Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(54)

He caught her face in his hands. "I guess maybe a little." He brushed his thumb over her cheek. "But it's not a ploy to trick girls into bed. It's just a natural thing male weres do. If that's what you're worried about."

"I'm not exactly worried," she said. And she wasn't. Because as potentially dangerous as the werewolf's purr could be, she didn't think she had to worry about Lucas misusing it. Last night, he'd had a chance to let things escalate between them and he'd put a stop to it.

"Like I told you," she said. "I trust you." And she still did.

He studied her face. "But?"

Okay, there was a but. She hesitated to find the right words. "But knowledge is power. I like knowing what I'm dealing with. And I like being the one in the driver's seat, if you know what I mean."

He frowned slightly as if he didn't like her answer. "It's not like entrapment. A female has to be close, really close, to a male were before she's even aware of it."

Kylie smiled. "So I guess I need to be careful how close I get to you."

"Or not." He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. "I really, really like you, Kylie Galen."

"And I you, Lucas Parker." She raised herself up on her tiptoes to press a quick kiss to his lips.

His eyes met hers and he let go of a deep breath. "Okay."

"Okay, what?" she asked, sensing his remark meant something.

"Okay, I'll be a bit more patient. Okay, I'm happy with this. With just being this close to you." He picked her up and twirled her around.

She grinned when he set her back on her feet. "Thanks," she said, and touched his lips with her fingertips.

He caught her hand. "We just have to be a little careful when we're not dreaming."

"Careful about what?"

"Like I told you last night. The closer to the full moon, the more I run on instinct. And sometimes, my instincts are short on patience."

She didn't like the sound of that. "Do you mean we can't see each other when it's time for your change?"

"I didn't say that." He frowned. "We can see each other. But we shouldn't ... dance in the moonlight for too long. Or roll around on the ground by the creek." He grinned. "Or go skinny-dipping at the swimming hole." His tone seemed to deepen.

"That was just a dream." She felt her face flush.

"A good one, too." He smiled. Then he breathed in as if to sober his thoughts. "But basically, we'll be fine as long as we don't play too close to the fire until after the change." He ran his hand through the curtain of her hair and brought a handful of it to his nose. "Unless you change your mind. You do know that what happens in dreams isn't really real, right? I mean, we could-"

Suddenly, she felt something yanking her from behind and pulling her away from Lucas. Pulling her to someplace she didn't want to go.

Lucas yelled out her name. But a cloud appeared between them. She realized that two men dressed in white lab coats had her in their grips. One on each arm, holding her so tightly that she couldn't get away. The camp had dissolved. Now she was in a building of some kind, and the two men pulled her down a dark, dismal hall. She screamed and tried to pull away, but she was helpless.

Her heart thumped in her chest, and she tasted fear on her tongue. Nothing made sense. Then she remembered-this was a dream. All she had to do was wake up.

She slammed her eyes shut. Tight. Then tighter.

Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

Suddenly, a bright light shone in her eyes. Everything had changed again. The men who had dragged her away were gone. She felt disoriented, lost, alone. Empty. She felt empty. What was happening to her?

The light shifted from one eye to the other, and she saw a man's face inches from her nose. She realized she was lying in a bed. Not her bed, though. Not the twin one at camp or her full-size mattress at home. This bed felt different. She tried to move but felt numb. No, not numb-she felt paralyzed.

"Is she okay?" a female voice asked. Kylie cut her eyes to the side to see her new captor, but she was out of vision range, and Kylie was unable to turn her neck. Panic started to tighten her throat again.

"She should be," said the man, shining the flashlight into her eyes.

Kylie blinked and when she opened her eyes, she saw his pattern. He was vampire.

Then he turned her chin in his large hands and ran his finger over her head. Oddly enough, Kylie realized he touched her bare scalp. She was missing her hair.

Missing her hair?

She blinked again and remembered her ghost, Jane Doe. Was that what was happening? Was this a vision sent to her by the amnesiac ghost-one of those crazy ones where Kylie actually became the spirit? Fear swelled in her chest. She cut her eyes to the side and stared at the man's eyes until she saw her own reflection. Or saw the ghost's reflection.

It should have calmed her, but the panic built higher. She wanted out of here. She hadn't wanted to be here to start with. She'd already lost everything that mattered. Thoughts, feelings, and emotions collided in her chest and she wasn't sure which ones were her own and which ones belonged to her spirit.

"Wake up. Kylie, wake up!" Kylie could hear voices coming from somewhere far away. But then the voices faded and she felt the vampire's hand on her head again.