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"It doesn&039;t work like that," Derek said tenhis shirt coed on his cabin door after he was already undressed

Kylie glanced at his chest and noticed that his scratches were healing "What do you ht you could communicate with animals"

Derek closed the cabin door and moved her off the porch as if he was afraid one of his roo

"It&039;s not like I can ask them questions I hear or, should say, sense their emotions And not even al of them"

"You said the lion told you he didn&039;t like how you sht it" Derek shook his head "It won&039;t work, Kylie"

"But it has to" Her throat tightened "They&039;re going to close down the carip on the whole non-human stuff, I can&039;t leave now"

He studied her face for a moment "I know, but-"

"It&039;s not just aboutat the ca on each other Everyone says the ca al of us If they think the various supernatural gangs are bad now, think of-"

He put a finger to her lips and she fought the desire to slip her hands inside the opened shirt and hug hi with you But I just don&039;t think it ork"

Right then she reift, he had to continue to shut them out Yet he&039;d saved her from the lion She hadn&039;t even considered his sacrifice until no could she have forgotten that?

"I&039;m sorry" She closed her eyes a second "It&039;s because of your gift, because you have to stop using it I forgot-"

"No," he said "Okay, yeah, uilt in his eyes She reo she would have eaten wor "It&039;s not fair of rabbed her by her araze met hers "I was serious when I said it was only a little part of why I&039; the hel with it and playing the Tarzan role"

She saw from his expression that he told the truth "Hey," she said "That Tarzan role saved my life Don&039;t belittle it"

"I know, and that&039;s why I&039; it But this isover the top It&039;s not like I can sit down and have a chat with the animals It doesn&039;t work that way"

"How do you know?" Kylie asked "Have you tried?"

"No, butothers have this gift And if I could actual y do that, Holiday would have said so"

"Holiday has said a thousand tiift is different Look, I know you said that so far al you hear are their thoughts, but soer meat out of us"

"Okay, if by some miracle I can actual y communicate with theuy wouldn&039;t let ain today He thinks I&039; it to iht then, but she knew Holiday would worry soet hurt and would say no She tilted her chin back in defiance "Then we don&039;t ask him to let us in We sneak in"

"Sneak by a va to fool Superman"

"Yeah, but I happen to knohat his kryptonite is"

"He has a kryptonite?" Derek asked

"Yup And her na shot, but when it was your only shot, you made the most of it And that&039;s what she and Derek had done They had to acquire a little help to pul it off, but she was dang proud of her plan

Kylie and Derek waited a few hundred yards away fro to Del a, that distance would be far enough that Burnett couldn&039;t smel them Kylie clutched the maps of the park she&039;d printed off the Internet from the computer in Holiday&039;s office

Once Burnett was out of the way, getting into the ca to be a piece of cake Wel , it hen you had a certain eye-color-changing shape-shifter helping you out And to make sure they didn&039;t run into any unexpected surprises, Del a would make a sweep of the park, and then stand as lookout

Their biggest concern was if Derek&039;s ability would al ow hi from the animals He was skeptical Kylie wanted to believe in"Done," Miranda said

Which et Holiday&039;s cel phone and send Burnett the 911 e, a ruse Kylie kneould not be able to resist Helen, gracious enough to help, was right now having a meltdown by the creek that required Holiday&039;s help The longer Burnett searched for Holiday, the more time Derek would have with the animals

However, first they needed Burnett to leave And he did a few minutes later, when he slaht

"Looks like he&039;s in a hurry," Derek whispered

"I think he real y cares about Holiday" Kylie&039;s heart pinched with guilt for scaring Burnett To et the two of theether

"Ready?" Derek asked

She nodded They ran toward the park, knowing the clock was ticking

Perry had the gate open for theht upset the ani around hile and disappeared into the dark sky

"It stil freaksat Kylie&039;s shoulder

"What did you find?" Kylie asked, knowing their ti on the job-in the back office" Del a paused "Are you sure you don&039;t want me to come, too?"

Kylie shook her head "I think the less people involved, the more likely the animals wil communicate with Derek Go back to the camp and let us knohen Burnett heads back Hopeful y in ti already studied the maps, Kylie and Derek took off to the section cal ed the "lion&039;s den" first Lion&039;s den? That so didn&039;t have a good ring to it

While there were soht, only peered out from behind a cloud every now and then Even the animal sounds seemed more ominous than usual, or maybe Kylie&039;s perception arped because she knew they were trespassing-basical y breaking the law Either way, she found herself ht around the bend here," he said

She wasn&039;t sure if it was cat urine or so else, but the stench hit her nose "I can s trapped in the roo to the tune of panic

"Relax," Derek said

The fact that he could read her e"

"There&039;s so I need to know," he said at the sa out

"What?"

"What are you going to do if we learn that Lucas is behind this?"

"I&039;l do the sa I&039;l do if we discover someone else is behind it Tel Holiday" She paused "But that&039;s not e&039;re going to find"

"You seem real y sure he&039;s innocent"

She could feel Derek studying her "And you seeuilty"

"That&039;s because the evidence says he is"

"It&039;s al circuuy, you sure have changed your tune"

Kylie realized where this conversation could lead and she wanted to cal it over "I just want to find out who&039;s doing this and pray it stops the a blast of icy wind brush against her, she wrapped her arhost here?"

"Maybe" She looked around and didn&039;t see him "He&039;s only come back a few times since the lion incident and he never stays but a few seconds"

"Maybe he&039;l help us out the way he did then"