Aiden’s fangs throbbed as he watched the vehicle, fully prepared to destroy any threat lurking within it. Most Savages preferred to use their feet as transportation when they hunted. It was a lot easier to jump someone and kill them on foot than it was to park a car and go after them, but he’d come across Savages hunting from cars before.

The streetlights illuminated the couple behind the wheel. From somewhere nearby, music thumped, and he suspected someone was throwing a party in one of the warehouses. They could go to that party in search of a phone; any man would gladly hand his over to Maggie if she asked for it. However, he wasn’t about to send her into somewhere with people he didn’t know alone, and she was right, in his condition, he would only attract unnecessary attention.

He felt the pockets of his jeans again as he recalled the phone in his hotel room. He’d tucked the key card to his room into his back pocket, but it was gone too. The hotel had been about as nondescript as it got, there weren’t any cameras, but there had been a fair amount of foot traffic on the street outside it.

He could change the memories of the clerk, but he’d never go unnoticed by pedestrians in his condition, and he couldn’t alter the minds of everyone he encountered. Also, if the police found the key card, they might go to the hotel before he could cover this up.

The phone and key card wouldn’t lead back to him in any way. The phone was a burner, the hotel room rented under another name, and the clerk wouldn’t be able to recall his appearance. Aiden had twisted that memory in his mind. It wasn’t often Ronan’s men messed up, but they had strict regulations in place to cover their asses in case it happened.

He wasn’t one of Ronan’s men yet, he still had more training to go through, but he followed their rules and precautions. After tonight, Ronan might decide to cut him loose and Aiden wouldn’t blame him.

He had to return to the alley where he’d been attacked to see if his phone had fallen out somewhere there. If he couldn’t find it, he would have to go back to Carha’s club. He didn’t want Maggie anywhere near Carha. From what he’d seen of Maggie tonight, she could hold her own, but Carha was a malignant, twisted thing.

Carha was also his shameful secret; Maggie could be the redemption his ravaged soul needed.

He could make his way to Saxon instead of returning to the alley or Carha’s, but his meeting place with Saxon had been twelve blocks beyond the club. Without Maggie, he could cover the distance in no time, but he couldn’t move as fast with her. Trying to reach Saxon would only waste more time and, with the Savages hunting them, put Maggie at unnecessary risk for longer.

He had to take care of this mess if he was going to keep all those he cared about safe. It had been months since he’d seen his young nieces and nephews, but he loved them all and would die for them. Their lives would be in peril if the truth of vampires ever came out to the human world.

As much as he preferred to shelter Maggie from Carha, he might not be able to.

“This way,” he said and turned to the right.

“Where are we going?”

“My phone might have fallen out in the alley.” He wasn’t going to mention Carha’s place unless it became necessary.

Some of the color leeched from her face. “We’re going back there?”

“Yes.”

“There are probably still police all over the scene,” she said.

“I’ll deal with that when we get there.”

“You could let me go. I promise I won’t say anything about what I saw tonight or vampires. I prefer not being locked away for the rest of my life because people think I’m crazy.”

“I can’t let you go until I know you’ll be safe.” He didn’t want to let her go at all, but he might not have a choice if she decided to be free of him.

“I’d go straight to the closest hospital or police station to find out where they took Roger. No one is going to attack me before then.”

“Maybe when the sun is out.”

“Vampires really can’t go out in the sun?” she blurted.

“The killers amongst us can’t. I can.”

“Why can some of you go out in the sun, but not others?”

“The more a vampire kills, the stronger and weaker their corrupted soul becomes. Their physical strength increases, but they lose the ability to tolerate sunlight, holy water, crucifixes, and they become less able to cross bodies of water. Some of the legends the humans weaved over the years have a basis in fact.”

“Fascinating,” she murmured.

She walked swiftly beside him, her long legs keeping stride with his. Gauging his height compared to hers, she guessed he was about six inches taller than her five-eight, yet she didn’t labor to keep pace with him.

She’d prefer not to go back to that blood-soaked scene, but she didn’t resist him either. More than anything, she didn’t want to come across one of those Savages on her own. She’d bide her time until she knew she’d be safe, and then she’d run.

Aiden’s gaze raked her frame again. Her baggy, khaki shirt hid most of her figure, and so did her black, cargo pants, but he’d felt the lushness of her breasts and the strength in her lean body when she’d worked her way out from under him in the ambulance earlier.

If he got the chance, he would enjoy peeling away her clothes to reveal what lay beneath. It would be better than any present on Christmas morning. The thought of it stirred his cock. He gritted his teeth as he forced aside thoughts of hearing her passionate cries. Now was not the time.

He tilted his head as he studied her more closely. She was taking all of this amazingly well. She could be in a state of shock, but he didn’t think so. Maggie struck him as a person who picked herself up and carried on no matter what it took for her to do so. What had her life been like to make her that way? What was it like now?

“Do you have a boyfriend, Magdalene?” he inquired, and she shot him a look.

“No one calls me that,” she told him again. “Everyone calls me Maggie or Mags. And why do you want to know?”

“I’m curious.”

“Look how well that worked out for the cat.”

Before he could reply, a metal trash can lid clattered ahead of them, drawing his attention back to their surroundings. They’d left the warehouse district behind and entered a street lined with row houses. The scent of human food cooking, the sounds of TVs, laughter, and music drifted from the homes.

Most of the residents of these houses had settled in for the night, but a bald, middle-aged man with a cigarette dangling from his lips emerged from one of the driveways. He cursed as he kicked the lid toward the curb. Aiden relaxed as the man’s eyes came toward them. The man nodded a greeting before plopping the trash can he’d been carrying on the curb. He picked up the lid and shoved it onto the bag poking out from the top of the can.

Then, his gaze raked Aiden. “What happened to you?”

“Lost a bet,” Aiden replied.

“I guess so,” the man muttered and turned to walk back toward his house.

A window slid open, and then a woman shouted, “You better not be smoking out there!”

The man tossed his cigarette down and stomped it out. “Get off my back, woman!”

Maggie chuckled. “I love Boston.”

“Were you born here?”

She shot him another look then decided it didn’t matter if she told him. “Yes.”

“And your boyfriend?” He had to know how difficult it would be to win her. Was she already in love? Was she married? He glanced at her left hand but saw no rings there.

“I’m between boyfriends.” She thought he smiled, but it was so fleeting she couldn’t be certain. “Were you born here?”

“No. I was born in Oregon.”

“You’re a long way from home.”

“Oregon isn’t my home, not anymore.”

“So where is your home, Nosferatu? A cave somewhere so you can hang upside down like a bat or in actual bat form?”

She’d asked the question in a teasing tone, but she held her breath, afraid he would say yes.

“I live in a house in Massachusetts, and vampires don’t shapeshift,” he said.

That was good to know. “What about your girlfriend? Is she a vampire?”

“No girlfriend.”

A clammy sweat coated her skin when she realized they were getting closer to the alley where this all started. Some instinct caused her to step closer to him when they turned onto another street.

They strode past the entrance to another alley, and Aiden stiffened beside her. He clasped her elbow and drew her so sharply against him that she staggered to the side. She opened her mouth to yell at him, but when she spotted the ambulance parked against a chain-link fence at the end of the dark alley, her words died off. No lights were on, and no sounds came from the vehicle.