Taken at Dusk (5 page)

Della and Miranda looked at Socks. The little skunk/cat, uncomfortable being the center of attention, scurried closer to Kylie.

“Truce?” Kylie asked, stroking the scared animal’s trembling body.

Thankfully, Miranda and Della nodded.

Miranda leaned closer. “I think I’ve figured out how to turn our little stinker back into a kitten. But I need the first rays of sunshine to do it.” She reached over to pet Socks, but he backed away from her touch and then jumped back into Kylie’s lap.

“Smart skunk,” Della said, grinning. “No telling what you’ll accidentally turn him into next time.”

Miranda frowned. “Maybe I’ll turn
you
into a skunk.”

“And maybe I’ll rip your heart out and feed it to our resident pet.”

“What happened to the truce?” Kylie whined. Socks’s nose nudged deeper into her armpit.

“Fine.” Miranda huffed and then looked at Della. “Your turn. Give us the lowdown on your weekend.”

“You mean besides constantly being told to go pee on a stick? They tested me four times. I think one was a pregnancy test. Like I’ve been doing the dirty with anyone.” Della picked up her cup of blood and gave it a hard look. “The only thing we did all weekend was go see a movie, some old classic my mother loved. Boring. At least I got to sleep without having to explain why I seemed so tired in the middle of the day.” She exhaled rather loudly. “So that’s my weekend. Nothing exciting to tell. Nothing.” She stared back into her cup.

It wasn’t her avoiding direct eye contact that gave it away, more like the emphasis on the second “nothing” that hinted at the truth. Miranda shot Kylie a quick look that said she’d heard it, too. The little vamp was holding back … as usual.

While Kylie debated the wisdom of trying to push Della into giving more, Miranda, who spoke first and seldom thought things through, knocked wisdom out the window and went for it.

“Liar,” Miranda accused. “If I could hear your heartbeat right now, I bet it would prove it, too. What happened? What are you not telling us?”

Della snarled at Miranda. Kylie could feel the fragile truce shattering.

“Chan didn’t show up, did he?” Miranda asked.

Kylie hadn’t thought about that. “Did he show up?” Kylie seconded Miranda’s question—not out of curiosity, but out of concern.

Chan, Della’s cousin, was also a vampire and had helped Della through the turn. However, Chan was also under suspicion of murder by the FRU. After meeting the wild-eyed Chan when he’d broken school policy and dropped by for a visit several weeks earlier, Kylie wasn’t completely sure he wasn’t guilty of the crime. Not that Kylie would tell Della that.

“No, he didn’t show up,” Della said. “But he e-mailed me.”

Miranda made a funny noise. Kylie looked at her.

“Frog in my throat,” Miranda said, and returned to glaring at Della.

When no one said anything, Della looked at Kylie. “Your turn. It’s much more exciting than what happened to me.”

“What do you mean by ‘what happened to you’?” Kylie asked.

“I knew it!” Miranda leaned forward. “Something did happen. ’Fess up. Did it involve a boy? Tell us! Spill your guts, vamp.”

Chapter Four

“No, it’s my turn.” Kylie, regretting her inquiry, held up her hand, hoping to prevent an out-and-out war between her two best friends. She took a deep breath. “I already told you most of it when we talked on the phone. But what I still can’t get over is that I healed both Lucas and Sara. Which means another ability you can add to my hodgepodge of gifts. Any idea what it could mean? Because I’d really like to figure out what I am.”

“We can’t figure you out,” Miranda said. “You’re just a weirdo.” She snickered, and even Della cut a quick smile.

Kylie frowned.

Miranda wiped the humor off her face. “Just joking. But seriously, you are … different. Just the fact that no one can see deep into your pattern, and that it changes, well, it’s not normal.” She squinted her eyes and stared at Kylie’s forehead. “I’ve never seen a brain pattern shift like that, unless it was a shape-shifter during a shift.”

Kylie bit into her lip and considered the wisdom of asking the question now needling her brain. But if she couldn’t ask her two best friends, whom could she ask? “What do you know about protectors?”

Silence filled the room. Then Miranda exchanged a quick glance with Della.

“Why?” Miranda asked.

“Shit!” Della said. “Oh, my friggin’ God! You’re a protector? I mean, I’ve never met one, but from what I heard they are like … super, super rare.”

Kylie held up her hand to stop Della from jumping to conclusions. “I don’t know anything for sure, but Holiday seems to think it’s possible. She said that would explain how Daniel died—because he couldn’t protect himself. And it would also explain why I couldn’t help myself with the vampire.”

