Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls #1)(28)

"Hey," Kylie said.

"I thought I heard..." Miranda stopped and her eyes grew round. "What's that?"

"A kitten. Isn't she ... or he adorable?" She held the animal up to check its sex. The kitten started twisting, even hissed, but Kylie held it tight. "It's a boy. He was peering in our window." She cradled him against her chest again and glanced back at the fridge. "I think he's hungry."

"Oh, no." The annoyance level in Miranda's tone had Kylie turning back around.

"What?" Kylie asked, genuinely confused. "Are you al ergic to cats?"

"Same old trick, huh?" Miranda said, but Kylie didn't think her roommate was talking to her. Instead, Miranda pointed a finger at the kitten and started wiggling her pinky finger back and forth. "Roses are red, violets are blue, show your true self or I'l put a hex on you."

"Stop. I'm changing back." The words spewed from the kitten.

Kylie stood frozen. Words. Oh, what the hel ! Was she dreaming? Cats couldn't ... talk. She looked at Miranda, not completely ready to toss the kitten across the room, but close. "Did I imagine...?"

Miranda looked at Kylie and her lips twitched almost in a smile, but she held it back, and directed her gaze back to the kitten. "Do it now, Perry!"

Perry.

Kylie looked down at the kitten cozied up against her breasts. Sparkles, diamond-shaped sparkles floated around the red tabby. Then poof. Perry appeared, standing in front of Kylie, his head plastered against her breasts.

Kylie screamed.

Del a shot into the kitchen. "What's...?" She blinked. "Do you guys want to be alone?" She snickered and motioned to Kylie and Perry. Snapping out of her stupor, Kylie grabbed the little twerp by the ear and yanked him off her chest. "He's leaving now."

"Ouch. Ouch," Perry muttered as Kylie dragged him past the kitchen table. "Let go of my ear!" he ordered in a roar that sounded like some kind of angry beast.

But Kylie wasn't feeling up to taking orders and she was too mad to be scared of him. Holding on to his ear like a tick to a dog, she dragged Perry past the smal coffee table, yanked open the door with her free hand, and then shoved the pervert out the door with such force that he landed on his ass.

But she wasn't finished with him yet.

She pointed a finger at him. "You come anywhere near my breasts again and it won't be your ear I drag you out by next time. And in case you don't know what body part I'm referring to, let's just say the next time you turn yourself into a kitten, you'l find you've been neutered. " She slammed the door with a loud whack.

"Creep." Kylie swung around, clenching and unclenching her fists.

Both Del a and Miranda stood there, eyes wide and mouths hanging open in a kind of warped shock. Miranda giggled first. "Sorry," she muttered. "But that was so freaking funny."

"Was not," Kylie snapped, stil fuming, her throat tightening with anger.

"Oh, yes it was." Del a started laughing so hard that she fel against the table. "You have spunk hidden behind your innocent face. I like it."

"Either that or she's stupid," Miranda said, and then snorted. "Do you realize what Perry is? He's like the most powerful shape-shifter in the world right now. Everyone knows you don't piss off a shape-shifter. They have terrible tempers."

"I ... he ... he tricked me into letting him snuggle up against my breasts." She recal ed hearing the twerp's voice morph into a very threatening roar.

Okay, so maybe her actions had been a tad stupid, but nothing, nothing made her blood boil more than someone making a fool out of her, and that's what he'd done.

Fighting the tears, because she always cried when she was mad, she spotted the fridge stil open and marched over to shut it. The cold blast from the white box hit her face the same time as she remembered ... "Gross, I checked out his privates."

Behind her, both Del a and Miranda spewed more laughter. Then for some off-the-wal reason, what hadn't seemed funny suddenly did. Kylie leaned into the closed fridge and started laughing. For the next five minutes, they sat at the kitchen table, giggling until they had tears in their eyes. It reminded Kylie of what she and Sara would so often do.

Or had until everything had changed.

"You should have seen his expression when you were pul ing him by the ear," Del a said. "I wish I'd had a camera."

"I almost felt sorry for him," Miranda said.

"Sorry for him?" Kylie asked.

"Yeah, he's kind of cute in that boyish kind of way. Don't you think?"

"Cute? Oh, heck. He's a freak," Kylie insisted.

"Aren't we al ?" asked Del a, her humor fading just a notch.

Not sure I am, Kylie thought, and almost said as much, but something plopped down on the table. Kylie screamed when she saw the toad. Miranda rol ed her eyes and snatched up the creature. "Being bad again, Mr. Pepper?" she seethed at the amphibian, holding the beast a foot from her face, his toad legs dangling almost to the table.

"What did he do for you to put a spel on him?" Del a asked, studying the toad in disgust.

"Like our friend Perry, he's a member of the pervert club." Miranda gave the toad a little shake. "He's my piano teacher and he tried to start playing something besides the piano, if you know what I mean."