Born at Midnight (6 page)

Kylie started trying to put the types she did know into one of two groups: supernaturals who wouldn’t consider a human a part of the food chain, and those who did.

Derek walked through that door and Kylie found herself curious about what type of supernatural he was. He stopped a few feet in the room and looked around. The moment his eyes lit on her, she knew he’d found what he’d been looking for. He’d been looking for her. Even not knowing what he was, or exactly what group he belonged to, the thought that he liked her enough to look for her made her feel less lonely.

As he moved toward her, a very small smile appeared in his eyes, and she thought again about how he reminded her of Trey. Was that why she liked him, or at least liked him better than everyone else? Because he did look like Trey a little?

She’d have to be careful, she told herself, not to confuse familiarity for something more.

“Hey,” he said as he sat down beside her. When she looked up at him, she realized her shoulder barely came to his mid-forearm. Which meant he was taller than Trey—probably by a couple of inches.

Kylie nodded and dropped her phone in her purse.

“So…?” he asked.

Kylie met his green eyes with flecks of gold. She knew exactly what that one-word question asked. He wanted to know what she was. She started to answer him, to tell him she didn’t know what she was, just her gift, but she suddenly found she wasn’t ready to say it aloud. To say it aloud meant she believed it. And she didn’t, not yet.

“It’s been a crazy morning,” she said instead.

“I can imagine,” he answered, and she sensed a bit of disappointment in him. He’d wanted her to trust him.

Good luck with that, Kylie thought. Between people dying on her—meaning Nana—people divorcing on her—meaning her parents—and people breaking up with her because she wouldn’t put out—meaning Trey—her ability to trust anyone had taken a dive off some very high cliff. And it had landed on the bottom of some gully, a mangled mess, right beside her heart.

Miranda dropped down in the seat on the other side of Derek. “Hey…” She leaned over and looked at Kylie. “We’re rooming together. Isn’t that cool?”

“Yeah.” Kylie quickly tried to figure out exactly what Miranda was. She remembered the toad and for some reason guessed her to be a witch.

“I’m in with you guys, too,” someone else said, and sat down on the other side of Kylie.

Kylie turned and found herself staring at her own reflection in Pale Girl’s dark shades.

Chills ran up Kylie’s spine. Kylie didn’t know if she was a werewolf or a vampire, but something told her she was one of the two. Which basically meant, she fell into the humans-are-on-the-food-chain group.

The girl lowered her glasses, and Kylie got a look at her eyes for the first time. They were black and slightly slanted, exotic, as if she was part Asian. “My name’s Della … Della Tsang.”

“Uh … Kylie Galen,” she managed to say, hoping her hesitation didn’t come off as fear. But it was fear and Kylie couldn’t deny that.

“So Kylie,” Della said, pulling her glasses down another inch, “do tell. Exactly
what
are you?”

Was it her imagination that at least a dozen other teens turned and looked toward their table? Did they have super hearing? Kylie’s phone buzzed. “Uh, I should … take this.”

She grabbed her phone from her purse, stood up, and went to stand in the corner, away from everyone.

Glancing at the screen to see who to throw handfuls of praise to for calling at the right moment, Kylie’s heart did a tug. She’d expected it to be Sara, maybe her mom or dad. She hadn’t expected it to be Trey.

Chapter Ten

“Hello?” she answered hesitantly, and her chest immediately filled with a familiar kind of missing-Trey achiness that until she saw him at the party had almost disappeared. Almost.

“Kylie?” The deep sound of his voice did another pull on her emotions.

She swallowed a knot down her throat and visualized him in her mind—his green eyes staring at her like he did when they made out. “Yes?”

“It’s Trey.”

“I know,” she answered, and closed her eyes. “Why are you calling me?”

“Do I need a reason?”

Since you’re sleeping with some other girl, you do.
“We’re not together anymore, Trey.”

“And maybe that’s a mistake,” he said. “I can’t stop thinking about you since I saw you at the party.”

She’d bet he stopped thinking about her when he got his new bang toy alone that night. Lucky for them, they’d left about fifteen minutes before the cops had arrived. So while Kylie had been sitting at the police station, Trey had probably been expanding on his luck by getting lucky with his new girlfriend.

