Embrace the Darkness (The Maura Quinn Series Book 1) - Ashley N. Rostek Page 0,45

me before I was forcibly turned around to face whoever had ahold of me.

“Maura?” It was Jamie.

His eyes widened as his gaze traveled over the side of my injured face to the body on the floor behind me. From what I could tell, my lip was split and beginning to swell. Even the inside of my cheek was cut up from it smashing against my teeth. My cheek bone pulsated, sending a stabbing pain up behind my eye. I hurt and the pain was getting worse with each passing second.

One after another, goons showed up with their guns drawn. First Josh, next was Dean, and then another whose name I didn’t know. Gun pointed in the air, Dean squatted next to the dead goon and checked for a pulse at his neck. Clearly not finding one, Dean looked to Josh, shaking his head slightly before all three goons looked over at me. Jamie quickly turned me away from them and pulled at my bikini top. I glanced down, finding my right breast had fallen out from behind the small fabric. Jamie did his best to yank the material back into place, covering my exposed flesh. Louie was the next to enter the foyer, gun at the ready. He saw the body first before his eyes traveled to me. He didn’t even bother checking to see if he might be alive. Instead, he quickly shoved his gun in the back of his pants and started unbuttoning his dress shirt. He had it open by the time he reached us. I watched as he slid it off his shoulders and draped it around mine.

“What happened?” he asked Jamie.

“I don’t know. She won’t respond.”

When did he ask me?

More bodies trickled into the room, goons, house staff. All were talking. It was loud, but I couldn’t make out what anyone was saying. As more time passed, the more confused I started to feel. Every time I tried to focus on someone, thoughts of my finger pulling the trigger or the feel of the pushback after the gun fired would pull me away, flood me with thoughts of Zack, Tyson, that night and then that intoxicating feeling I'd gotten when I'd killed them. When I'd killed them all.

The memory from a few nights ago in Stefan’s study played back like a movie behind my eyes. I'd told Stefan I'd had to see the fear in Tom and Tina’s eyes before I'd killed them or else it wouldn’t have been as satisfying.

Is this who I am? A monster? My conscience asked. Who cares? You loved it. Embrace it, my darkness argued. My soul felt split in two, putting me at war with itself.

Brody approached me, concern etched around his eyes. His mouth was moving but his words never reached my ears. When he looked to Jamie to talk to him, I was able to read one word his lips formed. Stefan.

“Should be here any minute.” Jamie’s voice reached me, a moment of clarity only lasting for the breadth of a second.

I tried to focus on Louie’s shirt hanging off my shoulders, but I couldn’t hold onto my thoughts of it—its color, the way the fabric felt against my skin. It wasn’t enough.

Something was wrong with me. I was a psychology student for fuck's sake. Why can’t I focus? I tried to still my mind long enough to understand, cataloging my feelings, my reactions, my surroundings, and then it hit me.

I was in shock.

“Maura?”

It was the only explanation.

“Maura?” Hands gently tilted my head back, forcing me to look up. My eyes met Jamie’s. “You need to sit down. Brody brought you a chair.” His hands traveled to my arms. As his fingers closed around my left arm, the pain caused me to cry out and I shoved him away. He jumped back with his hands in the air.

“My arm,” was all I could muster.

Seeming to understand, he nodded, taking a hesitant step toward me again. This time he put a hand on my shoulder and his other at my hip. “The chair is right behind you. All you have to do is sit down.”

I sat back, my butt meeting with a soft cushion. Jamie knelt in front of me, moving his hands to rest on my knees. His thumbs rubbed small circles against my skin, soothingly. The more I watched him, the more I was able to focus. Not on anything else. Just Jamie. He was anchoring me.

“Maura!” I heard Stefan yell. I listened to the slapping