Something else the damn vampire would have to answer for. The wounds on his sister’s neck had healed quickly, but the fucking vamp had left a hickey.

Leo knew from his brother’s description that the Malmaynes had kept him on a plush property just outside the Omaha city limits. Apparently, they’d bought the property some time in the nineties and built a house with over twelve thousand square feet of living space on around twenty acres, most of which was heavily wooded. The only areas not wooded were the pool area and the formal garden the Malmaynes had insisted be put in and maintained.

Shane had also said the house, while structurally quite beautiful, lacked a soul.

Leo pulled the Navigator to the side of the road about a mile from the Malmayne’s mansion. Getting out, he grabbed his flashlight and Shane’s tire iron. Jogging into the night, he counted on his own magic to get him in the front door.

If even one hair on Ruby’s head was hurt, the vampire wouldn’t be the only one Leo went after with the tire iron. 

Ruby opened her eyes to a white, sterile room. She tried to lift her head, but found she couldn’t. It felt like it weighed a ton. She could barely turn her head, but when she succeeded the wave of dizziness and nausea made her glad she hadn’t been able to lift it. She stared at the large mirror that graced one wall and barely restrained the urge to roll her eyes.

“I’ve either been abducted by aliens or the Feds.” Her speech was slurred. She vaguely remembered swallowing a pill a handsome, dark-haired man handed to her, but everything else was a blank.

A male voice chuckled softly from behind her. “How are you feeling?”

“Dizzy, weak, pissed off. You?”

The voice chuckled again, and then replied, “Fine, thanks.”

“Oh. Glad to hear it. Not.”

The vampire sighed and stepped into view. “I don’t have a great deal of time, so listen well, Ruby.

Kaitlynn’s insane.”

“Oh. Really?” Ruby licked her lips. It tasted like something had crawled into her mouth and died there some time ago. “Didn’t notice.”

“Hard to miss, actually. I’m going to drug you again.”

Ruby couldn’t quite hide her wince. “Why?”

“She can’t get inside your head if you’re drugged out of it.”

She thought about that briefly, about what an insane Sidhe could force her to do in her own mind. Her little dance with Cullen backed up the vampire’s words. “Drugs are good.”

The vampire smiled. “Thought you’d see it my way. Open wide, sweetheart.”

Ruby opened her mouth and allowed him to place the pill on her tongue. When he gave her a drink of water to swallow it down, she nearly choked.

“Careful.”

“Why are you helping me now?”

The vampire threw a quick glance at the door, and then leaned down over her body. With a start she realized that he really was incredibly handsome, something she hadn’t had a chance to notice before.

“Kaitlynn is a bitch. I work for Duncan, but he’s gone missing. Kaitlynn decided to appropriate my services in her brother’s absence, and holds something over my head to force my compliance. However, I don’t like what she’s doing here, so I’m going to do my best to stop her at every turn without getting myself killed in the process. Simple enough?”

“Did you help Shane escape?”

He nodded happily. “I knew you were a smart girl.”

Ruby blinked sleepily and yawned, her head beginning to spin. “Did you hurt Moira?”

His cheerful façade dropped away immediately. In its place was a ruthless predator. “The only people who are completely safe from me are Duncan Malmayne and Moira Dunne.”

“Kaitlynn might hurt her, to get to Leo.” Her speech was barely human. The medication began to take effect, making it nearly impossible to keep her eyes open.

Red flames danced in his eyes. “No. She won’t. I’ll kill her first.” Ruby felt a cool hand smooth her hair down as she drifted into unconsciousness. The last thing she heard was the vampire’s departure as he left the cell she lay in.

 Jaden stood outside Ruby’s cell, watching her sleep. Duncan hadn’t contacted him yet; soon, he’d have no choice but to remove Kaitlynn permanently. He couldn’t risk Moira’s life, or Ruby’s, on the whim of the madwoman his bond-brother called sister.

Ruby slept peacefully, her heart rate normal, her blood flowing smoothly through her veins. Moira lay awake somewhere in her house, scared for her sister-in-law and…brother? Ah, Leo is on his way.

Surprise, surprise. He wondered how close the Sidhe was to the Malmayne estate. He did his best to send his feisty little blonde reassurances, but until he deepened the bond between them fleeting impressions was all he could send her.

He did his best to convey that Ruby slept peacefully. Unfortunately, not knowing where Leo was, he couldn’t help her there.

It was with real pleasure he felt his little leprechaun relax a little.

For that small amount of implied trust, he would ensure Ruby’s life with his own. For the first time in over a century, someone other than Duncan had a hold on his cynical heart.

Kaitlynn stepped into the room and he watched out of the corner of his eye, curious to see her reaction. She glided over to the one-way glass, her eyes glued to the sleeping figure of Ruby Dunne.

“When will she wake up?”

The sick anticipation in her voice made him shudder. “I don’t know.”

Kaitlynn took a step closer to the glass. “How much did you give her?”

“Only the one.”

Her eyes narrowed, her lips pouted, and in that moment her smooth loveliness turned hard and ugly.

“Wake her.”

Jaden turned to her, one brow lifted in disbelief. “And how would you like me to accomplish that, your highness? Intravenous caffeine?”

Her lips turned up sweetly, but did nothing to dispel the frost in her eyes. “You know, Jaden? Perhaps your usefulness is at an end.”

If he hadn’t been expecting treachery of some kind the rowan stake might have found its mark. Jaden screamed as the stake entered his back, the pain nearly crippling him. He fell to the floor, slowing his heart rate, nearly stopping his breathing as Kaitlynn laughed in delight.

Jaden closed his eyes and lost his hold on consciousness.

On the Dunne farm, Moira sat up from her bed, screaming in horror. Her back bore an ugly, bloody wound, and none of the family could figure out how it got there.

On a private runway just outside Omaha, a blond man with steel gray eyes gasped, his hand going to his back. When he pulled his hand away, it was covered in blood.

Those steel gray eyes glittered like twin stars as the man dashed towards the car waiting for him at the end of the runway.

“Home. Now. Hurry.”

Duncan Malmayne stared out the car window as his driver took off at top speed, his eyes haunted and full of regret as he heard Jaden’s brief mental scream.

“Jaden. Damn you, Kaitlynn.”

Leo knew the moment he stepped onto Malmayne land. Something in it cried out to him, the sound of earth that had been forced to absorb pain, degradation, even murder. The call was faint to his senses, but he knew any full-blooded earth sprite would avoid this place like the plague.

Leo clenched his hands, feeling savagely angry. He had no idea where on the estate Ruby was, but there was one way to find out.

He reached deep down inside himself, to the green pool of peace and tranquility that made up his leprechaun half. Using that energy, Leo extended his essence around the Malmayne property, defining what was his to his leprechaun senses. Cautious, he hoped that the earth would accept him.

His father had told him if the earth did take him in it would be the most incredible experience of his life. If it didn’t, it would be the most incredibly painful.

He felt a tentative caress, the questioning tendrils entering his mind, finding every nook and cranny, every memory, every experience he’d ever had. It lingered over things that confused him (getting drunk on spiked punch on New Year’s when he’d been twelve, throwing up in the bushes) and completely ignored others (most of the women he’d dated didn’t even rate a glance). It watched his memories of his family like video clips, fast forwarding then stopping to watch a clip that particularly interested it. It loved images of his father, lingered like a caress over his mother, and especially loved anything to do with Moira. It skipped a number of Shane memories, possibly because it already knew Shane.