She turned and faced the newcomer. A half-assed apology sat on the tip of her tongue, but then she remembered that sensation, the feeling she’d come across him before. Inhaling, she knew now that his trace was definitely in her sensory bank. But from where? And why did his scent stir up negative feelings in her?
She almost asked him if they’d met, but she suddenly didn’t feel like talking to the guy whose butt she’d wanted to kick a minute ago. Without a word, she turned and started back to her cabin.
“Nice to have met you,” he called out in his smartass tone.
She didn’t turn around, or say a word, but she shot her hand back and gave him the third-finger salute.
His laughter only managed to piss her off more.
Della went right to bed, her heart still hurting from the visit with her family. In spite of thinking she wouldn’t, she managed to sleep. She’d still be asleep if Kylie and Miranda hadn’t come in and started pounding on her door. What part about vampires sleeping better during the day didn’t they get? Then again, she was eager to see them, too. As long as she had her friends, who cared what her parents thought about her. Right?
“Coming,” she said when their pounding started up again.
She swung open the door and Kylie and Miranda rushed in for a hug. Not a hugger, she wanted to insist. Instead, she rolled her eyes and let them get it out of their systems. And damn it if she didn’t draw some pleasure from it, too.
“Why didn’t you call us?” Kylie asked, concern filling her eyes and voice. The blonde, a chameleon, was a rare supernatural who could transform into different species. On top of that, Kylie was a protector—meaning she couldn’t protect herself, but if anyone tried to hurt someone she cared about, her powers were phenomenal. Majorly phenomenal.
“Because my phone died and I forgot to bring my charger,” Della explained.
“You never forget anything,” Miranda, the witch, said.
Miranda was right. Della didn’t forget stuff. What was wrong with her? She’d felt off for the last week. She reached back and touched the pimple that had brought on the weird nightmares. It was almost gone. Good.
Realizing they were both staring at her, she made a face. “So shoot me for forgetting something just this once.”
Kylie sighed. “We were just worried. How bad was it?”
“Did they make you take some more pregnancy tests?” Miranda asked.
“No.” Della sighed. “But I’ll need a Diet Coke if I’m going to spill my guts.” She started toward the fridge. “How was y’all’s weekend?”
“I’ll need a Diet Coke, too,” Miranda said. “I swear my mom’s the biggest B with an itch in the world. All she talked about was her friend’s daughter winning all the Wicca competitions. Please, I don’t want to win those stupid contests. So what if Little Miss Suzie can turn a grasshopper into a firefly. I’m glad I’m dyslexic.”
Della had just grabbed three sodas from the fridge when she heard the little witch’s heart race to the untruth. Gritting her back teeth, Della fought the urge to squeeze one can until it exploded. It totally pissed her off that Miranda wanted to please her mom so badly. She wished Miranda would tell her mom to go climb up a broom’s ass.
Heck, Della wouldn’t even mind doing it for her. It was one thing having parents who were disappointed in you because they didn’t know you were vampire, but another to have a mom who just thought you sucked for real. Della had listened in to the conversations between Miranda and her mom at almost every parent meeting, and sometimes Della wanted nothing more than to go vamp on the witch’s ass and teach her a few lessons.
Couldn’t Miranda’s mom see how much her daughter wanted her approval? And considering Miranda was dyslexic, she was learning to manage her witch powers pretty well. Heck, she hadn’t accidentally turned anyone into a kangaroo or a skunk in almost a month. And for Miranda, that was good.
Della passed Kylie a soda. “How was your weekend?”
“Not terrible.” Kylie popped her can open.
The soft fizzing sound filled the room. Oddly enough, Della had started to equate that sound with their round-table discussions, which always eased any negative crap weighing on her shoulders. The bubbly popping sound meant stress relief. It meant friends who, though they might not know her sleeping or hugging habits, still cared.
“Have you told her you can turn invisible yet?” Della asked Kylie. The chameleon had actually told her mom she was only part human, she just hadn’t told all the neat things she could do yet.
