"I guess," said the female voice.

"Get me the results of the test. However, if she hasn't awakened by tonight, go ahead and extinguish her."

Extinguish her?

Kylie's fear ratcheted up a notch.

Noooooooooooo!

Chapter Eighteen

"Damn it! She's not breathing!" a familiar male voice boomed in Kylie's ears, and she wanted more than anything to answer him. She tried to move but couldn't. She still felt paralyzed.

Help me. Please ...

"She did this once before." That was Della talking now, but panic filled her voice. Della never showed panic or fear. To the contrary, the vampire was fearless.

"Kylie, wake up!" the deep male voice said, and this time Kylie recognized it as belonging to Lucas.

Suddenly, Kylie's lungs opened up and demanded air. She opened her mouth and gasped and started coughing as if her lungs wanted to reject the oxygen. Rolling over on her side, she continued to cough, certain she was going to blow a lung. Finally, she opened her eyes and realized she was on the kitchen floor in her cabin.

After a few more seconds passed, the coughing stopped and she focused on breathing. Someone grabbed her and pulled her up into their lap and held her. Heat surrounded her. He was hot. So hot. And she was cold. So damn cold.

She focused on the face of the person cradling her so tenderly. So close. So warm. And his eyes were so blue. Lucas.

Then his face faded and she saw a strange woman's face moving close. The feel of Lucas's arms around her seemed like a memory that time was pulling away a little bit each moment.

"She stopped breathing again!" Lucas shouted, and he started rocking her. "What do I do? Someone tell me what to do!"

"Holiday says she'll be okay."

Kylie recognized Burnett's voice, but it seemed to be coming from somewhere else, from someplace far, far away.

"Holiday thinks she's probably having a vision. That sometime..." His voice faded into the background.

The vision yanked Kylie back completely, and she watched in horror as a group of women brought something up to her face. Only it wasn't her. She was experiencing Jane Doe's life, but it felt as real as if it were happening to her.

She felt a thick, nubby towel being forced against her mouth. She gasped, tried to move, but couldn't. She-Jane Doe-was paralyzed, and someone was smothering her.

The unfairness of it stung her throat as her lungs begged for air. Everything went black and then she saw the spirit standing over her. She leaned down, her blue lips frosted over. "They killed me. They really killed me," she said. "You must breathe, though. You must live."

Kylie's lungs screamed for oxygen, but she felt unable to gasp for the air she needed. Then she became aware that she was back in her kitchen.

Kylie heard Miranda chanting in the distance. She heard Della muttering that Lucas should give Kylie CPR. And Burnett kept asking questions to Holiday over the phone.

"Breathe, damn it!" Lucas yelled.

She pressed her forehead tight against Lucas's bare chest and pulled big swallows of oxygen into her throat. Tears filled her eyes, and she cried for the life that had been so brutally taken. Cried for the woman whose name she didn't know. Cried for the woman who, in addition to losing her life, had lost her child. How unfair was that?

"She's breathing again," Lucas said, cradling her tighter in his arms. "And she's crying." He dipped his head. "Shh," he whispered for her ears only. And then he said to the others, "I'm taking her to her bed. She's so cold."

Kylie felt herself being lifted in his arms. She vaguely recalled that he'd been the one to carry her to the bed that night weeks ago when she'd had the vision of Daniel, and for some reason, it felt right him being here now. It felt right when he lowered her on the bed and then crawled in beside her and held her against his chest, with his arms around her. And being so tired, too emotionally spent to talk to anyone, it especially felt right when she fell asleep with her head pillowed on his warm chest.

* * *

Unfortunately, when Kylie stirred awake a short while later, still curled up in Lucas's arms, Burnett, Miranda, Della, and Lucas all stared at her in shock and concern, and it felt a bit like getting caught French kissing a boy in public. It didn't feel so right.

She pushed off his chest, brushed her hair from her face, and gazed at all her onlookers, who stared at her as if her head might start spinning or something. Didn't they know their own abilities and powers were just as weird to those who didn't have them?

The words You okay? and a couple different variations of the same question came from all four people.

She nodded. "I'm fine."

"She's awake and says she's fine," Burnett said into his cell phone, which he held to his ear. "Yeah, I'll have her call you as soon as she's able."

Kylie recalled hearing Burnett talking to Holiday. "I'm sorry," she said. She wasn't sure why she felt the need to apologize. What happened wasn't her fault. Though she still wasn't sure exactly what had happened, beyond her getting caught in a vision about Jane Doe's death. Still, she supposed it was a good idea to apologize for causing a scene in the middle of the night.

She looked at Burnett. "How did ... Why are you...?" Embarrassment fluttered in her stomach. "Was I screaming so loud it woke the whole camp or something?"

"No. You hardly screamed at all this time," Della said. "I woke up when you were walking around the kitchen, muttering and, well, screaming just a bit. When I went to see if you were okay, you were, like, totally out of it. I mean, the lights were on but nobody was home kind of thing. You weren't here."