“Is it another snake? Did she get bitten?” Wiley hurriedly looked over her legs. Worry slashed through him as he ran his hands over her limbs. Fuck, he wouldn’t be able to stand something happening to Ruby.
She whimpered again, writhing on the grass, but there didn’t seem to be any blood that he could see. She kept writhing and snarling, but it all too quickly turned to angry growls. Before he could move away, she was on him. Her heavy body pinned him to the ground. She bared her teeth and bit him. The action shocked him more than the flash of pain. In the three weeks he’d been at the plantation, she’d never shown a moment of aggression.
He flailed on the ground and he could hear the shout and panic of the others. Ruby tumbled and rolled away from him, but then she was up again snapping at them, slobber spilling from her mouth.
Baer quickly wrapped his arms around her and held her back, pressing all his weight down on his precious dog to keep her from going after Wiley again.
Wiley looked at his arm to find a deep gash. He quickly put his hand over it.
“What the hell?” Baer held her and she turned her head and bit at him, her growls growing in strength as she missed. “Wiley, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m more worried about her.”
Lucien kneeled on the ground next to Baer to help hold Ruby still.
“Can you reach her mind?” Clay asked over the barks and growls.
“No, it’s blank. Like there’s a wall there. Shit, the witch must have gotten to her.” Baer grimaced and kept his dog from biting him. “I can’t reach her. Dane? Could you try healing her?”
Wiley watched as Dane came up to put his hands on her back as Baer held her head. He closed his eyes and a glow came from his hands, but he just shook his head. “I can’t help her.”
“What do we do?” Wiley asked, still holding one hand over the bleeding wound on his arm. Dane came to him and put his own hand over the area, the glow soon following. Wiley let out a sigh of relief when pain eased. “Thank you.”
Dane frowned. “No problem. I just wish it would work on Ruby.”
“We’re going to have to lock her up again,” Baer said through gritted teeth as he and Lucien held on to the writhing dog. She kept growling and barking, snapping her teeth whenever she could. She nearly got Lucien.
Very slowly, they wrestled Ruby across the yard and into the house. “The basement this time. She can at least be free to run around in there until we figure this out. I’m not putting down my dog.”
“Nobody would even think to ask that,” Clay said as they got her into the basement. He shut the door and they could hear Ruby whining, snarling, and clawing at the door.
Devastation covered Baer’s face, his features drawn-out in a fierce frown, his hair loose from the tie he’d used to pull it back. He wiped a hand over his sweaty forehead and stared at the door, then looked at Wiley. “I’m so sorry she bit you. Are you okay?”
“Dane took care of it.” Ruby’s howls broke Wiley’s damn heart. But that pain was quickly replaced with anger. This witch had made this more than personal by going after sweet Ruby.
Baer cursed, his hands in fists as he stared at the basement door. On the other side, Ruby whined pitifully, then began barking.
“Oh my God, Queenie!” Wiley suddenly yelled, looking around for his cat.
Lucien came forward. “I’ll go find her and make sure she’s okay.”
But Wiley just shook his head and took off. She was his baby, and he’d only feel better when he saw her with his own eyes. Wiley cursed every fucking stair as he climbed to the second floor, hating that he couldn’t charge up like the rest of them.
In the end, it didn’t matter. The fluffy princess was stretched across Lucien’s bed, looking as if she didn’t have a care in the world. He sat next to her and stroked her fur, which earned him the opening of one lazy eye. “You’re fine, aren’t you, sweetie?”
She closed her eye and her entire body rumbled with a long, deep purr.
Wiley buried his face in his hands and drew in a shaking breath. Poor, sweet Ruby.…How could this happen to such a sweet, wonderful creature? She didn’t deserve this. There wasn’t a mean bone in her entire body.
He took a moment to center himself, then slowly made his way back down the stairs, counting under his breath.
Baer was pacing in the family room off the kitchen, where they had all the books laid out. His hands were still in fists and he scowled as he turned and paced behind the couch. “We’re going to have to find something in those books to help her.”