Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls #1)(19)

"Are you okay?" Miranda asked.

"Fine." Kylie forced cheeriness into her voice. "Al ergies."

"Should you go see a nurse? Seriously, you look terrible."

Thanks. "No. I'm fine. It'l go away in a bit."

"It's not contagious, is it?" Miranda stopped a few feet into the room.

"I sure as heck hope not," said a voice at the door. A voice that belonged to Del a, who stil wore her dark shades, and who Kylie had learned during the introductions was a vampire. Yup. A real vampire.

"I'm not contagious," Kylie said, and realized she should have said yes so they'd leave her alone. Miranda moved in and sat on the foot of the twin bed, and Del a fol owed her but didn't sit down. Instead, the girl removed her sunglasses and eyebal ed Kylie up and down. Her dark expression reminded Kylie of a how a person on a diet stared at a Girl Scout cookie right before it became mouth mush.

Kylie's skin crawled at the thought of becoming mush in anyone's mouth.

"You are coming to dinner and the campfire, aren't you?" Miranda asked.

"Is ... is it mandatory?" Kylie asked, hoping her reaction to Del a didn't show.

"Are you scared of me?" Del a blurted out, axing al of Kylie's hopes of hiding the fact that Del a scared the pee out of her.

"Why ... why would I be scared of you?"

"Because I have sharp teeth?" She opened her mouth and exposed her pearly whites that did indeed showcase two sharp canines. "Because I might suck your blood out?"

It took effort not to cringe at Del a's words, especial y when the girl ran her tongue over her lips.

"Quit teasing her." Miranda laughed and rol ed her eyes.

"That's just it." Del a waved at Kylie. "Her heart is racing and her pulse is running off the chart. Look at the vein in her neck, it's throbbing. I don't think she knows I'm teasing."

The fact that Del a mentioned Kylie's veins had her blood pumping harder. "Of course I do," Kylie lied. "Holiday said everyone here was good ...

people."

"And you believed her?" Del a's black eyes accused Kylie of being dishonest.

Kylie decided right then that Del a's ability to read her vital signs surpassed her ability to lie. "I want to believe her. But I'l admit it, I'm stil trying to wrap my mind around the fact that ... that supernaturals exist."

"But you're a supernatural," Miranda said. "How could you not know-"

"Holiday thinks I'm a supernatural." Yeah, somewhere in the last few minutes Kylie had gone back to hoping Holiday's analysis was meritless.

"You are a supernatural," both Miranda and Del a said at the same time, both their eyebrows twitching ever so slightly.

"Or at least, you aren't al human," Del a said. "We can tel that by looking at your brain pattern."

"And you guys are never wrong?" Kylie clutched her knees tighter to her chest.

"Everyone's wrong once in a while," Miranda said.

"But not very often," Del a added.

Nevertheless, their answer spurred Kylie's hope. "But it does happen. Right?" The heaviness in her chest lightened.

"Yeah, there are the people with brain tumors," Del a added.

Kylie dropped her forehead on her knees. She was either a supernatural or dying of a brain tumor; she didn't know which was worse.

"And a few whose brains are just loopy," Miranda added.

Kylie raised her head. "Loopy?"

"Yeah, like a frog's hair from being loco."

"Then maybe I'm just loopy. I've been accused of that before."

"No, wait," Miranda said. "Didn't Holiday mention you had gifts?" Miranda and Del a both raised inquisitive eyebrows. Kylie shrugged. "Yeah, but that could just be because I'm dealing with a super-charged ghost."

"Ghost?" Miranda and Del a said in unison.

Kylie could be wrong, but both girls looked appal ed and scared. Their shock reminded her of Derek's reaction earlier when she'd asked if he could see ghosts.

"You can see the dead?" Del a stepped back from the bed. "Oh, hel . I do not want to room with someone who has ghosts hanging around. That's too freaky."

Even Miranda popped up off the foot of the bed. Kylie stared at them, completely befuddled. "You're joking right? You two are scared of me?

You're a witch." She pointed at Miranda. "And you're a vampire." She wagged her finger at Del a. "And ya'l are cal ing me"-she poked herself in the chest-"freaky?"

Miranda and Del a exchanged a look, but neither girl denied what Kylie had just said.

"Fine, forget it then," Kylie said, hurt by their attitude. "But just for the record, I don't talk to them." Then she realized that both girls were looking at her the same way she'd been looking at them al day. The bitterness of tasting her own medicine had Kylie turning things over in her mind.

"So they just hang around you?" Del a started eyebal ing the room. "Please tel me there's not any here right now."

"There's not," Kylie snapped, but her anger wasn't directed at her, just the situation. Because dad-blast it, if she'd heard someone could see ghosts, she'd probably be afraid of them, too.