"Are you okay?" Holiday's voice stirred Kylie awake about an hour later. After trying to call her mom numerous times and leaving several messages, her mind and heart gave up and she went to bed and took a nap.
She looked at Holiday perched on the end of her bed. Sitting up, Kylie yawned and brushed her hair from her eyes. "I've been better."
"Life can be so hard sometimes."
"Tell me about it." Kylie remembered the call from Burnett. "Is everything okay? What happened?"
Holiday stared at her with a vacant expression. "Who's Burnett?"
The cold in the room sent chills spidering across Kylie's back. She blinked and focused again on the woman's features. There was no doubt about it. She was Holiday.
Anger, fear, and frustration swarmed through Kylie's chest. "Okay, let me make something clear. When I told you to fix your face, I meant for you to get your own face, not borrow one from someone else."
The spirit pressed her palms against her cheeks, and her eyes widened. "Is this not my face?"
"No, it's not! It's the face of someone I care a lot about, and, nothing personal, but I don't like seeing you wearing it."
"I'm so confused."
"You have an identity crisis," Kylie offered, wanting more than anything to believe it.
"An identity crisis," the spirit repeated.
"Yeah, and you need to figure out who you are and what it is you need from me, because I can't help you if you don't."
"It's mostly a blur." She pursed her lips in the same manner Holiday did when she was thinking really hard, and damn if the resemblance wasn't uncanny. Even the green color of her eyes matched perfectly.
"Maybe you're right," the spirit said. "I remember always feeling as if I lived in someone else's shadow."
"That's good," Kylie said, relief allowing her to breathe deeper.
"Good that I lived in someone else's shadow?" The ghost frowned. "I don't see it as a good thing."
"No, I ... I mean it's good you can remember stuff." And right then, Kylie remembered something, too. One quick and easy way to assure herself that this spirit wasn't Holiday Brandon. Kylie tightened her eyes and focused on the ghost's forehead.
The whimsical pattern, like the face, matched Holiday's to a T. Kylie's chest swelled with concern. "You're a fae?"
The spirit propped one bent knee up across her leg, put her elbow on her knee, and then dropped her chin in the palm of her hand. The gesture was so Holiday that Kylie's heart skipped a beat.
"Yup, that's what I am." She tightened her brows and gazed at Kylie. "Oh, my, what are you?"
Kylie hesitated. "I'm a ... chameleon."
The spirit made a face. "You're a lizard?"
Kylie frowned, but her concern wasn't about herself. "Do you remember your name?" Kylie held her breath.
The spirit met Kylie's eyes and her brow tightened in puzzlement. Then she stood up and walked to Kylie's window. Staring out in silence, she finally turned around. "Someone is looking for you."
"Do you remember your name?" Kylie repeated her question.
Pulling her red hair over her shoulder, the spirit twirled it into a rope. The exact same way Kylie had watched Holiday do just a little bit ago. The ghost looked back. "They want you to come to them."
Kylie's chest tightened a bit. "Let's talk about you right now," Kylie said, making a mental decision to focus on one problem at a time.
"But you are so much more interesting. There's all this mystery around you. A lot of questions to be answered. I can feel your emotions, you know. That's what faes do. We feel what other people feel."
"I know," Kylie said, frustrated and scared about the spirit's real identity, but she fought the angst back so she could learn more. Because if she was Holiday, then maybe Kylie could do something, change something to prevent ...
"I used to be able to touch people and make them feel better, but that went away."
"Why did it go away?" Kylie asked.
She frowned. "I'm not completely sure. I think I did something bad." The ghost's bright green eyes filled with tears. "I hurt people."
Kylie sensed the spirit's pain, her remorse, but she couldn't deny feeling a bit of reprieve from the confession. Holiday wouldn't do anything wrong. She was too good-hearted. Cared too much.
"Maybe you didn't mean to hurt them," Kylie said, wanting to help. She wrapped her arms around herself as protection against the chill that accompanied a spiritual being.
"I don't know. I think I was angry." The spirit stared at the wall as if lost in thought and then she reached up and touched her throat.
Kylie noticed the painful-looking bruises around the ghost's neck.
