Whispers at Moonrise

enough to push open the creaky gate, she offered the dead reaching out for her one promise: I’ll be back.
    As soon as the icy wind blew the gate closed behind her, she picked up her pace, running. One foot hit the earth and then the other. She moved with purpose. She wanted to be home. She wanted to be at Shadow Falls.
    You are one of us. We share the same blood. A chameleon alone will not survive. She heard her grandfather’s warning ring in her ears, but she refused to believe it. The mere thought of leaving Shadow Falls sent a wave of pain shooting across her heart. She couldn’t leave.
    Yet even as she ran to the one place in her life that felt right, the place she felt the safest, she knew that the answers she sought were not at Shadow Falls, but with her grandfather.
    The knowledge caused a sharp pain in the very center of her heart. Tears welled up in her eyes and slipped from her lashes. She felt them hot against her cold vampire skin. Air shuddered in her chest from the emotion when she realized that before she could retreat to her cabin, she’d probably have to face Burnett’s fury.
    “Slow down,” Lucas demanded.
    She ran faster. Burnett’s wrath was nothing compared to facing Lucas. His prejudice against vampires right now would hurt more than she could stand.
    *   *   *
    The gate to Shadow Falls loomed just ahead. Her heart thumped in her chest. She prayed Burnett’s tongue-lashing wouldn’t take too long. While her body didn’t feel the least bit tired, her heart did.
    “Damn it, Kylie,” Lucas muttered again. Everything from his breathless tone to the stomp of his feet hitting the earth told her he was pushing himself to his limits.
    “I said stop!” He sounded closer this time.
    Just when she was about to take the leap over the fence, she felt him grab her around her waist. They went down. Hard. He wrapped his arms around her to protect her from the fall and they rolled several times.
    “What’s wrong with you?” he asked.
    She ended up on top of him, his hot body reminding her that she was vampire. He stared up at her face. She tried to get up.
    He caught her.
    “What’s the matter?” he asked again.
    He rolled her over and landed on top of her. Afraid he’d see her brain pattern, she turned her head and stared at the underbrush. Tears stung her eyes again.
    “Hey.” His voice came out more tender this time. He’d obviously noticed her tears. “Look at me.”
    She didn’t. She couldn’t. “I just want to get this over with,” she snapped.
    “Get what over with?” His chest moved up and down on top of her as he breathed.
    “Facing Burnett.”
    “He doesn’t know, but if you leap over the fence right now, he will.”
    She looked back him. “He doesn’t know?”
    “No. I got out without being detected. And if you’ll listen to me, I think I can get you in without him knowing, too. Or you can jump over the fence and go head-on with his wrath.”
    Realizing she was facing Lucas again, she turned her head. The underbrush against her back felt like soft moss, but the emotion in her chest was scratchy.
    “Is that what this is all about? Damn it, Kylie. I already know.”
    She looked back at him, unsure what he meant. “Know what?”
    He scowled. “That you’re vampire. I … smelled you when I first walked into the cemetery.”
    His insult hit hard. Emotion had her lips trembling. “If I smelled that bad, then why did you bother to come in?”
    His expression darkened. “I came in because I thought you were in danger.” He exhaled loudly. “I’m not going to lie. I don’t like it, and it’s going to complicate things with my pack even more, but…” He looked into her eyes. “But what’s important to me isn’t what’s up here.” He touched her forehead. “It’s what’s in here.” He rested his hand on her chest, on the upper swell of her right breast.
    She felt her heart race. His touch hadn’t been meant to be intimate, but it felt that way.
    “You mesmerized me from the moment I first saw you when we were kids. I didn’t know what you were, and yes, I hoped you were werewolf, but it didn’t matter. You ensnared me.”
    The dampness of her tears spilled out on her cheeks. Suddenly, the soft verdant scent filled her nose. She knew it was both Lucas’s natural scent and that of the woods.
    “I’m still ensnared.” He wiped a tear from her cheek. “I don’t care if you’re part witch and part vampire.”
    “I’m not just that,”