Unspoken

  His eyes brightened and a low growl left his lips. “Because I’m not a snitch.”

  * * *

  Della’s mom pulled up and parked in front of the Shadow Falls Academy sign. Something about this trip back to school felt different to Della. More permanent.

  More painful.

  It was the right thing, even what she wanted, but it stung knowing she wasn’t wanted at home, knowing those trips home might very well be coming to an end.

  She had known her dad would jump at the chance to send her back, but for God’s sake, three minutes after he’d hung up with Burnett he’d told her mom to inform Della to pack her bags.

  Her dad’s insistence had sparked an argument between her parents. And given credence to what Della was beginning to suspect.

  In the end, her mom relented to her dad’s demands. Della didn’t blame her. Not really.

  No doubt her mom was upset about Mr. and Mrs. Chi in addition to being devastated over the fact that her husband was accused of murder. She simply didn’t have much fight left in her.

  But it would have been nice if she’d had just a little. A little for her daughter.

  Marla, on the other hand, had fought. Not with their parents, but with Della. “Just go. Just go and leave me here to deal with all of this!”

  Della had wanted to scream at her sister that she was doing everything she could to help. And that going back wasn’t her idea, but her father’s. He didn’t want her there. She’d longed to say it wasn’t her fault. But it was her fault and she knew that. The reason her father was awaiting trial was because Della had inadvertently gotten the file pulled and the cold case reopened.

  But guilt or fault didn’t matter. So she just let Marla think that leaving was Della’s idea.

  “Should I come in?” her mom asked, bringing Della back to the present—sitting in the car.

  “No.” Della looked up at the iron gate, swallowed the lump that kept appearing in her throat, and reached for the door handle. “I’ll see you in a few weeks.” Or she prayed she would. Prayed her father wouldn’t take away those short visits from her too.

  Her mom caught Della by her forearm. “If you would agree to return to your old school, you could stay at home.”

  No, I can’t. Della swallowed. She’d spent all morning thinking about her father. Trying to figure out how it could be. How could he know?

  “I love it here, Mom,” Della said, hoping the truth sounded in her voice and not the pain. Her mom was hurting enough. She didn’t need to borrow Della’s pain.

  “And I love you,” her mom said, tears filling her eyes.

  “I love you, too,” Della answered and it came from the bottom of her heart, where it hurt the worst.

  “I don’t understand,” her mom’s voice shook. “A year ago, our life was so normal. Now my husband’s being accused of murder, my oldest daughter lives at a school for troubled kids, and my neighbors are being slaughtered. How did life get this way?”

  Della reached for her mom’s hand, forgetting about her temperature. Thankfully, her mom didn’t seem to notice, but she pulled it back quickly. “It’s gonna be okay. Dad’s not going to get convicted. I’m almost eighteen, so I would have been leaving the nest soon anyway. Right now this is the best place for me, and … the people who killed Mr. and Mrs. Chi are going to pay. I’ll make sure of that.”

  “You?” She blinked and a few tears escaped. “How are you—”

  “I mean the police,” she answered in a rush.

  Her mom got a sad smile on her lips and wiped her tears from her face. Then she reached out and touched Della’s cheek. “Sometimes you look so different, and other times … I still see the same ol’ Della in there.”

  “I’m still here,” Della said, fighting to hold it together while she wondered what her father saw when he looked at her. Did he ever see the old Della? Or did he see the monster in her?

  Her mom shook her head. “You’d better go. And study. Your dad said that Mr. James said you were falling behind.”

  “I will.” Della grabbed her suitcase from the back and stood by the gate, the cool wind blowing her hair, as she watched her mom drive away—watched until her mom’s gold Malibu was only a speck in the distance.

  “You back?” a voice asked, and Della turned to see John, a shape-shifter, walk up.

  “Yeah.” She bit her tongue to keep from smarting off that it was none of his business, because that would have just been rude. It wasn’t his fault she was in a piss-poor mood.

  She shot through the entrance. She had a certain vampire to interrogate. If Chase thought last night’s questions were the end of it, he had another think coming. But first things first.

  She walked into the school’s office, having gotten their scent a few steps inside the gate. Dropping her suitcase and stuff on the floor, she walked into Holiday’s office. The red-haired fae sat at her desk, her thick rope of hair pulled over one shoulder, a crossword puzzle open on her desk.

  Burnett stretched out on the sofa, with adorable Hannah, wearing only a Pampers, sitting on his stomach. The tough-as-nails vampire looked to be in a Sunday-morning carefree mood. His feet crossed at the ankles, his shoulders loose, his hair even a little mussed. Or perhaps it was an exhausted Sunday morning; she knew he’d worked all night.

  He’d texted her at five this morning telling her the weres weren’t talking. “What’s wrong?” Holiday asked, her fae gifts picking up on Della’s bottomed-out emotions.

  Della took in a deep breath and it shuddered deep in her chest. “My dad knows.”

  “Knows what?” Burnett asked, sitting up, pulling his daughter to his chest.

  “He knows I’m vampire.”

  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 hos
pitalized 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.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Afraid he knew where this was leading, Chase clenched his jaw so hard he was amazed his teeth didn’t crack. Don’t lose it. Don’t lose it.

  “What else am I wrong about?” He breathed in through his nose, hoping the oxygen would help calm him.

  “About me respecting that you and Della belong together.”

  His eyes grew warm as they did when he started to change into vamp mode. “Careful,” he cautioned and gave himself the same warning. His gut said Burnett wasn’t making idle threats about kicking his butt out of Shadow Falls.

  Steve shook his head, ignoring the warning, and that pissed Chase off more.

  “You see, the only thing I have to respect is Della. Not you. And not what you think you two have. And personally, I think she’s capable and adamant enough to make her own decisions. And you, Mr. Tallman, need to wrap your head around that.”

  Steve turned and walked away.

  Chase gripped his fist so tight his hand ached. It wasn’t his head having a hard time accepting the guy’s words. It was his heart. But if Steve thought Chase was just going to roll over and give up, the shape-shifter had better think again.

  * * *

  Della remained in the chair across from Holiday’s desk. She wouldn’t—couldn’t—allow her father to go to jail. But how she was going to stop it was still a mystery.