Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(16)

"Does your head hurt, too?"

Kylie looked up at the woman's angry scar. "A little." She pulled up her quilt from the end of the bed to ward off the chill. "But I've just got boy troubles."

"Boy troubles?" Jane frowned. "Be careful. Boys-and men-can really hurt you." The words sounded heartfelt. Was this another clue?

"Did someone hurt you?" Kylie asked.

The woman stopped moving, and her brow crinkled. "Maybe. I don't remember."

"Think hard. I mean, you said it like you remembered something." The sooner Kylie got the ghost to remember who she was, the sooner she could discover what she needed and help her move on.

The spirit placed her index finger on her forehead. "No. Nothing. It's empty up here." She moved her hand to the side of her scalp and traced a finger over her scar. Kylie wasn't sure if she was just discovering it or not.

"Do you remember what happened? How you got that cut on your head?" How you died? Holiday had explained that a lot of the time when a death had been sudden or traumatic, the spirit's ability to recall it was difficult. However, to help them cross over, the details of their deaths might be important.

"No." Jane went back to pacing. "I hate not knowing."

After a few more laps around the room, she stopped talking and Kylie went back to thinking about Derek, about how her heart had lurched at the sight of him. She couldn't help but wonder if that meant her feelings for Lucas were not as important as she'd originally worried they might be.

Suddenly the ghost stopped at the end of the bed and stared at Kylie. "I gave you the message, didn't I?"

Kylie sat up a bit. "You mentioned it, but what was it again?" Perhaps the message wasn't really a message, but a clue.

"Someone lives; someone dies." Her tone dropped to a whisper and sounded like something out of a scary movie. "That's what they said to tell you."

Socks, as if responding to the grim note in the spirit's voice, nestled closer.

"Do you by any chance know what that means?" Reaching under the covers, Kylie gently pushed the skunk's nose away from her ribs. Considering the little fellow was afraid of ghosts, fate had really screwed up by pairing them together.

"I..." The spirit rolled her eyes as if trying to think. "They didn't say."

"Who are 'they'?" Kylie was concerned by the mention of death, but considering she was dealing with an amnesiac ghost, she wasn't so sure how much stock she could put into the message.

Jane inched closer, moving down the side of the bed, her light green eyes filled with fear. "You know who it's from."

"No, I don't know."

The spirit bit down on her lip as if saying the name caused discomfort. Then she leaned down, bringing her slightly blue lips only a few inches from Kylie's face. "The death angels." Icy crystals floated from her lips and cascaded down onto Kylie's quilt.

Socks bolted from beneath the covers, onto the floor, and under the bed.

"The death angels?" Kylie wrapped her mind around the answer. "How do you know about them?" It suddenly dawned on her that she hadn't checked to see if the woman was a supernatural.

Staring at the spirit's forehead, Kylie tightened her brows. Nothing. Which had to mean something. Everyone had a brain pattern, didn't they? Even humans. Kylie had seen Daniel's brain pattern, and Holiday had said she'd scanned Nana for one, so Kylie knew ghosts didn't just lose them after death. So why didn't this spirit have a pattern?

Closing her eyes, Kylie squinted harder and refocused. Still nothing. The icy chill of the spirit seemed to grow colder, and it clawed at Kylie's uncovered flesh. Yanking the sheet up to her chin, she shifted back from the spirit and asked the question she hated when people asked it of her.

"What are you?"

Chapter Six

An hour later, Kylie paced half-moon circles in her tiny room, making almost the same path as the ghost-the ghost who'd vanished without even trying to answer Kylie's question. But the skittish spirit hadn't faded before Kylie noted the sheer panic on her face.

Not that Kylie didn't empathize with the ghost.

How many times had Kylie heard the same damn question? What are you? Or rather, What the hell are you? Frankly, she didn't like either version.

But did either question instill panic or fear?

Frustration, maybe, but fear? Okay, maybe in the beginning it had scared her, but only after she'd accepted there was a possibility she wasn't human. Should she assume the spirit suspected she wasn't human? Kylie recalled the look on the spirit's face. It was as if the question sent up a red flag or stirred up some forgotten memory. And not a good memory, either.

An eerie chill filled the air, announcing the return of the ghost, and Kylie hugged herself.

"I'm sorry," Kylie said. "I know you're confused. Believe me, I know how you feel. There's a hell of a lot I'm trying to figure out about myself, too." The cold ebbed away. So the ghost wasn't up to talking. Kylie empathized with her on that point as well.

She had almost run to Holiday with questions about the spirit's lack of a brain pattern. Then, because Kylie suspected Holiday would want to go into all the other issues they needed to discuss, she decided to postpone asking the questions. And by issues, Kylie meant her newly acquired gift of healing, knocking down concrete walls, and the possibility that she was a protector. The healing and the walls, she might be able to handle. The whole protector/Mother Teresa thing? Nope. That could go unhandled for a while longer.