Awake at Dawn (37 page)

watch Derek. Not that he didn’t know she looked on. He would always glance at the window.

Their eyes would meet. Kylie would remember how much she missed him while he appeared annoyed.

“You want to talk about it?” Holiday had asked the last time it happened.

Kylie had agreed to spill her guts, but only over ice cream. She’d eaten all of Miranda’s stash and needed more. So Kylie and Holiday took the afternoon off and went back to the ice cream parlor where they ate their weight in cold creamy scoops of bliss.

“Why does ice cream go with a broken heart?” Kylie asked.

“Because if you eat enough of it, it freezes the heart and numbs the pain for a bit,” Holiday answered, and they both laughed.

Daniel hadn’t visited since the day her mom had broken into the camp and had to be erased, but her stepdad had called twice. Kylie had taken his second call. They talked about his job, about the weather, and then he mentioned the possibility of Kylie attending the Shadow Falls boarding school. He hadn’t been positive or negative and said it was up to her mom.

When she hung up, she realized that her mom and dad must be talking for him to know about the boarding school. Kylie wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Was her mom ready to forgive him? Kylie almost called her mom and asked, but with parents weekend less than one week away, Kylie figured she should wait and do it in person.

Miranda seldom mentioned Perry anymore. Not that it stopped Perry from watching Miranda. Anytime he was within a hundred feet of her, he had his gaze locked on her. Kylie knew that Miranda noticed it. She chose to ignore it. Not too hard considering her stress about the upcoming competition that her mother had entered her in during parents weekend. If she wasn’t practicing for the event, she was attempting to solve the puzzle of what happened to Socks.

310/375

After two weeks, Socks didn’t seem to mind being a skunk. He seemed to understand the power of his tail, and he’d raise it up in a threat at the least provocation. He even had Della walking a line. Thankfully, he hadn’t sprayed again.

Della dreaded going home. And now she dreaded coming back to the FRU job waiting on her. Going undercover to find out if her cousin was responsible for the murders wasn’t going to be easy for Della. A grumpy Della and a stressed-out Miranda meant the two were at each other’s throats. Kylie often wondered if she didn’t intervene if the two would really kill each other. But she loved the two of them too much to chance it.

The PI had finally discovered that Kent and Betty Brighten had taken a long vacation in Ireland. So Kylie’s quest to discover what she was had been temporarily put on hold. Wasn’t that just lovely?

The one good thing that happened lately was Kylie no longer felt that strange sense of being watched. She wondered if Tabitha had been the cause of it. But when she’d recall Tabitha, Kylie would remember what the girl said about an old vampire hanging around. For some reason, that bothered Kylie. Not enough to mention it to Holiday, because in doing so she might get Miranda in trouble. And after the Burnett incident with Della, getting friends in trouble was the last thing Kylie wanted to do.

On Tuesday morning, Kylie woke up with what felt like an extra chill in the air. Either the ghost was trying to send a message or Kylie had more than one spirit hanging around. Great. That’s all she needed, another ghost.

“What do you want?” Kylie trembled beneath the covers.

Her phone started croaking. Either her phone’s ringtone had gotten changed or Miranda had managed to turn it into a frog. Kylie grabbed her phone. It stopped making the hideous sound and went directly to her voicemail messages.

311/375

First it played the one her dad had left, then one the PI left a few days ago. Next it played one that Kylie hadn’t heard. From Trey, her boyfriend from the past. How had she missed this call? He asked her to return his call, saying it was important.

“Yeah, right,” she muttered. “What, did you find out my breasts got bigger and you want to see them?” She shut the phone off, but not before deleting his message.

She had no sooner laid it back on the nightstand when the cell commenced croaking.

Grabbing it, she looked at the dang thing to make sure it was off. It was. So how did it make noise? She hit the off button again. The croaking continued.

“Are you doing this?” she asked the spirit. “If so, stop. Because it’s not funny. And it’s not telling me crap about what I need to know.” The phone went silent. The ghost appeared at the foot of her bed.
“You
have to do something soon. She’s dying.”
Just like before, the spirit didn’t offer a freaking clue as to who the mysterious “she” was.

