Chosen at Nightfall (A Shadow Falls Novel) (37 page)

And what she saw had her … had her … confused.

Befuddled.

Shocked.

She blinked—as if it would change what she was looking at.

But two or three flutters of her lashes later, she could still make out not one, but two people in Derek’s bed. One was Derek. She could clearly make out his masculine form. But the other was … Kylie couldn’t see her face.

But it was definitely a
her
. She had long black hair and a very feminine-shaped pajama-covered butt protruding from the blanket. And Kylie just happened to recognize those PJ bottoms as Derek’s.

The girl shifted. Kylie held her breath, hoping she’d roll over so she could see who was warming up the other side of Derek’s bed.

Kylie took a second to ask herself if she was jealous. Somewhere deep down, very deep, there was a touch of green emotion. But with it came a sense of rightness. Derek needed to move on.

But did he have to do it so dang fast?

The girl rolled over.

Kylie saw her face and … “Crap!” Her fingers accidentally let go of the windowsill and she fell, landing with a thump on her butt.

How? How could this be?

Chapter Thirty-five

“What is it?” Della asked, looming behind her.

“Nothing,” Kylie lied, still on the ground where she had fallen.

“Try again,” Della said, obviously having heard her heart’s untruth.

“Let it go. And please … give me some privacy to talk to … him.”

“I’m shadowing you,” she said and watched Kylie stand up.

“I know,” Kylie answered. “But I’m begging you. Please. I need some privacy.”

“To do what? Go jump his bones?” Kylie didn’t even reply to that. Della swung around and stomped off.

Kylie pulled back up on the windowsill, hung on with one hand, and knocked with the other. Both parties in bed bolted up.

Derek’s sleep-filled gaze shot toward the window. Kylie wasn’t sure what Jenny—as in Hayden’s sister, Jenny—did. She’d vanished.

Brushing a hand over his face, Derek came to the window. Kylie dropped down as he lifted the window up. He reached out and offered her a frown and a hand to pull her up.

“It’s about damn time,” he muttered as he hoisted her up. “What the hell took you so long?”

Feet on the bedroom floor, Kylie frowned. “You saw me at dinner and didn’t say anything.”

“What could I say in a room filled with vampires?”

Hell, he was right. “What’s going on?” She looked around. “And Jenny, you can make yourself visible. I already saw you.”

Jenny appeared and her cheeks turned red. “This isn’t what it seems. We weren’t…” She pointed to the floor where a blanket and pillow were thrown.

“You were supposed to sleep on the floor,” Jenny snapped at Derek.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I just…” He glared at Jenny. “I didn’t touch you.”

Kylie shook her head. “I don’t care about that.”

“I do,” Jenny said, and glared at Derek.

“I didn’t touch you!” he repeated.

Kylie moaned. “Jenny? What are you doing
here
?” Right then Kylie remembered the alarm. “That was you that jumped the fence.”

Jenny frowned. “I didn’t know the place was wired. Even the compound doesn’t have an alarm.”

But the chameleons weren’t waiting on a psycho rogue to attack. Kylie shook her head, reminding herself to focus on one issue at a time. And this was a big issue, too. “Shit!” she muttered. “Does Hayden know you’re here?”

Both Derek and Jenny shook their heads.

Kylie looked at Jenny. “You ran away, didn’t you?”

Jenny nodded and gripped her hands together. “Please don’t … don’t be mad.”

Derek looked at Jenny with empathy and then stared at Kylie as if frustrated. “Why are you upset? You said you wanted to help her.”

Kylie frowned. “I do, but … running away isn’t the answer.”

“Please,” Derek muttered. “For someone who ran away a couple of weeks ago, I don’t think you have a lot of room to judge.”

“I didn’t run away. I told everyone I was leaving. And I’m not judging.” Frustrated and yet a bit amused at Derek’s defense of Jenny, Kylie inhaled and looked from Jenny to Derek. “If a chameleon runs away before they’re mature they are excommunicated from their family.”

Derek cut his eyes to Jenny, up and then down. “She looks pretty mature to me.”

Kylie rolled her eyes. “I’m not talking about her body. I’m talking about her being able to change her pattern.” Moving her gaze to Jenny, Kylie realized something. “But you’re able to go invisible. I thought that didn’t happen until later?”

