"Let her go, now!"

The deeply serious voice rang a few familiar bel s, but quicker than she could wrap her brain around it, Derek shot up with a force that sent Kylie rol ing right to the edge of the rock.

Right before Kylie fel , Derek caught her. As soon as she felt secure, she raised her head. Lucas leered at them from the edge of the stream. The flickering of sun and shadows surrounded him, adding to his intimidating presence. His light blue eyes pierced into them with the harshest of stares.

"She's fine," Derek said, his tone matching his stern expression.

Feeling suddenly foolish, she felt the need to explain. "I saw a snake."

Lucas inhaled. He looked around on the ground. "A water moccasin."

"I know," she said. "That's why I screamed."

"It's gone," Derek said, and his words implied that Lucas should be gone as wel .

"I heard her scream," Lucas said, as if he, too, felt the need to explain his behavior.

The two guys stared at each other, neither saying a word. Kylie got the distinct feeling they didn't get along. She wondered if fairies and werewolves also had bad blood between them. Heck, for al she knew, World War I could ...

"She's not screaming anymore," Derek said.

"I'm fine." She jumped down from the rock-after giving the ground a quick check for snakes first. When she looked up, Lucas had turned his disapproving gaze on her. "If you're that scared of snakes, maybe you should stay out of the woods."

"I'm not that scared, it just-"

"I took care of her," Derek said. His tone was dark, almost angry.

"Yeah, I saw how you were doing that."

Derek sat up higher on the rock as if he was ready to leap down. "Look, if you have a problem-"

Lucas apparently didn't care to hear what Derek had to say because he swung around and in less than a second, he was gone. Kylie blushed, realizing how the situation must have appeared to Lucas. Then seeing the unhappy expression on Derek's face, she said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have screamed, it was just-"

"You didn't do anything wrong." Derek offered her his hand to pul her back up. "He was being a jerk and overreacting. He didn't have to come here. I wouldn't have let anything happen to you."

She stared at Derek's hand and remembered how her fear had subsided with his intense touch.

"What happened just now?" she asked.

"He just overreacted-"

"No. Not with Lucas. With your touch..."

"What do you mean? My touch?"

Other questions started buzzing around like bees gone wild. "How did you know the snake was here?"

The look, the one that said he didn't like talking about himself, returned but she wasn't about to let him off this hook. Not this time.

"Wait. Did you make that snake come here?" she asked.

He frowned. "Do you think I'd put you in danger just for kicks?"

Did she believe that? "No. I don't. But you knew it was here. You knew it was here before it showed itself."

"I only knew a second before. If I had known earlier, I'd have stopped you from getting down."

The sun sprayed a new bright stream of light through the trees and it hit her eyes, making it hard to see. "How? How did you know?"

He jumped from the rock, landing solid on his feet beside her. "It's part of my gift," he said, but he didn't sound happy about it.

"You can predict the future?" she asked.

"I wish."

"Then what?"

"I can read the emotions of animals and creatures." He tucked the tips of his fingers into his pockets.

"Wow." She attempted to wrap her mind around it. "That's..."

"Weird, I know," he growled. "Like I'm Tarzan or something. Holiday says I can shut it off, and that's why I'm here. To learn how. But Holiday's not thril ed about my quest. She thinks I'm going to be letting down some Fae god if I turn my back on my gift. But the Fae god can just go to hel . I didn't ask for this. The only Fae in my life left me and Mom. Why the hel would I want to be like him?"

Kylie heard the pain in his voice and related in a big way. "You wouldn't. I'm sorry."

She meant it, too. Not just because she understood al about parental resentment right now, but because like him, if she turned out to be supernatural, she'd be shipping the gift back to sender. While Derek's plight contained a lot of emotional baggage, Kylie's contained a heck of a lot of questions. And the unknown brought on its own emotional issues. While she knew the truth could prove to be painful, she needed answers. And standing in the middle of the woods, with the mixture of sun and shadows, feeling submersed in the supernatural world, she became determined to find those answers.

She met Derek's gaze again. "Communicating with animals can't be nearly as bad as ... some other things."

He kicked a rock into the stream. It splashed and seemed to blend in with the other woodsy noises. "Like seeing ghosts?" he asked, understanding more than she wanted him to.

