Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(96)

Then things changed and Kylie was Jane. She slipped quietly out of the bed. Her body felt cumbersome with the round, heavy weight around her middle. Her heart felt broken, heavy. Kylie couldn't ever remember feeling so much sadness, as if she were about to lose something more precious than life.

She moved out of the dark room, looked back one more time at the sleeping man. Whoever he was, Jane loved him.

"I'm sorry." The two little words tumbled out of her mouth. The man rolled over, and Kylie got a quick glimpse of his face. Pale complexion, thick, dark brown-no, not really brown, but auburn hair.

Something about his face made Kylie want to continue to stare at him, but she had no control over what happened in these visions. Reliving Jane Doe's past, she turned and walked out. She moved to a closet, grabbed a long black coat, and slipped it around her body. Then she pulled out a suitcase-an old-fashioned piece of luggage, no wheels. Carrying it made walking while pregnant feel even more awkward.

Why are you leaving if you love him? The question flowed through Kylie's mind, but the vision continued, leaving the question hanging in the air unanswered.

With tears now streaming down her face, she walked out of the small house. A car, with its headlights off, pulled up to the curb. She got inside. Kylie wanted to see who was driving, but Jane was too busy crying, too busy trying to deal with a broken heart, to care about the driver.

"You're doing the best thing," a woman's voice said as the car pulled away. "He wouldn't understand."

The vision went black. Kylie tried to wake up but got pulled back in.

And not to a good place, either.

There was light now, but she didn't care. She was in too much pain. Something was ripping her insides apart. It reminded Kylie of the worst menstrual cramp she'd ever had. Her body contorted with pain. Her back arched and she screamed.

"It's not coming," someone said. The pain in her abdomen eased and she became aware of the emotional pain in her chest again.

"Don't let my baby die." She raised up on her elbow.

The man standing between her opened knees met Jane Doe's eyes. "I'd have to take it by C-section."

"Then do it!" Jane screamed.

"I'm not prepared for that. I don't have any anesthesia."

"I don't care," Jane said. "Don't let my baby die. I can take it. It's not like I'm human."

The man looked at the woman sitting beside him. "Get me a knife."

Chapter Thirty-three

No! Kylie screamed in her head, even as Jane Doe dropped back on the bed and resigned herself to being cut open with nothing to dull the pain.

"Kylie? Wake up!"

Kylie felt someone shake her. Still screaming, she opened her eyes and saw Della and Miranda standing over her. She managed to stop screaming but couldn't stop shaking.

"Should we get Holiday?" Miranda asked, looking worried.

Kylie shook her head no. "I'm okay." She rolled over and dried her tears on the blanket. "Go back to sleep," she muttered. Her heart still carried the panic from the vision, and she could feel the cold. Jane was here.

Della and Miranda looked at each other as if unsure what to do next.

"Go," she repeated.

As soon as they left, Kylie sat up. Jane sat on the edge of the bed. Her abdomen gaped open and blood spilled onto the tops of her bare thighs. "I didn't kill my baby. I loved him."

"I know. I saw." Kylie hated to ask, but finding answers was why Jane had come to her. "Did the baby die? Is that what happened? Did your baby die during childbirth?"

Jane looked at Kylie again. "No." She smiled, and instantly the blood on her hands disappeared and she was dressed in a pretty sundress with big yellow sunflowers. "He lived. My baby lived. I made sure he was okay. And then I went back home."

"Where was home?" Kylie asked. "Home to who?"

She blinked and then looked up. "I don't know. I can't remember."

"I'm a little confused," Kylie said. "Did you die during the birth?"

"No, I already showed you how I died. They killed me." And then she faded.

It took Kylie forever to fall back to sleep, and when she did, another dream had her in its trap. Immediately, she recognized what was going on. She hadn't moved into the dream, someone had come into hers.

She waited just a fraction of a second to make sure it wasn't Derek, then she saw him. Red. He stood by the lake.

"I'm not trying to fool you this time," he said.

"Leave me alone!" she snapped.

"I need to tell you..."

Kylie woke up in a panic in her bed. Red was gone. "Don't come back!" she said, and hugged herself, proud of how quickly she'd woken herself up.

* * *

The next four or five days at Shadow Falls were all about getting the camp ready to become a full-blown school, and that was fine with Kylie. Holiday was busy interviewing a few more potential teachers while a construction group-all paranormals-built a few large classroom cabins. Another all-paranormal crew put heating units into the cabins.

Kylie was still being shadowed. Because nothing else had happened, she'd started to feel guilty about piling on to everyone's busy schedules. On Friday morning, she took off to Burnett's office to suggest he call a halt to the shadowing. He disagreed.