Page 11 of Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)

Chapter Eleven

“What?” Burnett sprang to his feet, placing Hannah in his wife’s arms. “How? You told him?” Burnett asked.

“No.” Why in the hell would she have done that?

“Wait. Did he confront you?” Holiday asked.

“No, but it finally makes sense. All this time, I didn’t understand. I knew he was disappointed in me, but he looked at me… differently. I didn’t know what it was and I couldn’t put my finger on it. But this morning when they found out about Mr. and Mrs. Chi being murdered, my dad… he looked at me like… like I’d done it.” She swallowed. “He’s afraid of me. He knows…”

Her voice shook. “He knows I’m a monster.”

The second the words were out, Della would give anything to pull them back in. To wad them up in her fist and hide them deep in her pocket—so deep she might be able to forget. Because damn it, in those few words she’d voiced the pain and shame that she’d felt since she’d discovered she’d been turned—since she’d learned that to sustain life, she needed blood.

“You are not a monster.” Holiday moved around the desk toward Della. Probably to touch her, to try to take away the pain she felt. It wouldn’t work. Not this time.

“Della?” Holiday touched her arm. “Hannah’s vampire. Look at her. Do you think—”

“It’s not what I think that matters,” she lied. “It’s what my dad thinks… and what my mom and sister will think.” It’s what the whole damn world would think if they knew vampires existed.

“I think you’re reading more into this than there is,” Burnett said. “How could he know?”

“Because he saw his twin brother in vamp mode kill his sister.”

Burnett looked confused. “But I thought… He saw his brother? He witnessed the murder?”

“He had to. My mom told me that Dad said he couldn’t remember anything that happened that night. That he was unconscious. But my aunt’s ghost says he wasn’t unconscious after all.”

“But your aunt could be wrong,” Holiday spoke up. “We’ve talked about this. When someone is dying they…”

“But it makes sense,” Della insisted. “Don’t you see? Mom said he still has nightmares about it. How can you have nightmares about something you can’t remember? She said that he was hospitalized after the murder, not because he was hurt, but because he was so distraught. He knows. And now he’s afraid I’m going to do to them what Feng did to Bao Yu.”

“I think you might be jumping to conclusions here.” Holiday gave Della’s shoulder another soft squeeze. She felt the calm sink into her skin, but it never got to her heart.

“Jumping? No, I’m embarrassed I didn’t figure it out earlier.”

“Look, I think…” Burnett stopped. He tilted his head to the side ever so slightly, telling Della he’d heard something.

She did the same and heard the footsteps in the front of the cabin. She raised her nose and got two scents. One was canine. The second… Chase. A jolt of unwanted anticipation swept through her. She pushed it back.

Back.

Back.

Back.

She turned and faced the front of the office. “Get ready, I’m coming,” she said, just loud enough for him to hear, and took a step toward the door.

***

Chase prepared himself to see her, but distracting him from getting too excited was the echo of her words. Not her warning—that, he expected—but the earlier confession: He knows I’m a monster. His chest tightened, and a deep somber feeling hit him right in his solar plexus. Then the emotion turned to anger. Anger at her father again.

“Don’t do it, Della!” Burnett’s voice came next.

Chase didn’t move, fighting his growing dislike for Della’s father, and the disappointment that she wasn’t this second standing in front of him. Only when he was convinced Della wasn’t coming, did he continue. He got only a few steps when he realized Baxter wasn’t following.

“Come here, boy,” he called to Baxter, who must have gotten Della’s scent because he was trotting toward the office. “No, Baxter.”

The dog stopped and glanced back as if to say, “But Della’s in there.”

“You’ll see her later,” Chase promised when the dog begrudgingly came. “Believe me, I’m as eager to see her as you are.” Anticipation tightened his shoulders, but his mind ricocheted back to another emotion.

Did Della really believe she was a monster?

Of course she did. He recalled with clarity feeling almost the same thing when he’d first been turned. But he’d had Eddie to counter all of the emotional crap. She’d had no one. Well, she’d had Chan, but considering she’d still been living with her nonvampire parents, she hadn’t gotten the same amount of guidance. And if he figured it right, it had been months before she’d gotten to Shadow Falls.

Did she know how rare it was for a fresh turn to survive those first few months without a vampire mentor? Or at least to survive with any morality. Most of them went rogue, or killed themselves. He made a mental note to make sure she understood how special she was to have survived all she had.

He made it around the first bend when the hairs on the back of his neck rose. Feeling as if he were being watched, he stopped and looked around. He saw and sensed nothing but nature.

Neither did Baxter, who looked up at him confused.

That didn’t mean they were alone. A shape-shifter could still be lurking. And one in particular came to Chase’s mind. “I don’t want any trouble,” he said. “But Della and I belong together. You need to respect that.”

