Maggie frowned at the ambulance, not sure what was going on. Why was it here? Where was everyone? Then it sank in that she was staring at the ambulance Glenn and Walt had been riding. The ambulance they had stuck one of those creatures in.

“Glenn, Walt,” she breathed.

She leapt forward so fast she yanked her arm free of Aiden’s hold before he could stop her. Her arms pumped as she raced down the alley. Skidding to a halt at the back of the ambulance, she saw the doors were cracked open and flung them wide.

Arriving at her side, Aiden wrapped his arm around her waist and spun her out of the way before something could launch out at her.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, squirming to break free of his hold.

When nothing sprang out of the back, he set her on her feet but grabbed her again when she went to jump inside. Maggie spun on him. “They’re my friends!” she snapped. “Let me go!”

“You don’t know what happened here,” he replied. “There’s a reason why the ambulance is here and not at the hospital, and it’s not a good one. You have no idea what you could be running into.”

Maggie eased her struggle as she gazed into the back of the ambulance. The interior light illuminated the empty stretcher within. Blood coated the stretcher and the floor, but she saw no bodies or signs of a struggle. The stillness mixed with all that blood gave her the strangest sensation of having just stepped into the Twilight Zone.

“He was eviscerated. Look at the blood he lost,” she said. “There’s no way he would have been capable of attacking Walt and Glenn.”

He sensed Maggie wanted him to reassure her that her friends were okay, but he wouldn’t give her false hope. “You didn’t think I would heal so fast either,” he said gently. “And ten Savages jumped me in that alley. I killed two in the alley and injured this one, but only five came after me again in the ambulance. The two others either went back to the alley to clean up the mess they created with the humans, or they followed this ambulance so they could stop the ambulance before it reached a hospital.”

He’d been the one to eviscerate the man? She didn’t know why that surprised her. She’d seen him tear the heart out of a man, but she hadn’t fully put it together that he’d also killed those other two and incapacitated this one. She did now.

She didn’t look at Aiden as she gazed at the blood-streaked walls and floor. Her nose wrinkled at the familiar, coppery tang of blood mingled with garbage. “Why does it smell like trash?” she muttered as she pulled herself into the back.

Aiden glanced at the nearby dumpster before focusing on Maggie again. He didn’t detect the pungent stench of a Savage nearby, but there was a faint aroma of refuse from the dumpster and the drying blood of the Savage.

Careful to avoid stepping in the blood, Maggie made her way to the front of the ambulance. She was terrified of what she’d find there, but she couldn’t stop herself. She glanced behind her and froze when she saw Aiden was gone.

Through the open doors, she watched two cars drive past. She didn’t breathe while she searched for Aiden. Had he left her? She should be jumping for joy, but she didn’t feel any joy.

When one of the ambulance’s front doors opened, she almost shrieked as she spun toward the front. She bit back her cry as the ambulance sagged and Aiden’s head appeared between the seats. His blood-streaked face was a welcome relief.

“Stay back there. You don’t want to see this,” he said to her.

“No, I don’t, but I have to.”

She covered the remaining distance between her and the cab in one step. Two bodies were in the front seats. Tears burned her eyes, and her hand flew to her throat when she identified them. Walt leaned against the passenger window, his glazed eyes open and his throat torn out.

Her gaze turned to where Glenn lay slumped over the wheel. She couldn’t see his face, but gashes sliced his throat and blood stuck his khaki shirt to his neck. Roger would be devastated when he learned of Glenn’s death. They may not work together anymore, but Glenn was Roger’s best friend. Both divorced, they bowled on Monday nights, went to baseball games every summer, and argued politics.

She’d never seen Roger cry before, but she knew he would cry for Glenn. Roger was the closest she’d ever come to a father figure in her life, and the idea of anyone hurting him made her itch to claw their eyes out. Glenn and Walt had dedicated their lives to helping others and some monster had killed them. They’d deserved so much better than this.

Lifting her gaze, she met Aiden’s over Glenn’s back. “Whoever did this, can’t be allowed to live.”

“They won’t be,” he promised, hating the sheen of tears in her eyes.

