Unspoken: Shadow Falls: After Dark (39 page)

“Yeah, but oddly they have failed to send over your files.” Burnett stopped by his car.

Chase frowned. “Can I at least drive my own car?”

“No,” Burnett said. “You aren’t thinking about selling this, are you?”

“No.” Chase got in the passenger seat and called Della. It went to voice mail. Again. Where the hell was she?

*   *   *

Della felt her phone in her pocket vibrate again. Who was it this time? Not that she’d check. As long as she didn’t know, she wouldn’t feel guilty. Or too guilty.

Holiday was going to hate her. Burnett was going to whip her butt. Kylie and Miranda wouldn’t speak to her. Chase was …

Not now.

Della’s gaze shifted to the sky painted with reds, purples, and grays. Only a sliver of big orange sun hung over the western horizon. It reminded her of the few fishing trips she’d taken with her dad. She hated fishing, but being with him all day, just sitting by the water and discussing everything from fish to future boyfriends, had been some of her best childhood memories.

“You gonna tell me? Who’s back there?” her uncle asked again.

Della inhaled. “Do you have a firm grip on the wheel?”

“Yeah. Why?” She saw his hands tighten.

“Because … I’ve seen her do crazy things to cars.” Della swallowed and gave the girl in the backseat another quick glance. She looked so young and completely innocent, popping gum and enjoying the ride. This wasn’t the same spirit who’d destroyed St. Mary’s file room. Was it Feng, or was it seeing her childhood home that had changed her?

She glanced back at her uncle. “So you can feel ghosts too?”

“Feel them, not so much. But I can feel temperature, and it’s colder than a witch’s tit in here. Plus, you’ve been eyeing someone back there this whole time.”

“It’s Bao Yu,” Della said.

Della saw her uncle’s shoulders drop an inch as if the weight of the world had just sat on them. “I thought she would leave after you and Chase found her daughter.”

“She needs answers too.” Della suddenly realized that her uncle might be able to give them to her.

“Tell her I’m so sorry. I’m responsible. They did it because of me. I wouldn’t do what they asked. I went to help, but I got there too late.”

Della shot her aunt another glance. She was older now, but not wearing the white bloody gown. It seemed that when she had the gown on was when she got out of control.

He was dead. How can he be alive?
Bao Yu asked.

“He wasn’t dead. I told you. He’s a vampire like me. Like Natasha.”

Her uncle looked at Della, then glanced in the rearview mirror. “Do you see her?”

“Yeah.” Della answered and hesitated to bring it up, but decided it had to be done. “She thinks my father killed her.”

He did! He even admitted it! When I found him at the hospital. He told the doctor.

Della inhaled. “In the doctor’s notes. When my father was hospitalized, he admitted it too.”

Her uncle shook his head. “No. Douglas Stone did that.”

“You saw it?” Della glanced over her shoulder and as expected, the bloody gown was back.

“No … not exactly. But when I got there Chao was unconscious, on the floor by the phone. I heard someone in my old room. I found … Stone was standing over her. She had the knife in her chest. It was my knife.” The sound of grief echoed in his voice. “I chased him out of the room.”

“Did my father see you?” Della asked.

Her uncle nodded. “We were fighting in the hall. I saw him run into the room where Bao Yu was.”

He did it. I showed you!

Della saw it again in her head. Her aunt flat on the floor. A knife jutting out of her chest. When she reached up she found another hand on the knife. The knife pulled out. The pain hit. The numbness started. The last thing she saw was her brother, holding the knife. Blood dripping from the blade.

Just like that, Della realized something. In every vision she’d showed Della, her father had never … stabbed her.

“I know what happened.” Tears filled Della’s eyes and she looked first at her uncle and then back to her aunt. “You were trying to pull the knife out. He saw you and he thought he was helping. But you died then. You thought he killed you. He thought he killed you.”

The car spun out of control—Della saw Feng fighting the wheel—then the last thing Della saw was the tree rushing toward them before everything went white. All white.

Chapter Forty-four

Chase watched Burnett cut the engine off. About a dozen mobile homes filled the small park. Gold light beamed out of the windows. Both he and Burnett pulled in air at the same time, testing it for any weres.

