Eternal (Shadow Falls: After Dark #2)(47)

So still.

So sad.

But her dad was there.

He stood over the body, knife in hand, murder in his eyes.

No!

No!

No!

“Della? Della?”

She heard Kylie’s voice. Deep and dark, as if she was in protective mode. The sound of a door being forced open echoed in the distance. Then Della felt Kylie’s hands on her shoulders.

Della’s vision faded and the blonde chameleon, a shimmer of brightness surrounding her, appeared standing in front of her. Behind Kylie stood Miranda, tears and fear pooled in her green eyes.

“Are you okay?” Kylie asked.

Okay?

Hell no!

He had given her life. Loved her. Read Charlotte’s Web to her when she was a child. He taught her to play chess. Helped her with algebra.

He had killed his sister.

Her dad was a murderer.

No!

Everything in her wanted to deny it. But she’d seen it. How could she not believe?

No, she hadn’t seen it. There had been so much blood on the girl’s face, she didn’t know if it was really her aunt or someone else.

“I’m fine,” Della lied. She pulled away from Kylie and ran past Miranda.

Della entered her bedroom, turned, grabbed the doorknob, and glanced back at her best friends. Concern and worry filled their eyes, but Della couldn’t deal with it now.

“We need to talk,” Kylie said.

“No.” Not this time. She couldn’t say it. Didn’t want to think about it. “I just want to be left alone!” She slammed the door.

When she turned, she saw the book on the bed. The yearbook she’d gotten to help find her dad’s twin. It hadn’t been there when she walked out. How had…?

The ghost? Could she have…?

And just like that, her mind started connecting the dots.

One dot.

Two dots.

Three.

“I’m sorry.” Kylie’s voice came from behind her with the click of the door being opened. “I don’t care what you say, you don’t need to be alone. You had a vision, didn’t you? I know how they can make you feel.”

“We’re best friends.” Miranda’s voice echoed behind her. “We don’t slam doors on each other.”

Della swung around, hearing what they said, but lost in her own thoughts. “They’re twins. It might not have been him.”

“What?” Kylie and Miranda asked at the same time.

“My uncle wasn’t dead then. He was just vampire. So it could have been him, my father’s twin, who I saw standing over her.”

“What could have been your uncle?” Kylie came closer. Her blue eyes filled with compassion.

“I was dead. I don’t know who I was. I could have been my aunt. And my uncle could have killed her.”

“Your aunt?” Kylie said. “So Miranda was right, and your aunt is the ghost?”

Della shook her head. “I don’t know. She had so much blood on her face.”

“I’m sure I was right,” Miranda said. “Who else could it be?”

“I said I don’t know for sure!” Della snapped.

Kylie stood there as if thinking. “Did she tell you how she and Natasha are connected?”

“No.” Della fought the sting in her sinuses. “I saw her dead. I saw a man who looked just like my father standing over her with bloody knife.”

“And you think it was your uncle?”

“It has to be,” Della said. “It has to be.”

*   *   *

Della spent the rest of the night doing more tossing and turning than sleeping. Not that it surprised her. The vision had been just as mind reeling as her first FRU visit, when she’d seen two dead bodies. She’d get to sleep and be jarred awake by the image of her father—no, her uncle—holding the bloody knife.

It had to be her uncle. Believing that made it almost acceptable. Forget that she’d had grand hopes of finding said uncle. She’d give up having a family member who was vampire, who understood her and loved her. She’d toss all that away before she would believe her father could kill.

Della rolled over again. From her window she could see a sliver of sky slowly growing pink with the rising sun. A new day. A better day, she hoped. By the time that light had gotten one shade brighter, she heard the footfalls.

Footfalls walking toward her cabin … her window. Only one person visited her window on a regular basis. One person who said he didn’t want to say good-bye in person and who’d texted a sad face.

Since the vision last night, she’d put all the hurt of Steve leaving in a tight pocket and buried it in her heart. But that sound. Those familiar footsteps—both the pain and pleasure of everything Steve was in her life danced on her heart.

Before Della could decide whether to run and hide or let him come inside and give him an ass whooping, his sad face appeared at her window. She stood up and gripped her hands at her sides. She wanted to scream, to laugh, and to cry all at once.

He pushed open the window and leapt in as if he belonged here. Belonged in her bedroom and in her life.

And damn it, no damn him, because she wasn’t sure that he didn’t.

Chapter Twenty-one

Steve took a step toward her. Della took one step back. Behind him, the rising sun had turned the sky purple. “You said—”