“It’s the same thing as going to a funeral,” he said. “But I sort of understand. I don’t like your father, either.”
She looked at Chase. “I told you he wasn’t always like this. He was patient, kind, and he thought I held up the moon.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just the way…” He let out a deep breath. “I’m just saying I feel protective of you, too. Like you do with Eddie.”
She wanted to deny it, but couldn’t. She recalled how she’d heard Chase’s heart skip to a lie last night about being jealous. “You really don’t know where Eddie is?”
“No.” Chase looked at her and he didn’t blink, as if letting her look him right in the eye meant he thought she’d see the truth there.
“You know, it hurts that you still don’t believe me.”
“I don’t know what I believe.” She paused a few minutes. “How are you going to find out if anyone on the council knows anything about Stone?
“I guess I’m going to see someone,” he said and still sounded angry.
She hesitated. “You don’t think … that they would hurt you, do you?”
“I don’t think so,” he said. But he didn’t sound that sure to Della.
Another silence fell like soft rain in the car.
“Hey,” Chase finally said. “Don’t make it obvious, but look at the guy walking out of apartment ten … to your right. Can you read his pattern?” Chase lifted his nose and inhaled.
Della turned her head slowly. “You think it’s Stone?”
Chapter Thirty-four
Let it be Stone. Let it be Stone. Della pushed her hair back, trying to appear normal.
“No, he’s too young, but he might be one of his grunt workers,” Chase said.
Della spotted him. The brown-haired guy, around twenty, wearing jeans and a dark black T-shirt, but he was too far away for her to make out his pattern. “He has a tool box in his hands.”
“I know,” Chase said.
Not wanting to get caught staring, she looked around for a few seconds, but when his footsteps brought him closer to their car, she glanced back again. “Half were,” she whispered and looked away, because if she could read his pattern, he could read hers.
“Do you think he can smell us?” she asked.
“Not all half weres have the ability to trace,” he said, but then muttered, “Shit. He’s coming this way.”
The next thing Della knew, Chase pulled her closer and had her in a lip lock.
“What are you doing?” Della asked when Chase’s mouth melted against hers.
“He can’t read our patterns this way.” His lips continued to brush against hers. “Besides, you’re the one who taught me this trick. At the bar, remember?”
She wished she couldn’t remember. Footsteps outside the car grew closer. So did Chase’s lips.
“Kiss me, Della.” He ran his tongue over her bottom lip. “Don’t make me do all the work.”
She opened her mouth. His tongue slipped between her lips. He tasted a little like toothpaste, a little like … Chase. And a lot of something forbidden.
He ran his left hand through her hair and gently cradled her head. With a gentle pull, he brought her closer. She stopped fighting it, and let herself go there—go to a place where nothing but sweetness and possibilities existed.
Where those footsteps were hardly heard.
Where the line between faking a kiss and enjoying a kiss became blurred.
Chase pulled back. Della opened her eyes and looked at him. Her heart raced, and she felt lost in his taste, in the soft feel of his hand behind her neck. The smile in his eyes sobered her. She looked around.
“Where did he go?” she managed to ask.
“Apartment sixteen.” He dipped back in for another kiss. And she let him. Then, realizing what she was doing, she put her hand on his chest and lifted her mouth from his. She didn’t actually push him away, but she thought about it.
“You sure?” she asked.
“Yes.” He brushed his lips against hers again.
“Then we should stop.” She pulled back, just an inch. With his hand still curled around her neck, he moved in and reclaimed that tiny space.
“We don’t have to.” He smiled. His green eyes came so close, she could see his irises—still taste his tongue, still feel his breath on her chin.
“Yes, we do,” she said, a lot more adamantly.
“Why?” He pressed his lips to the corner of her mouth.
“Because Burnett’s standing at your window.”
* * *
Chase, certain that being caught making out would bite harder than the damn dog that got him last week, stepped out of the car. He felt even worse when he saw it wasn’t just Burnett, but the female agent, Trisha, he’d met yesterday and Shawn, the warlock agent, who had a thing for Miranda, Della’s roommate.
“Have you seen Stone yet?” Burnett asked. “Or have you been occupied?”
“No Stone, but a half were, half human just walked into apartment sixteen. Which was why we were … hiding our patterns.” And it sounded a lot more convincing when he’d suggested it to Della than it did now.
“Oh, that’s what you were doing?” the female agent said and grinned.
Burnett frowned. “Did he get your trace?”
“He never appeared to,” Chase answered.
“Which one is Stone’s apartment?”
“Apartment two,” Chase said. “Right beside the office.”
“Okay,” Burnett said. “You two—”
Burnett never finished. The door to the apartment swung open and four guys walked out.
Their gaze found them and all four shot in different directions.
“See if Stone is in his place or the office,” Burnett ordered and took off.
“I got apartment two,” Trisha said, running.
Chase took off after a different were, and saw Della and Shawn doing the same.
Moving fast, his feet pounding against the pavement, Chase felt his side pinch, reminding him he wasn’t completely healed. He ignored it and kept going.
