She heard the creak of Roger’s seat as heleaned over to look in the back and then his sharp inhalation.“Well, of course, he is,” Roger murmured, and the seat creaked ashe sat back again. “I think it’s time for you to come up front,Mags.”
“On my way,” she replied.
The squelch of airwaves filled theambulance, and then Roger requested help with a calm that didn’tfit this situation. The man’s eyes burned into hers as, with thecare she would take to back away from a rabid animal, she edgedaway from him.
The others would never believe her and Rogerwhen they told their coworkers about this at the end of theirshift. Scratch that, she wouldnevertell anyone about this.She’d be locked up right beside her mother if she did.
The man’s chest heaved, and his arms werespread out to the sides by the cuffs hooking him to the stretcher.The posture reminded her of an avenging angel. Except, shesuspected this man was anything but angelic.
“Go,” he commanded, and then somethingcollided with the back of the stretcher.
Knocked forward by the weight of whateverhit him, Aiden almost fell flat onto the ground. If he went down,the Savages would be all over him, andher. He wouldnotallow the monstrous, twisted malignancies that were theworst of his kind anywhere near her.
When he was shoved forward again, graspinghands reached over his back toward Maggie as excited chatter filledthe ambulance. He’d been the one to draw them here, but they’dscented her, they wanted her, and they would destroy her.
Fury pulsed through his veins as he launchedhimself up off the ground. The Savage on the back of the stretcherscreamed, his bones shattered when Aiden smashed him between thestretcher and the roof of the ambulance. While standing, anotherone tried to sneak between his legs. Plunging downward, he drovehis knee into the vamp’s back, shattering his spine at the sametime he finally succeeded in breaking the links of the cuffs.
Maggie scrambled back when her patientsurged up and bashed one of the things trying to get in theambulance off the ceiling. A putrid aroma drifted to her, remindingher of garbage as another creature tried to crawl between herpatient’s legs. She froze when he came down, and his knee broke theother monster almost in half. Years of training to save others andcompassion warred with her flight instinct as the man’s hands beatagainst the ground and cries of anguish issued from him.
The man’s whimpers pierced through herindecision. She helped others; she didn’t run from them, even ifthey were some kind of twisted freak on super speed. She went tograb the man’s wrist when metal snapped and a hand seized hers. Herpatient’s leaf-colored eyes flickered with red when she met hisgaze. Terror crept through her as she realized he’d broken thehandcuffs.
“What are you?” she breathed as somethingelse hit the stretcher, shoving him toward her and knocking him offthe man beneath him. Her nose wrinkled when the faint stench ofgarbage grew stronger on the air.
Aiden didn’t answer her as the stench ofrotting vampire filled his nose. There were more Savages out there,probably the rest of the ones who attacked him, Aiden realized. Theone whose back he’d snapped was yanked away as his brethren pulledhim to safety. Aiden glanced between his legs to see the Savagehe’d battered against the ceiling crawling out the back of thevehicle.
Roger shouted something, and jagged linesfissured across the windshield. Leaning over, Roger grasped thesmall fire extinguisher and yanked it free. His eyes met Aiden’sand widened before he spun around. He smashed the butt of theextinguisher against the hand shoving its way through theglass.
A current of air brushed against his spine,but Aiden felt his veins and muscles knitting together to repairthe damage. He was healing fast, but he was nowhere near strongenough to take these things on right now. Not without blood.
His gaze fell on Maggie’s neck and the pulsebeating through the vein there. His fangs tingled; his mouthwatered. Even if he hadn’t been weakened, he’d still crave herblood as the scent of it was more alluring than anything he’dencountered before, but now heneededit if they were tohave any chance of surviving this.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
“For what?” she demanded.
Maggie didn’t have time to move before hishand wrapped around the back of her head and he drew her towardhim. She placed her palms against his chest to shove him away, butshe’d have better luck moving a mountain as he didn’t budge.
“It’s the only way I can save you.” His warmbreath tickled her ear. “Forgive me.”
Then, he was sinking his teeth—no, hisfangsinto her throat.
CHAPTER 9
She went completely still against him whenthose fangs pierced her. She felt them slip inside her vein to drawher blood, but she remained immobile as disbelief caused her mindto spin.
What is going on? How is this possible?What? How? What?
My mother’s not crazy!
She almost sobbed aloud as that realizationhit her, but sobbing would require action, and she couldn’t move.He pulled her blood from her in gulps that should have terrifiedher. Instead, her body went limp as pleasure slid out from wherehe’d pierced to wind through her body. An indescribable feeling ofrightness crept through her bloodstream with every beat of herheart.
She’d placed her hands on him to push himaway, yet she found her fingers curling into the solid wall of hischest to draw him closer. His other hand snaked around her waist ashe pulled her flush against him. Instead of terror, her bodyreacted with lust as her breasts felt heavier and her hips thrusttoward him.
He growled against her throat, the sensual,possessive sound arousing her more. This man was sucking the bloodout of her body, he may kill her, and she was acting like a hornyteenager in the back seat of their parents’ car.
She wanted to smack herself for it, but shealso desiredmore. Never had she experienced something aswondrous and right as this. Maybe she’d hit her head harder thanshe’d believed against the side of the ambulance, but somethingwithin her recognized this man was the piece of her life she hadn’tknown was missing. Without understanding it, she welcomed it.
The second her blood hit his tongue, a senseof calm slid through Aiden. It was a calm he hadn’t experienced intwo years, not since he’d stopped aging at twenty-three, and he’dnever expected to feel it again. He’d believed dying was the onlyway he’d find freedom from his twisted compulsions again.
