Taken at Dusk

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.

Della yanked her back. "Use the freaking door!"

When Kylie walked out of her bedroom, Della was gone and Ellie sat on the sofa.

"What's up?" She went over and sat in the chair next to her.

She looked up. "I don't know, I just wanted to talk."

"About what?" Kylie asked.

Ellie pulled one leg up to her chest. "A couple of things. Derek said you might be a good person to talk to about my issues."

Kylie chest tightened. "If this is about you and Derek-"

"No." She rolled her eyes. "I wasn't lying when I said there was nothing between us ... romantically. I like Derek as a friend. A good friend, but that's all. And that's some of what I wanted to talk about."

"I'm not following you," Kylie said.

"I'm worried about Derek. He's really upset about you two, and I sort of feel it's my fault. And when something's your fault, you feel responsible for fixing it."

Kylie frowned. "It's not your fault. Things weren't going right when he left."

"Yeah, he said that ... but still..."

"It's not your fault." Kylie cupped her knees in her palms. Did Derek really regret everything? The question hung somewhere between her head and her heart. "What's the other thing you needed to talk about?" she asked, not wanting to discuss Derek. She wasn't ready to delve into that Pandora box of emotions. The past was the past.

Ellie shrugged and adjusted her cap again. "I just don't think I belong here. I feel bad that Holiday worked so hard to get me accepted, but ... I think it's best I go."

Kylie leaned forward. "You want to leave Shadow Falls?"

"Yeah." She frowned. "All of it just doesn't feel right."

Her words didn't make sense, so Kylie just shook her head. "All of what?"

She glanced at Della's bedroom door and scooted over to the end of the sofa, closer to Kylie, and lowered her voice. "The whole supernatural world. Derek said you would probably understand because you felt the same way for a while. I mean, don't you miss it? Don't you miss being normal? Just hanging with your old friends? I want that back. I miss ... Before I worried about what I wanted to take in college. Now I worry about where I'm going to get my next pint of blood."

"You can't leave, Ellie. I'm not mad at you, if that's what this is about. I mean, at first I was hurt, but..."

"It's not that. Really," Ellie said. "Even my own kind here aren't exactly welcoming," she whispered. "But that's not even it. Nothing about being this"-she waved a hand up and down her body-"feels right. I miss ... being human. I miss my mom, who died a couple of years ago." Her voice shook with emotion. "Maybe if I just lived among humans, I would feel better."

A wave of empathy for Ellie washed over Kylie. Damn if she didn't know exactly how the girl felt. "It's hard," Kylie said. "But you can't leave here. Holiday says that most of the young vampires end up joining gangs just to survive." A question slammed into Kylie's mind. Was Ellie the vampire who was going to die? Was she going to leave Shadow Falls and get mixed up in something terrible?

The question caused Kylie to catch her breath.

Della's bedroom door opened and she flashed across the room and stopped right in front of them, her hair a little in disarray. Kylie got an image of her burying her head under a pillow, trying not to listen. Not that her plan worked.

Both Kylie and Ellie looked at Della.

Ellie scowled. "You've been listening, haven't you? Can't a person have-"

"Yeah, nitwit. I tried not to, but I've been listening," she said in her best smartass tone. "But Kylie's right. You can't leave. Nothing is easy about being us, or trying to fit into a new family of vampires, but it gets easier."

"How?" Ellie asked.

Miranda's door swung open. "You make friends," she said, and stumbled into the room, looking half-asleep.

"Does everyone listen in to everyone else's conversations in this cabin?" Ellie asked, sounding annoyed.

"Pretty much." Miranda came over and dropped on the sofa beside Ellie. "Friends don't keep very many secrets."

"But you guys aren't my friends."

"We could be," Kylie said, and Della and Miranda nodded.

Ellie's gaze widened and she looked away, but not before Kylie saw emotion in her eyes. The warm sensation filling Kylie's chest reminded her of the feeling she got at the falls, and she knew it had been the right thing to say. Then for some crazy reason, she saw a flash of the funeral vision in her mind.

Was that a sign? Did that mean Ellie really was the person in the casket? And had this changed the outcome?

* * *

Saturday was about two things. Well, three if you counted Miranda's unending attempt to change Socks back to feline form. The other two things were: emotionally getting ready for Parents Day and getting Miranda ready for her date with Perry.

Holiday had stopped by with a plan for tomorrow. Instead of locking Socks in her closet during Parents Day, she thought it would be a good idea to cart the little stinker over to her cabin for the day. That way, Kylie, Della, and Miranda could bring Kylie's mom and Sara back to the cabin and hang out, making it hard for Sara to ask too many questions about the whole healing process.

Since Kylie pretty much decided that no amount of effort would prepare her emotionally for seeing Sara here at camp, or for having to face her stepdad again, she put all that out of her mind and focused her energy into getting Miranda ready for her date.

When Miranda, a nervous witch, vetoed everything in her own closet, Della and Kylie gave her carte blanche with their own. Ellie even came over for an hour to help get Miranda ready. It was a little awkward, but ... Derek was right; Ellie really was a nice person. Besides, Kylie hadn't been able to forget the feeling she'd gotten last night, a sense that Ellie had been the one in the casket in that vision. And maybe, just perhaps, befriending Ellie had saved her life.

After trying on about six outfits, Miranda chose Kylie's LBD, little black dress.

At seven o'clock, Perry showed up on their doorstep, looking as much of a hottie as he had the night before. Burnett had loaned him his Mustang, and supposedly, Perry had a night planned that would knock Miranda's socks off.

