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

she could freak out in private. Where she could cry, and attempt to come to terms with … No. Don’t think yet. Not yet. She swallowed the few tears crawling up her throat and her sinuses stung.
    “Where are you going?” Holiday asked.
    Kylie looked back her. It hurt to talk around the knot of emotion lodged between her tonsils. “You said we should leave.”
    “They should leave. You need to stay.”
    “Why?” A watery film coated her vision and hopelessly, Kylie realized she couldn’t stop it. The tears had arrived. Why? The one-word question plowed through her confused mind and morphed into dozens of questions. Why was any of this happening? Why was she being singled out again? Why did her mother not love her? Why did her dad turn his back on her? Why couldn’t Trey give her a little more time? Why did all these freakish kids act as if she were the weirdo here?
    She blinked back a few tears and dropped back into the seat. “Why?” she asked again. “Why am I here?”
    Holiday sat in the desk beside her. “You’re gifted, Kylie.”
    She shook her head. “I don’t want to be special. I just want to be me—normal me. And … and to be completely honest with you, I think there’s been some huge mistake made here. You see, I’m not … gifted. I … I certainly can’t turn myself into anything. I don’t suck at anything, except maybe algebra. But I’ve never been great at things, either. Sports are so not my thing, and I’m not super talented or even the extra smart type. And believe it or not, I’m okay with that. I don’t mind being just average … or normal.”
    Holiday laughed. “There is no mistake, Kylie. However, I know exactly how you feel. I felt just like that when I was your age and especially when I realized the truth.”
    Kylie swiped at her face to hide the evidence of her tears and then forced herself to ask the question she’d been trying not to think about since the whole thing started. “What am I?”

Chapter Nine
    “Can you handle the truth?” Holiday asked softly, her eyes filled with empathy.
    Handle it? I just saw a boy turn himself into a unicorn. Can it get any worse?
    Seconds after Kylie asked herself that, she got a chill. What if it could get worse? She recalled Holiday saying there were other types of supernaturals besides vampires and werewolves, which in Kylie’s mind had to be the worst kind of supernatural, not that she had expertise in the field or anything, but what if Holiday had only said that to calm her down? Would she have lied?
    “Yes, I can handle it,” Kylie said, sounding braver than she felt.
    But when Holiday opened her mouth to speak, Kylie blurted out, “No.” She dropped her face into her hands, then removed them and stared again at the redheaded camp leader. “I don’t know if I can handle it.”
    How could she when it was just too much?
    Kylie bit down on her bottom lip so hard it hurt. “I mean, if you are about to tell me something like I’m dead, that I need to start acquiring a taste for blood and I can’t even eat sushi, I won’t be able to handle it. Or if you’re going to tell me that I’m going to start howling at the moon, eating people’s cats, and will spend the rest of my life having to get waxed if I want to wear a bathing suit, then I don’t think I can handle it, either. I like cats and I tried waxing once, and that hurt like a son of a gun.” She dropped her hand between her legs, remembering.
    Holiday laughed, but Kylie had been as serious as a heart attack. Waxing had really hurt and she hadn’t let Sara talk her into anything like that since.
    “Do you think I can handle it?” Kylie asked, afraid of the answer.
    “Honestly, I don’t know you very well yet, but I trust Dr. Day’s assessment of you.”
    Kylie blinked. “What does my shrink have to do with this?”
    “Your shrink—as you call her—is the one who recommended you to us. She recognized your gifts, she’s half fairy, you know.”
    Kylie