To avoid the Savages, Aiden traveled a crisscrossing route that eventually led them back to where it all started. Maggie froze when she saw the empty alley and the lack of police cars there. “I don’t understand,” she whispered. “They should still be here.”

Aiden glanced over the brick walls and the blood-streaked asphalt. “One of the Savages must have come back here to clean up their mess while the other went for Glenn and Walt. Or both of them came back here, and the Savage in the ambulance worked alone.”

Panic clawed at her as she tried to process his words. “But where did all the police go? Did the Savages kill them all?”

“I don’t know,” Aiden said.

“Some of those officers were my friends, or at least acquaintances. I have to find out what happened to them.”

“We’ll find out,” he promised. “But they’re probably not dead. Killing a bunch of police and emergency workers, or turning them, is a lot tougher to cover up than changing their memories and sending them on their way. The Savages would have preferred to kill them, but though they're bloodthirsty, they aren’t stupid.”

“You really think the Savages didn’t kill them?” she croaked.

“Yes.”

“But they killed Walt and Glenn?”

“That was different,” Aiden said as he carefully picked his way around the blood splattering the alley floor. If the police happened to come back here, they couldn’t see his fresh footprints, or Maggie’s. He didn’t have to tell Maggie that as she also avoided the blood.

“Most likely the two who didn’t pursue me came back here to fix the mess they created,” Aiden explained. “They must have decided their friend would either awaken and take care of himself, or they would deal with it later, if he did make it to a hospital. The Savage with Walt and Glenn was mutilated, ravenous, and looking to feed so he could heal himself. If the two Savages came back here, it was probably to cover their tracks and not to kill.”

“You’re not just saying that?”

He heard the note of hope in her voice and turned to look at her. “No, I’m not,” he replied. He would have done anything to make her smile, but he wouldn’t lie to her. “I don’t know for sure, but I would say those who were here are still alive, minus some memories, and probably any cameras or evidence they had.”

“Okay, good.”

Aiden searched the alley for his phone and the key card to his hotel room. He discovered the phone at the other end of the alley. Lifting it, he examined the broken bits before tossing the useless thing aside. The key card was gone. Either one of the officers had picked it up before the Savages returned, one of the Savages had it, or it had fallen out somewhere else.

Either way, it didn’t matter, they couldn’t use it to find him.

Aiden’s head lifted when the scent of garbage wafted to him; he sniffed at the air as the aroma drew closer. Maggie placed her hand over her nose. Aiden frowned as he studied her, but the growing stench drew his attention away. They had to get out of here, but the only safe place to go was Carha’s club.

He despised revealing any glimpse of the depravity of his soul to Maggie, but her safety was far more important than keeping his secrets hidden. Most of the vampires in the club weren’t fighters, but they wouldn’t tolerate an attack from Savages on anyone, especially since Savages had a habit of turning on and killing their kind for more power.

Placing his hand on the small of Maggie’s back, Aiden hurried toward the door. “What are you doing?” she whispered.

“They’re coming.”

Maggie glanced nervously over her shoulder, but she didn’t see or hear anything. She wouldn’t argue with his vampy senses. However, she had no idea what he expected to do with a closed metal door that had no handle. She had no doubt he could break it down, but their location wouldn’t exactly be unknown if he did.

Stopping before the door, Aiden knocked three times on it. He paused for a few seconds before knocking two more times, then paused again and rapped five times.

A window in the middle of the door suddenly slid open. Maggie would have leapt back if Aiden’s hand hadn’t been there to stop her. Perfectly hidden, she hadn’t seen the outline of the window until it opened. Leaning forward, she tried to peer inside, but there was only darkness on the other side.

Maggie jumped when a set of brown eyes appeared in the window. Those eyes settled on her before going to Aiden. “Back so soon?” a gruff voice said from the other side.

“Let us in,” Aiden commanded, and he could sense Brutus’s annoyance over the order. He also knew Brutus would do as he said.

After a hesitation, the click of locks turning filled the air, and the door creaked as it swung open. Maggie’s heels dug in when Aiden nudged her forward, but unwilling to face those Savages again, she gave in to his prodding and stepped inside.

The door swung shut behind them, and the locks slid back into place. “Reeks of blood out there, and you look like shit. What happened?” Brutus demanded.