"What happened to you?" Kylie asked, a knot forming in her throat at the thought of being choked to death.
The woman looked back at Kylie, her eyes still wet with emotion. "I'm dead."
Kylie nodded. "I know." She waited a second. "What happened?"
The spirit shook her head. "It's like bits and pieces of a bad nightmare. But I think it has something to do with why I'm here. I mean, I should have left by now ... We ... supernaturals don't hang around." She looked down and her image started to fade. "I need to go figure this out. I think it's important."
"I'll help you any way I can," Kylie said, remembering Holiday saying the same thing about very few non-humans hanging around after they died. "If you can tell me your name, I might be able to find something on the computer that will help us."
The spirit moved to the window and touched the pane of glass. A layer of ice appeared on the window, the frost blurring the view outside. "You'd better start figuring out your own problems, too."
"I'm trying," Kylie said, again seeing Holiday's personality in the spirit and not liking it. "What's your name?" Kylie insisted.
The spirit's figure faded at the same rate as the ice on the window. Then she spoke. "I think it's Hannah or Holly. Something like that."
"No," Kylie said, her own voice little more than a whisper.
She then grabbed a clip and put her hair up, determined to go see Holiday, not even sure what she would or wouldn't tell the camp leader. Kylie just needed to see Holiday alive.
Kylie moved out of her room and found the main room in the cabin empty. She started for the door and stopped. Who was supposed to be shadowing her? Not that Kylie really cared. She was just going to the office, but she'd already gotten in trouble once with Burnett about the shadowing business, and she didn't want to go for two.
"Della?" she called out.
No answer came back. Was something wrong?
"Hey." Miranda popped out of her bedroom a second later. "Della had a meeting with Burnett. I'm on shadowing duty." She said it with pride.
Kylie nodded. "Good. Let's go to the office."
"Why?"
"Because I want to talk to Holiday."
"About what?"
"About something."
"Got a 'tude, do ya?" Miranda made a face as if she'd just had to swallow something really disgusting.
Kylie started to smart back, but caught herself. It was understandable that she was in a bad mood, but it didn't give her the right to take it out on her friends. "I'm sorry. I know I've been cranky today. But I've just got a lot of crap on my plate."
"I know," Miranda said in an apologetic tone. "The funeral put us all in a bad mood. But then with your whole lizard crisis, I mean, I'd be in an extra-bad mood if somebody told me that I was a reptile. Which is why I haven't raised my pinky at you one time."
"And I appreciate it," Kylie said, and then realized what Miranda had said. "What did Burnett want to talk to Della about?"
"Beats me."
"Was she upset?" Kylie couldn't help but worry that it had something to do with whatever Holiday was so upset about when she spoke to Burnett earlier. And Kylie hadn't forgotten that at the time she'd gotten the impression it was about her.
"Not really. Between you and me, I think Della's got a crush on Burnett. She just glows when Burnett asks her to do something."
"No, she doesn't. She knows he's totally into Holiday."
"Then why doesn't she go for Steve? She's jealous of us having boyfriends but won't go after Steve. And lately I noticed the same thing you did. That shape-shifter stares at her all the time. He's hot for her."
Kylie motioned to the door. "She doesn't go for Steve because she's still in love with Lee."
"Yeah, I guess that could be it, too." They walked out and started down the path toward the office. "You know, I could put a hex on him."
"On Steve?" Kylie asked.
"No, on Lee. I could easily give him warts. And I could put them some place it would really scare the piss out of him. If you know what I mean."
Kylie shook her head. "I don't think Della would want you to do that."
"She might if we caught her in the right mood."
"I wouldn't even chance asking, because if she's not in the right mood, it might really tick her off."
"Yeah, I guess." They continued down the trail. "Do I really talk about Perry all the time?"
Kylie looked at Miranda. "Yeah, but it's not as bad as Della makes it sound. I'll bet I talk about Lucas all the time." She remembered she'd walked away from him today. Was he going to be angry at her? Did he have a right to be?
"Actually, you don't. But you used to talk about Derek all the time."
Kylie frowned, not liking how that sounded.
"Oh, that reminds me, he came by to see you when you were sleeping."