"Among other things," she said honestly. "I can't imagine waking up and realizing I have to drink ... blood." Just the mention of the word reminded her of what Derek had done to get her name for this hour chat.

And she couldn't let him do it. She didn't know how to stop it, but she had to try.

She looked at her watch. "We should probably be heading back."

Reaching over, he took her hand in his and turned her wrist over so he could see the time. The feel of his hand sent a sweet electrical current up her arm and it reminded her how close she had come to letting Derek kiss her. Or had she almost kissed him?

"We have a half hour," he said, holding her hand.

She pul ed away, recal ing how his touch had control ed her emotions when she'd seen the snake. He'd probably saved her life, but that wasn't the point. She didn't like the thought of anyone trying to control her. Or manipulate her, either. "Yeah," she said, "but we stil need to see about how we're going to get you out of giving blood."

His expression darkened. "The deal's already made, there's no going back. And besides, it's not an issue."

"What if he turns you into a vampire?"

His eyes widened. "Oh, hel , you think I'm going to let him bite me? No way. It's too risky and way too gay."

She blushed, feeling ignorant. "Then how do you plan to do it?"

"The same way you give blood at a blood drive. With a sterile needle and an IV bag."

She stood there staring at him, questions coming quicker than she could line them up to ask. "You're going to a doctor's office to get it done?

How wil -"

"No." He laughed. "Most vampires carry their own supplies. They're better than most nurses at finding veins. It's one of the first things a vampire is taught. How to get blood without kil ing the donor."

Had Della brought her own blood-draining equipment? "How do you know how vampires...?"

"Feed? I've done it a couple of times." His smile made her feel even more ignorant.

"You've given blood to a vampire before?"

He nodded. "Like I've been saying, it's not a big deal."

"Who? And how did you even know vampires existed?"

"Her name's El ie. We go to school together. And you're forgetting that al supernaturals recognize each other."

Yes, she had forgotten the whole eyebrow wiggling thing. And for a darn good reason, too. She didn't "read" supernaturals, which gave her a little more hope that she wasn't one of them. Then she wondered if she had any supernaturals in her school back home. Besides Lucas for that short time.

"How many are there?" she asked, even though she was afraid to hear the answer. "How many supernaturals are there compared to humans?"

"I think the consensus puts us a little less than one percent, but growing. Why?"

"Just wondering if I went to school with any."

"You could have," he said. "But not likely. Most supernaturals go to private schools or are home-schooled. For obvious reasons."

"What reasons?" she asked.

"Species issues mostly. Most believe that they need to learn a different history. And most of them can afford it since they use their gifts to become financial y wel off."

They? Kylie noticed that Derek didn't completely view himself as one of them, either. "So you went to a private school?"

He shook his head. "Dad bailed, remember?"

"Yeah." She sifted through her other questions. "What about the girl you know? El ie, right? She went to your school?"

"She's a recently turned vampire," he said. "She hasn't gone to live with her kind yet."

Kylie thought about Del a. "Do they al have to go live with their kind?"

"Not from what El ie said. But I know it isn't easy for her to blend in with the normals."

Kylie heard the sense of caring in his voice and her curiosities took a U-turn away from Del a's problems, away from the whole supernatural business to a more personal business.

"Are you and El ie close?" Embarrassed at how she almost sounded jealous, Kylie shook her head, but she couldn't stop from continuing. "Duh, you gave her your blood. Of course you're close."

He arched his brows and another one of those almost smiles tickled his lips and made his eyes brighter. "Is this your way of asking if we're stil together?" The green twinkle in his eye said he liked her interest.

"No." At least she didn't think it was, but oh heck, she wasn't completely sure.

"We broke up about six months ago."

"Why?" she asked, and then just as quickly wished she could take it back.

"She met a werewolf." Resentment laced his voice.

"Not Lucas?" Kylie asked.

"No, not him."

Kylie remembered. "I didn't think vampires and werewolves got along."

"Neither did the Hatfields and the McCoys."

A soft wind blew and a strand of her hair whipped across her face and caught between her lips. He brushed it back. The tips of his fingers whispered over her cheek, causing al sorts of tingles to run down her neck. She caught his hand, felt the tingles intensify, and then released it just as fast.

"What happened earlier?" she asked before she lost her nerve. "When you touched me."

He stuck both his hands into his jeans pockets, as if he were trying to fight his temptation to touch her again.

