Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(106)

She felt herself falling. Felt the air part as her body descended. Fear made her tense; grief for everyone she loved chased off the fear. She saw faces in her mind's eye that she would miss. Things she would never do. She saw Lucas's face and then Derek's. She saw her friends-new and old. Then she blinked, unable to breathe. She saw the sun setting and found an odd sort of calm settle within her. The colors in the dusk sky filled her mind with a surge of calm. She'd be able to be with Daniel and Nana.

Something or someone caught her again. Her memory shot back to being caught by Perry. The grips around her wrist were not human. The jolt brought air into her lungs. Had Perry come to save her?

"I have you. Hold on!"

But the voice didn't belong to Perry. It was Red.

A bolt of lightning shot past them, so close that Kylie felt the sting of it.

In seconds, the huge bird landed back on the ledge and set her gently on her feet. There were no sparkles as he changed back to human form. He was more than just a shape-shifter.

"You okay?" he asked.

Kylie looked at him through the tears in her eyes and nodded. She remembered him saving her from the snake. From the lightning strike in the woods and then trying to save her from the sinkhole. She'd never said thank you, never considered needing to, because all she saw in him was evil. But then he'd saved Miranda, too.

"I don't even know your real name," she managed to say.

"Roberto." He smiled. "I managed to snag this." He handed her Ellie's cap.

Right then Kylie knew. Red ... Roberto wasn't all evil.

"Thank you," she said.

He stared at her as if he didn't know how to respond. Then he reached out and brushed a tear from her cheek. "You are even pretty when you cry."

"No, I'm not. I get all red and-" A bolt of lightning shot down from above. Roberto pushed her away. Her back hit the rock wall behind her. He looked prepared to run, but before he did, the lightning struck again. It hit him. The ground beneath her shook at the impact. The smell of burned flesh filled her nose.

Kylie dropped to her knees. Panic clawed at her throat. She didn't want to see it, but she couldn't look away. Roberto's eyes turned blood red, and his body contorted backward; something that looked like smoke billowed out of his mouth, and Kylie knew it was his soul. And then he fell. The sound of his soulless body hitting the hard earth was pure sadness.

She moved to try to save him.

"Don't." The sound of his voice startled her. She looked at him. His spirit stood several feet from his body, gazing toward the dusk-filled sky. "I don't want to stay." Purples, shades of bright pinks, golds, and shades of gray now laced the sky.

"Do you see them?" he asked.

For a second, she thought he meant his grandfather and the two other men, but then she did see, and she understood. Angels were dancing in the painted sky; like birds, they moved gracefully in the wind.

Kylie nodded. "I do." But she still had to try. She laid her hands on his body. And concentrated. Nothing happened. Her hands would not heat up. Giving up, she finally gazed up at his spirit.

"Why would you want to save me?" his spirit asked.

"Because you saved me," she said, and looked up.

He gazed back at her, and all hints of evil were gone from his eyes. What she saw was a person who never had a chance. A boy raised into evil, taught evil, and never loved. "I understand now," he said. "I was wrong, Kylie Galen. You are not my soul mate. But because of you, I have saved my soul." Then slowly his spirit was taken, pulled up by the sky. He became part of the colors in the dusky sky. Part of the beauty, part of something that was eternal. The death angels took him at the last second of dusk.

Kylie wasn't sure how much time passed, but the colors of the sky had turned black when another whoosh of wind hit. What was a flash in the night suddenly became a body, crouched down only a few feet from her. Kylie scooted back and then recognized Burnett.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Kylie nodded.

"I need to get you out of here, now." He pulled her up.

She looked down at the body near her feet. And realized his eyes, empty, dead, were open. She lowered herself and closed his lids.

When she stood up, she told Burnett, "He died saving me."

"Then maybe hell will be easy on him." Burnett picked her up.

"He didn't go to hell," Kylie said.

She didn't know if he heard her. It didn't matter. She knew.

* * *

Burnett carried Kylie back to the main office, where Holiday paced across the front porch. He set Kylie down.

"Thank God!" Holiday ran to Kylie and hugged her.

"Thank you," Holiday said to Burnett, but when she released Kylie, he was already gone.

Her frown deepened, but her expression changed and she met Kylie's eyes. "Are you okay?"

Kylie nodded and tried not to cry. "Is Derek okay?"

"He's resting."

Kylie nodded.

"What happened, Kylie? You were there one minute and then gone the next."

Kylie pulled out Ellie's hat from her jeans pocket. "I went back for this, and..." The tears she didn't want to cry came anyway, and she told Holiday the whole story.

Kylie wasn't asleep when she heard the knock on her door several hours later. She heard Della answer it. Then she heard Lucas's voice. He came into her bedroom and pulled her against him, and Kylie held on to him like a life preserver. She needed his strength. Needed to feel his arms around her. They stayed like that for hours, not kissing, not making out, just holding on to each other.