“No! Monster! Vampire!Getaway!”
Maggie winced and leaned back as her motherused her fingers to make a cross. She thrust the cross intoMaggie’s face. “Get back vampire spawn!”
Aiden’s hand tightened on Maggie’s shoulder;he stepped closer when Jane leaned further away. From the corner ofhis eye, he saw the orderlies and doctor coming toward them, butMaggie was already rising.
“I know you’re telling the truth about whathappened to you,” Maggie stated in a flat tone of voice.
Jane stopped shouting at her to get backwhen Maggie spoke these words.
“I won’t come back here, I won’t bother youagain, but I needed to tell you that. I’m sorry for what happenedto you, and I believe you.”
Jane’s hands fell into her lap; her mouthparted. “You believe me?”
Aiden intervened with the doctor andorderlies before they could pull Maggie away. “It’s fine,” he saidto them as he pushed his power out to ensnare their minds in atrap. “Give them a few more minutes.”
The three of them stayed where they were,their faces slack as he kept hold of their minds. Aware of thecameras in the room, Aiden commanded them to talk to each otherlike they normally would.
“I believe you,” Maggie said again.
Tears spilled from Jane’s eyes with suchintensity Maggie swore someonedidturn on a faucet behindthem. Her shoulders heaved until Maggie worried she’d harmherself.
“Oh, don’t cry,” she whispered and restedher hand on Jane’s shoulder. The bone protruding against Jane’sflesh dug into Maggie’s palm. “Please, don’t cry.”
Jane jerked her shoulder away from her, andMaggie’s hand fell helplessly to her side.
“You and your father destroyed me!” Janewailed.
A sword to the heart might have hurt lessthan those words. They’d never had a relationship where love coulddevelop between them, but it was heart-wrenching to be blamed asthe source of a ruined life. No, she was not the source, that hadbeen her father, but she was a byproduct of the miserable bastard’sdestruction.
“I’m sorry,” Maggie said again.
Aiden clasped her hand and pulled her backas her mother threw up another cross and started screaming as ifshe were on fire.
“We should go,” Maggie whispered.
“Calm down, Jane,” Aiden commanded, and herscreams became shrill bird-like cries. “You don’t remember us beinghere,” Aiden said to the other people still within his control. Hecouldn’t do anything about the numerous cameras in this place, butat least no one would stop Maggie from returning here if she shoulddecide to try again. “Now, help Jane.”
When the doctor and orderlies rushed towardJane, Aiden pulled a shaking Maggie against his side and hurriedher toward the doorway. Once they were out of the room, Jane’sshrieks escalated until they followed them down the hall to theelevator.
“I wish I’d killed you!” Jane screeched asthe elevator doors slid open with a ding.
Aiden released Maggie as she stepped intothe elevator, threw back her shoulders, and lifted her chin. Imagesof tearing Jane’s head from her body flashed through Aiden’s mindwhen he saw the anguish in Maggie’s eyes. Jane had done nothing todeserve what was done to her, but no one should be allowed to hurtMaggie in such a way and live.
“I want to go,” Maggie stated.
Reluctantly, he entered the elevator andpushed the button for the ground floor. The doors closed on Jane’scontinued screams for Maggie to die.
CHAPTER 30
Sitting beside Aiden, Maggie sipped herwhiskey as she gazed across the bar. The only words she’d spoken tohim since leaving the institute were to tell him she was taking ashower before going to the bar. Aiden didn’t try to comfort her,didn’t tell her that her mother was crazy and therefore hadn’tmeant what she said. None of it would do any good.
They both knew her mother wasn’t completelycrazy and she had meant it.
Maggie had to work through what was going onin her head on her own, and he knew there had to be plenty going onup there after everything she’d been through recently.
While Maggie had been in the shower, he’ddecided to call home. Over the past couple of years, he’d avoidedgoing home with increasing frequency. It wasn’t that he didn’t lovehis family and miss his home, he did, but he couldn’t sit there andlaugh and smile with them while feeling like a ticking time bomb.It became harder to pretend he was normal while knowing the thingshe did to resist his appetite for blood, death, and pain.
And more recently, he didn’t trust himselfto be around his family. He loved them, he would die for them, buthe didn’t know if he could keep himself from unraveling andslipping into the darkness while at home. He didn’t have access tothe outlets he needed there.
