"Think yourself there," a voice said.
Her breath caught when she realized it wasn't just any voice, but Daniel's. She pulled away from the door and saw the vague apparition of him, crowded between the toilet and the stall wall. "Think it. Make it so in your head."
"How?"
"Think it. In your heart. You have the power-" He faded.
"No," she begged, but he was gone.
Wiping her tears, she did what he said. She concentrated on being visible. On being there, physically.
Closing her eyes again, with no faith but desperate enough to try, she concentrated. She opened one eye and peered down. Her feet had never looked so beautiful in all her life.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
"For what?" someone asked in the stall beside her, but Kylie barely listened, too excited that she wasn't invisible anymore.
She walked out of the stall and came to an abrupt stop when she saw Steve and Perry both standing in front of urinals, their jeans hanging low on their butts. The sound of urine hitting ceramic filled her ears. It wasn't a pretty sound.
Her face heated to a nice shade of red.
The stall door behind her swished open. "What are you doing in the boy's restroom?" someone asked.
Steve, pants still down, swung around. Completely around. Kylie slapped her hands over her eyes.
"I didn't see a thing. I swear." Okay, maybe she did, which had her face turning hotter.
"What the hell?" Steve growled. Along with Perry's laughter, she heard the sound of zippers being pulled up.
"I'm sorry." Hands over her eyes, she moved in the direction of the door, but she hit a wall instead.
Perry laughed again. "Our friends are all put up. You can open your eyes now."
She did, but refused to look at anyone. Their friends! She darted out, wishing she had a minute to get her head together before ...
Too late.
Holiday spotted her. And so did her mom and John. All three came hurrying over.
Holiday stared at her wide-eyed with questions flashing in her eyes. Questions Kylie didn't have answers to.
"Was that the boy's bathroom you just walked out of?" her mom asked, sounding a bit annoyed, but mostly worried. John moved in and slipped his hand around her waist. Something about the way he touched her had Kylie envisioning them naked together. Oh, Gawd. They were having sex. She knew it.
Then she saw it. Saw it in her head. And it was not pretty!
"Are you okay?" her mom asked. "You're beet red."
"Yeah." Kylie squeaked. She pushed away the image of them naked before she wanted to vanish again.
"You were right there," her mom said in a mildly scolding voice. "I turned my head and you were gone when I looked back."
Kylie opened her mouth to say something, to apologize, or maybe to say something mundane like beautiful weather isn't it, but those weren't the words to leave her lips.
"You didn't turn your head. You were sucking face with that idiot." She inhaled, clamping her mouth shut, but it just flew back open. "You're sleeping with him, aren't you? Have you even read the sex pamphlets you gave me all those years?"
Her mom gasped and her face brightened. So that was where Kylie got her ability to blush. Her mom opened her mouth, obviously to scold Kylie, but nothing came out. Not a word.
John cleared his throat in a scolding tone. What in holy hell gave him the right to clear his throat at her? "Now, Kylie, that wasn't nice."
"You mean the kiss?" Kylie asked. "Because, frankly, I didn't say it was nice. It was actually quite embarrassing."
That's when Holiday cleared her throat. Kylie could handle Holiday's intervention, but not this bozo's, who was doing the dirty with her mom.
"I really think we should go outside," Holiday said.
"I think the girl needs a firm talking-to," John said.
Kylie's spine went ramrod straight. And damn if she didn't feel her canine teeth grow a little longer. She had emotions racing through her so fast she couldn't even begin to define how she felt. Except hungry. For blood. How dare he feel he had the right to correct her?
"I hope you're rich, because that's the only reason I can think my mom might like you."
Her mom gasped, and so did Kylie. Why was she saying these things? Oh, shit, she needed to shut up. What was wrong with her? Had going invisible addled her brain? Or was being vampire making her as ballsy as Della?
"You're being quite rude, young lady." John looked at Kylie's mom.
"She's not being rude!" a deep voice sounded behind Kylie.
The voice rang all kinds of familiar bells, but Kylie couldn't think straight to know who it was, so she turned around to put a face to the voice.
Oh, shit! Could this get any worse?
"I happened to witness it as well. And frankly I agree with my daughter. It was inappropriate." Her stepdad shot her mom a stern look.
Her mom's face turned even redder, but Kylie recognized that red-faced expression, and it wasn't embarrassment. She was pissed!
"How dare you tell me what's appropriate!" her mom snapped.
Shame filled her stepdad's expression. He looked at Kylie. "I didn't know Kylie was there. I wouldn't have done it if I had. I've apologized a hundred times. But two wrongs-"
"Let's all take a walk," Holiday said again. But no one took a step.
It took Kylie about a second to realize what her stepdad meant. She opened her mouth to say something, but what? Don't worry, Dad, Mom doesn't know that I watched your young skank rub herself all over you and practically give you a handjob in the middle of downtown Fallen?
Nope, that didn't sound like the right thing to say. So she ceremoniously shut her mouth and started praying for a miracle, because it would take one right now to fix this mess.
"You wouldn't have done what?" her mom asked, and when her stepdad didn't answer, her mom's fury focused on Kylie.
"What did you see?" she asked in her speak-or-be-grounded tone.
And grounded sounded like the best option.
Guilt fluttered in Kylie's chest. But for what? she asked the unwelcome emotion. Not telling her mom had to be the right thing, didn't it?
"Why don't we walk outside," Holiday piped up again, and put a hand on Kylie's mom's shoulder.
Her mom's expression softened. Thank God for Holiday's emotion-altering touch. The panic blossoming in Kylie's gut lessened. Leave it to Holiday to save the day.
But then Kylie saw the way John stared at her stepdad. And when he opened his mouth, Kylie questioned if Holiday could pull off a miracle.
It didn't help matters when Lucas came to a sudden stop beside Kylie, his eyes glowing a shade of pale protective orange. Not that she didn't love that he cared enough to protect her, but the last thing she wanted to have to do was explain his eye color to her stepdad, her mom, and the man who was having sex with her mom. And thinking about that had Kylie's eyes stinging. Shit! Were they glowing now?