Taken at Dusk (29 page)

Which only went to show how she and Perry had different definitions of fun.

*   *   *

A minute later, Kylie, Ellie, and Perry took off walking along one of the trails. For the longest time, none of them spoke.

“Where are we going?” Ellie broke the unspoken code of silence.

“Down by the creek bed,” Kylie said.

“Okay,” Ellie said.

They continued for another ten minutes, walking fast, supernatural fast. No one complained. At least not about the speed.

Ellie piped up again. “I’m new here, but I thought the objective of campmate hour was to talk—to get to know each other.”

“So talk,” Kylie snapped, and dodged a few limbs that seemed to try to reach out and grab her. She also dodged logic that said she should fake a huge migraine and send the little sex kitten on her way back to camp.

“Okay … My name is Ellie Mason and I have a feeling you don’t like me.”

Kylie stopped and swerved around—she had the script down in her head for faking a sick headache. She wouldn’t even have to fake it because now her head was actually throbbing. But when she opened her mouth, her words had nothing to do with migraines.

“Okay, let’s get something out in the open. I know you had sex with Derek.” Her voice seemed to bounce from tree to tree.

“Damn!” Perry said, and grinned. “This is gonna be better than I thought.”

Chapter Twenty-five

Kylie glared at the shape-shifter.

Perry’s smile vanished.

Kylie arched a brow. “Do it.”

He frowned. “Not the deaf cat again,” he pleaded. “I can’t hear. My equilibrium is thrown off. It’s like I’m in a vacuum.”

She didn’t look away until the sparkles started popping off like fireworks. Then she turned and faced Ellie, who stared wide-eyed at the cascading sparkles around Perry.

“Holy shit! I’ve never seen a shape-shifter transform before. I mean, I heard about what happens when they shift, but that is so cool.”

“Did you hear what I said?” Kylie crossed her arms over her chest as fury built in the pit of her stomach.

“Did you see him change?” Ellie asked.

Kylie tapped her tennis shoe in the moist, rocky soil. “I said I know you had sex with Derek.”

Ellie continued to stare at Perry, who was now a white, blue-eyed feline. There was a sudden silence in the woods. Kylie ignored it and focused on Ellie.

“Yeah, I heard you,” Ellie said, still not looking at her. “And I’m purposely stalling, so I can figure out how to answer you.” The dark-haired vamp released a deep breath and looked at Kylie. “Derek told you?”

Kylie nodded.

Ellie shook her head. “Just like Derek. He’s one of those nice guys who think the truth is the best policy.”

“You would have lied to me?” Kylie asked, searching for a reason to really dislike the girl. As if having sex with Derek weren’t enough of a reason. But then again, Kylie and Derek hadn’t had a commitment; they hadn’t even gone out on an official date. And Derek and Ellie shared a past.

“Yup. I’d have lied,” Ellie said. “Not for spite or anything. Just because … well, what happened between me and Derek didn’t mean crap, so what would be the point of letting that cause a bunch of shit?”

Kylie frowned. “If it didn’t mean crap, then why did you do it?”

She shrugged. “Because I wanted it to mean something.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Kylie accused.

Ellie frowned. “Okay, look. I like Derek. A lot. I mean, he’s hot, he’s sweet, and so damn great. But … there are just no sparks. Like before when we were dating. We had a lot of sparkless sex. I’m sure you’ve dealt with that, right?”

Kylie didn’t correct her. Admitting she was a virgin to a stranger didn’t sit well with her.

“So when he appears at this party, I’m feeling a tiny bit scared, slightly vulnerable, and he shows up like a knight in shining armor. And he looks hot, and I think maybe this time there’d be sparks.” She shook her head. “But no sparks.”

Kylie felt the air grow cold around them. Dead cold.
Please not now,
she said in her head.

“If he told you about the sex,” Ellie continued, “then he also told you that as soon as it was over, we both were like … ‘God, that was a mistake.’ And five minutes later, he’s telling me about some girl he met named Kylie.”

Kylie stared down at the ground, and she could swear it had just shifted beneath her feet. She glanced over at Perry, who sat on a tree limb, swatting at a butterfly.

“You do know he really cares about you, right?” Ellie asked.

The ghost materialized right in front of Kylie, and she looked panicked, scared.

Please … not now!