“I can use the radio, call for help, and wait for it to arrive,” she told him. “They’ll take me to safety.”

“I can’t be here when they arrive, and I’m not leaving you.”

She had expected as much, and she wasn’t up for arguing right now. “The ambulance has a GPS, but I can’t leave them here like this until they’re noted as missing and located.”

“We have to,” Aiden replied. “If you use the radio to call someone and aren’t here when help arrives, you could become a suspect. It’s unlikely that anything will stick to you, but is it a chance you’re willing to take?”

Her gaze fell to Walt and Glenn again before she bowed her head. “No,” she whispered.

She turned away from him and started back. Dropping down from the driver’s side, Aiden rushed around to meet her before she could climb out of the ambulance. Maggie’s eyes were dry when they met his.

Aiden wiped off the handles she’d touched when she opened the back doors. Even if they pulled his prints, they weren’t on file. Besides, the police would never be able to locate or keep him imprisoned for long if they were somehow lucky enough to stumble across him.

“Did you touch anything inside?” he asked.

“No,” she replied. “We have to let someone know they’re here. They can’t stay in this alley. They deserve better,” she said.

He rested his hand on her arm to draw her closer. “We’ll call someone as soon as we can, but we have to go.”

* * *

Trudging along beside Aiden, Maggie kept her head down as she tried to process everything that had happened tonight. Exhaustion tugged at her; her shoulders hunched up as the memory of Glenn and Walt dead in that ambulance flared back to life.

She’d never lived under the delusion life was fair, but she loathed that it was sometimes a cruel bitch with razor-sharp claws, who laughed as she sliced you open.

Maggie could hear the cruel laughter of life bouncing around her skull now.

“I’m sorry about your friends,” Aiden said.

When he rested his hand on her shoulder, she flinched away from him. Aiden buried the stab of hurt the rejection brought with it. She had every right to hate him. He didn’t blame her for it, yet if he let her walk out of his life, he would have to go to Ronan and ask to be destroyed. Yesterday, that prospect hadn’t seemed bleak. Now that he’d met her and glimpsed the promise of a life without his constant, insidious cravings, death was the last thing he wanted.

They were only a couple of blocks away from the alley when the putrid stench of garbage hit him. Aiden grabbed Maggie’s elbow, halting her as he searched for the enemy he knew was near. He looked to the doorway beside them as Maggie tugged angrily on her arm.

“Let go!” she hissed.

“There are Savages near,” he said.

Maggie forgot all about fighting him as she glanced wildly around. Those things were close! Where were they supposed to go? Which way was the right way to avoid them?

“Where?” she whispered.

“I don’t know.”

“Then how do you know they’re close?”

“I can smell them. This way.”

He pulled her toward an alley tucked between two brownstone houses. Maggie’s nose wrinkled as the aroma of the garbage in the dumpsters wafted to her. Aiden’s pace increased; he hurried her forward and turned to the right. Before Maggie could stop him, he spun her into his arms, lifted her off the ground, and plunged downward.

Maggie gasped, her hands dug into the solid muscle of his shoulders as he hit the ground. Glancing around her, she realized he hadn’t dropped off the face of the earth but into a staircase leading to a basement.

Cradling her closer against him, Aiden cupped her nape as he edged into the shadows until his back came up against a metal door. He shifted Maggie and set her down as he gripped the metal handle behind him. If it became necessary, he would rip the door off and enter into whatever lay beyond, but he wouldn’t alert the Savages to their presence or trigger any alarms if he didn’t have to.

Maggie’s heart beat rapidly against his chest as her short nails bit into his shoulders. The silken strands of her hair tickled his hand. He caressed her neck with his thumb, hoping to calm her. If he didn’t have her to worry about, he’d go after the Savages and hunt them down with or without his weapons.

However, if something happened to him, there would be no one to keep her safe from the killers. His family and friends didn’t know she existed yet, and she wouldn’t know where to turn for help.

Mate or not, her blood was more potent and sweeter than any human blood he’d ever consumed. The Savage who attacked her still lived, the others had to have smelled her, and they would all hunt her for her blood. It wouldn’t be difficult for the Savages to find her either. They knew where she worked and could easily track her with that knowledge.

