Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(101)

They looked up and met Kylie's eyes. Kylie tensed when they pinched their eyebrows at her, but she did the same thing. They were both werewolves. She saw the shocked look in their eyes when they saw her brain pattern.

"I'm the token human," she said.

Della and Miranda snickered. The two guys smiled and went back to work. No doubt they had orders from Burnett not to flirt with the female campers.

Kylie went to the fridge to get her own glass of juice. She heard Miranda's door open, and the third contractor joined them. Kylie turned around and peered at him under her lashes. This one was equally hot. Black hair. Wide shoulders. Thin waist.

His gaze met Kylie's and her juice slipped from her fingers and shattered at her feet.

His hair had changed. His name, Red, probably a nickname, no longer fit, but his eyes hadn't changed. The image of him appearing in her dreams, and of him staring at her in the mirror with blood dripping down his chin, filled her head. Then the image flashed, and she saw him plastered on her windshield and ramming his hand through her car window. As if that weren't enough, she saw the image of him staring at her while she was chained to the chair when he and his grandfather abducted her.

"Della?" Kylie said in an even voice, hoping she could warn her before the shit hit the fan.

But Della didn't answer. Kylie turned. The vamp still sat at the table, her glass at her lips. A few drops of blood hung in the air between her lips and the edge of the glass. Della didn't breathe. Didn't move. She looked frozen.

The shit had already hit the fan.

Kylie's gaze shot to Miranda, who was also frozen, a finger at her ear as if to brush back a strand of hair.

Ditto for the two guys on the floor.

"It's just you and me, Kylie," the rogue said.

She refocused on Miranda and Della. "Whatever you've done to my friends, you'd better undo it," she growled, and her blood fizzed with fury.

"Don't get worked up. They are fine. As soon as I release them, they will go back to normal and not remember a thing." He looked back to the table and then to her.

"So do it!" Kylie said.

He sighed. "I've never seen anyone who cared so much about others."

Though she wasn't sure why, Kylie checked his brain pattern. He was a werewolf. But how was that possible? He was a vampire. She tried not to show her surprise, but he saw it.

"What are you?" Kylie went ahead and asked.

"I'm the same thing you are. Just born a few minutes later than midnight." He took a step closer. "That's why we belong together. We're soul mates, Kylie. That's what we are."

She tightened her brows again, and this time he was human. Her heart thudded in her chest. "I'm not your soul mate. I'll die first."

"That's why I'm here." He took another step toward her.

She backed up. "You're here to kill me?"

"No." He stopped moving. Something about his answer and his tone rang true. "I'm here to protect you. Though you don't make it easy."

The sound of thunder rumbled from outside. He glanced out the window, and when his gaze came back to hers, Kylie knew something else.

"You were the eagle," she said. "And the deer. You're a shape-shifter?" And if they were the same, as he said, did that make her a shape-shifter, too?

"No. I mean, yes. I was the deer and the eagle, but I'm not a shape-shifter."

Then another thought hit. "You protected me, but you killed those innocent girls in Fallen. Why?"

He cut his eyes downward. "Would it upset you terribly if I said it was to impress you?"

"Impress me? You're sick."

"But they were mean to you and your friends."

"They didn't deserve to die."

"I know you feel that way now. I didn't really know you then. Now, I do. I wouldn't have done it if-"

"You don't know me now."

He shrugged. "I sometimes don't understand you. But I have watched you. You are an interesting study. I have always wondered what it would have been like ... to have been born at midnight. Funny how just a few minutes on a clock can make a difference. I sometimes wonder if maybe-" The sound of thunder shook the cabin again.

Kylie could swear she saw regret in his eyes. But maybe not. The light in the cabin had been chased away by dark shadows. Kylie sensed the shadows were there for her.

Lightning flashed from the window. "I don't have a lot of time," he said, "but I wanted to tell you-"

"I will not go with you!" She might not win the battle, but she'd go down fighting.

"No, not this time. I'll come back for you later. Like I said, I'm here to protect you."

"From what?"

He glanced at the two contractors, frozen, not breathing, the same as Della and Miranda. "They want you dead."

Did he mean the two guys? "Who wants me dead?"

"The others. My grandfather and his friends. The others like us."

"Like us how? And why would they want me dead?"

"They are impatient and afraid of what you might be able to accomplish if you don't join us. But I will hold them off until you come around. But you must change your mind, soon."

He pointed to the taller of the guys on the floor, still frozen, as if they were working on the vents in the floor. "This guy, he was sent here to kill you. I had a wizard friend of mine peek into the future, and learned that your other friends would have gotten here in time to save you. But"-he pointed to the table-"the little witch wouldn't have made it. And for some crazy reason, I felt compelled to stop that from happening. I knew how much it would hurt you if she died." His brows creased as if he were confused. "It was an odd feeling, wanting to save her, caring if she died, because it's not like me to care. But ... because of you, I did. I cared."