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"Do not put yourselves in any jeopardy Your job is to infiltrate the gang by showing interest in joining, find out if they&039;re using et out Alive"
"That&039;sup at Burnett James, one of the Shadow Falls Academy owners who also just so happened to work for the FRU-Fallen Research Unit-which was basically the FBI of the supernatural world
"We don&039;t want you to bring anyone in We don&039;t want you to take care of the bad guys" Burnett continued staring right at her
Afternoon sun poured into theof the Shadow Falls office behind hiht and cast rainbow-colored ical And maybe they were Crap like that happened all the ti Della&039;s attention back to hiroup, but if it is, with your testiet a search warrant and we&039;re pretty damn positive we should find all the evidence we need to convict"
Burnett, six feet plus, with dark hair and eyes, was a hard-ass orried way tooa vampire like herself, Della respected him and his hardassness
She just wished the respect was mutual Seriously, didn&039;t he trust her? Didn&039;t he know she could friggin&039; take care of herself? Did he really have to go over this again?
"I understand, sir" Steve, the brown-haired, brown-eyed, great-bodied guy sitting next to her spoke up when she didn&039;t For the first time, Della noticed his voice held a hint of a Southern accent that wasn&039;t just Texan
Della glanced over Steve gave Burnett his complete attention What an ass-kisser
Steve was evidence that Burnett didn&039;t trust her Why else would Burnett insist Steve go with her? She didn&039;t need the shape-shifter He was just going to slow her down
"Wait," Burnett said, pacing across the office again "Let et out alive I want you to get out just the way you went in Not wounded, not bruised, and for God&039;s sake, don&039;t leave any dead bodies behind You got that?"
"Now you&039;re taking all the fun out of it," Della s and if you can&039;t take this seriously then get your va around"
Della slu when to shut her nment for the FRU Wanted to win Burnett&039;s respect Everyone needed so her parents wasn&039;t an option any anyone was the only reason she wanted to go Even before she&039;d been turned into a vampire, she&039;d considered a career in cri that allowed her to kick butt Of course, her parents had frowned on that They had her earmarked to be a doctor They had her ears
But not a vaured it, if they went bat-shit crazy just because she&039;d stopping eating rice-which after being turned tasted like curdled toe ja to accept that she was a blood-drinking vampire? The ansas obvious They wouldn&039;t, couldn&039;t accept it
Lucky for her, she&039;d been accepted into Shadow Falls-a boarding school for supernaturals-and didn&039;t have to worry what her parents thought about her choice of careers, or whether she ate her rice or not And yetnow Della couldn&039;t help but question if they ever thought or worried about her at all Did they sit down to eat dinner and notice her chair was eet and set an extra plate at the table?
She doubted it
Yes, they came to the parents&039; day visitations, but they were always the first to leave, and eager to do it Especially her father, theto iirl, her mom used to call her
Not anymore
No doubt her sister had taken over that role
Turning vampire hadn&039;t been Della&039;s choice It was one of those things life slapped on your ass and you just had to accept it Which meant she&039;d had to accept that her family would never be able to accept her Not that it really bothered her Not anyher back to reality
"One hundred percent," Della said, working hard to keep her attitude fro over
"Yes, sir" Steve nodded
Yup, an ass-kisser
"Okay, you got your orders?" Burnett said "You knohere to go and what your cover is? They expect you toDon&039;t be late, don&039;t be too early Don&039;t let them lure you back to their compound The policy, if they follow their own policy, is that three of the et the inforet out"
"Got it" Della held up the brown envelope And you&039;ve gone over this ten tis" Burnett eyed Della "And please, don&039;tyou on this"
"You won&039;t," Della said
Della and Steve stood to leave
"Steve," Burnett said "Give me a few minutes"
Della looked from Steve to Burnett What the hell did he need to talk with Steve about that couldn&039;t be said in front of her?
Burnett shifted his gaze to Della and then cut his eyes to the door
Frowning, Della shot up from the chair and left She stopped about fifty feet fro a , she tuned her own va and waited to discover what the hell was up The afternoon sun spilled over the trees, casting shadows on the ground as she stood frozen in one spot
"I&039; you to keep Della safe," Burnett said
Della inwardly growled at Burnett&039;s chauvinistic approach and fought the need to rush back in there and give hionna have to protect his butt!
"I do not believe this is the gang we&039;re looking for" Burnett&039;s voice carried well "Or I wouldn&039;t be sending you two This is just a clearance check But that doesn&039;t erous"
"Don&039;t worry," Steve&039;s deep voice answered "I&039;ll keep her in ht at all ti a little side trip, and she didn&039;t need Steve tagging along
At six that evening they arrived at the cabin the FRU had rented theht outside the vampire co one of those roach-coach vans fine dining
Of course, she and Steve were supposed to look like a couple of supernatural teen runaways She supposed it would have looked suspicious if they&039;d rented anything with even part of a star attached to its reputation But damn, this was supposed to have been a fun trip
She wasn&039;t a pri on a , with sheets that looked as if they hadn&039;t been changed in a year or so wasn&039;t her idea of fun The bed&039;s covers were half on and half off the reasy spot in the center as if someone with not-so-clean hair had slept there
Or ht was, one even worse hit Someone had probably done the huet a disease sleeping on it
Walking back into the tiny living area, she found Steve staring at the sofa with about asat the bed
"Come to think about it, I&039;ll take the sofa," she said "And I don&039;t want to hear any shit There ain&039;t no one going to get past rine falcon-which meant he was fast-and her as a, well, a vampire-whichthe only two species who could really fly Well, an occasional witch, but Miranda, her Wiccan roommate, swore they really didn&039;t travel around on brooms
However, Steve and Della&039;s mode of transportation also meant they really hadn&039;t spoken since they&039;d left Shadow Falls, with the exception of when they&039;d first walked into the cabin and he&039;d insisted she take the bed And why? Because if soht pissed her off She al, but then realized that if she wanted to sneak out later, she wouldn&039;t want hi her gone
Since he came across as the type with irl&039;s bedroom-at least not without an invitation-she&039;d kept herher gone to the odds of thoseher body, hands down