"Change back or I'l neuter your ass right now!"
Miranda's warning jarred Kylie awake shortly before three that afternoon.
Not that Kylie wanted to wake up now. For al she cared, Miranda and Del a could duke it out this time. Kylie pul ed a pil ow over her face when Miranda's threat repeated itself in her head.
Neuter? Del a didn't have a pair of bal s to remove. So who was Miranda threatening?
Oh, no. Socks, Jr.?
"Fine," Miranda's voice rose again. "You asked for it."
"Stop!" Kylie screamed, and shot out of bed just in time to see Miranda holding the kitten and wiggling her pinky at it.
"You were so wrong," Miranda snapped. "It's not me he likes. He was in bed with you."
"No, no." Kylie pushed her hair back and tried not to laugh. "That's not Perry."
"Then who is it?" she asked.
"It's not anyone. It's a real kitten."
"He fooled you again."
"No. He's not fooling me. That's a real kitten. Lucas gave it to me."
"Lucas?" Miranda's eyes widened. "That's what I came to tel you. He's missing. The FRU have been looking everywhere for him."
"I know," Kylie said.
"How do you know?" Del a asked, popping into the bedroom.
The kitten let out a pathetic meow. Kylie took the scared feline from Miranda. "Holiday and Burnett came here looking for Lucas earlier today."
"Was he here?" Miranda asked.
"No, he'd already left." Kylie hesitated. "What do they think he did?"
"Beats me," Miranda answered.
Kylie hugged the kitten closer.
"Whatever it is, it must be pretty bad," Del a said. "They even brought human cops out to talk to Holiday. He's up to his eyebal s in trouble."
After Del a and Miranda left, Kylie sat in the living room floor playing with Socks, when Helen knocked on her door.
"Hey," Kylie said, and asked her to come inside.
"I heard you weren't feeling wel ."
"It's nothing," Kylie said, wondering if Helen had come to offer her healing powers. And then she noticed something amiss in the girl's posture, as if the girl wanted to say something but couldn't spit it out. At first Kylie almost worried she'd had second thoughts about Kylie having a brain tumor.
"What's wrong?" Kylie asked.
"It's stupid, real y." Helen said. "But ... I needed some advice."
"From me?" Kylie asked.
Helen nodded. "You see, I kind of like Jonathon, but I don't think he knows I like him. And I've never been good at things with guys. I was hoping maybe you could ... you know, tel me how to do it."
"Me?" Kylie said, and almost laughed. "Seriously, I'm not the person to come to with this."
Helen looked disappointed. "But I've never even had a boyfriend. And I don't know anyone else I could ask."
Kylie stared at Helen and remembered the girl had gone the extra mile to help her. "I've only had one real boyfriend. And because I'm not ... flirty, I just went for honesty."
"Like what kind of honesty?" Helen asked. "Because I don't see myself as flirty either."
Kylie shrugged. "It sounds dorky, but I just asked him if he had a girlfriend. When he said no and asked why, I just said that I was sort of thinking that I liked him. I mean, I know so many girls who do the whole flipping hair, giggly thing, and maybe that works best. Then again, honesty worked for me once. Maybe it wil work with Jonathon."
And maybe Kylie thought, if she could just figure out what she felt, maybe she would give honesty a try again.
The next few days were something of a blur. And not a good blur, either. Kylie and Holiday weren't getting anywhere with the meditation. Del a and Miranda's bickering was at an al -time high. Trey was cal ing and leaving long messages on Kylie's phone. Kylie couldn't stop thinking about Lucas. Oh, and her dad had cal ed her mom and told her that he hadn't visited Kylie the last week and that Kylie wasn't answering any of his e-mails or phone cal s.
Her mom gave her hel for it, too.
"You lied to me," her mom had accused.
"No, I just let you believe he came."
"Same thing. And ... and ... you can't get mad at your dad," she insisted.
"Why?" Kylie asked. "You're always mad at him."
Then her mom got her panties in a wad because Kylie's dad insisted on coming out this weekend. At first, Mom had said she wouldn't come. Now she was back to being furious, and saying she was coming and that they were just going to take shifts visiting. Guess who she expected to take care of al the scheduling?
Right. Mom expected Kylie to do it.
The only positive thing happening was that Soldier Dude hadn't returned. Kylie wanted to believe he was gone for good. Holiday wasn't convinced, though. Then again, Holiday wasn't in the best of moods lately. When Kylie asked what was going on, Holiday just shook her head and said it would work itself out.
Kylie had also asked Holiday about Lucas. The camp leader let out a big sigh of frustration and said she couldn't talk about that. Kylie had to bite her tongue to keep from tel ing Holiday that trust was a two-way street. It would be nice if Holiday wouldn't be so secretive. The tension Kylie saw in Holiday seemed even more pronounced in Sky, which struck Kylie as odd. Because so far, the werewolf leader seemed immune to the frustration brought on by the FRU's constant visits. Kylie got the impression that Holiday and Sky were having problems. If that wasn't bad enough, the tension from the two leaders seemed to be having a bad influence on everyone else. There had been another fight, this one between a witch and a fairy.
