Ripper

by Lexi Blake

  “Could you please get Marcus?” I wasn’t about to hold his hand. I let my hand find the wall to steady myself because the magic was making me nauseous and the slightest bit dizzy. Touching Alexander would be worse.

  “And stop this interesting test? Never. I think you’re different, Miss Atwood. I would like to know how different you are. I begin to believe there’s a reason a high-powered councilman is wasting his time on a woman he isn’t fucking. He thinks you’re a Hunter.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I practically snarled the question because I was getting damn sick of being left out of the joke. I took that deep breath Sharpe had advised me to take and tried to banish the nausea I felt.

  “It means you can get the bloody hell out of here on your own if you try.” He leaned casually against the very wall that threatened to close in on me. “Think about it; your prey could be getting away. He’s probably standing outside, waiting to see if I will favor him with immortality’s kiss. Bugger’s been reading too many novels if you ask me. He’s waiting, but he won’t wait forever. How do you like the fact that he’s standing out there and you’re stuck in here?”

  I didn’t like it at all. It didn’t sit well with me. If he was out there, then I wanted my hands on him. I wanted to run him to the ground and to feel him quake with fear when he realized I was after him. It started like it had with the wolves. The instinct started as a tiny ember in the pit of my stomach. It was a whisper at first, telling me I could break free of this magic.

  Alexander Sharpe’s bored voice sliced through my thoughts. “Then again, perhaps you’re a silly little human. What’s the fun in that?”

  I growled at the killer and it was right there in the back of my mind that I could gut him like the first Hunter had, but this time it would be more permanent. I could end him and avenge my brethren. I wasn’t sure where that thought had come from, but it was compelling all the same. There must have been something in my eyes because the vampire took a step back when I turned on him.

  His dark eyes widened as though he was pleasantly surprised. Still, he kept his distance. “Yes, there you are. There’s time enough for our game later. Right now, your prey is that way.”

  He pointed down the hall and suddenly I remembered how to get out of here. The voices were still calling to me. I didn’t break through the wards or anything. I simply found it easier to ignore since I was completely focused on one thing—bringing Peter Hamilton to justice. He’d killed and tortured and ripped apart six women in an attempt to save his own pitiful life. He couldn’t be allowed to get away with that. It was my job to see that he never did it again.

  I slapped my left hand on the wall. If I kept in contact with that wall, I could make it to the front door. I wouldn’t get lost if I didn’t lift my hand. It was like a maze. I slipped off the three-inch heels. I didn’t need anything to hinder me.

  I ran down the hall, sensing the vampire behind me. He watched everything I did with an avid interest. I couldn’t let that phase me. I almost ran into another vampire turning from the main hall down the one that led to the lounge. His eyes widened and he backed away from me.

  “See, love, he knows instinctively what you are,” I heard Sharpe saying as he jogged to keep up with me.

  The carpet beneath my feet gave way to hardwood and I could see the front door. I felt a wave of triumph suffuse my body. I could see the end and I couldn’t even hear those voices whispering. I’d beaten them. They couldn’t hold me. I felt my power in that moment. It hummed through my veins.

  The doorman caught a glimpse of me and then got the hell out of my way. My panic had morphed into pure predatory need.

  I stalked into the night cautiously. If I ran, I might tip off my prey that something was wrong. The cool air hit my skin and I noticed that the moon was full. It hung huge in the sky, a perfect harvest moon. It illuminated the yard as I carefully looked around.

  Sharpe came to stand beside me and that was all I needed.

  He appeared across the street. He emerged from behind a line of bushes that ran the length of the parking garage I’d watched the place from a few nights ago. Professor Peter Hamilton stepped almost shyly from his hiding place, and his eyes were on the vampire. He walked across the street and entered the yard in front of us. He didn’t even realize I was there. He was focused on the vampire. Hamilton’s eyes were wide, his hands opened as if in supplication.

  “Did you like my gifts, dark one?”

  Yep, he was insane. It was there in his eyes and his manner.

  “Well, they do tend to liven up one’s day,” Sharpe drawled behind me.

  Hamilton was almost hesitant, but he moved forward anyway. “What can I bring you to please you?”

  The vampire laughed, the sound crackling like dead leaves. “I’ll tell you what, Hamilton, I’ll give you what you want if you can give me one more present.”

  “Anything,” the college professor promised. His hands shook. He still wore his sports coat and slacks, as though he’d walked straight from a lecture to deliver a girl’s heart.

  Sharpe’s smile was slightly demonic. “Deliver her heart to me and I’ll give you what you want.”

  And of course, the bastard was pointing at me.

  And of course, Peter Hamilton had a gun.

  I leapt off the porch as the first bullet cracked into the door, narrowly missing my head. I landed in the soft grass below and rolled as he fired again. I wished I’d listened more to Gray when he’d taught me how to load and unload his gun earlier in the evening. He’d lectured me on how many bullets a gun held, but I hadn’t really been listening. Hamilton had a pistol, but I couldn’t be sure how many shots he had left.

  Rolling into a crouch, I saw him stalking across the lawn. He didn’t seem to think I would be any trouble at all after the way he’d handled those wolves. How had he handled them? The question floated over my brain as I dove behind a bush. He wasn’t strong and he wasn’t particularly fast, and his hands twitched dreadfully.

  Then he fired again and the time for thinking was over. This one managed to graze my left arm. I hissed at the sting. Bullets freaking hurt.

  “Asshole,” I breathed as I started to bleed all over my god-awful expensive dress that Neiman’s would never take back. “I’ve had the damn tag poking me all night long and you go and ruin it. Do you have any idea what this stupid dress cost?”

  “I’ll cut her heart out for you, Dark Lord,” Hamilton promised, recklessly running toward me.

