Shadow Falls After Dark: Eternal Part 34

"Yeah, but the Vampire Council's files are practically the same."

There it was again, the feeling that he knew more than he'd told her. "Do you still have that file?"

"No," he said without looking at her. "Once a case is over, you turn it back in."

"What else did it say?"

"Just normal stuff. Where you lived, your parents' names."

Something wasn't adding up, but she couldn't put her finger on it. "So, if you knew their names, why didn't you get that it was my aunt that called when we were in the closet?"

He lifted up one eyebrow and half smiled. "When we were in the closet, I had my mind on something else."

She frowned at him. Then bam, her brain found that thing that bothered her. "So, in this file you had, it listed that I was at Shadow Falls?"

"Yes."

She tightened her eyes. "Then why did you join the Blades? You told me you'd joined them looking for me and that's where we met."

He stared straight ahead and his hands tightened on the steering wheel.

"Answer me, d.a.m.n it! And look at me when you do it!"

He turned and met her gaze. "The Vampire Council knew you were being sent on that mission. They didn't want me going into Shadow Falls at first because they were afraid Burnett would be on to me."

"How?" she asked.

"How what?" he came back.

"How did you know I was going on that mission?"

His jaw muscles tightened. "Why are we talking about this instead of talking about how this visit is going to help us find Natasha and Liam?"

"Because I need to trust you to work with you."

He jerked the car over into a parking lot, cut off the engine, and then slammed his hand on the steering wheel. "You don't trust me? I gave you my blood, went through the turn with you-which was d.a.m.n painful, in case you don't remember-and I gave you some of my power. And you still think I'm out to hurt you?"

Fueled by his anger, she squared off. "I didn't say you would hurt me. I think you're hiding things. Or not telling me things. And just for the record, I didn't ask you to bond with me. I seem to remember telling you I didn't want you to do it!"

He growled, tightened his grip on the steering wheel, pressed his head back, and closed his eyes. "You are the most stubborn-"

"Not any more than you!" she seethed. "Just answer my questions. How did you know I was going on that mission?"

He turned his head, loosening his grip on the wheel. "And you'll report it right back to Burnett, correct?"

She didn't see any reason to lie. "Probably."

He exhaled loudly. "So, to win your trust, I have to betray the council?"

"Yes," she said.

He looked appalled that she'd made it that clear.

He stared at her for a second as if debating, and then answered. "There's a leak in the FRU. And before you ask, I don't know who it is. And from what I hear, they don't even give away anything that would really be detrimental to the organization."

She believed him, not so much about the detrimental part, but about him not knowing who it was. But since he was finally answering questions, she had a few more. "What was the mission with me and Chan?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"What exactly was your mission?" she repeated, her patience thinning.

"I was to check on you, attempt to help you both through the rebirth."

"So, you were sent to bond with one of us?"

"No, that was totally at my discretion. I was there to try to make sure you kept up your strength. I told you that it's been proven that those who are in better physical condition have a higher survival rate. Remember me making you run?"

She nodded. "Now all I need to know is why and who?"

"Why and who what?"

"Why were you sent and who initiated it?"

"I just told you that I was sent to help you through the rebirth."

"So they have a list of every possible Reborn?"

His expression tightened with more frustration. "I don't know what all they have ... but I do know they know that there are only a few bloodlines that lead to rebirths, so maybe they do." He pa.s.sed a hand over his face and then glared at her. "Do you know what all the FRU has?"

No, she didn't. But she wasn't satisfied. "There has to be a reason they sent you, Chase. In a perfect world, maybe they just care about people. But this isn't a perfect world. And I don't think the Vampire Council gives a s.h.i.t about a few people dying unless it's in their benefit to make sure they don't."

"They aren't the monsters you make them out to be. The problems between the council and the FRU are political. Not because one of them is evil and the other isn't."

She heard what he said, but she was too busy trying to answer her own questions. All of a sudden, an answer came to her. "Did they send you so that I would come to work for them? Or maybe that I would be one of their spies in the FRU? Is that what they really wanted? What they want?"

"I already told you they want you to come and work for them."

"But was that their plan all along? Save me, then use you to try to convince me to become a traitor?"

Chapter Thirty-five.

"A traitor?" Chase asked. "So the Vampire Council is terrible to ask you to work for them? What the h.e.l.l do you think Burnett has been doing since he discovered that I'm a Reborn? Is the man you hold the utmost respect for evil for trying to get me to work for the FRU? For that matter, why the h.e.l.l do you think he's working with Shadow Falls? Or haven't you noticed how many of the students are working for the FRU? He's handpicking the cream of the crop."

