Kylie took one backwards step closer to her bedroom door. Then another noise made her stop short. She listened, recal ing the wild animal sounds from earlier that night. This sound wasn't so wild, though. Breath held, she tuned her ears to pick up the noise. She heard it again, a very faint mewing. A soft, gentle sound.

A movement at the window caught her eye. Kylie swung around. Fear entered her chest first, but melted as soon as she saw the orange kitten perched on the outside window ledge. Startled by her sudden movement, the kitten fel from the ledge. "Don't go," Kylie muttered, at first not understanding her sudden concern for the kitten. Then understanding hit. What if Lucas or one of the werewolves happened by?

Kylie hurried to the door and opened it. She knelt down at the threshold and made the squeaky little noise that she knew cats loved.

"Come here, baby. I'l take care of you," she cooed. Her words were met by a rustling in the bushes. "Trust me." A few seconds later, the little yel ow fur bal came swaying over.

"What a cutie," she whispered, and with a gentle finger stroked its white chin. The kitten turned on its purring machine, moved in, and started rubbing itself against her bare calves. She scooped up the creature and stared into the gold eyes, snuggling the purring little animal against her breasts, and then carried it inside.

The cat meowed and tried to escape from her arms, as if it didn't want to be shut inside, but Kylie held it tight. "No, no," she cooed. "There are monsters out there. You're safe here."

The animal seemed to relax as she passed her fingers softly over the back of its ear. "You hungry?" She butted her nose against the top of the kitten's head and cradled it closer against her chest.

She walked to the fridge, opened it to see what she could munch on, as wel as offer the poor kitten. A door creaked open behind her, and Kylie turned and watched Miranda, wearing a large yel ow T-shirt and a pair of long pajama bottoms with smiley faces printed on them walk out of her room. Her tri-colored hair was a tad mussed and Kylie noticed she looked younger without her normal makeup.

"Hey," Kylie said.

"I thought I heard..." Miranda stopped and her eyes grew round. "What's that?"

"A kitten. Isn't she ... or he adorable?" She held the animal up to check its sex. The kitten started twisting, even hissed, but Kylie held it tight. "It's a boy. He was peering in our window." She cradled him against her chest again and glanced back at the fridge. "I think he's hungry."

"Oh, no." The annoyance level in Miranda's tone had Kylie turning back around.

"What?" Kylie asked, genuinely confused. "Are you al ergic to cats?"

"Same old trick, huh?" Miranda said, but Kylie didn't think her roommate was talking to her. Instead, Miranda pointed a finger at the kitten and started wiggling her pinky finger back and forth. "Roses are red, violets are blue, show your true self or I'l put a hex on you."

"Stop. I'm changing back." The words spewed from the kitten.

Kylie stood frozen. Words. Oh, what the hel ! Was she dreaming? Cats couldn't ... talk. She looked at Miranda, not completely ready to toss the kitten across the room, but close. "Did I imagine...?"

Miranda looked at Kylie and her lips twitched almost in a smile, but she held it back, and directed her gaze back to the kitten. "Do it now, Perry!"

Perry.

Kylie looked down at the kitten cozied up against her breasts. Sparkles, diamond-shaped sparkles floated around the red tabby. Then poof. Perry appeared, standing in front of Kylie, his head plastered against her breasts.

Kylie screamed.

Del a shot into the kitchen. "What's...?" She blinked. "Do you guys want to be alone?" She snickered and motioned to Kylie and Perry. Snapping out of her stupor, Kylie grabbed the little twerp by the ear and yanked him off her chest. "He's leaving now."

"Ouch. Ouch," Perry muttered as Kylie dragged him past the kitchen table. "Let go of my ear!" he ordered in a roar that sounded like some kind of angry beast.

But Kylie wasn't feeling up to taking orders and she was too mad to be scared of him. Holding on to his ear like a tick to a dog, she dragged Perry past the smal coffee table, yanked open the door with her free hand, and then shoved the pervert out the door with such force that he landed on his ass.

But she wasn't finished with him yet.

She pointed a finger at him. "You come anywhere near my breasts again and it won't be your ear I drag you out by next time. And in case you don't know what body part I'm referring to, let's just say the next time you turn yourself into a kitten, you'l find you've been neutered. " She slammed the door with a loud whack.

"Creep." Kylie swung around, clenching and unclenching her fists.

Both Del a and Miranda stood there, eyes wide and mouths hanging open in a kind of warped shock. Miranda giggled first. "Sorry," she muttered. "But that was so freaking funny."

"Was not," Kylie snapped, stil fuming, her throat tightening with anger.

"Oh, yes it was." Del a started laughing so hard that she fel against the table. "You have spunk hidden behind your innocent face. I like it."

"Either that or she's stupid," Miranda said, and then snorted. "Do you realize what Perry is? He's like the most powerful shape-shifter in the world right now. Everyone knows you don't piss off a shape-shifter. They have terrible tempers."

"I ... he ... he tricked me into letting him snuggle up against my breasts." She recal ed hearing the twerp's voice morph into a very threatening roar.

Okay, so maybe her actions had been a tad stupid, but nothing, nothing made her blood boil more than someone making a fool out of her, and that's what he'd done.

Fighting the tears, because she always cried when she was mad, she spotted the fridge stil open and marched over to shut it. The cold blast from the white box hit her face the same time as she remembered ... "Gross, I checked out his privates."