Right then he felt something land on the back of his neck. He saw the bird flying away and he didn’t have to reach back to know it was bird crap.

Every instinct in his body said to take flight to teach the twerp a lesson, but he heard Burnett’s warning: First hint of trouble and you’ll be house hunting.

Swearing under his breath, his gaze still on the bird in the sky, he caught another sound and scent coming from behind him. So did Baxter. His growl echoed in silence, and they both swung around.

***

Della stared at the office door.

Had Chase been eavesdropping? Probably. The lowlife vamp had no shame. But she’d bet getting his ass kicked by a girl would offer him a little much-needed dose of humility.

“You two have to get along, or avoid each other,” Burnett spouted out, as if fully aware of what had turned her eyes a light yellow. “No bloodshed.”

Della frowned. “You always take the joy out of things.”

Burnett shook his head as if her smartass remarks didn’t suit him. “Sit down.” He waved at the chair in front of Holiday’s desk.

“Aren’t we done?” she asked, so damn ready to face Chase on the off chance he would offer her something he hadn’t offered Burnett. An ass-whooping didn’t always have to draw blood.

“No. I’ve got some more news on your father’s case and on the murders last night. So drop your butt in the chair and get kicking his butt off your mind.”

News of her father’s case? Chase instantly became second priority. She pulled the chair out and sat down. “What have you got?”

Holiday went back to her chair. Burnett leaned his backside on the edge of Holiday’s desk. Hannah let out a sweet coo, but the tension in the room seemed to pull the innocence out of it.

“We’ve gotten a new DA assistant assigned to your dad’s case. Jerod Mason, he’s fae, but works a lot of supernatural cases that fall into the regular courts.”

“DA? You’ve got one of our own helping to put my dad away?”

Burnett frowned. “Sometimes the best defense is having an ally in the offense. Jerod is going to pass info to your dad’s lawyer.”

“What about the judge? You said you were trying to get a supernatural judge who could look for a reason to toss the charges out.” Her stomach ached thinking how things could go so badly.

“That hasn’t come through yet.” He spotted Della’s frown and held up his hand. “It still might happen. These kinds of things can take a while. Meanwhile, I spoke with Jerod this morning. He plans on picking up all of the files tomorrow and when he does he’s going to get us copies, as well as your dad’s lawyer, so we’ll know what your father is up against.”

Who was Burnett kidding? She already knew what her dad was up against. A murder charge. One that could put him away for life, or worse. Texas was big on the death penalty. Della’s heart thumped in fear just thinking about it.

“Do we have a date yet? For the trial?”

“No, but Jerod said that the word is that the DA’s office is pushing for it to be soon. We’ve got a few people working in the courts and we’re trying to make that happen.”

“Why soon?” Della asked, dreading seeing her dad go through this.

Burnett’s expression softened, as if what he had to say wouldn’t be so easy to take. “The less time they have to dig things up the better off we’ll be.”

“This can’t be easy for your dad,” Holiday added. Hannah let out a sweet coo, so sweet it felt as if it didn’t belong anywhere near this conversation.

Della’s chest tightened with the guilt for causing this. “You’re right.” She swallowed. “I heard him tell my mom he didn’t know how long he was going to be able to keep his job.”

“We’re going to do everything we can,” Holiday said. “You know that.”

Della nodded, but the thought clawing at her sanity was.… what if “everything” wasn’t enough?

***

The instant Chase and Baxter swung around, Steve came walking from the woods.

Confused, Chase cut his gaze up to the sky where the bird was still visible, then he looked back at the shape-shifter.

Steve wasn’t grinning, but his brown eyes held a hint of humor that royally chapped Chase’s ass.

“You thought that was me.” Now the shape-shifter smiled.

“Yeah, I did,” Chase said, certain his own expression didn’t come off so upbeat. “So it was a friend, huh?”

Their gazes met. Tension filled the early Sunday air. Chase inhaled and the guy’s scent filled his nose. The scent reminded him of Della because Chase had always smelt it on her when he first met her. Something he really preferred not to think about.

Steve looked skyward where the bird flew in circles. “Nope. Not as far as I know.” The guy’s heart rate didn’t indicate he was lying. “But he is now.” Steve smiled, showing no fear. Something Chase admired even when it stung.

Since he’d learned of this guy’s feelings for Della, he’d wanted to find things about Steve to dislike—things to discredit him in Della’s eyes.

But other than his flirtation with the daughter of the vet Steve worked for, Chase hadn’t been able to find any dirt on the guy. That made things harder, but it also spoke of Della’s choice in who she let into her life.

Chase swallowed his pride and decided to take the high road. “I guess I was wrong. Sorry.”

Steve glanced away for a second as if debating something. When he looked back he had determination written all over his expression. “That’s not the only thing you’re wrong about.”