Whispers at Moonrise (35 page)

The moment John walked out, Kylie blurted out, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things.” And she was sorry, not because she’d said them to John, but because she’d probably hurt her mom. That had never been her intention.

“No, Holiday was right. Showing up here with him wasn’t the best idea. I just…” She blushed. “He makes me happy, Kylie. I can’t even explain it, but it’s almost the feeling I got with your real dad.”

Kylie recalled something her grandfather said, that the humans who were blessed found themselves attracted to supernaturals. Her suspicions rose about John.

“I wanted you to get to know him, because … because he’s important to me. And—”

Dear Lord, this was hard to hear. Before she knew what she planned to say, she’d started talking. “Dad’s sorry about all this, too, Mom. If you brought John here to make Dad jealous, it worked. I know Dad hurt you, but if you still love him … he loves you.”

Her mom closed her eyes as if searching for the right words. When she looked up, raw emotion shined in her eyes. “I did want your dad to see me and John, but I can’t … Your dad and I won’t be getting back together.” She took Kylie’s hand. “I’m sorry, baby. I can’t…”

Kylie squeezed her mom’s palm. “I understand.”

Her mom sighed. “Do you?”

Kylie nodded. It still hurt like the devil, but she understood.

Her mom sighed as if she was about to say something difficult. “Please try to see the good in John. He’s not the reason your dad and I broke up.”

“I know.” That was all Kylie managed to say. She wasn’t sure she could ever see any good in John.

Her mom bit her lip and made a funny face. “Now, about the question you asked. If John and I were … If we…”

“Are having sex?” Kylie finished for her, because God knew her mom would be here all day trying to say it.

Her mom blushed. “I’m an adult and I’m capable of making that kind of decision. You’re young and…” Her eyes widened. “You aren’t … you haven’t…?”

“No, Mom. I haven’t,” Kylie said. “But I will someday, and I don’t want you to have an aneurism when you find out.”

Her mom looked horrified. “I won’t. As long as you’re thirty.”

Kylie rolled her eyes. “Mom.”

“Okay, twenty-nine.” She paused. “You know, it hurts to see you grow up.”

“I know; it hurts to see you grow up, too.”

Her mom’s brow wrinkled with confusion. “What?”

“I could say it hurt to know you’re having sex, but I thought you’d prefer the euphemism.”

Her mom chuckled at the same time a cold entered the room, a familiar cold. Daniel? A quick glance around the room told her he couldn’t manifest. But she knew he’d tried.

Her mom smiled. Then she reached over and hugged her. “I swear, sometimes when I’m with you, I can almost feel your father here.”

“Me too,” Kylie said, and wondered how much her mom could really feel.

The chill in the room grew colder, but oddly it came with a hint of anger and frustration. Had her dad overheard the conversation and was making his opinion known about the whole sex-with-John issue?

I know, Dad,
Kylie spoke in her head.
I don’t like him, either.

*   *   *

Even before her mom and John pulled out of the parking lot, Holiday and Burnett had Kylie by her elbows. “Let’s talk,” Holiday said.

Kylie gazed back at the dining hall. “Shouldn’t ya’ll be in there?”

“First things first,” Holiday said as Burnett led them to the office.

“How the hell did you disappear like that?” Leave it to Burnett to cut to the chase.

“I don’t know.” Kylie walked into the office. “I wished I could vanish like a ghost when I saw my mom and John kissing, and then … I did.”

“You wished yourself invisible?” Holiday asked.

“I guess,” Kylie said.

“Then how did you come back?” Burnett closed the door.

“I un-wished it.” Knowing how crazy it sounded, she glanced at Holiday and dropped down on Holiday’s sofa. “Sort of like how you tried to teach me to shut off a ghost.”

“Visualization.” Holiday arched her brows as if impressed.

Not that Kylie shared her viewpoint. “It was scarier than hell. I remembered what my dad said about us working things out together and I thought I was dead.” She paused. “How am I going to stop it from happening again?”

Holiday looked at Burnett as if expecting some wisdom from him.

“What?” He held up his arms in defeat. “I ain’t got shit. I’m just now learning to deal with ghosts.”

Holiday rolled her eyes. “You read the reports at the FRU. Did it say anything, or lead you to assume anything, about a chameleon’s gifts?”

