Della waited for Chris to reply, when all of a sudden she realized Burnett wasn’t talking to Chris. Friggin’ hell. What now?

Before they got out of earshot of the other vampires, Della had a good idea of what it was all about. Chase.

“Did you see Chase after you left the office last night?”

Sometimes being right wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

“Yeah.” It was decision time. To tell or not to tell. She wasn’t sure why she felt an ounce of loyalty to the panty perv, but she did. It hung in her chest like an unwanted emotion.

“Did he mention he was leaving Shadow Falls?”

“Sort of,” she said.

“And you didn’t think you should inform me about that?”

“I wasn’t sure if I believed him. I thought I’d find him here this morning.”

The worry line between Burnett’s brows deepened. “Did he say where he was going?”

“No.”

“What did he say?”

It was a direct question and one she felt obligated to answer. “He told me where we met. He was part of the Blades gang when Steve and I went undercover.” When Burnett didn’t say anything, she decided it was time to drop the bomb. “He said he works for the Vampire Council.”

“I already knew that,” Burnett said.

Della stared up at him and threw his words right back at him. “And you didn’t think you should’ve informed me about that?”

“That’s different,” he said.

“Yeah. The difference being, you expect me to be completely forthcoming with you, while you do just the opposite.”

His scowl deepened. “But since you weren’t forthcoming with me, your argument doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.” He ran a hand over his face.

“If he was gone, I’d planned on telling you.”

“Which was too late to do anything,” he seethed.

Della couldn’t argue with that. “How did he leave without setting off the alarm?”

“He didn’t. He called in the middle of the night and said he had to go see an old friend who was in trouble. I believed him. But … considering my suspicions, I had someone follow him.”

“So you didn’t lose him. What’s the issue?” Della asked.

“He got away.”

“He’s fast,” Della said.

Burnett nodded. “When I went to his cabin this morning, his stuff was all gone.” Burnett hesitated. “Did he say anything else?”

“Only that he was looking for someone,” she told him.

“Who?”

“He wouldn’t say,” Della exhaled. “But considering he left, I’m assuming he didn’t find him or her here.”

“Then why stay as long as he did? And why agree to help work this case?”

“I asked that. He said you’re the one who suggested it. And since he was good at what he did, he thought he’d help find a killer. So maybe that was why he stayed.”

“Do you believe him, or do you think he had some ulterior motive for being here?”

She mentally chewed on the question for a couple of seconds. “I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I think I believe him.” She rubbed her temple, which still throbbed. Not sharp shooting pains, but just enough of a dull ache to make her take notice.

When she looked up, Burnett stared at her. “What?” she asked.

“Chris is right, you don’t look well. Are you feeling okay?”

She grinned. “Chris said I looked like shit.”

Burnett arched an eyebrow. “Holiday is on to me about my language. She said too many of the students are cursing, especially the vampires. She says I’m a bad influence on them.” He cut her a direct look as if accusing her of having a potty mouth.

“Well, damn!” Della grinned, finding it funny that the badass vampire got called out for his language. When he didn’t respond to her humor, she sobered. “I’ll watch what I say when I’m around her so you won’t get in trouble.” She paused. “How is she doing?”

“Like you. She looks tired, worn out. But she has a reason. You … I’m not so sure.”

“I’m not pregnant, if that’s what you’re asking.”

He looked appalled. “I wasn’t asking.”

“It was a late night,” Della said. “I’ll be fine.” She dropped her hand from her temple. Out of the blue, an image of Billy filled her head. “I’d bet I’m doing better than Billy.”

“I’d have to agree with you on that. The DNA came back on the hair.”

“And?” Della asked, wanting to rub it in a little that she’d been right. She deserved that. Then she’d tell him about Phillip Lance.

“It’s a match,” Burnett said. “They’ve officially arrested him about five this morning.”

“No!” Doubt reared its head in her chest. “He didn’t … I still don’t—”

“He’s guilty, Della. I know you didn’t want to believe that.” He rested his hand on her shoulder. “And if it makes you feel any better, we’ll go easy on him because … fresh turns don’t always have control. But he’ll spend some time in jail, and hopefully in the next few years we’ll have him rehabilitated.”

“But I have another—”

“It’s a done deal. The report came back positive. I’m supposed to go and finalize the paperwork and set up sentencing. Now go get some breakfast, and if you’re still tired, skip your first classes and take a nap.”

“You don’t understand,” Della demanded. “I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen. I think I’ve found another suspect.”

“You are the one not listening,” he said. The DNA is a match.” He frowned but with empathy. “In this job, second to seeing the victims, the hardest thing is sometimes arresting the guilty—especially the fresh turns. It hurts like hell … heck … to realize that sometimes good people can do terrible things.”

Della swallowed and tried to accept it, but that stupid voice started chanting again in her head, and it came in rhythm with the throb in her temple.

Innocent. Innocent. Innocent.

Chapter Thirty-two

Della skipped campmate hour and went back to her cabin to do an Internet search on Billy Jennings. She was right: He belonged to the school band. And to the chess club. The guy was an honor student. And not even a cool honor student. He was a geek. How could someone so … so perfectly geeky kill Lorraine and John?

Feeling as if she couldn’t do a damn thing to help Billy, she cut the computer off and went to her first class—science. But by the time she sat down, her head pounded so hard it felt as if her eyes were going to pop out.

Mr. Yates, Jenny’s brother as well as their teacher, stood up in front of the class talking about how cell phones and signals worked.

Della didn’t give a rat’s ass. All she could think about was her headache and then Billy. Playing the flute one week, being arrested for murder the next.

