Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls #1)(31)

Holiday sighed. "The chances of either one of those are very slim, Kylie. Don't you think?"

"Maybe, but the chance exists," Kylie insisted. "I mean, you said most of the time ghost whispering stems from ... a condition that's hereditary. That one of my parents had to have been gifted, too."

"Neither of your parents ever ... showed any signs of being different?"

"No. Never." Yet even as she answered, she reconsidered her mother's cold nature. Could that qualify as "different"?

"I also told you that in rare situations it can skip a generation."

"But I knew my grandparents on both sides. Don't most people know if ... if they're not human?"

"Most people do, but..." Holiday stared at her as if disappointed, and then she folded her hands in her lap. "I suppose that's what you should work on while you're here."

"Work on?"

Holiday stood up. "Everyone here has a quest. Something they're seeking answers for. I suppose your quest is to discover if you are, or are not, completely human. And if, as I suspect, you are one of us, then you must also decide if you'l embrace your gifts to help others, or turn your back on them."

Kylie tried to wrap her mind around the possibility that one of her parents wasn't human, that they might understand what Kylie was going through. Wouldn't they have said something to her?

Holiday placed a hand on Kylie's shoulder. "You should try to get some sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow."

She nodded and watched Holiday almost make it out the door before the question popped out. "How ... how do I find the answers? I can't go to my parents and ask them if they see ghosts. They'd think I was crazy."

Holiday turned around. "Or maybe one of them would confess the truth to you."

Kylie shook her head. "But if al this is a mistake, then al of that would be for nothing. They already have me seeing a shrink. If I start talking about ghosts, they might have me committed."

"It's your quest, Kylie. Only you can decide how you want to do this."

* * *

The next morning Kylie and Miranda walked to breakfast together. Del a had already taken off by the time Kylie got up. When Kylie asked about Del a, Miranda informed her that vampires often held before dawn meetings where they performed rituals.

"What kind of rituals?" Kylie asked.

"Don't know exactly, but my guess is it has to do with feeding on blood."

Kylie pressed a hand to her stomach, sorry that she'd asked. Of course, her sickly feeling could partly be due to the fact that she'd hardly slept. Then on second thought, nope, it was for sure the blood. The idea repulsed her in a big way. Seeing the red stuff in those glasses during dinner last night had been too much. If nothing else, at least Kylie might lose a few pounds over the summer. They walked the next few minutes in silence. "How did you sleep last night?" Miranda final y asked, although Kylie knew what her roommate real y meant. Namely, was Kylie okay and what the hel had happened to make her faint?

Kylie decided to ignore the subtext and answered the question as asked.

"Fine." Kylie lied, aware the white lies might work with Miranda, just not Del a.

In truth, Kylie had stared holes in the ceiling considering what Holiday had said about Kylie's quest. No matter how Kylie looked at the problem, she couldn't think of a way to ask her parents if they were not al human.

But she could think of a lot of questions she'd like to ask someone about herself. Questions like: if I am a supernatural what other kind of species could I be? And if I'm not one of you, do I have some kind of a brain tumor? Kylie didn't know which was worse. Then the revelation hit. Maybe getting answers to those questions would help her rule out the possibility of being anything but human. It wasn't the best plan, but it was a start. And she had to start somewhere.

"You didn't look fine last night," Miranda said.

She hadn't been. When Kylie final y went to sleep, she'd dreamed. Crazy, weird dreams that involved Lucas Parker and her. They were swimming. He hadn't been wearing a shirt and neither had she. She'd woken up, feeling out of breath, and tingly. Tingly the way Trey had made her feel when they'd kissed for a long time. How could her body betray her and actual y find Lucas Parker desirable? Not that she would let her body win this one. If there was anything she knew about herself, it was that she could control her desire. She'd gotten real y good at stopping Trey, even when stopping had been the last thing she'd wanted.

So that gave her a new goal. Not only would she try and find out if she was human, she was also going to make darn sure she didn't get close to Lucas.

"I did okay," Kylie lied again.

"I don't believe you, but let's let that slide for now." Miranda looked away. "Cute vampire dude on the left," she whispered, total y changing the conversation.

"What?"

"The blond wearing a footbal jersey," Miranda whispered again. "What I wouldn't give to hook up with him."

"I thought you didn't like vampires."

"I never said that. And if I did, it wouldn't apply to the male vampires, anyway."

Kylie couldn't have cared less about a cute vampire, and the last place she wanted her mind to go right now was to thoughts about hooking up with any guy, but her gaze moved to the left on its own accord. No one was there. "Where?"