Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(24)

Holiday dropped her chin in the palm of her hand. "I think this might be a difficult one."

"As if any that I've had have been easy." Kylie tightened her hold on her leg. "There's one thing I want to check out."

"What's that?"

"Fallen Cemetery. I know you said she could have come from anywhere, but I still find it odd that this is where she popped into my mom's car."

Holiday pinched her brows together. "I'm not going to tell you not to go, but cemeteries aren't the best place for a ghost whisperer. By now you should be able to see more than just one ghost, and a lot of ghosts hang around the cemeteries for a long time."

Kylie remembered. "At Nana's funeral I got a terrible headache."

"That was probably them trying to get through to you. And that was before you could see them. Sometimes they can come at you all at once and it gets ... difficult."

"But if that's the only lead I have, I have to try."

"You don't have to," Holiday argued. "In the beginning, I wouldn't have ever refused to help a spirit. But I learned that sometimes you have to say no for your own sanity."

"But they'll just keep coming back."

Holiday tilted her head a bit. "Don't you remember us talking about how to shut them out?"

Kylie frowned. "I remember, but I haven't mastered that so well."

"We could go over it again, but..." Holiday looked at her watch. "I have an appointment-"

"I want to help her. There's something about her." Kylie might not have amnesia, but there was so much about her life she didn't know, things she wanted to know.

Holiday nodded. "I understand. And I'll support whatever you feel is right. But just make sure you check with me before going, and ... as Burnett said earlier, you're not to go anywhere without a shadow."

"I'm not too keen on the whole shadow thing," she said.

"Just until we see how things go."

Kylie bit down on her lip, remembering the other things she needed to discuss with Holiday. The whole healing and protector issues. Not to mention the questions she had about her sudden overpowering effect on Derek's emotions.

Then there was ... She would never get rid of the shadows if she confessed her other concerns. But to not discuss them was stupid. And Kylie wasn't stupid. "Are our security cameras set for ... shape-shifters?"

Holiday leaned forward. "I'm sure they are. Why?"

"It's probably nothing, but a couple of things happened. They could be nothing, but they didn't feel like nothing."

Holiday stopped rolling the pencil in her hands. "What kind of things?"

"When I left to go back to the cabins, I came across a rattlesnake, but I didn't see it until an eagle swooped down and snatched it up. It was freaky."

"Did it go after you?" Concern darkened her green eyes.

"No, it never got the chance. But the whole thing was just strange."

"Strange like how?"

"The eagle just swooped down." Kylie suddenly felt as if she were overreacting.

Holiday added, "Rattlesnakes are prevalent this time of year, and I admit seeing an eagle swoop down might be-"

Kylie didn't wait for Holiday to continue. "And then when I went to ... run in the woods, a deer-a big buck-came hurtling onto my path. I stopped and, not a split second later, lightning struck right past the deer. If the deer hadn't stopped me, I might have been hit."

Holiday frowned. "I don't like the sound of this."

"And the deer and the eagle, they ... looked right at me as if they were trying to tell me something."

Holiday's brow wrinkled. "You think you can communicate with animals?"

"No. I don't think that. They looked evil."

Holiday tilted her head to the side. "The deer and the eagle appeared evil?" When Kylie nodded, Holiday looked even more perplexed and worried. "With two of these strange things happening, I can't believe they are accidents. However, if I'm understanding you, both the eagle and the deer saved you from getting hurt. How could they have been evil? If anything, they were protecting you."

Kylie pulled a handful of hair over her shoulder and twisted it. "I know it doesn't make sense, but it felt that way."

Holiday set the pencil on her desk and reached for her phone. "We'd better let Burnett ... Wait." She put down her phone. "Burnett left to have a meeting with the FRU. I don't want to disturb him now, but I'll tell him about this as soon as he gets back."

Kylie heard the front door of the cabin open.

Holiday looked at her watch and frowned. "I have another meeting, but we need to talk more about this. Can you wait until I finish so we can continue this?"

"I can come back later," Kylie said, not really wanting to hang out at the office. It would make her feel like a kid sent to the principal's office. "Oh, does Burnett still need the pictures of my dad? If not, I'd like to have them back."

"He's having them tested to see if they are originals or copies. It shouldn't be more than a few days."

"Hi," came an unfamiliar female voice from behind Kylie. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you had someone in here. I can wait in the-"