“No, I’m afraid she’d freak out,” Kylie said. “It’s sort of like telling a kid about where babies come from, you have to ease them into it.”
Della laughed. “You know, I’ve actually seen a show on childbirth. It was like an accident where you didn’t want to see it, but you couldn’t look away.” Della handed Miranda her can of soda, then popped the top on her own. Letting the sparkling sound fill her senses, she dropped into a chair as her two best friends did the same. The diet-soda round-table discussions were a normal part of their lives. A part Della needed more than she wished she did. She’d become attached to her roommates, big time. Which was dangerous, because face it, if your parents could turn their backs on you, your friends could do the same.
Kylie turned the can in her hand. “I missed you guys all weekend.”
“She didn’t miss Lucas.” Miranda popped open her Coke and wiggled in her chair. The little witch always squirmed with excitement when she got to tell a piece of gossip. Not that Della didn’t trust Miranda. The three of them had a pact. What happened at the Diet Soda Round Table stayed there.
“Her mom let Lucas come over,” Miranda said, and squealed a little.
Della looked back at Kylie. “She did? Did she force you to read ten how-not-to-get-pregnant pamphlets before he showed up?”
Kylie grinned. “Only one. Did you know that only about fifty percent of teen mothers receive a high school diploma? And the children of teenaged mothers are more likely to have lower school achievement and drop out of high school, have more health problems, and be incarcerated at some time during their adolescence?” She grinned. “At least it wasn’t about condoms this time.”
They all laughed again, something they did a lot at these meetings. “Did she let you go out with him, on a date date?”
“No, we went out to eat with my mom and then Lucas and I just went up to my room to talk.”
“I’ll bet you talked. The language of the tongue,” Della teased, and ran her tongue over her lips. Kylie and Lucas were a real couple, meaning they’d done the deed. Not that Kylie talked about it. Well, other than to say it was wonderful. Della could relate to her not wanting to share. Seriously, sex was … embarrassing.
And sometimes wonderful. For one second, she recalled how things had been with her ex-boyfriend Lee. Then she recalled how close things had come to being wonderful with Steve, the sexy-as-sin Southern shape-shifter. Thank God, she’d wised up before she went down that road.
“Okay, you’ve avoided it long enough, give us the lowdown,” Miranda said to Della.
Della frowned. Spilling guts wasn’t her favorite thing to do. While it always ended up cathartic, it also felt a bit like whining, and a bit like being disloyal. Disloyal to her parents. Loyalty had been inbred in her by her father.
She recalled again the picture she’d found in the old photo album. And that’s when she remembered she’d left her backpack with the photo in the fork of the woods.
“Crap!” Della jumped up.
“What?” Kylie asked.
“I left my backpack on the trail.”
“No, you didn’t,” Miranda said. “It was on the front porch. I brought it in. It’s on the sofa.”
“Burnett must have found it and…” Then it occurred to Della. What if it wasn’t Burnett? Could the no-good vamp have done it? He didn’t know which cabin was hers, but he could have followed her scent.
Had he gone through her stuff? The possibility of him looking through her bag annoyed the hell out of her. And it wasn’t just about her padded bras, but because of the picture. If he’d bent it or … Oh, hell, why had she been so careless with the backpack to start with? Oh, yeah, she’d been an emotional wreck.
“What is it?” Kylie asked, obviously reading Della’s mood.
Suddenly extra leery, Della took a flying leap over the table into the living room and snatched up the bag. “There’s a new guy here. He might have been the one who brought this to me.”
“Yeah,” Kylie said. “Lucas told me he showed up on Saturday right after we left. He’s a vampire.”
Della scowled. “He’s a jerk!”
“Why’s he a jerk?” Miranda asked. “If he found your bag and brought it to you, what’s the problem?”
“He might’ve gone through my stuff,” Della said, not believing they didn’t understand. Who wanted a guy rummaging through your underwear or your Smurf pajamas?
