Maggie slid onto the barstool she’d vacated and held up two fingers to Zeke. He brought down two more glasses of whiskey and set one in front of the place where Aiden had stood. Zeke removed Aiden’s empty glass with its remnants of blood at the bottom. She drank her whiskey before grabbing Aiden’s glass.

“You sure can handle a lot of whiskey,” Zeke remarked.

“High tolerance.” It was something she’d always had. It would take another five drinks before she’d start to feel the warmth of a buzz and the whole bottle to get her drunk, but even then, she’d still walk and talk mostly normal.

“Hmm.” Zeke’s eyes roamed over her. When she narrowed her eyes at him and drew her glass forward as if she were going to hit him with it, he chuckled. “You’re a beautiful woman, but I much prefer the company you’re keeping to you. No offense.”

Maggie relaxed and chuckled. “None taken. You can have him.”

“If only,” Zeke sighed. “I’ve never seen him come in here with a woman before.”

Maggie frowned at him, uncertain of how to reply or why he’d revealed that to her, but she sensed he was trying to tell her something as his warm, golden-brown eyes held hers.

“Can I get you something else?” he asked after a minute.

“A bottle of Sam, please,” she said. She’d love to keep chugging whiskey down, she’d welcome the oblivion being drunk would bring her, but losing her wits would be a horrible idea. “And a water.”

“You got it,” Zeke tapped the bar with his hand and turned away from her.

At the end of the bar, a woman waved her hand at Zeke and shouted for two red delights. Now that it was getting later, the place was starting to pick up. Zeke walked over to one of the jugs and poured the woman’s drink while Maggie sipped at her whiskey.

Turning on her stool, she studied the other occupants in the bar. Two men were slipping past one of the metal doors together. They must be going to the rooms the woman who walked into the bathroom mentioned. Maggie’s neck flushed with the reminder of what nearly occurred in the bathroom and what that woman had interrupted.

Taking another sip of whiskey, she pondered if vampires carried diseases. She’d seen the way Aiden healed; would their bodies fight off disease in the same way they fought off death? It would be fascinating to study them to find out.

The more she watched those in the bar, the more she could differentiate between the humans and vampires, or at least she believed she could. The vampires held themselves in a confident way no human, not even the most gorgeous supermodel, could match. The humans fawned like a puppy lapping up the attention of its owner. The people laughed; the vampires placated with smug smiles.

Appearance-wise, the vampires all looked human, but they couldn’t completely disguise they were on the hunt. There was something about them that reminded her of a cheetah stalking the hapless gazelle.

Maggie smiled at Zeke when he returned to set her beer and water in front of her. “Thanks.”

He hurried away to take care of the growing crowd gathering around the bar. Judging by the fluid way he moved while filling orders, and the speed with which he did it, Zeke was also a vampire.

Tearing her attention away from him, she glanced at her watch. It was almost nine. She felt as exhausted as if it were four in the morning, but it was only the time when many people were getting ready to start their Friday night.

Aiden emerged from the bathroom. Anger glinted in his eyes when they met hers across the crowd. She must have annoyed him by not obeying his order, but then she didn’t obey anyone who didn’t sign her checks, and sometimes she had a problem with that. She lifted her glass and gave him a small salute with it before finishing off the whiskey and setting the glass aside.

She tried not to, but she couldn’t help admiring Aiden as he stalked toward her. Clean of dirt and blood, the skin of his face and chest were unblemished and the golden color of someone who spent a lot of time in the sun. His wet, short black hair had been shoved back from his face as if he’d been running his hands through it.

His pushed back hair emphasized his broad cheekbones and square jaw. The green of his eyes brightened as they remained focused on her. There were actors in Hollywood who didn’t look anywhere near as alluring as this man, and she realized he could entice her to sin in ways no other ever had.

Look away! Her mouth went dry as her gaze remained riveted on the etched muscles of his torso, shoulders, and arms.

This was a man who kept himself in shape. Not because he wanted to show off for his friends, like some of the guys she’d seen at the gym, and not because he was trying to pick up women. No, instinctively she knew Aiden had worked himself into this condition because he was a hunter, a killer; it was what he did, and he did it well. In the process of making himself ever more lethal, he’d carved himself into a six-foot-two mountain of predatory grace.

And right now, that mountain looked like it might turn volcanic.

Maggie lifted her beer and gulped half of it down. Every inch of this vampire exuded wrath and brutality, yet her skin prickled at the memory of the way his kiss warmed her from head to toe, and she found herself craving more of him.

Twenty feet away from her, a voluptuous, black-haired woman stepped in Aiden’s way. A thunderous expression crossed his face. Maggie expected the woman to shrink away from that look, most would have, but the woman placed one hand on her rounded hip and stuck it out in a flirtatious way.

“Who is that?” she asked Zeke when he came back to rest his elbow on the bar next to her.

“Carha, my boss.”

“Oh.”

This was the woman who would be happy to see him again. Maggie’s hand clenched on her bottle as she studied the woman with a far more critical eye. She would have pegged Carha as a vampire before she learned Carha owned this place. Carha moved with the same confidence and fluidity they all did.

Carha was shorter than her and voluptuous where training for the marathon had honed Maggie into a runner’s lean build. Even before she’d started running, Maggie hadn’t possessed the curves this woman did. She forced herself not to glance at her chest. She’d been a C cup since she turned sixteen and was perfectly sized for her body. Easily a double D, Carha’s breasts were thrust enticingly high by the form-fitting, red bodice she wore. Carha’s black, leather pants hugged an ass that would have cartoon character’s tongues rolling out, and her thighs could crack a skull.

When Carha glanced over her shoulder, she discovered Maggie staring at her. Maggie held her gaze; she’d already been caught, glancing away was pointless. Smiling at Carha, Maggie took a swig of her beer. Malice flashed through Carha’s green eyes, and her exquisite face scrunched up. Then she smiled, turned back to Aiden, and rested her hand on his bare chest in a gesture that screamed intimacy.

The impulse to tear Carha’s fingers off hit Maggie so hard that, for a second, she felt as if someone had taken a sledgehammer of jealousy and bashed her with it. She looked away from the two of them before she leapt off her barstool and smacked Carha with her bottle.

She’d had some violent encounters in her life, knocked a few people out, but she’d never done it because she was jealous. And certainly not because she was jealous over a guy who’d done nothing but put her in jeopardy since she’d had the misfortune of meeting him.

I’m losing my mind, or maybe it’s already gone.

She couldn’t stop herself from glancing back at Carha and Aiden. He’d told her Carha wasn’t his girlfriend or his ex, yet there was obviously something between them. However, he'd just kissed her in the bathroom.

Yeah, like you’ve never been kissed by a guy who was only looking to get laid before.

But Aiden’s kiss had felt different. There had been a yearning in it she’d never experienced from another before.

Or did you want it to feel that way because of how badly you desire him?

She couldn’t deny that was possible. And maybe Aiden was only using her to make Carha jealous. Maybe there hadn’t been Savages outside and he’d only brought her here to get Carha’s attention. Her stomach knotted at the possibility.

Maggie turned back to find Zeke watching her. She didn’t see pity in his gaze, but an understanding that made her like him more.