Behind her, both Del a and Miranda spewed more laughter. Then for some off-the-wal reason, what hadn't seemed funny suddenly did. Kylie leaned into the closed fridge and started laughing. For the next five minutes, they sat at the kitchen table, giggling until they had tears in their eyes. It reminded Kylie of what she and Sara would so often do.

Or had until everything had changed.

"You should have seen his expression when you were pul ing him by the ear," Del a said. "I wish I'd had a camera."

"I almost felt sorry for him," Miranda said.

"Sorry for him?" Kylie asked.

"Yeah, he's kind of cute in that boyish kind of way. Don't you think?"

"Cute? Oh, heck. He's a freak," Kylie insisted.

"Aren't we al ?" asked Del a, her humor fading just a notch.

Not sure I am, Kylie thought, and almost said as much, but something plopped down on the table. Kylie screamed when she saw the toad. Miranda rol ed her eyes and snatched up the creature. "Being bad again, Mr. Pepper?" she seethed at the amphibian, holding the beast a foot from her face, his toad legs dangling almost to the table.

"What did he do for you to put a spel on him?" Del a asked, studying the toad in disgust.

"Like our friend Perry, he's a member of the pervert club." Miranda gave the toad a little shake. "He's my piano teacher and he tried to start playing something besides the piano, if you know what I mean."

Del a snarled at the toad. "Why don't we just make him a midnight snack and be done with it? Do toad legs taste as good as frogs?"

"Hmm. Don't know." Miranda glanced at Del a. "But I'm wil ing to find out," she said, and eyed the toad. Kylie could be mistaken, but she could swear the toad's eyes grew large with fear.

Miranda laughed. "If only I was that type of witch."

"What kind of witch are you?" Kylie asked, somewhat relieved.

"A screwed-up witch." Miranda frowned and then scowled at the toad. "You know the dril , Mr. Pepper, stop thinking bad thoughts and you'l go back to normal."

The toad wiggled his legs and then vanished into thin air.

"What kind of curse did you put on him?" Del a asked.

Miranda moaned in frustration. "If I knew that, I could stop it."

"You mean, you don't remember?" Del a asked.

Miranda lowered her gaze. "I remember what I thought I said, but I'm ... I'm dyslexic and I get my spel s wrong sometimes, and I have to know exactly what I said to make it stop. So until then, every time that pervert thinks about an underage girl, he's transformed into a toad and pops in for a visit."

Kylie leaned in. "While it sucks for you, it sounds like he deserves it."

"Yeah, he does. But he's like a constant reminder that I'm a screw-up."

"True," Del a said. "But on the positive side, you're keeping him from doing anything wrong. I hate perverts. I had an old neighbor who would stand at his window, empty lotion in his hand, and whack off in front of me or other girls."

"That's disgusting," Miranda said.

"Yeah, but what I hated was that a girl down the street had already told me he did it to her, too. She told her parents, the parents cal ed the police. The police came back and said that he's a deacon of the church and it was basical y my neighbor's word against his and they believed him."

"That's why I did the whole curse thing," Miranda said.

"But I handled it." Del a grinned.

"What did you do?" Kylie was almost too scared to ask.

"I broke into his house and replaced his lotion with some real y bad-ass superglue that my dad uses at his lab at work. You should have seen the look on his face when he couldn't get his hand off his dick. Then I made an anonymous cal to the police and reported him. I mean, how could he deny doing it? His hand was stuck to the crime scene."

They al burst out laughing. Wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes, Kylie looked at Del a and Miranda and she could have sworn they were just normal teenage girls.

Wel , she could have sworn until the blast of cold snuck up on her from behind. Kylie glanced over her shoulder hoping beyond hope nothing was there.

But hopes were often futile.

Soldier Dude stood only a few feet from her. Too close. Closer than he'd ever been. The chil from his presence sent an icy fear climbing her spine.

"Kylie?"

She heard Miranda cal her name-or was that Del a? Kylie couldn't tel because it sounded as if it came from another world. A world in which ghosts didn't exist. A world Kylie wanted to get back to, but couldn't.

The dead guy kept his eyes on Kylie while he slowly reached up and removed his helmet. Blood, bright red blood, gushed down his forehead. Kylie's breath caught as she watched the blood trickle down his face. Then everything went into slow motion. Kylie stood up, wanting to escape. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Blood droplets splattered onto the floor and left tiny speckles of red on the top of her bare feet. The drops kept coming. The specks of blood kept landing on her feet and then they started forming letters and then a word. Help ...

Kylie tried to inhale, but her lungs refused to take in the frigid air. Letting go of the oxygen trapped in her mouth, she saw a cloud of cold air float up from her own lips.

"What's wrong?" Miranda's voice seemed to float in Kylie's mind.

Good question, Kylie thought.

Too bad she didn't have a freaking clue.

"Do you guys smel that?" Del a's voice registered in Kylie's awareness but in a distant kind of way, like background music in a movie.

"Something smel s yummy."

"I don't smel anything." Miranda's words fol owed. Their conversation continued but suddenly it rang like a distant echo. "Oh shit ... shit ... shit. Kylie's aura is turning black. Black ... black ... black. I think there's a ghost. Ghost ... ghost ... ghost."

"Damn," Del a said. "I hate this shit." Footsteps sounded, her friends were running away. A door slammed. Kylie wanted to run, too, but she couldn't. She couldn't move. The blood continued to spatter on her feet, but she refused to look to read the words.

"Wait." Del a's tight voice sounded through wal s. "She stopped breathing. Kylie's stopped breathing. We have to do something."

Kylie heard the door swing open. Heard her name being cal ed. But that's when everything went black and her body slumped to the floor.