Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4)(20)

“About the jewelry store robbery?” Miranda asked.

“What jewelry store?” Della asked. “It was a drug house.” She looked at the nurse, still standing behind Tabitha. “Have you done x-rays on

her head?”

“I’m fine,” Miranda snapped. “Burnett called Shawn about a robbery at the jewelry store next to where we were meeting for lunch.”

“Oh,” the vamp said. “I don’t know about that.”

Tabitha looked at Della. “What do you know?”

Della got the deer-in-the-headlights look. “I…”

“What’s going on?” Miranda asked.

Della gave her a don’t-blame-me shrug. “I might as well tell you. When I arrived at the drug house, or what was left of the house, I picked

up a bunch of supernatural traces. I recognized one. Anthony’s.”

Hearing the name of her boyfriend caused Tabitha’s mouth to fall open. “His scent was on me.”

“Nope. It wasn’t a secondary trace,” Della said.

“This has to be a mistake.” Miranda focused on the vamp. “Anthony wasn’t with us.”

Della shrugged again. “Which is exactly why he’s being questioned.”

Her sister looked slapped. “You think Anthony has something to do with the drugs? He doesn’t do drugs!”

“Then he doesn’t have anything to worry about,” Della said.

“I’m sure it’s going to get cleared up.” Kylie moved in and touched Tabitha—probably offering a touch of calm.

Her sister glanced up and her brow wrinkled. “Were you in my room earlier?”

“Yeah. I saw both of you.” Kylie looked at Miranda. “Your rib better?”

“Yes. I don’t remember you…” Miranda paused.

“You just didn’t see me.” Kylie’s expression insinuated that she’d been invisible. Something that only chameleons could do. Not that it

was all they could do, she was also a healer, plus she could shift into different types of supernaturals.

“Can we … move into a room before they tell you to leave.” The nurse’s voice shook. As soon as she pushed Tabitha’s wheelchair into the

room, she rushed out.

Della stared after her. “I didn’t even growl at her.”

“I don’t think it’s you as much as Kylie,” Miranda said.

“I scared her? I’m not scary,” Kylie said.

“Yeah, you are,” Della said. “You scared the piss out of me when I first met you.”

Kylie laughed. “Ditto.” Then she glanced back at the closed door. “Now that we’re alone … What happened?”

Miranda sat on the edge of the bed and started repeating her story. When she got to the part where the armadillo got loose, Tabitha spoke up.

“Your fortune. It grew up your arm. I still don’t get that.”

Miranda looked down at her arm, checking to see if the crazy tattoo had faded yet. She couldn’t see it extending from the cast, so maybe it

had.

“What grew up your arm?” Della asked.

“The ashes,” Tabitha answered. “When the witch does her spell, she places the bowl upside down on your palm and it creates a pattern on your

palm. She reads your love fortune from the pattern. For some reason Miranda’s grew larger than mine, and mine was always bigger than anyone

else’s.”

Della looked at Miranda. “What did she tell you? Are you going to get hot and heavy with Shawn now?”

“She didn’t tell me anything. That’s when everything went crazy.” Miranda felt a light tickle and glanced again at the edge of her cast.

And damn if she didn’t see a sliver of a swirl peek out.

Her gaze shot to her sister. “How long until it goes away?”

“What goes away?” Tabitha asked.

“The tattoo.”

“It’s gone as soon as she reads it.”

Miranda gave her arm another quick peek and sure as hell, it was there, and inching up another fourth of an inch. “What if she doesn’t read

it? How long am I going to have this?” She looked at the tattoo.

“Huh?” Tabitha moved closer.

Della and Kylie did the same. “Oh, that’s freaky.” Della stepped back.

Kylie nodded in agreement. Tabitha’s eyes rounded. “I…”

“What?” Miranda asked her sister. “Does it mean something?”

“I … I don’t know,” Tabitha sputtered.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Della looked from Miranda to Tabitha. “You two are witches and this is witch crap. How could you not

know?”

“We don’t know everything!” Tabitha said. “Especially…”

“Especially what?” Della snapped.

Tabitha looked at Miranda with fear in her eyes. “Black magic.”

Miranda felt the tattoo crawl up her arm. What the hell was happening to her? Would it ever stop growing? Was she marked for life?

“Did you show that to Holiday?” Kylie worried aloud.

“No, I thought it went away.”