Chosen at Nightfall (A Shadow Falls Novel) (38 page)

“We could talk here,” he said in a husky voice.

She rolled her eyes. “Nice try.”

He laughed. Then he pulled up the sheet and glanced beneath it. “At least they don’t have smiley faces on them,” he said, referring to the time she’d dressed him in another dreamscape.

She concentrated and moved the dream to behind the office where they often went to talk.

He looked around, and then back at her. The night was dark; only a few stars brightened the sky. “I think I liked the lake dream better,” he said, talking about the dreamscape they’d shared of them skinny-dipping.

Reaching out, he caught her shoulders and pulled her against him. His chest was so warm. So inviting. She would have loved to stay there. To explore all the things she wanted to explore between them.
But not yet.

“Behave,” she said, and pulled loose.

His smiled faded. “Is something wrong?”

“No. Well, yes, it’s wrong. Everything’s wrong.” She inhaled. “You have to get on that Council, Lucas.”

“I’m not marrying Monique,” he growled.

“Not by marrying Monique. You have to find another way.”

“I need my father to vouch for me, Kylie. He’s not going to do that now.”

She gritted her teeth. “Talk to him. You said he’s protective of you. He obviously cares. Maybe if you—”

“You don’t know him,” he said.

Fury rose in her chest. “Then find another way. Find someone else to vouch for you. Or talk to the Council yourself. You’ve told me all the young people want change. Make the elders see this. They were young once. Can’t you make them remember what it was like? I mean … who was it that said if the door is locked, find a window. If the window’s locked, well … break it. If it won’t break then find a freaking sledgehammer and make a new one.”

He shook his head. “You don’t how they are.”

“Yes, I do! The elders of the chameleons are just like your elders. They want to arrange marriages and tell all the young chameleons what to do. I don’t know how I’m going to change things, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to try.”

“It’s not the same,” he said, as if taking offense to her accusation.

“Maybe it’s not exactly the same. But you’re still giving up.”

“I’m not giving up on us,” he said. “That’s what matters.”

She shook her head. “But you are giving up on us. If you don’t get on the Council, Lucas, there is no us.”

“You don’t mean that!” he said, his anger thickening in his voice.

“Don’t think I want it,” she said. “But I know if you lose who you are and all you ever wanted, you will resent me for it. Maybe not now, but someday you will. And I can’t go into this knowing that you’ll hate me someday. I can’t.”

In a flash, Kylie ended the dreamscape and shot up in her bed. Then she cried herself asleep. But right before she did, she heard her father one more time.

Soon. Soon we will be together.

She couldn’t help but wonder if, when she was dead, would she still ache for Lucas?

*   *   *

The next morning, Kylie, running on only an hour of sleep, stood with the crowd waiting for Chris to do his dog and pony show and get Campmate hour under way. Perry, her official morning shadow, stood beside her, with Miranda leaning against him. Della had a vampire meeting and was going to miss out.

Lucas wasn’t here. But she’d gotten a text from him that read:
I think I found a window.
Hope gave her energy. Energy to reminisce over how good Lucas had looked in the bed last night and how tempted she’d been to curl up with him and let things just happen. Pushing the sexy were from her mind, she searched for something else to think about—like figuring out how to proceed with Lucinda, who was standing in the crowd as if she belonged but wasn’t speaking to Kylie. Was Kylie’s fighting Mario honestly what the spirit needed Kylie to do to pass over? Pass over to hell?

It was one thing to encourage the souls destined for the pearly gates to leave their lonely existence on earth and move on. But how could she encourage someone to head off to hell?

Kylie shivered at the thought.

“You’re quiet,” Miranda said. “Everything okay?”

Kylie nodded and spotted Derek moving into the crowd. Her thoughts shot to Jenny and how she was going to deal with that. Her gut told her the right thing to do was to confront Hayden.

She knew Jenny was frightened he would insist she return home, but Kylie wasn’t so sure Hayden would do that.

The chatter in the circle of students quieted. Kylie looked up. Chris moved into the front of the crowd, drawing Kylie’s attention from her own woes. “Today we have…” He looked down into his hat and then glanced up. Up right at Kylie.

Oh, hell, Kylie thought, who was it this time?