“It doesn’t normally. I’ve been working really hard on my own for the last couple of years so I could leave early. But I still can’t control my pattern.” A sadness entered the girl’s eyes.

“Are you really ready to completely walk away from your family?”

Jenny dropped on the bed and bunched a handful of Derek’s loose-fitting pajamas in her hands. “It hurts like hell, but that family is trying to force me to marry someone I don’t love. And he doesn’t love me, either. I don’t want to live like that.”

Kylie’s mind raced. She had told Holiday that what the chameleon elders were doing was almost as bad as the weres. Now she realized how right she was. The elders were doing to Jenny what Lucas’s father was doing to Lucas.

Did that mean Lucas was right to stand up to his pack, and to his dad? Everything felt so mixed up. Realizing Derek and Jenny stared at her, she decided now wasn’t the time to think about Lucas. One problem at a time.

Problem one, her grandfather and the entire chameleon community were going to blame this on Kylie because she was the reason Hayden was here. How in the hell was she going to fix that? She looked at Jenny again. “Okay, so now explain to me why you haven’t gotten with Hayden?”

“Because,” Jenny said. “Every time I talked to him about me leaving, he’d tell me it was wrong. To stick it out until I matured. But everyone knew that the day I matured, I was out of there, so the elders were trying to find another way to stop me. They were going to force me to marry Brandon next week.” Her expression grew solemn. “Besides, I didn’t come here because of Hayden. I came here because of you. I thought you’d understand. I guess I was wrong.”

Guilt filled Kylie’s chest. “You’re not wrong, I just … I don’t know how to make this right.” Kylie looked around. “How did you end up with Derek?”

“You always had people around you. I saw Derek and I figured if you trusted him, then I could, too.”

Kylie sighed. “Are you really ready to lose the right to see your family?” Was Lucas?

Tears filled the girl’s eyes and Kylie felt the same emotion stir inside her.

“No,” Jenny said, “but I wasn’t ready to marry Brandon, either.”

“I know,” Kylie said. “We just have to figure out how to deal with this.” The same went with Lucas. But God help her, she didn’t have a clue how to do either.

She glanced at Derek and remembered why she’d come here to begin with. “We have a lot of stuff to deal with,” she muttered.

“What stuff?” Derek asked.

Kylie hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud. Then parts of the vision played in Kylie’s head like a horror movie. “Do you remember when you told me about Roberto, Mario’s grandson? You said he witnessed his mother’s murder?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember how she was murdered?”

He ran a hand through his dark hair. “I think one article said she was stabbed.”

Kylie frowned. “I was afraid of that.”

“Why?” Derek asked.

“She’s my ghost.”

Derek looked concerned. “Roberto’s mom is your ghost?”

“Please tell me she’s not here right now.” Jenny pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them.

“It’s okay.” Derek moved closer to the girl. He rested a palm on her shoulder to ease her fear.

“Stop it!” Jenny slapped his hand. “I don’t like you touching me. You … make me feel things I don’t … feel.”

Derek frowned. “I was trying to make you feel better.”

“Maybe I don’t want to feel better!” she snapped, and they stared at each other.

For some reason their bickering reminded Kylie of Burnett and Holiday, or better yet, Kylie and Derek in the beginning, and she knew why. Sexual tension. If Kylie was a vampire she’d bet she could smell the pheromones.

Derek looked at Kylie. “Do you see what I’ve put up with the last twenty-four hours?”

The only thing keeping Kylie from smiling were the remnants of the vision and the realization that she didn’t have a clue how to deal with Jenny. If she went to Holiday, she wasn’t sure the camp leader would or even could allow her to stay. But how long could they keep her hidden?

All of a sudden, Derek’s window shot up and Della lunged inside. “Okay, here’s the thing. I just got a call from Burnett. He was doing walk-bys of our cabins and realized we’re gone. He’s on his way here. You’ve got one second to hide Girl Wonder over there, or he’s gonna know she’s here.”

Jenny vanished. Della, seeing the vanishing act for the first time, looked stunned. Burnett came bolting through the opened window. “What the hell is happening now?”

“I had a vision.” Kylie offered part of the truth. “I wanted to ask Derek about it.”

“And you couldn’t have called me first?”

“You know how I am after a vision, I was crazy, all I could think about was finding out the truth.”

