Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)(43)

“Go with you? Yes.” She tilted her chin up.

“No. It’s a lot easier than that,” he said between tight lips. “While I’m off risking my life to try to get your dad off of a murder charge, don’t hang around Steve.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but he didn’t stay around to hear it.

*

Della stormed back to her cabin, wearing her bloody pajamas, and madder than a trapped raccoon. She’d already texted Chase and asked him to change his mind.

When she swung open and slammed the door, Miranda let out a loud yelp that could’ve woken the dead. And considering the dead seemed to hang out around here, that wasn’t an exaggeration.

“She’s here!” the witch screamed into her phone. “But—oh, God! She has blood all over her. And I still feel it.”

Feel what? “I’m fine,” Della snapped.

But too late. The door behind her swung open and Kylie ran inside. Whenever the chameleon was in protective mode, she lit up like one of those glow sticks that was losing its power.

“What happened?” She still held her phone to her ear.

“Nothing.”

Kylie dropped her phone from her ear, pointed to Della’s bloody tank top, and waved her finger around the disaster of their cabin. “Try again.”

“Okay. Nothing much.”

Both girls came closer and were looking at Della’s bloody shirt. “See?” she flashed them. Boobs and all. Not that there was a lot to flash.

“It was just a few scratches and they’re all healed now.” She started to go to her bedroom, but both Kylie and Miranda barricaded her door.

Miranda held up a bag of something that looked like weed, did some kind of dance move, and sprinkled some of the green crap on Della’s head.

“What is that?” Della asked.

“Herbs to chase away the unwanted. We got company.” Miranda tossed another handful of the dried plant life into the air.

“Who?” Della snapped the one word question.

“You first, Della. What happened?” Kylie countered, no longer glowing, but still with that pissed-off-chameleon look about her.

Problem was, Della was still so pissed off at Chase she didn’t have the patience to deal with anyone else’s pissy mood. And she sure as hell didn’t appreciate having green shit tossed on her by a witch who wasn’t making a lick of sense.

She took a step closer to her bedroom, and her two roommates didn’t budge. “Okay, here’s the short version. Chase’s dog came over and your cat wasn’t in the mood for company.”

“Is Socks okay?” Kylie’s eyes widened and she swung around calling out, “Here, kitty, kitty.”

“She’s fine. See.” The cat came strutting its stuff out from behind the sofa. With all eyes on the prancing cat, Della tried to make it to her room.

“Not so fast, vamp!” Kylie caught Della by the arm and looked at Miranda. “Get the Diet Cokes out. It’s time we had a talk.”





Chapter Nineteen

Kylie led Della to the table, then pointed to the chair. Della dropped down and set her phone in clear view.

Normally, Della didn’t mind the Diet Coke round-table discussions. She’d learned that sharing helped a little. And commiserating over her two best friends’ problems reminded her that everyone’s life sucked too. Fate wasn’t just picking on her. It was an equal-opportunity abuser.

But right now on top of feeling as if she were drowning in her problems, she was pissed. And … worried sick over the pisser. She should have followed him, but no, his little don’t-hang-out-with-Steve bit had left her shocked. Who did he think he was, telling her who she could hang out with?

Still, she worried. Not by choice. Damn bond! She cut her phone a quick glance.

The temptation struck to call Burnett and tell him what Chase was doing. The only thing that stopped her was knowing that if he did that to her, she’d raise holy hell. But if Chase lived through this, she might just have to kill him. That’d teach him to take stupid risks, wouldn’t it?

“Who’s going first?” Kylie pulled the tab of her soda, sending a fizzy noise into the room.

“Let the witch,” Della said. “I’m curious to why she’s tossing dried herbs and doing the hokey pokey.”

Miranda rolled her eyes. “You should be thanking me, not poking fun at me.”

“I wasn’t poking, just calling it like I saw it.”

“No arguing at the round-table talks,” Kylie insisted.

Miranda opened her drink.

The fizzy sound actually brought a sense of calm to Della’s nerves.

But obviously not for Miranda, who glared at Della. “You scared the pee out of me,” the witch bellowed out. “Since I got back this afternoon, I’ve been feeling an invader. And then I find—”

“Find what?” Della asked.

“An invader.”

“Like a spirit?” Della asked. “Because, you know, between Miss Ghost Whisperer here,” she nodded at Kylie, “and now me,” she frowned, “there might be a few hanging around.” She looked up at the ceiling. “Just not five.”

“Not ghosts,” Miranda said. “Just a strong intuition that something—or someone—is spying on us. Like when I felt that Mario creep here trying to kill Kylie.”