"He can't see me. I don't know if he saw you." Hannah's voice echoed from behind her. With the gate open, Kylie pulled her hand free. The ghosts scattered, but the moment she moved a few feet inside the cemetery, they surrounded her. The cold of their spirits crowding around her coated her lips with ice. The pain nearly brought her to her knees. She forced herself to move a few feet away; the reprieve was instant, even if she knew it wouldn't last.

She looked back at Hannah. Fear filled her gaze-a gaze that was just as dead as those from the cemetery, who were now growing closer.

"I can't come in," Hannah said. "One of them might be a death angel. If they want to send me to hell for my sins, they can. I deserve it, but not until I know Holiday is safe."

"I don't think they'll send you to..." Kylie stopped talking when Hannah started to disappear.

"Save her for me, Kylie. Please save my sister!" Hannah's words rang in the dark.

The cold from the spirits drew closer. "Please," Kylie said, her gaze moving from one ashen face to another. "Give me some space."

They scurried back a few feet. Kylie looked over her shoulder, hoping she might see someone who walked in this world. Her hopes were futile. Everywhere she looked, she saw only death.

But then the darkness cloaking the tombstone terrain limited her vision. Kylie knew from the few times she'd been here that the cemetery was immense. Would her grandfather know she was here? The thought that it might not be her grandfather waiting for her, that it hadn't been him sending the e-mails, stirred deep in her chest, but she pushed it back.

She took a few more steps, then, remembering Hannah's concern over Holiday, Kylie grabbed her phone from her pocket and dialed the one person she knew would help her.

"Are you okay?" Derek answered on the first ring.

"I don't have a lot of time, but I need you to do me a favor. Go check on Holiday. Stay there. Don't wake her up. Don't let her know you're watching her, but don't leave her until I get there."

"Shit! What's happening, Kylie?" Derek asked.

"I can't explain right now. Just please. Do it."

"Where are you?" he asked. "I know you aren't at your cabin."

She bit down on her lip so hard she tasted blood. "Please." The word came out with desperation.

He finally answered. "Holiday is fine. Burnett's watching her place."

"Why? How do you know? Did something happen?"

"No, I felt you were in trouble and I was walking to check on you when I came across Burnett standing outside Holiday's cabin. He said because of what we knew about Hannah and the other girls, he wasn't taking any chances."

"Good." She wondered if that was why Burnett had called Lucas and not left to check the gate when the alarm went off.

"I can feel you're scared out of your wits, Kylie. Tell me-"

"I have to go." She cut the phone off. Then she glanced at the crowd of spirits, shifting from foot to foot, reminding her of hungry zombies waiting for the right moment to move in and feed. Pushing that fear-inducing, insane thought away, she remembered they were just people. Lost souls robbed of life, chained to this world by some unfortunate circumstance.

Looking around again, she asked, "Is someone else here?"

"I'm here," one spirit said.

"I'm here." A barrage of the same words spoken by each of the dead filled Kylie's ears like thunder. They all wanted to be counted. To be acknowledged.

Emotion filled Kylie's chest. "Is there anyone alive here, besides me?"

"No one else is here who can see us," one of the spirits spoke up, sounding desperate.

"But someone else is here?" she asked. Again she wondered why her grandfather had chosen the cemetery as a meeting place.

"In the back of the property," the spirit of a young girl answered, and she pointed toward the darkest area in the cemetery. "I saw them under the oak trees, hiding in the shadows."

"Thanks," she said, glancing up one more time, hoping she didn't spot a pissed-off shape-shifter circling in the dark sky. The clouds must have blocked out the moon, because only a few stars stared back at her from the heavens. She started moving. With each step she prayed that in the deepest, darkest part of the graveyard under the trees, she'd find her grandfather. And with him she'd find her answers.

Chapter Twenty-two

The rear of the cemetery stood eerily quiet. Even more statues stood guard over the graves. Most were covered in dead vines. Some were dilapidated, others decapitated by vandals or the passage of time, their heads resting on the ground. Still, they all seemed to watch her as her feet crunched upon the gravel path. Suddenly feeling alone, she looked back and realized that the chill of the dead had subsided. She was truly alone.

The spirits hadn't followed. Why? Fear knotted in her throat. Did they know something she didn't? Even as panic built inside her chest, she kept walking, praying that coming here had been the right thing.

She saw the trees ahead of her; beneath the alcove of gnarled limbs hung shadows-black shadows that could hide anything, or anyone.

Moving closer, she could hear herself breathe, and in the distance a few birds called out as if in warning. She stopped a few feet from the trees. Their heavy limbs seemed to be reaching out for the cracked tombstones nearby.

"Hello?" Her voice seemed to be swallowed by the night.