Unspoken: Shadow Falls: After Dark (13 page)

Eventually, he looked up. “It doesn’t always happen like this.”

“What?” she asked.

“The bond. Not everyone ends up together. You still have a choice.” Honesty and hurt thickened his voice. “But I’m going to do everything in my power to prove to you that I’m the right choice.”

“By lying to me?”

“I’m not—”

“You did.”

“Look,” he said, sounding frustrated. “The day Burnett gave you those photographs, I was going to tell you.”

“Sure you were.”

“I was. If you’ll remember, I told you that we needed to talk. I called you early that morning and asked you to meet me earlier because … I wanted to come clean.”

Feeling vulnerable, she tightened her fist. “Why don’t you just leave?”

He shook his head. “Eddie had never told me about your aunt. I questioned him about it and that’s when he told me. Then when I heard about your father being arrested, I was shocked. I went back to Eddie and that’s when he told me what really happened. And all I’ve done since is look for that guy to get your dad off.”

“There.” She held up a finger. “You finally said something that I care to hear about. What does my uncle
say
happened? Not that I’m sure I’ll believe him.” She walked to the chair and dropped down.

“Why would he lie about that?” he asked.

“Because he’s guilty of murder.”

“He didn’t do it.”

“Yeah, well, I trust him about as much as I do you.” She leaned back and her whole body melted into the chair cushion. Instantly, she felt the lack of sleep making her eyelids heavy.

He moved to the sofa and sat down. “He was at a party one night with his girlfriend. They were leaving and some guy was hitting on her.”

“I want to know about the murder, not my uncle’s love life.”

“I’m getting to that,” he said. “Eddie stood up to him and they fought. The guy was vampire. When he got sick later, his parents took him to the hospital. A young nurse there was fae. She told him what was happening and even gave him some blood.”

Della sat there, fighting the compassion that stirred for her uncle. His story was so close to her own that her chest ached. She was so darn tired.

Then she felt Baxter’s soft snout rest on her leg.

“The fae told him about a funeral home that would help him fake his death. They also offered him a few names of gangs he could join. He didn’t want to go that way, so he went on his own, but he couldn’t do it. He wound up joining a gang.”

Chase folded his hands together. “It wasn’t one of the good ones. The initiation demanded he kill someone for blood. He couldn’t do it. They offered him one more chance. Told him if he didn’t do it, they would kill someone he loved. He didn’t think they knew anything about him.”

Chase’s voice deepened and Della could tell just by his tone how much he cared about Eddie, that it hurt him to recount the man’s story.

Silence and emotion hung in the air, then Chase continued, “Eddie went to tell the gang leader he couldn’t do it, and that he was leaving, but the guy laughed. Told him that the punishment was already set in motion. At first Eddie wasn’t worried; he countered that there wasn’t anyone he loved. But as he walked out, the guy called him by his real name.”

“Realizing they knew, Eddie took off as fast as he could. When he got to the house, Bao Yu was already dead. One of the gang members, a Douglas Stone, was still in the house.”

Della’s heart gripped. “My dad? Did he see it?”

Chase shrugged. “Eddie said when he got there your father was unconscious. Eddie and Douglas went at it. But Douglas was a lot stronger. They were still fighting when the cops, sirens blaring, pulled up in front of the house. Eddie was in bad shape, but he managed to get out before they got upstairs. Unfortunately, so did Douglas Stone. He got away.”

He paused. “As soon as Eddie was able, he went looking for Douglas Stone. But the gang had broken up. They’d all gone their own ways. A few months later, he found out about the Vampire Council. He went and appealed to them to help him catch the guy. They looked, but never found him. He’s still on their most-wanted list.”

Della just stared, trying to take it all in, her exhaustion level climbing. “Who called the police?”

Chase shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“It had to have been my dad.”

“It’s possible.”

The images flashing in her head were almost too painful to stomach. She felt Baxter bathe her hand with his tongue. She stared at the dog, using his soulful, caring eyes as a touchstone as the story replayed in her head. Did she believe it? Maybe. Oh, hell, she didn’t know what she believed.

She looked up at Chase. Did she believe in him? Hadn’t he proved that she couldn’t?

