"Damn!" Jonathon yelled, pulling Kylie's gaze from Lucas. "You cut yourself." Jonathon was holding Helen's hand; blood oozed from his grip.
Helen, looking a bit squeamish, had a bloody apple in her other hand and a bloody knife sitting in her lap. "It's okay." Her words lacked confidence. "It's not bad. Is it?"
Jonathon released his hold on her hand to look at it. His eyes grew bright, no doubt because of the blood, but even more apparent was his concern for Helen. "You need stitches," he said.
Helen looked up at Kylie. "Can you just fix it?"
Kylie's breath caught. It had been a while since she'd thought about her healing powers. And the few times she'd thought about them, she remembered those powers had failed Ellie. Kylie had failed Ellie.
"I ... don't know if I can." She looked into Helen's eyes, saw her pain, but a lump of fear formed in Kylie's stomach right alongside the two slices of pizza. "I couldn't dreamscape when I was vampire; I probably can't heal as a fae."
"But faes are known for their healing," Helen reminded her.
"Oh, yeah." Kylie let go of a breath that shuddered on its escape from her lips. "What if I mess up?" She could still recall how devastated she'd been when she hadn't been able to bring Ellie back from the dead. Looking at her hands, she remembered how her palms had been coated with the girl's blood.
"You won't," Helen said with complete confidence.
Looking up, Kylie remembered how Helen had helped her by checking out her brain to see if she had a tumor the first week she'd been at camp. Helen had helped Kylie, and she couldn't say no.
She stood and moved over to the chair next to Helen. The shy and trusting girl held out her bleeding palm. Breathing in, Kylie recalled that she had to think healing thoughts. Amazingly, her hands suddenly felt hot. She gently ran her fingertip over the wound. Her touch created a tiny wake around the pooled blood on Helen's palm.
Fearing failure, Kylie put her whole palm over the wound. Hesitating to check to see if she'd done it, she suddenly realized that the entire lunch room had gone silent. Not a sound echoed in the large room.
Cutting her eyes up briefly, she realized everyone stared. Everyone! Freaking great!
Helen lifted her hand away and brought it in front of her face. Wiping the blood away with her other hand, a shy smile lifted her lips.
"You did it," Helen whispered, sounding as self-conscious as Kylie at all the unwanted attention.
Kylie leaned in. "Why is everyone staring?"
Helen made a funny face and came closer. "Because you're glowing."
"Glowing?" Kylie asked.
Helen nodded.
Kylie noticed that light did seem to emanate from her skin. "Shit!"
"No shit!" said Della. "You look like a firefly. This is so freaking cool!"
More like not cool! Kylie thought.
Holiday walked over, eyes rounded, and bafflement coming off her in waves.
Kylie stared up at her, mortified. "Make it stop. Please. Pleeeassse."
Chapter Thirty-two
"Where are you going?" Della asked when Kylie stepped out of her bedroom an hour later with her hair and teeth brushed, and-thank God-no longer glowing.
She almost told Della she didn't have to report to her anymore, but decided she'd probably ask Della the same thing if she were leaving the cabin.
"I'm going to meet Lucas," Kylie said.
Della titled her head to listen to her heartbeat.
"I'm not lying," Kylie said.
"I know. I heard," Della said. "Have fun. And don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"Gosh," Kylie teased, trying not to be grumpy. "That leaves my options wide open."
Della grinned. "But if you come home glowing, I'll know what you did."
"Not funny," Kylie said, and meant it. Then she took off.
Thankfully, she'd stopped glowing about ten minutes after she'd healed Helen. Out of sheer desperation, she'd asked Holiday, "Why did that happen? It never happened before when I healed someone."
Holiday's shrug and "I don't know" didn't surprise Kylie. But it was just one more thing that had Kylie taking her grandfather's warning more seriously. What if these crazy things continued? Right now, it was just the supernaturals who considered her a freak of nature. What would happen if she did something like this in front of regular humans?
Running down the path, hoping the feel of the wind in her hair would take the edge off her mood, she made it to the office in no time. The sound of a few people still lingering in the dining hall filled the night. Before anyone saw her, she cut around to the back of the office. The second she saw Lucas waiting for her by the tree, her frustration vanished.
She ran toward him and he snagged her up and pulled her to him. His arms wrapped around her waist. His thumbs slipped under the hem of her tank top to touch her bare skin. The kiss was sweet and warm. When he pulled back and smiled, she knew what he was thinking.
"Don't mention it," she said, feeling another "glowing" joke coming on.
"I'm just jealous."
"Jealous?" she asked, thinking she'd been wrong. "Of what?"
"I want to be the only thing that makes you glow."
She thumped her hand on his wide chest. "I'm telling you just like I told Della and Miranda. It's not funny."
"You looked beautiful." Honesty flowed from his comment. "Like an angel."
She frowned. "I don't want to be an angel. I want to be a regular supernatural."
"Okay, I won't talk about it anymore. I'll just kiss you instead."
And what a kiss it was. Hotter, sweeter, and more mind-numbing than ever. When he pulled back, she heard his pulse humming, a natural seduction mechanism for weres, and she wasn't above being seduced by it. She was lost in the sound.
"It must be close to the full moon again." She smiled up at the heat in his eyes, knowing her eyes held the same.
"Yeah." He inhaled as if trying to get oxygen into his brain. "You are driving me crazy. Sometimes, I just want..." He took a step back. "Let's try talking for a while."
She grinned. "I kind of like driving you crazy."
"That's mean." He pointed a finger in her face, but his tone rang humorous.
Not really mean, Kylie thought. It wasn't as if she'd planned anything to happen tonight. But if it did ... Right then, she recalled Holiday's words of wisdom about boys, or rather sex. When you do make that decision, it's a decision you make rationally and not one you just let happen. You understand the difference?