Before Aiden joined Ronan’s men, Joseph, thevampire who had run the training facility previous to Lucien,turned Savage. Recently, Ronan had discovered Joseph was forcingvampires to become Savages by keeping them imprisoned. Josephstarved those vamps until they were so ravenous they killedwhatever food he offered them. With each kill it became easier tocontinue killing until those vamps no longer cared about trying tocontrol themselves.
Ronan had been hunting Joseph for a while,but after discovering what Joseph was doing, Ronan closed thetraining compound. He’d moved everyone to a mansion he’d purchasedso they would be at a location Joseph didn’t know about.
“Did you plan to have them turn me into oneof them?” Aiden snarled at Carha.
“No. They were supposed to kill you. It’swhy they attacked you as soon as you left me.”
“Because I was weakened.”
“If you’d stayed with me longer and donewhat I wanted you to do, you wouldn’t have been so weak. I mighthave even called them off if you pleased me well enough,” shereplied.
“You’re a sick bitch.”
“What can I say? I don’t like the wordno.”
“How did you know where and how to locate avampire willing to kill our kind?” Declan inquired.
“I know far more than you, andyou,”she said with a pointed glance at Ronan. “You don’t work in mybusiness and not learn things. I know how to get what I want andwhere to go to get what I need.”
With the grace of a cat, Carha launched toher feet and spun away from him. Expecting her to go for the door,Aiden was unprepared when she bent to rip a stake from one of thecorpses. She lunged at Declan when he tried to grab her. Declanjumped back as the stake sliced open his shirt.
Running toward her, Aiden smacked her armaside when she lifted the stake to drive it through his heart.Spinning her around, Aiden tackled her face-first onto the ground.Carha’s back bowed against his chest as she made an odd gurglingnoise.
Grabbing her shoulders, he turned Carha overto find her mouth open in a gapingohof horror while herfingers clawed at the stake protruding from her chest. When he’dtaken her down, she’d fallen on top of the stake and driven itstraight through her heart. She tried to yank it out, but it wasalready too late.
“Shit!” He slammed his hands onto theground. Blood splattered around him as Carha convulsed beneath him.“Shit!”
“It doesn’t matter,” Ronan said as Carhareleased a final breath and went still beneath Aiden. “She told usall she knew.”
He’d stayed away from Maggie for too long,and he could feel himself teetering toward the treacherous edge ofsavagery. Aiden inhaled a shuddering breath as he struggled to gethimself under control. For the first time, he wanted nothing to dowith this life he’d chosen.
CHAPTER 39
Maggiedespisedthe blank screen ofher phone. A few times she’d picked it up with the intention ofbreaking it so she wouldn’t have to look at it anymore, but she’dmanaged to restrain herself. Now, she set it back on the bar,scratched her arm, and fiddled with the edges of the coaster she’dset on top of her empty glass. It was pointless to keep drinkingwhen the whiskey wasn’t doing anything to calm her nerves.
A ripple of motion in the restaurant and ashift in the air caused her head to lift. A prickle of awarenessran over her skin and the sensation of her flesh being stretchedtoo thin over her bones eased. She didn’t have to see Aiden to knowhe’d returned.
“Oh, shit,” Brian said.
Maggie turned on her barstool. Her heartlodged in her throat before plunging into her stomach when shespotted Aiden in the doorway of the restaurant. His green eyes werelocked on her; his black hair was wet and disheveled. He’d beenwearing different clothes when he left, but she saw no marks onhim, and he appeared uninjured.
He did appear murderous though.
She had no idea what it was about him, buthe exuded a lethal aura that had the people closest to himscampering away while he stalked across the restaurant toward her.Brian rose and stepped forward to block his way. Aiden’s eyes slidtoward him, and a flash of red swirled through their leaf-greendepths.
“You’ll frighten her,” Brian said in a lowvoice when Aiden was close enough to him.
Maggie realized Brian would protect her ifhe believed it necessary. The resulting fight would make the fightAiden had in the ambulance look like a schoolyard scuffle.
Besides, Brian was wrong; she wasn’tfrightened of Aiden. She’d seen him like this before, maybe notquitethiswound up, but she’d seen him on the verge oflosing control, and he would never harm her.
Leaping off her stool, Maggie hurriedforward as Aiden stopped in front of Brian. “Get out of my way,”Aiden growled at Brian.
“Aiden—”
“It’s fine,” Maggie interrupted Abby. Shestrode around Abby and Brian to place her hand on Aiden’s chest.When his hand enclosed on her wrist, some of the tension eased fromhis body and he pulled her against him.
“Maggie,” he breathed.
