Ravaged (Vampire Awakenings, Book 7) Read online

  The man’s whimpers pierced through her indecision. She helped others; she didn’t run from them, even if they were some kind of twisted freak on super speed. She went to grab the man’s wrist when metal snapped and a hand seized hers. Her patient’s leaf-colored eyes flickered with red when she met his gaze. Terror crept through her as she realized he’d broken the handcuffs.

  “What are you?” she breathed as something else hit the stretcher, shoving him toward her and knocking him off the man beneath him. Her nose wrinkled when the faint stench of garbage grew stronger on the air.

  Aiden didn’t answer her as the stench of rotting vampire filled his nose. There were more Savages out there, probably the rest of the ones who attacked him, Aiden realized. The one whose back he’d snapped was yanked away as his brethren pulled him to safety. Aiden glanced between his legs to see the Savage he’d battered against the ceiling crawling out the back of the vehicle.

  Roger shouted something, and jagged lines fissured across the windshield. Leaning over, Roger grasped the small fire extinguisher and yanked it free. His eyes met Aiden’s and widened before he spun around. He smashed the butt of the extinguisher against the hand shoving its way through the glass.

  A current of air brushed against his spine, but Aiden felt his veins and muscles knitting together to repair the damage. He was healing fast, but he was nowhere near strong enough to take these things on right now. Not without blood.

  His gaze fell on Maggie’s neck and the pulse beating through the vein there. His fangs tingled; his mouth watered. Even if he hadn’t been weakened, he’d still crave her blood as the scent of it was more alluring than anything he’d encountered before, but now he needed it if they were to have any chance of surviving this.

  “I’m sorry,” he murmured.

  “For what?” she demanded.

  Maggie didn’t have time to move before his hand wrapped around the back of her head and he drew her toward him. She placed her palms against his chest to shove him away, but she’d have better luck moving a mountain as he didn’t budge.

  “It’s the only way I can save you.” His warm breath tickled her ear. “Forgive me.”

  Then, he was sinking his teeth—no, his fangs into her throat.

  CHAPTER 9

  She went completely still against him when those fangs pierced her. She felt them slip inside her vein to draw her blood, but she remained immobile as disbelief caused her mind to spin.

  What is going on? How is this possible? What? How? What?

  My mother’s not crazy!

  She almost sobbed aloud as that realization hit her, but sobbing would require action, and she couldn’t move. He pulled her blood from her in gulps that should have terrified her. Instead, her body went limp as pleasure slid out from where he’d pierced to wind through her body. An indescribable feeling of rightness crept through her bloodstream with every beat of her heart.

  She’d placed her hands on him to push him away, yet she found her fingers curling into the solid wall of his chest to draw him closer. His other hand snaked around her waist as he pulled her flush against him. Instead of terror, her body reacted with lust as her breasts felt heavier and her hips thrust toward him.

  He growled against her throat, the sensual, possessive sound arousing her more. This man was sucking the blood out of her body, he may kill her, and she was acting like a horny teenager in the back seat of their parents’ car.

  She wanted to smack herself for it, but she also desired more. Never had she experienced something as wondrous and right as this. Maybe she’d hit her head harder than she’d believed against the side of the ambulance, but something within her recognized this man was the piece of her life she hadn’t known was missing. Without understanding it, she welcomed it.

  The second her blood hit his tongue, a sense of calm slid through Aiden. It was a calm he hadn’t experienced in two years, not since he’d stopped aging at twenty-three, and he’d never expected to feel it again. He’d believed dying was the only way he’d find freedom from his twisted compulsions again.

  No, he was wrong, he realized as her sweet blood filled his mouth and slid down his throat. He’d never experienced a tranquility like this before. Even when he’d been younger, there was a restless emptiness within him that had driven him to constantly go from one sport to another, one party to another, one girl to another.

