Read Online The Night Has Teeth by Kat Kruger - Free Book Online Page B

blood to fully notice.
    “What’s wrong with him?” he asks.
    There’s even blood on his perfectly aligned teeth.
Amara emerges from the kitchen, and then they’re both staring down
in my direction. For a moment it’s as though I’m watching TV, and
none of this is actually happening to me.
    “He looks worse than I feel,” Arden says to her in
French.
    “I think he may be in shock,” she
responds.
    A huff. “Should I slap him?”
    “Arden!”
    The sharp voice snaps me out of it.
    “You need to go see a doctor,” I tell him. “That
animal could have been rabid.”
    “It’s nothing.”
    Amara intervenes. “They are just flesh wounds,
Connor.”
    She returns to kitchen as the sound of boiling water
reaches us.
    “I’ve never met anyone so squeamish,” Arden
grumbles.
    Amara appears again, this time holding a tray with a
bowl of hot water, some tea towels and gauze. Arden crouches down
on the edge of a chaise longue as she wipes the blood off his body.
Their eyes meet, and there’s a tenderness in his eyes that I
haven’t seen before. He puts a hand on her cheek and kisses her
gently on the lips. I instinctively look away in embarrassment.
That’s when I notice the tattoo on Arden’s upper arm. Much like
Amara’s, it features a wolf. This one is brown and stands below a
tree. The way the two of them are positioned, it actually appears
as though the wolves are looking at each other. Then, as he makes
another movement, I see the familiar gold chain dangling from his
neck. The ring attached to it glimmers.
    “Where’s your dog?”
    The two exchange a conspiratorial look.
    “I saw that.”
    “What?” Amara asks innocently.
    “That look you just gave each other. What the hell
is going on here?”
    They ignore my question as she winds gauze around
his torso. Blood immediately seeps into the first layer. I’m not
exactly planning on going to med school, so it’s hard for me to
gauge what a flesh wound really is versus injuries that should by
all rights require stitches. Regardless, if they’re going to play
hardball, I’ll just have to keep swinging.
    “Arden, you’re wearing the dog’s chain, the one
with the ring on it.”
    He shrugs as if to say, What of it ?
    “Where’s your dog?” I repeat.
    “The best thing is for all of us to sleep,” Amara
cuts in. “It has been a long night.”
    I nod numbly but not in agreement. “Just now, I
watched a dog ― that apparently wasn’t your dog ― save us from some kind of unidentified wild
animal.” Rising from the sofa, I move toward the door. “If that was
all in my imagination, I guess I’ll just go back out
there.”
    Arden stands in front of me, blocking the only way
out. “You can’t.”
    “Why?”
    “It isn’t safe,” he insists in a tone that clearly
isn’t meant to be questioned.
    But I’m too fed up to be bullied around. “Why isn’t
it safe, Arden?”
    He squares his shoulders and glowers at me. In
return, my brain goes into overdrive trying to think of a rational
way to get out of this situation. On the one hand, I don’t want to
face what’s out there. On the other, I don’t want Arden to think
he’s got the upper hand. Amara moves between us.
    “Connor, it might be out there still.”
    I look to Arden. “Is it?”
    Again, he shrugs. I turn toward the door. Of all of
the irrational fears that I have ― heights and public speaking
among them ― animals with glowing eyes rank pretty high on that
list. All things considered, I can’t even imagine walking out on my
own right now. There are limits to what a person can deal with in
one night. But I don’t want to give in without an answer.
    “Stay,” Amara urges, “and we will talk about this
in the morning after we all get some rest.”
    She tugs at my sleeve, ushering me toward my
bedroom. Although Arden follows, he stops short of the door and
stands watchfully as she begins to pull up the sheets on my unmade
bed. I reluctantly agree to the compromise, but even