Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)

Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3) Page 34

Thirty minutes later, with Jonathon sitting under a tree a few feet away, Kylie sat on Holiday's porch, swatting away bugs and listening to Holiday, the doctor, and Burnett from inside the office.

"He asked you to take your shirt off," Holiday said.

"I don't need to take my shirt off," Burnett snapped. "I'm fine."

His voice was loud and clear, and he did indeed sound fine.

Not that it made Kylie feel any better.

"Maybe. Maybe not," Holiday said. "We'll know as soon as you disrobe and let the doctor examine you."

In a few minutes, Holiday came out and plopped on the porch beside Kylie. She had tears in her eyes. "I don't know why I'm worried about him. He's too pigheaded and stubborn to die."

Kylie laced her hands together. "I'm so sorry."

Holiday shook her head. "It wasn't your fault."

"You told me to get rid of her when I first told you about her. I refused, and she could have killed Burnett."

"She didn't want to kill him. She just wanted to get him away from you."

"Maybe I've been wrong all along. Maybe she is evil."

Holiday put her arm around Kylie's shoulder. "She wasn't evil. I felt her presence and her emotions. She was concerned about you. She did this to protect you, Kylie."

"Yeah, but, protect me from what? Did she really think Burnett was going hurt me?"

Holiday sighed. "She probably picked up on what I was feeling. I overreacted." She tightened her arm. "I mean, I refuse to let you be tested by the FRU. But I shouldn't have wigged out like that."

"You don't trust Burnett?" Kylie asked.

She shook her head. "I don't trust the FRU."

"Why? And if you don't trust them, then why are they involved with the camp? Besides, if they can really do some simple tests and tell me what I am, I want to do it."

Holiday closed her eyes for a second. "Don't take this wrong, Kylie. I'm not against the FRU. God knows we need them to keep things right. But they have no business testing people."

"But if they can really-"

"I can't let you do it. If they want to tell me the name of the test they want done, I'll ask our doctor if he can order it. But it will be under his care and his care only."

Kylie heard so much in the camp leader's voice. So much she wasn't saying. "Okay, what is it you're not telling me?"

It took a minute before Holiday finally sighed and started talking. "It was over forty years ago. It involved only one small branch of the FRU that has been shut down, and charges were brought against a lot of people. They were doing scientific tests on supernaturals. Something about figuring out genetics. The subjects were forced into doing it, and some people never completely recovered from the tests. It's not as if I think they're doing it again, but I refuse to have you go there so they can poke and prod you to find answers."

Kylie looked at Holiday. Bits and pieces of Jane's vision started replaying in her mind like an old movie. And everything suddenly made sense. "The FRU killed Jane Doe. They killed her and then they buried her with Berta Littlemon in the Fallen Cemetery."

Holiday's eyes widened. "You can't know this for sure."

"I do," Kylie said. "In the vision, Jane was called a subject. Her husband was one, too. And the doctor was a vampire. They mentioned her not having a pattern."

Kylie pulled her knees up and hugged them, trying to wrap her head around everything as it all came together. She didn't understand how Jane's baby fit in, but on some things she was clear.

"No wonder she went after Burnett," Kylie said. "She thought he was trying to do to me what the FRU had done to her."

Kylie was disappointed that Jane Doe was a no-show the next morning. Kylie had hoped now that she knew about the FRU, she could help Jane remember other things, like her name. That together they could figure out what it was Jane needed in order to cross over.

But dead people, just like the living, rarely did what Kylie wanted them to do.

A knock sounded at her door. "Come in."

The door opened and Miranda and Della both squeezed through the opening and shut the door extra quickly behind them.

"What is it?" Kylie asked.

"There's three guys here working on putting in the heating unit," Della said.

"And they're yummy," Miranda said. The contractors who worked around Shadow Falls had become a popular subject for all the female campers. Especially when they took their shirts off in the afternoons.

"As yummy as Perry?" Kylie teased. Lately, Miranda had been spending almost every free moment with the shape-shifter.

"Not quite as yummy," Miranda said, and then grinned. "But close."

"Well, thanks for the warning. I'll get ready to be awed."

"Just don't come out wearing nothing but a towel," Della said, also grinning. "Unless you're into that."

A few minutes later, Kylie walked out fully dressed, hair combed, and the only thing she'd added in honor of their company was a touch of lip gloss.

Miranda sat at the table, sipping a glass of orange juice, Della had a glass of blood, and two of the guys were down on the floor on their knees, saws at their sides and some kind of heating vent beside them.

As much as Kylie hated to admit it, Miranda was right. They were yummy. Both were in their early twenties, had dark hair, and wore tight T-shirts that showed off their dark tans and lots of muscles.

They looked up and met Kylie's eyes. Kylie tensed when they pinched their eyebrows at her, but she did the same thing. They were both werewolves. She saw the shocked look in their eyes when they saw her brain pattern.

"I'm the token human," she said.

Della and Miranda snickered. The two guys smiled and went back to work. No doubt they had orders from Burnett not to flirt with the female campers.

Kylie went to the fridge to get her own glass of juice. She heard Miranda's door open, and the third contractor joined them. Kylie turned around and peered at him under her lashes. This one was equally hot. Black hair. Wide shoulders. Thin waist.