“You did help. You broke down a concrete wall,” Miranda said.

“Only after I heard the rogue beating Lucas.”

Miranda’s eyes widened. “And you were only able to take on Selynn when you thought she’d hurt your mom. Holy shit, I’m rooming with a protector. I mean, nobody will mess with me anymore because you’ll kick their ass.” Her voice rose. “I’m friends with a protector. Do you know how cool that makes me?”

Miranda and Della gave each other a high five.

Kylie stared at them. “Do you know how much more uncool it makes me?”

“That doesn’t make you uncool,” Della said. “It makes you amazing. You wouldn’t believe all I’ve heard about protectors. It would mean that when you get all your powers, you would be even stronger than I am.” A frown appeared in her dark, slightly slanted eyes. “I don’t know if I like that, but it’s still amazing.”

“But I don’t want to be amazing. I just want to figure out what I am and then go through my hybrid supernatural life with my not-so-grand gifts. Help a ghost out here and there and, yeah, it will be neat to heal a few people. I’d be fine with that. Because…” Kylie hesitated, unsure about being completely honest, but then decided what the hell. “Maybe it’s not so much that I don’t want to be amazing, it’s that I’m not so sure I can live up to … amazing. I’m not like you.” She pointed to Della. “I’m not fearless and I’m certainly not brave. I like things easy, low or no risk.”

Miranda cleared her throat as if waiting for Kylie to add her to the declaration.

“I’m not like you either,” Kylie said. “I’m not—”

“Don’t worry,” Miranda said. “I know I’m not a kick-ass girl.”

“You’re still braver than I am. And you’re never afraid to speak your mind. You don’t care what people think. I wouldn’t ever dye my hair out of fear that people wouldn’t like it.”

“But the day you kicked Selynn’s ass, you weren’t afraid,” Della jumped in. “You just acted. And eventually, you’ll get used to putting yourself out there. It’s not a big deal.”

It felt like a big deal to Kylie. “Are most protectors a certain species?” If so, she hoped this might lead her to discovering what she was.

“No,” Miranda said. “They can be anything, but they’re known to be good and pure. Sort of the Mother Teresa of supernaturals.”

“Which I’m
so
not,” Kylie said.

Della and Miranda looked at each other and then back at Kylie. “Yeah, you are,” they said at the same time.

“Am not! I’m not any better of a person than you two. I mean, look what I did to Selynn and Fredericka.”

“Because you were protecting someone else. And that’s exactly what protectors do.” Miranda shrugged as if in apology when she spotted Kylie’s frown.

“But … I’m not a saint. The other day I practically shoved Socks off the bed for waking me up. And … I ran over a squirrel once.”

“On purpose?” Della asked.

“No.”

“Then there you go,” Della said. “I’ll bet you even cried and felt guilty.”

Kylie’s frown grew tighter.

Della arched a knowing brow. “See? That’s what makes you so good. You hardly ever get mad.”

“I get mad. I get furious at you guys all the time. Remember—”

“Wait, something doesn’t make sense,” Miranda said. “I’ve never heard of a protector being anything but a hundred percent supernatural.”

“See? That proves it.” Kylie slapped her hands on the table, wanting to believe it. “I’m not that nice of a person, and I know I’m my mother’s daughter. So I’m not a protector.”

“Or maybe you’re just the first hybrid protector to exist,” Miranda said. “I mean, usually there’s only one protector born every hundred or two hundred years. But, hey, enough about that. Let’s get to the good part about what happened that night.” She waved her hands through the air as if to push that thought to the side.

“What good part?” Kylie asked.

Miranda’s grin spread into the perfect smile—one that could be used to sell teeth-whitening strips. “Pleeeassse. You were there, in the dark, late at night, for several hours, and alone with Lucas. Who happens to be the hottest werewolf alive. I mean, I’m so not into werewolves, but even I can see it. He’s like a god. So…” She held out her two palms. “What happened? And don’t you dare tell me nothing. Because I will totally, completely lose faith in romance if nothing happened.”

Kylie opened her mouth to answer and then saw Della leaning forward, turning her head slightly, as if to listen to Kylie’s heartbeat to see if she attempted to lie.

“The little witch has a point,” Della said. “This might be the good part.”

Kylie frowned at Della. For a girl who always kept secrets, she sure didn’t give anyone else a break. Then Kylie looked at Miranda, who held her breath in anticipation of Kylie baring her soul.

