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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 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.