"Told you witches and fairies don't get along," Miranda had said the day she, Kylie, and Del a stumbled upon the fight being broken up by Holiday.
"What are you going to do if I discover I'm part fairy?" Kylie asked Miranda.
"Damn," Del a said. "Did you just say what I think you said?"
"What?" Kylie asked, clueless.
"Are you final y admitting that you're not al human?"
With everything else going on, Kylie hadn't given the whole human or not human issue a lot of thought. And strangely enough, it didn't even seem to matter anymore. Okay, that wasn't true. She stil wanted to know, but if she did find out she was supernatural it wasn't the end of the world. As a matter of fact, it was the idea that she might not be "special" that seemed to bother her more.
"So?" Miranda asked her.
"I am whatever I am," Kylie said.
Miranda started to say something and Del a held up her hand. "Shh."
Kylie and Miranda paused and listened. Al Kylie could hear was the background noise from the wildlife park.
"What do you hear?" Kylie asked, almost worried Chan had returned.
"The animals," Del a said. "They are seriously pissed."
"At what?" Miranda asked.
"Like I would know," Del a said. "But I've never heard them so ... angry."
Right then, Helen came up beside Kylie and leaned in to whisper, "It worked. I asked if he had a girlfriend and it was just like you said happened to you. He asked me why and I told him I was thinking I might like him. And now, we're going to go on a picnic tomorrow, just to get to know each other better. Thanks."
Kylie gave Helen's arm a squeeze. "That's great. Come by before the date and Miranda can fix your makeup. Won't you, Miranda?" Kylie looked over at her friend.
"I'd love to," Miranda said.
"Thanks," Helen said, and ran off.
Saturday morning, Kylie stood back from the crowd waiting to hear who they'd be paired with for an hour and finished her conversation with her dad. She'd final y given in and cal ed him on Friday. He'd acted like nothing was wrong, never even said anything about not coming last week, or about her not answering his cal s or e-mails. He told her he was looking forward to seeing her on Sunday and then he started talking about a trip he was taking to Canada in a few weeks.
Kylie explained that her mom was also coming tomorrow and that they would have to take shifts. Kylie was positive that her dad would tel her that whole shift thing was stupid, that they could both just visit her.
Maybe deep down, a tiny part of her hoped they would both come at the same time, and then, miracles of miracles, maybe they would take one look at each other and decide they'd missed being together.
That's the thing about miracles. They didn't happen that often. Her dad didn't cal the shift thing stupid. As a matter of fact, he seemed just as adamant not to see her mom as her mom was not to see him.
"How about I show up after lunch?" he asked. "And I'l cal first to make sure she's not there."
Kylie bit her lip to keep from asking him where her real dad was. Every since a divorce had been mentioned, her father had changed. Completely, wholeheartedly. Parents weren't supposed to do that to their kids. She was certain it was written in the parents' rulebook.
"Fine," Kylie said. And if you don't show up, don't worry. I don't think it will hurt as much the second time. "Later, then," she said, and closed her phone.
"You ready?" a male voice said from behind her, leaning in close to her ear. "I got your name."
Kylie recognized Derek's voice. She'd managed to evade him al week. Not to be mean, but out of a basic need for sanity. Her life was already a friggin' mess. She didn't need to add anything else to it. Besides, he had a girlfriend who was probably more than happy to spend time with him. She turned around. "You already had my name," she said.
"I got lucky a second time." There was something about his voice, as if he worried she wouldn't believe him. She didn't. "You did it again, didn't you?"
"Did what?" he asked, but she knew darn wel that he understood exactly what she meant.
"You traded some more blood for my name, admit it."
He shrugged. "I wouldn't have to if you'd quit avoiding me."
"I haven't been-" She didn't want to lie to him, so she just shut up.
A couple of people walked past and he leaned in. "If you real y don't want to go, you know I won't make you."
She looked up and saw the total honesty in his gaze. He hadn't touched her, so she didn't think he'd altered her emotions, and yet ... everything inside her shifted. How could she have such strong feelings for Lucas and stil be angry with Derek because he'd hooked up with another girl? It didn't add up.
Then again, why should it? Nothing in her life made a lick of sense lately.
"I've been worried about you," he said, and his voice sounded so concerned ... and so warm.
"You mean when you weren't with Mandy?" she asked. And then she wanted to kick herself for acting as if she had a reason to be jealous. He looked a little uncomfortable. "That's sort of what I wanted to talk to you about."
"I don't do relationship advice," Kylie said.
"I heard you do. Helen said she talked to you about her crush on Jonathon. Miranda mentioned talking to you about Perry. And what's that other vampire's name...?"
Kylie let out a breath. "Fine, for some unknown reason people think I'm Cupid." But she didn't want to play Cupid for him and Mandy.
"Maybe you're related to him," he said, sounding serious for a moment.
Kylie's heart did a tight squeeze. "Could I be?"
"Some supernaturals are descendents of the gods," he said.
"Would my parents have to have been born at midnight? Or is that one of the instances that it could skip a generation?"
