So good.
He let go of her finger and one hand came to the back of her neck, the other cradled the back of her head. Della’s hand dropped to press against his chest.
The kiss deepened and so did Della’s confusion.
His tongue slipped between her lips. She allowed it. Welcomed it.
Finally, seeing reason, she pulled back. “You can’t just kiss me to avoid answering.”
“Really?” He drew her closer and kissed her again.
And damn it, she let him.
She finally pushed back. “Answer me,” she said, but without a lot of conviction.
He smiled at her. “I forgot the question.”
She wanted to smack that smile off his face, especially when she realized she’d forgotten the question, too.
He passed a finger over her lips, and the sexy way he looked at her told her he was about to kiss her again. She caught his finger this time. “Why haven’t you arranged a meeting with me and the Vampire Council?”
“I have. We’re going there before we go to the airport to pick up Damian Bond.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was going to, but ever since you showed up at my place earlier, all I’ve focused on was coming to see your aunt.” He pulled his finger free and touched her chin. “Now, will you answer my questions?”
“What questions?”
“Natasha is Chan’s sister?”
“No,” Della said and decided to tell him the truth. “The ghost is Natasha’s mom. She gave Natasha up for adoption.”
“So you had another aunt?”
“I guess the council missed that in their report, huh?”
“I guess so,” he said and looked concerned. She almost asked if he knew about her uncle. The question sat on the tip of her tongue.
“How did Natasha’s mom die?”
“She was murdered,” Della said, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him more.
Questions and concerns quickly started forming in Della’s head. “Because Chan and I were both Reborns, does that mean Natasha will be, too?”
“It’s not a given, but her odds are fifty/fifty.”
Della started thinking about other odds. “I’ve heard that in families that carry the virus, the odds of them actually getting turned are like one in a hundred. And only then when they’re young.” This was why Della hadn’t really worried about her sister. “Do those odds of being turned go up if you belong to one of the bloodlines that are more likely to be Reborn?” When he didn’t answer immediately, she asked, “Are my sister and Meiling at a higher risk of being turned?”
He nodded. “The statistics are that one in ten of the stronger bloodlines are actually susceptible to being turned.”
“So, me being around my sister or my cousin can expose them?”
“It’s exposed only through blood. Like the HIV virus. So just being with them isn’t going to get them turned.”
Della sat back in her seat and tried to digest what she knew.
“Hey,” he said and touched her shoulder. “Don’t worry about things that haven’t happened. Let’s worry about saving Natasha and Liam right now.”
She looked at him, and knowing he was right, she nodded.
He spoke again. “You said you felt as if the ghost wanted you to come here. Did you learn anything that would help?”
She tried to consider everything she’d learned. “I don’t think so.” She looked at Chase and offered him more of the truth. “I think this is about something else.”
“Like what?”
“She wants me to find out who killed her.”
“Okay,” he said, sounding leery. “Do you think you know who did it?”
She looked at Chase and debated telling him everything again. She almost did, then stopped. Oddly, it wasn’t because she didn’t trust him, but because he already held a prejudice against her father. She didn’t need him assuming the worst right now.
“Can we just try to find Natasha and Liam?”
“Okay,” he said, but his expression said he didn’t like it. “What do you want to do? Where do you want to go?”
“Back to Uck’s,” she said.
“You still think the were you got a trace of at the restaurant has something to do with Natasha?”
“I do,” she said. “And so does the ghost. She’s the reason I knew it was werewolves that the rogue was scared of last night.”
“Then to Uck’s we go.” He reached over again and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “We are going to work this out.”
“Work what out?”
“Everything,” he said. “Natasha and Liam. You and me.”
Her heart gave a big tug, and all she could do was nod.
He started the car, and for some crazy reason, she heard Steve’s voice in her head.
Promise me that before you fall in love with Chase, you’ll remember that I loved you first.
Then she heard Holiday’s voice. Just be careful.
Oh, hell. Was she really falling in love with Chase?
* * *
She called Burnett and told him she’d be home in a couple of hours to give him a full report. He started to interrogate her over the phone and she insisted they’d talk later. He wasn’t happy, but he accepted it after she told him exactly where they were heading. He obviously felt there was nothing to worry about at Uck’s, and didn’t mind them going.
What pissed Della off was that he was right.
They got nothing at Uck’s. But because there were a few vampires there, they ordered Cokes and talked about mundane stuff. Stories about his parents and his sister. But for some reason, it didn’t feel mundane. She wanted to know all those things.
Then he asked her about her past. Wanting him to know the good side of her father, she told him about how they played chess and even entered a few competitions. She told him about her father taking her fishing. About Scrabble night, and how the family would get together and play.
It was sometime during that conversation that she understood why the ghost wanted her to read the diary. When you cared about someone, you wanted to know the little things. Details of their life. Her aunt, Bao Yu, wanted to know the little things of her daughter’s life.
* * *
At almost nine o’clock, Chase pulled up at Shadow Falls. “Do you want me to come with you to talk to Burnett?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “I got it.”
He stared at her. “Are you going to tell him about the leak in the FRU?”
“I have to,” she said. “Are you going to tell the council that I know about it and for him to get the hell out of there?”
“I already have—when you went to the bathroom right after we got to the restaurant.”
She inhaled. “At least we’re being honest.”
“Working for adversaries doesn’t change what’s between us, Della.”
