Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(84)

She wasn't afraid.

Fredericka with her I'll-rip-you-to-shreds attitude didn't scare her anymore. She annoyed Kylie to no end, made her feel something akin to jealousy-although she trusted Lucas not to cheat-but nope, there wasn't an ounce of fear.

"What do you need?" Kylie put her hand out to stop Della from getting between them. Della, probably livid at being held back, growled and exposed her canines. Fredericka's eyes turned a bright pissed-off orange.

"I thought you'd like to know that Lucas phoned me and told me he's not returning until late tomorrow night," the were said in a sickly sweet voice. "He's having issues with his dad. Sad stuff. Poor guy. He needed someone to talk to."

Kylie knew the only reason Fredericka told her this was to annoy her.

And it worked.

But Kylie's pride had her smiling and pretending everything was great. But darn if there wasn't a part of her that didn't want to kick Fredericka's ass and worry about the consequences later.

"Thanks for letting me know. I'll look for his call in a bit." She smiled extra sweetly right back at Fredericka and walked away.

Fredericka caught her by the arm. Her fingers dug into Kylie's elbow. Kylie almost attempted to pull away. Then she remembered that if everyone was right about her being a protector, she wouldn't have the power to take on the were.

The only way Kylie could take on Fredericka was if she tried to hurt someone Kylie cared about.

And considering that other person was Della, and there might be a death cloud hanging around her and every other vampire at Shadow Falls, Kylie wasn't about to let Della get involved.

Kylie would have to use her wits to get out of this. Did she have enough?

"Do you want to let go of my arm?" Kylie pretended like it didn't feel as if her bones were about to be crushed under the were's grasp.

"Not really," Fredericka growled.

"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you. Because I've got this spirit hanging around and she's been in a piss-poor mood for about thirty years." It was a lie. Pure lie. But Kylie wasn't above using what she could. "Ever since she was killed by a rogue werewolf, she's been aching-"

Fredericka's hand dropped. "Go to hell."

Kylie smiled. "Thanks for the invite, but I almost went there yesterday and didn't like it all that much." Kylie then wrinkled her nose. "Is that skunk I smell?"

Fredericka's eyes turned burnt orange and Kylie knew she'd pushed too far. The were's hand clamped down on Kylie's elbow and tightened. Someone darted out of the woods. From the corner of Kylie's eyes, she saw it was Will, Lucas's friend.

He cleared his throat, and the she-wolf didn't even look at him. She just dropped her hold on Kylie and took off with a tail-tucked-between-her-legs kind of look.

Kylie didn't like realizing that Will had been hounding her footsteps, unseen. The fact that neither Kylie nor Della had sensed he'd been hounding them told her he was good at it, too.

Della glared at him, but Kylie did the right thing. "Thanks."

"No problem." He disappeared back into the woods.

"What the hell did you say 'thank you'? We didn't need him intervening. I could have opened a can of whoop ass on that she-wolf and she'd have been whimpering like a hungry pup."

And she might have killed you.

They had gotten only a few feet away when Kylie remembered what Fredericka said about Lucas calling her. Pausing, she pulled out her phone to see if she'd missed his call.

Nope.

The were could have been lying. How could Kylie ever know? Then ... duh, the obvious hit. Della, like the rest of her kind, was a walking, talking lie detector. She could hear heartbeats and pulse rates and knew when someone was telling a lie.

Kylie looked at Della. "Was Fredericka telling the truth about Lucas calling her?"

Della made a face. "Is lying wrong if you know it's what the person wants to hear?"

"Just tell me!"

Della mouthed the word sorry. "She was telling the truth."

* * *

After Kylie arrived back at the cabin, Holiday came over with Burnett's laptop and they sent an e-mail to Catherine O'Connell's family. They'd concocted a story about being an old friend of Catherine's and thought her family should know that she had wanted to tell them something right before she'd passed away. It sounded good. Convincing, even. And then they did a cut and paste of all the family tree information that came with photos.

Hopefully, it would do the trick. Not that Kylie suspected she'd ever know for sure. But she felt good about keeping her part of the bargain. Never mind that the information Kylie got from her about Berta Littlemon had yet to give her any answers. And Kylie hoped it didn't. The last thing she wanted to discover was that she was wrong about Jane Doe.

While Holiday and Della chatted at the table, Kylie sent her stepfather an e-mail and told him the shift schedule if he wanted to come on Sunday to Parents Day. She hoped he'd e-mail back and say he couldn't make it so she wouldn't have to deal with Sara and her stepdad on the same day. His e-mail came back superfast. He said he looked forward to seeing her on Sunday.

"Crap," Kylie muttered.

Holiday glanced over at her. "Bad news?"

"No, everything is just friggin' fabulous," Kylie said, and dropped her head on the desk. She didn't know if she would survive.