Eternal (Shadow Falls: After Dark #2)(24)

I don’t love you, period. I go back and forth on even liking you. It wasn’t altogether a lie. Yet realizing how hard and hurtful her words had sounded, she regretted saying them.

Her shoulders tightened, feeling a crazy tension at his presence, and yet at the same time, his being here brought on some kind of inner peace. She recalled she’d felt it at the falls as well. Thoughts of the falls turned her mind to another subject.

“The vision … You saw it, or experienced it. Didn’t you?”

He exhaled as if he didn’t like admitting it. “Yeah, but I’ve never had anything like that happen. I wasn’t sure what it meant. It wasn’t until you said their names that I knew you’d been a part of it.”

“You were Liam?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, whoever he is. I couldn’t find anything on him at all. And I went through all the files.” There was a touch of desperation in his tone that mirrored what she felt.

She recalled knowing certain things about Natasha during the vision. “When it was happening, did you learn anything about him, or know things?”

“Just his first name and that he was scared. And … that he … he would give Natasha all his blood to save her. He’s more concerned about her dying than worried about his own life. He’s in love with her.”

Hearing that sent an ache fluttering around Della’s chest like a trapped bird. Tears stung her sinuses and she looked down, away from his scrutiny. She recalled Liam insisting Natasha drink more of his blood. Della had sensed he’d cared about Natasha. But what did Natasha feel for Liam? Della couldn’t say for sure, but she had refused his blood.

Della’s vision grew wet at the thought of two people, possibly in love, trapped, and feeling so damn desperate. Remembering what Holiday and Kylie believed about them. That option hurt more.

She blinked back her water weakness and looked at Chase. For one second, she debated not telling him, but then realized he had a right to know.

“Holiday, she’s a ghost expert, and … she’s afraid that Natasha and Liam are already dead.”

“No,” Chase said adamantly, his light green eyes brightening with emotion. “If we don’t find them, they will be. I kept hearing this voice telling me to find Natasha.”

“Me, too,” Della said, finding it odd he’d heard the same voice, and for some reason it gave her more hope. But since Holiday was sort of the knowledgeable one in all things ghost, it didn’t take all her concern away. “It still scares me because she thinks—”

“I don’t care what she thinks. She’s wrong,” he insisted.

“I guess we have to believe that.” And standing there—only a few feet from him, agreeing with him, she had some kind of a weird epiphany. They, her and Chase, were supposed to do this. They were supposed to work this case together. But who decided that? Fate? The death angels? The ghost? And who the hell was she? How was all this connected?

“Have you done this before?” Chase asked.

“Done what?” she questioned, having gone inside her head and lost track of the conversation.

“Visions? Voices?”

Like his earlier admission, hers came with a touch of hesitancy. “Yeah. Chan, and then … Lorraine. But the vision with Lorraine was different.”

His brows tightened as if he was assessing what she said. “Lorraine? The female victim who was murdered in the case we worked?” His brow creased. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”

Maybe because you don’t tell me shit, either. She breathed in a mouthful of early morning air and it came with his scent: mint, some kind of herbs, and sunshine. “I … I kept hearing a voice, but I wasn’t sure and…” The wind stirred her hair in front of her face and she pushed it away. “Hell, if I’d told you I was hearing ghosts, you would’ve thought I was crazy.”

He dropped his hand from his pocket. “Probably. I didn’t think we vampires did the ghost whispering thing.” His gaze shifted and he glanced around at the tombstones.

Did he feel the same haunted feelings she did? As if something longed for her to walk the grounds and search for something—but what could be found here but the dead? Lost souls.

“Holiday thinks we have the ability because we’re Reborns.” Questions about when Chase had been Reborn started to percolate. Was he one of the few who survived on his own, or had someone helped him? Was he bonded to someone else? Now didn’t seem the time to start littering him with questions. Besides, he wasn’t known for handing over answers.

He ran a hand down his face as if fighting the edginess she felt. “Does Burnett deal with this shit, too?”

Oh, he was getting good at asking questions, wasn’t he?

Was divulging information about Burnett wrong? Chase’s eyes met hers and she decided he needed the truth. She didn’t think Burnett would disagree. “He hasn’t had visions, but he experiences a connection of some kind. Supposedly, anyone who can visit the falls without being repulsed has a little of the … gift. ‘Gift’ is Holiday’s word, not mine.”

He stood there as if considering something and then asked, “Can we communicate with anyone who’s dead?”

She had the feeling he was thinking of his family who Della remembered had all been killed in a plane crash. Unexpectedly, her heartstrings tugged at all that he’d lost. “I don’t know how it works. Holiday could tell you.”