Awake at Dawn (Shadow Falls #2)(94)

"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.

"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.

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