Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls #1)(26)

They walked out from the last line of trees into the clearing and they almost col ided with a dark figure that leapt out of the trees, landing with almost a silent thud. Del a growled. A startled yelp fil ed Kylie's throat, but then she recognized the dark figure with very blue eyes. Lucas Parker.

"That's a good way to get hurt," Del a snarled.

His gaze stayed fixed on them, harsh, accusing.

Kylie froze under his intense stare, but Del a, unaffected by his ominous presence, gave Kylie a cold nudge to continue walking. Lucas fel in step beside her and his deep voice came out as little more than a whisper. "If he comes here again, I won't sit by and do nothing."

With that, Lucas took off.

"Shit," Del a muttered.

Ditto.

Kylie watched Lucas move into a circle of other campers, and al of them greeted him as if he was some kind of leader. Before Kylie could look away, the girl who always seemed attached to Lucas's hip glanced back and her eyes turned greenish gold as she stared daggers at Kylie.

"Someone's jealous," Del a snapped.

While the idea was laughable, Kylie could swear she did see jealousy in that girl's eyes.

* * *

A short time later, Kylie found herself alone, staring at the fire and listening to the strange animal sounds in the distance. Her gaze fol owed the trail of smoke that seemed to snake up to where the half moon hung in the sky. Breathing in the scent of burning wood and charred marshmal ows from the sticks of several campers, Kylie fought emotional overload. Then, gazing at the flickering fire, she found herself missing Sara like she'd never missed her before.

At first, Kylie didn't understand the upheaval of feelings for her best friend, but when she glanced around the crowd the reasons became clear. Blindingly clear.

Welcome to the world of cliques.

School had always been about the cliques. Among the many, there'd been the cheerleader/popular clique, the school band clique, and then the smart/col ege-focused clique-completely different from the geek clique-and the art club clique. Then there was the one Kylie and Sara belonged to, the cliqueless clique.

Not that it was the worst one to belong to. In truth, it wasn't even a clique at al ; they just belonged to the group that was considered floaters. They hung-not real y belonged to, but just hung-with one group for a while, then they'd move to another. Thankful y, people didn't dislike them or poke fun at them like they did some of the unpopular groups. How could they poke fun at them when people hardly knew they existed? Or at least that's how Kylie had always felt at school. Not real y disliked, or mistreated, just invisible.

And the reason for missing Sara right now, wel , that was a no-brainer. Kylie might have been a floater, but she'd never had to float alone. Since fifth grade, she and Sara had been a team. And Sara had definitely been the head floater-the role natural y taken on since she was the one who worried the most about fitting in.

Inhaling another gulp of smoke, Kylie moved to escape the path of the wind. As her gaze moved from one group to another, one of Nana's old sayings fil ed her head, birds of a feather flock together.

The flocks, or cliques, were different at camp than in high school. She spotted Del a and the pierced boy, Jonathon, crowding around a group of kids, al vampires, no doubt.

Standing close to the fire, roasting marshmal ows, was Perry, the shape-shifter, and with him were two other guys and a girl. Kylie wondered if they could al turn into unicorns.

Derek stood to the side of another crowd, as if he wasn't so sure he wanted to belong. She assumed these must be the fairies, or Fae as he cal ed them. Not that she blamed him for using the different version. No straight guy would want to be cal ed a fairy. Not that anyone could mistake Derek for gay. Something about the way he walked and carried himself was overtly female-loving male-like Trey. Staring under her lashes, she let herself admire Derek's overtly male body. The wide shoulders, the square jaw, the way he fil ed out his jeans. That's when she realized she was doing it again-comparing Derek to Trey. She real y, real y didn't want to get caught up in that emotional storm, so she looked away.

Luck would have it that her gaze shot straight to another hard male body among a different flock of campers. Lucas. His warning about Del a's cousin echoed in her head as she let her gaze move over his tal frame. Not that she planned to al ow herself to appreciate the view for long. The fact that she appreciated it at al annoyed her. She owed her cat more loyalty than that. Right?

Before she could force her gaze away from his solid torso wrapped in the black T-shirt, she noticed his goth-dressed girlfriend standing next to him. Her body was pressed so close, that nobody would dare come between them.

Lucas turned around as if he'd sensed her staring. Kylie attempted to look away, but his gaze locked on hers. She felt caught. Then the strangest thing happened. A forgotten memory surfaced. She'd been walking home from school, and a few of the older boys had started picking on her. One of the bul ies had picked up a rock and slung it at her, but Lucas appeared out of nowhere and caught the rock. Like some kind of pro basebal player, he slung it back at the kid and hit the bul y right between his legs.

The boy fel in the street moaning. Lucas had walked beside her the rest of the way home-as if to protect her. Those bul ies never bothered her again.

Realizing she continued to stare at Lucas during her memory recal , she swung around. She noticed Miranda chatting with an artsy-looking crowd