The guy was fast, but not fast enough. Chase got within a few feet of the guy, his dark hair flipping in the wind. The were’s body odor and scent filled Chase’s airspace. His nostrils flared, as the scent hit as familiar.
Right before he latched on to the guy’s shoulder, he remembered exactly where he’d come across this were before.
This was one of the creeps he’d pulled off Della.
He brought the guy down. Chase landed on top of him. The half were tried to scramble away, but Chase put his hand on the back of his head and pushed his face down just hard enough for the guy to know his strength.
“Don’t move,” Chase seethed. “Or do, and it’ll make my day.” His fury rose now as he became even more certain this guy had been at the park. He recalled with clarity seeing one of the half were’s fists swing at Della, and Chase had to work not to let his eyes grow bright.
Grabbing the guy by the arm, he dragged him across the parking lot to his car.
Burnett met him halfway, with one of the other runaways. Shawn was placing another one in the back of a black sedan. Trisha stood outside apartment two, shaking her head, as if to say Stone wasn’t there.
Chase turned to look for Della. The parking lot was empty.
Where the hell was she?
* * *
Della moved fast, sniffing the air. The guy had disappeared between apartment buildings. She’d caught the were scent when she’d first leapt out of Chase’s car, but she’d left that behind as she pursued the new scent. What she now tried to follow was vampire and maybe a trace of warlock. Definitely a mixed breed.
She moved around several cars, thinking the guy might be hiding. He wasn’t there.
Then she heard a scream. A child’s scream. Coming from one building away. She took off, completely blowing Burnett’s no-excess-force rule.
The scream stopped. Della kept moving. She saw an apartment
door open. And she heard a muffled cry from inside.
She debated for one second to enter or not. The moan came again. Della shot forward.
She stopped as soon as she spotted him. The vampire had his arm around a child, his hand clasped over her mouth. He held a knife in his other hand. The girl, dark skinned, with yellow ribbons in her hair, had tears running down her face. She looked terrified. As she should be.
“Let the child go,” Della said, and fought to keep her eyes from growing bright. Not because of Burnett’s rule but for fear of scaring the girl.
“Get away from the door,” he seethed, his eyes lime green and his fangs out. He moved his hand from the girl’s mouth and pulled her closer. Then he put the knife to her throat.
The girl let out a light cry. Della checked his pattern as she shifted away from the door. She’d been right. Vampire. Dominant vampire with some warlock.
“I’m moving,” Della said. “Just leave the kid and I’ll let you go.” Della’s heart raced. If he tried to run with the girl, she’d have to stop him. There was no doubt he’d kill the girl if he got away.
Della didn’t lack the strength to catch him, but did she have the courage to do it, knowing how fast that knife could slice the child’s throat?
The little girl’s gaze met hers. The rogue pressed the knife closer.
“Go,” Della said. “I won’t chase you. Just let her go. She’s a kid. She didn’t do anything.”
The vamp picked up the child and slung her across the room.
Della jumped up in the air and caught the girl right before she hit the wall, landing in the middle of the living room.
She pulled the little girl against her. “It’s okay,” Della said, but she had to look away from the child’s face because she felt her eyes grow hot with fury.
But it quickly didn’t become an issue, because the girl buried her face in Della shoulder and started sobbing.
Seconds later, Chase rushed in. His eyes were bright, his fangs half out.
She shook her head. He nodded and darted off.
Seconds later, Shawn came in. He nodded at Della and she knew what he meant. She should turn the child over to him and get the hell out.
Before she did, she gave the girl one last pat on her back. “It’s all over now.”
* * *
“You did the right thing,” Burnett told Della, thirty minutes later.
The van had shown up and taken the three half weres away. The little girl had been taken by ambulance just to make sure she was okay. Stone wasn’t there. The apartment manager, a human older woman who kept an unlit cigarette dangling from her lips, gave them the bad news. Douglas Stone had packed his shit and left a couple of weeks ago. And all but these four of his “friends” who had helped him out around the apartment had left with him.
Burnett had Chase take Della across the street, where they parked beside a fast food restaurant and watched Burnett, Trisha, and Shawn handle the police.
With Della being a minor, he didn’t want her involved. They had changed the story; now Trisha had been the officer who saved the girl. Not that Della cared. The kid was safe, that was what mattered. But it wasn’t all that mattered.
“He got away,” Della said. Amazingly, her voice sounded calm, but her insides hadn’t stopped shaking. She kept seeing that little girl and the knife to her throat.
Chase stood at her side. Too close. She felt his shoulder against hers. But she didn’t have the strength to push him away.
“But it could have ended so much worse,” Chase said.
“He’s right,” Burnett said. And then asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be okay,” she assured him, and her heart didn’t race to the lie. She would be okay: she just wasn’t right at this moment.
“Did you get anything from the weres?”
“Not yet,” Burnett said. “But we will.” He walked over and put his hand on Della’s shoulder. “You saved that girl, Della. You did the right thing.”
I know,” Della said. “But we still don’t have Stone. And in just days my dad is going to go to trial for murder.”