“Kylie Galen.” Chris smiled. “The girl who happens to be the person who has brought us more blood than any camper in the past.” He hesitated. “You, my friend, get the pleasure of…” He paused for dramatic effect. “Of Steve’s company.”

Kylie saw Steve, the shape-shifter with the cute ass, the one who’d given Della a hickey, start strolling over. Not for one minute did Kylie assume Steve had an interest in her. She knew he was merely looking for some romantic advice.

Advice Kylie didn’t have. What the hell could she tell him? Her normal reply to someone trying to gain someone’s attention was to be patient. But Della was the most adamant and stubborn person Kylie knew and it would take the patience of a saint to wear the vampire down.

*   *   *

“Be patient? That’s all you’ve got for me?” Steve complained ten minutes later.

Kylie glanced up at Perry, circling them as they sat behind the office, and then frowned at Steve. “I don’t know why everyone thinks I’m the love guru.”

“Come on, give me something that would help me. You know her better than anyone.”

Kylie dropped down beside the tree. “What can I tell you? Della’s difficult.” So difficult that if Della found out that Kylie had offered Steve advice, the vamp would revoke Kylie’s best friend card.

“You think I don’t know that?”

Kylie looked up into his desperate eyes. “She was hurt really badly by someone.”

“I know that, too.” He crossed his arms over his wide chest. “She deserves so much better than him.”

“Oh, hell,” Kylie said, and decided to throw caution to the wind. “Okay, here’s all I can tell you. Della loves a good fight.”

“I don’t want to fight,” Steve said. “What I want is…” He blushed as if thinking about what he really wanted.

But damn it, Kylie liked Steve.

“Look, I don’t mean to fight with her. Fight
for
her. When she tells you that you can’t sit with her at lunch, sit down anyway. When she tells you to leave, don’t. She’s gonna get pissy. That’s Della, but I think it’ll win you brownie points.”

The shape-shifter paused as if contemplating. “Damn. You’re right. When we were on the mission, she tried to push me away, but I didn’t let her. I couldn’t because Burnett warned me if anything happened to her, he’d have my head on a platter. And that’s when we … Hey! I know what I have to do.”

“What?” Kylie asked, afraid of what she’d set in motion.

“Just wait and see.” A smile spread his lips. Sparkles started popping off around him. He changed into a bird, not one as big or magnificent as the one who guarded her from above, but still impressive. Flapping his wings twice, he flew off, squawking at Perry as he did.

Perry came in for a quick landing. “You are good at this,” he said, still in bird form. “She’ll be putty in his hands. Of course, she’ll have already ripped your heart out for betraying her.”

“Don’t talk to me when you’re not a human!” She dropped her forehead on her knees.

Crap! Perry was right. Della was going to kill her. But since destiny may already have Kylie earmarked to die, she wasn’t sure it really mattered.

Chapter Thirty-six

“You waiting for a call?” Kylie asked Hayden Yates when she walked into his classroom ten minutes later and he was holding his cell.

“Hoping.” He frowned and looked around as if making sure they were alone. “It’s Jenny. She’s left home. God only knows where she is.”

Kylie bit down on her lip. “If you found her, what would you do?”

“What do you mean?” Suspicion made his eyes tighten.

“Would you take her back to her parents? If she’s run away, it’s probably because she’s like you when you were young, and she can’t handle that lifestyle anymore.”

His suspicion faded. “She doesn’t know how hard it is to be completely alone.”

“She wouldn’t be alone,” Kylie said. “She’d have you.”

He frowned. “I know nothing about dealing with a teen.”

Kylie rolled her eyes. “You’re a teacher. You deal with us daily.”

“I teach, I don’t parent. There’s a difference. But discussing this is silly.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “She’s young, she’s naïve.”

“She’s not that naïve.” Kylie remembered Jenny standing up to Derek and how she helped them escape. “What if I knew where she was?”

Hayden glared at Kylie. “Christ! The alarm?”

Kylie nodded. Hayden frowned. “Do Burnett and Holiday know?”

“Not yet.”

He blew air through his teeth. “If the elders find out she’s here, they’ll expect Burnett and Holiday to bring her back.”

“I know,” Kylie said. “That’s the problem.”

Hayden locked both of his hands behind his head. “And Holiday and Burnett will have to do it. They can’t legally keep her without some serious consequences.”

