And it was working.

Stop it! Leave. Kylie shot a warning glance at the spirit.

You are in a nasty mood, huh? the ghost said.

Yeah, she was, Kylie admitted to herself. A broken heart would do that to you. It pretty much sucked the joy out of life. Or maybe what sucked the most was missing everyone.

Not that Kylie's time here had been in vain. She'd discovered a lot about herself, about chameleons,these thirteen days. Chameleons had only come into being in the last hundred years. While they considered themselves a species, they were really a blend of all paranormals-individuals who retained the DNA and powers of all the species.

Problem was, learning to control that power was a real bitch. Most chameleons didn't even master the feat until their mid-twenties. Not that there were a lot of young chameleons trying to master things.

Chameleons were rare. Her grandfather said about a hundred compounds existed across the world, but in total there were less than ten thousand of her kind. And only one in ten chameleon couples had been able to produce a child. Hence the low population.

Kylie couldn't help but wonder if she'd ever be able to have a child. But damn, she was sixteen, too young to start worrying about being infertile.

"How did classes go today?" her grandfather asked.

Kylie focused on the man. In his seventies, his hair held tight to its strawberry blond color, with only a few signs of graying. His eyes, a vivid light blue, matched hers and her father's.

Another drop of blood landed on his cheek. Kylie scowled at the smirking spirit who sliced the sword though the air only an inch above his head.

I said, stop it! Kylie tightened her eyes.

"So it didn't go well?" her grandfather asked, obviously reading Kylie's expression.

"No, it went fine. I'm ... I was able to switch my pattern from a werewolf to a fae." Supernaturals all had patterns that could be seen by other supernaturals. Chameleons had their own pattern, one they hid.

And unlike any other supernatural they could change into any other species, and attain this species' powers with the transformation.

Problem was, like their other powers, it wasn't easy to control. Classes here didn't involve so much English, math, and science, but training on how to control one's powers and to hide their true pattern from the world.

"That's amazing. Then why the long face?" her grandfather asked.

"It's just..." I'm miserable here. I want to go back to Shadow Falls. The words sat on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't say them. Not until she knew for sure that she'd given this a shot. And until she knew how she would survive facing Lucas.

"I wasn't frowning at you. It's-"

"Kylie has company," Francyne said. Her aunt wasn't a full-fledged ghost whisperer. She claimed she couldn't see them or hear them, but she could pick up on a spirit's presence easily.

The ghost held the sword up, pointing it at the ceiling as if making some big declaration. You're about to have more company.

Kylie didn't know what that was supposed to mean, but she focused on her confused-looking grandfather now and not the spirit.

"Company?" Her grandfather looked at his sister-in-law. "Oh." He tensed. Then his eyes widened. "Is it my wife, or my son, Daniel?"

"No." Kylie wished Daniel, her father, who'd died before she was born, would come for a visit. She could use some TLC, and her father was really good at offering it. However, he'd used all his allotted time on earth.

"It's not them. It's ... someone else," Kylie answered.

Someone who had yet to explain what she wanted or needed. Well, except to tell Kylie she needed herto kill someone. What did the spirit think Kylie was? A killer for hire?

The spirit leaned down close to her grandfather's ear. It's a shame you can't see me. You're kind of cute. She proceeded to lick the blood from his cheek. Slowly. And she looked at Kylie when she did it.

Kylie dropped her fork. "Stop licking my grandfather, right now!"

The spirit brought her tongue back into her mouth and stared at Kylie. Stop fighting your fate. Accept what you must do. Let me teach you how you must kill him.

"Kill who?" Kylie blurted out, and then flinched when she realized she'd been speaking aloud.

"Lick? Kill? What?" her grandfather asked.

"Nothing," Kylie insisted. "I was talking-"

"She was talking to the spirit, I think," her aunt said, her brows pinched in worry.

"About killing someone?" her grandfather asked, and shot Kylie a direct look.

When Kylie didn't answer, Malcolm glanced around the room as if nervous. His expression of fear reminded her so much of the other supernaturals at Shadow Falls.

That's when a thought hit. She'd come here thinking she'd fit in, and yet, even living on a compound of about fifty acres in Texas hill country, with about twenty-five other chameleons, she still didn't fit in. And it wasn't just the ghost whispering, but the fact that she was so much further advanced than the four other teens here. And they weren't overly thrilled to be shown up by the newbie, either.

The elders of the group-which included her grandfather and great-aunt and about four others- guessed that Kylie's early development was because she was also a protector, a supernatural with amazing strength. While that sounded pretty cool, she would argue with that definition for so many reasons.

Topping those reasons was that she could only use those powers to protect others, and never herself.