Whispers at Moonrise (Shadow Falls #4)(86)

"I won't," Burnett muttered.

"Won't what?" Holiday and Derek asked at the same time.

"Nothing." Burnett slammed his jaw so tight he had to have cracked a few teeth.

Hannah leaned forward and stared at Burnett in the rearview mirror. The mirror frosted over. "If you break her heart, I swear, I'll neuter you in your sleep."

Burnett's jaw tightened some more. Holiday gaped at the rearview mirror and then stared wide-eyed at Burnett. A second later, she swung around and gave Kylie the befuddled look. "Is it her? Is Hannah here?"

Kylie froze, literally from Hannah's icy presence, but also from not knowing what to say.

When Kylie didn't answer, Holiday stared back at Burnett. "Can you see her? Can you see ghosts? How can you do that?"

"We've got a ghost in the car?" Derek's voice rang a bit high-pitched.

"Had a ghost in the car," Hannah said. Her teary-eyed gaze stared at Holiday, and then she vanished, leaving the saddest of sad moods to fill the car like smoke.

* * *

The moment Kylie spied her mom and John, her mom's creepy new boyfriend, walking into the dining hall, holding on to each other like a couple of horny teenagers, Kylie found herself envying Hannah's ability to vanish. Why did her mom think bringing John was a good idea? And if she had to bring him, couldn't she keep her hands off his butt while she was here?

Yup, Kylie's mom had her right hand tucked into the back of John's jeans pocket. And frankly, the man didn't even have a nice ass!

Surely her mom wasn't getting serious about him and felt these visits were needed for Kylie to get to know him-before ... before they did something stupid, like get married.

The thought scared the crap out of Kylie. Inhaling, she told herself she was overreacting; as Nana would have said, she was making a mountain out of a molehill.

Then again, her mom hadn't answered Kylie's question about them having sex. And chances were, her mom wasn't about to answer that inquiry today, either.

Kylie's mom turned around and spotted her on the other side of the dining hall and smiled. Kylie waved, hoping her mom would do the same, freeing her hand from John's ass, but nope.

Taking a deep breath, Kylie faked a smile.

Her mom grinned up at John, and the man swooped down and kissed her. Kissed her ... with tongue, and right there in front of all of Kylie's campmates.

"Just shoot me," Kylie muttered.

"I think they're cute." Holiday leaned into Kylie as if reading her emotional overload.

"And I think I'm going to puke." Kylie swore she was going to have a sit-down, serious chat with her mom and find out exactly what was going on. When the kiss kept going, Kylie decided again that yup, she'd love to vanish. Just up and disappear.

"Take some deep breaths and calm down," Holiday said. "You're exploding with panic."

Kylie looked at Holiday. "My mom's French-kissing a guy in front of everyone," she muttered. "Of course I'm panicking!"

"Shit!" Holiday snapped.

"Shit, what?" Kylie asked, alarmed at the panic in Holiday's voice.

"Oh, Kylie," Holiday murmured. And then she looked across the room and waved down Burnett, her arm motions serious.

"What is it?" Kylie looked to the door, thinking someone unwanted, possibly Mario, had walked in.

No Mario.

"Damn it to hell and back!" Holiday whispered. "Kylie, where did you go?"

"What do you mean? I'm right here. Standing right next to you." Kylie looked down at her feet, but she saw only the floor. No sneakers, no legs. No Kylie.

"Oh, shit!" she muttered, and while she hadn't thought about it in quite a while, she remembered her dad telling her that they would work things out together. Was this it? Was this what dying felt like?

Chapter Twenty-nine

Wait, Kylie thought. If she was dead, wouldn't she be on the floor in a crumpled, lifeless heap?

"Oh, crap!" Kylie muttered when her mom, a dumbfounded look on her face, walked up to Holiday.

"Where's Kylie?" her mom asked.

"She ran to ... to the bathroom, I think, but ... I'm not sure." Holiday's voice sounded an octave too high.

Burnett stopped at her mom's side, his serious gaze trying to read Holiday. "Something wrong?" His calm front almost sounded convincing, but Kylie saw the stress tightening his jawline.

"Uh, Kylie ... she ... disappeared. I thought maybe you could find her."

Disappeared? So, she'd just disappeared. She wasn't dead.

"Disappeared?" All sorts of questions filled his eyes.

Holiday nodded and didn't break eye contact as if mentally telling him it was serious.

And hell yeah, it was serious. She was freakin' invisible.

"It's crazy." Her mom sounded confused. "She was here and then ... she vanished."

Vanished? Kylie suddenly remembered wishing she could vanish. Vanish like a ghost.

Damn! Damn! Damn! If there was ever a lesson in the old adage of be careful for what you wish for, this was it.

Questions flashed across her mind. Was she still a vampire? Had she turned back into a witch and accidentally wiggled her pinky when she made the declaration? Or was this completely connected to her being a chameleon? That's when she recalled that her great-aunt and grandfather had gone poof, both from the car the first day they'd shown up at Shadow Falls, and at the cemetery. Was poof the same thing as vanishing?