"I total y can't believe this is happening," Sara continued. She hadn't even picked up a pregnancy test yet. She was too freaked. Not that Kylie wasn't up to her eyebrows in her own issues, but talking to Sara about her problems helped Kylie not to focus on her own. Plus, focusing on Sara was pretty much the norm for them. Face it, when Sara was upset, and sometimes even when she wasn't, Sara tended to be a tad self-absorbed. Kylie never minded. She'd always preferred listening to other people's problems than blabbering about her own. Good thing, Kylie supposed, since right now she couldn't talk about what was going on. Wel , not to any normal person, anyway.
"Wel , I should go," Sara said.
One of the last sprays of the day's sun shot a golden glow around the green scenery. With dusk closing in, the heat index no longer felt so suffocating.
"Cal me when you get the test," Kylie said.
"I wil . And thanks."
Kylie closed the phone and her eyes. Leaning her head against the tree, she recal ed her newfound hope that maybe Holiday was wrong about Kylie being a supernatural. She also remembered the two black-suited guys saying the camp could be closed down if "it" didn't stop-not that Kylie had any idea what "it" was. But if both of those hopes came true, Kylie could almost see her life being tolerable. Or at least somewhat tolerable. The issues of her parents, Nana, and Trey almost felt manageable now. Amazing how one's perspective altered after learning you might not be human.
Holiday's voice played through Kylie's mind: The truth ... the truth is we don't know what you are. It could be fairy, it could be you are a descendent of one of the gods. It could be-
Kylie recal ed interrupting the camp leader, and now she wished she'd hadn't. Even though she hadn't given up on being normal, she couldn't help but wonder what else she might be.
Trying to stop the emotional jitters from making her stomach twitch, she concentrated on not thinking and just listening. A late-afternoon breeze stirred the leaves of the tree, crickets warmed up for their night song, a baby bird cal ed to its mama. Kylie remembered the hiking trips she'd taken with her dad. Should she cal her dad back now?
Later, she told herself. Maybe then she would know what to say to him about why he hadn't come to get her at the police station when she cal ed him. For now, she was just going to sit there and absorb nature and almost relax. She closed her eyes and slowly the tension faded. Kylie wasn't sure how long it had been, ten minutes or an hour, but something jarred her awake. Her eyes sprang open to darkness. She sat very stil , listening. Not even the crickets breathed. Fighting the fear of the unknown, she remembered real monsters existed. A deep, sinister roaring, like a lion, fil ed the dark silence, and then came the howling of dogs ... or were they wolves? She glanced up at the black sky. The moon, not a ful moon, looked blurry from the smear of clouds crawling past it. The sudden need to go somewhere where she felt safer shot through her. Before she moved, she heard a twig snap.
She wasn't alone.
Her heart raced and she considered her options-scream or run. Maybe both. Before she could do either someone spoke up.
"Stil afraid of me, huh?"
She recognized Del a's voice and her heart stopped most of the racing. Most of it. "Not as much as before." Kylie looked up. The vampire loomed over her.
Del a laughed. "I like the way you mostly tel the truth."
"You can real y tel when people are lying?" Kylie asked.
"Not everyone. Depends on how good of a liar they are. The good ones can control their pulse enough so I don't hear it. Then there's the people for who lying is so second nature it doesn't affect them."
Kylie stood and dusted the grass and twigs off the butt of her jeans. She'd have to be careful and not lie to Del a. Or either get better at it.
"Holiday sent me to sniff you out."
"Sniff me out?" In the dark, Kylie could barely make out Del a's expression, but she could tel the girl was smiling. Her white teeth seemed to almost glow in the night.
"You can smel me?" Kylie brought her arm up to her nose.
As if Kylie was a communal sniffing project, Del a leaned in and sniffed. An appreciative moan left the girl's lips. The tips of Del a's sharp canines appeared at the corners of her mouth and Kylie jerked her arm back. Del a's smile faded. Kylie got the odd impression that the vampire honestly didn't want Kylie to be afraid of her. So vampires had feelings, too. Somehow, realizing that made the girl more human and less scary.
"Everyone is at the campfire." Del a started walking.
Kylie moved in step with her, not an easy task since Del a's pace wasn't for wimps. "Do I real y smel good to you?"
Del a didn't look at her. "Do you want me to lie so you'l feel better? Or do you want the truth?"
"The truth ... I think."
Del a stopped and her tone came out huffy. "There's blood in your veins, I real y like blood, so yes, you smel yummy. But it doesn't mean ... Let me put it like this. Imagine you're hungry and you go into a hamburger joint. Every table is fil ed with people and their plates of big juicy hamburgers and greasy fries. The smel is ambrosia. So ... what do you do?"
"Hurry and order," Kylie answered, not getting the point.
"You mean you wouldn't go steal any food off anyone's plate?"
"No," Kylie said.
"Okay, so if stealing someone's lunch is bad, you can imagine stealing a few pints of blood might create a tad more of an issue than swiping a Big Mac. I'd have to be real y starving. Or real y angry before I'd do that."
The girl came off pretty dang angry. Kylie asked, "Do you get really angry a lot? Have you ever got that mad?"
Del a let out another exasperated huff. "I've never kil ed anyone that I can remember. Is that what you want to hear me say?"
"Yeah." Kylie smiled. "So vampires real y aren't a threat to humans?"
"I didn't say that," Del a said.
"Meaning?" Kylie asked.
"Meaning just like there's good and bad humans, there are good and bad vampires. And real y bad vampires who belong to gangs and purposely try to cause havoc everywhere they go."
"What kind of havoc?" Kylie asked.
"Let's just say they'd steal your Big Mac. Or worse."
"Okay," Kylie said, pretty sure she knew what "worse" meant, and she didn't like it one bit.