Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls #1)(49)

"What friend?"

The cold brushed down Kylie's right side-his presence as noticeable and as welcome as a paper cut. "You can see him, too?" A wisp of steam left her lips with the words.

"Nah, just feel him. Don't like it, either." The elf backed away from the counter.

Go away. Go away. Closing her eyes, Kylie wil ed Soldier Dude to leave. When the chil faded as quickly as it had come, she wondered if it was real y as easy as just wishing him away. One more thing she needed to talk to Holiday about. Nevertheless, the smal victory offered Kylie a tiny sense of control. Real tiny.

Picking up her tray, she went back to join Miranda and Del a. Admittedly, she didn't search the room for any guys wearing army garb. Why look for trouble?

"Bad day?" Miranda asked when Kylie dropped her tray rather discontentedly on the table.

"Bad month." Kylie picked up the sandwich and sniffed. "I hate tuna." She felt her throat tighten and swal owed the knot of emotion, swearing she wouldn't cry.

"You like peanut butter and jel y?" Miranda asked.

"Yeah." Kylie looked at Miranda, thinking she was offering to swap. Instead, she was holding out her pinky and waving it at Kylie's sandwich. The sandwich in Kylie's hand moved. Kylie looked at it, and her mouth fel open. Peanut butter and red jam oozed over the crusty edges of the bread. "Holy crap." Kylie dropped the sandwich back on the tray.

"Wow." Del a leaned over. "Can you zap me up a second glass of blood? Oh, make it O negative. I hear that's the best."

Miranda made a face. "I do not do blood."

"Why am I not surprised?" Del a huffed.

Kylie shut out al talk of blood and shifted her gaze from her transformed sandwich back to the sandwich transformer. "I thought you said you couldn't do magic?"

Miranda made a funny face. "That's hardly enough to cal magic. I've been replacing my lunch with peanut butter and jel y sandwiches since I was two. My mom tried force-feeding me liverwurst. Who in God's name eats that stuff?"

"I'd bet I would love it now," Del a said.

Kylie's stomach growled and she pul ed back the bread to give the sandwich a quick check. "Is it ... safe to eat?"

"You think I'd poison you?" Miranda asked, clearly offended.

"No, but it could be radioactive or something. I don't know what happens to food when it's ... zapped here."

"I've eaten my sandwiches al my life," Miranda said.

"Yeah, we see what it did to you, too," Del a added, her tone sounding more and more annoyed.

"Go suck a vein," Miranda snapped.

"You got one?" Del a countered, and bared her teeth.

"Please." Kylie looked from one roommate to the other. "I beg you, don't start this again." Only when they both seemed resigned to stop bickering did Kylie revisit the idea of eating. Amazingly, she was starved. Getting one's brain scanned must increase one's appetite. Or maybe it was that her headache had final y taken a hike. Either way, she was hungry enough to take a chance and eat a sandwich that had been conjured up by Miranda's pinky finger.

Picking up the sandwich, Kylie sank her teeth into the soft white bread. "It's good," she told Miranda, as she moved the bite around in her mouth, and tried to keep the peanut butter from sticking to the roof of her mouth. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Miranda said. "And in return, al I'd like is for you to put in a good word for me with Derek-since you don't like him."

Del a made a snorting sound. "You are so blind. Kylie's crazy about him."

Miranda's mouth fel open and she looked at Kylie as if waiting for her to rebuke Del a's claim. But the peanut butter got caught on the roof of her mouth and Kylie couldn't have spoken even if she wanted to. Not that she was overtly ready to speak up. She didn't know how to answer. Frustrated at Kylie's silence, Miranda addressed Del a. "She said she didn't like him."

"She lied." Del a shrugged.

Miranda snapped her head around to Kylie. "Do you like him? If so, just tel me you like him."

"Who does Miss Don't-know-what-I-am like?" Lucas's girlfriend plopped down on the opposite side of the table. Kylie's gaze shot to the werewolf. Strange. She couldn't ever remember having so much anger or dislike being lopped on her in one cold stare. She managed to push the lump of sandwich she'd pried off the roof of her mouth to her cheek. "No one," she said, but it came out muffled.

"Real y?" The werewolf's lips turned up in something that might have been considered a smile if the smirk accompanying it wasn't so evil. "By the way, my name's Fredericka. I thought you'd like to know the name of the girl who wil kick your ass if you even try-"

"Ha. That's funny," Miranda said.

Funny? Kylie shot a look at Miranda and right then the blob of bread, peanut butter, and jam slid halfway down Kylie's throat. She covered her mouth and coughed, which only made the situation worse, because as the golf bal -sized lump of food tried to come up, it lodged between her tonsils. She gasped for air, but got none. Zilch.

"What's funny?" Fredericka's cold stare now focused on Miranda, which might have concerned Kylie if she wasn't slightly preoccupied about not being able to breathe. She started thumping her chest.