Chosen at Nightfall (Shadow Falls #5)(107)

Kylie met Burnett's eyes. "Please don't get too mad and start yelling. Not for my or Hayden's sake, but for Jenny's. You make her nervous."

"She's been here all along, and now is when you decided to tell me? You let me search this whole damn camp for almost twenty-four hours and you knew the whole time who it was?" He stood up from the desk and started walking back and forth.

Holiday stood up, and as he moved past her, she placed a calming hand on his arm and brought the vampire to a halt.

"We didn't know right away. She was hiding, she..." Kylie didn't see any reason to throw Derek to the wolves. "I didn't find out about her until a day later and Hayden didn't know until I told him."

"Is she still here?" Burnett barked out the question.

"Yes," Kylie said. "And she'd like to stay here. To finish school.""Will her parents sign for her?" Holiday asked.

Hayden's jaw tightened. "I don't know how they are going to feel when they learn she's here. With the news of the FRU, they may allow it. If they don't, I'll be taking legal action to get custody of her."

"Is she here now? In this room?" Holiday asked.

Kylie nodded. "Jenny."

Jenny appeared, standing against the wall farthest away from Burnett. Kylie didn't know if it was just Burnett's warm and fuzzy appearance right now, or if it was because Jenny knew he was part of the FRU that had sheer panic in the girl's gaze.

Burnett must have recognized the look, because immediately his posture softened. He offered her a nod.

"Hello, Jenny," he said. "Welcome to Shadow Falls."

Kylie saw Holiday beam with pride at her soon-to-be husband's transformation. No doubt Holiday was schooling him on softening his approach. And it was working.

Kylie just hoped that this meant Jenny's chances of staying on at Shadow Falls were good.

* * *

Holiday and Hayden were going to have a conference call with Kylie's grandfather to talk about the possibility of Jenny staying on. Until then, Jenny was going to hang out with Holiday, with plans to introduce Jenny to everyone at lunch.

Kylie suggested she introduce Jenny to some of her own friends first. Maybe Jenny wouldn't feel as if everyone at Shadow Falls were rude gaping individuals.

Kylie made some phone calls and asked everyone to meet her in the office at 10:45. She didn't tell anyone what it was about, but she had good faith they would all show up.

As Kylie left the office, Della met her outside and they went to wait for Campmate hour. Miranda came running up with Perry. "So what's the meeting all about?"

"You'll find out," Kylie said, not wanting to explain with so many ears around. Since Della already knew about Jenny, or as Della had dubbed her, Girl Wonder, she'd told Della the truth.

"I know," Della said, teasing Miranda.

Kylie frowned at Della.

"Why did you tell her and not me?" Miranda asked.

"I promise you'll understand later."

Miranda frowned. "You aren't leaving again, are you? Because you pinky promised me you wouldn't."

Tears actually appeared in the witch's eyes.

"I'm not leaving," Kylie assured her. Not by her own accord, Kylie thought, and then thought again about the sword and what it all meant.

"You're gonna come clean and tell us that you and Hayden are lovers," Perry said.

Kylie scowled at him.

"Hey, I'm just guessing. I mean there's something going on between you two."

Lucas showed up right then and growled at the shape-shifter for the comment. Then Lucas leaned down and kissed her.

"What happened with your grandma?" she asked in a low whisper.

"Window's open." He kissed her again. "She's going to talk to him about meeting me. He could tell herhell no, but it's a start."

"It's a great start." Kylie let out a squeal and for just a few minutes, she felt certain everything in her crazy life was going to work out.

Then Chris, announcer of the grand event, pulled his hat from behind his back and his gaze started moving around the crowd and stopped on Kylie. She wanted to scream, enough was enough. But then his gaze shifted a little to her right.

Was he looking at her? Or was he looking at ...

"Okay," Chris said. "One of our own vampires brings in a little blood. About time."

Oh, hell, Kylie thought, and got a feeling she knew who'd paid blood for Della. And she wasn't sure this was a good thing.

"Della, our friend, you get the pleasure of spending an hour with Steve, the amazing shape-shifter."

Della's mouth dropped open. She looked around, eyes bright with fury for the culprit.

Steve strutted out of the crowd, and went to confront the pissed-off vamp with a confident gait.

Kylie knew she'd told him to fight for Della, but she hadn't meant for him to do it in front of everyone.

Della, not liking being shown up, was likely to fight back.

"You ready?" Steve asked.

Della scowled. "I'm not going to spend an hour with you."

Steve just stood there. "I paid good blood for you."

"Then you really screwed up."

"Nope." Steve looked back at Chris and then the forty or so other students enjoying the show. "What are the rules, Chris? Hasn't everyone pretty much agreed to honor the blood drive?"