Chosen at Nightfall (A Shadow Falls Novel) (29 page)

“Fine, I care about them—everyone but my father. Right now I don’t care if he rots in hell. I’m tired of him manipulating my life—but the others, yes, I’ll admit it, I care. But they aren’t you,” he said, and growled.

“Monique’s father is considering putting a hit out on you!” she blurted out.

“That rich pompous ass is always running off his mouth. He’s nothing but hot air. He knows what my dad would do to him if he hurt me.” Lucas stopped talking and just looked at her. “But this proves it. You care about me. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t care if he planned to kill me. You may still be angry, and I deserve that, but you love me and that’s why it can’t be over.”

She shook her head. “Love isn’t enough!” Tears clouded her vision. That was what she’d finally realized last night. “Can’t you see, Lucas? We’re Romeo and Juliet; we’re the Hatfields and McCoys. We are every bad love story that ever existed. We are people who only hurt ourselves and others by selfishly letting our emotions guide us instead of logic.”

“That’s stupid,” he growled, and tried to reach for her.

“No!” She scooted away from his touch. “Do you want to know what’s stupid? I keep seeing you kissing Monique in my head. I keep hearing you vowing your soul to her, and I get so hurt and so angry that I want to scream. But at the same time, I completely understand why you did it. And if I were in your shoes, I might have done the same things. I have my own quests, the ghosts, figuring out how to help other chameleons, and I’m going to complete those quests no matter what.”

She swallowed and offered the last piece of truth, the last piece of reasoning that they couldn’t be together. “I’m going to do it even if it hurts you. That’s how I know, Lucas. That’s how I know that this isn’t right. When doing the right thing for yourself can hurt someone you love this much, it can’t be right! We
aren’t
right. So please, let’s not hurt each other any more than we already have. Just leave.”

She had never seen anyone look so hurt. It took everything she had not to call him back as he climbed out her window.

Chapter Twenty-seven

The next day during science class, Kylie sat at her desk barely listening to Hayden Yates talk about Newton’s laws of motion and E
=
MC
2
. Not that she didn’t respect science, but how could any of that explain a sword that could move on its own? And didn’t Hayden say that both Einstein and Newton were supernaturals? Did that mean they didn’t have magical swords following them around?

Not that she was completely consumed with worry over the sword right now. Her morning had been bat-shit crazy. Starting with a ten-minute conversation with her mom that entailed both of them apologizing. Mom for overreacting to the news of the pregnancy tests and making a scene, and Kylie for not informing her she’d used the card for the items. It hadn’t been a bad call, but it hadn’t been a good one, especially when her mom launched into a conversation about how John was possibly her soul mate.

Somehow she’d managed to tuck her mom worries away. Her Lucas issues weren’t so easy to tuck away. Between hurting for him, she’d also fretted over finding a method of coming out of the closet.

She’d even skipped Campmate hour and breakfast to try to formulate a plan. And she came up … empty.

Of course, she wasn’t at her all-time best. After Lucas had left, the spirit, as if jealous that Kylie wasn’t fixating on her, had decided to pop in every hour last night. She hadn’t brought her severed head and sword, for which Kylie was forever grateful. But on her last visit the spirit brought something even more upsetting. Grief. She sobbed in her hands and muttered something about her son being killed.

Having lost too many in her own life, Kylie hurt for the spirit and told her so, but the spirit was too upset to even respond.

Kylie wondered if the ghost meant her son was killed in the present time, or if she was revisiting something in her past. Time just didn’t compute with spirits, which could be confusing as hell to the living who were trying to help them.

Then again, nothing seemed to compute much with this spirit. She wouldn’t answer any of Kylie’s direct questions. As in:
Who is it exactly that you want me to kill?
Or,
Why me? Why did you choose me to do your killing?

When Holiday had stopped by the cabin last night, she’d reminded Kylie that a spirit usually had a connection with the person they were visiting.

“Find that connection and you might start to understand what she really wants,” Holiday had advised.

Easier said than done.

So far, the spirit hadn’t said one thing that led Kylie to believe she had known her, or that they knew anyone in common.