  For the first time in his life, he didn’t want to go anywhere. He’d found what he’d always been searching for, found where he belonged. The overwhelming sensation of finally being able to inhale a full, easy breath caused his throat to burn as he latched his arm around Maggie’s waist and drew her closer. He’d consumed copious amounts of blood over the years, but none of it had ever strengthened him the way hers did, and it was the most potent he’d ever tasted from a human.

  His muscles closed over his spine at a faster rate. His veins reconnected until fresh blood flowed through them once more. Maggie’s fingers dug into his chest as her body melded to his and her breasts rubbed against him. When he scented her arousal, he resisted the impulse to lay her down and take her.

  Without intending for it to happen, his mind started probing against hers so he could learn what she was feeling too. He reeled it back before he could open that channel. If he got lost in her mind now, they would both die tonight.

  Must keep her safe! The reminder blazed across his mind as she went limp in his embrace. Taking too much!

  His fangs retracted before he could weaken her. She remained leaning against him, her sweet scent stronger. He licked away the trickle of blood seeping from the punctures he’d left on her, but he didn’t close the bite. Lifting his head, he gazed into the dumbfounded, charcoal-colored eyes of his mate as she stared back at him from under a thick fringe of dark red eyelashes.

  My mate.

  He didn’t try to deny what she was to him. From the second her blood hit his tongue, he knew she belonged to him. She could save him from his looming madness if he could save her tonight.

  “I’ll keep you safe,” he vowed. And with me.

  Maggie blinked at him as she came out of whatever stupor he’d put her under. Her hand flew to the punctures he’d inflicted on her throat.

  What are you? She almost blurted the question again, but it seemed pointless.

  A burst of white filled the cab of the ambulance before the cloud floated into the back. Maggie coughed and recoiled as the contents of the fire extinguisher filled the air. She tried to stagger to her feet, but a hand enveloped her wrist and pulled her down. Green eyes filled her vision before his body fell on top of hers. The stretcher crashed forward, half falling on top of them both.

  Aiden’s thigh spread her legs apart as he pinned her beneath him. Something flew over the top of the stretcher, and Aiden lunged forward. He captured the Savage’s ankle and jerked the vamp down before he could make it to the front of the ambulance.

  “Don’t look!” he yelled at Maggie as he twisted the Savage’s head until it turned 180 degrees around.

  Roger’s shout drew Maggie’s attention to the front as something leapt through the broken windshield at him.

  “Roger!” she yelled and shoved against the man on top of her. “Let me up!”

  Maggie wiggled to try to get free when the man didn’t move off her. Instead, he dragged the thrashing monster toward them. Without a doubt, that creature should be dead as no one’s neck was designed to turn that far, but apparently, these things and the guy on top of her had all forgotten how to die.

  “I have to help Roger! Get off!” she shouted as her patient tore the head off the monster.

  Not the strangest thing tonight, she thought with a laugh bordering on hysterical when her patient tossed the head aside.

  “Get off!” Lifting her left leg, she hammered her knee into his nuts. All her training and compassion had vanished. Now, all that mattered was making sure she and Roger survived this night.

  Aiden’s breath rushed out of him; he recoiled
as pain speared through his groin. Maggie shoved angrily against his chest, and her hand balled into a fist. He recalled redheaded women were supposed to have a temper before she landed a solid punch to his cheek. The force of the blow startled him and swayed him to the side. His sisters could pack a punch, but this was a human woman.

  Before he could recover, Maggie clasped both her hands together and bashed them against his cheek. It didn’t matter he’d said he would keep her safe, didn’t matter she was impossibly attracted to this man, creature, thing—vampire who had taken her blood! He was keeping her from Roger.

  She drove upward with her knee again and elbowed him in the cheek. Finally, she’d knocked him loose enough that she wiggled her way out from under him and scrambled toward the cab in a crouch. The stretcher mostly blocked the back doors of the ambulance, but something else was coming over the top of it.

