Reborn (Shadow Falls: After Dark #1)(101)

Feeling alone, she pulled her phone out to keep her company. She remembered Steve’s voicemail. She checked her text messages and found one from him she hadn’t read.

Miss u.

She missed him, too. Closing her eyes, feeling the lack of sleep, she dropped her forehead on her knees. She envisioned his face. His smile. The soft way he kissed and how that kiss slowly became hotter and hotter.

Guilt whispered over her for kissing Chase. She’d done it to keep their cover. Hadn’t she? Or had the seed the little witch planted in her head sprouted and led her down that path?

Right then it occurred to her that she was no longer so angry at Steve for … for letting Jessie kiss him. Hurt maybe, but not angry. She couldn’t even be mad that he’d enjoyed it. She had enjoyed Chase’s kiss, hadn’t she?

Could Miranda’s idea have worked? No, she told herself. Two wrongs still didn’t make a right, but maybe walking in his shoes, she realized the kiss didn’t mean he didn’t care about her, or that he would necessarily do it again.

She wouldn’t kiss Chase again. Wouldn’t let him kiss her again, either.

Would she?

No.

Sitting up, she looked back at her phone and Steve’s text, and typed in: Let’s talk this weekend, ok? It took her longer to hit the Send button than it did to type it.

Within less than thirty seconds she got a text back: Ok. Miss you.

Her heart gripped. He had to be awake, watching his phone. Hoping she’d text or call him. The memory of the pain she’d seen in his eyes when they’d argued had her lungs releasing air. She typed back. Miss u too.

A few seconds later, another ding came in: Want to talk now? I’ll call Burnett and come.

Panic stirred inside her. Not just because she was waiting on Kevin, but because she wasn’t altogether ready to talk to Steve. Was she going to tell him about Chase? Was she going to agree to … make this thing between them real? Or was she simply going to expect things to go on like they were? Nope, she wasn’t ready to talk to him yet.

No. This weekend. Ok?

Ok.

She heard a distant noise and slipped her phone in her pocket. Tilting her head, she focused on the slight sound. Footsteps, soft, came treading her way. They came from the other side of the fence. Filling her nose with air, she hoped her sense of smell had returned and that she’d recognize Kevin’s scent. She got nothing.

While the sound of steps continued, the forest noises stopped. No birds, no insects, even the trees stood silently against the wind.

It had to be Kevin, she told herself. But remembering how she got clobbered on the head not too long ago, she rose and stood behind a tree. Leaning slightly around the trunk, she fixed her eyes in the direction the sound came from.

Chapter Thirty

Della spotted Kevin moving through the brush. He lifted his nose in the air, testing it to find her.

“I’m here.” She stepped out from the tree and started toward the fence.

He walked closer, and was about to latch on to the fence post when she said, “Stop. I told you not to touch the fence.”

He pulled his hands back. “So it’s true that there really are alarms set?”

“Afraid so,” she said.

“And you can’t just fly over it?”

“Not without setting it off.”

“Damn! I could never live like that.”

“It’s to keep people out, not us in.”

“Right,” he said.

Della frowned. “Look, I was hoping you might be able to help me out. I’m looking for someone who I think belongs to the Crimson Blood.”

“Why?” he asked.

“He was the old boyfriend of the girl I sort of ran across.” The fact that the girl was dead didn’t have to come up.

“I don’t think I met all of them. I just hung out with them a couple of days.”

“His name is Phillip Lance. He used to be in a band. Has brown hair. A tattoo on his neck of a skull.”

“This ain’t gonna come back and bite me in the ass, is it?”

“No,” she said.

“And what do I get for doing all these favors for you?” He smiled.

“I’ll owe you.”

“You already owe me,” he said.

“I’ll owe you more.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know why I like you.” He sighed and hesitated before finally talking. “There is a Phillip. Don’t know his last name, but he has brown hair. I don’t know if he played in a band.” He glanced up as if debating saying more, and then he blurted out, “He has a tattoo, but I’m not sure what it is.”

It had to be him. She nodded and a feeling of success filled her chest. “Thank you.” Now to get one more thing. “Where do they hang out? So I can go see him.”

Kevin held up his hands. “Now you’re asking too much.”

“Please.” It didn’t bother her nearly as much to beg when it was for someone else. And this was for Billy.

He hesitated. “Look, I can’t tell you where they call home, but there’s a supernatural bar on the north side of Houston called Hot Stuff.”

“Chan took me there,” Della said, remembering bits and pieces of the first week she’d been turned. If she had to, she thought she could find it again.