She pulled the bag to her nose and sniffed it. “Damn it! His scent is all over it!”
“You met him already?” Kylie asked.
“Yeah, I met him. Burnett neglected to inform me we had a new student on board, and when I found him I thought he was a rogue trespasser.”
“Oh, my!” Miranda giggled. “Did you kick his butt?”
“I was in the process of kicking it when Burnett showed up.”
“Is he cute?” Miranda asked. “Not that I’m looking … Well, I might look, just not touch.” She giggled again.
“I told you, he’s a jerk.” Right then the image of him shirtless walking toward her filled Della’s mind. She opened her bag, looking for the photograph of her grandmother with her father and his brother.
“Is this whole bag thing a ploy just so you don’t have to talk about your weekend?” Miranda asked.
“No,” Della said. “I just want to make sure that…”
She unzipped the bag, looking for the little white envelope she’d carefully placed between her underwear and her PJs. It wasn’t there! She started tossing everything out. She even turned the bag upside down and shook it, praying it would flutter out. Nothing fluttered. No picture.
“Nooo!” she muttered, thinking she might never get it back. It was probably the only picture her dad had of his brother, too. She couldn’t have lost it. Her father would kill her.
No, he wouldn’t, the thought hit. He’d just be disappointed in her even more than he was.
“This can’t be happening,” Della said.
“What can’t be happening?” Kylie asked.
“He took it. Why the hell would he have taken it?”
“Took what?” Kylie asked.
Della didn’t answer. She had to find that piece-of-shit vamp and find her father’s picture. She flashed out of the room.
When she went into full fly mode she realized she wasn’t alone. Kylie had transformed into a vampire and was chasing the wind beside her.
“What did he take?” she asked, her hair flipping around her face.
“A picture,” Della said, searching the terrain below her for the dirty little thief. “An old picture that belongs to my dad. I swear, if he even dog-eared one corner of that photograph, I’m…”
“Why would he take your picture?”
“I don’t know, but I’m gonna find out. And you might not want to be a part of this. Because if I have to, I’m beating the answer out of him.”
“You can’t…”
“Watch me,” she snapped. Then her blood started firing into full-on vamp mode when she spotted the guy walking through the woods.
Chapter Three
Right before Della’s feet slapped against the earth, the thieving vamp’s gaze shot up. Della landed about five feet in front of him. Kylie, forever the peacemaker, landed between them.
“Where is it?” Della asked, gripping and ungripping her hands, leaning to the right to look over Kylie to see her potential victim.
The vamp focused on Kylie for a second, reading her pattern. Since she morphed into vampire, he didn’t seem to worry. Right then, Della kind of hoped the bastard would lay a hand on her and then Kylie’d go into protective mode. Between the two of them, they’d be tossing his vamp butt around like a dead squirrel.
He cut his eyes back to Della. “Well, whatcha know, Smurf girl returns. At least your underwear doesn’t have Disney characters on them.”
Della’s blood pressure shot up a few points, or maybe a lot of points. “What? You get a kick out of going through a girl’s panties? Pervert,” Della growled, low and deadly. Taking a step forward, trying but unable to get around Kylie, she glared at the boy. “Where is it?” she asked for the last time. He’d better decide to come clean, or she was gonna get dirty.
Kylie looked back at Della and held out her hand as if to say “calm down.” She couldn’t calm down. The guy had stolen her dad’s picture. The fact that Della had stolen it first was beside the point.
“Are you talking about this?” The smartass guy pulled the folded envelope from his back pocket.
She snatched it from his hand. “Why did you take it?” She opened it to make sure he hadn’t ripped or damaged the photo. It looked unharmed. Relief filled her chest.
“I was bringing it to you now. When I found the backpack, I went through it to see whose it was. I left it on your porch. It wasn’t until I was walking back that I saw the envelope on the ground right where I’d opened your bag, and when I looked, I realized it must have fallen out.”