Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls #3)(99)

"What is it?" he asked.

"I thought I heard something. Did you hear it?"

"Hear what?" He started looking around. "That damn blue jay isn't back, is it? I'm telling you, it's a sick bird."

The bird had returned three more times. Jonathon had been present for two of them. "No. I thought I heard Holiday."

Jonathon tilted his head to the side as if putting his own sensitive hearing to the test. "I don't hear her."

So, was her hearing stronger than a vampire's? What did that mean? Especially when she still had the brain pattern of a human.

"It's not like I have a choice," Burnett said.

Great. They were fighting again. About what this time? Kylie wondered, and continued on to the dining hall. If she had to guess, Holiday was just finding another excuse to try to put some distance between her and Burnett. Since Kylie had walked in and found them kissing, she hadn't seen the two within fifty feet of each other.

"You have a choice," Holiday said. "You go back and tell them that I said hell, no."

"It's a couple of tests. They wouldn't take long and they could clear up everything."

"I said, no!"

"Now I'm hearing Holiday," Jonathon said. "She doesn't sound too happy."

"Don't you think this should be Kylie's decision?"

"What should be my decision?" Kylie muttered, and changed direction and started walking toward the office.

"No!" Holiday said.

"She wants answers. And this could give them to her."

Kylie moved faster. What answers? It didn't matter, she realized. She'd take any answers she could get.

"I won't allow it!"

"Won't allow what?" Kylie stormed into the office, leaving Jonathon behind.

Holiday and Burnett swung around. Holiday pointed to the door. "Get out!" she told Burnett.

"No!" Kylie stepped in front of him. "He stays. This is about me, and I need to know."

Holiday looked at Burnett with anger, then she looked at Kylie. "You wouldn't understand this."

"Why don't you try me?" She looked at Burnett. "Start talking."

He cut his gaze to Holiday.

"The FRU wants to run some tests on you," Holiday said. "To see if they can figure out what you are."

Hope rose in Kylie's chest. "I thought there weren't any tests that could tell me this?" She remembered asking Holiday that question before.

"There aren't!" Holiday said. "They just want to play around in your brain to-"

"I'll do it," Kylie said.

"No!" Holiday looked horrified. "I refuse to let them use you as some kind of lab rat. There are no guarantees that these tests are safe, and they may not even work."

Kylie looked at Burnett. "Are they safe?"

Burnett stared at Holiday, his eyes getting a pissed-off amber color. "I wouldn't let them do anything to her that's not safe," he growled. "Do you have that little faith in me?"

"I have that little faith in the FRU. History repeats itself."

"What kind of tests would they be?" Kylie asked.

"Just some CT scans," Burnett said.

"No!" Holiday turned back to Kylie. "They'll use you as a guinea pig."

"They're not going to hurt her," Burnett said.

"I know, because she's not agreeing to it."

The cold came into the room so fast that Kylie's breath sent tiny flakes of ice falling from her lips. Jane materialized, and at the same time, the three light bulbs in the fixture overhead burst. Shards of glass rained through the air.

"What the hell?" Burnett looked up and took a step closer to Kylie.

Holiday's crystals hanging throughout the room started swaying, sending rainbow colors spiraling around them.

The laptop computer on Holiday's desk started beeping, making serious malfunctioning noises.

"You stay away from her!" Jane shot across the room to stand between her and Burnett.

"Run, Kylie!" Jane yelled in the same tone she'd used to warn Kylie about the sinkhole.

"What's wrong?" Kylie demanded.

"He's wrong!" Jane yelled.

Holiday looked around the room. "What's happening, Kylie?"

"I think she thinks Burnett is trying to hurt me."

"Tell her to leave," Holiday insisted.

"Jane, you're going to have to go."

But Jane wasn't listening.

Burnett took another step closer to Kylie. Jane screamed and then jammed her hand inside his chest. Not only could Kylie see Jane's hand, she saw the inside of Burnett's chest. And she watched in horror as Jane's hand closed around Burnett's heart.

"No!" Kylie screamed.

Burnett's gaze shot to Holiday. He reached for his chest.

"Stop it!" Kylie said.

Burnett dropped to the floor in a dead thud.

Chapter Thirty-four

Thirty minutes later, with Jonathon sitting under a tree a few feet away, Kylie sat on Holiday's porch, swatting away bugs and listening to Holiday, the doctor, and Burnett from inside the office.