“There’s one a couple of miles from here.” Perry spoke up, but his voice sounded distant, as if he were far away. “I never get service there.”

All of a sudden, Mr. Yates’s phone rang. “Well, someone isn’t in the dead zone.” He answered the call. Then the teacher looked right at Della, his gaze almost angry. “Innocent.” His voice echoed like they were in a cave. “Innocent!” he yelled.

“What?” Della asked. But when she blinked Mr. Yates wasn’t looking at her and was back talking into his cell. What in hell’s bells was going on? Had she just imagined…?

She blinked again and the fogginess in her brain increased. The air suddenly changed, and she smelled wet dirt. It had turned night. Her gaze shot around, expecting to see the classroom, but she saw only woods, the trees stared down at her. Sh glanced down at her hands. A diamond ring, an engagement ring, sparkled up at her from her left hand. Engagement ring? What the hell?

All of a sudden, her hands didn’t look like her hands. She shook her head, feeling as if her reality had been yanked away. Nothing made sense. Nothing mattered but getting that damn ring off. She started to yank at it, but her hands were covered in blood. Lots and lots of blood. But the blood didn’t seem to matter as much as the ring. She tried again to pull it off, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t move. She felt paralyzed or … dead.

Her heart jolted. She wasn’t dead. The smell of dirt vanished, but the blood on her hands hadn’t. She felt the hard school desk against her back. She started to jump up, but then the blood disappeared.

The ring disappeared.

Her breath caught.

“Della? Della?”

In the distance someone called her name. But she didn’t care about that either. She kept staring at her hands, turning them one way and then other.

Damn it! What had just happened?

She closed her eyes. Innocent. Innocent. Innocent. The words echoed around the schoolroom, as if everyone was chanting them. Della jumped up from her seat and looked around. Everyone was staring at her, but no one was speaking, or chanting.

“Della? Della?”

Her name echoed again. This time Della recognized Mr. Yates’s voice.

She forced herself to glance at him. He stared at her, looking puzzled. Della moved her gaze around, seeing everyone gawking at her as if she was nuts. And hell, maybe they were right.

“Della?” Mr. Yates said again.

“Yeah,” she managed to answer, but only after she growled at the gawkers.

“Are you okay?” He walked to her desk.

No. I’m losing my mind. She nodded.

“Did you hear me?” he asked.

She stared at him blankly, and he must have gotten the message that she hadn’t heard a damn thing.

“Holiday wants to see you. In the office.”

Feeling her insides tremble, she grabbed her book and went to find Holiday. Find her and tell her to call the people who came in with those tight white coats and carted off crazy people. Because Della was pretty certain she was on the path to needing a padded cell.

By the time she got to the office, she’d convinced herself that living in a padded cell wasn’t her calling.

Holiday rose from her desk. Concern pulled at her brows.

“What’s wrong?” Della envisioned the worst—a worst that didn’t have anything to do with visions of blood or engagement rings. Had something happened to someone in her family?

Holiday motioned for her to sit down. Ignoring the motion, Della stood in the middle of the office, still feeling dazed.

“What is it?” Della insisted.

“Lorraine Baker stopped in this morning. Briefly.” The camp leader rubbed her belly.

“And?” Della asked, trying to convince herself that this was good news. She thought of Billy. Maybe now they’d get a break in the case.

“When I tried to get her to talk to me, she informed me that she was already communicating with someone. But they weren’t a good listener.”

Della’s mind spun. “Then she’s lying, because Kylie is good at that. Did you ask her? Maybe Lorraine told Kylie something.” Something that would help Billy. Something that would keep a flute-playing chess lover out of prison.

Holiday pulled her hair over one shoulder and twisted it. Worry brightened her eyes. “It’s not Kylie,” Holiday said. “She said she’s talking to you.”

Okay, sitting down suddenly sounded like a good idea. Della took two steps to the sofa and dropped. The sofa sighed with her weight as if complaining. But not as loud as Della wanted to complain.

“But I’m vampire.” A shiver ran down Della’s spine and she realized she did connect with a ghost. Chan. But what was it Kylie had said? Oh yeah, that some spirits with a strong connection can attach themselves to normal, non-ghost-whispering people. She thought she was just one of those. Not so much normal, but someone who didn’t go around talking to dead people. “Vampires don’t do ghosts,” Della said.

“Yeah, that has always been what I believed, too. But then Burnett … and now this. I’ll admit, I’m puzzled. I always thought since we don’t really know Burnett’s heritage that he could have been a descendant of the American tribe and that was the reason he had a connection to the falls and the spirit world.”

“I’m Chinese, not—”

“You’re half Chinese,” Holiday said. “I subscribed to ancestry.com trying to find Burnett’s family history, so before I called you down here I went on and put in your mother’s maiden name to see if there’s any evidence that your mom might be a descendant.”

“And?” Della asked.

“Nothing popped up.” The camp leader exhaled at the same time Della did, but Holiday’s release seemed to extend from disappointment, Della’s from relief. She didn’t want to be part of any bloodline that tied her to ghosts.

“But,” Holiday continued, “let’s worry about that later. Right now, we need to help Lorraine. What has she told you?”

“She hasn’t told me shit. I haven’t seen her. She must have lied to you about…” Della remembered the voice she’d been hearing.

“What?” Holiday asked.

“I’ve been hearing a voice. I thought … It sounded like me thinking it. Like a song when it gets stuck in your head.”

“What does it say?” Holiday asked.

“All it says is … innocent. Repeatedly.” The realization that she had not one, but two ghosts communicating with her scared the living crap out of her. However, Della decided to freak out later. “Lorraine must be trying to tell me that Billy is innocent. That has to be what this means.”