Part 16 (1/2)
Or maybe not so alone.
A strange, repet.i.tive whoos.h.i.+ng noise came behind her. A kind of scary, repet.i.tive whoos.h.i.+ng noise. Her heart did a small tumble.
Did ghosts whoosh? And smell like ... fowl?
Chapter Eighteen.
Refusing to give in to the urge to run like h.e.l.l, Della swung around, her canines already out and her eyes feeling tight as if glowing.
The d.a.m.n huge bird c.o.c.ked its head and looked at her. ”It's just me.” Perry's voice came out of the bird's beak as sparkly bubbles started popping off, signaling that the shape-s.h.i.+fter was changing form.
”You realize I could have ripped your head off,” she seethed, watching the bird fade and Perry appear.
”Because I scared you, or because you're mad at me?” he asked, his words a little slurred due to his beak being in the process of turning into lips. Della looked away-it was too creepy to watch.
Staring at the woods, it took only the tiniest fraction of a second to remember why she would be mad. Perry was leaving. And forget the fact that she would miss the twerp. One of her best friends was going to be devastated.
Della didn't like people devastating someone she cared about. Even when the person doing the disappointing was also a friend.
She swung back around. ”Definitely because I'm mad. And I wasn't scared!” Her heart thumped to the tune of a lie, but shape-s.h.i.+fters couldn't hear that, so her little white fib didn't count. ”Do you know what your leaving is going to do to Miranda?”
He frowned and kicked at the dirt. ”It's going to hurt me, too. But what am I supposed to do? Turn it down? It's my one chance to maybe...”
”Maybe what?” Della asked.
”Nothing,” he said.
”Don't 'nothing' me! What were you going to say?”
He kicked at another rock on the ground. ”To change things.”
”Change what?”
”Me,” he said.
Della shook her head. ”There's nothing wrong with you.”
”Right,” he said as if he thought she was making s.h.i.+t up. Couldn't he see she was too tired to make s.h.i.+t up right now?
”What's wrong with you?” she asked, suddenly realizing she didn't understand why Perry was going to the fancy school. She got why Steve would go. They were going to give him a crash course in supernatural medicine. But Perry wasn't into medicine.
”Spill it, bird boy!” Della snapped. ”I'm dead tired and don't want to dance around this conversation.”
”Haven't you noticed I have to hide on parents' day? And if Burnett uses me in a case, I have to go in already s.h.i.+fted?”
”Why?”
”Because I can't control things.”
”What things?” Della asked.
”My eye color. And when I get mad I ... s.h.i.+ft without meaning to.”
Della thought back. ”So you turned into a dragon and a super-sized lion once or twice. That's not the end of the world.”
”Not here, it's not, but if it's in the human world, it could stir up a lot of s.h.i.+t.”
Della couldn't deny it. It would make national news. She could see CNN covering it now. They'd probably blame it on one of the political parties. That, or stem cell research. ”And you really can't control it?”
”I wish.”
Her heart, already broken in a hundred different ways, still hurt for the guy. ”Then go and learn how to control yourself and come back. Miranda is bonkers about you, I'm sure she'll wait.”
”She shouldn't.”
”What?” Della asked. ”Oh, c.r.a.p! Please tell me you aren't breaking up with her.”
”Not breaking up, just taking a break.”
”It still has the word 'break' in it, idiot. You can't do that to her!”
”You and Steve did it.”
Della's mouth dropped open. ”No. Steve and I weren't together. You can't break up when you're not made up.” It was another lie, emotionally-they had made up and made out, but she ignored that point, ignored the sting of pain connected to the lie. Right now, she just felt for Miranda.
”Why the h.e.l.l are you doing this?” Della seethed.
His blue eyes tightened. ”She needs to figure out what she wants.”
”Duh, she already has! She wants you.” And that's when a thought hit. And that thought shot to her gut, burned, and completely p.i.s.sed her off. Being p.i.s.sed off took the edge off her exhaustion.
”Is this about s.e.x?” she asked. ”Because if this is about s.e.x, I'm gonna open up a huge can of whoop a.s.s on your b.u.t.t.”
Her question seemed to shock him. ”It's not ... I mean...”
”Boys!” she seethed. She moved in and poked the shape-s.h.i.+fter in his chest. ”Listen to me, you little h.o.r.n.y twerp! n.o.body should be forced to do something they're not comfortable doing. Especially when it involves getting naked.”
”It's not ... You don't understand.”
”Oh, I understand all right.” She gave Perry another poke. ”Guys are jerkoffs who think if they can't get what they want from a girl, they'll just move on and get it from someone else.”
”Stop,” he ordered, his tone deep and vibrating with frustration. ”You don't understand.”