Burnett’s gaze shot to Chase.

Chase nodded. “It’s him.”

“You get anything besides were?”

“Humans. And it might be more than one were.” Chase looked down at the paper Burnett had handed him. “The address says number eight. It must be one in the back.”

As Burnett reached for the door handle, his phone rang and he checked the number. “Make it fast,” Burnett said into the phone and got out of the car.

“We found the Corolla, but not Della.” Shawn’s voice reached Chase’s ears.

“Where did you find the car?”

“We looked at all the places her father hung out these last few days, thinking Della might have gone looking for him. The car is parked in front of an old Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.”

“Have you checked the area?” Burnett frowned at Chase.

“Yes. She’s not here. Do you want us to get the car?”

“No,” Burnett said. “She’ll come back for it. Leave someone there, and … keep looking. Find her.” Burnett hung up.

Chase heard Burnett’s concern and he felt it tenfold. He also knew what scared Burnett the most was that Stone had somehow gotten his hands on Della. And damned if it didn’t terrify Chase. He’d seen what that man was capable of doing to his own girlfriend. He could only imagine what he’d do to a stranger.

They walked past the first five trailers. Chase heard people milling around inside.

“You go to the front door and knock,” Burnett said. “I’ll go to the back and stop their asses when they run.”

“I could do the back,” Chase offered.

Burnett frowned. “I got it.” Then he glanced around. “We’ve got to do this with no show. Not too many witnesses. You understand?”

Chase nodded and started to the front porch of trailer number eight as Burnett went around the back.

He stepped on the porch and right before he knocked he heard the telltale sound of a shotgun being cocked.

Chase moved. Just not fast enough.

*   *   *

Della pushed the airbag out of her face and looked at her uncle. He was doing the same thing.

Della smelled blood before she saw it ooze from his brow. “You okay?”

“Yes. The wheel went crazy.” He touched his brow. “Just a bump. You?”

“Fine.” Only after declaring it did Della move all her arms and legs. Nothing hurt.

The car engine spewed and sizzled. She glanced to the backseat with concern—only to feel like an idiot because her aunt was already dead. But she wasn’t even there.

Her uncle got out of the car. Della did the same. Or would have if the car door would have opened. She gave it a shove and the sound of screeching metal filled the night. They stood outside the car.

Feng looked at the vehicle.

“I warned you,” she said.

He nodded. “Never liked that car anyway.” Then he looked up at the sky. “It’s still quite a few miles from here.” He looked her up and down. “Sure you’re not hurt?”

“Sure,” she said.

“Then you’re okay to fly?”

She nodded.

*   *   *

Chase lurched back, landing on his feet.

Pain hit his shoulder as one tiny shot grazed him. But if he hadn’t moved he’d have been a goner. He growled and caught the scent of his own blood.

Pissed off, he leapt back onto the porch. He pushed through what was left of the door, hoping the shotgun wasn’t a double barrel, ready to give someone hell.

But hell had already been given. Burnett had the two guys down, FRU cuffs on their wrists. Chase saw the back door of the trailer on the floor.

Relief filled Burnett’s eyes when Chase appeared. Then he scowled.

“You’re hit!”

“Just grazed.” He went over and picked up the shotgun. Adrenaline still fired through his body, his shoulder stung, and he fought the desire to kick the two half-weres now stretched out face down on the stained carpet.

Then he noticed what was on one of the guy’s feet. “Nice shoes,” Chase said.

“Real nice.” Burnett stood and snatched his phone from his coat pocket and made a call. “We need a wagon to bring in two.”

*   *   *

They landed in a wooded lot, close to a fence. Her uncle took one step, then stopped. Della wasn’t quite sure where she was, but the neighborhood looked upscale. They’d passed over several nice estates. Houses as big as apartment buildings.

“You see that house?” her uncle asked.

Della looked between the metal slats of the fence. She could see it, but it was half a block away. “Yeah.”

“How fast can you make it there and knock down that door?”

Della looked at him. “More breaking and entering?”

“I don’t think he’ll call the police.”

She hesitated. “Why don’t I just knock, ask if I can come in? I can be convincing.”

