Chapter Thirty-eight
Holiday was right.
Not about Kylie discovering what she was. It had been five days since Kylie had almost been a lion's dinner, and her identity crisis was stil alive and thriving.
The thing Holiday had pegged right was Burnett's method of solving the wildlife crimes backfiring. As soon as he announced that someone at the camp was guilty everyone started pointing fingers. The vampires accused the werewolves because most of the animals kil ed had been from the feline family and everyone knew werewolves hated cats.
The werewolves accused the vampires of doing it because their blood supply was low. The fairies accused the witches because they sometimes used tiger blood in some of their spel s. The witches accused the fairies because everyone knew fairies were sneaky little bastards. Someone pointed out that the shape-shifters were known to use wild animals as sport to hunt and conquer them. Then, the finger-pointing stopped being species-directed and certain unlucky individuals got suspicion slapped on them. Lucas and Fredericka got voted to be the most likely guilty parties. Then Derek's name got thrown in the hat because he could communicate with animals, and everyone knew he didn't want the gift. Then because Kylie was stil considered "the weird one" with a strange pattern and a closed mind, her name got tossed into the guilty hat as wel .
Kylie had even forgotten herself and went to Del a and accused her cousin Chan of being the culprit. Maybe he real y was one of the Blood Brothers gang. Del a did what Del a always did. She got furious.
Tension at the camp was at an al -time high. People had stopped participating in the Meet Your Campmates Hour, and Holiday and Sky were having a hard time just keeping everyone from kil ing each other.
Then there was the tension between the two camp leaders.
Kylie had walked into the office and overheard them tossing verbal punches. Sky insisted it was time to throw in the towel and close down the camp. Holiday insisted right back that it would be over her cold fairy body before she let them close it down. Sky accused Holiday of being a martyr and unrealistic, and Holiday accused Sky of having lost her faith in the school and of half-assing her job this year. Kylie didn't know Sky very wel , but she knew enough to agree with Holiday. For some reason, Kylie had never warmed up to the werewolf camp leader. In some ways, the woman even reminded Kylie a bit of her mom. Cold, uncaring, and closed-off. Not that Sky might not have reasons for joining the ranks of the Ice Queen Sorority. It appeared that Kylie's mom sure as hel did. It was funny how al of a sudden Kylie saw the relationship between her mom and dad differently now. Yeah, her mom was cold, but her dad was a cheater. It sort of became a "what came first, the chicken or the egg" kind of question. A question Kylie didn't have the answer to. While it stil hurt something fierce to think about the divorce, Kylie had decided to try not to make it her problem. Face it, she had enough fires to put out in her own life. Heck, she'd almost become kitty chow. In the back of Kylie's mind, she stil wondered who wanted her harmed badly enough to put the lion in her room. The only name that came to mind was Fredericka. But if she believed Fredericka guilty, did that not put more suspicion on to Lucas?
Thoughts of Lucas snuck into Kylie's mind more than she wanted. Now at least when they showed up, they had to compete with thoughts of Derek. He and Kylie hadn't been alone since the whole lion scene, but he sat with her and Miranda and Del a sometimes during meals. Every now and then, she'd catch him looking at her with more than friendship, but good to his word, he never put any pressure on her. Nope, the pressure she felt came from herself. One minute she'd make up her mind to just walk up to him and kiss him. The next she'd find herself thinking about her dad, about Trey, and she'd wonder if giving herself to a relationship was worth the heartbreak that seemed to fol ow. And then there was the whole issue of trying to figure out what she was. For some reason, she felt that once she got that solved, she'd be free to make other life choices.
Kylie walked back into her cabin, stopping to sniff the air for beast smel s. Nose stil up, she felt her foot being attacked by Socks. Scooping the little fel ow up in her hands, she brought him to her face.
Whenever Socks was running amok, Kylie figured the cabin was free of beasts and ghosts. Daniel had only dropped by a few times-each of which would send Socks scrambling under the sofa. Not that Socks had to stay hidden long; Daniel was back to short visits and he'd stopped talking.
"So the coast is clear, huh?" Kylie asked Socks.
"Except for a very happy witch," Miranda said, barreling out of her bedroom to give Kylie and Socks a hug.
"Let me guess," Kylie said. "Perry final y grew a pair and kissed you."
"No," Miranda said. "I'm beginning to wonder if he ever wil . But forget about him right now, because I final y did it. Wel , with your help, of course."
"You did what?" Kylie asked.
"I got rid of Mr. Pepper."
"Of who?"
"My piano teacher."
"Oh gawd, tel me you didn't let Del a cook him."
"No. I figured out what I messed up with the curse, and reversed it. I used those books to help me figure out what I could have gotten backwards-
words, letters. It was like a puzzle, but I final y figured it out." She held her arms up in the air in victory. "I'm toad free."
Kylie laughed.
"And..." Miranda continued, "the best part is that Mr. Pepper checked himself into a mental hospital."
"Because he has a thing for young girls?"
"No, because he's been dreaming he's a toad, but ... he confessed to the doctor that he was worried about his attraction to little girls." Miranda laughed. "I sort of dropped in on his first session. But what's important is maybe he'l get some help."
"You did good," Kylie said.
"No. We did good. I wouldn't have done it if not for you. And while I'm not sure I'l ever make High Priestess, I stil might be in the running. You're my hero, Kylie Galen."
"And I'm not?" Del a asked, walking out of her bedroom.
"Sorry," Miranda said. "You'l have to try harder next week."
Kylie put Socks down so he could attack Del a. For some reason, the kitten loved her Donald Duck slippers. Kylie watched the kitten take swats at Donald's bil and then reality wormed its way into her good mood. "We may not have next week. They real y may shut the camp down if they don't find out who is terrorizing the wildlife park. We've got to stop pointing fingers and do something. I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to go home."
"Did something else happen?" Del a asked.
Kylie told them what she'd learned when she'd stopped by Holiday's cabin. "They almost snagged the white tiger."
"How?" Del a asked. "I thought that vamp from the FRU was guarding the place."
"He is, but someone broke into the lion's fences again, and while Burnett was investigating that, someone cut the fence to the tiger's cage."
"Poor animals," Miranda said.
"Yeah," Kylie answered, remembering Derek saying the lion that had shown up in her cabin had been confused and scared. "Wait," Kylie said.
"Why didn't I think of this before?"
"What?" Del a and Miranda asked at the same time.
"I think I know how to get to the bottom of this."