Reborn (Shadow Falls: After Dark #1)(39)

“Poor girl’s confused.” Miranda laughed. “I’m joking,” she said when Della shot her the third-finger salute.

Della sighed and looked back at Kylie. “I like Jenny, too. She … she reminds me of you a little when you first came here.”

“I haven’t changed,” Kylie said.

Both Miranda and Della made faces at Kylie.

“You changed for the better,” Miranda said. “You’re … bolder.”

“Bold is good,” Della said, and they all went back to watching the feather. Finally, Kylie picked up the paper with the obituary. “You ready?”

Della and Miranda nodded.

Kylie started to read. “‘Feng Tsang was lost to us on December 23rd Feng, a dedicated young man, already had his life planned. He was to become a doctor and marry his childhood sweetheart, Jing Chen. Loyal to his family, he walked a path to make his family proud. Now his path leads him another way. Loved by so—’”

“Wait,” Della said. “What did that say? That last sentence.”

Kylie looked at the paper. “‘Now his path leads him another way.’”

Della shook her head. “Isn’t that strange for an obituary?”

“What?” Miranda asked.

“The whole ‘his path led him’ crap. They don’t say he’s dead. It’s as if whoever wrote the obituary knew he wasn’t dead.”

“Do they use the word ‘dead’ in obituaries?” Kylie asked. “It seems harsh.”

“Harsh?” Della shook her head. “They’re dead, why would that be harsh?”

“I think they might say something else, like passed, or gone to meet their maker.”

“Yeah, but they didn’t even use the word ‘passed.’” She sighed. “Just finish reading it.”

Kylie glanced back at the paper. “‘Loved by so many, his presence will be missed by all. Feng left behind his parents, Wei and Xui Tsang, his sisters Miao and Bao Yu Tsang…’”

“Wait,” Della said. “My father only has one sister.”

Kylie shrugged. “I’m just reading what it says.”

Della recalled the picture with four kids that she’d seen in the old photo album.

“Hey, if you think your uncle is a vampire, maybe your aunt is too,” Miranda said.

Was that possible? Della’s mind spun.

Kylie looked down again and started reading where she’d left off. “‘… and his twin brother, Chao Tsang, whose bond with his brother was inseparable.’” Kylie gazed up and frowned, as if knowing the words had been difficult to hear, and then she continued, “‘While gone to us, the person he was will remain in our hearts. A memorial will be held in his honor at Rosemount Funeral Home.’”

“There it is again,” Della said. “‘Gone to us.’ ‘Us’ as if he’s not really gone to everyone.”

Kylie shrugged. “I don’t know. It could just be obituary lingo or just a coincidence.”

Della recalled Burnett saying he didn’t believe in coincidences. Questions ran around her brain like scared mice. Was her uncle really dead? What happened to her dad’s other sister?

But damn! Did Della have another aunt who’d been turned as well? Kylie’s words floated through her head again. His twin brother, Chao Tsang, whose bond with his brother was inseparable.

Her throat tightened as she thought how it would be to lose her sister. Marla was a pain in the butt sometimes, but Della would do anything for her. She could only imagine how hard it had been on her father to lose his twin, especially as a teenager. And what happened to his other sister? The grief must have been immense. It didn’t even matter if that loss had just meant that her uncle, and possibly even her aunt, had been turned and faked their own deaths. The pain would have been the same.

Could the person who’d written the obituary have known that her uncle hadn’t really died? How could she find out who wrote it?

She took the paper from Kylie’s hands and reread it herself. Something else bothered her, too. But she couldn’t put her finger on it.

Emotion hitting all sides of her heart, she remembered considering faking her own death, and right then she knew she could never do it. It might hurt like hell letting them believe the worst of her, to feel as if she disappointed them at every turn, but Holiday was right. Death was final—be it a faked death or real. She’d take this pain to the one of knowing she’d never see them again.

Glancing down at the paper, she reread the words, waiting for that something that bothered her to become known.

Kylie took a sip of diet soda. “You need to ask Derek to see if he can find anything out on the aunt you didn’t know about.”

Della nodded and went back to reading. Her eyes landed on the name of the funeral home. Rosemount It listed a Houston address. She wasn’t positive, but she thought her dad had lived way over on the opposite side of the city. Why would her dad’s family choose a funeral home so far from where they lived?

Rosemount Funeral Home. Her gaze went back to the name and a lightbulb came on. “That’s it,” she said.

“What’s it?” Miranda asked.

“Rosemount Funeral Home was where my cousin Chan’s memorial service was held. His fake memorial service. That funeral home must work with the vampires who do this.” Della inhaled and something akin to excitement filled her chest. “My uncle is alive. He faked his own death just like Chan did.”