Whispers at Moonrise (Shadow Falls #4)(23)

"What do you sense?"

"That danger is right around the corner." Her eyes filled with worry.

"Can I stop it from happening?"

She tilted her head to one side and considered the question. "I think so. I think that's why I came. So you could stop it."

Kylie's heart filled with hope. Surely, if it wasn't possible to help, the spirit would have known. So even if this was Holiday, maybe Kylie could save her. Maybe the person the spirit was supposed to save was herself and she just didn't realize it. "Have you figured out your name yet?"

She shook her head. "I just keep getting the same thing. I think it's Hannah."

"Please tell me what you know. It might be important."

She shook her head. "I'm not ready to talk about it. And it's not a whole lot. Just ... flashes of stuff."

"Why aren't you ready to talk about it?"

The spirit turned and stared at the woods as if she'd heard something.

Kylie followed her gaze. She didn't see anyone, but oddly, the feeling she'd felt earlier had returned. Someone was out there. Calling for her.

Who are you? What do you want? She asked the question in her mind.

"They want to talk to you," the ghost said.

"Who?" Kylie asked. "And you said 'they,' so how do you know there's more than one?"

"I just somehow know there's more than one. But if I don't know my own name, how could I know theirs?"

"Have you seen them? Do you know what they want with me?"

She shook her head. "I just sense them. Calling you."

"Do they mean to harm me?" she asked.

"I ... can't say for sure. But they don't feel evil."

"They don't really feel evil to me, either." Or maybe she just wanted to believe it. She moved down the steps. She'd almost reached the woods when someone caught her arm-someone warm, someone alive.

Chapter Nine

Kylie swung around, her heart bouncing off her stomach all the way up to her throat.

"Where are you going?" Lucas asked.

"Nowhere." She swallowed the panic. "I was waiting on you and thought I heard something." It wasn't completely a lie; she'd heard it with her heart.

He pulled her against him. "That's when you go inside the cabin, not into the woods. Even normals know that from watching those phony horror shows."

She rolled her eyes. "I would've gone inside if I thought it was evil."

"But sometimes you don't know." He slid his hand down to her waist.

She agreed with him on that point and probably needed to remember it, too.

Yet remembering anything became harder with him this close. So close she felt him breathe. The soft touch of his palm warmed her skin beneath her clothes. The tenderness and heat created a trail of tingling sensation.

He dipped his head down and gazed into her eyes. "Do you have any idea how I would feel if something happened to you?"

"Probably the same as I'd feel if something happened to you," she said. "What did your father want?"

He frowned. "It's Clara, my half sister. She ran off again. She told him she was coming here, but he suspected she went back to her boyfriend."

"I'm sorry. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." He sighed. "I've already gone after her twice. She said she wanted to come here. But maybe she lied. If I bring her here against her will, what's going to stop her from running off?"

"Is the boyfriend that bad?"

He grimaced. "He's rogue and heavily into a gang."

"And that automatically makes him bad?" She'd learned that not all supernaturals were registered, and to some people that alone made them rogue, but not all unregistered supernaturals were bad, either. Della didn't consider Chan evil. And Kylie chose to believe her grandfather and great-aunt weren't bad. "Are all gangs bad?"

Her question seemed to give him pause. "Not necessarily, but even the gangs that aren't completely unethical are generally into something illegal."

"Drugs?" Kylie asked.

"And other stuff."

Kylie remembered how badly she'd felt for Lucas when she'd seen him looking so defensive facing his own father. She remembered he'd stood up for her against his own family. Her heart hurt for Lucas. "If your half sister is anything like her half brother, she'll do the right thing." She stepped up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his.

It was late. It was dark. But the moment seemed so right. What was meant as a quick kiss lingered and became more. Much more. He deepened the kiss and she leaned into him. She felt his body come closer to hers, hard in all the places she was soft.

She heard the purring sound that a were made when he was close to a potential mate. She became almost hypnotized-lured by the sound, tempted and enticed by all that could follow.

He tasted so good, felt so good. She wanted more. She wanted to feel more. To taste more. To experience more.

Then the magic ended when he pulled away. He brushed his hand over her cheek and while his blue eyes held the heat of passion, she could tell his mind was chewing on something else. "I'm sorry that my dad scared you."

She fought the desire to tell him to just start kissing her again. "It's okay," she said, and tried not to sound disappointed.