Dare to Believe

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.

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