Born at Midnight by C. C. Hunter Read Free Book Online

walked into the room.
    “Hi, Perry. It’s good to see you again,” Holiday said with sincerity.
    “It’s good to be back.” His gaze met Kylie’s and her breath caught when she found herself staring at eyes so dark that they didn’t appear human. Right then, his creepiness level moved up in leaps and bounds.
    “It would make me very happy if you’d do the honor of showing us your special gift.”
    Those non-human eyes didn’t shift from Kylie. Perry grinned. “So you have some non-believers, do you?” Turning his head, he focused on Holiday. “What would you like to see?”
    “Why don’t we let Kylie decide?” Holiday looked at her. “Kylie, this is Perry Gomez, he’s a very gifted shape-shifter, one of the most powerful ones there are. He can probably become anything you can imagine. So why don’t you tell him what you’d like to see him become?”
    Kylie kept moving her gaze between Holiday and Perry. Realizing they waited for her to say something, she forced herself speak. “A … unicorn.”
    “Unicorns don’t exist,” Perry said, his expression seeming to say he felt insulted by her choice.
    “They used to,” Holiday added, as if coming to Kylie’s defense.
    “No shit?” Perry asked. “They really existed?”
    “No shit,” Holiday repeated. “But we should work on our language.” She smiled. “Just think of a horse with a horn. I know you can do it.”
    He nodded, then he pressed his palms together and Kylie saw his black eyes roll back into his head. The air in the room suddenly felt weak, as if something had sucked the oxygen out of it. Kylie stared at Perry even when everything inside her said not to. Right then her curiosity, her need to know evaporated into the not-so-breathable air. She’d never understood that saying, “Ignorance is bliss,” until this moment. She wanted to remain ignorant. She didn’t want to see, didn’t want to believe.
    But she did see.
    She saw sparkles forming around his body—sparkles as if a bucket of floating glitter had been spilled around him, as if a thousand lights came on and reflected each miniscule piece of glitter. The hundreds of diamond-shaped twinkles swirled around him. Slowly the sparkles fell to the floor and left standing where Perry had once stood was a huge honking white unicorn with a pink horn in the middle of its forehead.

Chapter Eight
    The unicorn, aka Perry, swatted its tail back and forth, as if strutting its stuff, then swung around in Kylie’s direction. The beast took two steps toward her, close enough she could have touched it if she’d been so inclined. But no inclination existed.
    It reared its head, made a neighing noise, then one of its deep dark black eyes winked at her.
    “Shit!”
    “Damn!”
    “Oh my God!”
    “Holy cow!”
    “Mo fo!”
    Kylie wasn’t sure who said what, one may have even leaked out of her mouth, for all five responses had shot through her addled brain. Taking in another gasp of air, she looked at Holiday, who stared at her with soft green eyes.
    “It’s okay,” Holiday said. “Perry, change back now.”
    Kylie dropped her forehead against the flat, cool surface of her desk top and concentrated on breathing and not thinking. If she let herself think, she’d cry and the last thing she wanted to do in front of these people was show any sign of weakness. Hell, these freaks probably fed on weak people.
    “You guys should leave now,” Holiday’s voice, now with an authoritarian tone, seemed to echo in the room, bouncing inside Kylie’s head.
    She counted to ten and then somehow managed to sit up. The desks around her stood empty. Perry, back to his human form, and the others shuffled out of the room. Perry gave her a quick glance over his shoulder. His brown eyes, normal-looking eyes this time, almost appeared apologetic.
    Remembering Holiday’s order about leaving, Kylie forced herself to stand. If she could just get out of here, she might be able to find a secluded place where