"Now you're telling the truth." She studied Kylie and passed her glass of blood under Kylie's nose. "Do you want a sip?"
Kylie frowned and pushed the glass away. "No."
"You're lying again." Della arched a brow.
"Fine!" Kylie snapped, and even to her own ears, she sounded like Della had earlier. "I want it, but I don't want it. And don't go thinking it's because I think something's wrong with being vampire. I think it's fine.
It's just that I ... I'm a bit overwhelmed with trying to figure out what I am."
"Believe it or not, I understand." Della continued to study her. "You know, your heart is still beating faster than normal."
"I know." Kylie pulled her hair over her shoulder. "And look. My hair grew, too." She sighed when she remembered how she'd only found one bra that allowed her to squeeze her size-bigger boobs into it.
"Damn." Della reached out and touched her hair. "Have you talked to Holiday about all this yet?" She glanced at Kylie's chest again. "I don't want to scare you or anything, but it's kind of weird."
Oh, great. Just when she'd almost convinced herself it was no big deal, Della was telling her differently. Kylie let out a deep breath. "No, I haven't told her yet. I have a meeting with her at two o'clock."
"You don't sound very happy about it," Della said.
"I'm not."
Della looked shocked. "What happened? You usually sing her praises. You pissed at her for something?"
"No. But she's gonna be pissed at me."
"For what? Going to the falls?"
"No. I don't think she'll be upset about me going to falls." At least Kylie didn't think she would. "It's what I did while I was there that's going to tick her off."
"What did you do?" Della looked confused as she sipped her blood. "I kind of told Burnett about Holiday having had her heart broken by another vampire."
"Really? What happened?"
"He asked me about her and then-"
"Not that," Della said. "I mean with the other vampire?"
"I ... don't know it all." Kylie realized she shouldn't have told Della, either.
"Okay, so what's wrong with telling Burnett that?" Della asked.
Kylie rolled her eyes. "It wasn't my place to tell him. Or you. So don't say anything."
"My mouth is sealed." Della reached over to Kylie's plate and stole a chip. "You know why you told him, don't you?" She studied the chip she held with the edge of her fingertips.
"Because I'm stupid," Kylie answered.
"No, because it's clear to you and everyone else that those two need to go bump uglies." She popped the chip into her mouth and made a face.
"I used to love potato chips and now ... ugg, they taste like toad ass."
Kylie completely ignored the potato chip/toad ass commentary while she tried to understand. "To do what? Bump what?"
"Bump uglies, bang each other, burn off some of those flaming hormones they put out when they're in the same room together."
"Uglies?" Kylie still couldn't wrap her head around it.
Della snickered. "I heard a comedian call it that. She was giving all the different names for doing the deed. Funny, isn't it?"
"Maybe," Kylie said, but couldn't be sure. Her sense of humor had taken a day off and so had her appetite. She stared at her sandwich, missing only a few bites. Was her loss of appetite a sign? Would she someday think potato chips tasted like toad ass?
"Speak of the horny little devils," Della said.
Kylie looked up. Holiday and Burnett walked into the dining hall. Holiday led the way, and Burnett studied her from behind. For a second, Kylie feared Burnett had told Holiday what Kylie had said. She envisioned an angry and hurt Holiday giving her a good talking-to, and Kylie's chest tightened. Oh, God, why had she said anything to Burnett? It had been wrong. So wrong.
Then Holiday met Kylie's gaze-no anger or hurt lingered in her green eyes, only a residual concern. Probably still worried about her and how she walked out of her office this morning. Holiday mouthed the words, "Two o'clock," and pointed to her watch.
Kylie nodded.
Holiday smiled and then walked up to the front of the dining hall and took a lunch plate. Burnett continued to follow her, his gaze taking in her every move, as if trying to memorize every inch of her body.
"Wait a minute," Kylie said. "If vampires can smell those hormones, how come Burnett doesn't seem to know Holiday feels that way about him? I mean, when I hinted that Holiday might be feeling something other than just annoyance, he seriously acted surprised."
"That's simple. We can't smell our own hormones and most of the time we can't smell the hormones of the people we're attracted to. I never smelled my boyfriend's." A sad smiled touched her lips as if some memory had tiptoed across her mind. "And I know Lee felt them."
Kylie sensed that Della still cared about Lee, but she also got the feeling that her friend wasn't about to admit it, nor did she want to talk about it. "That's weird how that works."
"Yeah. It's as if when we're attracted to someone, the emotion triggers the off button of our hormone sensor. Now, if you aren't attracted to someone and they've got the hots for you-oh yeah, we can smell that like a bad fart."
Kylie chewed on that information for a few seconds and then said, "But then how come Derek can tell when I'm thinking about..." Okay, Kylie wasn't sure she wanted to say that aloud, but curiosity provoked her to continue. "Are you saying he's not attracted to me?"
"No." Della grinned. "He's not vampire. He's not even smelling anything.
He's reading emotion. That's a completely different thing."
"Oh." Kylie looked back down at her plate and forced herself to eat a chip but her mind continued to churn. Once she swallowed, she forced herself to ask the question, in a very low voice, of course. "Do Derek and I ... do we really spill hormones all over the place? I mean, is it so bad that it's embarrassing?"
Della's eyes widened, but she didn't answer. Which was so unlike Della. She never hesitated to tell you like it was.
"Oh, crap. Is it that bad?" Kylie asked.
Della cut her eyes upward. Kylie was just about to figure out what that eye shift meant when a warm breath whispered across her neck.
"Is what bad?" Derek asked.
Chapter Eleven
"Nothing is bad," Kylie answered Derek, and desperately tried not to emit any hormones or emotions that might have gone sailing in the air when her gaze locked on him. Problem was, she didn't have a clue how to stop them. Where the hell was her sensor button?