Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(23)

Kylie closed her eyes and tried to think healing thoughts.

The bird started quivering. Kylie opened her hands and its wings spread. Its feathers, a bright royal blue and white, caught a spray of sunshine and shimmered in the light, then the bird lunged to its feet and flew away. Kylie watched it disappear into the tops of the trees, her emotions ambivalent. On the one hand, she'd given something life, and that was cool. On the other ... Well, it was just too freaky.

"Did you do what I think you did?" Della asked. "Did you just bring that dead bird back to life?"

Kylie looked up. "I'm not sure." Suddenly silence filled the forest. The spirit's words echoed in Kylie's head. They're coming.

The lack of noise seemed ominous.

She looked at Della. "Can you sense anyone here?"

Della sniffed the air. "No. But it's too damn quiet."

"We should go," Kylie whispered.

"You don't have to ask me twice." Della tore out.

Kylie was right behind her, hoping to outrun the silence, the feeling of danger, and another startling realization about her powers.

* * *

"You sure it was dead?" Holiday asked.

"I didn't listen to its heartbeat." Kylie paced the small office. "But do birds regularly fall out of trees unconscious?"

Holiday bit back a smile. "I don't think so."

For some reason, this news didn't seem near as startling to her camp leader as it did to Kylie.

Kylie, still winded from her run, had left the woods and come straight to find Holiday. Della, who took the job of shadowing seriously, waited outside.

"The ghost was there. Do you think her presence did this? Maybe it had nothing to do with me. The bird came back to life when she left. So maybe it was just her."

"It could be. However, I've never heard of a ghost's presence killing wildlife, even temporarily. Maybe the bird was just stunned. Maybe all this is a clue."

"To what?" Kylie asked, frustrated.

"Her identity, maybe."

Kylie stopped in front of the desk. "How is a bird dying going to tell me who she is?"

"Sometimes the spirits have crazy ways of communicating."

Kylie rolled a few things around her already confused mind, and then she remembered. "Jane Doe has no brain pattern. Nothing. It's blank."

"Blank?" This time Holiday appeared genuinely puzzled.

"Yeah. I kept trying to refocus, thinking I was ... just not seeing it right. Because I thought we all had brain patterns, like fingerprints." Kylie dropped in the chair across from the camp leader.

"I've never seen one that's blank, but..."

"I think she's supernatural." Kylie chewed on the side of her lip.

"Why would you think that?"

"Because she knew about the death angels."

Holiday appeared to consider it. "She probably heard you talking about them."

"Maybe. But ... she's really scared of something."

"Dying can be scary if you're not ready."

"I think it's more," Kylie said.

"More like what?"

"I don't know yet. But it's ... something."

"Wait." Holiday pressed a hand on the desk. "Didn't you tell me she had some kind of brain operation?"

"Yes." Kylie touched her temple. "She has stitches and her head is shaved."

"It's probably a tumor. I've never seen anyone with one, but I've heard tumors can make one's brain pattern do strange things."

"But can a tumor make it disappear?" Kylie asked. "And what about her getting freaked out when I asked her what she was? I really think she's supernatural."

"I'm not saying she isn't one of us, but ... rarely do we supernaturals hang around long after we pass. In all my years of dealing with ghosts, I've only had three supernaturals."

"But my dad hung around."

"But he had a very big reason to hang on. To check in on you."

Kylie pulled her leg up in the chair and hugged her shin. Her mind zipped from the ghost to her dad to the ghost again. "I don't know ... There's something about her that's ... different. Remember, she told me she had messages from others."

"That's not unusual. I often get spirits who tell me something for someone else." Holiday rolled a pencil between her hands.

"But from the death angels?" Kylie asked.

"No, but like I said, she could have heard you mention the death angels and simply be confusing things. Has she mentioned the message again?"

"Yeah. Every time, like it's important." Kylie frowned. "She keeps saying that someone lives and someone dies. And I don't like the die part." She hugged her knee tighter.

"Me either," Holiday said. "But as you've learned, ghosts aren't the best communicators. So don't panic. Just keep asking questions and watching for clues."

"Is it possible that the only reason she's here is to give me this message?"

"Rarely. She's probably here for something else."

Kylie frowned. "Then how the heck am I going to help her if she doesn't even remember who she is?"