Kylie glared at the shape-shifter.
Perry's smile vanished.
Kylie arched a brow. "Do it."
He frowned. "Not the deaf cat again," he pleaded. "I can't hear. My equilibrium is thrown off. It's like I'm in a vacuum."
She didn't look away until the sparkles started popping off like fireworks. Then she turned and faced Ellie, who stared wide-eyed at the cascading sparkles around Perry.
"Holy shit! I've never seen a shape-shifter transform before. I mean, I heard about what happens when they shift, but that is so cool."
"Did you hear what I said?" Kylie crossed her arms over her chest as fury built in the pit of her stomach.
"Did you see him change?" Ellie asked.
Kylie tapped her tennis shoe in the moist, rocky soil. "I said I know you had sex with Derek."
Ellie continued to stare at Perry, who was now a white, blue-eyed feline. There was a sudden silence in the woods. Kylie ignored it and focused on Ellie.
"Yeah, I heard you," Ellie said, still not looking at her. "And I'm purposely stalling, so I can figure out how to answer you." The dark-haired vamp released a deep breath and looked at Kylie. "Derek told you?"
Kylie nodded.
Ellie shook her head. "Just like Derek. He's one of those nice guys who think the truth is the best policy."
"You would have lied to me?" Kylie asked, searching for a reason to really dislike the girl. As if having sex with Derek weren't enough of a reason. But then again, Kylie and Derek hadn't had a commitment; they hadn't even gone out on an official date. And Derek and Ellie shared a past.
"Yup. I'd have lied," Ellie said. "Not for spite or anything. Just because ... well, what happened between me and Derek didn't mean crap, so what would be the point of letting that cause a bunch of shit?"
Kylie frowned. "If it didn't mean crap, then why did you do it?"
She shrugged. "Because I wanted it to mean something."
"That doesn't make sense," Kylie accused.
Ellie frowned. "Okay, look. I like Derek. A lot. I mean, he's hot, he's sweet, and so damn great. But ... there are just no sparks. Like before when we were dating. We had a lot of sparkless sex. I'm sure you've dealt with that, right?"
Kylie didn't correct her. Admitting she was a virgin to a stranger didn't sit well with her.
"So when he appears at this party, I'm feeling a tiny bit scared, slightly vulnerable, and he shows up like a knight in shining armor. And he looks hot, and I think maybe this time there'd be sparks." She shook her head. "But no sparks."
Kylie felt the air grow cold around them. Dead cold. Please not now, she said in her head.
"If he told you about the sex," Ellie continued, "then he also told you that as soon as it was over, we both were like ... 'God, that was a mistake.' And five minutes later, he's telling me about some girl he met named Kylie."
Kylie stared down at the ground, and she could swear it had just shifted beneath her feet. She glanced over at Perry, who sat on a tree limb, swatting at a butterfly.
"You do know he really cares about you, right?" Ellie asked.
The ghost materialized right in front of Kylie, and she looked panicked, scared.
Please ... not now!
Kylie ignored the spirit and studied Ellie. Suddenly the whole conversation seemed silly and totally unnecessary. She had no right to be upset that Derek and Ellie had sex. None. Zilch. Zero.
"I'm sorry," Kylie said. "I shouldn't have-"
"Yeah, you should have. If some chick had sex with a guy I liked, I'd be pissed, too. It's cool that you just spoke your mind. I respect that."
"No," Kylie said. "I mean, it's not like ... that with me and Derek. Yeah, Derek and I were almost something, but then..." He just ended it. She stopped herself. She didn't want to go into that. "It's over."
"Right. Over." Ellie rolled her eyes. "Seriously? Every time we walk into a crowd of people, do you know what he does? He looks for you." She chuckled. "Which is silly. And so I asked him about it. I go, 'You say you can feel her a mile away, so you know she's not here, so why do you look for her if you already know?'" Ellie grinned. "You know what he said to me? He said, 'Hope lives eternal.'"
Kylie recognized the words she'd offered Perry a little while ago.
"The guy's got it bad for you," Ellie said.
Kylie shook her head again. "No, it's over. He ended it. I'm going out with someone else now."
"You are?" Shock widened Ellie's blue eyes. "Does Derek know?"
"No. I mean, I'm going to be going out with someone else." Feeling like a dork, she added, "Lucas asked me to go out at breakfast. But I didn't get a chance to say yes."
Ellie raised her eyebrows in suspicion. "So, you didn't say yes."
Kylie frowned, and the dead cold seemed to crawl against her skin. "We were interrupted."
"How long does it take to say yes?" Ellie wrapped her arms around herself as if to fight off the cold and looked around as if confused by the sudden change in temperature.
"What's your point?" Kylie asked, feeling frustrated but not sure if it stemmed from the ghost or from Ellie. Then Kylie saw the ghost pacing back and forth, staring at her as if she needed to tell her something. Something urgent.
Ellie did her shrug thing again. "I'm just saying it sounds like you hesitated. And maybe there's a reason for that. Maybe the reason is-"
"There's no reason. I didn't hesitate."
Jane Doe stopped pacing and stared Kylie dead in the eyes. "You should run!"
"You sure?" Ellie asked.
"I'm sure," Kylie said, and she was. Wasn't she? She'd been going to tell him yes before Burnett came over. She would tell Lucas yes the next time she saw him.
"Run!" the ghost screamed.
"Why?" Kylie asked the spirit, and glanced at Perry still in the tree, slowly sneaking up on the butterfly.
"Why what?" Ellie asked.
"Run!" The spirit screamed the word so loud, Kylie thought her eardrums would rupture. She looked up and saw the eagle coming at her full blast with his talons out.
She ducked, barely dodging the bird's sharp claws. Right then, the ground under her feet started moving. Seriously moving. A loud rumble seemed to explode from below her.
"Run!" Kylie screamed at Ellie.
The vamp, her eyes glowing a bright yellow, stared at the ground. "What the hell?"
"Run!" Kylie screamed, and grabbed Ellie's arm and took off, dragging her with her. They had gotten less than a foot when the earth where they'd just stood dropped into a big, dark hole. A hole that kept growing wider, moving closer. Kylie got about another ten feet when she remembered.
Perry. He was stuck in a tree and wouldn't be able to hear what was happening below him.
She swung around. Just as she suspected, he was still in the tree.
Still staring at the butterfly.
"We should keep going!" yelled Ellie.
The hole in the ground kept expanding as if someone sucked the earth from below. It got almost to the tree. Almost to Perry. He still hadn't seen it.
And it was her fault. All her fault.
"Perry, run!" she screamed with everything she had.
But Perry couldn't hear.
My equilibrium is thrown off. It's like I'm in a vacuum. His words raked across her mind like cut glass.
She saw the hole begin to pull on the roots of the tree.
She saw Perry the feline lose his footing.
He fought to stay in the tree. She watched in horror as he wrapped his feline limbs around the branch, his claws digging into the bark as he clung for life. But the dark hole, like a monster who didn't give up, sucked the tree down, taking the small, blue-eyed kitten into the dark oblivion.
Someone lives and someone dies.
"No!" Kylie screamed, and bolted forward, taking a flying leap into the dark hole.