"And I don't expect anything in return," he said. "I accept we're just friends."

"Thank you." The spirit, identical to Holiday, stood over her, looking down with a frown on her face. "I should go."

"Something wrong?" he asked, and she couldn't help but wonder if he could feel her now.

"Just ... got company."

"Lucas?" His tone expressed exactly how he felt about the werewolf.

"No. The ghost."

"Oh. So, I'll let you go. But Kylie..."

"Yeah?" She stood because she didn't like having the spirit staring down at her.

"I'm here if you need me." He sounded so genuine.

"I know," she said, feeling the words vibrate in her chest. She hung up and met the woman's green gaze.

"I think you should pick him," the spirit said.

"Say what?"

"Between him and the werewolf. I like him. He's fae."

Kylie bit back the frustration. "I think I'd better decide that."

"Just a little advice," the spirit said.

Kylie studied her. "Did you discover anything?"

"Not really, but I remember some stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Scary stuff."

"Can you tell me about it?"

The spirit studied Kylie with the same kind of concerned look Holiday always did.

"I don't think you need to hear it. You're ... young."

Kylie rolled her eyes. "You came here for me to help you. I can't help if you don't tell me things."

She blinked. "I don't know if that's true."

"What's not true?"

"That I came to you to help me." She stood silent for a long moment. "I think I came to you to help someone else."

"Who?"

"I don't know exactly. But I sense it."

"What do you sense?"

"That danger is right around the corner." Her eyes filled with worry.

"Can I stop it from happening?"

She tilted her head to one side and considered the question. "I think so. I think that's why I came. So you could stop it."

Kylie's heart filled with hope. Surely, if it wasn't possible to help, the spirit would have known. So even if this was Holiday, maybe Kylie could save her. Maybe the person the spirit was supposed to save was herself and she just didn't realize it. "Have you figured out your name yet?"

She shook her head. "I just keep getting the same thing. I think it's Hannah."

"Please tell me what you know. It might be important."

She shook her head. "I'm not ready to talk about it. And it's not a whole lot. Just ... flashes of stuff."

"Why aren't you ready to talk about it?"

The spirit turned and stared at the woods as if she'd heard something.

Kylie followed her gaze. She didn't see anyone, but oddly, the feeling she'd felt earlier had returned. Someone was out there. Calling for her.

Who are you? What do you want? She asked the question in her mind.

"They want to talk to you," the ghost said.

"Who?" Kylie asked. "And you said 'they,' so how do you know there's more than one?"

"I just somehow know there's more than one. But if I don't know my own name, how could I know theirs?"

"Have you seen them? Do you know what they want with me?"

She shook her head. "I just sense them. Calling you."

"Do they mean to harm me?" she asked.

"I ... can't say for sure. But they don't feel evil."

"They don't really feel evil to me, either." Or maybe she just wanted to believe it. She moved down the steps. She'd almost reached the woods when someone caught her arm-someone warm, someone alive.

Chapter Nine

Kylie swung around, her heart bouncing off her stomach all the way up to her throat.

"Where are you going?" Lucas asked.

"Nowhere." She swallowed the panic. "I was waiting on you and thought I heard something." It wasn't completely a lie; she'd heard it with her heart.

He pulled her against him. "That's when you go inside the cabin, not into the woods. Even normals know that from watching those phony horror shows."

She rolled her eyes. "I would've gone inside if I thought it was evil."

"But sometimes you don't know." He slid his hand down to her waist.

She agreed with him on that point and probably needed to remember it, too.

Yet remembering anything became harder with him this close. So close she felt him breathe. The soft touch of his palm warmed her skin beneath her clothes. The tenderness and heat created a trail of tingling sensation.

He dipped his head down and gazed into her eyes. "Do you have any idea how I would feel if something happened to you?"

"Probably the same as I'd feel if something happened to you," she said. "What did your father want?"

He frowned. "It's Clara, my half sister. She ran off again. She told him she was coming here, but he suspected she went back to her boyfriend."

"I'm sorry. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." He sighed. "I've already gone after her twice. She said she wanted to come here. But maybe she lied. If I bring her here against her will, what's going to stop her from running off?"