Kylie got dressed and decided to visit Holiday. She doubted if hearing Holiday say she thought everything was going to be okay would take the edge off the fear, but she had to try.

She hadn’t even gotten to the office porch when she heard the voices ringing in her ears.

“Tell me it isn’t dangerous?”
Holiday insisted, sounding furious.

“I can’t tell you that,”
Burnett said.
“This work is always dangerous.”

“Then no. He can’t go.”

“I didn’t come to ask you,”
Burnett said, sounding equally annoyed.

“He’s gotten permission from his mother. He’ll be leaving today around
noon.”

312/375

Kylie turned and started walking in the opposite direction. She would have covered her ears, but that had never worked before, so she just kept walking, hoping the voices would fade.

“It’s wrong,”
Holiday said.
“First, you involve Lucas, and now Derek.

I have to put my foot down.”

Kylie stopped.
First Lucas and now Derek … what?

“They are both exceptional boys,”
Burnett said.

“And that’s my point. They are boys, Burnett.”

“I was sixteen when I went to work for the FRU. Lucas is eighteen.

Derek is only a few months shy of that. And he’s an eraser, Holiday. Do
you know how few there are of those?”

“I don’t care about that. I care about him.”

“He’ll only be gone a month or less. Back in time for the school year
to begin.”

“Assuming he’s not killed trying to do the government’s work,”
Holiday snapped.

“I’m sorry,”
Burnett said, and there was regret in his voice.

Kylie heard a door slam. Burnett had left but she didn’t move. She stood there on the trail, digesting what she’d just heard. Derek was leaving. He was going to work for the FRU. He wouldn’t be back for a month.

Assuming he’s not killed trying to do the government’s work.
Holiday’s words played in Kylie’s mind. Her heart froze. She took off down the trail toward Derek’s cabin.

Chapter Thirty

Kylie got to Derek’s cabin a minute later. She spotted Chris walking out of the cabin, dressed for his morning jog, and stopped. She would have jumped into the woods and hidden, but Chris was vampire, which meant he’d probably already heard her. So she started jogging and hoped he wouldn’t stop and ask any questions.

When they ran past each other, she waved. He smiled and kept going.

She continued down the trail past the cabin until she felt he wouldn’t be in hearing range. Then she spun around, ran into the cabin, and went straight into Derek’s room.

He was in bed, still asleep. His wide chest was bare. The sheet came low around his waist and Kylie wasn’t sure if he had anything on beneath the sheet. She’d heard rumors that most boys slept in the buff. But she’d seen him naked and that didn’t scare her away.

“Derek?”

He dropped his hand over his face.

She moved over to the bed and touched his shoulder. “Derek?” His eyes popped open and he shot up. He stared at her but didn’t look awake. “You’ve got your clothes on, so this isn’t a dream.” He flinched as if he realized he’d said that aloud and then he dropped back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

“It’s not a dream.” She sat beside him. “I heard what you’re planning to do and I don’t want you to go. Please, don’t go.” He looked over at her with heavy-lidded eyes, but she could tell he was awake. “How did you find out?”

314/375

He hadn’t answered her question, so she didn’t answer his. “Were you not even going to say good-bye?” Tears filled her eyes.

He sat up and pulled the sheet around his waist. “I was going to say good-bye.”

She blinked away the emotion. “You’re doing this because of me, aren’t you?”

“No. Not completely.” He touched her arm and the floodgates of emotion really started pouring.

“Please, don’t go,” she said in tears.

“I have to. I need to get my head on straight.” He blinked. “You were right. Well, partially right. I still think you have issues you need to resolve about Lucas. But … you were right about me being jealous. My ability to read emotions is getting stronger. And I don’t know why, but with you, it’s as if I feel everything you feel but … more. I don’t know if it’s because I care about you so much or what. But when you feel something I don’t like, an attraction for another guy, anger, or even disappointment at someone, I … I go crazy inside. It’s like someone is shooting me up with emotional adrenaline.” He raked a hand over his face. “I’ve either got to learn to deal with this or…”

“Or what?” she asked. He didn’t answer, but Kylie knew what he meant. He either had to learn to deal with the emotions she unleashed inside him, or walk away from her. But wasn’t that what he was doing?

