Kylie nodded and walked out, trying to figure out how she was going to approach the Brightens.

She hadn't gotten one step on the porch when Della ran up to her and squealed. "Holiday's pregnant?"

Kylie covered the vamp's mouth with her palm and frowned. "You weren't supposed to be listening in."

"I didn't mean to," Della huffed out behind Kylie's fingers. "Burnett's voice just carries."

"Right." Kylie cut her eyes at Della in disbelief.

Della squealed again. "This is so cool."

Kylie, pushing aside her worry about the Brightens, suddenly felt like squealing, too. "What's cool?"

Miranda asked, walking up.

Della looked at Kylie. "We have to tell Miranda. Just Miranda."

"Yeah, you have to!" Miranda squealed. "I don't know what it is, but I want to know."

Kylie gasped. "Okay, but you can't tell anyone."

"Won't tell a soul," Miranda said. "What is it?" She rubbed her hands together, excited to know a secret.

Della moved them away from the office, and under a patch of trees beside the trail. "Guess who's pregnant?" Della whispered.

Miranda gawked at Kylie. "But you said you'd never done it."

"Not me!" Kylie said. "Holiday."

Miranda's mouth dropped open. "Oh my! We're gonna have a baby Burnett running around? That iscool." She grinned ear to ear.

"I know." Kylie suddenly couldn't stop smiling.

Or she couldn't until someone dropped a severed head from the tree above her and it landed on her foot. Kylie screamed and kicked the head, which rolled a good six feet away. She screamed again when she saw the eyes wobbling and looking up at her.

* * *

The next morning, Kylie got up and went and sat in front of the computer to check her e-mail before heading off to breakfast with Della and Miranda. She sat there and stared at the black computer screen in a daze. There hadn't been any dreams, no more severed heads falling from trees, and no visiting swords.

She still hadn't slept worth a damn. What kept her up were all her other issues. Most of them matters of the heart.

She'd stayed awake a while thinking about meeting Daniel's adoptive parents today, wondering what she should say, or not say. She'd connected with her real grandfather, but he wasn't a parent who'd raised her father. He hadn't taught him to ride a bike, or play baseball. He didn't really know his own son, but these people did. What would they tell her about her father? Had they loved him, missed him since he'd been taken from this life too soon?

That made her start missing her dad. So she pulled out his pictures and spent a good hour just looking at them, talking to him. Yeah, she talked to him as if he were there listening to every word she said. She told him about her quests. How she wanted to find a way to help all the other chameleon teens. Now all she had to do was figure out how to do it. She told him about Mario, how she felt deep down that she was going to have to deal with him. Personally.

She confessed to her dad how much that truly scared her. Scared because of the evilness that emanated from the man, and how she didn't think she had what it would take to face him and win.

A couple of times during the conversation she could swear she felt her dad, a slight familiar type of chill-one that actually warmed her on the inside. One that whispered that she wouldn't be alone-not facing Mario, or the visit with his parents. Then she heard the words he'd told her not so long ago. But soon. Soon we will discover this together.

Was it fate that she face Mario and lose? Would she be joining her father on the other side?

She slipped the pictures back into their envelope, her heart beating a little faster, and again recalled Holiday telling her that she didn't think it was what he meant. Dear God, she hoped not. She wasn't ready to leave this world.

When she let go of worrying about Daniel's message-choosing to believe Holiday, or at least trying to believe her-and stopped fretting over the meeting of the grandparents, she started obsessing over what Fredericka had said. It was because of Kylie that Lucas probably wouldn't get on the werewolf Council.

She knew it wasn't her fault-he got himself in this mess-but guilt still pricked her conscience. It was hard to feel so angry and guilty at the same time at the same person. How did one deal with that? She didn't know.

She also had to deal with Derek. Nip things in the bud before things got out of control, if they weren't already out of control. She remembered lunch yesterday, which was why Kylie had Miranda bring them each back a couple slices of pizza for dinner last night. Ahh, her ol' avoidance trick was still in goodworking order. She should be proud. Not.

But honestly, she knew she shouldn't and couldn't continue to avoid it.

Derek deserved to know the truth. Now if she could just figure out exactly what that was, she'd tell him. Wait! She did know the truth, didn't she? Or at least part of it. Hadn't she admitted she loved Lucas?

Still loved him, in spite of what he'd done. Then why had she even allowed Derek to kiss her in the dreamscape?

Was it because down deep she still held a glimmer of romantic feelings for Derek? Was it because she feared losing Lucas and not having anyone? Was it because she was angry at Lucas, and somehow felt kissing Derek was his payback? Was it because she was over-the-top stupid?

Questions.

No answers.

"Are we going to breakfast?" Della asked.