He shrugged. "I wouldn't know. But I bet Holiday would. You want us to go find her?" he asked, apparently wil ing to give up part of his hour to help her get an answer.
"That's okay. I'm meeting with her after lunch."
"So, my possible goddess." He did one of those old-timey bows. "Can I have the pleasure of your company for an hour?"
She grinned at his antics. "If you promise to behave." Or did she want him to?
"That takes al the fun out of it, but I promise." He shot her a sly look and she saw that his eyes were twinkling. They started walking and he hesitated. "Same place? Or does the thought of the snake scare you?"
"Same place is fine." A nervous tickle did a slow dance down her spine. It wasn't about the snake, but about the memory of how close she'd come to kissing Derek that day.
They walked down the trail in silence. The sun did its magical thing again of casting sprays of light through the trees. Kylie couldn't help but wonder what it was about being with Derek that made everything feel ... enchanted.
"Is it you?" she asked as they got to their spot.
"Is what me?" he asked.
She eyed him with skepticism. "Are you the reason that everything feels ... magical and so vivid? The colors, the smel s, the way sun streams in."
"Oh, that's just my charm." His tone came off teasing.
"Seriously?" she asked. "Are you doing this?"
He laughed.
"Stop laughing," she insisted.
He stopped, but he didn't stop smiling. "Okay, seriously, I don't know what you mean. I'm not doing anything. It's just pretty back here."
He jumped up on the rock and held his hand down.
She hesitated and looked at his hand.
"I promised to behave," he said.
She took his hand and he lifted her up. She sat beside him, but not too close.
He pul ed a knee up to his chest. His jeans looked wel -worn but comfortable, and his T-shirt was a dusty green. It wasn't tight, but snug enough that it showed off the width of his shoulders. It might have been the shirt he'd been wearing when she met him. He looked real y good then, and stil did. Right then, Kylie wondered how she could have ever compared him to Trey. Derek was so much hotter than her ex-boyfriend.
"So you and your girl are having problems?" Kylie blurted out, trying to change the course of her thoughts.
"You could say that," he answered in a sly voice, and she watched him run a finger across his chin. Her gaze studied his lips and she wanted to taste him.
"What's wrong?" She blinked, ignored the slyness in his tone, and hoped hearing him talk about Mandy would chase off her thoughts of kissing him.
"Wel , she thinks I have a thing for another girl."
Kylie felt her stomach tighten. "Do you?"
"No."
Okay, that hurt, but she tried to deny it. Oddly enough, the advice she'd been giving to everyone else, to be honest, seemed almost impossible for herself. Maybe in part because she wasn't even sure what she felt.
"But," he continued, "I think I sort of led her to think that."
"Why?" Kylie asked.
"I hoped she'd be jealous. Maybe appreciate me a little more."
"And how did that work for you?" Kylie asked, believing those kinds of games didn't end wel .
"I don't know. Did you get jealous?"
Kylie looked up at him. "I ... you mean, me?" She shook head. "But you and Mandy are-"
"Friends," he said.
It stil wasn't fitting together. "But you ... she kissed you."
"You obviously haven't ever noticed her in a crowd. She's a serial kisser. I think her parents are French."
Kylie tried to digest what he was saying. Harder yet was digesting what she felt. She liked Derek. Real y liked him. And she was attracted to him. Maybe it wasn't the same intensity that she'd felt for Lucas at the creek, but it was real. And in some ways even more real than the explosive attraction she felt for Lucas.
And Derek hadn't left, the little voice in her head said.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yes. No." She shook her head. "I'm just befuddled." Okay, there. She'd given honesty a shot.
"I know," he said.
She remembered he could read her emotions and real y wished he wouldn't. The fact that he figured things out before her didn't feel right. A breeze stirred her hair and a strand got caught in her lips.
He gently brushed the stand back. "I'm just relieved you're not mad at me."
"Give me a few minutes," Kylie said. "It could change. My emotions are al over the place lately."
He grinned.
She felt herself being lured again by his smile. She shook her head. "Derek, I just-"
"Kylie, I didn't tel you this to pressure you. I'm tel ing you this because I realized how stupid it was trying to make you jealous. It occurred to me that it could total y backfire. What am I saying? It did backfire, because you wouldn't even get within ten feet of me."
She bit down on her lip. "I'm sorry. It's been a crazy week."
"You're going through a lot. That's another reason I wanted to see you. I sensed you're stressed."
What al could he sense? Kylie wondered. Did he sense her stress involved Lucas? Had he sensed she was jealous? Kylie remembered the day she'd seen Mandy kiss Derek.
"You're right. I was jealous of you and Mandy. But I stil don't know if ... I don't think-"
He held up his hand. "I'm fine with being your friend. But I'm not going to lie to you this time. I'm hoping it becomes more. But until it does, I'l respect your wishes."
She looked at him and found herself fal ing for him a little more. "You can do that?"
"You bet." He leaned back on the rock and put one hand behind his head. The position did wonders for his arms and chest. "Especial y now that Lucas is gone," he said, and from his tone, Kylie somehow knew that Derek suspected a lot more than she wished he did.