Ravaged (Vampire Awakenings, Book 7)

by Brenda K. Davies

  “I don’t know why, but I can’t stop,” she admitted.

  “Did this start when you separated from Aiden?”

  “The night he left to kill Carha I felt itchy, but it’s becoming worse with every passing day.”

  “Humans can love us,” he said kindly. “Many of them feel an instantaneous attraction too. My mother did to my father, my wife did to me, but it’s not the same as what a vampire feels for their mate. Vicky and Abby informed me you have some vampire DNA in you.”

  She wasn’t surprised they’d talked about her. She’d seen how close the siblings were with each other. “I do.”

  “You feel the bond to Aiden too. Not as intensely as a full vampire would, but it’s there, and not having Aiden near has distressed you.”

  “My skin feels like I’m a twenty-four-year-old shoved into my ten-year-old sized body.”

  Ethan squeezed her wrist before releasing her. “It’s worse for Aiden.”

  “Is he one of those things?” The idea of Aiden being anything like those monsters who had attacked them and killed Walt and Glenn made her skin itch far more than it ever had before. “Is that why you’re here?”

  “I’m not sure what he is now, but he’s more like one of them now than he is one of us.”

  Maggie gulped. She’d seen Aiden lose control, seen him pulverize other vampires, but this sounded so much worse. No, not my Aiden. I won’t allow it.

  “Where is he? Will you take me to him?”

  Ethan smiled and rested his hand on hers. “Yes.”

  CHAPTER 47

  Maggie leaned back to survey the squat, concrete building. A handful of windows faced her. Behind one of the glass planes, a light revealed the bars covering the window. Blue, concrete walls were visible beyond the bars. When Ethan pressed a button, a buzzer sounded on the other side. A clammy sweat coated her body as she gazed at the metal door before her with a sinking suspicion.

  Maggie had no idea where they were as Ethan blindfolded her as soon as they’d left her apartment and settled into his car. The lessening of blowing horns and passing cars as he drove alerted her when they left the city, but they’d traveled for at least an hour before arriving here, where he’d removed her blindfold.

  A high, barbed wire fence surrounded the property; the red lights on top of it indicated it was electrified. Beyond the fencing, she saw only trees. There were no other buildings and no distant lights.

  She focused her attention on the simple, concrete building again. It can’t be.

  The door suddenly pushed open, and Vicky’s head popped out. Like a fish flopping on dry land, her mouth opened and closed when she spotted Maggie. Then she turned her attention to Ethan before glaring at Maggie.

  “What did you do, Ethan?” Vicky demanded.

  “What is this place?” Maggie ignored Vicky to inquire.

  “An old, county prison. It closed about fifteen years ago. Ronan recently purchased it to use as a prison for any Savages they could catch and interrogate,” Ethan replied, apparently more than willing to ignore Vicky’s continued, alternating glares too. “He had it modified to hold vampires, added security measures should one break out, and established a place he could also imprison purebreds, should it become necessary.”

  Maggie’s eyes flew back to him. “This is a prison for vampires?”

  “Yes.”

  “And Aiden is here?”

  “Yes.”

  She gritted her teeth as she glanced between the siblings. “You allowed him to be locked up?”

  “We had no choice,” Ethan murmured.

  “No thanks to you,” Vicky retorted, and Maggie shot her a fierce look.

  “Easy, Vicky,” Ethan replied.

  “Aiden wouldn’t be here if she truly cared, and where’s her new boyfriend?”

  “Her is standing right here!” Maggie snapped. “And he’s barefoot and cooking dinner in my kitchen, do you have a problem with that?”

  Ethan shot his hand out to hold his sister back when Vicky stepped toward her. “Enough!” he barked. “This was all a big misunderstanding.”

  “There was no misunderstanding,” Maggie snorted. “Your brother assumed something he shouldn’t have, and instead of talking to me about it, he jumped to the wrong conclusions.” Her eyes slid back to Vicky. “It seems to be a shitty family trait.”

  Vicky glared at her again, but when Vicky’s eyes swung back to Ethan, Maggie saw a flash of guilt in them. “A misunderstanding?” Vicky asked.

