Kylie swallowed. "I meant his shock about Hannah being dead, but ... that, too."

Burnett closed his eyes and pressed a hand against the door.

"But just as real were Holiday's sentiments when she said all she wanted from him was the truth. She doesn't love him, Burnett."

He looked back at Kylie, sadness radiating from his eyes. "She used to."

"Is that important?"

"It is when that's what stopping her from letting anyone else get close," he said. There was a pause, and then as if to change the subject, he said, "I don't agree with Holiday's decision on removing your shadows."

"I know," Kylie said. "But tell me this-how would you take having someone shadow you all the time?"

She heard him swallow and felt his emotional answer. He wouldn't have accepted being shadowed for a single day.

All of a sudden, the room turned cold. Ghost-visiting cold. Then Hannah appeared beside Burnett; her presence came with a thick swarm of panic. "He's here! He's here! You've gotta stop him! He's going to try to kill her," she screamed at Burnett.

"Who's here?" Kylie asked.

Burnett didn't wait for an answer. He bolted through Holiday's door, without bothering to open it. Ripped off the hinges, the door landed with a loud thud on the floor. He walked across the splintered wood and faced Blake.

Door removed, Kylie watched the scene from the outer room.

Blake, already on his feet, stared at Burnett with fury.

Holiday, still sitting at her desk, wore an expression of shock. She shot up from her desk chair, showing how slow fae reaction time was to that of a vampire.

Burnett, both his hands fisted at his sides, spoke to Blake. "Either you come the easy way, or the hard way." His threat rang with honesty. "I don't care which."

Kylie's gaze shifted to the spirit. Hannah stood frozen, gaping at the scene playing out. An ugly brown aura surrounded her. While deceased, there was plenty of emotion lingering beneath the icy chill of death. Kylie picked up one emotion loud and clear. Shame-big, heaping mounds of shame. Then she felt the spirit's surprise. Oddly, Hannah's initial panic and fear had faded.

Something didn't feel right. It was almost as if Hannah hadn't known Blake was here, and if she hadn't known Blake was here, how could he be the one causing her panic? "Did Blake do this?" Kylie asked Hannah in a hurried breath. No answer. "Hannah?" Kylie said her name again. Then the ghost faded.

"What's going on?" Holiday asked Burnett again, and Kylie's gaze locked on the three people in the room.

Blake looked back at Holiday. "I didn't do this. I probably don't deserve another chance with you, but I don't deserve this." He turned to Burnett. "I'll go with you, I'll answer your questions, but if you lay a hand on me, I'll kill you."

And from the man's emotions clouding the air, his threat rang with as much sincerity as Burnett's.

* * *

It had been a lazy Sunday afternoon with a lot of frustration floating in the air. Miranda was frustrated because there was a new shape-shifter ogling Perry. Holiday was frustrated because ... well, as if losing her sister the first time hadn't been bad enough, now her spirit hadn't shown back up. Burnett was frustrated because he couldn't find one thread of evidence against Blake. Therefore he couldn't hold him.

Kylie was frustrated over the whole disaster that was her life.

The only one not in a pissy mood was Della, and Kylie, even being an emotion-reading fae, wasn't sure what mood Della was in, but it felt wrong. The girl was following Kylie around like a lost puppy.

Even now, pulling up her e-mail, Kylie felt Della standing over her shoulder. Kylie turned around and frowned. "What?"

"What, what?" Della asked.

"You're reading over my shoulder. You're not even my shadow now."

"I'm not shadowing you. And I didn't know your e-mail was so private," Della said.

Right then, Kylie got a huge sense of anxiety, coupled with a sense of sadness, and then anger from the vamp. Della's emotions were dancing all over the place.

"What's up with you?" Kylie asked.

"Not a damn thing." Della dropped into a kitchen chair.

Kylie shifted her gaze back to her e-mail and clicked to check mail. No new e-mails. Nothing from ...

"You're hoping to get something from your grandfather, aren't you?" Della asked.

Kylie looked back again. "Maybe. Why?"

Della frowned. "You're going to go live with him, aren't you? You're gonna leave Shadow Falls."

The question cut like a knife in Kylie's chest. How could she explain to Della that leaving was the last thing she wanted to do? Yet, there was a part of her that said it might be the only way she could learn about who and what she was.

And after seeing the shock on everyone's faces at the camp when her new fae pattern emerged, there was a part of Kylie that longed to be with people who didn't judge her. And the sooner she learned to control this changing-pattern game and the powers that came with it, the sooner she could come back to Shadow Falls and really fit in.

"That's what this is about?" Kylie asked.

"Yeah, that's what it's about. And don't think I didn't notice you didn't deny it, either."

Kylie chose her words carefully. "I don't have plans to do that." That was the truth. She was still praying that it wouldn't prove the only way.