Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls #1)(15)

Kylie's stomach clenched at the thought of how that conversation would turn out. Chances were her mom would yank her out of the camp and commit her to a psycho ward. Not that it would be worse than what she was in now.

Staring at her hands, Kylie remembered what Holiday had said about her gift being hereditary. Did her mom or dad see ghosts? Not her mom, otherwise she wouldn't have brought in the mental doctor the first time Kylie brought up Soldier Dude. And her dad would have told her if he had any special abilities, wouldn't he?

Not that Kylie had accepted that she had any gifts. It was stil highly probable that Holiday was wrong about her being one of them. Maybe Soldier Dude was just a high-powered ghost, like Holiday said could happen. And surely there were normal people who were born at midnight, right?

Nevertheless, the idea of trying to tel her parents any of this seemed absurd. Seemed absurd? Who was she kidding? It was over-the-top completely one hundred percent crazy, and if she hadn't seen Perry change himself into a unicorn, she wouldn't have believed it, either. The conversation up front got a little louder, but not as loud as before, not loud enough for Kylie to distinguish words. So she stared at her phone and pretended to read Sara's last text, but in truth, she'd already read it.

Her friend hadn't told her parents about her missed period, and as soon as Sara's mom left for her lunch appointment, Sara was going to the store to buy a pregnancy test. Some time this afternoon, Sara would know if she was pregnant. Kylie hadn't asked Sara about the father, she hadn't even asked Sara if she would consider an abortion. For some reason, Kylie didn't see Sara doing that. But six months ago, Kylie would have sworn that Sara would never find herself pregnant, either. Kylie let herself worry about Sara for a minute before she shifted back to her own issues. Like how she was going to survive the next two months. And by survive, she didn't mean just mental y. Vampires and werewolves kil ed people.

Only the bad ones, Holiday had explained on the walk over here when Kylie had almost jumped out of her skin anytime someone came close. Was Holiday certain that no bad ones were at the camp? Some of them had looked pretty grim to Kylie. Not that she considered herself an expert at distinguishing bad supernaturals from good ones. But in a way it sort of compared to how Kylie felt about snakes and spiders-there were good ones, and there were bad ones. But for safety's sake, she avoided al of them.

God, Kylie hoped she didn't get stuck rooming with any of them. Surely Holiday wouldn't expect her to sleep in a cabin with someone who ... who might be tempted to kil her while she slept. Then again ... Great, that meant she'd probably be sleeping with one eye open the entire two months. The conversation between the two black-suited guys and the camp leaders came to an end and the two men started to leave. But one of them, the tal er of the two, turned around and looked right at Kylie. And then he did it. He twitched his brows at her. Kylie looked away, but she sensed him standing there in that same spot, stil staring and twitching. She felt her cheeks heat up. The door to the dining hal shut, but then she heard it open again. Kylie looked up and saw the other teens start to filter into the room. As each one entered, Kylie found herself guessing-fairy, witch, werewolf, vampire, or shape-shifter. Were there other kinds of supernaturals? She'd have to ask Holiday about the different types, like what "descended from the gods" meant.

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 smal 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 tal er 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 tel 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 gul y, 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?"