Chosen at Nightfall (Shadow Falls #5)(44)

Freaked out, Kylie butt-scooted back a couple of feet. She felt a little less cowardly when Holiday did the same.

The object-floating atop the water's surface and moving as if with purpose-got about a foot from the rock's edge before Kylie could identify what it was. Oh, hell, what did this mean?

Chapter Fifteen

Kylie twisted around on her butt, searching for the ghost and trying to feel the cold. No cold found its way in the cave. No ghost, either. None that Kylie could sense, anyway.

But the sword now inching toward her had to be from the ghost, right? She'd been carrying one around for show and tell this last week and a half.

"Where the heck did that come from?" Holiday asked, her voice filled with concern.

Kylie couldn't take her eyes off the weapon as it slowly inched closer and closer. "From under the water."

"I know, I saw, but..."

"I think it has something to do with the ghost," Kylie said.

Holiday frowned. "You mean the one toting around severed heads?"

Kylie nodded. "That would be her."

"Why do you think that?" Holiday asked.

"I'm not completely sure, but I think it looks like her sword. Minus all the blood of course."

"Oh, hell," Holiday said. "What did you get pulled into?"

"I don't know. But it wasn't willingly." Kylie bit down on her lip. If not for the peaceful ambience of the falls, she'd be completely tripping out.

Holiday picked up the sword. She turned it over in her hands. "It looks real. And old. Do you really think it's the same sword?" She shook her head in puzzlement. "Ghosts can't deliver things like this."

"It looks like it. I mean, I'm not a sword expert." Kylie reached for the weapon, and as soon as she touched it, the dang thing started glowing. She flung it to the ground and did another scoot backward.

"Why did it do that?"

"I wouldn't know," Holiday said, and stared back at the sword. "Did you learn anything about chameleons making weapons glow?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"I think I might have remembered that."

"Okay," she said, still thinking. She gave the sword another puzzled look and then glanced back at Kylie. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yup." Kylie got to her feet and saw Holiday reach down for the sword. "Wait. Can't we just leave it here?"

Holiday rose and looked at Kylie. "I don't think so. I think it was meant for you."

"You know, I was afraid you were going to say that. But how do you know it wasn't meant for you?"

"Because it didn't glow when I picked it up."

Kylie frowned. "I'm really tired of all this weird crap happening to me."Holiday sighed. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't like it."

"Well, that makes two of us." Kylie nipped at her lip again in worry.

Holiday half smiled. "We'll get to the bottom of this. When we get back to the office I'll do some research and see if I can find anything about it. And we'll talk to Hayden, too." She carefully picked up the sword, keeping the sharp end pointing down. "We'll find the answer."

Yeah, Kylie thought, but she had the distinct feeling that if they did find the answer, she might not like it.

* * *

Kylie, Holiday, and Burnett, with sword in tow, found Hayden at his cabin. He had nothing to offer. Not even a good educated guess.

Burnett asked him to pick up the sword to see if it would glow for him. It didn't. Then, because Burnett hadn't seen the sword glow earlier, he asked Kylie to pick it up. Carefully.

Like she wouldn't be careful picking up something that looked like it had been used to decapitate hundreds of victims.

The moment she fit her fingers around the hand grip, the iron grew warm against her palm, and just as it had before, it began to glow. It reminded her of one of those glow sticks you bought at theme parks.

"Enough?" Kylie said, eager to put it down.

"Yeah," Burnett said, and looked baffled. It wasn't a look that she'd seen on the vamp's face very often. He reached for the sword and waited to see if it would start to glow, and even looked a bit disappointed when it didn't. Putting it back down on Hayden's kitchen table, he gazed at Kylie's forehead to check out her pattern.

On the walk over here, he'd surmised that Kylie had probably turned into a witch and had lost control of her powers as she had the day she'd sent the paperweight at him, bruising his boys. While Kylie almost wished it was that simple, she didn't buy it. She hadn't been thinking about a sword to have conjured one up.

"I'm not a witch, am I?" she asked Burnett.

"No," he said, and shrugged.

"I told you," Holiday said. "I checked her pattern as soon as the thing started glowing. As crazy as it sounds, I'm not sure it's Kylie doing it. But the sword."

"You think the sword's possessed?" Hayden asked.

"Say what?" Kylie asked. "Swords can be possessed? Okay ... this is just too freaky for me." She started dusting off her hands to wipe off any possessed germs.

"No, I don't think it's possessed." Holiday touched Kylie to calm her. "I just think for some reason it reacts to Kylie. There's some connection between her and the sword."