Eternal (29 page)

*   *   *

“You know it's going to be okay. We'll get out of this.”

Chase had just told her that, but when she reheard his words, the voice in her head wasn't Chase's. She opened her eyes. The sun, the blue sky, the Camaro, the police car, it had all disappeared.

Gone.

All gone.

Darkness, all she saw was darkness. She blinked again.

“You okay?” This time she recognized the voice.

Liam.

“Can I ask you something?” she said. Oh, hell yes, Della had questions, too.
Where are we?

“Yeah,” he answered.

She turned her head and could barely see him. He was handsome, even though one of his eyes looked a little swollen.

Tell me where you are, so I can get you and Natasha out.
She tried to say the words, but they wouldn't come out. She might be inside Natasha's body, but she didn't have control.

Instead, Natasha asked, “Is there someone else?”

“What do you mean?” Liam asked.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

He reached up and touched her face. “I think after what we did, three times, that means we're … an item.” He laughed.

Natasha smiled, but in reality she wasn't in the mood for humor. “I mean before now.”

He hesitated. “I used to. A year ago, she graduated and went off to USC.”

“Did you love her?” Natasha brushed some dirt off her knee and Della felt how badly she wanted Liam to say no.

“I thought I did. I wanted to go with her, but even with the scholarship they offered me, my mom couldn't afford it. She was already working a second job to pay for here.”

“So, you're smart. I figured that,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said. “But I'll bet you didn't do too bad in school, either.”

“I'm not USC smart,” she said. She paused, then asked, “So you two just broke up when she left?”

“No, we were going to try to make it work. You know, wait on each other. Fly out to see each other when we could. But just a few weeks in, she met someone else.”

“I'm sorry.”

“I'm not,” he said. “Getting turned would have ended it anyway.”

“Yeah, it kind of puts a damper on things, doesn't it?” Emotion rose up in Natasha's chest and Della realized Natasha's feelings were much like the ones she felt about being turned. Her life had been ripped away from her.

“Please don't tell me you've got someone,” Liam said. “Because I'm not going to like that.”

“I don't,” she said. “Like you, there was someone, but I had to walk away when … when I got turned.”

“Did you fake your own death?” he asked.

“They guy at the funeral home told me I had to. He said that I'd end up killing my parents or something.”

“That's a lie, you know.” He pressed a kiss on Natasha's brow.

“I don't know, it was pretty crazy at first.”

“I know, but I'm not a killer, and I don't think you are, either.” He put his arm around her. She buried her face in his shoulder.

“That's what they want us to be. Or wanted. Why do you think they didn't come back?”

“I don't know.”

Della tried to figure out what they meant, but didn't have enough information.

A sound rumbled above, like some kind of big equipment digging. Natasha looked up. “Did you fake your death?” she asked Liam.

“No, I never had a chance. That group of weres found me like the second day. I was wandering the streets, hurting like hell. They caught me and put me with the others.” He paused and then reached down and tilted up her chin and looked at her. “I didn't care if I lived or died. I was about to end it, then I saw you. You were so scared, and all I could think about was making you feel better. You saved my life.”

“No, you saved mine. And nearly got yourself killed doing it.” She lifted her hand and touched his brow and eye.

“Nah, I just got beat up a little. It was worth it.”

A few minutes of silence passed. Natasha's stomach rumbled from hunger and her thoughts took her back. “I miss them,” she said.

“Not that boyfriend, I hope,” he replied.

“No, he was just … we weren't serious. I miss my parents. My friends, Amy and Jennifer. I had two of the best friends in the world. And I know they're all hurting. Especially my mom. She loved me so much.” She started to cry.

Liam picked her up and sat her on his lap. “We'll get out of here, then you can go see them.”

“How? They think I'm dead.” She pressed her face to his chest.

“We'll make up a story. Say that you were kidnapped or something. We'll say that they got the wrong body. Hey … I'll make it happen. Somehow, Natasha, I'll fix it.”

Della felt despair swell inside Natasha's chest. “Who are we kidding?” She grabbed a handful of Liam's shirt. “We're not getting out of here, Liam. We're going to die.”

“Damn it! Don't say that. We're getting out of here, then we'll find out how others like us live. There has to be a way.”

Natasha cried a few more minutes, then finally exhausted, she just leaned against him. He knew just how to hold her to make her feel … loved.

And she loved him, she realized. She hadn't felt this way toward anyone before. Almost as if he sensed her thoughts, he leaned down and kissed her brow again. “Oh, and if you get some scholarship to some school, I'm coming with you. I'm not losing you. Okay?”

“You won't,” she said. And while she wanted to believe him, that they would get out of this alive, that they would actually get a chance to make a life together, she didn't. She didn't believe.

But at least they had now. She lifted her face and kissed him. Kissed him with desire and passion. “Wanna make that four times?”

“I asked you a question!” the voice came from somewhere else. And now it wasn't Liam's voice, or Chase's.

Della snapped open her eyes and the sun nearly blinded her.

“I'm sorry,” Chase said.

Della turned and looked at Chase, he wore the same stunned expression on his face that she must have. Then she saw the officer standing outside the driver's door, and she met his brown-eyed gaze. Unhappy gaze. Unhappy man. He looked like a bulldog—one that needed a little less time at his food bowl. He even had flabby cheeks like a bulldog, one of those kinds that drooled.

“We're nervous,” she spit out. “I mean, I'm nervous. I've never been pulled over before.”

“That's probably because you haven't been hanging out with Speedy Gonzales here for that long.”

Chase lost his usual look of superiority and his expression was one of apology. “I was trying to show off for my new girlfriend,” Chase said to the officer. “I know I was wrong. Ticket me if you have to. But at least I brought her out here so I wouldn't risk an accident.”

