“Yeah,” Della said.
Kylie contemplated it. “I don’t think they were ever really there.”
“I saw them,” Della insisted, thinking Kylie would be the last person to question this.
“I’m not saying you’re lying, just that the ghost made you think you saw them. Like a vision of sorts. Were you feeling the ghost when you saw the names?”
Della remembered feeling the cold off and on while at the graveyard.
“Yeah.” She chewed on that a moment. “Does that make what I saw … less true?”
“Nah,” Kylie said. “Ghosts don’t normally lie. Is Burnett going to let you go visit the parents?”
“As soon as he gets the okay from the FRU for us to work the case. He was supposed to call, but that was hours ago.” She glanced at her phone again and her mind went to the other call she waited on. The one from Steve.
Feeling her own heartache reminded her of hearing Miranda crying in the predawn hours.
Glancing at the witch, she asked, “Did you rescind your promise so you could tell us what’s up?”
“Rescind what promise?” Kylie asked.
Della, all too willing to get the topic off of her issues and onto someone else’s, focused on Kylie. “Our little witch is holding back.”
With them zeroing in on her, Miranda slunk down in her chair guiltily.
Della pointed at the witch. “She was up crying at three this morning, but said she couldn’t spill what was wrong because she promised someone she wouldn’t tell.”
“What’s wrong, Miranda?” Concern laced Kylie’s three words.
“I still can’t talk about it. Not until…”
“Until what?” Della asked.
“Until someone else says something.” Miranda cut her eyes to Della.
And, just like that, Della got the crazy feeling that this was about her.
“You know we won’t say anything,” Kylie offered.
“I know that.” After staring at her hands, Miranda glanced back up at Della.
“Is this about me?” Della asked, hoping she was wrong, because then she’d really be pissed.
Her focus on Miranda came to a quick halt when she heard footsteps heading up to the cabin. She tilted her head to the side to listen to the cadence, and immediately she knew who it was.
Chapter Fourteen
Steve’s knock on the door sounded too loud. Della considered hiding and telling her two roommates to lie.
“Come in,” Kylie called out before Della could initiate her plan.
Steve opened the door. Della planted her eyes on him. Then Miranda let go of an awkward sigh. Shifting her focus back to Miranda, Della saw guilt flash in the girl’s eyes. Well, crap! Whatever the little witch was hiding didn’t just involve Della, it had something to do with Steve, too.
“What’s going on?” Della muttered to the witch.
Miranda sank deeper into her chair as if guilt had her weighed down.
“Can I talk to you?” Steve asked, and his tone set Della’s pulse to racing.
She looked at Steve, really looked, and the hurt in his eyes smacked Della in the heart so hard, she had no doubt it left a bruise.
Drawing in air, her lungs only accepted a tiny bit, making her breath shudder. She had no idea what this was about, but somehow, one thing was extra clear. Steve knew she’d been with Chase.
I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not guilty. But freaking hell if she didn’t feel as if she’d been dipped, rolled, and deep-fried in the ugly emotion.
“I won’t keep you long,” he said, the somber sound of his tone echoing in Della’s head.
“Sure.” She picked up her phone so she wouldn’t miss Burnett’s call—a call that would once again put her with Chase.
Two choices, her mind chanted. Let Steve go or refuse to work with Chase.
She stood up, knowing what she had to do. Dread and nerve-splitting pain spilled out of her heart, into her chest, flowed into her limbs, and traveled all the way up to her scalp and down to her feet. Even her pinkie toe hurt.
She was five-foot-three of nothing but raw pain. But the only thing that would hurt worse than losing Steve was knowing she was hurting him.
Decision made. Ready to crash and burn, she started toward Steve.
* * *
Steve led the way through the woods. He seemed to know where he was going. She didn’t even note his direction, she just followed, her heart and mind on what she had to do.
He never spoke; neither did she. Their footsteps seemed to be swallowed by the trees, as if they breathed in sound and not air.
He stopped at a spot right next to the swimming hole, abandoned by most of the campers due to the fall cold. The vampires, more resistant to the temperature than the others, still came here, but not nearly as much. It just seemed much more fun when all the campers participated.
Today, however, there were no sounds of laughter or splashing, the water lying so still, it became a mirror to the fall-dressed trees. Yellow and orange and an occasional patch of red leaves reflected on the quiet stillness of the lake. Della tried to pull some calm from the vision that some saw as beautiful. She failed. Fall meant death to the leaves, and Della sensed some part of her would die here today as well.
The sound of Steve’s breathing had Della looking away from the water and to him.
His brown eyes reflected regret, sorrow, pain. And was that guilt?
“I can’t do this anymore.” They had spoken in unison, and the same words.
She saw the surprise on Steve’s face that she knew she wore on hers. Her throat tightened.
“I didn’t do anything wrong.” She wasn’t sure why she had to say it, but it felt important. Steve didn’t deserve to feel betrayed. And maybe she didn’t want to be thought of as a betrayer, either.
He took a step closer. So close, he could touch her if he chose to. He didn’t choose to. And that almost brought her to tears. “Nothing’s happened between—”
“I know.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets. He shuffled his feet and stared down at the ground, but not before she saw that hint of what looked like guilt again. An ugly thought hit … had Steve betrayed her? Had he and Jessie hooked up? Had she been wrong to trust him?
“You?” she asked, and she didn’t have to say more. When he looked up, she knew he understood her question.
“No. God, no.” There was honesty in his tone and she believed him.
He exhaled and ran a hand over his face. “You were dying, Della,” he stated as if he had a speech planned but forgot the beginning. “That day, when Chase called me … he told me that you two would be bonded. I’d never heard of anything like that, but I also knew it didn’t matter. If saving you meant losing you, I’d do it. But now…”