.

"I think we should go towards the light. Not in an 'oh my god I'm dead' kind of way but in the 'it's starting to get brighter' kind of way." Laura puts finger parenthesizes around her words and then crosses her arms and waits for something sarcastic and in the form of a complaint to come out of Carmilla's mouth.

"Fine, let me walk a few steps ahead of you, just in case." Laura laughs.

"Why so if you get hurt I can some how magically save you again without actually knowing what I am doing?" The vampire stops and thinks for a moment and comes up with her answer.

"Yes, that is exactly what I want." She starts down the hall way with Laura following a few steps behind her.

"Oh yeah and you will just hear me 'oh no my three-hundred year old vampire has fallen and can't get up." Carmilla stops in her tracks and looks back.

"Ha ha you're so funny." She continues walking. "Come on cupcake." They walk down the hall way with the light and all Laura can think about right now is what happened last time she fallowed a hall way with a light at the end of it and she suddenly regrets making this choice. She looks down at her feet as she walks and feels the worry start to set back in. the break of any emotions other than calmness was amazing while it lasted but it was time to start paying close attention to everything. Like what did Carmilla do to her that made her so energetic, then crash within seconds of each other? As Laura ponders her thoughts she doesn't realize that Carmilla had stopped walking. She lightly runs into her back and stumbles back.

"Carm why did you stop walking?" Laura looks around the taller girls figure and sees something that looks much like a crumpled up body.

"What the hell is that?" Laura points down at the heap of clothing and what looks to be wires.