“No. The only thing it stated was some of the case studies considered themselves chameleons.” He frowned. “There could have been more in the other reports, but they conveniently disappeared.”

Right then, Kylie couldn’t help but remember her grandfather’s warning about the FRU.

“We need to read the other files,” Holiday said. Her eyes stayed on Burnett. “How can we do that?”

Kylie closed her eyes. She didn’t know what they were going to do, but she knew what she was doing. First, she was going to find a way to get back in touch with her grandfather, and then …

A wash of pain spilled over her. Could her grandfather be right? Did she have to leave Shadow Falls and go with him in order to get the information she needed?

*   *   *

After a few minutes of both Burnett and Holiday trying to come up with a solution, they finally concluded that Kylie should be careful about what she wished for.

Right! As if she hadn’t come up with that one by herself.

Burnett’s phone rang. He answered the call. “Yeah,” he said. “How long has she been missing?” Both Holiday and Kylie tried to pretend they weren’t listening, but how could they not when the call was obviously about Cindy, the waitress at the diner, the once-smiling young woman in her driver’s license who was now in the grave with Holiday’s sister?

“Okay,” Burnett said. “Get me the file. Did you get anything back on the other matter?” Burnett’s eyes shifted to Kylie, telling her that the “other matter” involved her, as well.

Burnett listened and suddenly that’s when it hit Kylie. She couldn’t hear the conversation on the line. What happen to her … “Hey,” Kylie screeched at Holiday. “Am I still vampire?”

Holiday tightened her brows. Shock filled her eyes. “No.”

“What am I now?” Kylie asked.

“Welcome to my world,” Holiday said.

“I’m fae?” Oh, great. More “Kylie’s a freak” moments from the other campers were predicted to arrive soon. As if the parental chaos wasn’t enough to get them talking about her.

Her aunt’s words echoed in her mind.
The few who did not hide were viewed as outcasts, freaks, and not belonging to any one kind.

Holiday nodded and smiled a smile that came with a lot of empathy. And Kylie not only saw it, but felt it.

Burnett must have heard the conversation, because as soon as he pulled the phone from his ear, he stared at her forehead and said, “Damn.”

“What did you learn?” Holiday asked, as if sensing Kylie didn’t want to discuss her ever-evolving brain pattern.

“Cindy Shaffer disappeared about six months ago.”

“So after Hannah disappeared,” Holiday said.

“Do we know for sure that Hannah didn’t just leave for a while and then…” He paused and sympathy flowed out of him in waves.

“And then was killed,” Holiday said, and the words no more left her lips than the grief floated off her and filled Kylie’s chest. Kylie had always been empathetic to others, but this was so much more intense.

Not a cakewalk, Kylie thought. Being fae would take some getting used to, but at least she could go back to eating food again. Then she thought about Derek and how he’d said her emotions had felt supersized. That must have been so hard on him.

Burnett moved in. “The police are investigating her disappearance. They have a suspect—old boyfriend—but they couldn’t prove anything. I’ll go over their files, but considering what we know, I don’t think this is tied to her personally.”

“What else did you learn?” Kylie asked, remembering Burnett’s glance at her during the call.

“I had another check done on Hayden Yates.”

“And?” Kylie asked, but even before he spoke she felt his discontent at having to tell her.

“He’s clean. There’s nothing in his background that points to him being anything other than what he says he is.”

Kylie exhaled, not sure she believed it. She’d been so sure there was something hinky about him. Then she remembered … “Can you check out my mom’s boyfriend?”

“You think
he’s
behind Hannah’s murder?” Burnett asked, confused.

“No, nothing to do with Hannah. I just … don’t like him.”

“I don’t, either,” Burnett clipped, “but that doesn’t mean he’s a criminal. There’s a lot of people out there that I don’t like.”

Kylie frowned. “He gives me the creeps and I’d feel better if—”

“I’ll do it,” Burnett said, but she felt his emotions and knew he believed it was a waste of time.

“There’s something else I want to talk about,” Kylie said.

“Why do I have the feeling I’m not going to like this?” Burnett asked.

Kylie glanced at Holiday, who looked equally concerned. “I think it’s time to call a halt to the whole shadow thing,” Kylie said.

“No!” Burnett’s expression grew grim.

Kylie sat up straighter and felt her backbone stiffen. “I’m tired of never being alone.”