Kylie sighed. “That’s the other part of the problem.”

He pressed a hand on his desk. “This is so screwed up.”

Kylie’s mind raced. “I want to talk to Holiday and Burnett about it, but if this whole Mario thing calmed down, I think I’d have a better chance of convincing them.”

He shot up. “Where is she right now?”

“She’s staying at Derek’s.”

He looked puzzled. “Derek?” Hayden’s expression went from teacher to big brother and Kylie got the feeling Derek could be up against some issues.

“It’s better than my place because Burnett is watching me like a hawk. When Jenny jumped the gate, she couldn’t get close to me because I had shadows. Jenny and Derek met the night I escaped and she thought she could trust him. And she’s right. Derek’s the nicest guy I know. He would never … you know.”

“He better not … you know!” Hayden bit out.

“I think it would be safer to move her to your place. Not because of Derek. But…”

He exhaled. “It would be safer if she went back and—”

“No!” Kylie said. “Just give me some time. I think I can solve this.”

“How? She’s not mature yet.”

Kylie pointed to her pattern. “I’m not completely mature and I’m doing just fine.”

“You can really say that with a straight face?” he asked. “You have a murdering rogue after you. The FRU is chomping at the bit to get their hands on you to test you. In my book that’s not doing okay.”

“Just give me a few days. Please.”

“You can’t fix this, Kylie,” Hayden said.

Hayden’s earlier words echoed in her head.
The FRU is chomping at the bit to get their hands on you to test you.

For the first time, Kylie saw this for what it was. A window! “I can try to fix it,” Kylie said. Maybe die trying, Kylie thought, but maybe not. Besides, staying alive might not be in her cards anyway.

She popped off Hayden’s desk and started walking backward to the door. “I gotta go. I’ll tell Derek to bring Jenny to your place after classes today.”

*   *   *

During lunch, Kylie waited to see if Lucas showed up. She sat beside an angry Della, who scowled at her the whole time because she’d heard Kylie had gone off with Steve. Across from her sat a suspicious Miranda, who’d been pre-warned by her shape-shifter and Kylie’s shadow that she was acting strange.

Perry was wrong. She wasn’t acting strange, she was acting scared. Yet even scared, she knew it was the right thing. Her gut told her.

Her mind shot away from her fears when Lucas walked into the room. He wore a navy T-shirt and his older jeans, the ones that were faded in all the places the material caressed his body. His hair looked windblown as if he’d been out on a run. In less than a week, they’d see a full moon. No doubt he ran to burn off some of the anxiousness.

He looked around the room.

She met his dark blue gaze head-on.

He started toward her, without even going to get a food tray. When he sat down, his shoulder brushed against hers. She dropped her fork and glanced at him. “Would you be up to skipping class for practice?”

His brows tightened. “What’s up?”

Was she that readable? “I’ve already cleared it with Holiday.” And the camp leader had asked the same question.
What’s up, Kylie?

She gave Lucas the same answer she’d given Holiday. “I feel like practicing.” Face it, she couldn’t tell the truth. Not here. But she planned on telling him when they were alone.

“How’s your window?” she asked.

“Still jammed. But I’m working on it.”

The optimism in his voice had her smiling. He grabbed the roll off her plate.

When she looked at him oddly, he said, “I’ll need some kind of nutrition to take you on. You seem extra feisty today.”

“You’re right. You’d better eat the rest of my salad, too,” she teased.

He leaned his head down and whispered, “I love you.”

Love you, too,
Kylie thought, but couldn’t bring herself to say it yet. She wanted to save it until all their windows were open and life offered them promise. And more than anything, she wanted that promise.

*   *   *

As they walked to Lucas’s cabin to collect the swords, Kylie tried to figure out how to tell him about what she was doing. Instinctively, she knew he would fight her on it. And today of all days, she didn’t want to fight.

“So this window you mentioned, you got a plan to get it open?” she asked.

He nodded. “It was what you said about the elders being young at one time. I remembered not too long ago my grandmother asking about one of the elders on the Council. She said he and her twin sister had fancied each other when they were young, but that she’d already been promised to someone else. I hadn’t even known my grandmother was a twin. When I asked about her sister, she said she’d died. But I got a feeling there was more to the story. I went to see her this morning.”