The voice coming from her right sent shivers down Maggie’s spine as she glanced anxiously around, but with the door closed, a tomblike darkness enveloped them.

“Didn’t you look?” Aiden inquired.

“Couldn’t risk giving away our location,” Brutus replied. “Heard the voices and sirens and figured it was a human situation.”

“Not entirely,” Aiden replied. “Some killer vamps were involved, and they’re coming back.”

“Bastards,” Brutus hissed. “They may be coming back, but they won’t be coming in.”

“Good.” Aiden turned away from Brutus, and keeping his hand on the small of Maggie’s back, he led her onward.

“Carha will be happy to see you again,” Brutus said from behind them and gave a small chuckle.

“Who is Carha?” Maggie inquired.

“She owns this place,” Aiden replied.

“Where are we?”

“It’s a private club.”

“As in a private vampire club?”

“Yes, but there are humans here too.”

Maggie’s step faltered before she forced one foot in front of the other again. “Did you bring me here to pass me around to your friends?”

“I would never allow such a thing to happen to you. No one will touch you here; I’ll make sure of it.”

“Is this where you were before the Savages jumped you?”

“Yes.”

She heard a hint of something she couldn’t quite place in his voice; was it reluctance? Annoyance? “You said you didn’t have a girlfriend.”

“I don’t.”

The crisp way he said it made her hackles rise. She should be the irritable one. She was the one who’d been bitten by two vampires tonight, consumed vampire blood, attacked, and who was now walking into a vampire club with one of her biters. He may say he’d keep these vamps from touching her, but what if he couldn’t? She’d seen how brutal he could be, but how many vampires were inside here? And what if he changed his mind and she became the vampire equivalent of movie theatre popcorn in this place?

All she knew about vampires was what she’d seen in movies or read in books; so, he was either a completely misunderstood, brooding guy looking for love, or he was biding his time before turning her into a bloodless husk. Either way, she didn’t know vampire culture, and she didn’t like uncertainty in her life. She’d had far too much insecurity as a child and teen; she didn’t tolerate it as an adult.

“So is Carha an ex-girlfriend who will be happy to see you again so soon?” Maggie retorted and hated the jealousy she couldn’t keep from her tone.

“She’s not an ex.”

Maggie opened her mouth to speak before closing it. She didn’t care who Carha was to him. As soon as he got a phone, she could go home.

At the end of the hall, Aiden pulled open another door, and the most cliché, slow, emo music she’d ever heard drifted to her. She rolled her eyes and looked to Aiden. “Really hyping up that whole misunderstood creature of the night vibe in here, aren’t they, Nosferatu?”

Aiden’s mouth quirked in a smile. “It’s not my place.”

“Nope, you just support it.”

Something flashed through his eyes, but she couldn’t make out what it was before he glanced away from her and led her forward. Maggie kept her face impassive as they passed shadowed booths with couples sitting in them. Many of the couples were sipping glasses full of red liquid, but judging by the scent and the viscosity, they weren’t drinking blood.

The place was huge and could easily hold at least three hundred people, but there were only fifty or so occupants. Maggie’s eyebrows shot up when she spotted the coffins in the corners of the room. When she realized the music came from those coffins, she had another eye-rolling moment. She almost gagged at the coffin-shaped bathroom doors.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she muttered. “I feel like I stepped into a bad, B horror movie without the campy humor. I don’t know who in here is human and who isn’t, but they’re all eating this up.”

“For some, this is a way of life.”

“For some, or for you?”

“Not for me.”

“Could have fooled me. That guy at the door knows you, and so do they,” she said as two men waved to Aiden and he returned the wave with a nod.

His eyes flashed to her. “There’s much you don’t know about me, Magdalene.”

“And I never will.”

The tug of sadness accompanying her words startled her. She wanted free of Aiden, and she’d prefer not to learn anything more about him. So then why was she trying to figure out what he’d been doing in this place earlier? She may not know him well, but she didn’t think he’d have to come to a place like this for sex and blood.

Aiden’s teeth grated together. He’d finally met his mate, and everything that could have gone wrong with their meeting had. He didn’t expect it to get any better while they remained in here, but he couldn’t do anything about that.