“You went to the hotel?”
“Yes. So many things went wrong that day. We can discuss it later. Right now, all that matters is we’re together again, and I want to be with you.”
He drew her close to kiss her forehead. Tenuous at best, his control was good enough for him to know he couldn’t change her here. It was bad enough he’d taken her in this foul place; he wouldn’t change her here too.
“I will not allow it to happen here.” Lifting her off him, he set her on the ground and brushed her hair back from her face. Clasping her cheeks, he kissed her tenderly.
“Are you stable enough for it to happen somewhere else?”
“Yes. Get dressed.”
Normally, she would have bristled over his clipped command, but she knew it was because he was having a difficult time restraining himself.
Aiden watched Maggie reclaim her jeans and sneakers. The torn sweater flapped around her as she worked. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from her. After so much time without her, it was difficult for him to believe she was real. He was terrified she’d vanish if he looked away and he would wake to find this had all been a dream.
When she finished dressing and stepped close to him, he pulled her tattered sweater together to shield her from the others. He didn’t care about his nudity, but he didn’t want her exposed to those beyond this door. She clasped the pieces together as he swung her into his arms and held her against his chest. Resting her head on his shoulder, she kissed his neck.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” he said.
“Believe it.”
“I’m completely in love with you, Magdalene Doe.”
She blinked back her tears. “I’m in love with you too, Aiden Byrne. Also, my name is Magdalene Shea.”
“What?”
She smiled against his throat. “Something else we can discuss later, but I found my grandmother. I have a grandma.”
Aiden held her closer when he heard the happiness in her voice. “I can’t wait to meet her.”
Lifting his hand, he banged on the door. The others had gone quiet, but he knew they were still out there. “Let us out,” he commanded.
There was a minute of silence, then Vicky called out, “Maggie?”
“I'm all right, but I’d really like to get out of here.”
After another hesitation, the key turned in the lock and the door swung inward to reveal the others. Aiden’s lips skimmed back when he spotted Ethan. He forced his gaze away from Ethan before he put Maggie down and attacked his brother to ease some of his pent-up bloodlust.
Vicky and Abby stood next to each other, wearing identical looks of concern as they kept their gazes focused on Maggie. Brian positioned himself protectively in front of Abby; his red eyes warned Aiden to stay away from her. Saxon leaned against a wall with his arms over his chest, but despite his casual posture, Aiden knew Saxon was prepared to take him down.
“Your skin—” Vicky started.
“I’m handling it,” he grated from between his teeth as Maggie rubbed his neck. “I need blood and somewhere we can be alone.”
“There’s a cottage out back. The guards used it for breaks and naps. We’ve been crashing there,” Saxon replied as he walked over to unlock the back door. “There are blood bags in the fridge and extra clothes in the bedroom closet.”
“Good. Don’t bother us,” Aiden said.
CHAPTER 49
The white cottage was cute and old. The black shutters on the front sagged on their hinges and the lopsided slant of the windows made Maggie smile. The door creaked when Aiden swung it open before ducking to carry her through the doorway. In the murky radiance of the moon spilling through the windows, Maggie saw a sofa and a chair in the living room before Aiden carried her through a small dining room and into a kitchen that made her kitchen look huge.
With reluctance, Aiden set her down. He walked over, opened the fridge, and removed one of the blood bags to drink it. After Maggie’s blood, the taste was bitter on his lips, but he consumed it all.
“How exactly does this work?” Maggie asked. “I know you said before, if I lost enough blood and was given the blood of a vampire, I’d change. Is that it?”
Aiden finished the blood, wiped his mouth, and tossed the bag into the trash. “I have to drain you to the point where you would never survive the loss before giving you my blood,” he said.
He risked glancing at her to see how she would react to his words. He’d expected to see terror on her face; there was none.
“And then I’ll become a vampire?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said and drank another bag of blood.
“Is the transition painful?”
“I’m told it’s excruciating, but the pain fades quickly. Pathways will open between our minds during the exchange, and once the bond is complete, we’ll be able to communicate mentally.”
“No more misunderstandings,” she said with a smile.
“No more misunderstandings.”
“If you’re going to take my blood, then why are you drinking so much now?” Maggie perched on the edge of the table and kicked off her sneakers as she watched him.
“This blood isn’t for me,” he said and threw another bag away. “To complete the transition, a newly turned vampire has to feed soon after. I’m drinking this so you can feed on me. If you choose, after you turn, you’ll only ever have to feed on me to survive.”
Maggie’s clothes suddenly felt too confining as his words caused her skin to tingle and her body to quicken with desire. She licked her lips in anticipation of feeding on him again.
Aiden’s head turned slowly toward her; his nostrils flared as the scent of her arousal hit him. Maggie slid off the table, unbuttoned her jeans and tugged them off with her underwear. She removed the remains of her sweater before unclasping her bra and tossing it aside to stand before him with her nipples thrusting proudly forward.
Closing the door on the fridge, Aiden’s dick stiffened as he stalked toward her. Then his gaze fell on the white gauze covering her arms from her wrists to her armpits. A red haze clouded his vision when he saw the pink of her blood staining those bandages.
