Chosen at Nightfall (A Shadow Falls Novel) (41 page)

“Yes,” Kylie said. “And she’d like to stay here. To finish school.”

“Will her parents sign for her?” Holiday asked.

Hayden’s jaw tightened. “I don’t know how they are going to feel when they learn she’s here. With the news of the FRU, they may allow it. If they don’t, I’ll be taking legal action to get custody of her.”

“Is she here now? In this room?” Holiday asked.

Kylie nodded. “Jenny.”

Jenny appeared, standing against the wall farthest away from Burnett. Kylie didn’t know if it was just Burnett’s warm and fuzzy appearance right now, or if it was because Jenny knew he was part of the FRU that had sheer panic in the girl’s gaze.

Burnett must have recognized the look, because immediately his posture softened. He offered her a nod.

“Hello, Jenny,” he said. “Welcome to Shadow Falls.”

Kylie saw Holiday beam with pride at her soon-to-be husband’s transformation. No doubt Holiday was schooling him on softening his approach. And it was working.

Kylie just hoped that this meant Jenny’s chances of staying on at Shadow Falls were good.

*   *   *

Holiday and Hayden were going to have a conference call with Kylie’s grandfather to talk about the possibility of Jenny staying on. Until then, Jenny was going to hang out with Holiday, with plans to introduce Jenny to everyone at lunch.

Kylie suggested she introduce Jenny to some of her own friends first. Maybe Jenny wouldn’t feel as if everyone at Shadow Falls were rude gaping individuals.

Kylie made some phone calls and asked everyone to meet her in the office at 10:45. She didn’t tell anyone what it was about, but she had good faith they would all show up.

As Kylie left the office, Della met her outside and they went to wait for Campmate hour. Miranda came running up with Perry. “So what’s the meeting all about?”

“You’ll find out,” Kylie said, not wanting to explain with so many ears around. Since Della already knew about Jenny, or as Della had dubbed her, Girl Wonder, she’d told Della the truth.

“I know,” Della said, teasing Miranda.

Kylie frowned at Della.

“Why did you tell her and not me?” Miranda asked.

“I promise you’ll understand later.”

Miranda frowned. “You aren’t leaving again, are you? Because you pinky promised me you wouldn’t.” Tears actually appeared in the witch’s eyes.

“I’m not leaving,” Kylie assured her. Not by her own accord, Kylie thought, and then thought again about the sword and what it all meant.

“You’re gonna come clean and tell us that you and Hayden are lovers,” Perry said.

Kylie scowled at him.

“Hey, I’m just guessing. I mean there’s something going on between you two.”

Lucas showed up right then and growled at the shape-shifter for the comment. Then Lucas leaned down and kissed her.

“What happened with your grandma?” she asked in a low whisper.

“Window’s open.” He kissed her again. “She’s going to talk to him about meeting me. He could tell her hell no, but it’s a start.”

“It’s a great start.” Kylie let out a squeal and for just a few minutes, she felt certain everything in her crazy life was going to work out.

Then Chris, announcer of the grand event, pulled his hat from behind his back and his gaze started moving around the crowd and stopped on Kylie. She wanted to scream, enough was enough. But then his gaze shifted a little to her right.

Was he looking at her? Or was he looking at …

“Okay,” Chris said. “One of our own vampires brings in a little blood. About time.”

Oh, hell, Kylie thought, and got a feeling she knew who’d paid blood for Della. And she wasn’t sure this was a good thing.

“Della, our friend, you get the pleasure of spending an hour with Steve, the amazing shape-shifter.”

Della’s mouth dropped open. She looked around, eyes bright with fury for the culprit.

Steve strutted out of the crowd, and went to confront the pissed-off vamp with a confident gait.

Kylie knew she’d told him to fight for Della, but she hadn’t meant for him to do it in front of everyone. Della, not liking being shown up, was likely to fight back.

“You ready?” Steve asked.

Della scowled. “I’m not going to spend an hour with you.”

Steve just stood there. “I paid good blood for you.”

“Then you really screwed up.”

“Nope.” Steve looked back at Chris and then the forty or so other students enjoying the show. “What are the rules, Chris? Hasn’t everyone pretty much agreed to honor the blood drive?”

