Page 52 of Marked By Night

Unfortunately, the danger isn’t over. As the Jeep rounds the curve, their tires screech as Elian slams on his brakes to avoid crashing into us from behind. Somehow he manages to stop in the nick of time and I catch him smacking the steering wheel in frustration through the rearview mirror. Hmph.Volatile motherfucker.

Kaos unclips his seatbelt, snapping me back to the moment as he checks me over. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry.” His hands skim my neck making me wince involuntarily. His gaze narrows in on my pained face.

“I’m fine," I reply, but my lies fall on deaf ears. He’s seen my neck, and it’s bad. I’ve caught brief glimpses of it in the side mirror.

“I’m going to fucking murder him,” he mutters, nostrils flaring. He’s shaking with rage as he lightly wraps his hands around my throat. His hands vibrate, glowing black, and then the pain is no longer there.

“What did you do?” I ask in confusion.

“I healed you. Something I should’ve done earlier,” he says, looking away.

“You healed me?”

He nods, jaw clenched tight. I can tell he’s taking Tyler and Ben’s attack personally, but it’s not his fault. It’s theirs. No one could’ve predicted the lengths they would go through to get to me.

“Kaos, it’s not your fault,” I tell him lightly.

With a slight head nod, he jerks his door open and walks away to scope out the scene. I toss my seat belt off and hop out after him, noting how much better I feel now that my neck, ribs, and shoulder are no longer throbbing.

As we round the front of the Maserati, I can tell that the giant brown blob isn’t a bear at all. The mass of fur lifts its head and I gasp. It’s a dog. A massive one at that.

Ash and I always wanted to go to the local animal shelter and adopt an animal, but they are expensive, and we never had the spare funds. I mean by the time you pay the shelter fee, vet bills, dog food, toys, treats, and beds, it adds up.

My head whips in Kaos’s direction when he makes a weird noise to find him holding his crotch knife in his hand like the cute pup is going to be rabid and attack me or something. I shake my head, signaling him to put his knife away.

“This could be one of the Elites pets sent to kill us or he may have rabies. You never know, Sadie.”

“It’s a fucking Golden Retriever, Kaos. Not an attack dog.”

The pup closes the distance between us with its tongue lolling out of its mouth and tail wagging a mile a minute. Its fur is brown with streaks of red woven in and its eyes are a deep chocolate brown. They’re the most intelligent dog eyes I’ve ever seen. Seriously.

One of our other neighbors a few duplexes down has a little yappy chihuahua that peed on our lawn occasionally and you could tell nothing was going on behind the scenes if you know what I mean. With this pup sitting before me, he looks like he’s plotting.

So, I better pet him and make friends, right? Dogs fucking love scratches. I bend down, sticking my hand out in greeting. It sniffs it carefully a few times before bopping my hand with his wet nose as if to sayyeah, you’re cool.

When he lowers his head, I start scratching as I coo unintelligible things that probably only make sense to a dog. Eventually, I work my way down its back and find its puppy spot. It rolls over, flashing me his belly as I go to town on the spot and its back-left leg starts moving involuntarily.

“Oh yes. Vicious attack dog,” I quip.

“Fine, you were right,” he says and finally puts his crotch knife away.

“I usually am.”

When the pup has his fill of belly scratches, he turns back over and licks me on the cheek. “I think it likes me.”

“Who wouldn’t?” Dante says from somewhere behind me. I didn’t even know he had gotten out of the Jeep. I’ve been so focused on the pup.

I catch sight of a baby blue collar around his neck and my heart sinks. Did someone bring him out here only to dump him? Ugh. I hate the human race.

“Did you belong to somebody, buddy?”

When he turns his head, a slip of paper wedged in his collar catches my attention. “Huh, what’s this?” I unwrap the cardstock carefully, reading the words several times over in disbelief.

Sadie, change of plans. Find me at the X. Enjoy your gift. He’s yours. -Bedi

I flip it over, looking for more instructions, details,something,but there isn’t anything but a map with a red ‘X’ like a freaking treasure map.

“What is that?” Kaos asks, zeroing in the slip of paper in my hand.

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