“What the fuck happened?” he demanded as he tenderly clasped her wrists and drew them forward to inspect her arms. Carefully, he unraveled a bandage to reveal her raw flesh before removing the other to reveal the same torn flesh. “Who did this to you?”
His fangs slurred his words, and his hands shook as they held her.
“I did it,” Maggie said.
“Why?” Aiden demanded.
“Ever since we’ve parted, my skin has felt too tight or like it’s wrong somehow. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“You’re part vampire,” he murmured. “Your body craved mine.”
“It still does,” she replied with a sultry smile.
Lifting her, he set her on the table and drew her hips toward the edge before spreading her legs apart and stepping between them.
“I’m going to cherish you every one of our days together,” he murmured as he sank into her.
“I have no doubt,” she sighed as she turned her head to offer him her vein. He didn’t refuse it.
• • •
Every muscle in her body ached, her bones felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to them, but the discomfort was receding. Maggie blinked as she woke from the agony comprising her world for what seemed like forever, but she suspected it might be the same night.
She remembered being with Aiden in the kitchen, remembered the feeling of him inside her as he drank from her and the intensity of the orgasm rocking her even as her body weakened. He’d pressed his bleeding wrist to her mouth afterward and carried her in here to place her on the bed while she consumed his blood.
Fresh hunger surged through her as she recalled the delicious taste of it. Once, as a child, she’d gone to a fair and eaten cotton candy and fried dough. It was the first and only times she’d ever had either, but she still recalled how delicious t
hey’d been. Aiden’s blood was better than both those things combined.
Her stomach rumbled as her gums tingled. Curious, Maggie prodded a canine with her tongue and jerked when it lengthened into a fang. Then, she prodded it again and almost laughed when the fang extended further. She’d never experienced such a thing before, yet somehow, it felt right.
Aiden’s hand rested on her shoulder. Rolling over, she discovered him lying beside her on the bed, his head propped on his hand as he stared at her. Uneasiness etched his face and radiated from his ruby-colored eyes. Against the white of the sheets and bedspread, the black and red hue of his skin was starkly pronounced. The colors had deepened and once more covered his entire body. If she hadn’t woken, if something had gone wrong with her change, the rampage he would have gone on would have made King Kong cower.
“Maggie,” he breathed.
“That’s me,” she murmured and smiled at him.
Rising, she ignored the twinges in her body as she kissed him. She rested her hands on his chest and pushed him back on the bed to straddle his waist. Particles of air caressed her flesh, and she realized her body felt electrified in a way she’d never experienced before.
She’d touched him often since meeting him, yet she felt like this was the first time she’d truly experienced him as her fingers memorized his muscles. The clove scent of his blood was different, sweeter somehow, and she realized it was because of her blood within him. His blood must have altered her scent too.
Her fangs retracted when she bent to lick the salty flesh of his chest. Hardening against her, his shaft brushed her belly and then her breasts while she worked her way down to his stomach. Her tongue dipped into his belly button as his hand ran over her hair.
When she traveled lower, her nipples brushed over his cock before her hand encircled it. She ran her tongue over the head of his shaft as she took him into her mouth. She licked and sucked him as he guided her over him with a hand on the back of her head. A thrill of power went through her when his hips rose and fell in rhythm to her motions.
Releasing him, she made her way back up his body. Grasping his shaft, she guided it inside her and moaned as every cell in her body came alive in a way she’d never experienced. It was as if her cells lacked something before, but now they were full and letting her experience all the things she’d missed.
“Oh,” she breathed when she felt the pulse of blood in Aiden’s cock as she rode him.
Aiden ravenously watched as Maggie’s head fell back and her body arched forward. He’d never seen anything so glorious as her as she ran her hands between her breasts and cried out when she caressed her pert nipples.
“It’s all so….” Her gaze fell on him, and a flash of red ran through her eyes.
Aiden growled with his need to complete their bond and have her drink his blood. Her smile revealed her fangs as she lowered herself toward him. “It’s all so what?” he demanded.
“So right,” she whispered and ran her tongue over his throat.
His fingers tore into the sheets when her fangs scraped his skin. “You have to feed.”
“Will I hurt you?” she inquired.
“No. You’ll know what to do.”
“I hope so.”
When her fangs pierced his skin, Aiden jerked and shredded the sheets in his grasp. He released the tattered remains to clutch the back of her head when he felt his blood leaving his body. It was the first time another vampire had ever fed from him, and it was Maggie.
Wrapping his other arm around her waist, he rolled to pin her beneath him. Her fingers dug into his back when he sank his fangs into her shoulder.
Tears of joy spilled down Maggie’s cheeks as something mystical strengthened between them until it bound them together. Thoughts and emotions tumbled so rapidly through her mind that it took her some time to realize they weren’t just hers, but also Aiden’s. He was a part of her, and she was a part of him.
She clung to him as his blood filled and sated her for the first time in her life. She’d never realized how starved for blood she’d been, until now.
