“Vicky, get the others!” Ethan shouted as he hurried her faster down the hall.
Maggie’s heart beat so fast she half feared it would explode. Her fight-or-flight instinct screamed flight at the top of its lungs, yet she knew she couldn’t leave Aiden. Not like this.
She loved him, and she wouldn’t give him up without a fight. The bulbs overhead danced and swayed from the vibrations rattling the walls as Aiden tore his cell apart. Ahead of them, Vicky and Brian appeared in the doorway. A black-haired man she didn’t recognize and Saxon stood behind them.
“What the…?”
The black-haired man’s question trailed off as his gaze went toward Aiden’s cell. She couldn’t hear her footfalls or breaths over the wrenching sound of twisting metal. Something crashed behind them, and the floor lurched beneath her feet.
Ethan grabbed her elbow and swung her up to clasp her against his chest. He started running. Over his shoulder, Maggie saw the ruined door of Aiden’s cell falling into the middle of the hall. The door of the cell across from Aiden’s was now bent inward, and she assumed Aiden had thrown his door into the other one.
Maggie gasped when Aiden stepped out of his cage and into the hall with his hands fisted, his legs braced apart, and his red eyes latched onto her. There was no denying the demon DNA coursing through him as, from head to toe, his skin pulsed with that reddish-black color and the veins in his arms bulged. She wouldn’t be at all surprised if a set of horns sprouted from his head.
He’d kill them all, she knew, but she might be able to stop this. If Aiden was this crazed because Ethan had touched her, it meant he still cared for her, still wanted her even if he’d told Ethan to take her out of here. She might be able to reach him, somehow.
The others all stepped out of the way when Ethan carried her through the door and set her down. Maggie took two steps forward and spun back. Ethan was pulling the door closed when she ducked under his arm and ran back into the corridor with Aiden.
“Stefan, stop her!” Vicky yelled.
She realized that Stefan must be the black-haired man she didn’t know, and she recalled Aiden saying he had a brother-in-law named Stefan.
A hand skimmed her back, seeking to pull her from the hall.
No! Maggie screamed inwardly. She threw herself forward, knowing she might be diving toward her death, but it was too late to stop her plunge.
Before the hand could get a firm hold on her and yank her back, another hand swung out of the shadows and knocked the first one away. Arms encircled her and spun her away. Aiden’s scent filled her nose when she found herself clasped against his broad chest.
Behind her, the slamming of the door echoed in her ears and reverberated down the hall. For a minute, Maggie didn’t breathe, and she couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes as she remained unmoving in his arms.
Then she was set down so abruptly that she staggered to the side. She came up against a forearm as a wall of muscle pinned her into a cage made of flesh and bone. The cool metal door pressed against her back.
Chest heaving, Maggie tilted her head up to take in the ruby eyes blazing down at her. If she hadn’t seen him in his cell, she never would have recognized Aiden now.
He’d planted his hands on either side of her head, keeping the door closed as the others banged and shoved against it. The door opened a couple of inches, pushing her forward a step before Aiden rammed it closed again. He didn’t look at the door as his attention remained riveted on her.
Blood trickled down his forearms from the abrasions the cuffs had created on his wrists. It slid past her eyes and dripped onto the floor. Still, he stared unblinkingly at her. Maggie gulped, but she didn’t dare move. Movement might set off his predatory instincts; if she tried to run, he would take her down.
“Maggie!” Vicky shouted. “Maggie, are you okay?”
Aiden’s arms vibrated with tension as his gaze fell to her mouth before drifting to her neck. The red of his eyes intensified.
“Maggie!” Ethan shouted.
“I’m… I’m fine!” she called back as Aiden’s eyes returned to hers. “Leave us be!”
Maggie bit her lip as she waited for them to continue trying to get in, but she heard nothing, and no one shoved on the door. Aiden continued to stare at her until Maggie wondered if he didn’t recognize her. Then, he removed one arm from the door to stroke her cheek with his knuckles.
“Maggie,” he breathed.
“Yes, it’s… it’s me.”
“Why did you come here?” he demanded in a voice she barely recognized.
“For you.”
Before he could reply, she slid her hand around the back of his head and rose onto her toes. She might be about to kiss a live wire, might be about to pay the price for doing something so stupid, but she sensed he needed contact with her if she were going to get through to him.
When she ran her tongue over his mouth, she licked away the trickles of blood beading his lower lip. He remained unyielding against her as she tasted him. The longer he remained unmoving, the more apprehensive she became that she’d come too late, he was too far gone, and he would kill her. However, while she lived, she wouldn’t give up on him.
“I came for you,” she whispered against his mouth.
She felt it when something within him broke and he lost control. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he lifted her against his chest. Maggie draped her arms over his shoulders as he gripped her hair and pulled her head back to deepen her kiss.
