Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(76)

"How long does it take to say yes?" Ellie wrapped her arms around herself as if to fight off the cold and looked around as if confused by the sudden change in temperature.

"What's your point?" Kylie asked, feeling frustrated but not sure if it stemmed from the ghost or from Ellie. Then Kylie saw the ghost pacing back and forth, staring at her as if she needed to tell her something. Something urgent.

Ellie did her shrug thing again. "I'm just saying it sounds like you hesitated. And maybe there's a reason for that. Maybe the reason is-"

"There's no reason. I didn't hesitate."

Jane Doe stopped pacing and stared Kylie dead in the eyes. "You should run!"

"You sure?" Ellie asked.

"I'm sure," Kylie said, and she was. Wasn't she? She'd been going to tell him yes before Burnett came over. She would tell Lucas yes the next time she saw him.

"Run!" the ghost screamed.

"Why?" Kylie asked the spirit, and glanced at Perry still in the tree, slowly sneaking up on the butterfly.

"Why what?" Ellie asked.

"Run!" The spirit screamed the word so loud, Kylie thought her eardrums would rupture. She looked up and saw the eagle coming at her full blast with his talons out.

She ducked, barely dodging the bird's sharp claws. Right then, the ground under her feet started moving. Seriously moving. A loud rumble seemed to explode from below her.

"Run!" Kylie screamed at Ellie.

The vamp, her eyes glowing a bright yellow, stared at the ground. "What the hell?"

"Run!" Kylie screamed, and grabbed Ellie's arm and took off, dragging her with her. They had gotten less than a foot when the earth where they'd just stood dropped into a big, dark hole. A hole that kept growing wider, moving closer. Kylie got about another ten feet when she remembered.

Perry. He was stuck in a tree and wouldn't be able to hear what was happening below him.

She swung around. Just as she suspected, he was still in the tree.

Still staring at the butterfly.

"We should keep going!" yelled Ellie.

The hole in the ground kept expanding as if someone sucked the earth from below. It got almost to the tree. Almost to Perry. He still hadn't seen it.

And it was her fault. All her fault.

"Perry, run!" she screamed with everything she had.

But Perry couldn't hear.

My equilibrium is thrown off. It's like I'm in a vacuum. His words raked across her mind like cut glass.

She saw the hole begin to pull on the roots of the tree.

She saw Perry the feline lose his footing.

He fought to stay in the tree. She watched in horror as he wrapped his feline limbs around the branch, his claws digging into the bark as he clung for life. But the dark hole, like a monster who didn't give up, sucked the tree down, taking the small, blue-eyed kitten into the dark oblivion.

Someone lives and someone dies.

"No!" Kylie screamed, and bolted forward, taking a flying leap into the dark hole.

Chapter Twenty-six

The darkness surrounded Kylie the second her foot left solid earth, and she tumbled down the pit. She heard screams, tortured screams, coming from below. Or were they just inside her head? It was hard to tell. Then she was struck by a cold so intense that it almost stole her breath. She instantly knew the sounds were coming from hell. Was Holiday right? Had she spent too much time with pure evil and now she was paying the price?

And because of her, so was Perry?

Suddenly, painful little sparks hit her body from beneath her, jolts of what felt like electricity. It took two or three strikes before she realized what it meant.

Perry. Perry was shifting.

Then she slammed against ... something half-soft, half-prickly.

With a lot of feathers.

She bounced off it, flipped over, and screamed as she continued her descent, falling faster now into oblivion and going headfirst.

Huge, leathery-feeling handcuffs latched on to her right arm and yanked her upward. Her arm felt pulled out of its socket. She muttered a curse at the sharp pain.

"I got you..." Perry's voice reverberated through the hole.

It was meant to reassure her, but it didn't. What if he lost his grip on her arm? What if whatever it was that waited for them below suddenly decided to come up for a visit?

"Kylie!"

She jerked her head up to the entrance to the large sinkhole. Bright light spilled in from the opening, making it hard to see. Then she saw a body falling.

No, not just a body. It was Ellie.

"Shit!" Perry screamed, flapping his large bird wings as fast as he could. "I can't catch her. I can't."

An eerie sense of calm settled over Kylie. She reached out with her free hand just as gravity brought Ellie's body past them and latched on to the vampire's forearm. Kylie's hold was weak, though, and her palm started to slip. She tried to tighten her grip, lost it, and finally caught the girl by her wrist.

Ellie screamed and started to fight. Her eyes glowed a bright red in the darkness.

"It's me," Kylie said.

"Everyone, hang on!" Perry's voice bounced off the earthen walls of the pit.

Ellie struggled again, and Kylie pulled her closer. "I've got you."

And she did. Kylie put every ounce of thought and strength into not letting go of Ellie's wrist.