“Does my uncle work for the council?”

Chase nodded. “Sort of. But not as an agent.”

“Then what?”

He smiled ever so slightly. “Eddie says he has more brains than brawn. The council put him through Baylor. Then he trained as a supernatural doctor around the world. He no longer works as just a doctor, but works trying to improve the health of vampires. He’s the one who discovered the five different lineages who are carriers of the Reborn virus and discovered how to save Reborns. He’s a good man, Della.”

“If he’s so good, why isn’t he here? Why didn’t he come looking for me instead of sending you? What’s he hiding?”

She saw the way Chase looked away for a second. Then he turned back. “It’s Burnett.”

“He knows Burnett?”

“No, because he’s FRU.”

“But…” She paused as she tried to wrap her head around his answer. “You’re here and you’ve even joined the agency.”

“Some people are more political than others.”

“That sounds like a pretty weak excuse.” And damned if her eyelids didn’t feel heavy as well. She really needed him to leave so she could rest. But she was finally getting answers that felt half true.

“Is he going to avoid you now?”

“He wouldn’t do that.”

Was that doubt in his eyes? “Then it doesn’t make sense.”

He ran a hand over his face. “I don’t know why he hates the FRU.” He exhaled. “But whatever that reason is, it’s not … He’s got a good heart.”

“Who is Don Williams?”

“I think it’s an alias that Douglas Stone uses. I’ve got addresses on some here in the Houston area. Tomorrow I’ll go check them out. You obviously saw what I printed out.”

She didn’t deny it. They sat there for a silent few seconds, her body sinking deeper into the chair, her eyes growing harder to keep open.

“Any other questions, Della? I’ll answer them. I’m not hiding anything.”

Did she believe him? Oh, hell, she was too tired to believe or not believe.

Chase stood and walked past her. “I brought us something.” He pulled out a bottle of blood from the fridge, unscrewed it, and took a sip. The tangy scent was O negative. He walked back and held out the container.

“Here.”

The taste buds on her tongue tingled. She didn’t take it.

“I don’t need it.” Her stomach grumbled in protest. “I had some last night.” She looked back at Baxter.

“How long did you go without? Did you feed at all when you were at your parents’?”

“Of course I did,” she said.

“You know if you don’t feed regularly, you get worn down. Especially, when you’re a Reborn.”

She glared up at him.

“I should have brought you some blood while you were there. I didn’t think. I apologize for that.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not your concern.”

“You will always be my concern,” he said softly. Then he put the plastic container in her hand. The wild berry scent rose up and her mouth watered. Oh, hell. She lifted it and took a sip. The flavor sent her taste buds to heaven.

She looked up. The fact that he towered above her hit a nerve, but with zero energy, she didn’t have what it took to stand.

“I don’t need you to take care of me,” she said.

“We all need someone, Della. That doesn’t mean you aren’t strong.”

She started to stand up, but he knelt down. His green gaze locked on her face. “You’re beautiful, smart, and funny. You care more about people than is required. You’re the furthest thing from a monster that I know, Della Tsang.”

An achiness swelled in her chest. “You were eavesdropping.” If she weren’t so tired, she’d give him a hard shove and knock him on his butt. Hell, if she weren’t so tired, she’d come up with some rude remark about his compliments meaning nothing.

“Not really eavesdropping. Not intentionally.”

Before she realized his intent, he brushed a strand of hair from her cheek and let his hand linger against her cheek. The touch was both painful and wonderful at the same time.

She cut her eyes to the side and glared at his hand. “That’s a good way to lose a finger.”

As if to prove he didn’t believe her, he ran his index finger over her bottom lip. “Get some rest. I’ll check on you later.”

She watched him walk out. Why hadn’t she bit him? Damn, she should have bit him!

It wasn’t until she blinked that she realized she had tears in her eyes. Hell, she was so tired that she didn’t even know why she was crying. Not that she was short on reasons.

Chapter Fifteen

Sleep had never felt so good. Della didn’t want to wake up, but then she heard the voices. Miranda and Kylie?

She rolled over and forced her eyes open. Her gaze landed on a dresser. A big white dresser with matching vases of plastic yellow sunflowers decorating the top.