She’d first run into the spirit on her way to see Lucas’s engagement ceremony. Kylie considered that maybe she had been killed in those woods and Kylie had just stumbled by. She even found herself hoping that was the case. Call her a prude, but she didn’t want to be connected with someone who chopped heads off people and carried them around like trophies. And if Kylie had known someone like that, wouldn’t this person stand out in Kylie’s memory bank?

Sure, Kylie was almost certain the ghost had brought the head around just to get attention, but something a little less dramatic would have worked just fine. Holiday also said to consider everything the spirit did or brought with her to be a clue. Like the sword that kind of looked like the one that appeared at the falls.

Was the head a hint or a sign? Then again, weren’t clues supposed to be subtle? There was absolutely nothing subtle about a severed head. That last thought led Kylie back to believing it was just a ploy to get attention—mostly because the ploy was working. Here Kylie was worried about the ghost and not her quest.

Not that she didn’t need to figure out both; she did. But her quest seemed to take priority right now. Or it would if the ghost would stop pulling her thoughts away.

Hayden stood by the board and pointed to the homework assignment. She started to jot it down when something landed in her lap with a thump. A pretty heavy thump.

Startled, her butt came off the desk chair a good half inch. Only her dislike of being singled out in the class had her swallowing the yelp that rose in throat and planting her butt back down.

Considering there was a desktop covering her lap, the whole “thing falling in her lap” didn’t make sense.

Then again it didn’t have to make sense, because nothing else in her freaking life did!

Kylie hesitantly reached under her desk to feel the cold metal object. Just as she suspected, it had a long vertical shape with a handle. The sword was back.

Kylie heard a clearing of a throat a couple of seats away. She glanced over at Derek, who was on shadowing duty, and he mouthed the words:
You okay?

Obviously Derek had sensed her emotional dilemma, but hadn’t seen the sword, or he would have at least glanced down at the dang thing. She nodded.

After only a minute, Hayden dismissed class. Kylie pretended to be reading her notes and didn’t move. Burnett didn’t want anyone to know about the sword, and suddenly brandishing a weapon in the middle of science class that looked like something straight out of a video game would likely draw some attention.

“Kylie, you coming?” Derek asked from the door.

“Uh, no, I need to discuss something with Mr. Yates. I’ll be out shortly.” She glanced at Hayden, who studied her with concern.

“Just wait outside,” a worried-looking Hayden told Derek.

When Kylie glanced up at Derek, she saw Lucas standing right outside the door. His blue gaze met hers, but dang it, she had too much on her plate, not to mention a sword in her lap, to start fixating on losing him, on how much it hurt. Yet, when she saw the concern in his eyes, the complete affection with which he looked at her, her heart did another nosedive anyway. Begrudgingly, she couldn’t deny that there was a part of her that wanted to hang on to him, to grasp on to what they felt. But that would be foolish, wouldn’t it?

“Shut the door,” Hayden told them, and walked over to her desk.

Shut the door.
Hayden’s words echoed in her head. She had to shut the door to her feelings about Lucas. But how?

“Is something wrong?” Hayden asked.

My whole freaking life.
Kylie met the teacher’s eyes, pushing away her ache over Lucas. “Yeah, there’s a sword in my lap.”

“
The
sword?” he asked.

She made a face. “Well, I haven’t looked at it, but I’m assuming I’ve only got one sword that just magically appears and breaks all the rules and theories you just covered in class.”

Hayden grinned and tilted his head down to see the sword. When he rose up, he said, “Yeah, those theories aren’t worth a crap sometimes when magic is involved.”

“Same sword, I assume?” Kylie asked.

He nodded.

“Great.” Then she realized something he’d just said. “You think it’s magic doing this, like Wiccan magic?”

“Or something equally baffling,” he said.

“So you really don’t think it’s some chameleon powers?”

He twisted his mouth. “Chameleon powers are in part Wiccan powers.”

“Yeah,” Kylie said, and her mind went back to her latest quest. “Which completely confuses me as to why it’s bad to be us.”

He looked puzzled. “It’s not bad to be us,” he said, and then, “Let me get my hoodie and I’ll wrap it up and we’ll take it to the office.”

He went and snatched his sweatshirt from the cabinet behind his desk, then came back with it stretched open. “Do you want to bring it up?”