“Sara told me that you were at some camp in Fallen,” he said when she didn’t say anything. “She said your mom sent you there because of the party.”

“Yeah,” she answered, even though she realized it wasn’t the whole truth. But she couldn’t tell Trey the truth. Not even part of the truth. That’s when it hit her, how many lies she’d have to tell everyone she knew. That’s when she realized something else. Her mom hadn’t been lying when she’d said Dr. Day had convinced her that Kylie needed to come here. Maybe her mom hadn’t wanted to get rid of Kylie as badly as she thought. That should have made her feel better, but the achiness in her chest grew.

She missed her mom. She missed her dad. She wanted to go home. The gonna-cry knot formed in her throat and she swallowed it.

“Are you allowed to get phone calls?” Trey asked, his voice bringing her back to the moment and away from her thoughts.

Allowed?
Kylie hadn’t considered that. “I think so. No one’s told me I couldn’t.” But she hadn’t read the rules that were supposed to be posted in her cabin, either. Not that it was her fault; she hadn’t been allowed to go to her cabin yet.

She looked up to see if anyone else was on a phone. She spotted two people talking and two more texting. One of the texting kids was Jonathon, aka Piercing Guy, who stood with two other guys. Beside them stood Goth Girl, who hung with a crowd of other goths.

Kylie also spotted Lucas Parker. Not on the phone but talking to a group of girls that looked like his personal fan club. He was smiling at something someone said. And she could see the girls holding on to his every word, practically swooning all over him. Let them laugh and swoon, Kylie thought. He hadn’t killed their cat.

“I’m going to a soccer camp in Fallen next week,” Trey said, bringing her back to the conversation. “I thought maybe we could … maybe we could find a way to get together. To talk. I miss you, Kylie.”

“I thought you were with that girl, Shannon.”

“We weren’t ever really going out. But we’re not seeing each other anymore. I could never talk to her.”

But I’ll bet you did other things.
It hurt to remember how the girl had hung all over him at the party.

“Say you’ll at least meet me,” he said. “Please. I really miss you.”

Her chest grew heavier. “I don’t know if I can … I mean, I don’t know how things are run here yet.”

“I think our camps are just a mile or so apart. It wouldn’t be hard for us to meet.”

She closed her eyes and thought how good it would be to see Trey. To see anyone she knew wasn’t a freak, but especially Trey. He had always been her go-to person when things bothered her. Which was why his breaking up with her had broken her heart.

“I can’t make any promises, not until I figure things out here.” Kylie looked up.

Holiday and Sky were moving to the front of the room. “Lunch is ready,” Sky said. “Let’s let the new people start first. And then we’ll jump into introductions.”

Introductions?
The thought of having to talk to the group had butterflies nosediving in her stomach.

Kylie saw Derek turn and look at her as if wondering if she wanted to get in line together. She kind of liked the idea of standing beside him, instead of standing alone.

“I have to go, Trey,” she said.

“But Kylie—”

She hung up. She hadn’t done it to be mean, but the idea that he might feel a bit rejected didn’t bother her too much. Payback could be hell.

Derek stood up and waved her over. Yup, Derek was taller than Trey. Moving Derek’s way, Kylie tried not to flinch when Della joined them, and the three of them walked to the line together.

Della ended up behind Goth Girl from their bus and they started talking.

Derek turned and focused on Kylie.

“Boyfriend?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“The phone call?”

“Oh.” She shook her head. “Ex.” Instantly she remembered how several of the other kids had looked at her when Della had asked what she was. She leaned closer to Derek. “Could you hear me on the phone?” She lowered her voice. “Could everyone hear me?”

“I couldn’t. It was just … your body language.” He seemed to note how she looked out in the crowd. “But yes, some of the others have super hearing.”

“But not you?” She hoped he would tell her what she wanted to know. That he’d tell her what he was.

“Not me,” he said, and they moved a few steps forward. His arm brushed up against hers and for a second, she didn’t know if she wanted to back away or lean closer. The fact that he wasn’t cold seemed to make closer an option. When her arm met his again, something so comforting spread through her.