Savages may be ruthless killers, but they weren’t mindless. Many times, they were almost too cunning in their hunt, and they often liked to play with their food. They would destroy her.

His gaze fell to her throat and the wound the Savage had left in the hollow of where her neck and shoulder met. His blood had healed the wound, as well as the marks he’d left on her. Blood still stained her shirt, but the odors of the alley should cover it.

Aiden’s muscles rippled against her cheek when footsteps rang off the buildings surrounding them. Maggie had resolved to distance herself from him as soon as she could, but she found herself pressing closer when the footsteps drew nearer.

She turned her face into his chest, the hair there tickling her nose. His flesh was warm against hers, and she had to resist the urge to nuzzle it, or even worse, lick him. Her skin prickled with awareness, her body came alive in a way that was completely out of place given their current circumstances. His masculine scent filling her nostrils pushed out the lingering odors of blood and trash as whoever was out there ran past where they stood.

Aiden remained unmoving while he strained to hear more. Maggie’s breath warmed his chest as the rotten scent of Savage faded away. Briefly, he closed his eyes to relish in the feel of her lush breasts pressing against him.

His driving urge to keep her alive opened his eyes and propelled him back into motion. He didn’t release her as he edged toward the bottom of the stairs and craned his head to peer up. “It’s gone,” he murmured.

Lifting her head, her lips brushed his chest when she turned to look too. She hated the thrill that went through her at the contact. It made her recall when he’d bitten her in the ambulance and the rush of erotic carnality that swept her. She took a deep breath and cursed her sweaty palms.

“If you could smell him, how come he didn’t smell you?” she whispered.

“I don’t carry the same rancid stench the Savages do.”

“But he’s a vampire; he couldn’t detect your blood or mine?”

“There are thousands of scents in this alley, including blood. And going by the strength of the odor of blood here, someone bled a lot in this alley within the past week, possibly to the point of death. There is also the feral aroma of wild animals as well as the stench of garbage that has nothing to do with the Savage who went by,” he whispered in her ear. “Those scents masked us from him.”

Maggie inhaled deeply, picking out hints of the different things he’d spoken of on the air. “The Savages smell like garbage to you?”

“Like extremely rotten garbage. I don’t scent him anymore, but stay here while I take a look.”

She started to protest, but she didn’t have it in her to deal with any of those monsters again.

Icy air brushed over her skin when he released her, and for the first time, she realized she’d left her coat in the ambulance. They’d been moving so much and so rapidly, she hadn’t had a chance to process the cold. Without Aiden’s arms around her, and just standing there, the frosty March air cut through her clothes. Her warm exhalations created plumes of smoke in the air as she shifted from foot to foot to get some heat back into her numb toes.

It felt like she’d left her entire life behind in the ambulance, and she couldn’t shake the thought she may never get it back.

Of course, I’ll get it back, she firmly decided. As soon as Aiden found a phone and she figured out a way to go home, she’d return to her life.

She had no idea how she would explain all of this to the police, her boss, Roger, and everyone else, but she’d puzzle that out when she wasn’t running for her life, cold, starving, and exhausted.

Maggie’s gaze fastened on Aiden’s back as he walked up the stairs. Not only was his spine no longer visible, but neither was his muscle, and she swore his skin was closing before her eyes. Around the healing flesh, faint white lines spread across his back. She recalled seeing them when he’d been lying in the alley and thinking they looked like whip marks zigzagging out from his wound earlier.

What had he endured to leave scars like that on him?

With the way he healed, she wouldn’t have expected him to have any scars, but there they were. Tonight wasn’t the first time he’d been severely injured, and with the brutal life he apparently led, she suspected it wouldn’t be the last. She sensed a darkness in Aiden that might match or exceed that of the vampires hunting them.

Aiden turned back to gaze down at her. Illuminated in the dim glow of a distant street light, his face was stark, his body streaked with blood and dirt. She should run screaming from the danger he radiated. She should draw the attention of someone who might call 911 or help her. She could flee easily enough, yet when he descended a couple of steps to extend his hand to her, she took it.