"Derek came to see me?"
"No, Lucas."
Embarrassed that she'd misunderstood, Kylie bit down on her lip. "Why didn't he wake me up? Why didn't you guys wake me up?"
"He told us not to. He peeked in on you and said to just tell you he came by. Actually, it was kind of sweet. He stood in the doorway watching you for several minutes. He kind of looked sad. Or sappy. Like he was totally in love with you. Della was waving her hand under her nose as if to say he was emitting all kinds of pheromones." Miranda grinned.
Kylie's heart hurt so much she couldn't grin back. Guilt spiraled through her, both for not talking about him as much as she had talked about Derek and for walking away from him earlier when he tried to talk to her. At the time, she'd felt justified, but hindsight always gave her another viewpoint. Was she being too hard on Lucas?
Probably, she admitted. She'd been crabby lately. Hence why Miranda and Della were accusing her of being were. Something she needed to remedy.
She made up her mind. After she spoke with Holiday, she was going to find Lucas and apologize for leaving him like that. She quickened her pace down the trail. The trees on both sides seemed to grow closer together. And Kylie felt it again-the feeling of someone calling her. Luring her to step out into the woods. She stopped and looked out at the line of trees.
They want you to come to them. She heard the spirit's words whisper in her head.
Who was out there? Was it Mario?
Suddenly, she wasn't so sure. It didn't feel evil. It felt ... She didn't know how it felt, honestly, only that it wasn't completely evil. However, it still scared her to the point that her breath came short, and a chill ran up her spine and tingled at the base of her neck.
"What?" Miranda asked, a note of fear in her tone. "Your aura is going all sorts of strange colors on me."
"Nothing," Kylie lied. She turned and started jogging to the office. As her feet pounded the path, little clouds of dirt floated up. She blinked the dusty air away and that's when she saw the moon-half full, but bright. And it looked as if it just suddenly appeared in the sky.
Moonrise, she thought. She felt again the whispers echoing in her mind. Whispers she couldn't understand, whispers that both lured her and frightened her.
"Is it a ghost?" Miranda asked, her feet pounding the path as her multicolored hair danced in the wind. "Is it?"
"No," Kylie said, able to speak without huffing.
"Then can you slow down? Because I'm not like you and Della. I mean, I could cast a spell and maybe I could run faster, but that would take some time. And the last time I tried it, I turned myself into an antelope."
"We're just about there," Kylie said, but, remembering how she hated having to work so hard to keep up with Della, she did slow her pace. Suddenly, a whoosh of air blew past them. Kylie's first thought was vampire, but then Perry, in his huge prehistoric bird form, landed in front of them.
Miranda, even huffing and puffing, squealed with pleasure. Perry took his right wing and wrapped it around the little witch, pulling her into his chest and giving her a warm bird hug. Then he cooed, sounding like a dove. As sappy as it was, and even in her bad mood, Kylie's chest tightened. And the tender smile she spotted in Miranda's expression sealed the deal. Love was a wonderful thing. Kylie wanted it. All of it. Complete devotion. All the sappy, crazy feelings.
Images of both Derek and Lucas filled her head. Oh, hell, could she be in love with both of them? Was that even possible?
Perry released Miranda and stepped back. Sparkles started falling around him like iridescent snow. In seconds, human Perry appeared. His sandy blond hair clung to his forehead as if he'd worked up a sweat. His eyes were blue. Bright blue. He wore a pair of black jeans and a T-shirt that read, WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO BE?
"I was just coming to get you," Perry said, shifting his gaze from Miranda to Kylie.
"Me?" Kylie asked. "Why?"
He shrugged. "They told me to. Ordered me to."
"Who?" Kylie asked. "Who told you to get me?"
"Duh. Burnett and Holiday. I don't take orders from anyone else. Except maybe Miranda." He grinned at Miranda.
"Is something wrong?" Kylie asked.
He looked back at Kylie. "I don't know. But I know your mom showed up and she's fit to be tied. Giving Holiday hell."
"My mom's here?" Kylie asked, feeling confused.
Perry nodded. "Sorry."
Kylie took off at a heated pace. Worry had her feet hitting the dirt and leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.
