Whispers at Moonrise (Shadow Falls #4)(91)

Her mom closed her eyes as if searching for the right words. When she looked up, raw emotion shined in her eyes. "I did want your dad to see me and John, but I can't ... Your dad and I won't be getting back together." She took Kylie's hand. "I'm sorry, baby. I can't..."

Kylie squeezed her mom's palm. "I understand."

Her mom sighed. "Do you?"

Kylie nodded. It still hurt like the devil, but she understood.

Her mom sighed as if she was about to say something difficult. "Please try to see the good in John. He's not the reason your dad and I broke up."

"I know." That was all Kylie managed to say. She wasn't sure she could ever see any good in John.

Her mom bit her lip and made a funny face. "Now, about the question you asked. If John and I were ... If we..."

"Are having sex?" Kylie finished for her, because God knew her mom would be here all day trying to say it.

Her mom blushed. "I'm an adult and I'm capable of making that kind of decision. You're young and..." Her eyes widened. "You aren't ... you haven't...?"

"No, Mom. I haven't," Kylie said. "But I will someday, and I don't want you to have an aneurism when you find out."

Her mom looked horrified. "I won't. As long as you're thirty."

Kylie rolled her eyes. "Mom."

"Okay, twenty-nine." She paused. "You know, it hurts to see you grow up."

"I know; it hurts to see you grow up, too."

Her mom's brow wrinkled with confusion. "What?"

"I could say it hurt to know you're having sex, but I thought you'd prefer the euphemism."

Her mom chuckled at the same time a cold entered the room, a familiar cold. Daniel? A quick glance around the room told her he couldn't manifest. But she knew he'd tried.

Her mom smiled. Then she reached over and hugged her. "I swear, sometimes when I'm with you, I can almost feel your father here."

"Me too," Kylie said, and wondered how much her mom could really feel.

The chill in the room grew colder, but oddly it came with a hint of anger and frustration. Had her dad overheard the conversation and was making his opinion known about the whole sex-with-John issue?

I know, Dad, Kylie spoke in her head. I don't like him, either.

* * *

Even before her mom and John pulled out of the parking lot, Holiday and Burnett had Kylie by her elbows. "Let's talk," Holiday said.

Kylie gazed back at the dining hall. "Shouldn't ya'll be in there?"

"First things first," Holiday said as Burnett led them to the office.

"How the hell did you disappear like that?" Leave it to Burnett to cut to the chase.

"I don't know." Kylie walked into the office. "I wished I could vanish like a ghost when I saw my mom and John kissing, and then ... I did."

"You wished yourself invisible?" Holiday asked.

"I guess," Kylie said.

"Then how did you come back?" Burnett closed the door.

"I un-wished it." Knowing how crazy it sounded, she glanced at Holiday and dropped down on Holiday's sofa. "Sort of like how you tried to teach me to shut off a ghost."

"Visualization." Holiday arched her brows as if impressed.

Not that Kylie shared her viewpoint. "It was scarier than hell. I remembered what my dad said about us working things out together and I thought I was dead." She paused. "How am I going to stop it from happening again?"

Holiday looked at Burnett as if expecting some wisdom from him.

"What?" He held up his arms in defeat. "I ain't got shit. I'm just now learning to deal with ghosts."

Holiday rolled her eyes. "You read the reports at the FRU. Did it say anything, or lead you to assume anything, about a chameleon's gifts?"

"No. The only thing it stated was some of the case studies considered themselves chameleons." He frowned. "There could have been more in the other reports, but they conveniently disappeared."

Right then, Kylie couldn't help but remember her grandfather's warning about the FRU.

"We need to read the other files," Holiday said. Her eyes stayed on Burnett. "How can we do that?"

Kylie closed her eyes. She didn't know what they were going to do, but she knew what she was doing. First, she was going to find a way to get back in touch with her grandfather, and then ...

A wash of pain spilled over her. Could her grandfather be right? Did she have to leave Shadow Falls and go with him in order to get the information she needed?

* * *

After a few minutes of both Burnett and Holiday trying to come up with a solution, they finally concluded that Kylie should be careful about what she wished for.

Right! As if she hadn't come up with that one by herself.

Burnett's phone rang. He answered the call. "Yeah," he said. "How long has she been missing?" Both Holiday and Kylie tried to pretend they weren't listening, but how could they not when the call was obviously about Cindy, the waitress at the diner, the once-smiling young woman in her driver's license who was now in the grave with Holiday's sister?

"Okay," Burnett said. "Get me the file. Did you get anything back on the other matter?" Burnett's eyes shifted to Kylie, telling her that the "other matter" involved her, as well.