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Authors: C. C. Hunter

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BOOK: Taken at Dusk
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“Nobody has the right to be pathetic,” Kylie said.

“I don’t know about that. I think I’ve earned the right a few times in my life.” Holiday set her rocking chair into a slow swaying motion.

Kylie stared at the camp leader, and she had a distinct feeling that there were a lot of things Holiday still hadn’t told Kylie about herself.

“Did I sense a new spirit earlier?” Holiday asked.

“Yeah.” Kylie leaned back in the chair. “She’s still not making sense. Says she’s confused.” Kylie recalled the angry-looking stitches she’d seen on the woman’s head. “I think she died of a brain tumor or something. She had a shaved head and scars.”

“Hmm,” Holiday said.

“And I think she’s buried at Fallen Cemetery.”

“Really? Did she tell you that?”

“No, but that’s where I felt like I picked her up. Driving here this morning, my mom had just passed the cemetery when the spirit popped into the backseat.”

“I guess that could be it.”

“But you don’t think so?” Kylie asked, unsure of Holiday’s logic.

“I’m not saying it can’t be that simple, but I’ve found the majority of spirits that come to us have … connections more than just our driving by a cemetery. Now, I’m not saying we don’t get random ghosts sometimes, because we do. The other day, I got a dripping wet, elderly man, naked as the day he was born. He died in the shower at his nursing home. Wanted me to tell the nurse to please come get him out.” Holiday shook her head.

“What did you do?” Kylie asked.

“I called the nursing home and said I was a friend of the family and had tried to call Mr. Banes in his room and he wasn’t answering.”

“And he went away?”

“Crossed right over.”

“I hope this spirit is that easy. I could use a break.” Then Kylie remembered what the spirit had said. “You know … the spirit said that there were people who wanted her to tell me something.”

“Tell you what?”

“I asked, but … she said something like, some people live and some people die. It didn’t make sense.”

“They seldom do at first.”

Kylie bit down on her lip. “Could it be my dad trying to tell me something? He tried to appear right before I saw the Brightens—or whoever they were.”

Holiday stopped rocking. “What did he say?”

“He couldn’t completely manifest. All I got were a few words.” Kylie frowned. “Why does he have to stop coming to see me?”

Holiday’s expression filled with sympathy. “Death is a new beginning, Kylie. One can’t begin the new until they let go of the old. He has held on to the past for a long time. He needs to move forward. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Kylie stopped her chair’s swaying. “Understand it? Maybe. Like it? No.” Sighing, she stood up. “I told Miranda and Della I’d meet them back at the cabin.”

“Sure.” Holiday hesitated a moment. “I thought now might be a good time to chat about your new gifts.”

“What’s to talk about? Just because I ran through a concrete wall?” Kylie used sarcasm to cover up her unresolved feeling.

Holiday grinned. “And you healed Sara. And Lucas.”

Kylie sat back down. “We hope I healed Sara.”

“From what you said, I’d be surprised if you hadn’t.” Holiday continued to stare. “If one of your gifts is that you’re a protector, Kylie, this could only be the beginning of your talents. I’m surprised you aren’t peppering me with questions.”

“Maybe I’d like a few answers before I start asking more questions. And I don’t even mean about what I am, but about who the Brightens are. And what my dad wanted to tell me.”

Holiday’s eyes filled with understanding. “It’s all happening very fast, isn’t it?”

“Yes, and talking about it’s not going to change anything.” Her chest swelled with emotion.

“It could. Sometimes things don’t feel real until we talk about them.”

Kylie released a breath. “I’m not sure I want it to feel any more real right now.”

“Perhaps we should take a walk up to the falls?”

“No,” Kylie said, unsure she could go there and not get upset if all she got from those magical waters was a voice telling her to be patient. Hadn’t she been patient long enough? “Can we just talk later?”

“Fine.” Holiday started to touch her and then pulled back. “But only a temporary postponement. We really need to talk.”

“Yeah, I know.” Kylie popped back up and reached for the envelope.

“Can I keep these for a while?” Holiday asked.

Kylie’s heart clutched. “I…”

“Just for a few days. I’m sure Burnett is going to want to check and see if they are originals or copies.”

Kylie nodded. “They’re important to me.”

Holiday smiled with honest understanding. “I know.”

