"Is she here now? In this room?" Holiday asked.
Kylie nodded. "Jenny."
Jenny appeared, standing against the wall farthest away from Burnett. Kylie didn't know if it was just Burnett's warm and fuzzy appearance right now, or if it was because Jenny knew he was part of the FRU that had sheer panic in the girl's gaze.
Burnett must have recognized the look, because immediately his posture softened. He offered her a nod.
"Hello, Jenny," he said. "Welcome to Shadow Falls."
Kylie saw Holiday beam with pride at her soon-to-be husband's transformation. No doubt Holiday was schooling him on softening his approach. And it was working.
Kylie just hoped that this meant Jenny's chances of staying on at Shadow Falls were good.
* * *
Holiday and Hayden were going to have a conference call with Kylie's grandfather to talk about the possibility of Jenny staying on. Until then, Jenny was going to hang out with Holiday, with plans to introduce Jenny to everyone at lunch.
Kylie suggested she introduce Jenny to some of her own friends first. Maybe Jenny wouldn't feel as if everyone at Shadow Falls were rude gaping individuals.
Kylie made some phone calls and asked everyone to meet her in the office at 10:45. She didn't tell anyone what it was about, but she had good faith they would all show up.
As Kylie left the office, Della met her outside and they went to wait for Campmate hour. Miranda came running up with Perry. "So what's the meeting all about?"
"You'll find out," Kylie said, not wanting to explain with so many ears around. Since Della already knew about Jenny, or as Della had dubbed her, Girl Wonder, she'd told Della the truth.
"I know," Della said, teasing Miranda.
Kylie frowned at Della.
"Why did you tell her and not me?" Miranda asked.
"I promise you'll understand later."
Miranda frowned. "You aren't leaving again, are you? Because you pinky promised me you wouldn't."
Tears actually appeared in the witch's eyes.
"I'm not leaving," Kylie assured her. Not by her own accord, Kylie thought, and then thought again about the sword and what it all meant.
"You're gonna come clean and tell us that you and Hayden are lovers," Perry said.
Kylie scowled at him.
"Hey, I'm just guessing. I mean there's something going on between you two."
Lucas showed up right then and growled at the shape-shifter for the comment. Then Lucas leaned down and kissed her.
"What happened with your grandma?" she asked in a low whisper.
"Window's open." He kissed her again. "She's going to talk to him about meeting me. He could tell herhell no, but it's a start."
"It's a great start." Kylie let out a squeal and for just a few minutes, she felt certain everything in her crazy life was going to work out.
Then Chris, announcer of the grand event, pulled his hat from behind his back and his gaze started moving around the crowd and stopped on Kylie. She wanted to scream, enough was enough. But then his gaze shifted a little to her right.
Was he looking at her? Or was he looking at ...
"Okay," Chris said. "One of our own vampires brings in a little blood. About time."
Oh, hell, Kylie thought, and got a feeling she knew who'd paid blood for Della. And she wasn't sure this was a good thing.
"Della, our friend, you get the pleasure of spending an hour with Steve, the amazing shape-shifter."
Della's mouth dropped open. She looked around, eyes bright with fury for the culprit.
Steve strutted out of the crowd, and went to confront the pissed-off vamp with a confident gait.
Kylie knew she'd told him to fight for Della, but she hadn't meant for him to do it in front of everyone.
Della, not liking being shown up, was likely to fight back.
"You ready?" Steve asked.
Della scowled. "I'm not going to spend an hour with you."
Steve just stood there. "I paid good blood for you."
"Then you really screwed up."
"Nope." Steve looked back at Chris and then the forty or so other students enjoying the show. "What are the rules, Chris? Hasn't everyone pretty much agreed to honor the blood drive?"
Chris looked shocked that Steve dared to argue with Della. But he shook his head. "Yup, that's pretty much it."
Steve turned back to Della. "You ready?"
Della tilted her chin and glared daggers at the boy.
Perry leaned over and whispered to Kylie, "If she kills him, it's your fault."
Chapter Thirty-nine
Oh, hell, Kylie thought, and prepared herself to intervene.
"I'm not going!" Della snipped, and put her hands on her hips.
"We'll see about that." Steve shrugged and looked as if he was going to walk away, but then he swung around and grabbed Della by her lower legs and tossed her over his shoulder and started walking.
Everyone started hooting and hollering with laughter.
Kylie didn't laugh. She saw a very pissed-off vampire brace her hands on Steve's butt and look up.
Her eyes were green with fury, but there was something else there, too. Something that told Kylie that Steve's ass wasn't about to get chewed up.
With every fraction of a second that passed, Kylie felt more confident that Della wasn't going to go ape-shit on Steve, she was actually going to go with him.
Damn, Kylie thought. Maybe she really was good at the whole matchmaking thing.
* * *
"Can I vanish?" Jenny asked Kylie as they stood in the door of the lunch room with Holiday.
"I wouldn't recommend it," Kylie said. "Just smile. Believe it or not, you sort of get used to it."
The meeting with Jenny and Kylie's friends had gone off without a hitch. Everyone genuinely seemed to like her. Derek, of course, showed the most interest.
Lucas had come up behind her and said, "Another secret."
Kylie offered a quick "Sorry," and nothing else. She had the feeling keeping him at bay until he met with the Council was going to be tough. For both of them. But she was determined.
"Don't they know it's rude to stare?" Jenny asked.
"Yeah, but they just can't seem to help themselves," Kylie said.
Hayden stood up from his seat and moved to Jenny's side.
He wasn't smiling and she saw the big brother protective attitude in the way he looked at all the students. "Eat your lunch and stop gawking," he ordered.
Holiday spoke up next. "Mr. Yates is right. This is no way to welcome a new student."
Kylie and Jenny both looked at Holiday with questions in their eyes, and Holiday smiled and nodded.