Eternal (Shadow Falls: After Dark #2)(8)

Della heard Kylie sigh. The chameleon sighed when worried or stressed.

Della glanced at her friend’s light blue eyes shimmering with concern and asked, “What is it? Just tell me already.”

Kylie looked at Holiday and the camp leader nodded.

“Normally,” Kylie began, “when you have visions, ones where you’re actually the person, it’s because … because they’re already dead.”

“I know, but this time they weren’t dead.”

“They might feel alive, but it’s them showing you…”

“No.” Tears welled up in Della’s eyes. “Then why the hell would she show me that? If they’re dead, what the hell can I do? That’s wrong. It’s sick. Why put me through that?”

Kylie nodded. “I felt the same way when it first happened to me, but—”

Holiday spoke up. “They do it because they want to be found. Because they want the person who hurt them to be stopped.”

Della tried to get her head around that. But it hurt. It hurt too damn much.

Then she remembered the other vision she’d had—the one where she’d been the murdered girl, Lorraine, looking down at her bloody hands. Somehow in the vision, Della had sensed the girl was dead. But not this time.

“No, this was different,” Della insisted. “They’re alive,” she said. “I felt it.”

A tear slipped from Della’s lashes, and it felt hot rolling down her cold skin. She wiped it away. Then she remembered the ghost’s voice. Find Natasha.

“No,” Della said again. “The ghost told me to find Natasha. The ghost wasn’t Natasha.”

Holiday stood up and took a few steps toward Della. “But, if you were in Natasha’s body, it normally means…”

“Normally. You both keep throwing that word out there. But what’s normal about any of this? I’m vampire, I’m not even supposed to deal with ghosts. Maybe I’m doing this whole ghost thing abnormally!”

Holiday pulled her long red hair over her shoulder and twisted it as if in thought. “I’m not going to say it’s impossible, Della. You and Burnett are the first vampires I’ve known to be mediums. But I’m just telling you what I believe.”

“But you know,” Kylie added, and looked at Della as if she wanted to help, “Sara’s grandma came to me to heal Sara when she had the cancer. So maybe this is a ghost coming to you to help someone.”

“True,” Holiday said. “But you were never in Sara’s body, were you?”

“No.” Kylie leaned back against the sofa and met Della’s gaze.

Della looked away from the sympathy in Kylie’s eyes. She understood they were trying to help and were just telling her what they thought to be the truth. Della just didn’t believe it.

Or was it that she didn’t want to believe it? Her heart gripped, and pain—real pain—filled her chest. She felt their empathy, and she tried to push the grief to the side with all her other issues to deal with later.

Later. She’d gotten really good at postponing her meltdowns.

Taking a sobering breath, she asked her next question. “What about the whole Chase thing? Him seeing the same vision I did?”

“That’s possible,” Holiday said. “Especially since you were at the falls. It’s a magical place.”

Della almost agreed with her, but remembering they thought Natasha and Liam were dead, she wondered how the place could be magical and deliver such devastating news.

Magical would have been if they were alive. Her having a chance at saving them. No, real magic would have been them never being put in that position.

Later, she told herself again, pushing back the emotion that tried to crowd her lungs.

Holiday gave her hair another twirl. “The fact that Chase was at the falls tells me he very well might have some of the same ghost whispering abilities that you and Burnett do. And that could be because…” The fae glanced at Kylie and stopped talking.

“Because of what?” Kylie asked.

“I don’t know,” Holiday said, shrugging it off.

Della knew what she was going to say. Because of them all being Reborns. Were all Reborns prone to being ghost whisperers? Della saw the puzzled look on Kylie’s face. So far, Della hadn’t told Kylie or Miranda about this. They still thought she’d simply caught a strange virus. She knew she couldn’t keep it from them forever, but she was kind of hoping to get a handle on it before trying to explain it.

Della titled her head to the side. She heard someone walking up the steps of the cabin. She raised her nose. Correction. Two someones. Though only one set of footsteps moved in.

One of those someones was innocent and sweet, doused in baby powder. The other … the other was someone with whom Della had a bone to pick. And with all the angst stirring inside her, she had never felt more ready for an argument than right now.

Burnett walked into Holiday’s office without knocking, his daughter, Hannah, on his hip. He looked from Holiday to Kylie and then Della. “What’s wrong?” His gaze locked on Della, no doubt reading her pissed-off expression.

She didn’t even have to answer the question—he did it for her.

Burnett growled out, “Damn that sneaky bloodsucker. I forbid him from—”