Chris looked shocked that Steve dared to argue with Della. But he shook his head. “Yup, that’s pretty much it.”

Steve turned back to Della. “You ready?”

Della tilted her chin and glared daggers at the boy.

Perry leaned over and whispered to Kylie, “If she kills him, it’s your fault.”

Chapter Thirty-nine

Oh, hell, Kylie thought, and prepared herself to intervene.

“I’m not going!” Della snipped, and put her hands on her hips.

“We’ll see about that.” Steve shrugged and looked as if he was going to walk away, but then he swung around and grabbed Della by her lower legs and tossed her over his shoulder and started walking.

Everyone started hooting and hollering with laughter.

Kylie didn’t laugh. She saw a very pissed-off vampire brace her hands on Steve’s butt and look up. Her eyes were green with fury, but there was something else there, too. Something that told Kylie that Steve’s ass wasn’t about to get chewed up.

With every fraction of a second that passed, Kylie felt more confident that Della wasn’t going to go ape-shit on Steve, she was actually going to go with him.

Damn, Kylie thought. Maybe she really was good at the whole matchmaking thing.

*   *   *

“Can I vanish?” Jenny asked Kylie as they stood in the door of the lunch room with Holiday.

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Kylie said. “Just smile. Believe it or not, you sort of get used to it.”

The meeting with Jenny and Kylie’s friends had gone off without a hitch. Everyone genuinely seemed to like her. Derek, of course, showed the most interest.

Lucas had come up behind her and said, “Another secret.”

Kylie offered a quick “Sorry,” and nothing else. She had the feeling keeping him at bay until he met with the Council was going to be tough. For both of them. But she was determined.

“Don’t they know it’s rude to stare?” Jenny asked.

“Yeah, but they just can’t seem to help themselves,” Kylie said.

Hayden stood up from his seat and moved to Jenny’s side.

He wasn’t smiling and she saw the big brother protective attitude in the way he looked at all the students. “Eat your lunch and stop gawking,” he ordered.

Holiday spoke up next. “Mr. Yates is right. This is no way to welcome a new student.”

Kylie and Jenny both looked at Holiday with questions in their eyes, and Holiday smiled and nodded. Then she turned back to the crowd. “Everyone, I’d like for you to meet Jenny Yates. She’s Hayden’s little sister. So mistreat her and you might be getting extra homework assignments.”

“Is she the same as Kylie?” someone asked.

Hayden took a step forward. “And the same as me.”

Everyone’s eyes tightened and gasps filled the dining hall. Kylie went to sit with Hayden and Jenny at what she realized was the chameleon table. A feeling of rightness filled Kylie’s chest. This was part of her quest and she’d accomplished it.

Of course, all Kylie’s friends quickly joined them. Lucas included. And that was just fine—because while it was nice to have someone like you around, a person’s pattern shouldn’t dictate who you welcomed into your life, or at your lunch table.

*   *   *

Later that evening, they went down to the lake to swim because with fall upon them, the water would be too cold soon. Kylie had almost declined but when she saw Della wanted to go, she gave in. She put on her bathing suit and slipped a black coverall dress over it. As everyone swam, Kylie moved to sit on the pier and call her mom.

She hadn’t shaken the feeling that John was up to no good. The conversation was short. Her mom and John were out to eat at one of the nicest restaurants in Houston.

Hanging up, Kylie stood there and tried to soak up the sunset. Just when the sun slipped away, nightfall came and turned the sky an array of colors. The birds flew from one tree to another, feasting on insects. Kylie was about to rejoin the others by the water’s edge when the spirit’s cold washed down on her. Kylie looked around and the spirit sat on the edge of the pier as if in a stupor, looking lost, looking so damn sad.

“I know who you are, Lucinda,” Kylie said. “You were Mario’s daughter-in-law.”

I know. I’ve figured that part out. But things came to me one piece at a time, like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. I could almost see what my whole life was like, but when those last dozen pieces fell into place, I saw the whole picture.
Her voice sounded tight, ready to break.
I didn’t like it.

After a long pause, she looked at Kylie.
I lived a terrible life. Did terrible things. Hurt so many people. And my own son paid the price. I should have lived to be a good example for him.

