Reborn (Shadow Falls: After Dark #1)(107)

“What is it?” Della insisted.

“Lorraine Baker stopped in this morning. Briefly.” The camp leader rubbed her belly.

“And?” Della asked, trying to convince herself that this was good news. She thought of Billy. Maybe now they’d get a break in the case.

“When I tried to get her to talk to me, she informed me that she was already communicating with someone. But they weren’t a good listener.”

Della’s mind spun. “Then she’s lying, because Kylie is good at that. Did you ask her? Maybe Lorraine told Kylie something.” Something that would help Billy. Something that would keep a flute-playing chess lover out of prison.

Holiday pulled her hair over one shoulder and twisted it. Worry brightened her eyes. “It’s not Kylie,” Holiday said. “She said she’s talking to you.”

Okay, sitting down suddenly sounded like a good idea. Della took two steps to the sofa and dropped. The sofa sighed with her weight as if complaining. But not as loud as Della wanted to complain.

“But I’m vampire.” A shiver ran down Della’s spine and she realized she did connect with a ghost. Chan. But what was it Kylie had said? Oh yeah, that some spirits with a strong connection can attach themselves to normal, non-ghost-whispering people. She thought she was just one of those. Not so much normal, but someone who didn’t go around talking to dead people. “Vampires don’t do ghosts,” Della said.

“Yeah, that has always been what I believed, too. But then Burnett … and now this. I’ll admit, I’m puzzled. I always thought since we don’t really know Burnett’s heritage that he could have been a descendant of the American tribe and that was the reason he had a connection to the falls and the spirit world.”

“I’m Chinese, not—”

“You’re half Chinese,” Holiday said. “I subscribed to ancestry.com trying to find Burnett’s family history, so before I called you down here I went on and put in your mother’s maiden name to see if there’s any evidence that your mom might be a descendant.”

“And?” Della asked.

“Nothing popped up.” The camp leader exhaled at the same time Della did, but Holiday’s release seemed to extend from disappointment, Della’s from relief. She didn’t want to be part of any bloodline that tied her to ghosts.

“But,” Holiday continued, “let’s worry about that later. Right now, we need to help Lorraine. What has she told you?”

“She hasn’t told me shit. I haven’t seen her. She must have lied to you about…” Della remembered the voice she’d been hearing.

“What?” Holiday asked.

“I’ve been hearing a voice. I thought … It sounded like me thinking it. Like a song when it gets stuck in your head.”

“What does it say?” Holiday asked.

“All it says is … innocent. Repeatedly.” The realization that she had not one, but two ghosts communicating with her scared the living crap out of her. However, Della decided to freak out later. “Lorraine must be trying to tell me that Billy is innocent. That has to be what this means.”

Holiday frowned. “Burnett said the DNA came back positive on the suspect. He’s there now to present the case to the FRU board to get Billy sentenced.”

“All in one day?” Della asked.

Holiday nodded.

“What happened to having a trial and being judged by twelve of your peers?”

“It doesn’t work that way with the FRU. When someone is arrested, their case goes before an FRU board and they are sentenced almost immediately. And … the bad news for Billy is that getting a sentence overturned is practically impossible.”

“Then we have to stop it.” Della snatched her phone from her back pocket. Seeing her hands, she recalled the vision she’d had.

“The ring?” Della said.

“What?” Holiday asked.

“In class, I…” Jeepers, would Holiday think she was crazy? Then Della remembered Kylie had those types of visions all the time. Oh, fracking hell, Della didn’t want to go down this road. But she’d worry about that later, too. “I had this vision, I…”

“What vision?”

“I saw my hands with blood on them and I was wearing a ring. An engagement ring. I was … repulsed by it. I wanted to take it off, but I couldn’t.”

Holiday stood there rubbing her stomach.

“Do you think that means anything?” Della asked. “Is she trying to tell me something?”

“It always means something. The tough part is figuring it out. The dead suck at communicating.” The fae reached to the back of her chair to get her purse and slung it over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“Go where?” Della asked.

“To see Burnett. You’re right, we have to stop this.”

“We can’t just call?” Della held up her phone.

“Nope. Love that man, but he never listens to reason on the phone. Frankly, he doesn’t excel at listening to reason in person. Not when he thinks he’s right. And he’s pretty certain Billy is guilty.”

“Then what are we going to do?” Della asked, following Holiday out.

“Convince him that he’s wrong.”