Awake at Dawn (Shadow Falls #2)(74)

"I won't," he said. But was that doubt in his voice?

"What do you have to do?" Kylie asked.

"Just touch her," he answered.

Kylie nodded. She remembered Daniel's assurance that she should trust them, and she stood up. "Okay. I guess." Then she heard her mom start screaming again. She looked at Burnett. "Nothing better go wrong."

"Mom," Kylie called to her mom five minutes later from behind the large dresser that Jonathon had moved in front of the door.

"Kylie?" her mom screamed. "Oh, baby, are you okay? Tell me you're not hurt. Tell me these crazy people-"

"I'm fine. I'm going to get you out, okay?"

"Hurry, baby," her mom said. The rawness in her mother's voice told Kylie her mom had been screaming and crying for way too long.

"We've got to get out of here. There are some very bad people here."

"It's okay, Mom," Kylie said.

"Hurry, baby. Hurry before they come back."

Burnett motioned that he planned to move the dresser and then leave. Derek nodded. Then Burnett, with one hand, pushed the heavy piece of furniture out the way and, in a flash, was gone.

Her mom yanked open the door and flew out, wrapping her arms protectively around Kylie. "We gotta get out of here!" She spotted Derek and pushed Kylie behind her. "Stay away," her mom yelled.

Derek looked at Kylie as if he was unsure how to proceed.

"It's okay, Mom." Kylie's heart broke when she saw her mom's tearstreaked face. "This is Derek. He's a nice guy."

"I don't trust him," her mom said. "We can't trust anyone here. I just want us to leave. Now." Clutching Kylie's arm, she started moving toward the door, keeping herself between Derek and Kylie as if in protection. Unsure what to do, Kylie stopped moving. She couldn't let her mom walk outside. If her mom was freaking out with just Derek, she would surely lose it if she saw Jonathon and Burnett.

"Mom, Derek is a good guy. He's going to help us leave," she lied. "Aren't you, Derek?" Kylie looked at him.

"Yes ... Mrs. Galen. I'm going to help you and Kylie get away."

Her mom looked at Derek and back at Kylie. Panic shone in her eyes, but she didn't jump back when Derek took a step closer.

"Let me get the door," Derek said. He moved in and when he did, he reached out and touched her mom's arm.

Kylie hadn't known what to expect when a person's memory was erased, but when her mom's eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed in a dead heap on the floor, Kylie screamed.

Shaking, and still in mid-scream, she dropped down beside her mom to make sure she was still breathing.

"It's okay." Derek dropped beside Kylie and touched Kylie's elbow. "She's just unconscious. I promise, Kylie," he said, as if reading her fear.

Burnett appeared and scooped her mom up in his arms. "I'm putting her in her car. You come with me," he said to Kylie. "We'll need you there when she wakes up."

His gaze held Kylie's for a second. "It's all going to be okay," he told her. "Follow me. It's almost over now."

Burnett disappeared. Kylie took off, too. She wasn't anywhere near as fast as he was, but with luck, and considering he had her mother in his arms, he could bet she wouldn't be far behind him.

"Mom, you okay?" Kylie tapped on her mom's car window only five minutes later.

When her mother didn't instantly wake up, it took everything Kylie had not to yank open the door to see if she needed CPR. But Burnett's list of don'ts still echoed in her head.

Don't show panic, because she might pick up on it and it will make her even more nervous.

Don't try to explain too much; let her come up with her own conclusions of what happened.

Don't start crying for no reason.

And as he'd said that one, he'd pointed to Kylie's tears.

It was the "crying for no reason" part of number three that Kylie would have argued about if she hadn't been so damn worried about her mom.

Kylie tapped again on the window. "Mom?" She fought to keep her voice calm.

The way Kylie saw it, she deserved to go on a crying jag that lasted for a good two weeks. The emotional trauma she'd endured this last half hour would go down as one of the top worst half hours of her life. Even the fight at the wildlife preserve hadn't kicked her in the gut so hard.

She glanced down at her arms, expecting to see bruises and nail marks from where Selynn had grabbed her. Oddly enough, her skin was smooth and unmarked. Weird. Had she just acquired a new quick healing gift, too?

Her mom's eyes fluttered open and Kylie refocused on the situation before her. Her mom sat up and looked around, obviously startled. Kylie's first thought was that the erasure hadn't worked.

Then her mom turned her head and her confused eyes met Kylie's.

Kylie plastered a smile on her lips, hoping to appear as if everything in the world was just peachy. "When did you get here, Mom?"

Her mom's brow creased and she raised her wrist to see her watch and then opened the door. She turned and put her feet on the pavement, but didn't climb out of the car. "I..." She blinked. "I rushed over here from the airport." She ran a hand through her dark hair, which now had highlights of red running through it.