So instead of kissing, he reached out and took her hand. "Come on, the water feels great."
It did feel great. And for the next hour, Kylie played water volleyball, splashed around, studied everyone's brain pattern, and completely forgot about the problems pressing on her shoulders. The only downside was watching Perry watch Miranda. She looked really good in her bathing suit and Kylie wasn't the only one who noticed, either. The guys were all stealing glances, even Derek, and then Perry would cut them glances, and not the friendly kind of glances either. His eyes would turn jet black, reminding Kylie of some kind of serpent.
Nevertheless, between the water and the laughter, Kylie hadn't had so much fun in ... well, forever.
Then all the fun came to a jarring halt when she spotted Holiday running out of the woods in a panic and heading straight for the lake. Her expression grew tighter with each hurried step. What was wrong? Holiday's gaze found Kylie's and suddenly she knew that whatever was wrong involved her.
Kylie started moving out of the water, but her toes sank into the mud at the lake's bottom the closer she got to shore. All the stresses in her life lined up like dominos in her mind, and she wondered which one this new problem involved.
Selynn appeared behind Holiday and her gaze shot to Kylie, as well. This wasn't going to be good.
Kylie met Holiday at the edge of the water and purposely ignored Selynn. "What's wrong?"
"We have a problem." Holiday's gaze shot back to the water and she waved someone else in. Kylie turned and saw Derek swimming in to join them.
"What is it?" Kylie asked again, still ignoring Selynn, who had moved in.
"You're coming with us," the werewolf spouted out. Her hand clamped down on Kylie's wrist. "Now."
Chapter Twenty-three
Kylie frowned and shook Selynn loose.
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on." Kylie's gaze went back to Holiday who watched Derek step up onshore. "Will somebody please tell me what is wrong?"
Holiday glanced back. The line of stress furrowing the camp leader's brow told Kylie this was serious. "It's your mom."
"My mom?" Kylie took a deep breath. Bits and pieces of her mom's conversation filled Kylie's mind. Then the ghost's warning echoed like a bad song in her head. "You have to stop it. You have to stop it or someone you love will die."
Oh, God, no.
"What's wrong with my mom?" The words barely spilled from her lips. She remembered her mom was flying home sometime today. Kylie's heart clutched as she envisioned a plane crash. Oh God, was her mom...?
"She must have come to see you." Holiday said. "Late. For some reason, the new security alarm on the gate didn't work. And she got in without anyone knowing."
"She's here?" More than Kylie wanted air, she wanted to know her mom was alive and well. That her plane hadn't crashed. That some freak hadn't kidnapped her and was torturing her the way the dreams seemed to imply.
"Yes. She's here," Selynn said in her haughty tone. "Against school policy. Visiting hours were over hours ago."
Kylie's gaze went to Selynn. What was the she-wolf saying? Was her mom okay or not? Kylie looked back at Holiday.
"What happened?" Kylie repeated her question. "Is she okay?"
"She's ... upset." Holiday's frown deepened. "She was trying to find your cabin and got turned around. She ... she saw some things she shouldn't have."
"What?" Kylie remembered how stunned she'd been when she first saw Perry change into a unicorn. "What did she see?"
"She needs to be erased," Selynn snapped. "And quickly."
Erased? "What ... is that supposed to mean?"
The she-wolf grabbed Kylie by the arm and started pulling her toward the woods. Kylie put on the brakes.
"What does erase mean?" she asked again, not anywhere close to understanding, but miles from liking how it all sounded. She yanked her arm away from Selynn and then took a step closer, so close Kylie could count the woman's eyelashes.
"You better not lay a finger on my mother!" Kylie growled, and the sound of her voice seemed unnatural to her own ears. It was deeper. Coarser.
"Kylie, listen to me." Holiday's hand came down on Kylie's back, sending a surge of calm into her tense shoulders. Kylie might have listened, might have even accepted the calm emotion from Holiday if Selynn hadn't been there.
"We don't have time for this," Selynn snapped. She grabbed Kylie by both arms, her fingers digging into Kylie's biceps hard enough to bruise.
When Kylie tried to pull away again, Selynn tightened her hold. "She's human," Selynn said. "She has to be dealt with. Now."
"Dealt with?" Fury, anger, and fear for her mother's safety threatened to overwhelm Kylie. "Damn you, where's my mother?" Kylie's voice sounded deeper than before.
"Stop it, Selynn!" Holiday said. "You're upsetting her. She doesn't understand what is going on."
"Yeah, stop it!" Derek's voice rang out.
Kylie felt Holiday's touch come against her shoulder again. The fairy attempted to fill Kylie with a peace-inducing emotion, to curb her fury, but Kylie somehow rejected the flow from moving inside her.
"Your mom is going to be okay," Holiday said, her voice seeming to echo from some other place. "She's at Helen's cabin right now. She-"
Once Kylie heard her mom's location, she again tried to pull away from Selynn's grip. But the she-wolf tightened her hold, her fingernails cutting into Kylie arms. Kylie recognized the pain, but it felt as if it was happening to someone else.
"Let go!" Kylie hissed in Selynn's face.
When the woman didn't release her. Kylie, acting on some instinct she didn't even recognize, grabbed the woman by her shirt and slung her out of the way.
Several gasps echoed around her. One might have even been from Kylie when she saw Selynn flying like a rag doll through the air before she landed in the water with a loud splash. The werewolf came up covered in mud and spitting mad. She roared and started swimming back to shore, and once on dry land, she locked gazes with Kylie, slung her head back, growled, and charged.
Holiday jumped in front of Kylie and held out her hand. "One step closer and I will summon the wrath of the death angels. And if you think I'm joking about that, you don't know me very well."
But Selynn didn't stop. She kept coming.
Then Derek and Della tackled her, sending the she-wolf tumbling to the ground with a grunt.
Kylie didn't stick around to hear or see what happened next. She took off through the woods, her blood pumping through her veins as she ran with everything she had to reach her mother.