Reborn (Shadow Falls: After Dark #1)(72)

“That’s why I brought you here,” he said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, trying to ignore the cold and what it meant—that her temperature was still running high.

“I knew you wouldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it.”

She started getting a really bad feeling. “Believe what?”

“I knew you’d have to see him, so I…”

“What?” She took a threatening step forward.

He didn’t retreat. He looked right at her, not with challenge or menace. Empathy flashed in his blue eyes.

“Chan’s dead.”

“No,” Della seethed. “I saw him, just the other night.”

“No you didn’t. It couldn’t have been him. He died ten days ago. I just found out tonight.”

“That can’t be right. I…” Pain, raw bitter pain, scraped against her heart; then something brushed against her cheek. She reached up to catch the mosquito in her fist. But when she opened her hand, instead, she’d caught a feather.

The pain throbbing inside her swelled and made it hard to breathe.

Chan was dead.

Chan was gone.

She’d let him down. He’d helped her when she’d needed him, and she’d failed him.

Chapter Twenty-two

“I knew you wouldn’t believe me, so I had them dig him up.” Kevin took a step and then looked back. “You do want to see him, don’t you?”

No. I don’t want to see him. Della followed anyway. Maybe to punish herself. Maybe because there was still a little disbelief inside her.

He led her behind the trees to a clearing. Moonlight hit on a tarp covering up something. Something that looked like it could be a body. Beside the tarp was a hole in the ground.

Della’s chest gripped tighter and her vision blurred.

Kevin reached down and pulled back the piece of plastic.

She expected to be assaulted by the smell of death. But no scent touched her nose. Not even Chan’s scent. She expected to see a swollen and decayed body. Maybe a wound telling her how he’d died. Wrong.

She blinked the tears from her eyes. It was Chan. Chan, not swollen. Chan with no decay. Chan with no open wounds or sign of how he’d died. But it was his body lying there, not breathing. Dirt on his face. Dirt on his clothes.

Chan … dead.

“How … who did this? What happened?” She barely managed to speak, emotion thickening her tonsils.

“No one did it,” he said. ““When he left for Texas, he wasn’t feeling right. They said he got sicker, and then he got a weird rash on his back, and then about ten days ago he died. Just died. It’s crazy. Vampires hardly ever get sick.”

“But how…” She couldn’t finish the question.

“The gang buried him here,” Kevin finished. “They knew he’d faked his death, so they didn’t think they had to let anyone know.”

The knot in Della’s throat doubled in size right along with the pain in her heart. Chan had been sick. He’d called her and she hadn’t returned his call. What kind of cousin did that?

Her mind created the pristine vision of Lorraine’s body in the casket. She fell to her knees and brushed some dirt from her cousin’s face; then she dropped her chin on her chest and sobbed. She didn’t care if Kevin saw her, or thought she was weak. Her heart was breaking and she didn’t give a flying flip how she looked.

Della had stopped crying, but she hadn’t moved from Chan’s side when Burnett showed up. She’d sent Kevin away and called Burnett to tell him she’d found her cousin and he was dead. She wanted Chan buried in the grave with his gravestone—the one where his parents thought they’d put their son almost two years ago. And since she didn’t think she could pull that off, she called someone who could.

Sure, Burnett would probably give her hell for being here, he might even stop her from ever working for the FRU, but right now she didn’t care. She’d let Chan down, but the least she could do was put his body where it really belonged.

Burnett didn’t speak; he simply walked up and knelt down beside her. He put his hand on her shoulder and her breath hitched.

“What happened?” he asked, no anger in his tone, just concern.

It took a second to swallow the unshed tears from her throat to answer. “He came here and joined the gang, the Crimson Blood. They say he died. Just died.” She blinked. “They said it was ten days ago, but it couldn’t have been. He doesn’t look … like he’s been dead ten days.” And she’d seen him. Seen him at the fence. Was it possible that…?

“They could be telling the truth. The V-one virus delays any form of decay in us. It can take as much as two weeks before our bodies start to break down. But we will do an autopsy. If there’s any foul play involved, you know I’ll do my best to catch those responsible.”

She nodded. And suddenly she couldn’t stop the tears. “He called me. He called me a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t call him back.”

“You couldn’t have known this was going to happen,” he said, and then stood. “Come on, I’ll get you back to Shadow Falls. Holiday’s concerned about you.”

She stood as well and then stopped. “No, I … Kylie and Miranda don’t even know I’m gone.”