Kylie looked up at the beaconing sky. The hues of gold and oranges had faded and it was now ten different shades of pink. She noted the birds were now flocking around the pier. Could they, like her, see the dead?

Looking back at the sadness in the spirit’s eyes, Kylie said, “He’s in heaven.”

The spirit shook her head.
I don’t think so. I’m sure his grandfather taught him all his evil ways. He was so young and impressionable. Then his own grandfather killed him.

The mood surrounding the spirit—devastation, doom—pressed on Kylie’s heart. “You were an example for him. He died saving someone else, just the way you did to save him. You taught him that. And that’s what saved his soul.”

The ghost’s eyes grew wet with emotion.
Are you sure? How do you know this?

Kylie hesitated, worried the spirit might blame her. “He died saving me.”

The spirit sat as if lost in thought for a second.
Then that’s why they sent me here?

“Who sent you here?” Kylie asked, pretty sure she knew, but she wanted to hear it.

The death angels.

“Is that whose voice I hear every now and then?”

That would be them.

“But why do I hear them more than … Holiday and other ghost whisperers?”

They watch over protectors closer. They have to because you can only fight to protect others.

“Do they want me to kill Mario, or is that just you?” Kylie hoped she was wrong about her assumptions.

At first I thought it was just me, but then I realized it was their plan, too.

Kylie’s heart clutched.

He has to be stopped. You are the chosen one. No one else has been able to stop him.

“But if I can’t protect myself, then … who will I be protecting when I fight him?”

I cannot see that future.

“But what if I can’t do it? I’m not that good with a sword.”

Then you die trying. Sometimes that’s all we can do.

Kylie knew the spirit referred to herself, too. She’d died trying to save her son. Yet as much as she felt for the ghost, fear bit down on Kylie.

“I’m not ready to die.”

Then you have to practice. That’s another reason I’m here. To help teach you to fight—because if you fail, bad things will happen to so many people. People you care about. People who trust you to protect them.

She felt the sting in her blood at being a protector. “Then I’ll have to win,” Kylie said. Because damn it, she wouldn’t let Mario hurt anyone else that she loved.

“What?”

Kylie looked over her shoulder at the sound of Lucas’s voice. His lack of a shirt had her staring. His hair was still wet. A few droplets of water still clung to his chest. He’d been in the water just a few minutes ago. He must have slipped his jeans over his swim trunks. She could see the edge of suit sticking out over the waist of his jeans.

Her gaze moved across that spot on his belly button where she’d run her hands to heal him, and then just to touch him.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded, but it was a lie. Her heart was caught on the possibility of dying, of others suffering because she couldn’t rise to the challenge. And just like that, seeing him made her realize how much she wanted to live.

She looked back at the water and heard his almost-silent steps on the pier as he moved closer.

“You got company?” he asked, now standing beside her.

She looked around. “No, she’s gone now.”

His phone rang and he grabbed it out of his pocket as if he’d been waiting for a call. He frowned at the little screen, and then turned it off.

“Is something wrong?” Kylie asked.

“No, it’s just Will.”

“He still calls you?”

Lucas nodded. “He’s not persuaded by the old rules.”

“He’s a good friend,” she said.

“Yeah.” Lucas slipped it back into his pocket. “I was hoping it might be my grandmother.”

She saw the concern in his eyes. “About meeting with the elder?”

“That and she told me she wasn’t feeling well this morning. I called a bit ago and she didn’t answer. She probably went out to play bingo. She’s like this bingo fanatic. Bingo and gardening, that’s her life.”

“You really love her, don’t you?” Kylie asked, hearing the devotion in his voice when he talked about her.

He inhaled the way a guy does when he’s worried something he’s about to say is going to make him sound weak. “She was there for me when my parents decided I was too much trouble. She was the best thing that ever happened to me, but I didn’t know it then. I felt abandoned by them. I made her life hell for a while. Then when my parents split up and my dad came to get me, my grandmother threw all kinds of hell to keep me. I wouldn’t be who I am today if she hadn’t done what she did.”

“You are lucky to have her.” Kylie felt a little guilty for disliking the woman and for avoiding her last Sunday.