Kylie took one step off the porch and turned back around. “You will let me know the instant you hear something from Burnett or Derek, right?”

“The instant,” Holiday assured her.

Kylie started to leave and then turned back, walked over to Holiday, and hugged her. Hugged her really tight.

“Thank you,” Kylie said.

“For what?” Holiday sounded confused, but it didn’t stop her from hugging Kylie back.

“For being here. For being you. For putting up with me.”

Holiday snickered. “You’re beginning to sound melodramatic, and that’s just a hair away from pathetic.”

Kylie broke the embrace, smiled back at Holiday, and took off down the trail to her cabin.

*   *   *

She hadn’t gotten halfway there when the hair on the back of her neck seemed to dance and she felt the unmistakable sense of being watched. She glanced to the woods on her left but saw nothing but trees and underbrush. She fixed her stare to the right and found the overgrown terrain to be equally empty. But she still felt it—even stronger.

Glancing up at the cloudless blue sky, she blinked. A bird soared high overhead. The broad wingspan, the hooked beak, and the white splash of coloring on his chest identified him as an eagle. She studied the creature, slowly gliding as if taking his sweet time, as if he were transfixed by … the view?

What view?

Did he watch her? Was the feeling she got from the bird? Was it just your average eagle? Or was it like Perry, who could change his form into anything he desired? She continued to watch him, feeling uneasy.

Without warning, the eagle changed course. His movements quickened as he charged. Close. Closer. She met his eyes. The fierceness made her shudder. Or was it his thick talons held out as if prepared to attack?

The
whoosh
of air from his wings hit her face, and she slammed her eyes shut.

 

Chapter Three

Kylie threw up her arm to protect her face, but she felt nothing, no claws cutting into her flesh. Not on her face or her arm.

She heard rustling at her feet, accompanied by a rattling noise. Uncovering her face, she looked down. Her breath caught. She lurched back as the eagle used his sharp beak and talons to attack the snake that lay a few inches from her feet. The rattling noise hit again. She noticed the diamondlike shapes on the back of the brown-and-tan snake, then her gaze followed the coiled reptile to the dry, tan appendage growing from its tail.

A rattlesnake.

She lunged back. The bird buried his talons into the round, thick flesh of the snake. The eagle’s wings worked overtime as he carried the squirming snake a few feet off the ground. The flapping of wings, the
whoosh
ing of air, and the distinctive rattle of the reptile filled her ears. The eagle hung a few feet above the ground, his wings slapping against the air.

She stood in the middle of the path and watched as the huge bird flew away with his prey. Looking back at her feet, she saw dusty marks in the path where the snake had fought for its life and lost. Beside the marks, a pair of shoe prints pressed into the ground. Her shoes. Had the eagle not charged, would she have seen the snake? Or would she now have the rattler’s venom running up her leg?

Was she just lucky, or had this meant something? She considered turning around and finding Holiday, but logic intervened. She was in the woods in the Texas Hill Country. Her father—stepfather—had warned her constantly about snakes.

Convincing herself that this was just an uncanny moment that she’d gotten to experience nature at its scariest, she took another step forward. She did glance up one more time, though. The eagle, with the snake still tightly in his clutches, circled above. She stared, her breath caught in her throat. And as crazy as it seemed, she could swear the eagle stared back.

She stood, hand shadowing her eyes, and watched him until he was a dark speck fading into the massive blue sky. A thought hit that she should be grateful to the eagle, but the cold look in the bird’s eyes flashed in her mind and sent a shiver down her spine.

Moving her hand away from her brow, she started for her cabin when her gaze clashed with another cold pair of eyes. Fredericka. Kylie remembered how angry Fredericka had been when she’d caught her and Lucas behind the office. Not that they’d been doing anything but looking at pictures of Daniel and talking.

“How does it feel to be a play toy?” Fredericka’s voice sounded tight with anger, the kind of anger that could bring out the claws. And the hint of orange in the girl’s dark eyes said the claws were definitely an option.

Kylie inhaled and reminded herself not to show any fear. “Jealousy isn’t becoming on you.”

“I’m not jealous.” Fredericka flashed a smug smile. “Especially now.”

Now what?
Kylie wanted to ask, but to do so would have given the bully credence, and Kylie refused to do that. Instead, she started walking away. She told herself to forget about Fredericka, that she had other problems to chew on right now. Kylie pulled out her phone to see if Derek had ever returned her call about the detective. He hadn’t.