“So what are you?” she asked, and then bit her tongue. It wasn’t fair for her to be asking questions that she herself didn’t want to answer. “That’s okay, you don’t have to answer that.”

She looked away, embarrassed, and listened to the chatter of the crowd. Unlike earlier, when silence had reigned, now if she tried really hard, she might convince herself that she was in a room filled with regular teens.

And that’s when Kylie knew that she’d stopped trying to deny it.

Laughter along with a few of the more feminine squeals filled her ears. She should have found the “regular” thought comforting, but she couldn’t push away the truth. The truth was none of these people were regular or normal.

Not even her.

That thought shot a wave of panic into her stomach and she wondered how in the hell she would manage to eat anything now.

“I’m half Fae.” Derek’s voice came close to her ear. The tickle of his breath sent flutters to her stomach. Not the kind that stemmed from fear, but something different. Pushing that aside, she tried to concentrate on what he said.

Fae?
The synonym search in her brain started spinning through files until she recalled reading once that Fae was French for
fairy.

Her mind started spitting out data. Holiday was fairy. Holiday had said Kylie might be fairy.

She turned and met his green eyes. In a voice so low it barely came out a whisper she asked, “Do you … do you see ghosts?”

“Ghosts?” His eyes widened as if the question were unbelievable. But duh, how could that seem crazy when … when …

Her train of thought came to an abrupt halt when Kylie felt someone behind her. Her heart raced to a fast song and she feared it would be Soldier Dude. But the cold, the one she’d suddenly realized always came when he was near, didn’t seem to be present. She watched Derek’s gaze rise over her shoulder. He nodded.

She turned her head and her breath caught when she found herself staring into the light blue eyes of Lucas Parker.

“I think you lost this.” His voice reminded her of a radio announcer—deep with a rumbling quality that made it unique—memorable. A quality that made him sound older than he appeared.

Aware that she stared, she jerked her gaze to his hands where he held out her Coach billfold that her grandmother had splurged to get her last Christmas.

Immediately, Kylie looked back at the table where she’d left her purse. It sat on top just as she’d left it. How had he gotten her billfold?

She took her wallet from his hands and fought the temptation to make sure her mom’s credit card was still tucked safely inside. Her mom would be so pissed if she lost it.

Torn between doing the socially acceptable thing of saying thank you or questioning him on how he’d gotten his feline-murdering hands on her possession, her mind spun. Then because she mostly always did the socially acceptable thing, the two simple words, “thank you,” formed on her tongue, but she couldn’t spit them out.

She couldn’t help wondering if he remembered her. She couldn’t help noticing how his blue eyes seemed to look inside her, just as they had all those years ago. They hadn’t been friends, but neighbors for a very short time. He hadn’t even been in her grade. But they had to walk the same three blocks home from school every day, and she could remember that walk being the best part of her day. From the first time she’d seen him riding his bike on her street, he had fascinated her in a mysterious kind of way.

And just like that, she remembered with clarity the last time she’d seen him. The sense of fascination shattered, leaving in its place a cold wind of fear.

She’d been sitting on a swing with her new kitten in her hands—the kitten her parents had given her because Socks had come up missing. Lucas’s head had popped over the fence, and his blue eyes met hers. The kitten had hissed and scratched her, trying to run for cover. The boy stared and then said,
Be sure to take the kitten in the house at night. Or what happened to your other cat will happen to it.

She’d run to her mother crying. That night her dad and mom had gone to talk to Lucas’s parents.

Her parents hadn’t told her what happened, but she recalled her daddy looking angry when they’d returned from the visit. Not that it mattered, because the next day Lucas Parker and his parents were gone.

“You’re welcome,” Lucas said, his deep rumble now slightly laced with sarcasm. Then he turned and walked away.

Oh, great. All she needed was to start making enemies of one of the humans-are-on-the food-chain gang—especially one she knew was capable of doing despicable things. But face it, being nice to Lucas Parker was going to be hard. After all, he had killed her cat and threatened to do the same to her kitten.