(Kayleb, it's been two weeks... The case load is really piling up. The chief is going crazy and I could really use your help.) Kayleb groaned and threw his pillow across the room, as if that would shut Kaylee's voice up in his head.

(Kayleb... You have to get up out of bed sometime.) Kaylee said.

(No I don't.)

(Please. I really do need your help. I can't handle all of this on my own.) Kaylee was lying of course but she was desperate to get her brother out of his bed. Two long weeks he'd been lying there. He wouldn't eat or speak. Just hearing his telepathic voice filled her with happiness.

(Leave me alone.) Kayleb said and he broke the link. He threw his legs over the side of the bed and rubbed his face. If his sister needed him that badly then he had to get out of bed and go to her.

He stood and pulled on some clean clothes. He put his badge around his neck and ran his hand over his messy hair that was getting a little too long. He knew he probably looked like hell but he didn't care. He had no reason to care about anything anymore. He wished he could just lie in the bed and die but he'd been trying that for two weeks and it hadn't happened.

He cracked his neck, rolled his aching shoulders and then dashed himself to the police station.

"Damn it!" Barry Hicks yelled as Kayleb once again knocked over a freshly stacked pile of folders. Kayleb didn't bother apologizing. He just walked over to his desk, which was full of papers and folders, and slammed his head down.

"You came." Kaylee said with shock. He looked like hell but he was alive and he was out of the bed.

"You said you needed my help. Now give me something to do ... I need something to do." Kaylee nodded as she looked at the top of her brothers head and grabbed a file.

"There's a gang of subs that's been hanging out in an alley behind that nightclub in Hagarty and the chief wants them to move out of there because they are causing trouble with people leaving the club at night." Kayleb nodded, the air shimmered and he was gone.

He returned less than ten minutes later and his clothes were covered in blood, though none of it was his.

"What happened?" Kaylee asked as she raised her brow and looked up at him.

"They aren't going to be causing any more trouble." he replied. Kaylee slammed the file she was reading closed and shook her head.

"You were just supposed to talk to them and tell them to leave... Not kill them!"

"You never said I couldn't kill them. You have to be more specific about what you want." Kayleb replied. Burning off some steam had felt good and he sat down at his desk to start looking through the papers that were piled up there.

"Kayleb?" Kayleb looked up at the chief to see the millipede was still there and gave a small wave in greeting.

"Hello chief."

"Nice of you to grace us with your presence once again." he said dryly. "Good work dealing with that Vincent situation. I'm glad the killer is finally dead and parents can sleep soundly again." Kaylee saw Kayleb's eyes go right back to looking pain filled and sad and she wished she could smack the chief right on the back of his balding head.

"I'm trying to get some work done, chief." Kayleb said burying his head in the file he was looking through about a string of murders of mortal men who were picking up prostitutes and getting more than they bargained for when the vampire hooker would drain them dry and take their money.

"You could solve that one quick. Just head over to that part of town tonight and start picking up hookers. Eventually you'll find the right one and until you do, you'll get to have fun with all of the wrong ones." the chief said with a chuckle. Kayleb growled and Kaylee intervened.

"Should you really be encouraging prostitution sir?" she asked. The chief shrugged.

"We've gotta bigger things to worry about in this day and age than a man paying for a little sex on the side." With that the chief walked back into his office and closed the door.

"I don't like him." Kayleb said. "Two weeks of absence did not make my heart grow fonder." Kaylee groaned when she saw the woman coming up behind her brother.

"I hope it helped with Tortilonni." she said.

"Well hello there, good looking!" Susie Tortilonni's screechy, nails-on-the-chalkboard, voice said. Kayleb tried to ignore her and keep looking through the files. "You've been gone so long. You look a little sad, sweet cheeks. What's say I give you a nice long massage and make you forget about whatever trashy women put that frown on your face?"

Kayleb felt his temper flare. The wolf in him was angry that anyone would dare insult his mate and the man in him was pissed as well. He turned to Susie and instead of speaking he let out a snarling growl that was so loud it seemed to shake the windows in the tiny station and caused everyone to cover their ears and stare at him with shock. Susie Torilonni turned and ran quickly from the room and toward the bathrooms. Kayleb cleared his throat and turned back to the papers he was looking at.

"What the hell was that about?" Kaylee demanded.

"I've asked her a million times to leave me alone."

"She doesn't mean anything by it." Kaylee said. "She's just a lonely middle aged woman."

"She needs to leave me the hell alone." Kayleb growled.

"I think you made her piss her pants." Kaylee said with a smile, hoping to see the sad look leave her brothers eyes but it didn't.

"Let's just get some work done." he muttered.

By the end of the day Kaylee was near tears. Her brother who had always like to joke and tease... Who had a bad temper but was pretty much harmless had turned into a sad, brooding, dangerous man who seemed to hate life and everything about it. Kayleb needed Vanessa and that was all there was to it.