  “Yes,” Ethan replied. “I’m taking her to see him.”

  “He’s going to lose his mind when he realizes you did exactly what he didn’t want us to do.”

  “Or maybe he’ll regain his mind,” Ethan replied.

  “Oh, I hope so,” Vicky breathed.

  Ethan nudged Vicky aside, and with a hand on the small of Maggie’s back, he led her inside the old prison. Maggie glowered at Vicky as she walked past, but Vicky didn’t return the look. Instead, she tugged at the ends of her disheveled hair.

  “Is it really a misunderstanding?” Vicky asked her with a round-eyed stare that would have made Puss in Boots jealous.

  Maggie’s anger melted. She’d liked Vicky before, and she didn’t blame Vicky for being protective of her brother. “It seems so,” Maggie murmured.

  Vicky wiped the tears from her eyes and pushed open a gated door to reveal the entranceway of the prison. Maggie entered and stopped next to the glassed-in reception desk on her left. No one sat in the square room. When she peeked inside, she saw a computer and numerous video monitors. The screens displayed changing video feed from the land surrounding the prison. She also saw herself, Vicky, and Ethan and looked up to find a camera pointed directly at her.

  Vicky pressed a button and pushed open another solid, thick steel door when a buzzer sounded. The hair on Maggie’s nape rose when they stepped inside, and the door clanged shut behind them. Overhead, caged lights protected the single bulb within those cages. The lights shone down on the dingy, gray tile floor.

  Her sneaker caught and squeaked on one of the tiles as they made their way toward the row of concrete walls making up the cells. Arms hung out of the steel bars on the front of one of the cells; the hands clasped together as if in boredom. She almost ran toward the arms before realizing those fingers didn’t belong to Aiden.

  The man in the cell sniffed the air as they approached him. “Fresh meat,” he purred in a voice distorted by his fangs.

  When it sank in she was locked in a prison with vampires, she almost turned and bolted. I can’t run. Aiden is here somewhere, and I will at least talk to him.

  “It’s okay,” Ethan murmured when her step faltered. “He can’t get out.”

  The prisoner’s red eyes surveyed her when they walked by him. His lips pulled back in a leering grin. “Ripe for the fucking, fresh meat,” the Savage purred.

  Maggie didn’t give him the satisfaction of responding in any way, and neither did the others as they left the prisoner behind. Maggie searched for Aiden, but he wasn’t in any of the remaining, empty cells. Turning a corner, Vicky stopped before another solid, steel door.

  “I was just down there talking with Aiden. Of course, I don’t look in the window when I’m down there,” Vicky said.

  What an odd thing to say. Before Maggie could question her on it though, Vicky continued speaking.

  “He doesn’t…” Vicky’s voice hitched. “He doesn’t say much, but I think he listens.”

  Those words caused the hair on Maggie’s nape to rise. She thinks he listens.

  Vicky slid a key into the lock, and it clicked open. The hinges squeaked as she pushed the door inward before turning to Maggie. “Don’t be afraid.”

  “I’m not,” Maggie replied.

  She had to force herself not to wipe her palms on her jeans as she gazed down the long corridor ahead of her. When she felt sweat spreading beneath her arm pits, she shrugged out of her coat and held it out to Vicky.

  “Will you hol
d this for me?” she asked.

  “Of course,” Vicky said and took it from her.

  “Watch out, there might be stakes in it,” Ethan cautioned.

  Vicky’s mouth pursed and she moved the coat away from her to hold it like it was a live grenade.

  “Only one, and it’s in the inner pocket,” Maggie said before turning her attention back to the gloomy corridor. The only light illuminating the hall came from behind her, but it was enough to reveal that here, instead of concrete walls and bars, there were only what she could describe as steel cages.

  What had happened to Aiden since she’d last seen him? What would she find down there? What if Ethan was wrong and she couldn’t save him?

  That was the most terrifying thought she’d ever had.

  Ethan reached inside and flipped a switch. A row of dim, caged bulbs dangling over the middle of the corridor lit up the concrete floor and cages. Two of the bulbs flickered annoyingly.