“What truth?”

“I know who the ghost is now. She is … was connected to Mario. She was his daughter-in-law, Roberto’s mother. Mario had her killed.” Kylie’s heart ached, remembering the last few minutes of the woman’s life. Remembering how Roberto had witnessed the terrible death.

Burnett sighed. “And the sword? Is it from her, too?”

“No, she says it’s from … the death angels.”

A long pause filled the room as if everyone had to take a few seconds to believe it. “Do you know why they sent it?” Burnett finally asked.

Kylie frowned. She suspected it was because she was going to have to face Mario. And deep down she figured that Burnett suspected it as well. But nobody wanted to say it. “No, not really.” It wasn’t even a lie. There was a difference in knowing something and suspecting it.

“Come on, let’s go talk to Holiday about this vision,” Burnett said.

Kylie left Derek’s cabin to deal with one issue, knowing that sooner or later, she would have to deal with the one she was leaving here. Jenny.

How long could they hide a runaway chameleon? Hopefully long enough for Kylie to come up with a plan.

*   *   *

Both Burnett and Holiday walked Kylie back to her cabin after their powwow. She’d managed to get through the talk without lying by keeping the topic on the vision. Kylie hadn’t told them anything about Jenny or about her father repeating his message concerning them being together soon. To be honest, she tried not to think about her dad’s message. Hadn’t Holiday said that a person who started preparing oneself for death cheated themselves out of what little life they had left? And … somewhere deep in her gut, she held on to the fact that her dad could be confused. That his definition of soon could be in about eighty or ninety years.

The first thing Kylie did after Burnett and Holiday walked away was grab her phone.

Derek answered on the first ring. “You survived?”

“Barely,” Kylie said.

“How did you lie to Burnett?”

“By avoiding the truth.”

He sighed. “Speaking of the truth. I reread the articles about Roberto’s mom. The cause of death had been listed as multiple stab wounds. Oh, and her name was listed as Lucinda Esparza.”

“Thanks.” Kylie repeated the name in her head.

“So what’s the plan with
my
problem?” he asked.

So he considered Jenny his problem, did he? “I don’t know, but would you mind continuing to hide her until I brainstorm a plan? Since you don’t have a vampire rooming with you or Burnett doing walk-bys. She has less chance of being detected with you.”

“I planned on her staying here,” Derek said, sounding almost insistent. It was then Kylie knew for sure. Her old flame had managed to fall out of love with her and was on his way to falling for Jenny. Kylie felt their connection, just like she’d felt the thing between Burnett and Holiday, Perry and Miranda, and Jonathon and Helen.

She could almost hear Derek and Jenny telling their kids how they’d first met. “Your mom just jumped out of nowhere expecting me to give her a piggyback ride!”

Jenny was lucky. And Derek deserved to be happy.

And so do I.
And her happiness was tied to Lucas. It was as if something switched in her head and she realized how wrong she’d been. She shouldn’t have been trying to push him away. She should have been pushing him to find a way to make it right. “Hey … uh, I just realized I need to do something. Can we talk tomorrow?”

“Do what?” Derek asked, obviously reading something from her.

Convince someone I’m worth fighting for.
“Bye.” She hung up, and then went to dial Lucas’s number. An instant before she hit the last number, she changed her mind. There was another way. A better way.

*   *   *

It took ten minutes to fall asleep, and another few to get in control and dreamscape her way to Lucas’s cabin and into his bedroom. He looked adorable asleep in his bed. The sheet came low on his waist and she couldn’t help but wonder if he had anything on at all. She really doubted it.

Mentally dressing him in a pair of long boxers, she slipped into his mind and into his dreams.

“Lucas,” she whispered his name. While she could have taken him anywhere, she hadn’t. They remained in his bedroom. She eyed his bare chest again and wondered why she hadn’t dreamed him in a shirt. Probably because she liked seeing his bare chest.

Then she looked at his bed and her mind went to joining him there. That’s when she decided she needed to get them away from here.

Lucas sat up. “Hey.” His voice came out deep and sleepy.

“Come on, let’s go,” she said.

“Go where?” he asked.

“Somewhere to talk,” she answered.

He patted the bed and looked at her through his dark lashes with a sexy grin. Had he read her earlier thoughts? she wondered.