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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.”
