Whispers at Moonrise

issue?
    I know, Dad, Kylie spoke in her head. I don’t like him, either.
    *   *   *
    Even before her mom and John pulled out of the parking lot, Holiday and Burnett had Kylie by her elbows. “Let’s talk,” Holiday said.
    Kylie gazed back at the dining hall. “Shouldn’t ya’ll be in there?”
    “First things first,” Holiday said as Burnett led them to the office.
    “How the hell did you disappear like that?” Leave it to Burnett to cut to the chase.
    “I don’t know.” Kylie walked into the office. “I wished I could vanish like a ghost when I saw my mom and John kissing, and then … I did.”
    “You wished yourself invisible?” Holiday asked.
    “I guess,” Kylie said.
    “Then how did you come back?” Burnett closed the door.
    “I un-wished it.” Knowing how crazy it sounded, she glanced at Holiday and dropped down on Holiday’s sofa. “Sort of like how you tried to teach me to shut off a ghost.”
    “Visualization.” Holiday arched her brows as if impressed.
    Not that Kylie shared her viewpoint. “It was scarier than hell. I remembered what my dad said about us working things out together and I thought I was dead.” She paused. “How am I going to stop it from happening again?”
    Holiday looked at Burnett as if expecting some wisdom from him.
    “What?” He held up his arms in defeat. “I ain’t got shit. I’m just now learning to deal with ghosts.”
    Holiday rolled her eyes. “You read the reports at the FRU. Did it say anything, or lead you to assume anything, about a chameleon’s gifts?”
    “No. The only thing it stated was some of the case studies considered themselves chameleons.” He frowned. “There could have been more in the other reports, but they conveniently disappeared.”
    Right then, Kylie couldn’t help but remember her grandfather’s warning about the FRU.
    “We need to read the other files,” Holiday said. Her eyes stayed on Burnett. “How can we do that?”
    Kylie closed her eyes. She didn’t know what they were going to do, but she knew what she was doing. First, she was going to find a way to get back in touch with her grandfather, and then …
    A wash of pain spilled over her. Could her grandfather be right? Did she have to leave Shadow Falls and go with him in order to get the information she needed?
    *   *   *
    After a few minutes of both Burnett and Holiday trying to come up with a solution, they finally concluded that Kylie should be careful about what she wished for.
    Right! As if she hadn’t come up with that one by herself.
    Burnett’s phone rang. He answered the call. “Yeah,” he said. “How long has she been missing?” Both Holiday and Kylie tried to pretend they weren’t listening, but how could they not when the call was obviously about Cindy, the waitress at the diner, the once-smiling young woman in her driver’s license who was now in the grave with Holiday’s sister?
    “Okay,” Burnett said. “Get me the file. Did you get anything back on the other matter?” Burnett’s eyes shifted to Kylie, telling her that the “other matter” involved her, as well.
    Burnett listened and suddenly that’s when it hit Kylie. She couldn’t hear the conversation on the line. What happen to her … “Hey,” Kylie screeched at Holiday. “Am I still vampire?”
    Holiday tightened her brows. Shock filled her eyes. “No.”
    “What am I now?” Kylie asked.
    “Welcome to my world,” Holiday said.
    “I’m fae?” Oh, great. More “Kylie’s a freak” moments from the other campers were predicted to arrive soon. As if the parental chaos wasn’t enough to get them talking about her.
    Her aunt’s words echoed in her mind. The few who did not hide were viewed as outcasts, freaks, and not belonging to any one kind.
    Holiday nodded and smiled a smile that came with a lot of empathy. And Kylie not only saw it, but felt it.
    Burnett must have heard the conversation, because as soon as he pulled the phone from his ear, he stared at her forehead and said, “Damn.”
    “What did you learn?” Holiday asked, as if sensing Kylie didn’t want to discuss her ever-evolving brain pattern.
    “Cindy Shaffer disappeared about six months ago.”
    “So after Hannah disappeared,” Holiday said.
    “Do we know for sure that Hannah didn’t just leave for a while and then…” He paused and sympathy flowed out of him in waves.
    “And then was killed,” Holiday said, and the words no more left her lips than the grief floated