His beard abraded her skin, and she shoved her apprehension aside when his fangs pricked her bottom lip. She didn’t try to fight him. He needed her, and she trusted him to keep her safe. When his fangs pricked her lip again, and he consumed more of her blood, he shuddered against her.
“Maggie,” he breathed.
A part of him believed he’d hallucinated her outside his cell, but as the scent of her engulfed him and the heat of her body warmed his, he became increasingly convinced she was real. Then, her blood hit his tongue, and some of his madness ebbed. Only Maggie could taste so good.
“I came for you.” Her words replayed in his mind as her fingers dug into his shoulders and she ground against his swelling cock. The rare times he’d slept since coming here, dreams of her had haunted him, and he’d woken with an aching need his hand failed to satisfy. Now that need tripled until his dick throbbed painfully.
He broke the kiss and lifted his head to look down at her. Heavy lidded, her eyes were dazed with passion, her mouth swollen from his kiss and stained a deeper red from her blood and his. He’d never seen anything as beautiful or amazing as her.
Aiden’s eye flashed from red to green and back again as he struggled to regain complete control. She cupped his cheeks in her hands and drew him down for another kiss. His hands twisted in her sweater, and material shredded as he ripped the front of it open from her neck to her belly button.
Surprise crossed his face, and he pulled his hands away from her as he stepped back. Maggie held onto him. She was certain she could bring him back from the edge, but if she let go of him now and allowed him to retreat, she feared she’d lose him forever.
And she also held on for herself too. For the first time in weeks, she didn’t feel like shredding her skin off, she felt at ease, and she almost sobbed with the joy of it.
“No,” she said when he dropped his hands to her waist and started to pull her away from him.
“Can’t. Too out of control,” he grated.
She sensed his mounting confusion. “No, you’re not.” She ran her lips over his cheek and down to his neck. “I trust you.”
When her hands slid over his shoulder blades, his muscles flexed beneath her touch, and his hands tightened on her waist. He could pull her off him, but he didn’t. Her fingertips traced his shoulders before she ran them down his chest to his waist.
“I trust you,” she murmured as she ran her tongue over his ear and slid her hand down between their bodies to grip his erection.
His cock was stiff and hot in her hand, yet soft against her palm. She ran a finger over the thick vein on the side of it before running her thumb over his silken head to spread the bead of precum forming there. The familiar feel of him created a pleasant ache between her thighs and she grew increasingly wet for him.
His head fell to her shoulder; he inhaled a ragged breath as he gazed at her belly. He’d torn the front of her sweater open, but she still wore her bra, and the sleeves remained on her arms. Unable to resist touching her, he glided his knuckles over her stomach before flattening his hand on her hip. His fangs scraped her neck, over her vein, but he didn’t sink them into her.
“I need you too, so badly,” she breathed.
He lifted her off him so fast she didn’t register the movement until she was on her feet. Her breath caught, but she didn’t have time to process what was going on before he was undoing her jeans and pushing them down her legs. Maggie kicked off her sneakers as he tugged her jeans off and tossed them aside.
His eyes were still a volatile shade of red when they met hers again, but the fury had ebbed from him. There would be no going back after this, no changing her mind, no keeping her mortality. She’d known that when she walked out of her apartment with Ethan.
She started to pull off the remains of her ruined sweater, but he seized her hips and lifted her again.
Maggie slid her legs around his waist and went to rest her hands on his shoulders. Before she could touch him, he snatched her wrists and pinned them against the wall over her head. When she jerked against his hold, his hand only tightened on her.
She recalled him saying he hadn’t allowed the women he’d had sex with to touch him. Was he too far gone to accept her touch now? Would he treat her the same way as all those women before her? Could they ever repair the damage wrought between them?
Her throat clogged at the possibility even as he sank his shaft inside her. Maggie’s head fell back as the exquisite sensation of him filling her again took control and pushed her worries away. She’d almost forgotten how right it felt when they joined together.
She would give anything to touch him, but he kept her restrained as he pulled his hips back before impaling her again. Aiden’s forehead fell to her chest as his body took control of hers. His fangs grazed the swell of her breast, above her bra.
The ravenous fire licking over his veins scorched his body. Maggie could put those flames out, yet still, he hesitated to drink from her. He’d been denied her too long, and she was his mate. She was also his to protect, and right now, he was the biggest threat to her. He was barely maintaining his control as he listened to the blood racing through her veins.
“It’s okay, Aiden,” she whispered when his fangs scored her skin again. Power emanated from him, the reddish-black hue of his skin lessened but remained present. While that color stayed, she sensed he wouldn’t be in complete control. “Take my blood.”