“And none of us are giving up.” Burnett looked at Chase. “Why don’t you take her back to Shadow Falls?”
“No,” Della said. “Didn’t you hear me? Time’s running out.”
“But—”
“No,” she said. “We still haven’t gone to Stone’s girlfriend’s place.”
For a second, Burnett looked like he was going to argue with her, then he let go of a deep gulp of air. “Fine, let’s go,” Burnett said. “I’ll meet you there.”
“We could handle it if you wanted to go get the interviews done,” Chase said.
“No,” Burnett said. “I’m going. It shouldn’t take long.”
“Wait.” Chase touched his forehead. “I just remembered.”
Della looked at Chase. “The guy I grabbed. I knew him from somewhere else.”
“What?” Burnett asked.
“The half were I snagged. I recognized his scent. I was going to tell you, but then all this happened. He’s one of the guys I pulled off Della that night and the one I smelled with the animal blood on him earlier that same night. He’s part of the group that killed the Chis and those other weres.”
“Are you sure?” Burnett asked.
“Positive he killed the Chis? No. But I’m positive he’s the same one with blood on him and the same one who jumped Della in the park.”
Della heard him, but had to work to get it. “Wait. Are you saying Stone, or at least his gang, is mixed up in the Chis’ murder, too?”
* * *
“Top up or down?” Chase asked Della a few minutes later as they got into the car to go see if they could find Stone’s girlfriend. He wished Burnett had insisted he take Della back to Shadow Falls. He could tell she was still shaken. And rightfully so.
He’d have been shaken too. He’d rescued a woman from a rogue before, but something about a child made it more intense.
“Don’t care,” Della said.
Chase reached over and caught her hand. “It’s going to be okay.”
She shook her head. “Not if we don’t find Stone it won’t be.”
“We’ll get him.” Chase’s gut knotted when he saw the sheen of tears in her eyes.
She wiped a few tears from her face. “The new manager said Stone took off, and most of his workers did too. What’s the chance these guys know where he is? They obviously don’t know since they weren’t important enough to go with him.”
“I’d say it’s pretty good,” Chase said. “They were obviously in the gang.”
“I wish I believed that,” Della said. A few more tears slipped from her lashes. And for one second he wanted to tell her that Eddie wasn’t going to let her father go down for this murder—that he would sacrifice himself, but Chase had vowed not to let that happen. And still planned to stop it.
“It’s not over.” Chase started his car. And he was determined to find Stone and make sure that neither Eddie nor Della’s dad paid for his crime.
* * *
Della tried to push the feeling of doom and gloom away as Chase drove. But all she could feel was a ticking clock. Thanks to her, her dad could be convicted of murder. Thanks to her, he might get the death penalty. There was no pushing that gloom away.
Chase parked on the side of the street.
“Which house is it?” she asked, looking out.
“Pope said her house backed up to a cheap Mexican restaurant. All three of these houses are adjacent to this strip center.”
Della climbed out of the car; the Mexican food scents flavored the air. Onion, grilled meat. Even though she might like the taste of onions, the smell was almost overpowering. Then again, it might be because of the scent of garlic mixed in.
Or was it?
She got a light scent of something really terrible. She saw Chase lift his head as if trying to decipher the smell as well.
Burnett parked beside them.
/> The three of them walked around the corner. No one said anything; as crazy as it seemed, it was almost as if they all sensed something bad was about to happen.
The three houses lining the street were each painted a different shade of blue.
Two kids played outside of the first one. Della’s mind went back to the little girl with the knife at her throat. She blinked, pushed the thought away, and fought the desire to tell the kids to get inside.
The second house had a FOR RENT sign nailed to the front door. Burnett headed for the porch. Della saw him tilting his head to the side, listening if anyone was there. Then he lifted his face again as if trying to catch a scent.
Della and Chase continued on and moved up the porch steps of house number three. Della hadn’t gotten both feet up the last step when the smell grew tenfold. A really, really bad smell. She took another step to the door.
“Wait.” Chase caught Della’s arm and stopped her from getting closer.
“Why?” Della asked and put her hand over her nose. She’d barely got her nose covered when the noise hit. The buzzing noise. She looked at the window on the porch and her first impression was that the glass had turned liquid and moved. But no, it was not moving glass, just flies. Thousands of insects, buzzing around and covering the inside of the window.
The stench found its way behind her palm. And Della instinctively knew that Stone’s girlfriend was going to be another dead end.
“Dead” being the key word.
Chapter Thirty-five
Following Burnett’s orders, Chase dropped Della off and then came right back to the murder scene. He got there just in time to see people in hazmat suits take out a body, piece by piece.
Chase had seen a lot of ugly crimes, but this one took the cake.
He stood by Burnett. “I’m not staying at the school any longer,” Chase said. All he could think about was Della or someone else there meeting up with the lowlife monster who did this.
For once, Burnett didn’t argue. “At the office we have a couple of rooms in the back.”
“No, Natasha is leaving today, right?”
“Yeah,” Burnett said.
“Then I’ll stay at my cabin.”