“It’s apparent that someone with your talents and abilities would be an asset to our team of agents,” answered the youngest of the council again.
“So, you do have a list of all potential Reborns?” she asked. “And you send someone out to all of them?”
“We make it our business to stay informed,” said the eldest again.
Della got the sense he wasn’t answering her questions as much as placating her.
He waved his aged hand and continued. “We strive to offer help to all those possible.”
But they hadn’t strived that hard to save Chan. If they were that concerned, they could have sent two agents, couldn’t they?
She heard Chase say something under his breath, but she ignored him. “So who informed you about me and my cousin?”
“You are indeed filled with curiosity, Miss Tsang,” the eldest spoke again. “And if you were working for us, you would have access to a colossal amount of information.”
Della stiffened. Why did that almost sound like a bribe, the same one Chase had offered earlier? Go work for them and she’d get her answers.
“Considering that I am in a sense working for you, I thought you might respect me enough to answer my inquiries now.”
“And we did,” said the eldest.
Bullshit!
“Is there another question you would like to pose?” the man continued. “Perhaps one that might encourage you to join us in our struggles to help provide justice to our kind? If not, I think we shall call this meeting over.”
Something about his tone came off as condescending. “I don’t think you’ve really answered—”
“Enough,” Chase whispered, and reached over and squeezed her hand. Then he stood up. “I appreciate you taking the time for us.”
Della sat there debating the wisdom of speaking out one more time. They hadn’t actually done anything to prove her right, nor had they done anything to prove her wrong.
“Good luck finding the missing vampires, Chase. And you, Miss Tsang,” said one of the blond men.
Chase nodded, then looked at her and motioned for her to stand. When she didn’t move, he reached down. She stared daggers at his hand, which was literally pulling her up and out.
“Miss Tsang?” one of the council spoke. She looked back over her shoulder, not caring that her eyes were probably bright from fury.
“If you change your mind about working for us, you will find there is a place for you here.”
She swallowed the retort she wanted to give, something about a cold day in hell. Then, without another word, she left the room and restaurant so fast, she probably appeared as a blur to the patrons eating in the front.
It wasn’t even five-thirty, but the sun had already set and it was almost dark. She leapt into the passenger seat of the car and waited for Chase to open his door and slide in with a calmness that downright irritated her.
“That was bullshit!” she told him.
“They answered you, Della.”
“They did more talking around my questions than answering them.”
“And you think the FRU is better? You think if I went in there asking questions to the bigwigs of the FRU that I’d get straight answers?”
She remembered her little encounter with those FRU bigwigs. “Maybe not, but why couldn’t your council just have told me instead of…?”
“I seem to recall one telling you that you had talent and abilities that we could use. That seemed pretty straightforward to me.”
“Then why didn’t it feel like the truth?”
“Maybe you just don’t want it to be.” He paused and looked out the front of the car as someone passed by. “What is it you’re hoping to learn?”
When she didn’t answer, he asked, “Do you want to put blame on them for Chan’s death?”
“No. I want…” She almost told him then about her uncle, about the murder of her aunt, then she heard his words from earlier in the car: If you came to work for them you could ask all kinds of questions.
He swore he hadn’t been implying anything, but … she still had a tiny whisper of doubt.
“Maybe I don’t know what I want,” she said, and there was some truth in that. Did she really want to find her uncle now that she suspected he’d killed her aunt?
Chase pulled out of the parking lot. “We should probably just head to the airport. Do you know where we’re supposed to meet Burnett?”
“He said he’d call.”
Her phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket. “Speak of the devil.”
“So you’re admitting he’s the devil,” Chase said with a touch of humor.
She cut him a smartass look and answered the phone. “Hey, I was wondering when—”
“Where exactly are you?” Burnett barked.
“About fifteen miles outside of Fallen, we were just heading toward Houston.”
“Where?”
Della recalled the street signs she’d just seen. “We’re in the twenty-nine-hundred block of Howell Street.”
“Hold on,” he said, then she heard him say to someone else, “They’re close.” And then, “Della, do you know where Cooper Airport is?”
She looked at Chase and he nodded.
“Yeah. Chase knows. What’s wrong?”
“We put a man on the plane with Damian Bond. Ten minutes ago, he realized the guy sitting in that seat is only a lookalike. He confessed to our agent that Damian took an earlier flight, a smaller plane that should be arriving at Cooper airport in fifteen minutes. We’re pretty sure it’s flight ten-twenty-six on Token Airlines. We’re already in Houston. Even flying it’s going to take us twenty to get there. You might make it in ten if you ditch the car and fly. Both of you should have just gotten his mug shot on your phones.”
Della heard both of their phones ding. Chase looked around for a place to park.
“Stay away from any major streets,” Burnett continued. “It’s not quite dark enough, and I don’t want you getting spotted.”
“We won’t,” Della said.
“And don’t … do not … confront Damian. Just follow him. He carries a Glock and he likes using it. You got that?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“Do you understand, Chase?” Burnett barked.
“Yeah,” Chase answered, and he grimaced as he pulled over in a drugstore parking lot beside a patch of trees.