"Kayleb, you worked today?" Rebecca asked with surprise as he and Kaylee dashed into the kitchen together around dinner time.

"Yes." he said. And then his eyes narrowed as the scent of green apples filled his nose and his heart broke for the millionth time that day. He looked at the cut up apples sitting in a bowl while, Rebecca went about making a pie crust and he growled low in his throat.

"Kayleb, are you okay?" Rebecca asked.

"Get these damn things out of here!" he yelled and he picked the bowl up and threw it against he wall, shattering the glass and sending apple chunks flying before dashing and disappearing from the house.

"I didn't realize..." Rebecca said apologetically as Kaylee started helping to pick up the mess.

"He's been this way all day." Kaylee replied. "He was practically dead for the first two weeks and now he's full of so much rage and pain he can't even think straight. I have to think of something to save him or he's going to completely self destruct."

Kayleb didn't come back home and once darkness settled Kaylee decided to go for a walk. She walked into the forest, listening to the sounds of frogs and crickets as she looked up at the moonlit, star filled sky.

"Damien, I need you." she said and then suddenly she felt foolish. He hadn't really meant she could just call for him anytime... There was no way he could possibly hear her.

"I'm here darling." Damien said walking out of the shadows and scaring her so badly she let out a little scream and covered her chest with her hand.

"Where did you come from?" she gasped. He smiled and as always she was amazed by how handsome and breathtaking his smile made him.

"I told you I would hear you anytime you called for me." he said. "What is wrong? I can tell that you are sad and worried." Kaylee let him wrap his powerful arms around her and though she had always been tall for a woman, the top of her head barely brushed his chin as he held her close.

"It's my brother and his mate." she whispered against his crisp white button down shirt as she listened to his heart beat steadily in his chest. Though Damien really did not care about what was going on between the two of them, he cared very much that whatever it was, was making his beautiful wolf sad. He would do anything to keep her from ever feeling anything but happiness.

"What is wrong with them?" he asked.

"She left him."

"Why?" Damien asked.

"Because she's stupid." Kaylee replied with a tired laugh.

"All mortals are." Damien agreed. Kaylee pulled away and he saw the temper that amazed and amused him flash in her eyes.

"I'm too wore down and tired to deal with your belief in stereotypes right now." she said with defeat. Damien turned her around and began to gently massage her tight shoulders. The woman was clearly tense and on edge and he wanted to make her feel better.

"Why did she really leave?" he asked. Kaylee moaned beneath his hands and closed her eyes.

"Because my brother is immortal and she's not. And she doesn't want to stay with him and have him watch her grow old... But she doesn't want to fully mate with him because her daughter would still be mortal and she says she already lost one child and doesn't want to watch another die." Damien shook his head. Mortals, were creatures and even some vampires felt too many emotions... He wondered what kept their heads from exploding as they worried about everyone and everything and felt a million different things at once.

"I am sorry that you are hurting over this." he said, pressing his lips against her soft hair. He loved touching her and pressing his lips to her head... Everything about his beautiful wolf was so soft.

"Is there a way to make her daughter immortal too?" Kaylee asked with a frustrated laugh. "That would solve all their problems." Damien hesitated before responding and Kaylee turned quickly and looked up into his light blue eyes.

"Oh my word! There is a way to make her immortal isn't there!" she demanded with excitement. Damien sighed.

"Technically, yes." he replied. "There is demon magic to turn a mortal child immortal. The demons developed the power in order to harvest young children and keep them alive through all the torture they made them endure." Kaylee shivered at the thought.

"Would she still age till her twenties and then stop like a naturally born immortal?" she asked. Damien nodded.

"Yes. She would be like an immortal mate in a way." Kaylee's brown eyes lit up.

"Oh Damien this will fix everything!" she said. Damien shook his head.

"It cannot be done Kaylee. It is forbidden to be used outside of the demon castle." Kaylee's face fell.

"Damien please, I am watching my brother waste away and self destruct. Not to mention what Vanessa must be going through!"

"Do you know what you are asking me for?" Damien asked though he was not angry... He had not felt an emotion like anger in hundreds of years. "If anyone found out they would put a death sentence on my head."

"Never mind then." Kaylee said sadly. "I would never want to ask you to risk your life. It is just so hard to see my brother suffer."

"You set yourself for too much pain by caring so deeply for so many people Kaylee."

"I can't help it Damien. I don't know how to turn my heart off." she said. "I wish there was a way you could help my brother." Damien gave her a sad half smile.

"I must go darling. Please do not be sad. It troubles me to know you are hurting."

"I need you." Kaylee whispered. Damien kissed her head as sadness came over his features and then he faded away into the shadows of the woods. Kaylee sat down on the leaf covered ground and cried. She did not normally cry because she knew that crying didn't solve anything but there were times when a woman just had to break down.

Her brother was self destructing, the one man she loved knew how to fix the problem but could not do it without risking death, and he had just walked away from her again despite the fact that she had still needed him here with her... Sometimes life simply was just too hard.