“Shit!” She jackknifed out of bed, her feet thudding down on light blue carpet. She stood there, arms out, mind racing, trying to come to terms with the fact that she didn’t have a white dresser. That the walls in her room at Shadow Falls weren’t a pale yellow.

Her gaze shifted around. She didn’t have a white four-poster bed, either. She didn’t have a pink quilt. Or …

A loud crashing sound echoed from somewhere inside the house. Then came voices. No, not voices: screams.

Real screams like someone was about to die.

Della’s gaze shot to the mirror. Her heart stopped when the person staring back at her wasn’t … her. It was Bao Yu, her aunt. Somewhere deep in her mind, behind the wall of panic clawing at her conscious, she realized this was a vision.

“You okay?” Another voice rang out from somewhere, somewhere that wasn’t here. Somewhere that felt safe, but Della couldn’t go there. She had to stay here.

“Della?” a voice said her name.

A hand came down on her shoulder. Della swung around, growled, and showed her canines.

Suddenly the pale yellow walls disappeared. Her vision swirled, blurred, and then transformed into tunnel vision. She blinked, felt as if she were moving. She closed her eyes, then opened them. For one second she thought she was back in her room, but then something changed, everything changed. She lay on the floor, a cold tile floor; above her a ceiling fan whirled around. And around.

She cut her eyes left and saw a basketball about a foot from her face, sitting in a puddle of something red. She glanced right and saw … she saw a red tabby. Della fought to make sense of this, and then she did. The cat … Chester.

The feline rested on his side, he shifted his paw at her, his breathing labored. Just past the cat lay her husband. No, Mrs. Chi’s husband. But she was Mrs. Chi. She blinked, waiting to see his chest rise with breath. But no. He lay so still. Too still.

Someone’s foot landed between her and the cat. The shoe was a bright red tennis shoe that appeared to be made out of snakeskin.

Am I going to have to cut you again?
A voice asked. And then,
Shit, go get them before they go rattling their mouth. Take care of them.

Get who? Della wondered. She tried to look up to see the face of the killer, but her vision went black. A light, a soft light, called for Mrs. Chi. The woman’s fury at the killers swelled in her chest and she turned away from the light. She clung to what she knew. To the here and now.

A rushing sound filled her ears, the taste of blood filled her mouth. She felt it then, a kind of nothingness. Not fear. Not pain.

She was dying.

“No,” she yelled. But nothing came out of her mouth. Everything went dark, and all she could see was that beautiful light leaving her, floating away. Her husband of over fifty years was in the midst of that light, motioning for her to come. To hurry. But it wasn’t right. None of this should have happened. She needed to tell someone before these bad people hurt others.

“Della?” her name came again, but it was still far away. Her visions started to clear. She sensed she wasn’t alone. She saw his shape floating toward her in another light. A different light. Not Mr. Chi, but someone else. Someone … familiar. Chase?

Then he was gone. So was the light. A knife, blood dripping from its tip was held right over her face. Fear caught her by the neck and pulled her under. She felt a drop of blood from the weapon fall against her cheek. She tried to bolt up, but there was numbness in her limbs. Another spatter of blood dripped from the knife’s edge.

An odd déjà vu feeling pulled at her mind. She looked up from the blade, to the person straddling her. Feng.

Not Feng! See the freckle. There, beside his right brow. That’s not Feng.

Suddenly fighting mad, Della lifted her head up and let go of another growl. “No! No! No!”

The blackness returned and she welcomed it. Let it swallow her.

One.

Two.

Three.

She wanted to stay there. In the nothingness, but something, someone, brought her back again.

“I’ve got you. It’s over,” a male voice said.

What’s over?

Della sensed herself being lifted off the floor, cradled in someone’s arms. Her cheek came against a solid male chest. A solid bare chest.

She heard a steady heartbeat. And no sooner than she heard it than her own heart changed its rhythm to follow.

She opened her eyes and saw Chase’s green gaze on her. Worry etched his expression. She felt his arms around her. Felt the coolness of his skin against the back of her legs, her bare back. Felt the muscle in his chest, where her cheek rested. Another fraction of a second ticked by before she became aware of him lowering himself. He sat on her bed.