Chosen at Nightfall

Kylie twisted around on her butt, searching for the ghost and trying to feel the cold. No cold found its way in the cave. No ghost, either. None that Kylie could sense, anyway.

But the sword now inching toward her had to be from the ghost, right? She'd been carrying one around for show and tell this last week and a half.

"Where the heck did that come from?" Holiday asked, her voice filled with concern.

Kylie couldn't take her eyes off the weapon as it slowly inched closer and closer. "From under the water."

"I know, I saw, but..."

"I think it has something to do with the ghost," Kylie said.

Holiday frowned. "You mean the one toting around severed heads?"

Kylie nodded. "That would be her."

"Why do you think that?" Holiday asked.

"I'm not completely sure, but I think it looks like her sword. Minus all the blood of course."

"Oh, hell," Holiday said. "What did you get pulled into?"

"I don't know. But it wasn't willingly." Kylie bit down on her lip. If not for the peaceful ambience of the falls, she'd be completely tripping out.

Holiday picked up the sword. She turned it over in her hands. "It looks real. And old. Do you really think it's the same sword?" She shook her head in puzzlement. "Ghosts can't deliver things like this."

"It looks like it. I mean, I'm not a sword expert." Kylie reached for the weapon, and as soon as she touched it, the dang thing started glowing. She flung it to the ground and did another scoot backward.

"Why did it do that?"

"I wouldn't know," Holiday said, and stared back at the sword. "Did you learn anything about chameleons making weapons glow?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"I think I might have remembered that."

"Okay," she said, still thinking. She gave the sword another puzzled look and then glanced back at Kylie. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yup." Kylie got to her feet and saw Holiday reach down for the sword. "Wait. Can't we just leave it here?"

Holiday rose and looked at Kylie. "I don't think so. I think it was meant for you."

"You know, I was afraid you were going to say that. But how do you know it wasn't meant for you?"

"Because it didn't glow when I picked it up."

Kylie frowned. "I'm really tired of all this weird crap happening to me."Holiday sighed. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't like it."

"Well, that makes two of us." Kylie nipped at her lip again in worry.

Holiday half smiled. "We'll get to the bottom of this. When we get back to the office I'll do some research and see if I can find anything about it. And we'll talk to Hayden, too." She carefully picked up the sword, keeping the sharp end pointing down. "We'll find the answer."

Yeah, Kylie thought, but she had the distinct feeling that if they did find the answer, she might not like it.

* * *

Kylie, Holiday, and Burnett, with sword in tow, found Hayden at his cabin. He had nothing to offer. Not even a good educated guess.

Burnett asked him to pick up the sword to see if it would glow for him. It didn't. Then, because Burnett hadn't seen the sword glow earlier, he asked Kylie to pick it up. Carefully.

Like she wouldn't be careful picking up something that looked like it had been used to decapitate hundreds of victims.

The moment she fit her fingers around the hand grip, the iron grew warm against her palm, and just as it had before, it began to glow. It reminded her of one of those glow sticks you bought at theme parks.

"Enough?" Kylie said, eager to put it down.

"Yeah," Burnett said, and looked baffled. It wasn't a look that she'd seen on the vamp's face very often. He reached for the sword and waited to see if it would start to glow, and even looked a bit disappointed when it didn't. Putting it back down on Hayden's kitchen table, he gazed at Kylie's forehead to check out her pattern.

On the walk over here, he'd surmised that Kylie had probably turned into a witch and had lost control of her powers as she had the day she'd sent the paperweight at him, bruising his boys. While Kylie almost wished it was that simple, she didn't buy it. She hadn't been thinking about a sword to have conjured one up.

"I'm not a witch, am I?" she asked Burnett.

"No," he said, and shrugged.

"I told you," Holiday said. "I checked her pattern as soon as the thing started glowing. As crazy as it sounds, I'm not sure it's Kylie doing it. But the sword."

"You think the sword's possessed?" Hayden asked.

"Say what?" Kylie asked. "Swords can be possessed? Okay ... this is just too freaky for me." She started dusting off her hands to wipe off any possessed germs.

"No, I don't think it's possessed." Holiday touched Kylie to calm her. "I just think for some reason it reacts to Kylie. There's some connection between her and the sword."

"It's strange as hell," Hayden said. "I could ask Kylie's grandfather about this. He might know something that I don't."

Burnett frowned at the mention of her grandfather, but he nodded, and she saw him work to pull back his discontent. "I would appreciate that." He even sounded grateful. "Would you report back to me on that as soon as you get anything?"

Hayden nodded. "Of course."As they went to leave, Burnett offered Hayden his hand. Hayden didn't hesitate to take it. Kylie got the feeling that the whole sword thing might have worked in her favor for convincing Burnett that Hayden needed to stay on. Even though Hayden didn't have the answers, she could see Burnett appreciated having a go-to person for something he didn't have a lot of knowledge on.

Maybe, Kylie thought, the sword wasn't a bad thing after all. But each time she looked at it held at Burnett's side, she recalled the spirit last night carrying a bloody sword and the severed head.

And she started to worry again that whatever this was all about might lead to more bloodshed.

* * *

They went to put away the sword in Holiday's office and then they all walked to dinner. As they stepped off the porch, Kylie was seen for the first time by her fellow Shadow Falls students and was greeted by several campers. Perry came running and swooped her up in his arms, swinging her around twice. When he dropped her back on her feet, Kylie was dizzy and content. He grabbed her arms to steady her. She hadn't even realized how much she'd missed the shape-shifter until he laughed and it sent a warm deja vu feeling through her.

