“Where the hell did you get holy water?” Duncan asked.
“Well, I was clutching my bottle of water to my chest. I carry one with me so I don’t get dehydrated. The doctor said I need to stay hydrated. And I got lost, like I told you, and I started praying somebody would find me, and since I was holding the water, I guess the praying must have blessed it. Or it might have been the cat.”
“The cat blessed the water?” Duncan asked, scratching his head.
“No. Killed the man. When he hissed at me, the cat hissed back and jumped at him.”
Cody caught Ronan and Duncan’s worried gazes.
“Then I threw my water bottle at him.” Matilda held her heart. “I think I might faint.”
“Come on, Matilda,” Duncan said. “I’ll take you up. Ronan and Cody will check it out. I’m sure it was just a shadow.”
“I’ve never seen a shadow with red eyes.”
“It couldn’t be,” Ronan said, his voice somber, as Duncan led Matilda away. “Maybe she’s insane.”
“She’s not normal, but she’s as sharp as your sword.”
“What the hell did she see, then?”
Cody aimed his light along the walls. “Damn.”
“What is it?” Ronan joined him, his gaze on the beam of light on the floor. A bottle of water lay in a pile of dust.
Cody felt the blood rush from his head. A vampire. “They got inside. They know she’s here.”
Ronan looked as if he’d turned to stone. “Alert the guards. I’ll look down here.”
Cody whirled and ran back to the castle. He opened the hidden door and burst into the library, where half the house had gathered around Matilda.
“…and it hissed with these big red eyes, and the cat flew out of my hands… where’s the cat?” she asked, looking around.
“Did you actually see this… man?” Duncan asked.
“Well, no. It was shadowed, but when the cat leaped at the man, I heard this terrible screeching sound. I figured it was the holy water melting him.”
Nina entered the library. “What have you done now, Matilda?” she asked, staring at her cousin’s cobwebbed hair.
“I killed a man,” Matilda said.
“You just saw a shadow,” Cody said, motioning for the warriors to join him.
“Of course it was a shadow,” Nina said, “just like the one you saw back at the house. We’ll make an appointment and have your eyes checked as soon as we get home.”
“She saw shadows at home?” Lachlan asked, making a rare appearance. Since Matilda’s arrival, he usually slept in one of the cottages and guarded the woods.
“Out behind the house. Let’s get you to bed, Matilda.” Nina took her cousin’s arm and led her from the room. “You’ve got to stop exploring, or they’re going to throw us out. Oh, has anyone seen Shay?”
“She’s asleep,” Cody said.
“I just stopped by her room,” Nina said. “She’s not there, and her room is cold. Someone left the window open.”
Cody broke into a run, feet pounding down the corridor. He heard the others behind him, but he didn’t stop. He burst through Shay’s door. The room was empty, balcony curtains swaying in the wind. He hurried outside. She wasn’t there, but a ladder rested against the ledge of the balcony. His heart lurched. He scanned the grounds and saw something white moving toward the woods. A dark shadow stood just inside the tree line.
“No!” Cody leapt from the balcony, springing into a run when his feet touched the ground. He sprinted across the castle grounds. “Stop!” he yelled as Shay moved closer to the trees. “Shay! Stop!”
He saw a blur of white dart between Shay and the shadow, and the shadow jumped back. Cody ran faster. When he reached her, Shay stood staring into the woods, her body stiff, face unresponsive, like the night on the balcony. The shadow was gone. “Shay?” Cody touched her, but she didn’t move. She looked as if she’d been drugged. Half a dozen warriors ran up behind Cody. “Where the hell are the guards?” Cody asked.
“There’s one,” Ronan said, running to kneel by the prone form several feet away. “He’s unconscious.”
“Same here,” Shane called, on the other side.
“I see another one farther down,” Niall said.
“This one’s coming ’round,” Ronan said.
The young warrior jumped to his feet and drew his sword. Ronan fell back, narrowly avoiding losing an ear. The warrior’s gaze darted wildly. “What happened?” He blinked at Shay. “Where’d she come from?”
“It’s okay,” Ronan told the guard. “Something knocked you out.” Ronan looked at Cody. “I’m going after it.”
“You can’t go alone,” Cody said, but Ronan was already gone. “Niall, go after him before he gets himself killed.”
Niall took off after Ronan, lithe as a panther, for all his bulky size.
Cody kept a hand on Shay, who looked like she might collapse. “Lachlan, get every warrior we have out here.
