Awake at Dawn (36 page)

She’d spoken to the PI and given him the new information she’d discovered about her grandparents. He said he would try to contact the Brightens. Not that it stopped Kylie from also calling them. She’d made a dozen calls to the number yesterday afternoon, but each time she’d only gotten the message machine.

Kylie went to delete the messages and realized she had one from Sara that she hadn’t played. Remembering the mixed emotions she’d felt the last time they’d spoken, she put the phone down and gave herself permission to avoid it until later. Besides, she needed to get her speech straight to get Derek to come to his senses. She hoped her plan worked.

* * *

Kylie waited out in the dining hall before breakfast, looking for Chris.

Don’t let him walk up with Derek, she prayed.

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When she spotted Chris walking up with Jonathon, she relaxed. When he got closer, she motioned him over. He said something to Jonathon and then started walking her way. Kylie could see curiosity spark in his eyes about why she wanted to speak to him.

It wasn’t a secret that Chris, one of the head vampires, thought he was a total stud muffin. And Kylie would admit, with his blond hair and light eyes, he had sort of a California-beach-cute-guy look going for him. His body wasn’t all that bad, either. But if he was thinking Kylie had a thing for him, he was about to be disappointed.

“What’s up?” He smiled.

Kylie hadn’t given much thought about how to approach this, so she just blurted it out. “I need a favor.” Chris was in charge of Campmates Hour, where names were put in a pot and drawn and you would spend an hour getting to know this person better.

“What kind of favor?” His gaze shot to her breasts.

She almost called him on it, but considering she needed him, she let it pass. “I heard that if someone wanted to make sure they drew a certain name, you could arrange it.”

“Oh.” He looked disappointed, which told her he’d thought she’d called him over for different reasons. He recovered quickly, though. “Did you also hear there’s a price for doing it?”

“A pint, right?”

“Yep.”

“Fine. I’ll tell Holiday I’m donating.” She started to walk away, but he caught her arm.

“You forgot to tell me who it is.” He wrinkled his brow. “Let me guess.

Lucas?”

Kylie frowned. “Derek.”

* * *

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Derek wasn’t around when the names were called, so she went in search of him. He stood in the dining hall talking with Steve and Luis. Derek frowned when he saw her step beside him. That hurt. Forcing a smile, she leaned over and whispered, “Guess what?” She waved the slip of paper with his name in the air.

He said good-bye to the guys and motioned for her to follow. They walked outside past the crowd. She wondered if he just planned to go to their spot at the rock, but he stopped.

His green eyes studied her. “Did you rig this?”

“Rig what?” She feigned innocence.

He caught her arm and turned it over. She knew he looked for a band-age, or a needle mark, but his touch sent tiny pain-like currents running through her. “Did you buy my name with blood?” He dropped her arm.

She squared her shoulders. “So? You did it for me. Twice.” So much emotion filled his eyes that her breath caught.

“We have to talk, Derek. This…” She moved a hand between them. “It isn’t right.”

He raked a hand through his brown hair. “What isn’t right is that I care about you while you care about someone else.”

“Fine!” Kylie felt herself growing angry and losing hope. “Do I care about Lucas? Yes. But I don’t care about him the way I care about you.” He shook his head. “You can’t lie to me, Kylie. I can read your emotions and when you’re around him you’re … attracted to him.”

“Okay, I’ll even admit I’m attracted to him. But that doesn’t mean anything.”

“The hell it doesn’t!” He started to walk away.

Kylie grabbed his arm. “You’re no different.”

“What?” His eyes brightened with anger and hurt.

“I saw you looking at Miranda when we were swimming.”

“I didn’t—”

“Yes, you did!”

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“This is stupid.” He started walking away again.

Kylie almost let him go, but she remembered that she was going to have to pay a pint for this. Damn it. She wanted her blood’s worth.

She caught up with him. “Perry even noticed because he started giving you the evil eye.”

He continued walking and so did she.

“Did I get bent out of shape about it? No, I didn’t because I know that while you might have thought she was pretty in her bathing suit, it didn’t mean you didn’t like me.”

He stopped and turned to face her. “That is different.”

“How is it different? If I could read your emotions, like you can read mine, I would have read lust loud and clear.”

“Yeah, but … but I’m a guy.”

Her mouth dropped open. “So only guys can be attracted to someone?

