The first rays of the sun were warming the earth when Aiden carried her back to his room. She was far too exhausted to walk. Her head slumped against his chest as she yawned. With her bra and shirt ruined, she wore his shirt and her jeans.

Entering his room, Aiden set her on the bed and lay down behind her before pulling her against him. He held her close as she drifted off to sleep.

According to the clock on the stand, it was two in the afternoon when she woke again. Glenn’s funeral was over. A twinge of sadness tugged at her heart. She stretched her hand behind her for Aiden, but it fell on an empty bed.

Rising, she searched for him before spotting him sitting on the chair in the corner of the room. He smiled at her, but strain etched the corners of his mouth, and she didn’t understand the sadness in his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” She drew her knees against her chest and hugged them to her. “Did something go wrong yesterday? Is everyone okay? Are you okay? You seemed more stressed than normal last night, Nosferatu,” she teased in the hopes of coaxing a real smile from him.

“Everything went as well as expected,” he said. “And I'm all right.”

“What happened? Did you learn why the Savages attacked you?”

“The Savages attacked me because Carha hired them to do it. She didn’t like that I kept turning her down.”

Maggie’s mouth dropped at this revelation. “This was over sex?”

“Or lack thereof. It was also because of her pride and the fact she was a malicious, sick bitch who thrived on the misery and pain of others.”

“I’ll kill her.”

More of a smile curved Aiden’s mouth as he clasped his hands before him and leaned forward. “Too late.”

“She’s dead?”

“Yes.”

“Good. What about the Savages who attacked you?”

“They’re dead too, including the one who attacked you. There is no risk to you from them anymore.”

“Oh,” Maggie breathed as her shoulders sagged in relief. “That’s great. Can I go home and back to work?”

Aiden kept himself from wincing as his fingers tore into his palms. “If you choose.”

“Was Carha working with them for long?”

“It looks like it. From what we’ve learned, she was setting up some of her other patrons too. There is a purebred vampire, Joseph, who worked with Ronan before I joined them. Joseph gave in and turned Savage. Now, he’s trying to build an army against Ronan. Carha wanted the Savages to kill me, but there is a chance they intended to bring me to Joseph, and we think that’s what has happened to at least some of the others she set up.”

“Joseph turns other vampires into Savages?”

“Yes. The need to kill rules Savage vampires, but they’re not stupid. In fact, they’re annoyingly cunning, and Joseph has found a way to create more of them.”

“So Savages are like the ingenious criminals who figure out how to break out of prison using a bar of soap and a toothbrush.”

“Exactly. We know they’re smart, but they seem to lose themselves in the blood, and they also appear to lose all sense of a conscience. If I became one, I could lead them to my family.”

Aiden shuddered at the possibility as he stared at his feet. He’d rather die first.

“You could never be like one of those things,” Maggie whispered.

“But I could. There have been many times when I was right there on the edge of becoming one, including last night.”

Maggie gulped as she recalled how out of control he’d been when she’d first seen him. “You’ve pulled yourself back every time.”

Without her, he didn’t know if he could keep pulling himself back anymore. “A mate is very special to a vampire, Maggie.”

“Yes, you’ve told me, and I saw how close Abby and Brian are.”

“The mate bond is eternal, and to complete it, both individuals have to be a vampire.”

Maggie gripped the comforter closer as his words sank in. “Both?”

“Yes.”

“You want to make me a… a vampire?” she croaked.

“Yes.”

“And bind me to you forever?”

“Yes.”

Maggie’s throat went dry. She’d always been in over her head with him, but suddenly she felt like she was sinking faster than the Titanic. She’d seen how wild he could be, how brutal his life was. She didn’t know if she could be everything he needed, or if she wanted to be bound to him for eternity. Moving in together seemed like far too large of a commitment given the amount of time they’d known each other, never mind being bound together forever!

“You already crave blood,” he said. “I will feed enough for the both of us, so you’ll only ever have to drink from me if you want.”

“I see.”

“You’ll live as an immortal, with me.”

“We barely know each other. I like you, a lot, I won’t deny it. But you’re suggesting binding ourselves to each other for an eternity, and this is only the fifth day we’ve known one another. What if I drive you nuts in a week? What if in a month or a hundred years from now, you start regretting your decision to make me a vampire? What if you end up hating me?”

“I could never hate you.”

“You don’t know that!” she insisted. “What if, after fifty years, my snoring makes you wish you could stake me. Or what if I start hating you? What if I decide the way you put your toothbrush back makes me want to stab you with it?”

He smiled grimly as he leaned back in the chair. “I’m sure you’ll want to stab me often over the years, but as long as it’s not through the heart, I can take it.”

“I'm serious.”

“I know you are, but these are all things we will deal with together. When you’re a vampire, you’ll understand how intense this bond is.”

