Page 99 of Marked By the Devil

I gulped again.

Assess. Ascertain. And act.

I swallowed again, steadying myself after the rush of that danger.

“Paul?” I called it out confidently, knowing that if anyone else was in here to hurt me, I’d already given my location away by shooting Smithson.

A quiet moan came from the foyer, and I ran to help.

He was lying on the floor, his blood pooling a widening puddle of crimson on the white marble floor.

“Paul!”

I skidded, dropping to my knees to check him over. Finding the gunshots that must have been those pffts of air that I mistook as the fan acting up but were actually Smithson’s shots fired with a silencer, I hurried to cover the wounds and compress the bleeding as he closed his eyes.

“Help!” I screamed it, counting on one of the guards patrolling to hear me and come to make sure that only one person died in this house today.

35

VIKTOR

Iwas almost to the mansion to drop off Adrik and Alexei when all our phones started going off at the same time. It didn’t have to mean something bad. We were all kept up-to-date about what was going on.

I didn’t answer my phone since I was at the wheel, but Adrik answered his, sitting next to me in the passenger seat.

“Elena,” he said before answering on speaker, to let us know who it was.

Before he could say any kind of greeting, she frantically spoke. “Adrik, he’s bleeding. He’s bleeding out. There’s blood everywhere.”

“He is alive, Elena.”

My heart lurched at Wren’s voice.

Cool, calm, and mostly collected.

Every protective instinct bombarded me.

“What the fuck is going on?” Adrik roared. “Where⁠—”

“Viktor’s house,” Mila answered. “The situation is secure.”

“What situation?” I roared. I pulled on the steering wheel sharply and sped to get home.

Blood? A man was shot? The others were there and they were alive and so was this man… “What the fuck is going on? Wren? Wren?”

“Hurry,” she said. I didn’t know if she was talking to me or someone else, but I was.

Panicking and hating that I wasn’t there to help, I tried to speed as fast as I could to get there.

“Elena, he will be fine,” Wren said.

Elena sobbed, trying to tell Adrik about the blood and other incoherent strings of fear that I couldn’t follow.

“What the fuck is going on!” I roared. “Wren!”

“Paul is shot. The guards on the property have said it’s clear but⁠—”

“Shot? How? Who?”