Please! What century are you living in?” His eyes tightened. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Then what did you mean?”

“I meant…” He clenched his jaw. “Christ. I don’t know, but it’s still different.”

“It’s not, Derek! Don’t you see? You’re getting all bent out of shape because you’re jealous and you have no reason to be.”

“It’s more than that,” he said. “You just said you care about him. This isn’t just—”

“Yeah, I care about him. We met a long time ago. And maybe that bonds us somehow. And yes, he’s nice looking. But … I want to be with you.”

She thought she was getting through to him, but he looked away. “I can’t do it, Kylie. Until you can prove to me that he doesn’t mean anything to you, I can’t do this.” He walked away again.

“Derek?” she called.

He turned around. “What?”

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Her chest grew heavy. “You lied to me.”

“About what?” Frustration colored his voice.

“You said we’d be friends. This isn’t how you treat a friend.” He looked up at the sky before he met her eyes. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I guess I can’t be your friend.” He walked off.

This time she let him go.

* * *

It was hard to get through the day. Kylie wanted to ask Holiday to let her skip the scheduled events, but she’d begged off too much. So she went to art, took a hike, and lost herself in cake decorating.

Every time she started to think about Derek, she’d mentally snap a rubber band around her heart. She was so focused on decorating her cupcakes that half the class was over before she realized Miranda wasn’t there.

As soon as it was over, she ditched music class and found Della walking to the lake for kayak lessons. Della had been pretty low-key lately, still recovering from the whole FRU visit and testing. And she dreaded having to go undercover to try to help catch her cousin for murder. Of course, worrying about that meant she wasn’t worrying about parents weekend.

Hey, you had to find the silver linings where you could.

“Have you seen Miranda?” Kylie asked.

“No. Is something wrong?”

“She just wasn’t in cake decorating. I was going to see if she was at the cabin.”

“You want me to come with you?”

“No,” Kylie said, remembering that Della had been looking forward to kayaking. “If I can’t find her, I’ll find you. I’m sure it’s nothing.” Unfortunately, right before Kylie reached her cabin, she was certain she’d been wrong in her assessment. Her first clue? The high-pitched scream coming from inside.

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Taking off at a dead run, Kylie reached the front door before she realized that the screams weren’t Miranda’s. Not that this realization slowed her down. Someone was in her cabin and screaming bloody murder. And Miranda was missing.

Jerking the door open, Kylie ran inside. “Miranda?”

“In here,” Miranda called from her bedroom, her words barely heard over the shrieking.

Pushing open the bedroom door, Kylie thought she was prepared to face anything. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Kylie gaped at the screaming redheaded girl locked in the big purple cage in the middle of Miranda’s room. Then her gaze shot to Miranda, reclin-ing in the middle of her bed, painting her toenails as if it were a lazy Sunday morning.

“Let me out of here, you bitch!” The girl shook the cage.

Miranda finished spreading fuchsia pink on her pinky toenail before she glanced up. “What’s up?” She smiled extra wide at Kylie.

“Bitch!” the girl screamed at Miranda then glared at Kylie. “Make her let me go!”

“I think I should be asking you what’s up,” Kylie said to Miranda, and then she looked back at the girl. A quick sniff of the air said there hadn’t been any blood lost.

Yet, anyway.

“Release me!” the prisoner snarled.

Kylie glanced back at Miranda and raised an eyebrow.

“See what I caught.” Miranda giggled. “Remember I’ve been telling you that someone was lurking around our cabin? I set a trap. And damn if I didn’t catch Tabitha Evans.”

“Do you know her?” Kylie asked.

“Yup, she’s one of the witches I’m competing against in two weeks.” Tabitha shook the bars so hard that the cage rocked. “I’m the witch that is going to put a hex on you if you don’t let me out!” 306/375

“Don’t worry,” Miranda said. “Her powers don’t work as long as she’s kept in my special cage. And I put a silencer about a hundred feet away, so no one can hear her yell.”

“What’s she doing here?” Kylie asked, concerned for the prisoner.

“Trying to undermine my confidence so I’d drop out of the competition.”

“And if I’d known you were such a screw-up I wouldn’t have wasted my time,” the girl screamed.

Okay, so Tabitha deserved to be caged. “Do you think she’s the one who’s been cutting off the security alarm?” Kylie asked.

