Ripper (Hunter #1)(90)

No, this isn’t justice. This is vengeance. Tell me you aren’t enjoying this and I will retreat. You cannot. You are receiving pleasure from hurting the human, and that is not who you wish to be.

A great wave of calm rushed over me and I was able to think again. Peter Hamilton was turning blue, his face a mask of agony. I was doing that to him and I was doing it because I liked it.

Shocked, I let go and stumbled to stand up. I felt arms go around me and Marcus pulled me away from Hamilton. Gray was walking toward me, his arms reaching out to take me away from the vampire, but Marcus protested.

“I will take care of her, Lieutenant.” He nodded toward the professor. “You have a job to do. The wound is not serious.”

“I’m glad she came to her senses. Baby, are you all right?” Gray had his handcuffs in hand. He hadn’t heard mine and Marcus’s dialogue. I’d spoken aloud, but quietly. He didn’t know Marcus had been in my mind, easing me down from whatever the f*ck had happened to me.

I’d almost killed a man with my bare hands. The need still thrummed through me. Nothing scared me more than the fact that I wanted to finish him off. That need warred with the need to curl up in a man’s arms and let him hold me. I was so shocked that the man I wanted in that moment wasn’t Gray.

I wanted Marcus’s arms around me.

“I’m fine,” I managed.

“I thought…never mind. I’ll be back.” He went about the business of arresting the professor.

I shook as I came out of the strange fog I’d been in. Marcus shrugged out of his suit coat and wrapped it around me as we sat down on the lawn. The peace he’d imparted to me with his mental powers seemed to be in his hands as well. Every second he touched me I felt myself calming. His presence was a balm to a wound I hadn’t known I even possessed.

“It’s all right,” he whispered as he rocked me gently. “You didn’t do anything you shouldn’t.”

“But I wanted to.” I was terrified of what had happened. It had been like I was a separate person, and I was scared of what she had wanted to do. She was still there, still somewhere in my chest. That other part of me responded to Marcus. I gave in and let my head find his chest, briefly wondering how much better I would feel if we were skin to skin, no clothes between us. “What’s wrong with me?”

His head dropped to lie against mine as though he enjoyed the contact as much as I did. “Do not worry about it tonight. I have questions that I will find the answers to, and I promise I will make sure you are safe.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Gray said, looking down on us. He looked as scared as I felt. For the first time since I’d met him, he seemed unsure. I wondered if he was having second thoughts about me. I couldn’t blame him. I’d knocked him around like he was a rag doll. “I have to take him in and I have to write up the report. Would you mind taking her home?”

“It would be my honor to escort Kelsey home,” the vampire said.

I shook my head. “No, it’s a long way to Hurst. I’ll take my car. I’ll be fine.”

Gray hauled me up, heedless of the fact that I’d been shot. Marcus protested the rough treatment but Gray wasn’t listening. “Listen here, Kelsey mine, you will haul your sweet ass home, and by that I mean the home I bought for us because you were in my mind when I found it. You will get to our home and get in our bed and you will be waiting for me. Is that understood?”

Guess that answered my question. Now that he was here and I’d broken the connection with Marcus, I remembered who I loved. My Gray. I leaned into him and felt the first stirring of tears. I’d almost killed a man and there was something inside me I didn’t understand, but I was going to have to face it. Gray’s arms closed around me and I let go because I was safe there.

“It’s going to be all right, baby,” he whispered soothingly while his big hands rubbed my back as I sobbed. “I’m going to take care of you. I won’t let anything happen, I swear it. Trust me.”

I held onto him until he had to go and even then I let go reluctantly.

Gray leaned over and kissed me sweetly. “Get that arm checked out.”

I’d completely forgotten about the bullet that had grazed my upper arm. Gray hauled the professor into my Jeep and I slipped off Marcus’s coat as Gray drove away.

“I don’t think you’ll have any problems with that little wound, Miss Atwood,” a menacing voice said behind me.

Marcus gave Alexander Sharpe a forbidding look and ran his hand up my arm. “Are you sure you were hit?”

“I guess not,” I lied because the only evidence left of an injury was a small red abrasion. I’d bled profusely before. The bullet had heated my arm, scorching across it with violent fury, but I had next to no wound.

“I told you it wouldn’t be a problem.” Sharpe watched me with dark, interested eyes. “You should trust me, dear, I am a doctor after all.”

“Come along, cara mia,” Marcus said, taking my hand. “I need to get you home, but it would be best if you cleaned the blood off first.” He began to lead me back into the club. I noticed most of the patrons had come out to watch the scene. My cover with Marcus was well blown. He stopped as we passed Sharpe. His voice was low but his threat was clear. “Whether or not she is in my bed, do not doubt she is under my protection.”