His point gave Della pause, but only for a second. "Burnett cares. He'd die for any of the students at Shadow Falls. And he didn't get involved with the camp just so he would have access to the students."

"Oh, I'm sure that never crossed his mind," Chase said with sarcasm.

She leaned closer to him. "I happen to know that he's gone against the FRU and their rules to protect someone. He's put his job on the line for the school. And even you made the point that he coddles his agents. Why do you think that is?" She poked him in the chest with her finger. "Could it be because he cares?"

"Could it be that he's not the only one?" Chase snapped back.

"The Vampire Council doesn't care."

She went to poke him again and he caught her finger, his eyes bright. He leaned in, she thought to give her more h.e.l.l, but she was wrong.

"I wasn't talking about the council. I'm talking about me."

His lips met hers in a kiss that tasted like anger, pa.s.sion ... he tasted good.

So good.

He let go of her finger and one hand came to the back of her neck, the other cradled the back of her head. Della's hand dropped to press against his chest.

The kiss deepened and so did Della's confusion.

His tongue slipped between her lips. She allowed it. Welcomed it.

Finally, seeing reason, she pulled back. "You can't just kiss me to avoid answering."

"Really?" He drew her closer and kissed her again.

And d.a.m.n it, she let him.

She finally pushed back. "Answer me," she said, but without a lot of conviction.

He smiled at her. "I forgot the question."

She wanted to smack that smile off his face, especially when she realized she'd forgotten the question, too.

He pa.s.sed a finger over her lips, and the s.e.xy way he looked at her told her he was about to kiss her again. She caught his finger this time. "Why haven't you arranged a meeting with me and the Vampire Council?"

"I have. We're going there before we go to the airport to pick up Damian Bond."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was going to, but ever since you showed up at my place earlier, all I've focused on was coming to see your aunt." He pulled his finger free and touched her chin. "Now, will you answer my questions?"

"What questions?"

"Natasha is Chan's sister?"

"No," Della said and decided to tell him the truth. "The ghost is Natasha's mom. She gave Natasha up for adoption."

"So you had another aunt?"

"I guess the council missed that in their report, huh?"

"I guess so," he said and looked concerned. She almost asked if he knew about her uncle. The question sat on the tip of her tongue.

"How did Natasha's mom die?"

"She was murdered," Della said, but she couldn't bring herself to tell him more.

Questions and concerns quickly started forming in Della's head. "Because Chan and I were both Reborns, does that mean Natasha will be, too?"

"It's not a given, but her odds are fifty/fifty."

Della started thinking about other odds. "I've heard that in families that carry the virus, the odds of them actually getting turned are like one in a hundred. And only then when they're young." This was why Della hadn't really worried about her sister. "Do those odds of being turned go up if you belong to one of the bloodlines that are more likely to be Reborn?" When he didn't answer immediately, she asked, "Are my sister and Meiling at a higher risk of being turned?"

He nodded. "The statistics are that one in ten of the stronger bloodlines are actually susceptible to being turned."

"So, me being around my sister or my cousin can expose them?"

"It's exposed only through blood. Like the HIV virus. So just being with them isn't going to get them turned."

Della sat back in her seat and tried to digest what she knew.

"Hey," he said and touched her shoulder. "Don't worry about things that haven't happened. Let's worry about saving Natasha and Liam right now."

She looked at him, and knowing he was right, she nodded.

He spoke again. "You said you felt as if the ghost wanted you to come here. Did you learn anything that would help?"

She tried to consider everything she'd learned. "I don't think so." She looked at Chase and offered him more of the truth. "I think this is about something else."

"Like what?"

"She wants me to find out who killed her."

"Okay," he said, sounding leery. "Do you think you know who did it?"

She looked at Chase and debated telling him everything again. She almost did, then stopped. Oddly, it wasn't because she didn't trust him, but because he already held a prejudice against her father. She didn't need him a.s.suming the worst right now.

"Can we just try to find Natasha and Liam?"

"Okay," he said, but his expression said he didn't like it. "What do you want to do? Where do you want to go?"

"Back to Uck's," she said.

"You still think the were you got a trace of at the restaurant has something to do with Natasha?"

"I do," she said. "And so does the ghost. She's the reason I knew it was werewolves that the rogue was scared of last night."