His gaze met Kylie's and her juice slipped from her fingers and shattered at her feet.

His hair had changed. His name, Red, probably a nickname, no longer fit, but his eyes hadn't changed. The image of him appearing in her dreams, and of him staring at her in the mirror with blood dripping down his chin, filled her head. Then the image flashed, and she saw him plastered on her windshield and ramming his hand through her car window. As if that weren't enough, she saw the image of him staring at her while she was chained to the chair when he and his grandfather abducted her.

"Della?" Kylie said in an even voice, hoping she could warn her before the shit hit the fan.

But Della didn't answer. Kylie turned. The vamp still sat at the table, her glass at her lips. A few drops of blood hung in the air between her lips and the edge of the glass. Della didn't breathe. Didn't move. She looked frozen.

The shit had already hit the fan.

Kylie's gaze shot to Miranda, who was also frozen, a finger at her ear as if to brush back a strand of hair.

Ditto for the two guys on the floor.

"It's just you and me, Kylie," the rogue said.

She refocused on Miranda and Della. "Whatever you've done to my friends, you'd better undo it," she growled, and her blood fizzed with fury.

"Don't get worked up. They are fine. As soon as I release them, they will go back to normal and not remember a thing." He looked back to the table and then to her.

"So do it!" Kylie said.

He sighed. "I've never seen anyone who cared so much about others."

Though she wasn't sure why, Kylie checked his brain pattern. He was a werewolf. But how was that possible? He was a vampire. She tried not to show her surprise, but he saw it.

"What are you?" Kylie went ahead and asked.

"I'm the same thing you are. Just born a few minutes later than midnight." He took a step closer. "That's why we belong together. We're soul mates, Kylie. That's what we are."

She tightened her brows again, and this time he was human. Her heart thudded in her chest. "I'm not your soul mate. I'll die first."

"That's why I'm here." He took another step toward her.

She backed up. "You're here to kill me?"

"No." He stopped moving. Something about his answer and his tone rang true. "I'm here to protect you. Though you don't make it easy."

The sound of thunder rumbled from outside. He glanced out the window, and when his gaze came back to hers, Kylie knew something else.

"You were the eagle," she said. "And the deer. You're a shape-shifter?" And if they were the same, as he said, did that make her a shape-shifter, too?

"No. I mean, yes. I was the deer and the eagle, but I'm not a shape-shifter."

Then another thought hit. "You protected me, but you killed those innocent girls in Fallen. Why?"

He cut his eyes downward. "Would it upset you terribly if I said it was to impress you?"

"Impress me? You're sick."

"But they were mean to you and your friends."

"They didn't deserve to die."

"I know you feel that way now. I didn't really know you then. Now, I do. I wouldn't have done it if-"

"You don't know me now."

He shrugged. "I sometimes don't understand you. But I have watched you. You are an interesting study. I have always wondered what it would have been like ... to have been born at midnight. Funny how just a few minutes on a clock can make a difference. I sometimes wonder if maybe-" The sound of thunder shook the cabin again.

Kylie could swear she saw regret in his eyes. But maybe not. The light in the cabin had been chased away by dark shadows. Kylie sensed the shadows were there for her.

Lightning flashed from the window. "I don't have a lot of time," he said, "but I wanted to tell you-"

"I will not go with you!" She might not win the battle, but she'd go down fighting.

"No, not this time. I'll come back for you later. Like I said, I'm here to protect you."

"From what?"

He glanced at the two contractors, frozen, not breathing, the same as Della and Miranda. "They want you dead."

Did he mean the two guys? "Who wants me dead?"

"The others. My grandfather and his friends. The others like us."

"Like us how? And why would they want me dead?"

"They are impatient and afraid of what you might be able to accomplish if you don't join us. But I will hold them off until you come around. But you must change your mind, soon."

He pointed to the taller of the guys on the floor, still frozen, as if they were working on the vents in the floor. "This guy, he was sent here to kill you. I had a wizard friend of mine peek into the future, and learned that your other friends would have gotten here in time to save you. But"-he pointed to the table-"the little witch wouldn't have made it. And for some crazy reason, I felt compelled to stop that from happening. I knew how much it would hurt you if she died." His brows creased as if he were confused. "It was an odd feeling, wanting to save her, caring if she died, because it's not like me to care. But ... because of you, I did. I cared."

The words Someone lives and someone dies whispered in Kylie's head again.

"No!" This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't.

Then the sound of footsteps hitting the front porch vibrated the floor beneath her.

"Until later." He disappeared.

The door swung open and hit the back of the wall with a loud whack. Burnett, Lucas, Perry, and Derek rushed in.

"What the hell?" Della leapt out of her chair. Miranda dropped her juice and it splattered to the floor. Kylie's heart sighed when she saw they were okay. And yet ... somewhere deep down, she'd believed him when he'd said they would be.

But did that mean she also believed him about everything else? Was she like him? She looked at Miranda and considered the possibility that she might have died had the rogue not intervened.

"You two!" Burnett said, pointing to the two men on the floor. "Come with me."

They stood up slowly. Then the taller one, the one the rogue had pointed to, leapt at the closed window. Glass shattered, wood splintered, and then he was outside. Burnett and Lucas went after him.