Eternal (Shadow Falls: After Dark #2)(54)

“Fine.” Chase rose and started out. Della got just out of the office and looked back at the still-pissed Burnett. She let Chase get out of the front door and then she stuck her head back in the door. “I don’t think you look like an old fart. He hasn’t ever seen you without your shirt.”

“Thank you,” he said. “I think.” He stood up. “Be careful. And watch him, he might be even more of a wild card than you.”

“I will.”

*   *   *

A radio was on inside the Owen house. But again, it appeared as if no one was home. Or someone inside was sleeping with such low breathing they couldn’t pick it up. Della took in a noseful of air. She had to bypass Chase’s clean scent to see if she could pick up any traces of human.

It was there. “I smell…”

“I know, but I smelled it yesterday, too,” Chase said. “They probably have a workout room and it’s filled with sweat. Haven’t you ever been to a human gym? The smell is almost overpowering.”

Della hadn’t been in a gym since she’d become vampire. Cutting him a look, she wondered why he would go to the gym. The machinery wasn’t strong enough to offer a vampire a real workout. Then she remembered why most guys go to gyms: to meet hot girls.

She gave the door a good hard knock again. They stood another couple of minutes at the kelly green front door with no answer. Della reached back and twisted her ponytail, the hair band from the Camaro’s glove compartment again.

On the drive here, Chase had tried to start a conversation, but she’d avoided it. She was still stuck on the possibility that Chase might actually know her uncle.

“We have choices,” Chase said and took a few steps back to look up.

“What kind of choices?” Della asked, fighting off the wave of disappointment as well as the overwhelming sadness—the same one she’d felt when they’d been here yesterday. Was it the home? Or was it the ghost?

“We could go inside and see if we find any pictures that might tell us for sure if Natasha Owens is our girl.”

“I think that’s called breaking and entering,” Della said.

“Just entering,” he said. “I saw an upstairs window that’s open. And we’d hear if a car pulled up.”

She considered Burnett’s parting words about Chase being a wild card. But the temptation lingered.

“It’s not as if we’re going to steal anything,” he added.

She backed up and looked up at the second-story window, raised a good four inches. Oh, hell, what was the worst that could happen?

You could get caught, arrested, and then for sure your dad will pull you from Shadow Falls.

Her mind flashed an image of Natasha and Liam. Okay, was that the ghost? Or was it just her accepting that sometimes you just had to take risks? “Let’s do it.”

Chapter Twenty-three

“Or maybe we shouldn’t do it,” Della added a second later, when she realized what they were about to do was really a crime. And at seventeen she could be tried as an adult.

Chase cut his eyes to her. “Do you want to wait outside?”

“No,” she snapped, feeling as if he was calling her a coward.

He looked around and tilted his head to the side as if to confirm no cars were coming.

“Then let’s do it.” He leapt up, caught the windowsill, let go with one hand, and then lifted the window up. Only after he’d climbed in did she jump up.

She caught the windowsill and Chase offered a hand. She ignored it and pulled herself into the room. A game room. A large brown leather sofa cornered the room and a large television sat in the other. A treadmill and a set of weights were set to the side, which she hoped explained why the scent of human was so strong.

Music, a Dido song, piped into the room from two speakers in the ceiling. Della looked around at the nice interior, feeling the sense of sadness even stronger in here than outside. She glanced around for any personal photos, but other than a few prints of wildlife, nothing hung on the wall.

Chase walked to the door, slowly opened it, and started moving down the hall. Della, feeling like a criminal, crept behind him. He appeared to be heading down the stairs, but her gaze shifted to the hall wall that was lined with what looked like family photos.

“Look,” Della whispered, still feeling edgy. Her gaze shifted from the two parents—one American and the father looked at least part Asian—to a young girl. Natasha. Her heart sang a little victory song.

“It’s her,” Della said. “I knew it.”

“Okay,” Chase said. “Now we know her name is Natasha Owen. Let’s see if we can find her bedroom and see if there are any clues in there that might help us.”

He moved to the first door on the right and opened it. A bedroom. Decorated in soft cream colors, the room looked devoid of personality. The bed appeared freshly made or perhaps never slept in. Guest bedroom, Della surmised, and both she and Chase stepped back at the same time. The door made a slight clink when he shut it.

The next room he opened sent a warm wash of emotion over Della. Painted and decorated in bright purple with whitewashed furniture, it had teen written all over it. Even the bedspread, a brighter purple, screamed that this room had been lived in by a young person. Someone who loved life and lived it with gusto.

This was it. Natasha’s room. Della knew it.