Awake at Dawn Page 38


"Burnett's not good with doing that kind of stuff?" Kylie asked, hoping to ease into a conversation about him.

"I don't know. But since he shouldn't be helping out here for more than another month, I don't see any reason for him to get involved with this side of the business."

Take the sugarcoating off what Holiday said and it basically meant she didn't trust Burnett. Was that because he was vampire, or could it be because she'd trusted Sky, her last co-camp leader, and Sky had let her down? Holiday never talked about Sky much, but Kylie sensed her friend's betrayal had hurt her more than she wanted to admit. "Have they hired a new camp leader?" Kylie asked.

Now Holiday's expression turned into a full groan. "No. But they've promised by the end of summer I should have someone. And that can't come soon enough."

"Is he really that unpleasant to work with?" Kylie sensed Holiday's frustration came from Burnett, which only made Kylie worry about how Holiday would take Kylie's confession.

"We're just too different." Holiday's gaze lowered to Kylie's chest and stayed there for a fraction of a second too long. Which meant Holiday had noticed the growth spurt.

Kylie's thoughts shot away from her confession and turned on her own issues. "Can you explain this?"

"Explain what?" Holiday asked innocently enough, but it didn't convince Kylie.

Kylie held out her hands in front of her boobs.

Holiday's brows wrinkled. "I was hoping you'd just gotten a new Wonderbra."

"Afraid not. There's my hair, too." Kylie pulled it over her shoulder. "Plus, my shoes are almost too tight and I'm pretty sure I'm a whole inch taller."

"Mmm." Holiday almost appeared as if she worked at keeping her expression unreadable.

"Mmm, what?" Kylie leaned forward, pressing her hands on the desk. "Mmm, it's odd." Holiday said, but something about the way the camp leader glanced back to her papers hinted that she wasn't being one hundred percent up front with Kylie.

"Please don't do this now," Kylie insisted.

Holiday looked up. "Do what?"

"Hide something. It's happening to me. I have the right to know what the hell is going on."

"I'm not hiding..." Holiday stopped talking and sighed. "I don't consider it hiding anything when I'm surmising, guessing. I'm not sure if it's fair to give you information when I'm not sure."

"What's not fair is to leave me completely in the dark. Because believe me, whatever you have to tell me isn't going to be half as bad as what I'm imagining."

Holiday nodded. "Okay, but just remember ... it's speculation. Even Burnett said he didn't see it being a sure sign."

Kylie had suspected that Burnett had noted her boob increase. To his credit he'd dealt with it well, but to think he and the others were discussing it, well, it felt like overkill. Really dead stinky overkill. "You two discussed my boobs?"

"No. Well, yes, but not ... Look, he said he noticed some changes in you when he ran into you at the falls. I insisted he tell me what they were."

The mere mention of Kylie seeing Burnett at the falls had Kylie remembering she needed to come clean, but first she had to know. "What's the speculation?"

"Some female werewolves-"

"Werewolf? Oh, damn! Not werewolf. Anything but werewolf."

Chapter Twelve

"Hey!" Holiday's hand came to rest on Kylie's arm. "You see, this is why I didn't want to tell you. I knew you'd jump to conclusions."

Kylie blinked. "What is it that some female werewolves do? Grow super boobs?"

"No. Well, sort of." Holiday bit back a smile. "When they reach a certain level in maturity, when they are close to mating age, they'll fill out rather quickly."

Kylie's heart pounded and all she could remember was what Miranda had said about seeing a werewolf change into wolf form, about how painful it appeared. "But that sounds just like what is happening to me. So how is this speculation or jumping to conclusions?"

Holiday shook her head. "Unless a werewolf had been turned, most start shifting into wolves when they are four or five. It would be very rare that it would happen to you at this age. And then there's the fact that werewolves undergo some rather strong mood swings a few days before and after a full moon. Dr. Day reported that she saw you during a full moon and saw none of these signs. And I watched you on the last full moon just to see if perhaps she missed something. I didn't note any changes in your behavior."

"Maybe I'm just a late bloomer," Kylie said, not that she was hoping it was true. "And I've never been one to let my emotions out too much. So maybe you just didn't see me being moody."

"There's also ... your cat," Holiday continued. "All felines have an aversion toward weres. Not so with you."

Kylie recalled how, years ago, her cat had reacted to Lucas. She remembered how the kitten had reacted to Lucas the day he'd dropped it off. But then suddenly Kylie remembered something that might be important.

"Oh crap. The wolf."

"What ... wolf?"

"The other night ... when I ran off after I tasted blood. I ran into a wolf. He hung around me. Even showed up again later that night, but-"

"It wasn't a full moon," Holiday said. "It couldn't have been a werewolf."

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