Will glanced at the woods, as if stalling. While Kylie couldn't read minds, it was almost as if he were trying to come up with a lie. Why?

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

He motioned the other weres to go ahead. Then he waited for them to get out of hearing range before he spoke.

That had to mean something was wrong, didn't it?

"Lucas was summoned by the Council," Will finally said.

"Is that a bad thing? Is he in trouble?"

"I ... don't know. That's between him and the Council."

Concern pricked at Kylie's mind. "Do you know when he'll be back?"

"No." He shuffled his feet against the rocky path, then glanced off at the woods again before facing her. "I'm sorry," he added, and something about the tone in which he offered the apology, even the sincerity in his eyes, told Kylie he meant it-but why? For what was he apologizing?

"What are you not telling me?" she asked. "Please just tell me."

"If you have questions, you should ask Lucas, not me."

"So something is going on?" She stepped closer, feeling her heart beating against her ribs. Without warning, her gaze shifted to the woods, and she felt it again. As if the trees were calling her name. But with her heart stuck on her concern for Lucas, she focused on the problem at hand, and on Will. "Is it about me?"

Will's discontent grew more noticeable in his frowning expression. "I don't know. I have to go." He walked away. She watched him leave, silently, and got a nagging feeling that something was brewing.

Will disappeared down the path. Kylie's heart remained on Lucas, but her gaze shifted back to the woods where the trees slowly stirred in the gentle breeze. It was the oddest feeling, like being really thirsty and seeing a glass of water. This feeling, the calling, was even stronger than the call to the falls.

What the hell was going on?

Miranda cleared her throat, and Kylie glanced back at her roommate. "Are you okay?" Miranda asked, and moved closer.

Kylie rolled her eyes. "Why does everyone ask that question when it's obvious that I'm not?"

"Probably wishful thinking," Miranda answered, bumping Kylie with her shoulder, and smiling in sympathy. "Don't worry. If Lucas likes you enough, things will work out. It did for Perry and me."

Kylie breathed in. Then she breathed out. She started walking again, consciously fighting the temptation to take a flying leap into the woods-to figure out who it was and why they wanted her attention so desperately.

They walked another five minutes without talking. Kylie concentrated on the rhythmic sound of her own footsteps, which created a sense of calm. But the scream, a cry of sheer panic, pretty much shot that calm all to hell.

Kylie stopped so fast she nearly tripped and grabbed Miranda's elbow to steady herself. The sound came from the very place she felt lured-the woods. Deep in the woods.

"What is it?" Miranda asked.

Kylie looked at her. "You don't hear that?"

Miranda tilted her head. "Hear what?"

Kylie stepped a foot or two closer to the woods and tried to identify the voice of the screamer. The high-pitched sound told Kylie it was female, but there were no notes of familiarity to it. None.

It didn't matter. She felt it-the familiar fizz, the telltale buzz in her blood that happened when she moved into protective mode.

Her breath caught in her throat; everything inside her said someone needed her. She had no choice but to answer the cry for help. She bolted toward the woods.

"Kylie!" Miranda screamed out. "Don't run!"

Right before Kylie entered the thicket of trees, she called back for Miranda to go get help.

And fast.

Chapter Thirteen

Kylie ran like the wind.

Nothing slowed her down. Nothing could.

Not the thick underbrush.

Not the overhanging limbs.

Not even the seven-foot barbed-wire fence telling her she was leaving Shadow Falls property. Don't you dare leave Shadow Falls property. She heard Burnett's warning ring in her head, but she ignored it. She followed the screams.

She even ignored her fear that she was running full-speed ahead into a trap set by Mario and his friends. It didn't matter. She was a protector. She had to protect.

After several minutes of running on pure adrenaline, her breath heavy, she sensed the scream and the screamer getting closer. Then she saw it.

Not the screamer.

She saw the fog-the thick, low-hanging cloud that moved over the underbrush, as if swallowing the ground up. It moved in a way that said the force behind it was more than Mother Nature. This was some unnatural power.

A power that traveled at breakneck speeds.

Logic told her to run, but the screams grew louder, and instinct kept her feet moving right into the mouth of the fog. Movement to the left caught her eyes. A girl raced to escape the thick mist. Her long black hair stirred around her head, reminding Kylie of the picture of Medusa she'd seen in a Greek mythology book.

Still a distance away, the girl's gaze met Kylie's. Relief sparked in the runner's eyes. Doubt sparked in Kylie.

Was this real, was the girl real, or was this another vision? Was the girl truly running for her life, or was she running from a death that had already claimed her?

Questions bounced around Kylie's mind as her feet hit the earth. Faster, she told herself when she saw the fog almost at the girl's heels. "Run faster," Kylie screamed.

Dead or alive, helping the stranger felt essential. The sound of the girl's rapid footfalls echoed through the trees, until her speed helped her escape the mouth of the fog.