Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(74)

They started heading down the trail. "I want to see if Holiday and Burnett are in the office. I need to talk with them before breakfast."

"Just lead the way," Perry said, bowing at the waist. "I'm your personal shadow servant."

Kylie grinned. As they walked, she wondered if someday she could hang out with Derek like this and it would feel this right. Feel completely platonic, with no hint of regret about what could have been. She really hoped so. Although her heart said he would have made an awesome boyfriend, he would also make a hell of a good friend. And she hoped they could get there.

* * *

Holiday and Burnett weren't in the office, so Kylie couldn't tell them about Derek's theory that there could have been two bodies in Berta Littlemon's grave.

Or ask Burnett what he'd been smoking when he'd given Sara permission to visit Shadow Falls.

At breakfast, Lucas joined her and Perry at their table. Kylie spotted Miranda eating with the witches, and Della had a vampire thing that morning. So Kylie sat between Lucas and Perry, and much to her surprise, they both behaved. Well, Perry behaved.

Lucas slipped his hand under the table and touched the side of her leg. Then he leaned in and whispered, "Want to go dancing in the moonlight again tonight?"

She couldn't be sure, but she could swear the brush of his lips against her temple had almost been a kiss. She nudged him with her elbow, and as she forked a mouthful of eggs on her utensil, she whispered back, "Careful. People are going to actually know you have a thing for me."

"Good," he said. "Maybe it's time we make it official."

Her heart stopped. The eggs dropped from the prongs of her fork and landed with a splat on her plate.

She turned and looked into his blue eyes. "Are you asking me to go out with you?"

"Are you saying yes?" Hope danced in his eyes.

"What about your pack?"

"I told you I don't care what they say."

Joy danced in her heart. "Well, I think I should hear the question first."

"Okay ... Will you, Kylie Galen, go out with me?"

Yes. Yes. Yes. The word sat on the tip of her tongue, waiting to be released. She smiled, poised to say it, and-

"Can I borrow Lucas for a minute?" Burnett's deep voice shattered the moment. He stood behind them, six feet plus of solid vampire.

Lucas looked up at Burnett. "Is something wrong?"

"I need a word with you."

Lucas got up and left. Kylie watched them leave, so in shock from Lucas asking her to go out that she completely forgot to give Burnett a large ration of shit for agreeing to let Sara come to the camp.

* * *

A bit later, Kylie stood beside Perry while Chris announced names for the Meet Your Campmates hour. Lucas still hadn't come back from his talk with Burnett, and that worried her.

Looking up at Perry, Kylie asked, "How are we going to do this?"

He stared over at Miranda. "I pulled my name from the list."

"So we don't have to stay?" Kylie asked.

"I pulled my name. Not yours. I figured I could just tag along with you on your hour."

"Isn't that against the rules?"

"I'm sure Burnett wouldn't mind."

"Speaking of Burnett," Kylie said. "I didn't know you two knew each other."

"He told you?" Perry seemed surprised.

"No. Well, he sort of did when I asked him about it. But during the whole dragon thing, you said something about him telling you something when you were six."

"Oh," Perry said. "And what did Burnett say?"

"Just that he knew you from before. Was he like your foster contact person or something?"

"Yeah, sort of."

"And Kylie Galen..." Chris's voice rose, and so did Kylie's attention. She glanced to the front where Chris stood pulling names out of a hat. Yes, a real-life magician type of hat, too.

Obviously, Chris had decided to jazz up his few minutes in the limelight. "You are spending an hour with ... Ellie Mason."

"Oh, hell!" All her unresolved feeling about Derek and Ellie came bubbling to the surface.

"Oh, boy," Perry countered. "This should be loads of fun!"

Which only went to show how she and Perry had different definitions of fun.

* * *

A minute later, Kylie, Ellie, and Perry took off walking along one of the trails. For the longest time, none of them spoke.

"Where are we going?" Ellie broke the unspoken code of silence.

"Down by the creek bed," Kylie said.

"Okay," Ellie said.

They continued for another ten minutes, walking fast, supernatural fast. No one complained. At least not about the speed.

Ellie piped up again. "I'm new here, but I thought the objective of campmate hour was to talk-to get to know each other."

"So talk," Kylie snapped, and dodged a few limbs that seemed to try to reach out and grab her. She also dodged logic that said she should fake a huge migraine and send the little sex kitten on her way back to camp.

"Okay ... My name is Ellie Mason and I have a feeling you don't like me."

Kylie stopped and swerved around-she had the script down in her head for faking a sick headache. She wouldn't even have to fake it because now her head was actually throbbing. But when she opened her mouth, her words had nothing to do with migraines.