Walking away?

“And you’ve got to deal with Lucas and…” He paused. “I’m also going to confront my dad. And when I come back in a month, we’ll see how things stand. You may have fallen in love with Lucas by then. And if that happens, I’ll have to accept it.”

“Would it be that easy to accept?”

“No. But I don’t see what other choice I have.”

“But you do have a choice. Stay. Give us a chance. We’ll work through this.”

315/375

He shook his head. “I can’t, Kylie. I just can’t.” She looked at him and as hard as it was to accept, she finally did.

Derek was leaving. He had made his choice, and it wasn’t her.

Chin high, vowing that she’d done everything she could, she turned and walked out. He might have broken her heart, but he wasn’t going to break her spirit. She would get over him. She would.

* * *

A week later, Kylie sat on a blanket out by the river where she and her mother had sat and talked about Daniel. Kylie just wanted to be alone to think, to try and wrap her head around how she was going to get her mom to sign her up for Shadow Falls’ boarding school. And maybe, just maybe, Daniel would drop by while she was here.

She lay back on the blanket and stared up at the blue sky, and then she heard someone approach.

“See any elephants?” a familiar male voice asked.

She smiled at Lucas. “No, but I just saw a giraffe.” He looked up in the sky. “Where?”

“Over there.” She pointed to the left. “Its neck is no longer connected to its body, but you can still see it if you squint.” He dropped down beside her. She thought he looked up at the clouds, but when she glanced back, she found him looking at her. He smiled.

“You just get prettier every day, Kylie Galen.” She rolled her eyes. “Don’t start.”

“Okay, can I say I’ll miss you?”

She sat up. “Are you going to your grandmother’s house?”

“Yeah. We’re in Houston.”

She studied the tip of her tennis shoe, and decided to just ask. “Lucas, are you working with FRU?”

His eyes widened. “Who told you?”

“I overheard Burnett and Holiday talking about it.” 316/375

“After I got inside the gang that had my sister, I got with Burnett to help me bring down a few really bad guys. So yeah, I sort of worked with them. And I told them if they needed me for anything else, I would be available.”

“Isn’t it dangerous?”

He studied her. “Are you asking out of concern for me or for Derek?”

“Both.” She had accepted that Derek had left. She hadn’t completely gotten over the heartbreak, but she would.

“It’s not that dangerous. If you follow the game plan, things generally go okay.”

He brushed a long stand of hair from her cheek. “You know I want to be more than your friend, right?”

She went to studying her tennis shoe again.

“I don’t expect you to answer. I just wanted you to know before some other guy tries to move in.” He leaned closer. “I’m patient, Kylie. I’ve waited eleven years for you. I can wait until you’re ready.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek. It wasn’t anything like the kisses they’d shared, especially those in her dreams. But his nearness—his woodsy scent, the feel of his lips against her skin—sent a hundred butterflies into full flutter mode.

When she looked over at him, he was gone.

And obviously so were Kylie’s wits. Because for the life of her, she didn’t know what she’d planned to do, reprimand him for kissing her …

or kiss him back.

And maybe it was better if she didn’t answer her own question, too.

* * *

Friday morning, Kylie, Miranda, and Della, each carting suitcases, walked the trail to meet up with their parents. They walked slowly, like con-demned prisoners moving to their executions.

“I’m going to be peeing on a drug test stick every hour,” Della muttered.

317/375

Miranda sighed. “I’m going to screw up at my competition and my mom is going to give me up for adoption.”

“I’m going to a ghost hunt,” Kylie added. Both girls looked at her.

“Don’t ask.”

Holiday met them at the end of the trail, channeling her normal, peppy self. “Smile, guys. It’s only for a few days.” They all turned and looked at each other again. Kylie dropped her suitcase and hugged them both. “I expect a phone call from each of you twice a day.”

“Twice a day,” Della said. “I hope you don’t mind if I call when I’m peeing on a drug test stick, because that’s what I’m gonna be doing the whole time.”

“Just don’t flush,” Miranda said. “I hate it when people flush when they’re talking to me.”