Unwilling to attack Nigel with his back turned, Aiden grabbed his shoulder and spun him around before driving his fist into Nigel’s face. The scent and sticky feel of the blood bursting over him provoked his bloodlust, and he gave into the ever-present brutality coursing through his veins.

Nigel wailed and threw up his hands to protect his nose, but all that did was hammer his hands into his face when Aiden punched him again.

“Whoa!” From the corner of his eye, Aiden saw Saxon lunge forward and yank a stool away from someone. “This is between them. You don’t want more of us involved.”

“Enough!” Carha shouted. “Saxon, tell him to stop.” Saxon stared wordlessly back at her. Carha glared at him before focusing on Aiden again. “That is enough! If you don’t stop, Aiden, I’ll ban you for life! And that means from my services too!”

Aiden lifted his head to glower at Carha when she revealed this in front of Maggie. His brief distraction allowed Nigel to punch Aiden in the jaw, but he barely felt it as he pummeled Nigel’s stomach.

Maggie gawked at Aiden as he battered the vampire and Carha shouted at Aiden to stop before promising to cut him off from her services. Maggie’s mouth fell open further, and her stomach rolled. What services? Was Carha a prostitute? She didn’t see why Aiden would need to use prostitutes. With his looks, he could get a lot of women, but men were weird, and vampires were stranger.

She forgot all about Carha when Aiden flattened Nigel’s nose. Over the years, she’d seen countless violence, been on the receiving end of it more than a few times, but she’d never witnessed anything like the rage driving Aiden. She’d caught glimpses of his control slipping, but it appeared to be completely gone.

The stench of blood permeated the air, and the sounds of punches hitting flesh resonated through the club. Aiden was doing this because of her. Nigel was an asshole, but she did not want this. However, she had no idea how to stop it. Aiden had become a mindless, killing machine who would only be satisfied with death.

Saxon paced back and forth in front of the fight, keeping back anyone who might try to get involved. The crowd shrank away from him when he smacked his fist into his palm.

“I think he’s had enough, Aiden,” Saxon said, but whereas his words had stopped Aiden before, he showed no response to them now.

The slightest touch on her hand drew her attention to Zeke. Full of concern, Zeke’s eyes held hers as he spoke. “If you tell Aiden to stop, he will.”

She glanced at the growing pool of blood spreading beneath Nigel. She had no idea what Zeke was talking about; Aiden wouldn’t stop until he’d beat Nigel to death.

“I wouldn’t touch her,” Saxon said in a low warning.

Zeke yanked his hand from hers before he continued speaking. “He will stop if you tell him to.”

Maggie glanced from Zeke to Saxon who gave her the briefest of nods before he glowered at a vamp who was edging too close. She turned back to the bloody scene before her as Nigel’s cheekbone gave way beneath Aiden’s next blow.

“Stop.” The croaked word barely traveled beyond her. “Aiden, stop. Please, stop.” The words came out stronger this time.

In the process of drawing his arm back to batter Nigel’s already half-smooshed face some more, Aiden froze. Maggie held her breath as she waited for the brutal beating to continue. Instead, Aiden lowered his arm until both his hands rested on the ground beside Nigel’s head. His back hunched and his shoulders curved forward like a wolf guarding its prey.

Maggie’s eyes widened on his back when she realized his wound had completely closed. The still reddened skin around it made the white scars slashing across his flesh more visible. There was no denying those marks had come from the lashing of a whip or some similar type of weapon.

“Oh,” she breathed, her hand flying to her mouth as sorrow mixed with dismay. What had he endured in his life? Who had done this to him and why?

Aiden grappled to get control of himself as Maggie’s frightened voice replayed through his head. Nigel had touched her and called her a whore, but he shouldn’t have gone after him like that. Not in front of Maggie, not ever. He was closer to the edge than he’d realized. Tasting her blood without claiming her had accelerated his need to complete the mating bond as well as started to unravel him faster.

It didn’t matter; he could control himself, he would control himself, for her.

Slowly, he rose to his feet and braced himself to see her revulsion of him before he turned to face her. He expected her to shrink away when he stepped toward her, but she stared at him with an expression he couldn’t quite read. Her eyes ran over the fresh blood coating his chest and face.

“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have seen that.” He reached a hand toward her, but when blood dripped from his fingers, he lowered it.

“Here,” Zeke said and handed a wet rag over the bar.

Aiden took the rag and wiped most of the blood from him before setting the cloth on the bar. Maggie remained unmoving on the stool when he held his hand out to her. She gazed between him and Nigel for a long minute before she slid her trembling hand into his.

“I’m sorry,” he said again.

