Warmth spread into the top of Kylie's hands, but cold spread into her heart. "The dead?" Her mind started filtering though images, al of them Soldier Dude, since she couldn't recal anything from her night terrors.
"No, you're wrong. I never talked to them. Never, ever. Not one word. Mom taught me to never talk to strangers, and I've lived by that."
"But you've seen them, right?"
Tears wel ed up in Kylie's eyes again. "Just one. And I'm not sure he's a ghost. Sure, my mom didn't seen him, but my mom ... she's always in her own little world." But then there was her neighbor, the way she had walked right past Soldier Dude and never even glanced at him. Oh damn. Damn.
"It's scary, I know," Holiday said. "I remember when I first started experiencing it."
Kylie pul ed her hands out from under Holiday's grasp. "You ... you have the same ... talent?"
Holiday nodded and looked over to the left.
Kylie gave the room a visual sweep. "But none are here now, right?"
Instantly, Kylie felt it. That cold ... the eerie in-the-bones kind of cold that she'd experienced so often lately.
"They are always here, Kylie. You're just turning your mind off."
"Can I do that?" Kylie asked. "Can I just turn my mind off permanently?"
Holiday hesitated. "Some people can, but this is a gift, Kylie. To not use this gift is a waste."
"A waste? Oh no, I didn't ask for this gift." Her own words echoed inside her head and she realized she'd practical y admitted that this was real. She didn't want it to be real. Didn't want to accept it or believe it. "I'm not sure I have this gift. I mean, I hear about normal people seeing ghosts al the time."
Holiday nodded. "It's true. Some ghosts accumulate enough energy that even a normal has been able to see them."
"Then that's what's happening to me. I'm just dealing with a super-charged ghost. That's it. Because I'm just normal."
"The evidence says different."
Her breath caught. "What evidence?"
Holiday stood up and motioned for Kylie to fol ow. Her knees felt weak when she stood, but she fol owed. Holiday spoke as she walked. "First, there's the fact that you are unreadable."
"Unreadable?" Kylie asked as they walked into a smal office.
"Al supernaturals have the ability to get a sneak peek into other minds. When reading a human, we see a similar pattern with everyone. When reading other supernaturals, we can general y sense what they are. Unless they are purposely blocking us out. Which most don't do as a sort of courtesy to others."
"Is that the eyebrow-twitching thing?" Kylie asked.
"You don't miss much, do you?" Holiday smiled. "And the thing is that people with the gift of ghost whispering are often slow at reading others and are very difficult to read. We're not being rude, but our minds function on a different plane than everyone else's does. With practice, however, we can train ourselves to open up enough so that we aren't coming off as holier than thou. Your pattern, and the fact that you are unreadable tel s me that you are more than human. And then there's this evidence." The camp leader pul ed out a file drawer. She drew a piece of paper out of a file with Kylie's name on it and placed that paper in Kylie's hands.
Kylie looked at the copy of her birth certificate. Nowhere on the document did it say anything about her being supernatural or about her seeing ghosts. She glanced up at Holiday with questions running through her mind.
Holiday must have either read her thoughts, or her expression, because she answered, "You were born at midnight, Kylie."
"So? Why is that supposed to mean something?"
Holiday ran her finger over al the files. "Everyone here was born at midnight."
Kylie's heart thumped a little harder. She watched Holiday's red-painted fingernail move over the file tabs where the names appeared in bold type. None of the names meant anything to Kylie until her gaze found one that did.
Lucas Parker.
Not that he mattered. His name only leapt out at her because it was one of the few familiar things here. Another sweep of icy emotion tiptoed up her spine.
Kylie swung around and her breath caught when she saw him. Not Lucas, but Soldier Dude. And he just stood there, closer than ever before, and stared at her with his cold, dead eyes.
* * *
Less than ten minutes later, Kylie sat at a lunch table.
Alone.
Only her, Holiday, the other camp leader, and the two men, occupied the dining hal .
Every few minutes, Kylie's mind would try to wrap around everything that had happened-everything from the unicorn to her not being human. But her mind wasn't in a wrapping mood.
Deny it. Deny it. The words played like a song in her head.
The sound of the voices in the front of the dining hal brought Kylie's gaze up. Holiday had received a cal from Sky, and because it was almost lunch time anyway, Holiday had told Kylie to just come with her and she'd show her to her cabin after lunch. Holiday's gaze shifted to Kylie. Kylie stared at her phone, pretending she didn't feel uncomfortable, while Holiday and the other camp leader, Sky, stood at the front with the two black suits who had dropped in earlier.
Kylie couldn't hear the conversation, but whatever it was, she could tel it wasn't good. She peered up between her lashes again. Holiday and Sky were frowning. Holiday seemed the most anxious of the two, tapping her foot and twirling her hair in a tight rope. Then one of the men raised his hands in the air and spit out, "I'm not pointing fingers, but I'm tel ing you like it is. Get to the bottom of this and make it stop or I swear, higher-ups are going to shut the camp down."
Shut the camp down? Kylie lowered her gaze and pretended not to hear, but she couldn't stop the hope from building in her chest. Ever since Holiday had left her alone at the table, Kylie had been tempted to cal her parents and beg them to come get her. Ah, but what would she tel them? Hey, Mom, Dad, guess what? You sent me to camp with real freaks, a bunch of bloodsuckers and cat killers. And oh, I'm a freak, too, but they don't know what kind yet.
Kylie's stomach clenched at the thought of how that conversation would turn out. Chances were her mom would yank her out of the camp and commit her to a psycho ward. Not that it would be worse than what she was in now.