Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(77)

The sound of air whooshing and huge bird wings flapping filled the darkness, and in a few seconds, Perry lifted all three of them out of the hole. Once they were back in the light, he flew them about a hundred feet up the path before he descended and dropped them carefully on the solid earth.

He landed beside them, talons hitting the earth with a thud. As Kylie suspected, he'd shifted into a prehistoric-looking bird with dark gray feathers. He was about the size of a small plane. Then the rumble beneath the ground started again.

"Run!" he ordered.

He didn't have to tell them twice. Kylie and Ellie took off, flying through the woods, dodging trees, ducking under limbs, and leaping over thick bunches of thornbushes.

Kylie kept glancing up to make sure Perry was okay. He was still following them, gliding easily over the tips of the trees, making sure they were safe.

Once they were out of the trees, Kylie dropped to the ground and gasped for air, her pulse racing. She could hear her blood gushing in her veins. Ellie dropped down beside her, breathing not quite as hard, but still a little shaky.

Perry landed beside them and transformed himself back into human form.

"What the freaking hell were you doing?" he screamed at Kylie, his eyes blood red with fury.

She swallowed another gulp of air. "Trying to save you."

"I didn't need saving!" He flapped his arms up and down almost as if he'd forgotten he was no longer a bird. He turned his anger on Ellie. "And you? What the hell is your excuse?"

She coughed and then said, "I ... figured if I came back alive and you two didn't, the rest of your group would probably kill me. I didn't have a choice but to go in after you."

Suddenly Burnett, eyes in full protective mode and his fangs exposed, flashed onto the scene. "What happened?" he asked, his voice little more than a deep growl. "It sounded like an explosion."

"Earthquake, maybe," Perry said. "The ground just sank below us."

"But that's-" Burnett shook his head. "Is everyone okay?"

They all nodded. Burnett's gaze locked on Kylie. "You're bleeding. Go to the office and let Holiday check you all out." Kylie looked down at her arm. Ellie's nails must have scratched her when she caught her.

Burnett continued, "I'll check to see how bad the, uh, earthquake is." He turned to go.

"Wait!" Kylie called out, and Burnett returned in a blur of motion.

"What?" he asked, impatience clear in his voice.

"It wasn't an earthquake," she said. With clarity, she recalled seeing the eagle coming straight at her in full-scale attack mode. Now she understood his intention had been to make her run, but it didn't change the fact that it had been evil. She'd seen the darkness in his eyes. "The eagle was there."

And so was Jane Doe, although Kylie saw no reason to mention that.

At least not yet.

Burnett let loose another growl. "Go to the office. I'll see if I can get to the bottom of this."

As Kylie, Ellie, and Perry moved toward the office, Kylie looked at Ellie. "Thanks for going in to try and save us."

Ellie shrugged. "Don't give me too much credit. I really didn't know what would happen to me if I was the only one to survive." She chuckled. "Now that it's over with, that was fun."

"No, it wasn't," Kylie said, remembering how she felt when she saw Perry fall into the hole.

They took a few more steps, and Ellie's gaze, bright probably because of the blood, shot to Kylie's arm where the scratches ran down her arm, and she added, "I'm sorry. I'll bet I did that when I was fighting you. Thanks for saving me. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't caught me. I couldn't seem to get into flying mode. I owe you. You name it and I'll do it, no questions asked."

"No need. You're welcome," Kylie said.

"And what about me?" Perry asked.

Kylie and Ellie looked at Perry and spoke at the same time. "Thanks."

"Can I name it and you'll do it?" Perry wiggled his brows, his tone filled with humor once again.

"No," Ellie and Kylie said at the same time.

"I know, how about instead you two just tell Miranda how I was your hero."

"I can do that," Ellie said. "Who's Miranda?"

"My girlfriend," Perry said, and he looked at Kylie. "Well, she will be as soon as I convince her."

They took a few more steps and Ellie said, "I'm sorry I slept with Derek."

"Forget it," Kylie said, because she planned on forgetting it herself.

* * *

The next couple of hours were a blur of interrogations by Burnett, who questioned all three of them, separately, several times. Kylie realized he wasn't doing it because he thought anyone would lie about what happened. He just didn't want something one person said to influence the memory of the other. Kylie didn't care about that. What she wanted to know was what had happened. Had they really gotten sucked down into a pit that led straight to hell? If so, why? Was it because of Jane Doe? Or was this something conjured up by Mario and his pals to torment her?

More important, would it happen again?

Unfortunately, Burnett had questions of his own and no answers. Holiday was just as clueless. But the look of fear on the camp leaders' faces scared Kylie more than anything else.