Chosen at Nightfall (Shadow Falls #5)(49)

"Believe me, I know," Della said. "I know more about you and Perry's relationship than the law allows."

"Don't start on that." Miranda frowned.

"Why don't we go get a Diet Coke?" Kylie offered before the two of them started bickering in full force.

They all bounced off the bed and started for the kitchen. For the time being she wanted to forget all her issues. She just wanted to sit around the kitchen table and laugh some more. Laugh with friends, tell a few jokes, and remember that no matter what issues life dealt them, it would be okay as long as they had each other.

Della got to the kitchen first. "What the hell is that?" she mouthed out.

The moment Kylie saw what rested on the kitchen table she realized that forgetting her issues wasn't going to be that easy.

"Crap," Kylie muttered. "Can someone please call Burnett and Holiday and tell them to get here ASAP!"

Chapter Seventeen

"How did it get here?" Holiday asked, standing a few feet from the kitchen table and staring at the sword in disbelief.

"You tell me and we'll both know." Kylie gripped her hands together with concern. "How ... how could this happen?"

"How?" Burnett bellowed. "It's obvious. Someone brought it here to play a practical joke on you, but I'm not laughing and neither will they when I'm done with them." Burnett's frown deepened into a scowl.

"Removing something from Holiday's office to bring it here for a joke is going to get their ass in a sling."

He stared at Kylie. "Who all did you tell about the sword?"

"No one," Kylie said. "I didn't tell anyone. Not a soul. I've been trying really hard not to think about it.

So it can't be a prank."

"She's telling the truth," Della mouthed off. "She hasn't told us. And she tells us everything. Or she did." Della shot Kylie a frown.

"She doesn't tell us everything," Miranda piped up. "Just like some people with hickeys don't tell us everything."

Della scowled at Miranda and then looked at Kylie. "Frankly, I'd kind of like to know why we're freaking out here. It's just a sword."

Burnett continued to stare at Kylie as if still contemplating. "Then how do you suppose the sword got here?"

Kylie shrugged. "I don't know, but maybe it got here the same way it got to the falls. Magic, voodoo, or by whoever left it there."

"You found this sword at the falls?" Miranda asked. "Who would leave it there? It looks like an antique and that usually means it's worth a shitload of money."

"I don't know that either," Kylie said to Miranda. "But what I do know is that I really don't like it. So just take the thing away. Nice and safe like. And maybe put it somewhere more secure this time. Like in a vault."

"Wow," said Miranda.

"Wow what?" Burnett asked at the same time Kylie blurted out the words.

Miranda pointed to the sword. "It has an aura."

"The sword has an aura?" Holiday moved beside Miranda, looking intrigued. Kylie took another step back because she wasn't at all intrigued.

"What kind of aura?" Holiday asked the witch.

"Maybe Hayden was right. It's possessed," Burnett said.

"Wait! Can inanimate objects really be possessed?" Kylie folded her arms, not from the cold, but from feeling freaked out."No," Della said.

Miranda rolled her eyes at the vamp. "Of course they can."

"Really?" Della asked. "Cool!"

"Not cool!" Kylie snapped.

Miranda stared back at the sword. "It takes a strong witch-or a demon-to possess an object. But I don't think that's what's going on."

"Why not?" asked Holiday.

"You said it had an aura?" Burnett piped up.

"Yeah," Miranda answered, looking proud to be the one with information. "But just because an object has an aura doesn't mean it's possessed. Some things, like weapons and such, will carry an aura because emotion sort of gets soaked up into the physical matter during an attack."

"So this thing has killed a lot of people?" Kylie asked, remembering the ghost's sword and the head she so proudly brought to show Kylie.

"Probably, but I don't think it's possessed. Normally when something is possessed, it's completely evil."

"Then what kind of aura is it?" Kylie asked.

"A little bit evil," Miranda said, contradicting herself.

"Love it." Della rubbed her hands together.

Kylie moaned and focused on Miranda. "But you just said-"

"I said something that is possessed is completely evil." Miranda looked back at the sword. "This is just ... Okay, it isn't even really evil. But I can feel that it has taken lives. A lot of them. But most of its aura is about justice, and..." She tilted her head to the side and focused on the sword like she was trying to read the supernatural pattern. Her hair, streaked with pink, black, and lime-green, curtained the side of her face. "And it sounds crazy but it's also about ... courage."

"Courage?" Kylie remembered the voice she'd heard on the way to the falls. "What does it mean by courage? Ask it what it means by that?"