Reborn (Shadow Falls: After Dark #1)(17)

“Don’t just shrug. Tell me the truth, are we alone?”

“Right now we are,” she said with an apologetic voice.

“But someone just left?”

“Someone’s playing with me.”

“Playing with you? You make it sound like fun.”

Kylie frowned. “It’s not. But he/she keeps whizzing past, not saying anything and not slowing down long enough for me to get a good look.” Kylie made a face. “Holiday would say that’s a sign. Who do I know that zips past and doesn’t slow down long enough to be recognized?” She tilted her head and then pointed her finger at Della. “You.”

“Sorry, I’m not dead.”

“I don’t mean you exactly. I mean … a vampire. Maybe my new ghost is a vampire.”

“Great. We’ve got a dead, pissed-off vamp hanging around.”

Kylie made her frustrated face. “I didn’t say he/she was pissed off.”

Della walked up to the table. “So he/she wasn’t pissed off?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t say it.” She grinned.

Della rolled her eyes. “I swear, you’ve been hanging around Miranda too long. You’re using her logic.”

“I sometimes like her logic,” Kylie said.

Della did, too, but she wasn’t in an agreeable enough mood to admit it. She glanced back at her bedroom door and considered going and falling into oblivion. Then she refocused on the empty chair across from Kylie and considered just spending a little time with her best friend.

The chair won. She sank into it and tried to stop her shoulders from drawing up from the tension.

“Where have you been?” Kylie asked.

Della’s gut tightened. “I went for a run and we had an intruder that flew past. I picked up on his scent. Burnett showed up a second later and he got a call from the FRU. I went with him on the call.” She bit her lip, unsure she could talk about it without making it hurt even more.

“What kind of a call?” Kylie asked.

Della hesitated, then decided that if she wanted to do this, to be an agent—and it was what she wanted more than anything—then she needed to learn to deal with it. “Two people right outside of Fallen were killed.”

Kylie’s expression went to pure empathy. “Was one of them vampire?”

Della understood what Kylie meant. She thought the ghost who’d shot by had been one of the victims. Della shook her head. “Human.” She had even checked. As hard as it had been to look at them directly, she’d done it. “But it looks like a vampire killer,” she forced herself to say.

Kylie frowned. “Does Burnett suspect rogues?”

“I don’t know. They aren’t suspecting anyone yet. They took the bodies in to be checked and then they’re going to do a code red.” Code red meaning they’d stage the deaths as an accident so the human world didn’t catch on.

Kylie’s eyes showed heartfelt emotion. “Was it … terrible to see?”

“No,” Della lied. Then her breath shook, along with her lying heart. “Yeah, it was awful.”

“Sorry.” Kylie put her hand on Della’s. “You want a diet soda?”

Della almost said yes, then sighed. “No, I need to try to get some sleep.” She slipped her hand away from beneath Kylie’s and stood. Dad blast it if she didn’t feel the emptiness from the lack of Kylie’s touch. If she were just a little weaker, she would ask Kylie for a hug. One of those long ones that helped heal the worst heartaches. But she wasn’t that weak.

“Why don’t you just sleep in tomorrow?” Kylie said as Della got to her bedroom door.

Della looked back and considered it. Then she remembered that Burnett already saw her as not tough enough. “No, I’ll be fine.” She needed to convince Burnett that she could handle this. Handle the murder, the mayhem, and the sleepless nights that came with it. Convince him that she had what it took to work for the FRU.

She walked through the door, then glanced back. “Thanks,” she said.

“For what?” Kylie asked.

Della shrugged. “I don’t know. For being awake.”

Kylie grinned. “You’ll have to thank the ghost for that.”

“Not likely.” Della glanced around. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, especially considering she couldn’t see them, but sometimes when Kylie said they were here, she felt a cold chill. One that reminded Della of death.

And with death came the death angels—those who stood judgment over all supernaturals. Those whose punishment was swift and final. Who wanted their life splayed open and checked for mistakes. God knew she’d made plenty.

Realizing she was staring at nothing, she glanced back at her friend. “He/she’s not here now, are they?”

“No,” Kylie said.

“Good, keep it that way.” Della walked into her bedroom. A silent room where she was alone with her thoughts. At least she hoped she was alone. She glanced around, trying to sense if Kylie’s ghost had returned. There was no unnatural chill.

As soon as she plopped on the bed, her mind shot away from Kylie’s possible visitor, to the terrible scene she’d witnessed tonight. Images flashed in her head again.

The woman had only been a few years older than Della, and the guy had looked like her boyfriend. It appeared as if they’d been parking in the moonlight, probably making out, high on kisses and sweet touches when they’d been attacked and fled their car. Two people having a romantic night and then brutally murdered. Maybe thoughts of the ghost were better.