Maggie tried to tell him not to apologize for who and what he was. She hadn’t wanted to witness what she had, but he was a vampire, and as extreme as this had been, he’d done it for her. However, the words froze in her throat when her gaze went behind him to the hostile eyes of the crowd. Some were retreating to their booths, but others remained. The ones who stayed glared from her to Aiden to Nigel and back again.

“Time to go,” Saxon said and waved his hands at the crowd. “What? Like you’ve never seen a man beat another man before? Shoo. Go back to your business. Shoo now.”

More of the crowd dispersed, but a few slipped free to kneel at Nigel’s side. Nigel groaned when they lifted him to his feet.

“Get out!” Carha spat at them.

Aiden helped Maggie off the stool and clamped his arm around her waist.

“Get out!” Carha nearly shrieked.

“What do you think we’re doing?” Saxon demanded of her.

Carha’s eyes shot to Maggie when Aiden drew her closer against him. Her lips peeled back to reveal her fangs as her red eyes raked Maggie from head to toe.

“If you touch her,” Aiden snarled, “I will kill you.”

Carha recoiled as if he’d slapped her; hatred simmered in her gaze when it met his. “Don’t ever come back here,” she grated through her teeth.

“I didn’t plan on it,” he assured her and kept Maggie well away from Carha as he hurried her forward.

Saxon led the way, waving his hands to gesture the straggling onlookers out of the way as he strode forward. His demeanor remained casual, a smile curving his mouth, but Aiden sensed the tension in him. Carha trailed behind them as the crowd continued to part.

“I mean it. Don’t ever step foot in here again,” Carha said.

Aiden didn’t acknowledge her as he continued forward.

“Do you hear me, Aiden?” Carha demanded and grabbed his arm.

“Don’t touch me.” He yanked his arm away from her. “I have no intention of ever seeing you again, Carha. Ever.”

Lifting Maggie off the ground, he switched her in front of him and set her down away from Carha. He slid his hand up to Maggie’s nape and cradled her head protectively against his chest. Saxon glanced back at him before slipping into the hallway, and Aiden followed. The door slammed behind them, throwing them into the inky blackness once more.

No one spoke as they walked to the end of the hall where Brutus undid the locks, and they exited into the alley. Aiden glanced around, but he didn’t detect any foul aromas. At the end of the alley, a black Ford sat idling. Saxon led them to the car and opened the back door.

“Where are we going?” Maggie asked as she dug her heels in and refused to move forward.

“I’m taking you home,” Aiden said.

Her shoulders slumped in relief. She was so exhausted her lumpy bed was a welcome slice of Heaven.

“Go on,” Aiden encouraged, and she slid into the back seat.

A man with red hair a few shades darker than hers turned to face her. She had no doubt the man was a vampire as one fang became visible when he smiled before speaking. “What’s up, Red?”

Maggie’s heart leapt into her throat when she saw his hair color and gray eyes, but the more she studied him, the more she relaxed. His hair was similar in shade to hers, but it leaned more to the brown of auburn whereas hers leaned more to the red. They both had gray eyes, but hers were so dark they sometimes appeared black, and his were so pure a gray they were nearly silver.

Besides, she’d inherited her coloring from her mother, not the father she’d never known.

“She doesn’t like being called that,” Aiden said as he sat beside her and closed the door.

He’d been through hell tonight, killed and beaten vampires, yet he still smelled entirely too enticing for her liking. She was acutely aware she didn’t smell anywhere near as good. It was completely unfair, yet Aiden seemed not to notice the sweat and alcohol scents clinging to her as he settled close beside her.

Maggie shifted when Aiden’s thigh pressed against hers. After everything she’d witnessed from him, after everything she’d learned, she couldn’t stop the thrill of excitement that ran through her when they touched. She had to put some distance between them.

“Completely understandable. I’m not all that fond of it either, but it’s better than ginger, am I right?” the auburn-haired vamp asked her.

“It is,” Maggie agreed.

“It’s annoying.”

“Not as annoying as when someone tries to pick you up by asking if the carpet matches the drapes.”

“I think it’s different if a woman asks a man that question. I find myself more than willing to prove it.”

Maggie couldn’t stop the burst of laughter that escaped her. “It’s entirely different then,” she agreed.

“Declan,” he said before holding his hand out to her.

“Maggie,” she said and clasped his hand.

“Pleasure to meet you, Maggie. Where to?” he asked as Saxon opened the passenger door and climbed inside.

Aiden looked expectantly at her, and she gave Declan her address. She held her breath as they drove through the streets of Boston. She was half afraid they would go in the complete opposite direction, but Declan headed toward her apartment on the far outskirts of the city. She lived in a quiet section filled with brick apartment buildings, row houses, and family-owned businesses. Cars lined the streets, but she directed Declan around the back of her building to the small parking lot there.