  “He’s locked up and restrained. The cell is built specifically for purebreds, so he won’t be able to hurt you,” Ethan said.

  “He would never! Aiden wouldn’t…” The expressions on Ethan and Vicky’s faces caused the rest of Maggie’s protests to fade away.

  “Come,” Ethan prodded. “Vicky, I think you’d better stay here. He’s going to be enraged, and it’s better if he only focuses that on one of us. You should probably get the others too, in case something goes wrong.”

  “Okay. Good luck,” she said to Maggie.

  Unable to reply, Maggie gave a brisk nod and followed Ethan into the hall. Vicky didn’t close the door behind them. When Maggie glanced back, she saw Vicky was gone. Focusing forward again, she tried not to dwell on the ominous, oppressive air encompassing this hall as she put one foot in front of the other.

  Their steps weren’t loud, and she knew it wasn’t true, but she felt like their feet were louder than gunshots on the concrete. The bulbs cast their shadows over the steel doors in eerie patterns that danced and swayed and had her half expecting the laughter of trolls to sound from the bowels of this place. The potent scent of mildew filled the corridor, and with the dampness in the air, she guessed they were somewhere near water, most likely the ocean.

  She couldn’t help but feel as if this might be the path to hell. And Aiden was trapped within it.

  The small, square windows in the doors they passed revealed the empty cells beyond. Needing a moment to steady herself, Maggie feigned curiosity as she stopped to peer into one of those windows. A simple cot was set against the right wall. A sink, toilet, and a shower head were the only other things in the cell.

  “Ronan had the cells updated with the shower,” Ethan said from behind her.

  “How thoughtful,” she muttered and stepped away from the door.

  The further they walked down the hall, the more the scent of sweat and cloves mingled with the mildew. Aiden. The aroma of him and the prospect of seeing him strengthened her.

  The door opening drew Aiden’s attention toward the open window of his cell. His chains rattled as he emerged from the back corner. When the chains shackling his wrists and ankles pulled taut, he leaned forward until his face came within an inch of the window.

  He didn’t know how much time he’d spent trying to rip free of his manacles, but through the fog of insanity coating his mind, he recalled breaking his wrists and ankles so often that he’d lost count. Still, the bonds didn’t give and he’d been unable to slip free of them.

  His lips skimmed back when he heard footsteps approaching. His fangs snapped as his blood boiled. Kill. Destroy. Die! Die! Die! The mantra had looped through his head for days, weeks, months. He had no idea how long he’d been here, but he knew why he was here.

  Insanity slithered through his brain like an insidious, parasitic worm. It urged him to do things he would never have done before, to kill himself, or to burn the world. The few moments of clarity he received were so full of anguish that he shied away from them to retreat into his haze of madness once more. Through it all, he remembered Maggie with her arms around another.

  His Maggie. No, not his, not anymore. She’d chosen another.

  Die! Die! Die! Often, he plotted to kill his jailers and break free of here. At other times, he tried to will himself into the peaceful oblivion of eternal sleep. Breaking free or dying had proven impossible, so far. He would succeed in one or the other soon.

  Craning his head, he listened to the footfalls coming toward him. Two of his captors were approaching. It didn’t matter how many there were; he’d murder them all if that was what it took to escape this place.

  Today. He would break out today, and his destruction of everything he could get his hands on would start with those who had imprisoned him. At least then, they would be able to feel a fraction of the pain ravaging him. Saliva filled his mouth as he contemplated sinking his fangs into numerous throats and draining his victims dry. They’d given him blood in here, but he needed to hear shrieks of pain. Those screams would ease him; they had to.

  Every day, every second of every minute, his cravings for blood and death consumed him. Nothing kept them at bay anymore. Sometimes, he’d surface enough to question if he were losing his mind or becoming a Savage. Then, he’d realize it didn’t matter; the madness would turn him Savage.

  The one thing he wouldn’t do when he was free of here was go near Maggie; he couldn’t. More animal than man now, he still retained enough of a thread to his old self to know he could never harm her, though she had been the one to destroy him.