“Sorry,” she said. “Nothing happened.”

“Ugh.” Miranda dropped her arms on the table and sank into them.

Della stared, and Kylie knew the vamp was listening to her heartbeat and checking for lies again. Frankly, Kylie wasn’t sure what Della would hear. It wasn’t actually a lie. Nothing happened. Except … She’d felt so safe when Lucas had held her, except that she’d turned into Wonder Woman when she’d heard the rogue hurting Lucas. What did that mean? Kylie wasn’t sure. So how could she explain it?

Miranda lifted her head off the table. “See what I mean? You’re Mother Teresa. Pure. Without lust.”

“No,” Kylie snapped, not wanting to be viewed as a saint. “I … lust.”

Della and Miranda shared a pensive stare. “Sorry,” Della said. “When it walks like a saint, and quacks like saint—it’s a quacking saint.”

“He held me,” Kylie said. “Held me close. And I fell asleep on his shoulder. It was nice. And kind of … He was hot.” Though she meant temperature hot, she didn’t mind if they drew their own conclusions.

“Yes!” Miranda smiled extra big again. “Did he kiss you? Like the awesome kiss he gave you at the creek when you first got here?”

“No,” Kylie said.

Her two friends met each other’s gazes again. “Mother Teresa,” they said in unison.

“But he kissed me when I got back here,” Kylie blurted out, deciding she’d rather kiss and tell than be considered a saint. “And he almost kissed me when he followed me to the office earlier.”

Miranda squealed and Della laughed. “So he planted one on you, huh?”

Kylie looked at the humor on her roommates’ faces and didn’t find any of this so funny. “I’m so confused.” She dropped her head on the table. Socks, now back up on the table, stuck his nose against her head and sniffed her scalp as if he were concerned.

“Confused about what?” Miranda asked.

Kylie lifted her head and rested her chin in her palm. “Confused about what I feel for Lucas. Confused about what I feel for Derek—other than pissed off. I’m really angry at him right now.” Socks bumped against her hand, seeking some TLC. Feeling as if she could use some herself, she offered the little guy some affection.

“And you should be pissed!” Della shot Miranda an odd look. “She needs to know.”

“Know what?” Watching the two of them exchanging gazes, Kylie got a bad feeling.

They didn’t get a chance to answer because she heard a cracking sound and the cabin’s front door swung open. Burnett walked inside, and behind him stood Holiday. Behind Holiday stood Perry.

Did they have news about the Brightens? Kylie’s heart jolted.

“I told you to knock,” Holiday snapped at Burnett.

“I did.” He looked back at Holiday.

“Well, usually after you knock, you wait until someone tells you to enter.”

Burnett shot Holiday a tight smile. “Guess you need to be more specific next time.” He glanced back at Kylie, and she could see concern in his eyes.

“What’s going on?” Kylie’s gaze went back to Perry, who looked almost guilty. But guilty about what? Oh crap! What had happened?

“I’m sorry.” Perry’s eyes turned deep green.

Kylie’s chest tightened. “Sorry for what?”

Perry looked at Burnett and then at Holiday.

“What happened?” Kylie asked. “Are the Brightens okay? Answer me!”

Perry just stood there looking guilt-ridden.

“I’d answer her,” Della said to Perry in her snarky voice. “She might go after your ears again if you don’t.”

Chapter Five

“I don’t know what happened.” Perry moved in closer, his eyes brightening to emerald green.

“How could you not know?” Kylie looked to Burnett and then Holiday, waiting for one of them to pipe up. When they didn’t, she refocused on Perry. “You were following them.” Suddenly, the guilt she spotted on his face did a flying leap and landed right on Kylie’s own shoulders. If something really bad had happened to them, it was her fault. She’d been the one wanting to contact them. But damn it, she’d been so sure it was the right thing to do.

“They disappeared,” Perry said. “One minute they were driving down the freeway in that silver Cadillac and then, poof.” He waved his hands out in front of him. “They were gone. Cadillac and everything. Gone. Poof.”

Kylie’s chest grew heavy. “People, human people, don’t just go poof.” She managed to keep her voice low, but her frustration laced the tone with sarcasm.

Then the truth hit. She only thought people didn’t go poof. Not too long ago she didn’t think people could turn into unicorns, or that vampires and werewolves existed. She wouldn’t have thought she could use her dreams to communicate with people or that she could break down a concrete wall. So who the hell knew if people went poof or not? And if they did go poof, did that mean…?