"Get it," Jenny whispered back.

Kylie's breath caught. "Why?"

"I have to get you out of here."

Say what? "No." Kylie shook her head. "I'm leaving tomorrow."

"No you're not. Or at least you're not going where you think you're going."

"What are you saying?" Kylie asked, and part of her wanted to slam the window shut, because instinctively she knew whatever news Jenny had to share, it wasn't going to be good.

* * *

Ten minutes later, traipsing through the very back of her grandfather's property, her old brown suitcase in hand, Kylie still couldn't come to grips with what Jenny had told her.

"I can't believe my grandfather would do this."

"I told you, it's probably not really him doing it. It's the other elders. To be honest, your grandfather is the most tolerant of all of them."

Kylie stopped. "But he wouldn't go along with it. He would not let them just kidnap me and keep meagainst my will."

"Look, to be honest, I don't even know if he knows. They could be doing this behind his back. But you and I both saw the other elders there talking to him."

Anger and doubt rose inside Kylie so strong that tears stung her eyes. "But leaving like this is ... It feels so wrong. I should go back and talk to him."

"No! If you go back, there's a good chance they'll find us. I know the schedule of the guards, and if we don't hurry they'll catch you leaving."

Kylie inhaled. The smell of the forest filled her lungs and she tried to rationalize. The night seemed to crawl between the trees and the air felt thick. "Why? Why would they do this?"

"Isn't it obvious? You're a protector and you belong to the chameleons."

"I don't belong to anyone!"

"I didn't mean ... I know you don't really belong to anyone. But that's the way they feel." Jenny stepped closer. "They're wrong, they're all wrong about so many things. Why do you think I'm doing this?"

She looked at Jenny and the girl's question vibrated in Kylie's head. "Why are you doing this? And don't say it's just because you think they are wrong, or because you like me or something, because you haven't said more than a few words to me. My gut tells me it's more and my gut is usually right."

She glanced away but not before Kylie saw the guilt in her eyes.

"Is this some kind of a trap?" Kylie started looking around.

"No, it's not a trap," Jenny said.

Kylie heard conviction in Jenny's tone, but she wasn't vampire and couldn't be sure if the girl lied or not. She peered harder at Jenny. "Either you explain yourself right now, or I'm turning around and going back."

"Explain what?" Jenny asked, sounding frustrated.

"Explain why you would help me when you don't even like me."

She huffed. "Look, I didn't like you because Brandon did. I'm supposed to be matched with him, and while it makes me furious that they think they can tell me who I should fall in love with, it still pissed me off when he started falling all over you."

"Matched with him? You mean the elders try to arrange marriages?"

"They try to do everything. They are all crazy. Well, not your grandfather, completely, but..." Jenny rubbed her hand on her jeans as if nervous at telling her true feelings. "They keep us sheltered away from everything. They say it's because they don't want people to see us until we have the ability to hide our patterns. But look at you. You lived in the regular world; you weren't killed or thrown into slavery."

"Slavery?" Kylie asked.

"Yeah, they use fear to keep us compliant. To convince us to stay here and not go out into the world."

Kylie shook her head. "I haven't heard anything about this." But she suddenly realized how isolated she'd been since she'd come. She'd been so overwhelmed, she hadn't realized.

"They've been careful what they say in front of you. But you have to believe me. They want to keep us here. To protect us, they say, but ... sometimes I think what we should fear the most is being suffocated by this way of life. And if they find out you don't agree with them, there's hell to pay."

"Which brings me back to my original question," Kylie said. "If you're so afraid, why are you doing this?"She averted her eyes away again.

"What are you not telling me?" Kylie insisted.

Jenny exhaled. "It's Hayden."

"Hayden Yates?" Kylie asked.

"We talk sometimes. My parents don't know. The elders don't know. And you can't tell anyone."

Kylie did the math in her head, comparing Hayden's possible age and then Jenny's. "He's too old for you."

Jenny's green eyes widened. She shook her head. "He's not my boyfriend. He's my older brother."

Kylie tried to compute this new information. "Then why would your parents not want you to talk to him?"

"Because he left. When a chameleon leaves they're supposed to cut all ties to the family so they won't expose us."

"But my grandfather contacted Hayden," Kylie said.

"Like I said, your grandfather is the lesser of the evils here. Your grandfather actually lets me talk to him sometimes." Jenny frowned. "But we don't have time to stand around and talk. I'm serious, if we don't go now, the guards will catch us." The sound of footfalls coming, coming fast, punctuated Jenny's warning.