  She spun toward the newest creature when it scrambled toward her, but before it could hit her, her patient surged to his feet. Bone crunched, blood sprayed from the monster’s mouth as the man sank his hand into the creature’s back.

  “Holy shit,” she murmured as he tore the thing’s heart free. She suddenly understood more of what had happened in the alley as her patient dropped the mangled heart on the floor.

  Maggie didn’t stick around to see any more of the carnage. She turned and threw herself into the front passenger seat. One of the vampires was perched on Roger’s chest; its mouth pressed to Roger’s neck. The extinguisher fell from Roger’s limp fingers, clattering against the floor as it rolled toward the back.

  Roger’s eyes spun toward her. “Run!” he gasped.

  Maggie hadn’t tried to run when four girls jumped her in high school for wearing the same shirt as one of them, and she wasn’t about to run now. Then, she’d been unprepared, but she hadn’t spent her life in foster and group homes without learning how to fight dirty. She’d made those girls regret their decision, and she would do the same with this thing.

  Turning to the back of the ambulance, she barely glanced at her patient as he fought with another one of the monsters. She snatched up the fire extinguisher and spun back to Roger. Roger’s eyes were drifting closed when she smashed the extinguisher into the vampire’s face.

  The vamp’s cheek gave way with a sickening crunch. It yelped as it released its hold on Roger. “No!” she cried when Roger slumped against the steering wheel and stayed there.

  When the vampire twisted toward her, she pulled back the extinguisher and hammered it into his face. Her hands went numb from the blow, but she managed to keep her hold on the handle. The vampire’s lips peeled back to reveal its reddened teeth. Blood streaked from its broken nose and the gash she’d left on its cheek.

  It lunged at her, knocking her back in the seat. Swinging the extinguisher up, she bashed the side of the monster’s face again and kicked out. The vampire fell back and onto Roger as the glass behind her shattered. Fingers entangled in her hair; pain exploded through her scalp when her head was yanked back.

  She tried to swing the extinguisher behind her to batter her new attacker, but it caught the top of the window and toppled from her hands. She reached behind her to beat at the hands twisting in her hair, but the monster didn’t ease its hold on her. She was beginning to worry her neck would break when red eyes filled her vision and fangs punctured her shoulder. The pain of the vamp pulling her blood from her ripped a scream from her.

  Her patient’s bite had brought her rapture; this bite caused an agony the likes of which she’d never known could exist. She tried to kick out, but a strange sort of rigor mortis had set in as her limbs became rigid. Stars burst before her eyes, and it felt as if the blood vessels in her brain were swelling and exploding.

  Not like this! Her mind screamed at her. I will not die like this!

  A roaring noise filled her ears; then something warm splattered her face. The bite retracted, leaving her limp as she struggled to get air into her constricted lungs.

  When her eyes cracked open, she discovered her patient looming over her, his broad shoulders heaving. His elongated fangs had sliced into his bottom lip, and she swore his skin held a reddish black hue to it.

  Impossible!

  Yeah because the rest of this night has been entirely possible. She released a laugh that sounded more like a cackle.

  I’m going insane. It runs in the family!

  She laughed again and tried to roll away from the window, but she barely twisted to the side before falling back and crying out.

  CHAPTER 10

  “You’re safe,” he murmured to her.

  Aiden steadied himself as rage continued to thrum through his body. He’d caved in the face of the vampire feeding from her with one swipe of his hand, but he hadn’t killed him. It took everything he had not to leap out the window and finish him, but he couldn’t leave her unprotected. When he found the asshole who’d done this to her, he’d flay the skin from the Savage one slow centimeter at a time.

  “I’ve got you,” Aiden told Maggie as her gray eyes rolled toward him.

  Unable to resist him, Maggie fell against his chest as he eased her into his arms. Flashing red and blue strobes filled the cab when he lifted her. Figures scurried into the shadows as brakes squealed. Some of those figures had bodies draped over their shoulders, and she realized the vamps were carting away their wounded and dead.