When Miranda showed up a little past midnight, she had indeed lost her socks. And her shoes. Of course, she didn't need them because she practically floated through the door.

When Kylie and Della demanded details, Miranda said only, "It was a hell of a lot better than nice." Then she floated into her bedroom and went to bed.

Having done a little celebratory dance with Della, Kylie went to bed and waited to see if Lucas would call her. She almost called him but decided against it. She'd called him last time. It was time he made the next move. As she might have guessed, though, her phone never rang. But the ghost dropped by for another cold, silent visit.

Kylie begged her to talk, and she finally spoke, but not anything helpful. "It's not your fault. That's what they wanted me to tell you."

"What's not my fault?" she spouted out. The spirit faded, and the cold ache in the room swelled in Kylie chest and reminded her that she was no closer to solving Jane's problems than she was to solving her own.

* * *

Sunday morning, when Kylie, with Della in tow, got back to her cabin after breakfast, Lucas sat on the front porch. The moment his gaze touched hers, her heart started racing. He looked good. Was it her imagination that he looked more masculine and somehow buffer, or was it because of the approaching full moon?

He smiled at her, and she smiled back, feeling herself melt a little inside. She wanted to run into his arms and kiss him. But she knew he wouldn't like that in front of Della.

Then all those warm, gooey feelings faded when she wondered if he'd already visited Fredericka. But damn it, jealousy was such an ugly emotion.

"Don't even ask," Della said as she stepped on the porch. "I'll go inside and let you two make out." She opened the door and looked back over her shoulder. "But if you take her off this porch, I'll hunt you down."

"I won't." He nodded his thanks.

The moment the door closed, Lucas pulled Kylie into his arms. "I missed you," he whispered, and his lips melted against hers.

His kiss was light but still passionate. He held her close and she felt the subtle differences in him that she'd noted earlier-all muscle, all male. Hard in all the places she was soft.

When the kiss ended, she ran her fingers over his shoulders. "Do you get ... buffer the closer we get to a full moon?"

He smiled and pressed his forehead against hers. "Yes. It's my body's way of preparing for the shift." He swung around and leaned against the front of the cabin. Then he pulled her against him and slid his hand down to rest on her waist.

"Did you miss me?" he asked.

"Of course." She smiled at him, breathing in his scent and loving being close.

"No new ghost disasters since I left?" He arched one dark brow.

"No," she said. "No disasters. Except, I was sort of hoping you'd call me back. It's been two days."

"I'm sorry. My dad was being an ass and I had to stay longer than I'd anticipated. Didn't Fredericka tell you?"

Kylie's annoyance peaked. "Yeah, but it would have been nice if you'd called me yourself."

His gaze tightened as if he were trying to read her. "It's not like ... The only reason I called her was because Clara wanted to talk to her."

"Clara?" Kylie asked.

"My half-sister. She and Fredericka got to know each other when she went back with me before."

Great! Lucas's sister was friends with Fredericka. Kylie's jealousy inched up another notch.

He stared into her eyes. "I heard Will had to calm down Fredericka. I'll talk to her about it."

Kylie instantly realized she didn't want him talking to Fredericka. She bit down on her lip. Could she tell Lucas he couldn't be friends with Fredericka when she wouldn't want him telling her whom she could, and couldn't, be friends with?

No. She couldn't. So she just said, "Don't worry. I handled it." She stared at his chest for a second, trying to get her wayward jealousy under control.

He tilted her chin up and his blue eyes gazed into hers. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she lied. "Just ... a little worried about later. Seeing my stepdad and then Sara showing up."

"Can I do anything to help? All you have to do is ask."

Her heart tightened at his concerned tone. Lucas cared about her. She knew that. She believed it. Which meant she couldn't let Fredericka come between them. She just couldn't.

"You just did by being here." She gave him a long hug.

It wasn't until he left that she realized neither of them had said anything about him asking her out.

* * *

Kylie and Della went to the dining hall a little early to offer Holiday their help. Miranda had stayed behind to get all dolled up, in case Perry saw her.

Miranda and Della-the vamp in full moody mode, probably because she had to see her parents today-had bickered all morning. Kylie reminded them both to be on their best behavior around her mom and Sara. She honestly didn't care if they argued in front of her stepdad.

Well, maybe she cared a little, but Sara and her mom were more important.

They had just about gotten to the end of the path when someone called, "Wait up." Kylie turned, and Ellie, with a bright smile, came running up to join them.

Ellie grinned and reached over as if to hug Della. The fast embrace knocked Ellie's cap off.

Della backed up. "I'm not a hugger, Ellie. Nothing personal. But most vampires aren't huggers either."

"I'll work on that." Ellie grinned and snagged her hat from the ground. "Della voted me into her circle. I'm officially a member of the Shadow Falls vampire family."

"Cool." Kylie was happy for Ellie, but somewhere deep inside, this stood as another reminder that she didn't belong to any group. Odd, how she'd helped Ellie do something that she couldn't seem to do for herself.

Della frowned. "It's nothing. Don't make a big deal of it."

"It is a big deal," Ellie said. "I was leaving today, but you guys changed my mind. Heck, you could have saved my life." She looked ahead and saw a couple of other vamps. "I need to run. But seriously, thank you!"

Della stared after her. "I still think she's way too touchy-feely."

Kylie watched Ellie run up and chat with the others. She wasn't sure why she believed Ellie was the vamp the death angels warned would die, but the tiniest bit of hope that she'd saved Ellie offered Kylie a shimmer of reprieve from her own troubles.

Or it did until about thirty minutes later, when Kylie saw the parents start to pour in. Everyone but her dad. Had he forgotten again?