“No, this was done with magic. Pathetic, barely excusable magic, of course.” Miranda glanced at the caged girl.

Tabitha hissed. “You’re the one who’s pathetic.” Miranda raised an eyebrow at her prisoner. “And you’re the one in the cage.”

The girl returned to shrieking. Miranda beamed with pride.

No doubt, catching Tabitha was good for Miranda’s ego. Kylie hated to pop Miranda’s bubble, but … “As cute as she looks in the cage, you do know you can’t keep her.”

“I don’t plan on it,” Miranda said. “I told her that as soon as she turns Socks back into a kitten, she can leave.”

“And I’ve told you that I didn’t do that! That was your screw-up! All you!”

“Please,” Miranda said. “For weeks almost everything I tried to do came out wrong.”

Miranda swung her feet off the bed and leaned close to the cage.

“Change the skunk back into a kitten and you can go.”

“And for the millionth time, I didn’t do that!” Miranda glanced back to Kylie. “Do you want me to paint your toenails?” Doubt filled Miranda’s eyes.

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“Look,” Tabitha snapped. “If it wasn’t you who did it, then maybe it was that old guy.”

“I’ve got some nice reds,” Miranda told Kylie, ignoring Tabitha.

Kylie wasn’t so good at ignoring. “What old guy?”

“Don’t believe anything she says,” Miranda said.

“I don’t know who he is, but he’s vampire. But he has some other powers, too, because he was here using a similar spell as I was. Scary old guy.”

“Please,” Miranda said. “Tell me something I can believe.”

“I’m telling the truth,” Tabitha snapped.

Miranda rolled her eyes. Then she wiggled her pinky.

“Wait,” Kylie said, but too late, the cage and Tabitha disappeared.

“Wait for what?” Miranda asked.

“Where did she go?”

“You said I couldn’t keep her.”

Kylie frowned. “What if she was telling the truth about the weird old guy?”

“Please, she’s making up crap. Della would have smelled a vampire.

Tabitha’s crazy.”

Kylie had to admit Miranda had a point. Della could sniff out vampires a mile away.

Miranda dropped back on the bed. “Can you believe I caught Tabitha Evans. I’m good.”

Socks came slinking into the room cautiously. His puffy black and white tail pointed in the air as if ready to blow and go if needed. Kylie looked back at Miranda. She might be good at setting traps, but she hadn’t quite gotten the spell down to turn Socks back into a kitten.

Then Kylie remembered her conversation with Derek. She mentally reached for the rubber band to snap herself out of thinking about him, but the dang rubber band wasn’t there. All she could feel was a big empty hole in her chest where her heart used to be.

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“I’m gonna lay down.” Before she went into her bedroom, she stopped at the fridge. Yanking opening the freezer, she grabbed one of the many quarts of ice cream Miranda had bought to nurse her broken heart.

Snatching a spoon out of the drawer, Kylie wondered if there was enough ice cream in the universe to make her feel better.

She really didn’t believe so.

* * *

The next week passed in a haze of heartbreak. Kylie gave her pint of blood and ate at least ten pints of ice cream. Derek continued to avoid her; Lucas continued to show up. Not that she could even get mad at him. He never made any passes. He was just being a friend. With her heart on the mend, she could use another friend.

Of course, they never discussed Fredericka or the dreams—and thank-fy she’d managed to keep the dreams at bay. He had asked about Derek, though, and Kylie told him it was a sore subject. The only thing Lucas said was that Derek was an idiot. For some reason, Kylie appreciated Lucas saying it.

She also appreciated the fact that Fredericka had stayed out of her way. Kylie wasn’t sure, but she suspected Lucas had something to do with that, too.

The ghost showed up every morning. Sometimes she’d speak, but she never offered anything that helped Kylie figure out who was in danger.

Whenever Kylie would start to worry about the ghost’s warning, Holiday would take her to the falls. They’d gone three times. Kylie kept leaving with the same message: stay focused and keep the faith.

Holiday hadn’t mentioned anything about Burnett in all this time.

Kylie wondered if she’d told him she’d found another investor, or if she was reconsidering his offer. Kylie caught Holiday spying out the window and watching Burnett and the others play ball at least six times. Two or three of those times Kylie had even stood with her, just so she could 309/375