  “Oh, I doubt that,” came the silky reply.

  Getting to my feet, I faced off against the man with the gun. Something happened to me in that moment. It was a lot like what occurred in Arkansas when I was sixteen, but it was more powerful. Instinct rose inside me, a hot rush of power flowing through my veins. Somewhere in the background, I heard someone calling my name, but it was a far-off sound.

  The world narrowed to me and Peter Hamilton. My peripheral vision was still quite good. I could sense it waiting there in case I needed it, but I focused on him. A certain hyperawareness took over, and for a second I could almost feel time slow. I saw the fine tremble in his hand as he lifted the pistol. It didn’t stop at his wrist. No, it quaked up his arm and into the muscles of his shoulders. Sound assaulted me, his heartbeat a rapid fire beat, so close together I thought the man might expire then and there.

  And I smelled it. Death. It hung on him. He tried to cover it with colognes and soaps, but I could smell him rotting away on the inside.

  Time sped back up, catching me almost unaware. His finger pulled back on the trigger. Instead of rolling away when he fired next, I dived low toward him. I hit the ground in a controlled slide and popped back up quickly before he could track me and get off another shot.

  Thought fled and instinct took over. Like in the alley a few days before, I fought, the knowledge of how and where to hit flowing over me like a familiar wave. My foot kicked out, neatly catching him in the stomach. There was a huffing sound as all the air
in his lungs was squeezed out and he staggered.

  This time when he tried to fire, the gun simply clicked. Every predatory instinct I carried told me the fight was done. He couldn’t beat me with his bullets. Now it was my time and all that was left was the kill.

  Hamilton knew it, too. Somewhere in his filled-with-crazy brain, a survival instinct seemed to be taking over. He gulped air and managed to stay on his feet.

  “Dark Lord, please help me.” He backed away from me.

  I was playing with him. Fear rolled off the professor, the smell almost eclipsing death. I liked the way his body jerked, as though his brain was so clouded with terror it had forgotten how to properly move. He should be afraid of me. I was going to kill him long before the tumor could.

  Sharpe’s laughter rang out. “Oh, I would never mess with that one. Well, not in any sort of a fair fight, that is.”

  “Kelsey!” Gray’s voice threatened to break my concentration. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I registered that he was running from the parking garage. His eyes were almost certainly on my blood-soaked arm.

  I didn’t need him to protect me. The thought filled me with distaste. Maybe I should show him my power, prove my dominance.

  I heard someone shouting in a foreign language. Italian it sounded like.

  Ah, Marcus was here, too. Everyone had come to save poor little me. Sharpe responded and it seemed he knew Italian, too. I didn’t care. It was time to show them I did not require their services.

  I reached out and grabbed Peter Hamilton by the throat. I moved so fast he couldn’t respond with anything but a tight gurgle. His neck felt nice in my hand. Warm flesh, but it covered blood and bone and I could take it all from him. Though I couldn’t get his entire throat in one hand, I got enough of it to feel his Adam’s apple begin to crush beneath the pressure I sweetly applied.

  He was so vulnerable in that moment. In that moment, he was the prey and I the predator god who could set him free if I possessed an ounce of mercy.

  I did not.

  “Let him go, Kelsey.” Gray was next to me, his hand on my arm, trying to separate me from my rightful prey.

  I shoved at him with my free hand and he went flying away from me. I heard his surprised curse as he landed yards from his starting position.

  “Kelsey, please, honey, this isn’t you,” he practically begged as he got up again.

  “Oh, but it is,” Sharpe replied.

  “You shut up,” Gray commanded.

  “I wouldn’t get close to her,” I heard Marcus say.

  With one hand, I picked Peter Hamilton up and tossed him to the ground. He was the tiniest bit taller than I was. Horizontal was a better position to watch him as he died, and I so wanted to watch the man. He was every man who had ever done me wrong. Every bullshit con artist wanna be player who tried to smooth talk me or my brethren. Every asshole who’d thought they had the right to our bodies.

  And he was definitely every man who ever beat a woman or a child.

  I found myself astride his chest. He was panicked, his eyes begging me to spare him. I didn’t feel like it. No, he deserved not an ounce of mercy from me. He deserved my vengeance. As I wrapped my other hand around his throat and started to squeeze, I felt more power flowing through me than ever before.

  “Please, Lieutenant,” Marcus’s voice said. “Allow me. I have some experience in this.”

  Then Marcus’s voice was inside my head. Calm. Cool. Like a wave of peace, his voice lapped at that rage in my brain. He told me to release my prey, to give over to him. He promised he could bring me peace, help me.

  Foolish vampire. I kicked him out as I had the other two who’d tried that trick. Hamilton’s throat was a toy in my hands and I shook him, enjoying the way his eyes had started to bulge.

  Not so fast, cara mia, the voice in my head said calmly.

  “Get out,” I snarled. I attempted to push the vampire out again, but he wasn’t budging. He was so much stronger than anything I’d encountered. He burrowed his way into my brain and then seemed to grow larger.

  I wondered why he didn’t take over.

  I will leave when you are back to being yourself. It wasn’t simply a voice though. There was a well of serenity behind the voice, willing me to join with it. He understood me. He could teach me. He tried to pull me back from the ledge I was on. Funny, I hadn’t even realized how far gone I was until Marcus showed me.

  Please, cara mia. Let him go and allow the lieutenant to dispense proper justice. It was like Marcus was petting my brain, soothing that part of me that wanted to kill. It felt good to have him there. So good.

  My hold tightened because a war was being fought in my head and I wasn’t ready to give up. “I am justice.”

  In that moment, I felt I was. I was born to hunt those like Hamilton who took advantage and hurt those weaker or less fortunate than them.

  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 fuck 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.”