Kylie couldn't help but wonder if she'd ever be able to have a child. But damn, she was sixteen, too young to start worrying about being infertile.
"How did classes go today?" her grandfather asked.
Kylie focused on the man. In his seventies, his hair held tight to its strawberry blond color, with only a few signs of graying. His eyes, a vivid light blue, matched hers and her father's.
Another drop of blood landed on his cheek. Kylie scowled at the smirking spirit who sliced the sword though the air only an inch above his head.
I said, stop it! Kylie tightened her eyes.
"So it didn't go well?" her grandfather asked, obviously reading Kylie's expression.
"No, it went fine. I'm ... I was able to switch my pattern from a werewolf to a fae." Supernaturals all had patterns that could be seen by other supernaturals. Chameleons had their own pattern, one they hid.
And unlike any other supernatural they could change into any other species, and attain this species' powers with the transformation.
Problem was, like their other powers, it wasn't easy to control. Classes here didn't involve so much English, math, and science, but training on how to control one's powers and to hide their true pattern from the world.
"That's amazing. Then why the long face?" her grandfather asked.
"It's just..." I'm miserable here. I want to go back to Shadow Falls. The words sat on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't say them. Not until she knew for sure that she'd given this a shot. And until she knew how she would survive facing Lucas.
"I wasn't frowning at you. It's-"
"Kylie has company," Francyne said. Her aunt wasn't a full-fledged ghost whisperer. She claimed she couldn't see them or hear them, but she could pick up on a spirit's presence easily.
The ghost held the sword up, pointing it at the ceiling as if making some big declaration. You're about to have more company.
Kylie didn't know what that was supposed to mean, but she focused on her confused-looking grandfather now and not the spirit.
"Company?" Her grandfather looked at his sister-in-law. "Oh." He tensed. Then his eyes widened. "Is it my wife, or my son, Daniel?"
"No." Kylie wished Daniel, her father, who'd died before she was born, would come for a visit. She could use some TLC, and her father was really good at offering it. However, he'd used all his allotted time on earth.
"It's not them. It's ... someone else," Kylie answered.
Someone who had yet to explain what she wanted or needed. Well, except to tell Kylie she needed herto kill someone. What did the spirit think Kylie was? A killer for hire?
The spirit leaned down close to her grandfather's ear. It's a shame you can't see me. You're kind of cute. She proceeded to lick the blood from his cheek. Slowly. And she looked at Kylie when she did it.
Kylie dropped her fork. "Stop licking my grandfather, right now!"
The spirit brought her tongue back into her mouth and stared at Kylie. Stop fighting your fate. Accept what you must do. Let me teach you how you must kill him.
"Kill who?" Kylie blurted out, and then flinched when she realized she'd been speaking aloud.
"Lick? Kill? What?" her grandfather asked.
"Nothing," Kylie insisted. "I was talking-"
"She was talking to the spirit, I think," her aunt said, her brows pinched in worry.
"About killing someone?" her grandfather asked, and shot Kylie a direct look.
When Kylie didn't answer, Malcolm glanced around the room as if nervous. His expression of fear reminded her so much of the other supernaturals at Shadow Falls.
That's when a thought hit. She'd come here thinking she'd fit in, and yet, even living on a compound of about fifty acres in Texas hill country, with about twenty-five other chameleons, she still didn't fit in. And it wasn't just the ghost whispering, but the fact that she was so much further advanced than the four other teens here. And they weren't overly thrilled to be shown up by the newbie, either.
The elders of the group-which included her grandfather and great-aunt and about four others- guessed that Kylie's early development was because she was also a protector, a supernatural with amazing strength. While that sounded pretty cool, she would argue with that definition for so many reasons.
Topping those reasons was that she could only use those powers to protect others, and never herself.
Which to Kylie didn't make a lick of sense. If she was in charge of protecting others, wasn't it important that she kind of stay alive? Who the heck had made that rule?
Kylie sighed, a sigh that felt as sorrowful on the inside as it sounded leaving her lips. Was it simply her destiny to always be a misfit?
Her grandfather leaned forward and set his silver fork and knife beside the expensive piece of china.
"Kylie, I hate to intrude with your ... spirit matters, but why would a spirit be conversing with you about killing someone?"
Kylie bit down on her lip and tried to find a way to explain without completely freaking them out.
Especially when it freaked her out. She opened her mouth to say something, but was saved by a bell. A very loud bell, more like a siren. The lights in the chandelier over the table started flickering.
Her grandfather, his frown deepening, pulled out a cell phone from his perfectly pressed white dress shirt, punched one button, and held it to his ear. "What is it?" He paused. "Who?" he snapped, and cut his eyes to Kylie. "I'll be right there!"
He turned the phone off and shot up from his chair, and then faced his sister-in-law. "You and Kylie disappear. Hide out in the barn. I'll be there shortly."
By disappear, Kylie surmised he meant vanish, another thing a chameleon could do. Vanish. Like into thin air.
"What's going on?" Kylie asked, remembering the ghost saying she was about to get company.
"We have intruders." His deep, matter-of-fact tone sounded deeper, more serious."Intruders?" Kylie asked.
His eyes tightened. "It's the FRU! Now vanish."
Her aunt came around the table and reached for Kylie's hand. Then the woman vanished, and in a fraction of a second, Kylie looked down and her own legs had disappeared.
Chapter Two
Three minutes later, Kylie was led into the barn by her aunt. Or at least she assumed it was her. Because everyone was invisible.
Breathing in the earthy smell of stored hay, Kylie added another thing she'd learned about her powers.
A chameleon had the ability to make other people vanish. Or it would appear that way, because she hadn't been wishing to vanish and it seemed her aunt's touch had done all the work.