Terror tore through Maggie. She recalled how pathetic she’d felt sitting at the bar last night, waiting for him to come back, and how annoyed with herself she’d been because of it. She’d spent the first twelve years of her life with only herself to rely on. Then, she’d had A.J. for such a brief time, and now she had Roger.

She cared for Aiden, but she didn’t know if she could count on him too. She believed she could, but she hadn’t known him long enough to be certain. She didn’t like uncertainty. And Aiden was talking about eternity, a commitment much larger than any she’d ever experienced before, and it didn’t sound as if he were giving her much choice on it either.

“When I’m a vampire? Have I already agreed to this, or do I simply have no choice?” she asked.

The acid dripping from her voice made him realize he’d said the wrong thing. “Of course, you have a choice.”

“What about my life? My career? My friends? What happens to all those things? Am I supposed to toss them aside for a life with no guarantees if it all blows up in my face?”

“Even if this blows up between us, which it won’t, I promise you’ll be taken care of.”

“I don’t need you to take care of me!”

Aiden took a deep breath as he tried to figure out how to proceed. Fiercely independent, Maggie wouldn’t embrace relying on someone else more often. “We can find a way for you to keep your job if you prefer. You would probably have to take some time off from work in the beginning. Newly turned vampires are often in control of themselves, but with what you do and the blood you’ll be around, it could be more difficult.”

“Yeah, eating the patients would be bad.”

He gave her a wan smile. “Yes.”

She stared at him before looking at the window as she contemplated everything he’d said to her. No matter how much she cared for Aiden, she didn’t know if she could make this leap. She’d worked too hard to gain the security she had now to risk everything.

“I care about you; I really do, more than I ever believed possible in such a short time, but I’d like some time to think about this, Aiden. It’s a big decision.”

“Whatever you need.”

“I have to go home, go back to work, go back to the real world. Hiding out in a hotel room with you is more a dream than reality. I need some reality,” she said and smiled at him to soften her words.

Aiden’s fangs extended. He could turn her and complete the bond so she could never leave him, but not only would she despise him, he’d despise himself. He wouldn’t tell her that he could already feel himself unraveling because of their incomplete bond. It might destroy him, but he would abide by whatever she decided, and he would control himself, for her.

“I understand,” he said. “I’ll take you home today.”

“I need to be alone, Aiden.”

His teeth clamped together with enough force to crack a few. “I see.”

“It’s the only way I’ll be able to sort this out,” Maggie gushed. She felt like she’d stabbed him straight through the heart, and she hated it, but she had to do this. “When I’m with you, I can’t think straight. There’s so much I have to process, and taking some time to do that is nothing compared to an eternity, right?”

“Right.”

“And you said there’s no threat to me anymore.”

“There’s not. The Savage Ronan and the others captured and we questioned revealed they didn’t tell anyone else about what happened the night they attacked me.”

“Why did they keep it quiet?”

“Because they almost exposed all of our kind that night. Since it appears they were working for Joseph as well as Carha, Joseph would have had them pleading for death by the time he finished with them for making such a blunder of that night.”

“So, I’ll be safe if I go home alone?”

“Yes.”

“Then, I think it’s best if I go now.”

“Sure.” He couldn’t think about going to sleep without Maggie tonight or waking to find her gone. He’d tear everything in this room apart if he did.

“I’ll meet you here, at the bar, in four days. I don’t know if I’ll have everything sorted out by then, but give me those four days before we talk again.”

“Whatever you need.”

“Aiden—”

“Do what you need to do, Maggie. I’ll be here for you, always.”

Unexpected tears burned her eyes, and a lump formed in her throat. She’d asked for this time away from him, yet it took everything she had to place her feet on the ground and rise from the bed. If she said yes to him, she could stay in this dream world forever, but she would be giving up so much for someone she barely knew.

Her heart ached for him as he kept his gaze focused on his feet. His knuckles turned white from clenching them.

Padding over to him, she bent and kissed the top of his head. “Two o’clock on Friday, we’ll meet back here. Four days from now.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “You can’t reveal anything about what you know, Maggie. If you breathe one word about the existence of vampires to anyone, I might not be able to protect you.”

“I would never do anything to put you or your family in danger, Aiden. Never. Besides, my worst nightmare is ending up in a room next to my mother, and that’s where I’d be if I started telling people vampires were real.”

Aiden nodded, but he found it impossible to say anymore to her.

Maggie slipped from the room before she threw all precaution to the wind and plunged over the edge with him. However, if she chose to join Aiden, it would be the most permanent decision she’d ever made in her life. She couldn’t make that choice without at least thinking it over first.

Her brain repeated this over and over again, but her heart felt like someone had stuck it in a shredder.