He switched her wrists into one hand. His other hand fell to her waist and snaked around it to drive her down onto his shaft, taking her harder than he ever had before. The feel of his body against her, the heat of him, the friction of his body inside of hers pushed her closer and closer to the brink. When his next thrust rubbed her clit, Maggie cried out. Then, his fangs sank into her breast, and she nearly screamed as he drew her blood from her. Her back bowed at the same time her body came apart and waves of pleasure crashed through her.
Aiden growled against her breast when her orgasm caused the muscles of her sheath to clench around his cock, pushing him closer to spilling his seed. Her blood sliding down his throat extinguished the flames torching his veins as he greedily consumed it.
Small tremors still racked her when Maggie jerked her wrists against his hold again. “Let me go.”
No matter what their relationship became now, she refused to be like the other women he’d been with before her. Aiden hesitated long enough she feared they wouldn’t be able to get back what they’d had. Then his grip eased, and he let her go. Maggie’s hands fell to his shoulders before cradling his head to her breast.
She nuzzled his temple and forehead as his body enveloped hers. His fangs retracted from her chest, and his hand entangled in her hair as he pulled her head back to gaze at her. More of the color had faded from his flesh, but she’d hoped to see his beautiful leaf-green eyes again; they remained red.
Aiden held her gaze as he continued to thrust into her. When he drove into her again, his body tensed and he came with a low groan. His head fell into the hollow of her shoulder, and he inhaled his scent on her skin as he ran his tongue over her collarbone. He felt more in control, but being inside her and feeding on her hadn’t been enough to calm him completely.
“Maggie,” he whispered hoarsely.
She ran her hands over his body, hoping to soothe him further, but the color was creeping back into areas where it had already faded. She’d expected him to be more relaxed now, or at least be able to talk with her. Instead, he seemed to be spiraling away again. “Aiden, what is it?”
“It’s been too long. I can’t control myself; it’s too late.”
“No.” She clasped his cheeks and pulled his head out of her shoulder so she could look at him. “No, it is not.”
“I need the bond to be completed, Maggie. I have to change you.”
“Then do it. I didn’t come here thinking I would walk away still human. I didn’t go to the hotel that day thinking I wouldn’t one day become a vampire.”
“You went to the hotel?”
“Yes. So many things went wrong that day. We can discuss it later. Right now, all that matters is we’re together again, and I want to be with you.”
He drew her close to kiss her forehead. Tenuous at best, his control was good enough for him to know he couldn’t change her here. It was bad enough he’d taken her in this foul place; he wouldn’t change her here too.
“I will not allow it to happen here.” Lifting her off him, he set her on the ground and brushed her hair back from her face. Clasping her cheeks, he kissed her tenderly.
“Are you stable enough for it to happen somewhere else?”
“Yes. Get dressed.”
Normally, she would have bristled over his clipped command, but she knew it was because he was having a difficult time restraining himself.
Aiden watched Maggie reclaim her jeans and sneakers. The torn sweater flapped around her as she worked. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from her. After so much time without her, it was difficult for him to believe she was real. He was terrified she’d vanish if he looked away and he would wake to find this had all been a dream.
When she finished dressing and stepped close to him, he pulled her tattered sweater together to shield her from the others. He didn’t care about his nudity, but he didn’t want her exposed to those beyond this door. She clasped the pieces together as he swung her into his arms and held her against his chest. Resting her head on his shoulder, she kissed his neck.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” he said.
“Believe it.”
“I’m completely in love with you, Magdalene Doe.”
She blinked back her tears. “I’m in love with you too, Aiden Byrne. Also, my name is Magdalene Shea.”
“What?”
She smiled against his throat. “Something else we can discuss later, but I found my grandmother. I have a grandma.”
Aiden held her closer when he heard the happiness in her voice. “I can’t wait to meet her.”
Lifting his hand, he banged on the door. The others had gone quiet, but he knew they were still out there. “Let us out,” he commanded.
There was a minute of silence, then Vicky called out, “Maggie?”
“I'm all right, but I’d really like to get out of here.”
After another hesitation, the key turned in the lock and the door swung inward to reveal the others. Aiden’s lips skimmed back when he spotted Ethan. He forced his gaze away from Ethan before he put Maggie down and attacked his brother to ease some of his pent-up bloodlust.
Vicky and Abby stood next to each other, wearing identical looks of concern as they kept their gazes focused on Maggie. Brian positioned himself protectively in front of Abby; his red eyes warned Aiden to stay away from her. Saxon leaned against a wall with his arms over his chest, but despite his casual posture, Aiden knew Saxon was prepared to take him down.
“Your skin—” Vicky started.
“I’m handling it,” he grated from between his teeth as Maggie rubbed his neck. “I need blood and somewhere we can be alone.”
“There’s a cottage out back. The guards used it for breaks and naps. We’ve been crashing there,” Saxon replied as he walked over to unlock the back door. “There are blood bags in the fridge and extra clothes in the bedroom closet.”
“Good. Don’t bother us,” Aiden said.