"I don't know what you mean," he said, but she could tel he was lying.

She shook her head. "Don't lie to me, Derek. When you touched me, you changed how I felt and we both know it."

He looked shocked that she'd figured that out. "I just stopped you from being afraid so you wouldn't do something stupid and get bit."

"So when you touch someone, you can control their emotions?"

"Yeah," he said as if wasn't a big deal.

But it was a big deal, to her anyway. How much of the whole attraction she felt for him was even real? How much of it was because he made her feel it?

Something cold and hard wrapped itself around her heart. "Did you do it before?"

"Do what before?" He looked truly confused now, or was he just faking it?

"Mess with my emotions."

He studied her. "Why are you getting angry?"

"Did you do this, Derek? Did you make me feel the way I feel about you?"

He looked insulted. "No," he said with conviction, but she wasn't convinced.

She poked him in his chest. "So help me, Derek, if-"

He caught her hand and she flinched.

"What? Now you're afraid of me?" He shook his head. "First you justified what you feel for me because I look like your old boyfriend. And now you think I'm messing with your emotions. Why is it so hard to think that you could just like me?"

"Because you have the power to do it, don't you? You have the power to make me like you." She took a deep breath and continued. "Have you ever used this to convince a girl to do things she normal y wouldn't?"

His eyes tightened. "Wow," he said in an accusing tone. "You are just looking for a reason to dislike me, aren't you? That boyfriend of yours real y did a number on you."

Maybe. But that was beside the point. She was almost certain that her feelings now had more to do with Derek than Trey. The simple truth was that liking Derek was going to complicate the next few months. She had enough crap on her plate, and she didn't need this, too.

"You didn't answer my question," she said, standing a little straighter. "Have you ever used this power on a girl to get what you wanted from her?"

His frown grew almost angry, but she could swear she spotted a bit of guilt in his eyes, too. He looked away.

"If you don't answer me, I'l assume the worst," she said.

"Fine." He faced her. "I've used it to get a girl's attention, but I've never used it to get her to sleep with me. That would be rape. And I don't care how much you want to dislike me, Kylie, I won't pretend I'm something bad just to make you feel better." He waved back to the path through which they'd come. "I think we should probably get back."

She heard the hurt in his voice. Instant embarrassment shot through her and she realized what a cold bitch she was being. God, maybe she was just like her mom after al .

He started walking. She fol owed. They walked in silence. "Hey," she final y said, unable to hold it back any longer.

"What?" He didn't look at her and kept on moving down the trail.

"I didn't mean to imply that you were some kind of rapist."

"Then what were you trying to imply?" He stil didn't look at her.

She tried to think how to put what she needed to say. She hated reaching for the old cliche but it was al she could come up with on short notice. "I like you, Derek, I do. But I'm thinking we should just be friends."

He laughed but the sound had no humor. "So you're going to deny that you feel anything." His pace picked up. "You're going to deny that you almost kissed me back there. That you wanted to kiss me."

Increasing the pace of her own footsteps, she wanted to deny it, and almost did, but caught herself before she lied. "No, I'm not denying it, but I can't trust how I feel right now."

He swung around. "Because you think I'm messing with your emotions?"

"No. Yes. Okay, maybe that's a part of it, but it's also because you remind me so much of Trey. Look, I have al this other stuff happening to me right now." Emotion tightened her voice. "Things at home are crazy. I'm seeing ghosts. I have people tel ing me I'm not al human, and I'm halfway hoping I find out that I'm just crazy or that I have a brain tumor." She blinked and refused to cry again. "I don't need this, too." She waved a hand between them. "But I real y need a friend."

He sent her a look of resignation. "Okay. If friendship is al you're offering, then I'l take it. Don't like it, but I'l take it."

"Thank you," she said, meaning it.

He nodded and studied her as if reading her emotions again. Heck, maybe he could read them and then tel her what it al meant, because right now she felt like a scrambled mess.

"It's going to be okay," he said.

"Is it?" She paused. "I just don't know where to start to find the answers."

Derek drew a deep breath and then looked around as though he was afraid they might be overheard although there wasn't anyone else in sight. He leaned in closer.

"I don't have al the answers," he said, dropping his voice to just above a whisper. "And I don't even think this is an issue, but ... there's one thing you might try."