Reborn (Shadow Falls: After Dark #1)(60)

What if something went bad? “You know what, guys,” Della said, pulling out of the hug. “I think tomorrow I should go in the funeral home alone. Just let me—”

“No,” both Kylie and Miranda said at the same time.

Kylie frowned. “You promised Holiday you wouldn’t do anything risky. And while I don’t see this as dangerous, going alone is a risk. And that would mean you weren’t keeping your promise. Seriously, what if something crazy happens and it becomes dangerous?”

Which was exactly why Della didn’t want them there. “I think they’d be more likely to talk to me, a vampire, if I’m alone.”

“I can become a vampire,” Kylie said.

“But if two of us go in there they might feel threatened. Let me go in by myself.”

“No,” Kylie said again, and her voice rang firm like it did when she turned into a protector.

Yet, protector or not, she could still be hurt. And Miranda was as defenseless as a puppy. Plus it wasn’t just about them getting hurt. It was about them getting caught and getting their asses put in slings by Burnett. If Della got caught and landed in the lap of trouble, so be it, but she didn’t want to bring her friends with her.

Della let go of a frustrated gulp of air. “I thought about this. If I go in alone, I have two choices. If the old man sounds cooperative, I’ll just ask questions. If I sense he won’t talk, I can pretend I’m there to plan my own fake funeral. If he goes for it, then at least we’ll know for sure that he does the fake funerals and he was behind Chan’s, and probably my uncle’s, which would confirm my uncle might still be alive.”

“You’re not going in alone,” Miranda said.

“Wait. She can go in alone.” Kylie smiled. “Or at least that’s what everyone will assume. I’ll go invisible and I’ll hold Miranda’s hand and then they won’t know we’re there. That way, if trouble starts up, I’ll go badass on them. And Miranda will…” Kylie looked at Miranda as if she knew the witch didn’t want to feel as if she didn’t contribute. “She’ll turn them into kangaroos,” Kylie finished, and grinned.

“I could do that with just a twitch of my pinkie,” Miranda said, and held up her hand.

“That just might work,” Della said, liking Kylie’s plan. Liking it a lot. If Della was careful not to start trouble, then no one would even know Kylie and Miranda were there. And Della would work really hard to avoid any chaos.

“Or I could give them pimples,” Miranda blurted out. “And some nasty jock-itch rash on their boys. And we know how seriously guys worry about their boys.”

Della couldn’t help it: She laughed. How had she gotten so lucky to find these two?

Chapter Eighteen

“Drive safe!” Kylie’s mom waved from the doorway the next morning as the three of them got into Kylie’s car.

Safe was the key word, Della thought, and got into the backseat. She still thought Kylie’s plan was great, but it hadn’t stopped her from imagining the worst-case scenarios.

Miranda climbed into the front seat. She had called shotgun last night before they’d gone to bed. The three of them had piled into Kylie’s queen-size bed, and talked about life and boys. Kylie had tried to get Della to talk about Steve, but the pain from their argument just felt too raw, so she avoided tiptoeing down that path of thorns.

Della hadn’t slept well last night, worrying about those thorns and the word “safety.” And occasionally worrying about feathers showing up again.

But no feathers appeared. Instead, she’d gone over things in her mind time and time again, rationalizing that this wasn’t too risky. All they were doing was going to a funeral home to ask some old geezer who put makeup on dead people a few questions.

“And have fun,” Ms. Galen added as Kylie inched the car out of the driveway.

A geezer and dead people. We’re gonna have a blast. Della waved back, her thoughts going back to the safety issue. The old geezer was probably vampire, and if he didn’t like her questions, it could mean trouble. But, the rational side of her brain countered, he was helping vampires, so he couldn’t be all bad. Just how risky could this be?

“Call me and check in,” Kylie’s mom yelled louder.

They’d told Kylie’s mom they were going shopping. And because Kylie didn’t want it to be a lie, she insisted they actually go to one store. Leave it to Kylie to worry about lying when there was so much more at stake.

While Kylie drove, she had Miranda poke the funeral home’s address into her GPS. The witch kept misspelling the name of the street or getting the street numbers backwards. Being dyslexic, she had problems with stuff like that. As tempting as it was to tell her to just pass the dang thing back, Della didn’t. For Miranda, being dyslexic was as touchy a subject as being cold was to Della.

Della waited until the GPS spit out directions to start going over the plan. “Park down the street a couple of blocks and we’ll walk up. You can’t open doors when you’re invisible, right?”

“No,” Kylie said.

“Then when you two go invisible, stay close behind me. I don’t want to have to worry about you while I’m trying to get information.”

“You don’t worry. We’ll be right behind you.”