“Lucas’s bloodline is pure, he values that,” Fredericka spouted from behind Kylie. “The forefathers value that, too. They’ve made that clear. So when it comes time for him to seek his true mate, he won’t dirty up his bloodline with the likes of you.”

Nonsense, Kylie told herself, and kept walking. Fredericka was just talking nonsense. She had grandparents or pretend grandparents to worry about, so she wouldn’t let this she-wolf upset her. Then the memory of the eagle filled her mind. Maybe she should worry about that, too.

*   *   *

Less than an hour later, still not hearing from Derek, Perry, or Burnett, Kylie sat at the kitchen table in her cabin with Miranda and Della. She’d told them about the snake and eagle and her thoughts that the incident was somehow more than it appeared.

“I would have smelled it if we had intruders,” Della assured her.

“And I would have felt it if magic was being used to cover someone’s tracks,” Miranda said.

“See, that’s why I need you guys,” Kylie said. “You keep me from losing it.” She leaned back in her chair, wishing their confirmation had chased away all her doubts. Then again, maybe it wasn’t the doubts bothering her, but everything else on her plate.

Kylie’s pet, Socks Jr.—the kitten Miranda had accidentally turned into a skunk—leapt up and landed in her lap. While Kylie still felt caught in the tailspin of the emotional storm, doing something as commonplace as their diet soda roundtable discussions brought some solace.

Miranda, up first in the discussion of their weekend woes and whines, retold everything about her witches’ competition, in which she’d placed second. “I was excited that I placed so high,” she said. “I thought my mom would be happy. But no.” Miranda hesitated. “Second just means you’re the first loser,” she recounted her mother’s words. The tone in Miranda’s voice told Kylie how much her friend was hurting. “I wanted to impress her, and for a minute there, I thought I’d actually, finally done it. I’ll never make that woman happy.”

Della rolled her eyes. “Why would you want to make her happy?”

“Because she’s my mom.” Miranda answered with so much honesty that sadness tugged at Kylie’s heart. She remembered feeling much the same way about her own mom before they found their peace.

“News flash,” Della said, waving her hand. “Your mom’s the biggest b … witch I’ve ever heard of. At least my parents’ attitude is because they’re worried I’m hurting myself by doing drugs and not because they aren’t happy with me.” Tears brightened Miranda’s eyes and anger tightened her expression as she stared at Della.

Kylie felt tension thickening in the air. “I think what Della means is—”

“I’m sorry,” Della interrupted Kylie. The smartass look on Della’s face quickly faded into a frown. “That sounded mean, and I … Truth is if my parents knew the truth, they’d probably rather me be a drug addict than a vampire.” Della studied Miranda and sighed. “It just makes me furious at your mom. I know how hard you worked to impress her. And you took friggin’ second place, which is fabulous.”

“Thanks,” Miranda said, her anger dissolving but her eyes getting wetter.

“For what?” Della flopped back into the chair, as if aware she’d shown a softer side of her personality. Della seldom let that side show. Not that Kylie and Miranda didn’t see it. Well, Kylie saw it. Miranda had a harder time seeing through Della’s guarded front.

Miranda brushed her hand over her cheek again and sat up taller. “Enough about that. I’ve got other news. Todd Freeman, a warlock, came over and asked if he could have my cell number. He’s like the hottest guy in my old school. So at least someone noticed I did good in the competition.” She grinned. “Not that I think it was my trophy he was interested in. I caught him at least three times checking out my girls.”

“Jerk,” Della said. “I hope the only thing you gave him was your middle finger.”

“Duh, didn’t you hear me? Cutest guy in school. Besides, big boobs are natural guy magnets—that’s just the way it is. Why wouldn’t I give my number to him?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you still want to suck face with a certain shape-shifter?”

“Please, I’m so over Perry,” Miranda snapped.

Della tapped the end of her nose. “Pheromones don’t lie.”

“No arguing on the first day back,” Kylie said. “Tomorrow you two can threaten to tear each other’s limbs off, but today … just give me a little peace today.” She picked up Socks from her lap and placed him on the table. “Besides … you’re gonna upset Socks and then we’re all gonna end up getting skunked.”

BOOK: Taken at Dusk
10.06Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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