She went completely still against him when those fangs pierced her. She felt them slip inside her vein to draw her blood, but she remained immobile as disbelief caused her mind to spin.

What is going on? How is this possible? What? How? What?

My mother’s not crazy!

She almost sobbed aloud as that realization hit her, but sobbing would require action, and she couldn’t move. He pulled her blood from her in gulps that should have terrified her. Instead, her body went limp as pleasure slid out from where he’d pierced to wind through her body. An indescribable feeling of rightness crept through her bloodstream with every beat of her heart.

She’d placed her hands on him to push him away, yet she found her fingers curling into the solid wall of his chest to draw him closer. His other hand snaked around her waist as he pulled her flush against him. Instead of terror, her body reacted with lust as her breasts felt heavier and her hips thrust toward him.

He growled against her throat, the sensual, possessive sound arousing her more. This man was sucking the blood out of her body, he may kill her, and she was acting like a horny teenager in the back seat of their parents’ car.

She wanted to smack herself for it, but she also desired more. Never had she experienced something as wondrous and right as this. Maybe she’d hit her head harder than she’d believed against the side of the ambulance, but something within her recognized this man was the piece of her life she hadn’t known was missing. Without understanding it, she welcomed it.

The second her blood hit his tongue, a sense of calm slid through Aiden. It was a calm he hadn’t experienced in two years, not since he’d stopped aging at twenty-three, and he’d never expected to feel it again. He’d believed dying was the only way he’d find freedom from his twisted compulsions again.

No, he was wrong, he realized as her sweet blood filled his mouth and slid down his throat. He’d never experienced a tranquility like this before. Even when he’d been younger, there was a restless emptiness within him that had driven him to constantly go from one sport to another, one party to another, one girl to another.

For the first time in his life, he didn’t want to go anywhere. He’d found what he’d always been searching for, found where he belonged. The overwhelming sensation of finally being able to inhale a full, easy breath caused his throat to burn as he latched his arm around Maggie’s waist and drew her closer. He’d consumed copious amounts of blood over the years, but none of it had ever strengthened him the way hers did, and it was the most potent he’d ever tasted from a human.

His muscles closed over his spine at a faster rate. His veins reconnected until fresh blood flowed through them once more. Maggie’s fingers dug into his chest as her body melded to his and her breasts rubbed against him. When he scented her arousal, he resisted the impulse to lay her down and take her.

Without intending for it to happen, his mind started probing against hers so he could learn what she was feeling too. He reeled it back before he could open that channel. If he got lost in her mind now, they would both die tonight.

Must keep her safe! The reminder blazed across his mind as she went limp in his embrace. Taking too much!

His fangs retracted before he could weaken her. She remained leaning against him, her sweet scent stronger. He licked away the trickle of blood seeping from the punctures he’d left on her, but he didn’t close the bite. Lifting his head, he gazed into the dumbfounded, charcoal-colored eyes of his mate as she stared back at him from under a thick fringe of dark red eyelashes.

My mate.

He didn’t try to deny what she was to him. From the second her blood hit his tongue, he knew she belonged to him. She could save him from his looming madness if he could save her tonight.

“I’ll keep you safe,” he vowed. And with me.

Maggie blinked at him as she came out of whatever stupor he’d put her under. Her hand flew to the punctures he’d inflicted on her throat.

What are you? She almost blurted the question again, but it seemed pointless.

A burst of white filled the cab of the ambulance before the cloud floated into the back. Maggie coughed and recoiled as the contents of the fire extinguisher filled the air. She tried to stagger to her feet, but a hand enveloped her wrist and pulled her down. Green eyes filled her vision before his body fell on top of hers. The stretcher crashed forward, half falling on top of them both.

Aiden’s thigh spread her legs apart as he pinned her beneath him. Something flew over the top of the stretcher, and Aiden lunged forward. He captured the Savage’s ankle and jerked the vamp down before he could make it to the front of the ambulance.

“Don’t look!” he yelled at Maggie as he twisted the Savage’s head until it turned 180 degrees around.

Roger’s shout drew Maggie’s attention to the front as something leapt through the broken windshield at him.

“Roger!” she yelled and shoved against the man on top of her. “Let me up!”

Maggie wiggled to try to get free when the man didn’t move off her. Instead, he dragged the thrashing monster toward them. Without a doubt, that creature should be dead as no one’s neck was designed to turn that far, but apparently, these things and the guy on top of her had all forgotten how to die.

