"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.

As she moved with inhuman speed, she felt a blast of air pass by her and she spotted a blur of movement. The sudden silence of the woods told her it was vampire. Not that she cared.

She only wanted to reach her mother before anyone touched her. If anyone hurt one hair on her head ...

Kylie heard her mother's screams right before she exited the woods near the path that led to Helen's cabin. Panic clawed at Kylie's chest like a wild animal seeking escape. She cut through the last of the trees, flew over the path, and arrived at Helen's porch.

Burnett, with a windblown Holiday at his side, stood there blocking the door. And Kylie knew Burnett had brought Holiday here. "Let me out of here!" Her mom's scream reached Kylie's ears.

The rich berry scent that she now knew as blood filled her nose. She stared at Burnett. "Move!"

"Kylie." Holiday jumped in front of Burnett. "Listen to me, okay? Your mom is fine. She's very upset and we're going to have to calm her down."

"She's hurt." Kylie struggled to breathe and fought the desire to break through Burnett and the door to get to her mom.

"She's not hurt," Burnett insisted.

"I smell blood," Kylie seethed.

"That's not her blood," Burnett answered, his eyes turning a burnt orange color.

"I swear," Holiday said, and attempted to touch Kylie, but Kylie jumped back. Holiday lowered her hand. "Your mom isn't hurt, Kylie. I promise you. Please calm down. We're going to fix this. But we need your help."

"Trust them, Kylie," a voice said at the same time a familiar coldness invaded her breathing room.

Kylie turned to see Daniel standing next to her. "Trust them," he repeated.

Tears filled Kylie's eyes as Daniel wrapped her in his cold embrace. "It's okay." His icy breath came at her ear, as comforting warmth filled her chest.

An awesome sense of peacefulness flowed though her body. The same kind of peacefulness she'd felt at the falls. The kind that said things weren't as bad as she thought. The kind that said she should have faith. She raised her head to look at Daniel, but he was gone. Feeling overwhelmed, her legs wobbled and she dropped to her knees on the porch.

Holiday crouched beside her. "She's going to be fine, Kylie. I promise." Kylie looked at Holiday. "What ... what did my mom see? Perry...?"

"No." Holiday brushed Kylie's hair from her face. "I had given permission for Helen to donate a pint of blood to Jonathon. He was bleeding her, and against my rule he was..." Holiday paused and then firmly added, "He was drinking from the tube when your mom stepped in. I'm sure it looked really bad to her. She panicked."

Kylie dropped her face into her hands. "Oh, God." How the hell was she going to explain this to her mom?