Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)(54)

Chapter Twenty-three

The small group of Shadow Falls students Burnett relied on to help keep the school safe were all crowded in the front waiting room of the main office as Della entered.

Burnett’s voice rang out, then paused as he waited for her to join them.

Della walked through the door, nodding at Lucas, Chris, Fredericka, and Derek as she moved the rest of the way into the room. Miranda, with a big smile on her face, stood beside the camp leader. Pride glowed in her eyes, no doubt from giving Burnett the info about an intruder.

Burnett’s gaze met hers with tons of questions flickering in his dark eyes. Her tardiness probably concerned him, because she always arrived first at meetings like these. The wardrobe change had taken longer than it should have. It took some time to dig out the cleanest dirty jeans and shirt she had. And with a vampire’s sense of smell, her idea of dirty and someone else’s didn’t always match.

“Where’s Chase?” Burnett asked.

Della’s shoulders tightened. Why did he assume she was with Chase? The fact that she had been with him didn’t mean shit. He still shouldn’t assume.

She bit back her desire to toss him a condescending remark. “I’ll explain in a minute.” And hopefully only a minute. She didn’t want to be here too long.

He hesitated as if he were considering pulling her into his private office, but then refocused on the group. “Like I was saying. We think it’s probably a shape-shifter. The electricity flickered off yesterday. I’m thinking that must have been when he snuck in.”

“How do you know it’s a shape-shifter?” another were, a friend to Lucas, spouted out the question.

“We don’t know for certain,” Burnett said. “But our system measures a heat index put out by the number of individuals here and taking into account the different body temperatures. The system can be thrown off slightly by any shape-shifter shifting on the grounds. I checked yesterday and it was slightly off and didn’t worry about it, thinking it was due to a shift. After Miranda came to me with her premonition, I checked it. It’s over again, which is a cause for concern.”

Della frowned. “It’s a black grackle.”

All eyes turned to her. Burnett looked half puzzled, half pissed. “You know about this?”

“I saw the bird. At first I thought it was one of our shape-shifters, but then it showed up a couple more times.”

Right then two sets of footsteps sounded outside. All the vampires turned toward the door. A familiar voice rose in the night. One she hadn’t heard in a while. Perry?

“Did you think I wouldn’t recognize you?”

Della titled her head to see if she could hear who he was talking to. Their footsteps drew closer. All the way up the porch steps.

“Found the intruder,” Perry said, pushing into the room with another golden-haired bright-eyed shape-shifter—except that when Della checked his pattern she realized he was half shape-shifter, half human.

Della could almost hear the thoughts of everyone in the room, and they matched her own. The guy standing in front of Perry could have easily been his twin.

“His name is Sam.” Perry held the boy’s arm, and eyed him with contempt. “He’s one of my long-lost cousins.”

“And you think he was here to see you?” Della asked, thinking that was what Perry was going to say, but her mind was already refusing that explanation. Why would he have been following her around, or have been at Chase’s cabin? This guy was up to no good, and she had a feeling it somehow involved her or Chase.

“No,” Perry said. “He didn’t know I was here. He’s already confessed that he was sent by some lowlife to spy on someone here. But he doesn’t want to tell me anything else.”

Just like that, Della knew. “Douglas Stone.” She shot through the crowd to stand right in front of the twerp. “That’s who sent you, isn’t it?”

The way the Perry look-a-like cut his eyes away from her, she knew she’d hit the nail on the head. What she didn’t know was if this meant that Chase was right. Her uncle hadn’t killed his sister.

“Good job.” Burnett focused on Perry. “Everyone leave except Perry and his cousin.” Burnett motioned to the door leading into Holiday’s office.

Della counted her lucky stars, wanting to get back to Chase, and zipped out the door.

She had one foot on the first porch step when she heard Burnett’s growl. “And Della!”

She stopped, let out a puff of air, and did a U-turn, all the while wondering how two words could evoke so much frustration. She stepped inside. “You said—”

“I can stay, right?” Miranda interrupted. “I’m the reason we found him.” The witch stood by Holiday’s office door and watched Perry usher his very unhappy cousin into the office.

Burnett faced Miranda. Della could almost see him rein in his temper. His shoulders dropped and his jaw unclenched. Why didn’t he ever rein it in for her?

“Yes, you did,” he said. “And I appreciate that, but we’ll take it from here.”

Miranda made her frustrated face and started out, but stopped next to Della. “Everything okay?” she whispered, the question telling Della the witch had heard her phone message to Kylie.

“I’ll explain later.” Della cut her eyes up at Burnett, standing a few feet away and scowling down at her.