Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(85)

"Are you okay?" Holiday asked when Kylie walked her outside a few minutes later.

"As good as can be expected, I guess," Kylie lied. Holiday nodded and they said their good-nights.

When Kylie got back inside the cabin, Della was answering e-mails and Kylie sat at the kitchen table. She longed to call it a night, but she wanted to be here when Miranda got back from her date with Todd.

Kylie looked at the clock on the wall. That could be several more hours from now, though. Hours that Kylie had to fret over her own problems.

Della swung around. "That's not good. Or maybe it is."

"What?" Kylie asked.

Della pointed to the door and Miranda walked in. Her face was unreadable. She moved over to the table and dropped into a chair with as much drama as she could muster.

"And?" Kylie asked, and spotted hope in Della's eyes. Kylie knew that Della hoped the same thing Kylie did.

Hoped that the date was a complete bust and Perry still had a shot.

Miranda merely shrugged.

"Don't do this!" Della snapped. "Spill it or I'll reach down your throat for the answer myself."

Miranda spoke up. "He was ... nice. Dinner was nice. Holding his hand was nice."

"Did he kiss you?" Kylie asked, unsure how Miranda defined "nice." If Kylie worked hard enough, she could believe "nice" meant it wasn't anything special.

Miranda nodded. "The kiss was..."

"Let me guess," Della said. "It was nice."

"Right," Miranda said.

Della slapped her hand on the table. "'Nice' is just another way of saying 'friggin' boring'!"

Miranda frowned. "That's exactly what I thought."

Kylie and Della both squealed with excitement.

"What?" Miranda asked. "You're happy my date wasn't exciting?"

"No," Kylie said. "Let's just say we're more excited about tomorrow night's date."

A bright smile lit up Miranda's face. "Me too. Can you believe Perry did that? I mean, he was so..."

"Romantic," Kylie said.

"Hot," Della added.

"Sweet," Miranda whispered. "I couldn't stop thinking about him all night."

And that was the best news Kylie had gotten all day.

* * *

That night, Kylie stared at the ceiling forever, craving sleep that didn't come. One hour passed. Then two.

Her mind started naming off her problems. She still didn't know what she was. She couldn't stop Fate from taking someone she cared about. She had someone wanting her dead, probably the rogue underground paranormal gang headed by Mario, who still hadn't forgiven her for not wanting to marry his murdering grandson. Lucas was calling and chatting with Fredericka. Sara was coming to visit on Sunday with Kylie's mom. And her stepdad was going to drop by, too. Kylie still hadn't solved her amnesia spirit's issues, and she wasn't even a hundred percent sure the woman wasn't a killer.

Kylie's sleep-deprived brain chewed on each and every issue and didn't spit out any answers. She'd just fallen asleep when she heard a light tap-tap on her bedroom window.

At first, she thought she'd imagined it. Then she thought it was the blue jay again. "I'm not your mama," Kylie muttered.

The tapping stopped.

Kylie lay there, listening. The silence suddenly seemed ominous. She took in a shallow breath, and the sound seemed abnormally loud. The window was locked, right?

She recalled opening it the day before, hoping to invite in a breeze. And no, she couldn't recall locking it afterward.

But hey ... considering the types of intruders Kylie feared the most, the kind that could create sinkholes and materialize out of thin air, what was the chance a locked window would stop them?

So why, Kylie wondered, did the distinct sound of someone lifting her window send sharp jolts of fear straight to her heart?

Chapter Twenty-nine

Kylie bounced out of bed, and her heart leapt with her. Her gaze shot to the window, where she saw two hands gripping the windowsill.

A scream rose in her throat, but then Della's voice echoed outside the window. "Try to crawl in the window and I'm gonna crawl up your ass! And the position is just about right for me to do it."

The hands disappeared. Someone hit the ground.

Kylie ran to the window to make sure Della didn't engage in a fatal fight. Della, in her loose-fitting blue cotton Mickey Mouse pajamas, had her hands on her hips, standing over someone laid out on the lawn. Her eyes were a bright green.

"Shit!" Ellie said, her own eyes glowing. "I just wanted to talk to Kylie." She looked over at the window to Kylie and grabbed her baseball hat that read, LITTLE VAMP.

"See that?" Della pointed toward the front porch. "It's called a door. And most people use them."

"I didn't want to wake anyone else."

"Then you wait until a decent hour!" Della countered.

Kylie didn't know what Ellie wanted to discuss, but if it had anything to do with Derek, Kylie was willing to hear her out.

"It's okay," Kylie said. "Come on in."

"Oh, right. Reward bad behavior!" Della looked disgusted, but Kylie couldn't help it.

Ellie smirked at Della, then stood and started to climb in the window again.