"My dad."
Della's eyes widened. "You're shitting me."
"No shitting."
Della fell into the sofa and her gaze darted around the room. "Is he here now?"
"No."
"Good." She slapped her hands on her thighs. "Maybe he was smoking something."
Kylie rolled her wet eyes. "Would you please stop making wisecracks?"
Della snatched up a sofa pillow and tossed it at Kylie. "See, there's the werewolf attitude coming out again."
Kylie swung around to go into her room, but before she got to the door, Della shot in front of it. It was freaky how fast a vampire could move.
"Fine," Della said. "I'll try to be serious, but ... it's crazy. I know you don't want to believe this, but someone's pulling a practical joke on you. There's no such thing as a lizard supernatural. Just ask her."
"Ask who?" The cabin's main door slammed as Miranda stepped inside. Her blond hair hung loose, streaked with pink, green, and black. Kylie didn't know if Miranda used her Wiccan powers to color her hair or Nice 'n Easy.
Miranda frowned. "Why did you leave me?" she asked Della.
Della made a face. "Sorry. Kylie's having a crisis. I can only be Superfriend to one of you at a time."
Miranda looked at Kylie. "What kind of a crisis?"
Ordinarily, Kylie shared everything with Miranda and Della, but at this moment she wished she'd kept her mouth shut. All this time she'd longed to know what she was, thinking it would solve everything, and yet here she was, supposedly knowing, and feeling more confused than ever.
"A tasty reptile crisis." Della giggled, put her hand over her mouth, and then looked apologetically at Kylie. "Oops."
"What?" Miranda asked.
Della propped one hand on her hip. "Tell Kylie there's no such thing as lizard supernaturals."
"Perry can change into a lizard." Miranda's eyes brightened with pride. "Yesterday he shifted-"
"Please, not another Perry story." Della pressed both her palms against her stomach. "I swear, I'll hurl."
"You are such a bitch," Miranda snapped.
"I'm not a bitch. I'm just sick of hearing Perry stories. 'Perry's pinky toes are so cute. Perry's got the most charming freckle behind his right ear.'"
"You're just jealous! Because you don't have a boyfriend and Kylie and I do!"
Did. Kylie had a boyfriend. She wasn't sure what was going to happen with her and Lucas now. His pleas for her not to run off echoed in her heart.
"Jealous?" Della roared back at Miranda. "Please, I'll chew out my own heart before I become lovesick like you."
Miranda held up her hand and wiggled her pinky-a sure sign a spell was about to spill from her lips. Della's eyes brightened and her canines came out to play.
"Stop!" Kylie looked from one to the other. She couldn't take it anymore. "Oh, hell, don't stop. You two have been threatening to kill each other since I got here, and it's driving me mad. So just kill each other and put me out of my misery." Inside, Kylie flinched again. She didn't mean it. Not even now, when furious, but maybe a little reverse psychology would fix these two.
Miranda and Della stared at Kylie as if she'd lost her mind, and they could be right, but it was partially their fault. Their arguing had caused her to go nuts.
"Come on. What are you waiting for? Kill each other. And make it entertaining." She crossed her arms over her chest and stared daggers at the two of them. Her right foot started tapping, just like her mom's tapped when she was about to blow a gasket.
Della's eyes returned to their black color and her canines disappeared under her top lip. Miranda dropped her threatening pinky. So reverse psychology did work. Ha. Who knew?
"What's wrong with her?" Miranda asked Della as if Kylie were too mentally unstable to ask.
"Nothing's wrong with me," Kylie answered, frustrated beyond her limits. "It's what's wrong with you two."
Della glanced at Miranda and shrugged. "She thinks she's a lizard."
"A chameleon," Kylie corrected.
Miranda rolled her eyes. "Poor thing. She's acting like a werewolf."
Della shot Kylie a smirk. "I told her that. But did she listen to me? Hell, no."
"I'm not a werewolf." It didn't matter what Kylie now wished she was.
"If you are, it's okay," Miranda said. "We've vowed to love you anyway."
Kylie dropped down onto a living room chair while her two best friends stared at her with a mix of pity and leeriness. They thought she was crazy. Heck, maybe she was crazy. She thought the woods were calling her name and she believed she was a reptile. She leaned back and stared at the ceiling.
"I'm a chameleon," she said, hoping that saying it would bring some kind of instinctual understanding. She held her breath, waiting for an epiphany-an internal knowledge that would make her right with the world.
Nothing came. And nothing felt right. Not her being a lizard, not seeing a ghost with the face of someone who was alive, not with her dad suggesting she would soon be making a trip into the afterworld, and especially not Derek's confession of love.
Nope. Nothing felt right. She moaned.
"Get her a Diet Coke, Della," Miranda said. "Maybe the sugar will give her some brainpower."
"It's fake sugar," Della answered.
"I know. But haven't you ever heard the saying fake it until you make it?"
"Ugh, forget the soda. I'm going to bed." Kylie popped up from the chair and went into her room, slamming the door so hard it rattled on its hinges.
From behind the door she heard them say in unison, "Definitely werewolf."
* * *
She hadn't gotten to her bed when she heard a loud commotion from the living room. Had Miranda and Della finally decided to really duke it out? Feeling guilty for encouraging them, she went to stop them but stilled when she heard voices.
"Where's Kylie?" Burnett's deep tenor spilled through the walls at the same time that her phone started ringing.
She pulled her phone from her pocket and jerked open the door. Burnett stood there with his hand raised to knock. Both anger and a thread of guilt filled his expression.
"Something wrong?" Kylie's ringing phone hummed in her hand.
"Are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Had something else happened? At this point, nothing could surprise her.
Chapter Four
"You left without telling me." Burnett's mouth thinned with his reprimand.
"I did not." Kylie saw Della and Miranda behind Burnett, wearing concerned expressions. No doubt, it wasn't wise to disagree with Burnett.