“You’re alone in your room when you go to your cabin,” he countered.

“Della’s listening to every move I make. I can’t do it anymore. I want my life back. Mario hasn’t tried anything else for weeks now. Miranda said she doesn’t feel any unwelcomed presence. I don’t feel his presence. Maybe he’s given up.”

“People like him don’t give up. He’s waiting for the opportunity to strike.”

“I promise to be careful, and if I feel anything, you’ll be the first person I tell.”

“No!” he said again.

Kylie felt an odd kind of energy building in her gut. Everything inside her said she was right, that they couldn’t force this on her. She didn’t understand the ball of vigor, or her lack of fear at standing up to them right now. If she wasn’t so mad at his out-and-out refusal, she might have been more afraid that something else weird was happening to her.

“I’m not a prisoner here,” she said. “I have a say in this.”

“A say in if you get yourself killed or not?” he asked in anger.

“I’m not going to get killed.” She tilted her chin back and looked at Holiday, hoping she’d see reason in the camp leader’s eyes.

“This is because you want to see your grandfather again, isn’t it?” Holiday asked, and while she saw Holiday’s disapproval, Kylie also felt Holiday’s compassion.

“Partly.” Kylie didn’t even consider lying. There was just a sense of rightness to her request. “But that’s not all it’s about. I’m tired of being babysat.”

Burnett went to speak again, but Holiday intervened. “Would you promise to stay out of the woods?”

“She’s already broken that promise,” Burnett said.

“I promise.” Kylie ignored Burnett.

Holiday leaned forward. “Will you promise to confirm with us when you meet your grandfather?”

“Will you promise not to stop me?” Kylie asked.

“I promise we will assess the situation and only stop you if we feel your life’s in jeopardy.”

“By whose judgment?” Kylie asked. “Some people’s idea of safety is not reasonable.” She didn’t even flinch when she looked at Burnett—who, by the way, looked even more furious. And she felt every bit of his anger.

“This is insane. My job is to protect you,” Burnett snarled.

“No,” Holiday corrected him. “Our job as school administrators is to teach Kylie how to survive in the human world. Like it or not”—she glanced at Kylie—“she has the right to leave. And that is the last thing we want to happen right now.”

Somehow, Kylie knew that the ball of energy in her gut had been about projecting how serious she was on this issue. Was that a fae talent, or was that from her chameleon abilities? Kylie didn’t know. But it was pretty damn cool, even if it scared her.

“Do I have a choice in the matter?” Burnett bit out.

“No,” both Kylie and Holiday said at the same time.

Burnett’s phone beeped in an odd kind of way. He grabbed his device and pushed a few buttons. “Someone just jumped the front gate.” He turned to leave, but stopped when a figure flashed in the doorway.

Blake, Holiday’s ex-fiancé and the suspected murderer, stood there. “I heard you were looking for me.”

Kylie jumped to her feet and stood beside Burnett, ready to defend Holiday.

But Holiday acted as though she didn’t need protecting. She jumped up and met Blake’s glare. “Did you do it?” she asked, fury pouring out of her.

“Did I do what?” he asked.

“Did you kill Hannah?”

Chapter Thirty-one

“What?” His gaze cut to Burnett and Kylie and then back to Holiday. Disbelief filled his eyes and rolled off of him in waves. “Hannah’s dead?”

Kylie tried to listen to his heartbeat, but not being vampire anymore, all she could do was read his emotions. They came off sincere, but could she trust that?

“Answer me, damn it!” Holiday slammed her palms down on his chest. Her emotions were a whole bag of raw pain, betrayal at its worst.

Burnett moved to Holiday’s side and gently pulled her back, but his eyes were bright green and on Blake with warning.

Blake exhaled, his frustration sounding in the released air. “You are so biting on the wrong vampire! This is meritless.”

“Not so meritless,” Holiday said. “She told me you were furious with her when she told you that she planned on telling me the truth.”

“Of course I was furious. We were getting married. I loved you. She told me if I showed up at my own wedding, she’d stop the ceremony.”

“Did you kill her?” Holiday demanded, her anguish filling the air Kylie breathed.

Blake stared at Holiday, hurt radiating from him. “Of all the people in the world, you know me better than that. Do you really think I could murder Hannah?”