When it hit Ruby, it drew back for a moment, and Leo feared he would be rejected. He felt the earth begin to watch as he purposely began playing his memories, from his first scent of vanilla and peaches, wandering the office to find that elusive scent, to finally meeting her. Those memories drew the earth in as he replayed tasting her. How she barely argued over being essentially kidnapped, all because he needed her to be with him. How she’d been curious, and cautious, but not once had she rejected him on any level, and how he cherished her for that. He knew the earth felt their love.

When the earth took back over, Leo eased off. It replayed his memories of how Ruby had been hurt by Cullen, and he felt its anger.

With a start, Leo realized he was starting to feel what the earth felt. Blood and pain were a distant nausea; he knew the vampire was down. Somehow, he also knew the vampire ( “Jaden” , the earth whispered with affection and regret) had tried his damnedest to help both Ruby and Shane. He saw how Jaden had been partially responsible for Shane’s getaway, and felt some remorse for the violent feelings he’d harbored towards the vampire. Like his own private movie show, he saw in fast forward everything Jaden had done, first to help Shane, then to help Ruby, and how the vampire had nearly paid with his life.

With a grin, Leo felt the bond of the leprechaun and his land snap into place like a lover’s first caress, shocking, intimate, and incredibly pleasurable.

He knew where everyone on his land was. What everyone on his land was. He knew Jaden was close to death. He knew Kaitlynn was staring at…

Ruby! He could feel the heavy, drugged sleep his bonded slept under, could feel Kaitlynn’s rage when they couldn’t rouse her. Felt her kick the downed vampire, and knew somehow that Ruby’s drugged state had been no part of Kaitlynn’s plan for her.

Fine, the vampire lives. Leo used the earth to amplify his Sidhe powers, cloaking his presence from all prying eyes. He began cautiously making his way towards the house. Not being fully leprechaun, he couldn’t move with the preternatural speed his father could. However, there were other things being part Sidhe provided. Since he knew where each and every person on the estate was, it was child’s play to cloak their minds. Any sounds he made were automatically assumed to be something natural to whatever part of the estate they were on. With the very earth itself lending him its power, he found he could tamper with the senses of everyone on the estate, even Kaitlynn, without them feeling it.

He stopped abruptly as a new sense filtered in. The pain and death he’d felt hadn’t been Jaden. Jaden was still alive, down below the house.

The death had been Cullen’s. His body was buried on the estate, in the formal gardens he’d loved so much. Kaitlynn had poisoned him.

He felt someone new step onto the property.

“Duncan.” He could see the older man through the earth, sensed his deep well of power, and knew his rage and grief as if it were his own. Changing his plans, Leo moved to intercept him.

“Malmayne,” he whispered in the other man’s ear from ten feet away.

The blond man stopped, his expression wary. “Dunne.”

“You can’t stop me, Malmayne.”

“My sister took your wife, Dunne, and nearly killed my bond-brother. I have no intention of stopping you.”

Leo was startled. A Sidhe of Duncan Malmayne’s prominence would never claim to have a vampire as a bond-brother. The vampire must have done something extraordinary to have Duncan claim him as his own. “Jaden lives. The land is sustaining him.”

Duncan’s silver eyes widened in shock before carefully blanking. “You’ve claimed the land.”

Leo noted he didn’t sound surprised. “How else could I find my wife safely?”

Duncan nodded. “I will, of course, deed the property over to you as a wedding present.”

Leo moved in front of Duncan before removing the cloud from the other man’s senses. “Kaitlynn still needs to pay for what was done to my sister, my brother and Ruby.”

“Your sister?” Duncan frowned, showing no surprise at Leo sudden appearance before him.

“The vampire… Jaden fought her, knocked her unconscious and fed from her just before he took my mate.”

“Ah.” Duncan sighed his understanding. “Your sister is fine. If Jaden truly wished to hurt her, she would have died the moment she touched him. If he allowed her to fight him it was because he was protecting her as best he could.”

Leo raised a brow. “He has a strange way of protecting her.”

“And if your mate had gotten away from him he could have claimed it was because of the fight.”

“A lie without lying?” Duncan nodded, confirming Leo’s thought. “He’s kept Ruby drugged so that Kaitlynn can’t mess with her mind.”

“I’m not surprised. Despite evidence to the contrary Jaden is a good man.” Duncan looked towards the mansion. “Kaitlynn must know we’re here by now. We would be on the security cameras.”

Leo held up his hand as Duncan started to move towards the house. “I have the senses of every person on this estate clouded except yours, Jaden’s and Ruby’s. No one knows we’re here.”

Duncan stared towards the house, a scowl on his face. “I need to find my father. I need to know why he allowed things to go this far.”

Leo sighed. “Your father is no longer alive.”

Duncan turned back to him, his eyes icily blank. “Excuse me?”

Leo could no longer see Duncan as the earth fed him information rapidly. “Kaitlynn did something to his after-dinner brandy. Curare, I think, but the earth isn’t sure since it didn’t come from here.” Leo shuddered. Kaitlynn had buried her father before he was completely dead. “She buried him in the formal gardens. The earth still screams of his pain.”

The rage and grief coming off Duncan Malmayne increased tenfold. Leo could feel the man’s power radiating off him. Silver sparks danced in the air around him. In the coldest voice Leo had ever heard Duncan whispered, “Leave Kaitlynn to me.”

“Kaitlynn needs to pay for hurting my mate,” Leo growled, his own eyes glowing green.

Duncan smiled, and Leo tried to hide his shiver at the chill in it. “Jaden will be hungry when he wakes up.”

“Feeding a vampire is hardly fitting punishment for the crimes your sister has committed.”

“I never said she’d survive the feeding.” Duncan’s head tilted, as if listening to something only he could hear. “Jaden is…displeased with my sister.” His expression turned feral. “And he has a very vivid imagination.”

Leo moved silently through the front of the house. The few sounds he did make he was able to muffle in the minds of the guards. Duncan was moving around the back of the house, the other Sidhe having decided to use the kitchen entrance. He’d taken out the guards stationed there before heading to intercept Leo. Whether they were loyal to the Malmaynes in general or Kaitlynn in particular would be sorted out later.

He could feel Ruby beneath him, deep in the earth. She was beginning to wake up. Apparently the stimulants Kaitlynn had ordered administered were beginning to work. He could feel Jaden tensing himself, rousing from the half sleep that had kept his heartbeat slow. If Jaden moved to block Kaitlynn, odds were good he wouldn’t survive. The vampire had lost too much blood.

There was another in the room with them, someone the earth found repulsive ( “Jeremy West”, the earth whispered). Another vampire, he was tall, with dark hair and eyes, cold in a way Jaden wasn’t. He ignored most of what Kaitlynn was doing, only smiling when Ruby moaned.

That look on West’s face nearly had Leo losing control. The man’s eyes glowed red, and his teeth had dropped.

“He hungers.”

Leo decided enough was enough. To hell with skulking. It was time to see exactly how well a leprechaun and his land worked together.