Page 106 of Natural-Born Cullers

Light got to his feet, more started to back away from the kids’ images, how they didn’t mix with the blood on the driving licences, yet death started to crawl towards them and stain the gap.

Gray threw his own ID down into the mix.

“Gray Raoul,” he said flatly as he watched the subtle trails of blood mix with dust. Sometimes a hint of the fading brutality was all someone needed, because all the why, the where, the how… it didn’t matter compared to the… who. “Welsh Dragon killer,” he said quietly. “Employed at the age of nineteen as the UK dog soldier for the Queen when it comes to domestic threats. Taken out of officer training due to a long list of terrorist insurgency murders involving dynamite stitched into the victims’ stomachs. No real political motive. They just got in the way of me doing my fucking job like you are.”

Gray wiped at his nose. Giving a sniff, he went over and gripped the back of Light’s hair, disturbing dried blood on the fine silver strands as he pulled him in so close.

“I’ll say this only once: UK streets are mine.Never fucking yours to play in.” He tilted Light’s head up, putting so much stress on the tender offer of neck. He could break it so damn easily. “You don’teverdictate how I walk them. That’s my decision to make, and mine alone.” He went in so close. “No matter how much you’re hurting, I will always walk them as a culler. Why? Because my walk through the oncoming crowd makes me look beyond the brutality, to how two kids will wake up tomorrow without a father.” Gray tightened his grip. “Youtaught me that the day you were born, how in getting to hold you, I nearly took out your mother, and I swore I’d always keep you in mind again, no matter whose collar I wore. Butyou?” Gray looked him up and down. “You would have gone for the kill without stopping to think or look beyond your own fucking anger, and they would have fucking killed you.”

Giving a frown, he swiped a thumb over Light’s cheek. “But you were right about everything else,” he said gently. “You never needed the offer of a father as a culler.”

Gray gave a hard sigh, then kissed at Light’s forehead. “So this is me, seeing the hurt done to mine as the psychopath, as your dad away from the Crown, and calling enough.” He rested his head down to Light’s a moment later. “You have my word she’ll call in no other culler. The training, the kids pulled off the streets to train? It’s done. It’s finished. Move on. Because you really will only face me at the end of it now.”

So much turmoil played in Light’s eyes. His body shook, shock seeming to eat at him over what he’d done, what he’d just seen, how he struggled to process all the anger, the hate, the hurt, the loss, the grief. And it all seemed to come back full cycle to the photos on the floor. So Gray kept him grounded with a rough grip at the back of his neck.

“Make the choice.” He levelled Light’s look on his. “You either turn and head away from the path you’ve started walking, where you trust me to help you through it.” Gray searched his eyes, the full blackness burning in them. “Or you walk headlong into it, with that same offer of guidance from me to help you through it all. But you listen when I tell you you’re not fucking ready.”

“I’m no fucking culler.” It came hard, heated, and Gray nodded.

“No, you’re not.” He lowered his look, not straying from everything he saw in Light’s eyes. “I love what I am seeing in you, because it’s going to take you down the dark beauty of uncollared paths I’ve never been allowed to walk. But you can’t walk those paths alone, no matter where it takes you. So you listen to what Martin has shown you, that no matter which way you go, it’s not a path you can walk alone.” Gray brushed at his cheek again, catching a tear. “You really need to fucking acknowledge that taking someone’s life has implications, like how Lee’s parents woke up without a son, how two girls will wake tomorrow with no father—just like you woke up without a brother. There’s always a price for what we do, and most times it will come back at you to take you down. My training won’t lead into the culler lifestyle, it will put you in touch with INTERPOL or the likes of MI6, who walk to their own international tune.”

Light shifted under the weight of Gray’s hold, his gaze still fighting everything crashing into him. “Why….” He spat that. “Why didn’t you ever just take the walk? Away from UK shores. Her collar. You could have left.” Light shoved at him. “Why didn’t you fucking leave?”

Gray nodded, then found Light again and kept his grip on him rough. “Could have but didn’t.” He looked over at Martin. “Because I stay close to family too, to how a change in daily routine… it would have killed one of them.” He looked back at Light. “Love… I don’t even know if what I feel is even close to the definition, I just know it hurts when I’m not around them. Nothing matters beyond that. It never mattered beyond you. So I stayed because it hurt to be anywhere else but around family. Around mine.”

Light frowned, and Gray tightened his grip again. “So make the choice, Light. But you stay around family, no matter what. You choose the path you started tonight, you get the proper training from the likes of MI6, from your grandfather who also shares the anger you feel over the cullers. He has ties to international agencies who’d kill to have someone like you on their side who has no bias towards a monarchy. Or you walk away and try and find peace that way. But this time you name your terms for either. Because it has to be your choice to make from here on in. My mistake was putting my collar on you. So I make my terms clear enough: you don’t ever threaten UK streets in this mindset, around mine, but I will help you find a way into any path you do choose.”

Light screwed his face, but he seemed to bury so much in the same breath. “I chose my path the night I killed Lee. He didn’t deserve it. My decision’s already been made. There’s no going back,” he said flatly. “But…” Anger crept into the darkness of his eyes. “He fails tonight.” He glanced at Simon.

Simon started to come over, but Gray held him still with a look. Light did too as he shook.

“He doesn’t fucking breathe around a culler, here or at MI5.” A tear slipped over Light’s cheek. “I won’t lose him.” He flicked a look over to Simon. “You… you train and work with me, for me. Wherever I go. Those are my terms, where Gray pays your wage.”

“Done,” said Gray. “But he does liaison with me on the tech side if I call it.”

Light stilled. Nodded.

“What?” Simon threw out his arms. “Am I just a fucking whore for selling here? That’s my wholecareer, Light.”

“I’m keeping you fucking safe. The Controller’s guard held a gun to your head and fucking touched you as Gray, he—”

Protected… him.

The Controller.

Christ. Light hadn’t killed Slim out of anger because Gray had killed the Controller—he’d killed because he’d panicked seeing a threat to his.

Because Gray had protected Myers over… Simon.

Gray briefly closed his eyes.

Light almost went over to Simon. “Take it or fucking walk. Your choice.”

“With no job to go back to either way, what choice is there?” said Simon. “Because fuck knows your father will come at me if I don’t.” He went to add something else, but in the end snarled and turned away, heading for the stairs.

Martin smirked from over by the unit. “Go on, Piper,” he said quietly. “That’s adult talk over him saying he’ll consider it, but you better make the angry sex damn good.” He winced. “That and don’t touch his laptop again. Ever.”

Light focused a hard look on Martin.

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