  Some of his jailers were his siblings. Maybe if they hadn’t already turned on him, he wouldn’t go after them, but they’d betrayed him by locking him within this pit. He would stay away from the rest of his family too. They were the past, and he had a much different future.

  Stepping away from the window, the chains shackling his wrists and ankles rattled as he paced his cell. He craned his head to see who they would send to him now with one of those disgusting blood bags. He needed a vein, a real one.

  Then, the smell hit him. Sweet as butterscotch and far more enticing than any blood bag, it floated on the air to ensnare him. Maggie!

  Aiden’s fangs burst free, he lunged at the door, but the shackles yanked him back. The chains rattled but held firm when he jerked against them, and an overwhelming hunger seared his veins. She was the only thing that would finally ease his hunger.

  Have to have her!

  He stopped pulling at his chains as horror descended to shove aside the madness enshrouding him. His Magdalene was here, and he was… he was… a monster.

  Aiden recoiled from the door and slid into the shadows at the back of his cell. She couldn’t see him like this!

  It wasn’t that he was filthy, he’d done nothing but plot death and ride the waves of lunacy since coming here, but he’d washed often. Animals didn’t tolerate the stench of their filth. He ran a hand over his face. He may have showered often, but he hadn’t shaved. A beard covered his face now, probably making him appear wilder than he was. His eyes were red; he didn’t need a mirror to know that, he could feel it. He’d lost all control of the demon part of him when he lost her.

  She’d dealt with enough insanity with her mother; she couldn’t see it in him too. She deserved better than this, better than him. He’d let her go to live her life with another man; why had she come here?

  A fresh stab of agony pierced his heart as he recalled seeing her embracing another man. He couldn’t hate her for her decision. He wanted only happiness for her, no matter whose arms she found it in. Bringing her here, making her feel guilty, or intimidating her was not what he wanted for her. He’d made that clear at some point. He couldn’t recall when he’d told his imprisoners not to get involved, but he was certain he had.

  One of his jailers must have brought her here, either to try to help him or to torment him more than they already did by keeping him locked away.

  “Get her out of here,” Aiden said before they reached his door.

>   “Aiden, listen—”

  “Get her out of here, now!” he bellowed, cutting off Ethan’s words. He’d tear his brother’s heart out for bringing her here.

  Ethan turned as if to stop her, but Maggie stepped into view of the window. Even in the shadows surrounding her, Aiden could see the unusual shade of her eyes and the loveliness of her features. His fangs pierced his lips when he bit back a choked sound. He stretched a hand toward her before jerking it back to his side.

  “Get her out of here,” he hissed again.

  Maggie went to grab the window, but Ethan seized her hands before she could. “Don’t touch her!” Aiden shouted, and Ethan released her.

  “Aiden,” Maggie said. Ethan held out an arm to keep her from coming any closer. “Where are you?”

  Maggie searched the shadows at the back, left-hand corner of the cell. It was where his voice had come from, but she couldn’t see him.

  “Aiden?” she croaked. “Please let me see you.”

  “Get her out of here, Ethan,” Aiden commanded.

  “Let her speak,” Ethan replied.

  “I don’t want her here! Not like this.”

  Ethan hesitated before turning toward her. “Maybe this was a mistake.”

  “No!” Maggie protested. “No. I’m not leaving until I see you, Aiden. Not until we get a chance to talk.”

  “You want to see me?” Aiden snarled.

  The tone of his voice caused those spiders to start dancing across her skin again, but she lifted her chin and stepped closer. “Yes. You have things wrong. I—”

  Maggie broke off from telling him she’d gone to meet him at the hotel when he partially emerged from the shadows. She flinched away from what the light revealed before she could stop herself. But even after everything she’d seen with the Savages, she’d never seen anything half as frightening as Aiden.

  No hint of green remained in the ruby eyes blazing at her. Blood trickled from his lower lip and stuck in the hairs of the black beard covering half his face. Thick, steel cuffs encircled his wrists and ankles; they jingled when he moved.