No. She didn’t like touching the thing, didn’t like it sitting on her lap, but she did it anyway.

She reached down and carefully grasped the handle and brought it up and out. Before she had it all the way up, it started glowing again. She dropped the weapon in the hoodie then looked up. “If it’s not bad to be us, then why do you hide your pattern? You even wear a hoodie so no one will see it. And why do the elders think they have to hide all the kids?”

“I hide the pattern because people wouldn’t understand, because in the past that led to us being persecuted, but not because it’s bad to be a chameleon.”

“But wouldn’t it be better if you didn’t have to hide it? If we could just wear it proudly like the others do?”

He stared at the sword as if half listening to what she said. “Someday that will happen.”

“No it won’t,” Kylie insisted. “Not if everyone keeps hiding.”

He gazed up at her. “You don’t understand how bad things were for our parents.”

“You’re right, I don’t understand. And maybe that’s why I see things clearer. Change needs to happen. But somebody has to make it happen. It’s not going to happen on its own, or by accident.”

“Okay, it sounds as if you’ve actually given this a lot of thought. How would we change it?” he asked.

“I haven’t figured it out yet, but I will.” She stood up.

He sighed as if he didn’t like what she said. “When you do figure out something, you run it by me first. I know you wouldn’t want to put anyone in jeopardy.”

“I just want to help. And I’ll run it by you if I can.” She cut her gaze to the sword.

“What’s that mean … ‘if I can’? Why couldn’t you run it by me?” he asked.

She looked at him. “I’m just being careful not to make promises that I don’t know if I can keep.”

He frowned. “Don’t do anything stupid, Kylie.”

“Now that I can promise,” she said. “I’ll avoid stupid at all costs.”

He didn’t appear content with her answer, but he looked back at the sword. “Your grandfather called me at lunch and wanted to know for sure if the sword had any markings.” Hayden rolled the weapon over. “I don’t see a thing on it.”

“Me either,” Kylie said.

“Does it hurt you to hold it?” he asked, and looked up at her.

“Hurt? No. Freak me out? Yes. Why?”

“Would you hold it for me again? For a few seconds, and let’s see if anything appears. We know it starts to glow; maybe something else will appear on it.”

Kylie frowned. “Fine, but if it or I go bananas and kill you or something, it’s not my fault. I mean the last time Holiday had me try something, Burnett nearly ended up sterile.”

Hayden frowned. “Maybe we should wait and try it when we get to the office and Burnett and Holiday are around.”

“Good idea,” Kylie said.

*   *   *

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Kylie asked. “What if it’s like the paperweight incident?” She glanced from Hayden to Burnett, who’d gotten ball-busted by the paperweight.

Not surprising, the vamp was the one who looked the most concerned, but he was also the one to speak up. “You’ve held it before and the only thing it did was glow.”

“But I never held it for more than a few seconds.”

“If you really don’t want to do it, then don’t,” Holiday said, and Derek, standing beside her, nodded. Burnett, remembering Derek’s computer skills, had asked him to be here so he might research any information on the sword.

Kylie looked at Holiday. “I just don’t want it to go crazy and start killing people.”

“Why do you think it would do that?” Holiday asked.

“I … I don’t know, maybe because of the ghost’s sword,” Kylie said. “And the fact that she carries around a head with the sword.”

“Do you really think the ghost and this sword are connected?” Holiday asked. “Because I still can’t see how a ghost could have sent the sword here.”

“I don’t know what to think,” Kylie said. “But I think the two swords look alike.”

“But it’s a very common-looking sword—for what it is,” Burnett said.

“And I don’t think you’d hurt anyone,” Derek said. “You’re a protector; if the sword is reacting to you, then I think it’s connecting to that part of you. I don’t think it’s evil.”

“I agree,” said Hayden.

“Okay, it’s your lives on the line.” Kylie reached for the weapon.

“But just in case,” Holiday said, stopping Kylie. “Let’s all be prepared to duck and run if need be.”

Kylie frowned.

Holiday shrugged. “Just in case.”

Kylie reached for the sword. Burnett pushed Holiday behind him and then everyone took another step back.