Aiden cradled her head as the pathway between them opened, and her mind mingled with his. Complete. The anger, emptiness, and misery he’d battled receded as the peace Maggie gave him returned. He retracted his fangs as she continued to feed on him, her happiness swelling and growing within him.
Releasing her bite, Maggie grinned when she opened her eyes to meet Aiden’s leaf-green ones. She’d worried she’d never see their beautiful spring hue again, but there it was. The colors were also fading from his flesh as he regained control. He was back, and he was hers.
When she ran her hands over his back, she was so lost in the new sensations, that she didn’t at first realize something was different about him. When she did, she had to touch him a few more times to make sure. “Aiden, your scars; I think they’re gone.”
“That’s because you’ve healed me,” he said as he kissed her again.
CHAPTER 50
“I was preparing to leave my apartment at twelve to meet you that day,” Maggie said as she gazed at the woods fifty feet away from the back patio. The leaf buds on the trees were no bigger than a dot but clearly visible to her. However, she never would have seen them yesterday. She inhaled the warm air redolent with the ripe smell of the frost melting from the dirt. It was the first day that felt like spring as the sun warmed the earth and her.
They’d decided they would have to get dressed and out of bed if they were going to get any talking done today. It had taken almost a day for them to reluctantly separate and dig some clothes out of the closet. Thankfully, though she knew some of the others were still around—she could hear and smell them—they had left the two of them alone.
“Amazing,” she murmured as a breeze stirred the branches. “I can see and hear so much now. There are scents I can’t describe.”
“It will take some getting used to,” Aiden said and placed his hand over hers. “But you’ll get there.”
She smiled as she turned her hand over to squeeze his. The wicker chair she sat in faced his. “I have no doubt.”
“So you were preparing to leave at twelve,” he prompted.
“Oh, yes,” she said as she recalled what they’d been talking about. “Anyway, I was leaving at twelve. I knew I’d be early, but I couldn’t wait anymore.”
“I was already there.”
That didn’t surprise her. “This bond, I feel it now, and it is so strong; how did you ever let me go?”
“Because I love you too much to cage you if you preferred to be free of me. You had to make your own choices and be happy, even if what made you happy wasn’t me.”
“But it is you, it always has been! You knew, when you let me go, there was a possibility you might lose control if I didn’t come back?”
“Yes.”
Maggie believed she’d loved him before, but now her love for him grew stronger. He’d sacrificed himself for her, and she had no doubt he would do it again.
“Ethan told me a mate cannot live without the other.”
“True,” he said. “Which is another reason I let you go. If I wasn’t what you wanted, I wasn’t going to force you to tie your existence to me.”
“You are what I want, you always have been. I needed time to figure that out because I was afraid of losing everything I’ve worked for. I grew up with nothing, Aiden, to risk it all terrified me.”
“I know, but I promise you, Maggie, I will give you a future filled with love and security.”
“I believe you,” she said. “That’s why I was planning to go to the hotel. I was about to walk out the door when my boss, Pablo, called me.”
Maggie turned her head away from him, and he felt her sorrow through their bond.
“Did Pablo make you go to work that day?” he asked.
“No.” She took a deep breath and turned to face him. “Roger had a stroke. He was in the hospital. I tried to call you as I was running down the stairs to the T, but some
one bumped me and I dropped my phone. It broke.”
Aiden went completely still as tears shimmered in her eyes. A sick feeling formed in the pit of his stomach while he watched her.
“I meant to call you a couple of times from the hospital, but I kept getting distracted. Then, the doctor came out to tell us that Roger didn’t survive.”
He knew how much Roger had meant to her, how much she cared for the man, and Roger for her. She’d had so few people she loved in her life and who loved her. She’d lost another, and he hadn’t been there for her when he should have been. “Maggie, I’m so sorry.”
She pulled her hand away from his to wipe the tears from her face. “I called you from outside the hospital and left a voice mail, but you never picked up, and you never called back.”
Aiden closed his eyes as the sick feeling grew to become a tsunami of self-loathing. “I broke my phone,” he admitted.
“Ethan told me. He also told me you saw me hug someone, that was Pablo. He gave me a ride home from the hospital. He hugged me because he’s my friend, he was Roger’s friend, and—”
“Don’t,” Aiden said and reclaimed her hand. “Pablo is your friend. I understand. I couldn’t understand it that day because I’d already slipped too far away to think about anything reasonably.”
“You should have told me what became of a mated vampire without their mate.”
“No, I shouldn’t have. You had to return to me because it was what you wanted and not because you felt guilted into it.”
Maggie sighed, she wanted to argue with him further about it, but he was right. She’d needed the time to work through her life and how she felt for him. If he’d told her, she would have resented feeling pressured.
“Thank you for that,” she murmured and kissed him briefly. If she kissed him for any longer than a second or two, they would end up back in bed. No matter how tempting that was, they had to sort all this out.
“Once I felt emotionally stable enough to leave my place, I went to the hotel,” she said. “The bartender told me you’d left, but I sat and waited, hoping you’d come back. When you didn’t, I went home and waited for you to come, but you never did.”
Ravaged (Vampire Awakenings, Book 7) Page 31