“I have to help Roger! Get off!” she shouted as her patient tore the head off the monster.

Not the strangest thing tonight, she thought with a laugh bordering on hysterical when her patient tossed the head aside.

“Get off!” Lifting her left leg, she hammered her knee into his nuts. All her training and compassion had vanished. Now, all that mattered was making sure she and Roger survived this night.

Aiden’s breath rushed out of him; he recoiled as pain speared through his groin. Maggie shoved angrily against his chest, and her hand balled into a fist. He recalled redheaded women were supposed to have a temper before she landed a solid punch to his cheek. The force of the blow startled him and swayed him to the side. His sisters could pack a punch, but this was a human woman.

Before he could recover, Maggie clasped both her hands together and bashed them against his cheek. It didn’t matter he’d said he would keep her safe, didn’t matter she was impossibly attracted to this man, creature, thing—vampire who had taken her blood! He was keeping her from Roger.

She drove upward with her knee again and elbowed him in the cheek. Finally, she’d knocked him loose enough that she wiggled her way out from under him and scrambled toward the cab in a crouch. The stretcher mostly blocked the back doors of the ambulance, but something else was coming over the top of it.

She spun toward the newest creature when it scrambled toward her, but before it could hit her, her patient surged to his feet. Bone crunched, blood sprayed from the monster’s mouth as the man sank his hand into the creature’s back.

“Holy shit,” she murmured as he tore the thing’s heart free. She suddenly understood more of what had happened in the alley as her patient dropped the mangled heart on the floor.

Maggie didn’t stick around to see any more of the carnage. She turned and threw herself into the front passenger seat. One of the vampires was perched on Roger’s chest; its mouth pressed to Roger’s neck. The extinguisher fell from Roger’s limp fingers, clattering against the floor as it rolled toward the back.

Roger’s eyes spun toward her. “Run!” he gasped.

Maggie hadn’t tried to run when four girls jumped her in high school for wearing the same shirt as one of them, and she wasn’t about to run now. Then, she’d been unprepared, but she hadn’t spent her life in foster and group homes without learning how to fight dirty. She’d made those girls regret their decision, and she would do the same with this thing.

Turning to the back of the ambulance, she barely glanced at her patient as he fought with another one of the monsters. She snatched up the fire extinguisher and spun back to Roger. Roger’s eyes were drifting closed when she smashed the extinguisher into the vampire’s face.

The vamp’s cheek gave way with a sickening crunch. It yelped as it released its hold on Roger. “No!” she cried when Roger slumped against the steering wheel and stayed there.

When the vampire twisted toward her, she pulled back the extinguisher and hammered it into his face. Her hands went numb from the blow, but she managed to keep her hold on the handle. The vampire’s lips peeled back to reveal its reddened teeth. Blood streaked from its broken nose and the gash she’d left on its cheek.

It lunged at her, knocking her back in the seat. Swinging the extinguisher up, she bashed the side of the monster’s face again and kicked out. The vampire fell back and onto Roger as the glass behind her shattered. Fingers entangled in her hair; pain exploded through her scalp when her head was yanked back.

She tried to swing the extinguisher behind her to batter her new attacker, but it caught the top of the window and toppled from her hands. She reached behind her to beat at the hands twisting in her hair, but the monster didn’t ease its hold on her. She was beginning to worry her neck would break when red eyes filled her vision and fangs punctured her shoulder. The pain of the vamp pulling her blood from her ripped a scream from her.

Her patient’s bite had brought her rapture; this bite caused an agony the likes of which she’d never known could exist. She tried to kick out, but a strange sort of rigor mortis had set in as her limbs became rigid. Stars burst before her eyes, and it felt as if the blood vessels in her brain were swelling and exploding.

Not like this! Her mind screamed at her. I will not die like this!

A roaring noise filled her ears; then something warm splattered her face. The bite retracted, leaving her limp as she struggled to get air into her constricted lungs.

When her eyes cracked open, she discovered her patient looming over her, his broad shoulders heaving. His elongated fangs had sliced into his bottom lip, and she swore his skin held a reddish black hue to it.

Impossible!

Yeah because the rest of this night has been entirely possible. She released a laugh that sounded more like a cackle.

I’m going insane. It runs in the family!

She laughed again and tried to roll away from the window, but she barely twisted to the side before falling back and crying out.