"Hey, are you groping my best friend?" Miranda's voice echoed from behind Perry.

Perry released her and shot Miranda a grin over his shoulder. "Just a little bit," he said, and glanced back at Kylie. "Damn, we missed you. Miranda was driving me crazy she was so lonely."

"I missed everyone, too," Kylie said, and meant it with all her heart.

Right then, a group of weres walked past. Kylie first recognized Clara, Lucas's half-sister. She met Kylie's gaze and her posture suddenly seemed to express an attitude. Okay, so not everyone was happy to have her back. She could accept that. But then behind Clara, another person moved into view, and Kylie's gaze slammed right into Fredericka.

She didn't smile, but she didn't scowl, and then she offered Kylie a slight nod. A welcome-back nod, maybe even a good-to-see-you nod. Kylie returned the gesture and even offered a slight smile.

For Fredericka, that little acknowledgment was probably more of a show of affection than Perry's.

Especially when Clara shot Fredericka a disgruntled look for her action, and Fredericka gave her a getover-it shrug.

Kylie drew in a deep breath. It felt good to know that while she might not have gained any friends at Shadow Falls, she'd managed to lose an enemy.

Miranda leaned in. "Did you just do what I think you did? Did you smile at that B with an itch?"

"I told you, her and I sort of came to terms," Kylie said.

"Which is a good thing," Holiday piped up. "And I think more people need to come to terms around here."

"And I think Della's right," Miranda muttered. "Kylie's just too nice." Ignoring Holiday's frown, the witch glanced at Burnett. "Speaking of which ... is Della back yet?"

"She's due any time," Burnett answered as they moved to the dining hall.

When they walked in the door, the chatter filling the large room went silent as if someone had turned off the volume. Heads turned. The only sound bouncing around the large space was forks dropping onto platters. Then, simultaneously, at least fifty pairs of eyes squinted to check out her pattern. Kylie stopped moving a foot inside the door feeling-and not liking-the limelight.Holiday brushed the back of her hand against Kylie's. "You want me to do something?" she whispered.

"No," Kylie muttered, determined to fight her own battles. Besides, she wanted to be here, this was home, and by God, she wasn't hiding her pattern. Sooner or later, they'd get used to her. Wouldn't they?

Eventually they would stop staring and accept her as one of their own.

"Well, I'm gonna do something," growled Perry. He moved forward. "You wanna stare at something?"

he yelled out. "Well, stare at this!" Perry swerved around, bent to the waist, dropped his pants, and mooned every pair of those fifty sets of eyes.

"Perry!" Holiday squealed, but there was laughter behind the tone. Burnett's chuckle bounced out of him, but then he slammed shut his mouth when he spotted Holiday's arched brow at his open show of humor.

"Don't be showing your ass, Perry!" Burnett said, his voice deep as if still trying not to laugh. "People are trying to eat."

Everyone in the entire room bolted out with laughter, even Kylie. Leave it to Perry to turn an awkward moment to one of complete humor. Kylie looked at Miranda, who was rolling her eyes, but pride sparkled behind them. And she should be proud. While pulling his pants down might have seemed extreme, it had been done with good intentions, to put a stop to an awkward moment-done to make Kylie feel better.

And it had.

Pants back up, Perry turned around and winked at Kylie. As they started moving to the food counter, Kylie leaned in to Miranda and said, "Perry's a keeper."

Miranda rolled her eyes again in humor. "I know." She grinned. "And he has a cute ass, doesn't he?"

Kylie laughed again. "I didn't see his ass, it's his heart that did me in."

As Kylie stood in line to get served her hamburger and fries-which actually smelled a bit like heaven -several people came over to welcome her back: Mandy, one of Miranda's witch friends, Chris, the vampire, and Jonathon, who wore a long face, obviously missing Helen.

"How's Helen?" Kylie asked, and was suddenly washed with a bit of guilt knowing it was probably because of her that Helen was attacked. "I'm so sorry this happened."

"It's not your fault," he said, and bumped her with his shoulder. "But give me a chance to put my hands on that asshole who hurt her and he'll be sorry."

"Is she really okay?" Kylie asked.

"Yeah, she's fine. Her parents say she can come back here in a week."

"That's good," Kylie said.

"Good? That's like forever. A whole week. Seven days. I'm gonna go bat-shit crazy. She's like my drug. I'm not used to being without her." He took off, not a happy camper.

Kylie watched him slump off-his posture that of a hurt and defeated-looking boy. And she got a flashback to how she felt when Lucas would leave. Lonely, empty. Her touchstone in life missing.

Trying to push the thought away, she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up and do a tickling tap dance. Trying to be inconspicuous, but fearing she knew exactly who was staring, she looked over her shoulder at the were table. Sure as hell, he sat there, studying her with wide, blue eyes. Eyes filled with a sad apology. Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach.

Would she ever get over being mad enough to forgive him? The question painfully banged against her chest bone with each beat of her heart.She looked away and shot forward at the same time and ran right into a wide chest-a familiar wide chest. One she remembered leaning against last night in a dreamscape. When she glanced up at Derek's face, it was as if her brain decided this moment was perfect to download everything that happened. All the missing pieces of the puzzle of last night in the dream came hurling back.

The kiss.

His arms around her.

The gentle way he'd held her.

Oh, shit!