If she was so special, why had he run off with Fredericka? Why hadn't he even tried to explain that to Kylie in the letter? Why was he being so secretive?
Did he think she wouldn't know that Fredericka was with him? Did he think it wouldn't matter? Duh, he'd admitted having had sex with the girl.
He admitted that she thought they were a couple. And now he took off with her. How could he think Kylie wouldn't be upset about that? Were all men just dogs? No, wait ... make that wolves?
No, she really needed to completely get over Lucas. Move on. And that was exactly what she intended to do. Cutting off her light, she dropped back on the pillow. Then she got a vision of Lucas and the she-wolf making out and she gave the pillow one last punch.
The next morning Kylie had to drag herself out of bed to get dressed and comb her hair. She'd tried to go back to sleep after waking up at dawn with the icy chill of a spirit's visit. It hadn't worked. Now, with only an hour or two of sleep, she really would have loved to have buried her head under the pillow and ignored the daily grind. Who needed a thing like breakfast or nutrition? She dropped her butt back down on the bed.
She'd almost fallen back asleep when a thought jarred her fully awake again. Was she not hungry because she'd drunk the blood last night? Was she already losing her appetite for human food?
"You coming?" Miranda called out.
"Yeah, I'm coming." She fell back on her pillow, stared at the ceiling, and tried to decipher how she felt about all this in the morning light. So okay, the idea of becoming a vampire didn't feel like the end of the world anymore, but it still felt like a major calamity. Plus, she needed to know. Had a right to know what she was.
"You coming in the next century?" Della yelled out about three minutes later.
Calling Della a name under her breath, she started to sit up.
"Right back at you," Della yelled in return.
Yelled. Della yelled it back. Kylie tilted her head and tuned into the noises around her to see if her hearing had become supercharged overnight. But nope, she couldn't hear any better than she had last night.
Which could mean Holiday was right. Her liking blood didn't mean Kylie was vampire.
Or at least not yet.
Forcing herself to get up, she ran a hand through her hair and went to face her roommates and the day.
"Good morning to you, too," Miranda said when Kylie stepped out of her room and didn't say a word.
Kylie shot her a mock smile. Then she did what she did every morning. She studied Miranda, twitched her eyebrows, and stared really hard at her campmate's forehead in hopes of seeing her pattern. But nothing. Just a tiny pimple near her hairline. Not that Kylie would inform Miranda of it. The girl would likely freak.
"You sure are perky this morning," Della said, joining them from her room.
"Didn't sleep well," Kylie said.
"Me, either," Miranda chimed in, and sighed pathetically. "What am I going to do if Perry finds out that Kevin kissed me?"
Della chuckled. "Run and hide before he turns into a fire-breathing dragon and scorches your ass."
"I'm serious," Miranda snapped back.
"And you think I'm not?"
Miranda glared at her.
Della shrugged as if conceding and started for the door. "First, you need to decide what you want to do."
"What do you mean?" Miranda asked as they walked out of the cabin. Then while waiting to hear Della answer, Miranda turned around and waved her hand up and then down at the door, putting a protective charm in place.
Miranda had started doing it last week, saying she felt an uninvited presence trying to come in. Part of Kylie wondered if it were the ghosts that Miranda wanted to keep out. Not that it was working. Every morning at the first sign of dawn, Kylie was awakened by the cold.
"I mean," Della answered, "are you going to start liking Kevin, or are you planning to hang in there with the shape-shifter in hopes that Perry will..."
"Don't say it. Leave his testicles out of your dialogue." Miranda pointed a finger at Della.
Della jumped the rest of the way off the steps then looked back up at Miranda with mock innocence. "I wasn't going to mention his testicles."
From the grin on Della's face, Kylie knew the vampire was lying. Nevertheless, she had a good point.
"She's right." Kylie put in her two cents' worth. "You need to make a decision."
Miranda frowned and pulled back her hair. They walked a few minutes without talking. Miranda seemed to be contemplating something.
"But I don't have to make it like ... right now," Miranda said. "Do I? I mean, there's a chance that Kevin will just forget it happened. It wasn't really even that good of a kiss."
"Hey, Miranda." The voice came from about fifty feet behind them. All three girls turned around and confronted the mediocre kisser moving down the walking path.
"Fat chance that he forgot," Della said and sniffed the air. "You don't even want to know about his hormones right now. The guy's got it bad for you."
"Really?" Miranda asked. "I thought you said you couldn't read the hormones and pheromones of a shape-shifter? When Perry was a bird, you said-"
"I said I didn't know what horny birds smelled like. But in their natural states, shape-shifters pollute the air with their lust just like everyone else does." She waved a hand in front of her face.
Miranda looked from Della to Kevin, who was closing in on them.
"Hi." He stopped right in front of the three of them. Kylie had never really noticed Kevin before, but she supposed he was kind of hot in his own way. Not anywhere near Derek's status, but he had some boy charm.
And if you asked Kylie, he was even cuter than Perry, not that Kylie disliked Perry. The shape-shifter had sort of grown on Kylie these last few weeks.
"Did you sleep well?" Kevin asked Miranda, and dropped his hands inside the pocket of his khaki shorts. Kylie noted the navy T-shirt he wore hung a bit loose on his medium-size frame. His hair, a brownish blond, hung a little on the long side. He grinned, his blue-eyed gaze zeroing in on Miranda with obvious romantic interest.
"Yeah," Miranda answered, which was a lie, and Kylie noted Della rolling her eyes.
"I thought maybe we could walk together to breakfast," Kevin said. "Okay. I guess."