It would, Della sensed it. It just hadn’t risen to a head. And when it did, she didn’t have a clue how she was going to handle it.
But that was only part of her problem. “I’m not a hundred percent sure what is happening between us,” she said.
He leaned over and kissed her again. She only let it happen for a second. She put her hand on his chest and pushed him back an inch.
“I can clear that up for you,” he said. “It’s called being bonded. And it’s a powerful thing. We belong together now.”
“I have to go.” She walked away from him sitting in his car. And she listened to him drive away, feeling the emptiness she felt each and every time.
She went in and gave Burnett a full report. And when she told him about the leak in the FRU, a part of her almost felt disloyal to Chase. Working for adversaries doesn’t change what’s between us, Della. She reheard Chase’s words, and again, she knew he was wrong.
No sooner had Della told Burnett about the leak, he picked up the phone to call someone at the FRU.
He was promptly informed that one of their agents had already cleaned out his office and left a letter of resignation.
“Do you see, I told you the Vampire Council was up to no good?”
Della leaned back in her chair. “Do you not have agents trying to get their information?”
“Whose side are you on?” Burnett asked.
“The FRU’s,” she told him, “but I’m not sure there should be sides.”
“Tell that to the Vampire Council,” he snapped back. “They’re the ones who refuse to work with us.”
After a moment of him fuming, Della asked, “Did you get anything else on the bodies?”
“They’ve found a total of twenty now.”
“No identifications yet?” she asked, almost scared of his answer.
“None.”
She almost told him about Natasha being her cousin. She didn’t because she knew he’d discover that her aunt had been murdered. Then he’d discover the connection to her uncle. Maybe she wanted him to discover it? If her uncle killed her aunt, didn’t he deserve to be discovered? Yes, he did, but she wanted a little more time to find her own answers before Burnett started stirring up the pot.
And it had nothing to do with her thinking her father was guilty.
It didn’t, she told herself as she walked back to her cabin. When she looked up and saw the stars, instead of appreciating the night, she realized another day had passed and Natasha and Liam were still trapped.
Or dead. The thought whispered through her mind, and as much as she wanted to deny it, a part of her feared that she believed what Bao Yu wanted to believe. What if her aunt just refused to believe Natasha was dead?
* * *
Call it growth, or weakness … she didn’t know which, but Della finally accepted she needed to reach out for help and support. Instead of locking herself away in her room, she went to the fridge, got out three diet sodas, and waited for her two best friends to come home.
About fifteen minutes later, they came in, smelling like smoke. They’d obviously been at a bonfire.
When they stepped in and saw her, then the diet sodas, their laughter halted.
“What’s wrong?” Kylie asked, and they both took up their places at the table.
“Everything,” Della said. Her problems spun in her head and she wasn’t sure she could fix any of them. Powerless. That’s how she felt. Even though she had more now than she’d ever had.
So she started with that truth, the one she should have told them weeks ago. She wasn’t just a normal vampire anymore. She didn’t tell them that Burnett was a Reborn, but she refused to keep secrets from them anymore.
They sat there and looked at her, then at each other, and then Miranda said, “Tell us something we don’t know.”
“You knew? How?”
“We saw you flying way faster than you should have,” Kylie said.
“And once, you flew off the porch and didn’t even run,” Miranda added. “We were wondering when you were going to ’fess up. I told Kylie I was giving you about another week and then we were going to have to call you out.”
Della made a face. “I hate getting called out.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Kylie asked, almost sounding hurt.
“Burnett suggested I not tell you. So you can’t mention it.”
“What happens at the kitchen table stays at the kitchen table,” Miranda said and turned a fake key on her lips. Kylie nodded.
“Now tell us what’s really wrong,” Kylie said.
Della explained the whole bond thing—how she didn’t like thinking it was real, but feared it was.
They listened. Commiserated. But didn’t offer any real advice. How could they? They didn’t understand it any more than she did.
“Did you get anything more from the ghost?” Of course, Kylie would guess her issues had to do with the ghost.
Della told them what Burnett had found, and then how she’d gone to see her aunt Miao. Her voice shook a little when she told them how hard it was to see her—someone she’d been cut off from because her parents thought she was doing terrible things. It shook a little harder when she told them what Burnett had found and now believed.
Kylie just sat there and didn’t say anything, but Della could tell she agreed with Burnett.
So then she told them about knowing for certain the ghost was her aunt Bao Yu, and about Natasha being her cousin.
“The crazy thing is,” Della said, “when I asked my aunt about Bao Yu’s death, it was almost as if Bao Yu was waiting to hear. As if she didn’t know what happened.”
“That’s not that unusual,” Kylie said. “Especially if it was a violent death. They block it out to protect themselves.”
“So the vision she gave me could mean nothing?” Della asked.
Kylie hesitated. “It has to mean something. Maybe it’s what she thinks happened.”
“Does this ever get any easier?” Della muttered.
“Not even a little bit,” Kylie answered. “Every ghost brings a new challenge.”
Miranda squirmed in her chair. “Not to change the subject. Well, that’s a lie, I really don’t like talking about ghosts. But you told us about the bond thing, but … did anything happen with Chase tonight? Did any hands or noses go places they shouldn’t?”
Della exhaled, and growled. She hadn’t really planned on dishing about that, but why the hell not? “He kissed me. Three or four, maybe five, times.”