  She had enough reason left to understand the monsters weren’t removing the bodies for nostalgic reasons, but because they were covering their tracks. No one was supposed to know vampires existed, not for sure, but she did.

  She’d stumbled into a massive pile of crap here.

  Aiden watched the Savages slip away. Two of them carried the bodies of the two he’d killed in the ambulance. The third limped badly as he ran, and Aiden guessed it was the Savage whose back he’d broken. He knew he’d killed at least two in the alley, so where were the other three?

  “Roger,” Maggie whispered.

  Aiden turned toward Roger sitting in the driver’s seat. Despite his blood loss and the erratic beat of his heart, Roger’s brown eyes locked on them, and Aiden could see the anger shimmering in them.

  “Let her go,” Roger croaked.

  That was not going to happen. Taking the man’s chin, Aiden knelt before him and focused all his concentration on those eyes as he wove his way into Roger’s mind.

  “You have no idea what happened here tonight. You remember nothing of the alley or anything afterward.” Aiden glanced at the windshield, as outside doors slammed and shouts filled the air. He had to get them out of here. “You do not know what became of Maggie,” he continued. “You do not know anything, understand?”

  Roger gave the smallest of nods. Aiden released his chin and glanced at Roger’s torn neck. The Savage had ripped his throat open enough to hide all evidence of what had happened to him. Turning, glass crunched under his feet as Aiden slipped into the back of the ambulance.

  He lifted the stretcher and tossed it out of his way. Blood from the two Savages he’d killed coated the floor, but their bodies were gone. The Savages may be assholes, but they also didn’t want the human race to know of their existence. It could spell the death of all vampires if people ever learned the truth. Vampires were stronger and immortal, but they were also greatly outnumbered by a species known to distrust and fear anything different than them.

  There was nothing he could do about the blood or the destruction wrought here, but he knew humans had a way of explaining away the unexplainable. He had to trust in them to do that here.

  “Someone’s in the back!” a woman shouted from outside.

  Footsteps raced toward them as Aiden leapt out of the ambulance and fled into the night with Maggie cradled against his chest.

  • • •

  When he was certain they were far enough away from the ambulance, and he didn’t smell any Savages pursuing them, Aiden risked stopping. Slipping into an unlit side street between two warehouses, he leaned back to
gaze down at Maggie. He brushed aside the loose strands of hair clinging to her face. Soft as silk, her hair shone red in the glow of the distant street lamps.

  She’s mine.

  He almost laughed out loud with the knowledge. He’d been so certain he’d never find his mate, that he would die or turn Savage before he encountered her, but now he held her in his arms. And she was amazing.

  Not only was she beautiful, but she had the spirit of a hellion, one that more than matched his own. She could pack a punch, didn’t back down, and her blood was pure ambrosia. She may be as lovely as the porcelain dolls his sisters had collected, but she was far from delicate; his still aching nuts were proof of that.

  She was his, and he had no idea what to do to get her to stay with him. Right now, all that mattered was keeping her safe. Glancing over his shoulder, he studied the shifting shadows, but he didn’t detect the stench of garbage.

  His gaze returned to Maggie as her fluttering eyelids caused her lashes to tickle his bare chest. He’d stopped the Savage before it could take much blood from her. However, he’d heard it was excruciating for someone to have their blood taken from them against their will, and judging by the rigidness of Maggie’s body when he’d discovered the Savage feeding on her, she’d been in a lot of pain.

  She hadn’t responded to him like that when he’d taken her blood. No, she’d melted against him as if she enjoyed it as much as him. To her, there had been a difference between him and the Savage. He didn’t know what that meant, but he hoped it indicated she might develop an attachment to him in the future.

  Studying her, he noted the paler shade of her skin and the fine blue veins running through her closed eyelids. Her heart still beat steadily. The bleeding from his marks had stopped, but the Savage had torn her shoulder open, and blood continued to trickle from the wound.