He headed to the kitchen and met Duncan. “Anybody seen Matilda? She’s missing again.”

Coira stopped wiping the kitchen table. “Bloody hell.” She slapped her hand over her mouth and then frantically crossed herself.

“It’s all right, Coira. Matilda could make a saint curse.” Cody sighed. “Nina hasn’t seen her?”

“She’s the one who alerted us.”

“She’s probably out terrorizing the guards,” Ronan said. “She asked one of them if this was some kind of gigolo operation.”

Cody grimaced. “We’ve got to get her out of here before she destroys thousands of years of secrecy.”

“I saw her headed toward the library earlier,” Coira said. “Her and that giant cat.”

“The library? Damn it. The secret passages.” Cody hurried down the hall with Duncan and Ronan behind him. The hidden door stood open.

“Blimey,” Duncan said. “Might as well start offering tours.”

Cody stuck his head inside. “Matilda? I hear something,” he said to the others. “Anybody got a flashlight?”

“Here.” Ronan pulled one from his sporran and turned it on. The three men entered the stone passage, following the narrow beam of light.

“That way,” Cody said. “Matilda?”

They heard running, and a second later, Matilda flew into Cody’s arms. “Oh, thank heaven.” Her hair stood on end, covered by cobwebs. Red lipstick was smeared across her cheek. “I got lost. I couldn’t figure out which way I came in. I don’t know what to do. I think I killed a man.”

“You killed a man down here?” Ronan asked, glancing at the others.

“Over there, around that corner. But I don’t think he was a man. I saw this shadow and thought it was one of you. I called out, and he leapt at me. He hissed. I’ve never heard a man hiss.”

“You sure it wasn’t the cat?” Duncan asked.

“No, I was holding the cat, only because it was dark, and my flashlight was dying,” she said, defensively.

Cody moved toward the corner where Matilda pointed. “Nothing here.”

“How did you kill him?” Ronan asked, eyeing Matilda doubtfully.

“Holy water.”

“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. Barricade this place. Someone check the secret passages and the tunnel.”

Shay shook her head, looking around as wild-eyed as the guard. “Cody? What are you doing? Where are we?” She looked confused. “Where is… he?”

“Who?” Cody asked.

She looked toward the woods. “I don’t know,” she said, and her body slumped into a faint. Cody caught her, swinging her up into his arms. He ran with her toward the castle, shouting out to the warriors swarming the place.

Coira was waiting in the infirmary, readying her medical supplies. “Put her here,” Coira said.

Cody placed Shay on the bed and stood back as Coira checked Shay’s pulse. “She seemed fine an hour ago.” What the hell was happening?

“Pulse is slow. What’s this?” Coira asked, looking at the red scratch on Shay’s pale skin. It looked even angrier.

“She said she scratched it. I was going to get you to look at it.” He leaned down and sniffed. It didn’t smell sulfurous, like a demon scratch, but it probably wouldn’t, since it was several days old. “Is it infected?”

“I don’t think so, just inflamed. Her pupils are normal,” she said, shining a light into Shay’s eyes. “That’s good.” The blood pressure cuff beeped. “Blood pressure is low.”

“Maybe we should take her to the hospital,” Cody said. They tried to avoid hospitals if possible. It opened the door to too many questions they didn’t want to answer.

“I think she’ll be okay. Let’s let her rest for a bit. What was that out there, Cody?”

“All I saw was a shadow with black hair.”

“You think it was the same thing that attacked Jamie?”

“I don’t know.” Jamie hadn’t been able to remember much about the attack. “Why didn’t he hurt Shay? He just stood there, like he was waiting for her.”

“This is unnerving. Those things getting inside the castle wall, even inside the secret passages. I’m starting to wonder if Angus was right about the traitor.”

She wasn’t the only one wondering it. The castle had two lines of guards around the perimeter. How had this—whatever it was—found the place and gotten through?

“Go find it, Cody,” Coira said fiercely. “Before this thing finds Shay.”

Cody bent and pressed a lingering kiss to Shay’s forehead, and stood, his face set tight, prepared for the hunt. He knew what had to be done. He would destroy Malek, at least weaken him, even if it meant his own death. But there was one place he needed to stop first.

***

“Malek? Hell, are you sure?” Cody asked.

“My memory was cloudy before, but now I’m positive,” Jamie said, his face gray. “How did he find her?”

“He must have followed us from the airport or from Shay’s house. I suspect the fire was a trap to draw Shay into the open, but if someone followed us, he was invisible. We had another breach earlier. Someone tried to lure Shay outside, but it wasn’t Malek. This guy had black hair.”

Jamie threw back his covers. “Is she okay? What happened?”