“You mean so you wouldn't risk getting caught.” The cop frowned, his jowls jiggled. “Let me see your license, son,” he barked.

Chase handed it to him.

He walked off, or rather wobbled off. He even walked like a bulldog. He got into his car again, where his blue lights still flashed.

Chase looked at her. She didn't say anything, but he must have read the pain in her eyes.

“We'll find them.”

“We have to,” Della said.

Her phone chimed. She yanked it out of her pocket and looked at it. Probably her mom. She still hadn't returned Della's call.

She glanced at the number. “It's Burnett. You don't think he already knows we've been—?”

“If he does, then he has an informant in every cop shop in Texas.”

Della prepared herself for an ass chewing. “I wouldn't find that too hard to believe.”

 

Chapter Thirty-two

Burnett didn't know they were being pulled over and ticketed. He'd called to inform them that Shawn wouldn't be meeting them at Uck's Burgers. The agent supposedly was working on another case. The fact that Burnett was vague about the details almost made Della suspicious.

Burnett's voice came across the line. “I was thinking you should probably just go back to Shadow Falls.”

“No, we're going to Buck's.”

“Why? Our main suspect isn't going to be in town until Friday. You'll be wasting your time.”

“No, remember, I got a familiar trace of a were at the restaurant that night. I think it means something.”

“I know but … Shawn can't make it and—”

“And we'll be fine,” she said in a determined tone. “Trust me.”

Burnett got quiet. “Fine, but remember the rules. Don't initiate any trouble. If you get a lead, call me ASAP. And…” He went on for another two minutes and ended with, “But I really think you are wasting your time.”

Thankfully, he hung up before the officer came back to give Chase
her
ticket.

Unfortunately, thirty minutes after sitting in Uck's Burgers, Della was afraid Burnett was right. Neither she nor Chase had gotten any scent of a were. There had been a few vamps, and they certainly had checked Della and Chase out, but obviously decided not to cause waves.

Chase ordered them two sodas. He remembered she drank diet, and for some reason, the thought made her feel good. They chatted about mundane things, knowing others were listening.

But when the vamps left, the conversation got a little less mundane.

“Did you get anything from the vision that might help us?” Chase asked.

Della let herself be pulled back into the memory that could easily break her heart. “They said something about someone wanting to make them murderers.”

“I know.”

“Do you think someone's making assassins out of fresh turns?”

Chase shook his head. “They could, but you'd need to trust anyone you sent out to do something like that.”

“The noise?” Della said. “It was like some construction equipment above them.”

He nodded. “But it could have been anything.”

She trailed her finger down her cup. “We need to tell Burnett about it. We never even told him about the other one.”

“If you think it will help, go for it. I just don't see what good it'll do.” He grabbed a napkin and wadded it up in frustration. “What I don't understand is why the ghost is doing this. Putting us there for no reason. We're not getting anything that will help us find them.”

Della felt the same way, but then suddenly, she knew the answer. “But we care.”

“What?”

“We care. She wants us to care about them.”

Chase exhaled and looked down at his drink. “Then she's succeeding.” He stabbed his straw into his cup.

They both grew quiet, as if trying to come to terms with caring. Then Chase looked up at her and she could tell he'd moved his thoughts away from the vision. “Why didn't you fake your death like most everyone else?” he asked.

She shrugged. “I had Chan, and when my parents took me to the hospital because I was sick, I ran into some other supernaturals and they gave me the number for Shadow Falls. Holiday's not big on vamps faking their death.”

He nodded and stared at his soda for a while. “But it obviously hasn't been all that easy for you. I've heard you complain about your dad … and your aunt. And the one parents' day I was there, you … looked pretty miserable sitting with them.”

She exhaled. “There were times I thought it might be easier the other way, but after hearing Natasha, I don't know. Holiday may be on to something.”

He nodded. “Did you lose other people, too?”

Remembering the conversation they had both been privy to between Natasha and Liam, Della suspected he meant a boyfriend. “Yeah. I had someone.”

“Were you close?”

“I thought we were. I was wrong.”

“He hurt you?” he asked, and his eyes grew a tad brighter with obvious anger.

“Yeah.” She turned her drink in her hands, tracing a drop of condensation down the glass, finding the courage to ask the same question. “What about you?”

“I was only fourteen.” He paused as if that was the answer, then he added. “But yeah, there was someone.”

“Did you love her?” Della asked.

“Young love,” Chase said. “She was a friend of my sister. I'd had a crush on her for a long time. She'd finally stopped looking at me like the younger brother.”

“Do you ever go see her? I mean, I know she thinks you're dead, but have you ever just watched her from afar to see how she's doing?”

“No.” He cut his eyes down at his own glass. “She died.”

“How?” Della asked, her chest feeling full.

“She was on the plane with us when it went down.”

Della's heart really crunched with pain then. “I'm sorry.”

“Me, too. But I saw her, sort of.”

Della picked up her straw and stirred the ice around. “You mean as a ghost?”

He made a face. “I guess that's what you would call her. I was in pretty bad shape from the crash, and I was sort of there … with them. Or halfway there, if you know what I mean?”

She nodded. “I do. The same thing happened to me when I was … being Reborn.”

“I'm glad you decided not to stay there,” Chase said.

“You, too,” Della admitted.

He smiled. “You know, I think she knew about you.”

Della made a face. “Your girlfriend? How could she have known about me?”

“She said they could peek into the future and that I'd meet someone who was a real challenge.”

“That doesn't mean it was me,” Della insisted.

He chuckled. “I don't think I've met anyone who is more of a challenge.”

She lifted her third finger up off her glass just a bit.

He saw it and laughed. “I had fun today.”

She bit down on her lip. “I'm paying you back for the ticket. Who knew they could charge four hundred dollars?”