Page 57 of Marked

Nineteen

It’s still dark when I pull into my parking spot and slide out of my truck. I balance my coffee and phone in one hand, tuck my small bag of food under my arm, and push the truck door closed with my hip. With my free hand, I press the lock button on my keys and then begin my trek towards the complex. I grumble in irritation when I notice that the lights that illuminate a few of the buildings’ stairwells are still dead. With how much we all pay for this shit, the office shouldn’t bat an eye when it comes to putting in a request to fix the lights.

“Cheap fucks.” I murmur as I follow the sidewalk that leads to my building.

When I near building eighteen I stop, assessing the grassy area to my right. I know that some of the lights are out, but with my heightened senses, I can usually see in the dark without straining to do so. But not now. I sharpen my eyes, scowling at the darkness next to me for an explanation to the dense blackness.

I feel the surge of energy before I see the hunched form a few feet from me. My hackles shoot up in warning and I react on instinct, taking a step back. Two golden orbs snap my way, and my breath catches in my throat at the crazed look in them. Adrenaline doesn’t seep into my veins; it shoots into them like a bullet. I gasp at the sudden energy my body shoves at me, my heart hammering and pulse thrumming. But I know that the moment I move, this thing will come at me.

How utterly dumb of me to keep up with the bad habit of leaving my service gun in my truck’s center console.

It takes a step toward me and then another, a rumbling growl filling the air between us. My eyesight sharpens again, and I can just make out a reptilian-like snout pointed in my direction. Almost like a lizard. But that doesn’t make sense. Its body is too high off the ground. When it takes another slow, predator step, I can make out the fur surrounding its neck. Like a lion’s mane? What the fuck is this thing?

Run.

I hear the triplets’ voices in my head, my pawprint burning along my sternum at the same time, and it spurs me into action. My feet stumble in their haste to retreat, and the monster takes that opening to charge at me. I chuck my coffee at it and hear a gurgled hiss as the hot liquid hits, but I don’t wait to see if I damaged it. I take off towards my apartment, whirling my keys in my hand so that one sticks out between each finger like Wolverine’s claws.

When I reach my stairwell, I jump up to the fourth step and thank the gods that the wall lights are working. I let a pained scream when something sharp clamps at my calf and jerks my leg out from under me. My chest and chin collide with the stairs, blood filling my mouth while the breath wheezes out of me. I make myself turn on my side, kicking my free foot at the monster’s face.

And it most definitely is a monster.

I’ve seen pictures of chimeras before, but this is a sick, twisted one. Its face is that of a crocodile. A fucking crocodile that has its jaws clamped around my calf like a bear trap. One of its lion paws bats at my shoe, trying to get me to stop kicking its face. Fat chance of that. It’s wide, powerful legs kick off from a step, releasing my calf to snap at my face. I swing my head back, cracking it against the concrete step. I’ll take a split scalp over a mangled face any day, thanks.

I jab my hand at its throat, embedding my keys in its neck. It hisses out a howl and swings its head back. My keys come away covered in black blood, but I barely spare it a glance as I prepare to strike again. It rears back like a horse, giving me a clear view of its elephant-like legs. Or maybe a hippo? I don’t have time to ponder it longer, not with those claws coming towards me.

“Stop!”

Jack’s bellow startles me, but the flare of his aura seems to scare the monster. Its paws land on my shoulders, pinning me to the stairs, but the massive head swings to the side, looking for the source of the voice. It finds Jack standing at the base of the stairs and growls. Its attention focuses back on me, and I bare my teeth at it in a sneer. It snaps its jaws at me and lunges for my face again, but it never makes contact. Jack has the mane fisted in his hands, keeping the snout from reaching me. With a vicious snarl, Jack yanks the monster off me and throws it down to the base of the stairs.

Struggling to sit up, I look at Jack as he stands with his back to me, staring down the beast. I can’t see his face, but I can feel his warm energy radiating from him with the cadence of a rapid heartbeat. The relief that surges through me knocks the breath out of me. Thank gods, he’s okay! He’s not missing! He hasn’t been taken from me.

My attention is drawn back to the beast when it snarls. It snaps its jaws at Jack as he flares his aura again, but I can clearly see the tail tucked between its grey legs in submission.

What the hell?

I struggle to stand up, but my leg gives out on me. Scrambling for the railing, my keys clank and shink against it, the metal-on-metal screech echoing in the stairwell. Jack whirls around to look at me, and it takes a lot to not flinch back at the intense, cold gleam there.

I swallow the blood in my mouth. “Jack?” I whisper uncertainly, clutching the railing tighter.

His gaze softens minutely as our eyes meet. At the sound of scratching nails on concrete, he quickly turns back to the beast as it flees. “Ammit!” he snarls, moving to chase after it.

What’s he going to do, hunt that thing down? Did he not see the same beast that I did?

“Jack!” I quickly reach for his shirt, fisting my hand in the material to keep him here with me. Where it’s safe.

He once again turns to me, and the desperation I see there is confusing. He glances to where the beast disappeared then back to me as if torn on what to do. As if he doesn’t know if he should stay or go after it.

“Don’t,” I plead and wipe at my lips as blood dribbles out of the corner of my mouth. I bit my tongue when I hit my chin and the fucker is bleeding like a bitch.

Jack’s eyes hyper focus on the blood I probably just smeared all over my chin. They then travel to my leg, and his nostrils flare. With a last fleeting, longing glance in the direction the monster disappeared to, he reaches for me. He steadies me on my feet and loops an arm around my waist as I sway with dizziness.

“What’s wrong?” He asks as I stumble up the next step.

Everything. “I hit my head,” I mumble back.

His hand delves into my hair, fingers running along my scalp. I suck in a breath when he finds a sensitive spot. When he pulls back his hand, I’m not at all surprised to see blood coating his fingers.

“Damn it.” Jack mutters under his breath and sweeps me up into his arms.

---