Whispers at Moonrise (Shadow Falls #4)(58)

"I still have half an hour if you have something else to do." Holiday studied Burnett with open curiosity, probably confused about his change in eye color. On the walk back, she'd come out and asked him about his ability to walk into the falls. He'd shrugged and said he hadn't given it much thought.

Which was a huge, honking lie. He'd obviously thought about it a lot. And he'd gone back to thinking about it because he didn't speak again for a while. With silence following them as they made their way through the woods, Kylie had done her own thinking, or worrying. Trying to figure out the mystery of Blake with each step, she'd fretted until she'd chewed her bottom lip sore.

When asked about the caller earlier, Holiday had danced around the truth with her answer: "Someone I used to know."

That hadn't told Kylie squat. She'd been tempted to blurt out a list of questions.

Did Blake also know your twin sister that I'm not supposed to know about?

Do you think this Blake character could have done something to your sister, like kill her?

Do I need to tell Burnett about Blake just in case he is the person that I'm supposed to not let hurt you?

Oh yeah, Kylie had a lot to fret over, including the upcoming interrogation from Burnett.

"Nah," Burnett said. "I'll see Kylie to her cabin. You go relax."

Holiday's brow tightened in a total non-relaxing way and she looked at Kylie as if she might know why the vamp was acting so weird. Kylie shrugged.

"Okay." Holiday walked toward the office.

Kylie started the trek to her cabin and made a bet with herself on how long it would take Burnett to start hitting her with questions. One minute? Two?

"Start talking!" Burnett ground out less than twenty seconds later.

Okay, so maybe she overestimated his patience.

He stopped walking and looked at her, his expression one big scowl. "Who was that at the falls who looked like Holiday? Did you use your witch powers to do that?"

Kylie hesitated, unsure how to answer him. She remembered how she'd felt learning she'd be spending the rest of her life hanging out with dead people.

"I didn't do anything."

"Then who was it?" he demanded. "And why did you feel the need to keep this from Holiday?" When she paused, he added, "Now, Kylie! I want answers. And don't forget that I can tell when you're lying."

She exhaled. Understanding his frustration, but ... "It's Holiday's twin sister."

His brows pinched in confusion. "Holiday has a twin?"

Kylie nodded.

Burnett looked off for a second, then back at her. "Why wouldn't she have ever mentioned this?" He ran a palm over his face, frustration and disappointment filling his eyes. He blurted out his own answer. "Because she doesn't confide in me about anything."

His gaze shot back to Kylie. "But wait. How could this twin be in the camp without setting off the alarms? I checked my phone when I went back outside the falls. The alarms hadn't been triggered and there was no bad weather to make me believe someone could have fooled the system."

"She didn't fool the system. She..." There wasn't an easy way to say this, but she still paused to try and find the right words.

"She must have," Burnett continued. "How else would-?"

"She's dead," Kylie said, feeling the pressure to answer under his intense scowl. "Holiday's sister is a ghost."

Chapter Nineteen

"Her twin is dead?" Burnett's tone rang with empathy. "How? What happened?"

Kylie felt a warmth in knowing that he thought of Holiday first before realizing exactly what this meant-not that she didn't expect him to see the obvious any minute now.

Or maybe less than a minute. His eyes widened with hints of panic and his mouth became slack.

"No! She can't be ... because I can't..." He shook his head. "No."

"It's not much different than smelling them. And you already knew that you could do that," Kylie said, hoping to ease the shock.

"It's a hell of a lot different." He raked a hand through his hair. "How could ... I'm vampire and we don't ... We don't see spirits."

"I know. I remember Holiday saying that." Kylie paused. "What's even stranger is that you saw her, and normally only the person connected to the spirit sees them. I don't see Holiday's ghosts and she doesn't see mine. So why would you see Hannah?"

"I'm not supposed to see any of them!" he bellowed. "I'm vampire. Very, very few vampires are given this secondary power."

Kylie twitched her brows at Burnett's pattern. "Maybe you're not a hundred percent vampire. Your great-great-grandma could have been a hybrid, and it just kind of popped up now."

He slapped his forehead. "Does my pattern not look all vampire?"

Kylie shrugged. "Yes." She looked at him with empathy. "But considering what I've been through, I've kind of learned not to put a lot of stock in what someone's pattern shows."

He stared at Kylie as if she'd morphed into something evil. "That only happens to you."

"Yeah. Sometimes it feels that way." She found his comment somewhat humorous. She did another shrug, biting back her smile because she didn't think what little sense of humor Burnett had was functioning right now.