Kylie ignored the spirit and studied Ellie. Suddenly the whole conversation seemed silly and totally unnecessary. She had no right to be upset that Derek and Ellie had sex. None. Zilch. Zero.

“I’m sorry,” Kylie said. “I shouldn’t have—”

“Yeah, you should have. If some chick had sex with a guy I liked, I’d be pissed, too. It’s cool that you just spoke your mind. I respect that.”

“No,” Kylie said. “I mean, it’s not like … that with me and Derek. Yeah, Derek and I were almost something, but then…”
He just ended it.
She stopped herself. She didn’t want to go into that. “It’s over.”

“Right. Over.” Ellie rolled her eyes. “Seriously? Every time we walk into a crowd of people, do you know what he does? He looks for you.” She chuckled. “Which is silly. And so I asked him about it. I go, ‘You say you can feel her a mile away, so you know she’s not here, so why do you look for her if you already know?’” Ellie grinned. “You know what he said to me? He said, ‘Hope lives eternal.’”

Kylie recognized the words she’d offered Perry a little while ago.

“The guy’s got it bad for you,” Ellie said.

Kylie shook her head again. “No, it’s over. He ended it. I’m going out with someone else now.”

“You are?” Shock widened Ellie’s blue eyes. “Does Derek know?”

“No. I mean, I’m going to be going out with someone else.” Feeling like a dork, she added, “Lucas asked me to go out at breakfast. But I didn’t get a chance to say yes.”

Ellie raised her eyebrows in suspicion. “So, you didn’t say yes.”

Kylie frowned, and the dead cold seemed to crawl against her skin. “We were interrupted.”

“How long does it take to say yes?” Ellie wrapped her arms around herself as if to fight off the cold and looked around as if confused by the sudden change in temperature.

“What’s your point?” Kylie asked, feeling frustrated but not sure if it stemmed from the ghost or from Ellie. Then Kylie saw the ghost pacing back and forth, staring at her as if she needed to tell her something. Something urgent.

Ellie did her shrug thing again. “I’m just saying it sounds like you hesitated. And maybe there’s a reason for that. Maybe the reason is—”

“There’s no reason. I didn’t hesitate.”

Jane Doe stopped pacing and stared Kylie dead in the eyes.
“You should run!”

“You sure?” Ellie asked.

“I’m sure,” Kylie said, and she was. Wasn’t she? She’d been going to tell him yes before Burnett came over. She would tell Lucas yes the next time she saw him.

“Run!”
the ghost screamed.

“Why?” Kylie asked the spirit, and glanced at Perry still in the tree, slowly sneaking up on the butterfly.

“Why what?” Ellie asked.

“Run!”
The spirit screamed the word so loud, Kylie thought her eardrums would rupture. She looked up and saw the eagle coming at her full blast with his talons out.

She ducked, barely dodging the bird’s sharp claws. Right then, the ground under her feet started moving. Seriously moving. A loud rumble seemed to explode from below her.

“Run!” Kylie screamed at Ellie.

The vamp, her eyes glowing a bright yellow, stared at the ground. “What the hell?”

“Run!” Kylie screamed, and grabbed Ellie’s arm and took off, dragging her with her. They had gotten less than a foot when the earth where they’d just stood dropped into a big, dark hole. A hole that kept growing wider, moving closer. Kylie got about another ten feet when she remembered.

Perry. He was stuck in a tree and wouldn’t be able to hear what was happening below him.

She swung around. Just as she suspected, he was still in the tree.

Still staring at the butterfly.

“We should keep going!” yelled Ellie.

The hole in the ground kept expanding as if someone sucked the earth from below. It got almost to the tree. Almost to Perry. He still hadn’t seen it.

And it was her fault. All her fault.

“Perry, run!” she screamed with everything she had.

But Perry couldn’t hear.

My equilibrium is thrown off. It’s like I’m in a vacuum.
His words raked across her mind like cut glass.

She saw the hole begin to pull on the roots of the tree.

She saw Perry the feline lose his footing.

He fought to stay in the tree. She watched in horror as he wrapped his feline limbs around the branch, his claws digging into the bark as he clung for life. But the dark hole, like a monster who didn’t give up, sucked the tree down, taking the small, blue-eyed kitten into the dark oblivion.

Someone lives and someone dies.

“No!” Kylie screamed, and bolted forward, taking a flying leap into the dark hole.