He frowned. “Because the second one of us gets any closer to that house, it will set off a lockdown mode and a metal plate with electrical current will come down on all the windows and front door.”

“Oh.” She grimaced and looked back at the house.

Feng continued, “It will take thirty seconds for the metal to lower and get the power to it. Back in the day, I could get to that house in fifteen seconds. You that good?”

Della sighed. “Maybe. Whose house is this?” She inhaled, but wasn’t close enough to get any scents.

“Powell’s.”

She bit down on her lip. “Do you think Stone’s in there?”

“I don’t know. But I’d bet my canines Powell knows where his son is.”

The thought of snagging Stone and stopping the trial before it happened had Della pushing away the feeling that she was crossing over the line.

“He’s the old guy, right?” Della asked.

“Yeah.”

Della looked at Feng and tilted her head to hear his heart. “You’re not going to kill him?”

“No. I promise.”

Della nodded. “Then I’m ready.”

*   *   *

“You might as well confess,” Chase growled down at the barefooted rogue sitting in the interrogation room. “We got you. You’re going down.”

“You ain’t got shit,” the were said.

“Really?” Chase, feeling his canines lower, pulled the picture from the file he held. “Do you know what this is? It’s a picture of a shoe print, idiot! And guess what? By tomorrow, our guys will have matched it to your shoe, and you’re going down.”

“I’m not the only one who wears those shoes!” the half were said.

The door to the room opened. Burnett waved Chase to come out.

Chase slammed the door on his exit.

“What?” Frustration and worry over Della had his whole body knotted. “You found her?”

“No, but you’ve been going at him for thirty minutes. He’s not going to talk. And as you said, tomorrow they’ll identify the shoe print and we’ll have him. Don’t waste any more energy on him.”

Chase didn’t hate it so much that Burnett was right, he just hated that he was wrong. “Okay, let’s go back to our last two addresses to find Stone.”

Burnett shook his head. “I haven’t slept in thirty-eight hours and I’m betting you’re going on forty-eight.”

“And I’m not going to sleep until we know where Della is,” Chase said.

“Neither am I,” Burnett said. “But we both need to drink some blood and at least try to relax, or we’re likely to mess this up. I’ve already sent some agents out to the other two places on the list. Right now, both residences are empty. I’ve got them on watch, and if anyone shows up, they’ll call me first thing.”

“But—”

“Don’t argue,” Burnett said. “We did good tonight. Tomorrow, when the evidence comes in, I’ll mark the Chis’ case solved. Della will never have to know that her father reported her to the police.”

*   *   *

Della started to step back.

“Wait,” her uncle said. “If that metal plate comes down, stop. You got that?”

Della nodded.

“It probably wouldn’t kill you, but it would hurt like hell. And if I hand you back over to Chase with a scratch on you, he’ll have my head.”

“You won’t hand me over to anyone,” Della said.

“I didn’t mean … Sorry,” he said.

“Let’s do this,” she said.

She moved back several feet to get a running start. She heard the alarms as soon as she crossed the gate. The wind tossed her hair in her eyes. As she came closer to the porch she heard clicking sounds as if things were about to come down.

She sped up and hit the door with her shoulder full force.

It hurt like hell, but the door cracked. She landed on her side on the floor of the home.

The clicking noises stopped. She heard her uncle land on the porch and he rushed inside.

She bolted to her feet, and the smell hit.

It wasn’t as bad as the smell at Stone’s girlfriend’s house, but close. She slammed her hand over her nose.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about me killing him,” her uncle said.

Della turned around, and there, on the hall floor, was the old man she remembered from her one and only council meeting. Considering his age, Della might have suspected he’d gone of natural causes. But there was nothing natural about the knife sticking out of his back.

“What’s the address here?” Della asked, looking away.

“Why?” her uncle asked.

She reached for her phone. “Because I’m calling Burnett.”

Chapter Forty-five

Begrudgingly, Chase stormed out of the office. He’d just dropped his ass on the seat behind the wheel. He hadn’t even shut the door when Burnett shot beside his car.

“Let’s go,” he said.

“What?” Chase climbed out.

“Della,” Burnett said. “She’s at a murder scene.”