Chapter Twenty-six

The darkness surrounded Kylie the second her foot left solid earth, and she tumbled down the pit. She heard screams, tortured screams, coming from below. Or were they just inside her head? It was hard to tell. Then she was struck by a cold so intense that it almost stole her breath. She instantly knew the sounds were coming from hell. Was Holiday right? Had she spent too much time with pure evil and now she was paying the price?

And because of her, so was Perry?

Suddenly, painful little sparks hit her body from beneath her, jolts of what felt like electricity. It took two or three strikes before she realized what it meant.

Perry. Perry was shifting.

Then she slammed against … something half-soft, half-prickly.

With a lot of feathers.

She bounced off it, flipped over, and screamed as she continued her descent, falling faster now into oblivion and going headfirst.

Huge, leathery-feeling handcuffs latched on to her right arm and yanked her upward. Her arm felt pulled out of its socket. She muttered a curse at the sharp pain.

“I got you…” Perry’s voice reverberated through the hole.

It was meant to reassure her, but it didn’t. What if he lost his grip on her arm? What if whatever it was that waited for them below suddenly decided to come up for a visit?

“Kylie!”

She jerked her head up to the entrance to the large sinkhole. Bright light spilled in from the opening, making it hard to see. Then she saw a body falling.

No, not just a body. It was Ellie.

“Shit!” Perry screamed, flapping his large bird wings as fast as he could. “I can’t catch her. I can’t.”

An eerie sense of calm settled over Kylie. She reached out with her free hand just as gravity brought Ellie’s body past them and latched on to the vampire’s forearm. Kylie’s hold was weak, though, and her palm started to slip. She tried to tighten her grip, lost it, and finally caught the girl by her wrist.

Ellie screamed and started to fight. Her eyes glowed a bright red in the darkness.

“It’s me,” Kylie said.

“Everyone, hang on!” Perry’s voice bounced off the earthen walls of the pit.

Ellie struggled again, and Kylie pulled her closer. “I’ve got you.”

And she did. Kylie put every ounce of thought and strength into not letting go of Ellie’s wrist.

The sound of air
whoosh
ing and huge bird wings flapping filled the darkness, and in a few seconds, Perry lifted all three of them out of the hole. Once they were back in the light, he flew them about a hundred feet up the path before he descended and dropped them carefully on the solid earth.

He landed beside them, talons hitting the earth with a thud. As Kylie suspected, he’d shifted into a prehistoric-looking bird with dark gray feathers. He was about the size of a small plane. Then the rumble beneath the ground started again.

“Run!” he ordered.

He didn’t have to tell them twice. Kylie and Ellie took off, flying through the woods, dodging trees, ducking under limbs, and leaping over thick bunches of thornbushes.

Kylie kept glancing up to make sure Perry was okay. He was still following them, gliding easily over the tips of the trees, making sure they were safe.

Once they were out of the trees, Kylie dropped to the ground and gasped for air, her pulse racing. She could hear her blood gushing in her veins. Ellie dropped down beside her, breathing not quite as hard, but still a little shaky.

Perry landed beside them and transformed himself back into human form.

“What the freaking hell were you doing?” he screamed at Kylie, his eyes blood red with fury.

She swallowed another gulp of air. “Trying to save you.”

“I didn’t need saving!” He flapped his arms up and down almost as if he’d forgotten he was no longer a bird. He turned his anger on Ellie. “And you? What the hell is your excuse?”

She coughed and then said, “I … figured if I came back alive and you two didn’t, the rest of your group would probably kill me. I didn’t have a choice but to go in after you.”

Suddenly Burnett, eyes in full protective mode and his fangs exposed, flashed onto the scene. “What happened?” he asked, his voice little more than a deep growl. “It sounded like an explosion.”

“Earthquake, maybe,” Perry said. “The ground just sank below us.”

“But that’s—” Burnett shook his head. “Is everyone okay?”

They all nodded. Burnett’s gaze locked on Kylie. “You’re bleeding. Go to the office and let Holiday check you all out.” Kylie looked down at her arm. Ellie’s nails must have scratched her when she caught her.

Burnett continued, “I’ll check to see how bad the, uh, earthquake is.” He turned to go.

“Wait!” Kylie called out, and Burnett returned in a blur of motion.

“What?” he asked, impatience clear in his voice.