Covet (37 page)

Cool.

“Okay, this is boring,” Anne said. “Can we all go home now?”

Fine, Ron said, lightly leaping down off the tailgate.

“Sav’s riding with me,” Anne called out to his retreating furry backside, stuffing her bow and wrist device in the backseat of her truck again before hopping down over the side of the truck.

I climbed into the front passengar side of her truck in silence, still trying to absorb the whole Keeper revelation. What the Clann had done to those families—putting a spell on their very DNA that continued to work on their descendants throughout the centuries—was some seriously hardcore old magic. Talk about fundamentally affecting someone! I could see why the Clann had done it, too. The Keepers would make amazing allies during a battle. So why had the Clann let that alliance fade?

Ego, I finally decided. The Clann had gotten cocky, arrogantly believing their magic was more than enough in the modern world.

What a shame, too. Now the Keepers were stuck with what they were, whether they were needed or not.

“So what do you think?” Anne blurted out when she couldn’t take the silence anymore.

“Um, I think…wow would be the word I’m looking for.”

“Yeah. It’s definitely some heavy stuff. I tried to talk Ron out of telling you, but he was convinced it would make you feel less alone or something.” She rolled her eyes.

“No, I’m glad he did. He’s right, in a weird way it does make me feel better.” I snuck a glance at her. “So I guess this is why you broke up with him?”

She nodded, her mouth tightening at the corners. “I’ve had time to get used to the idea now. Especially after knowing about your…stuff. But when he first told me…” She shook her head, staring at the road through the windshield, the approaching lights of Jacksonville lighting up her face. “It was just way, way too much info to handle all at once. What kind of guy drops a bomb like that on a girl he’s only been dating for a few months?”

“Weren’t you two together for like eight months or something?”

“The key word being
months
. He wasn’t even supposed to tell me about the Keepers, much less show me! No one outside the Clann or the Keepers is supposed to know about it. But there he went, blabbing his mouth to me last year. Was it any wonder I freaked out?” Her eyes looked wild in the streetlights as we reentered the city limits and the pines were replaced with buildings again.

“So you dumped him because he was different.”

“No, of course not! You know I’m not like that. It wasn’t the whole shifter business itself that bugged me. It was the fact that he was dumping this major huge family secret on me! I mean, what if I’d taken it into my head to shoot a video of him shifting with my phone when he didn’t know it or something, and I put it on YouTube?”

“Oh Anne. You wouldn’t do that.”

“But I
could
have, for all he knew! Not to mention he was my first boyfriend and I was all of sixteen when he showed me. That is just
way
too heavy for a girl’s very first relationship. For all I knew, he was planning on proposing the week after that!”

“So you broke up with him. Because he trusted you with his deepest, darkest secret.”

Silence as we pulled up to a stoplight and waited for the light to turn green. More silence as we took off again.

“You know, I’m kind of surprised you decided to stay friends with me after I told you about my family’s secrets.”

“That’s different and you know it. I’m not dating you. And you and I have been best friends for years. Ron is just some guy I dated for a few months.”

She was so full of crap. “You’re reaching.”

“What?”

“You heard me. You’re reaching for excuses. You know good and well that you never should have broken up with him. But you can’t admit it because then you’d be admitting you were wrong.”

“I was
not
wrong! Ron was pushing too hard too fast. What did he expect me to do with that kind of info? And that, by the way, was before my best friend told me vampires and witches actually exist, too. By the time you dropped your little bombshell on me, I’d had months to get used to the crazy crap that’s out there.”

I would not get offended by that. She was panicking at the truth right before her face, and she was lashing out like a cornered animal.

But it was time for her to wake up and see reality, whether she thought she was ready for it or not. Losing Nanna and Tristan had taught me life could be incredibly short and love could end at the drop of a hat. She needed to figure that out, too.

“You’re scared.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re running scared. You realized you love Ron. You could have handled a one-sided love, but then he showed just how much he loved you back by telling you all this. So you ran away.”

“I’m not scared,” she hissed. At the next intersection, she ignored the yellow light and plowed through without slowing down. “I go hog hunting all the time. Some of those boars are six hundred pounds! Scared little girls don’t go hunting animals five times their size.”

“So what? Maybe you’re not scared to go hunting. But you’re definitely scared of love. And do not run that red light.”

She screeched on the brakes, the front tires stopping inches from entering the crosswalk area.

“That’s ridiculous! I love my parents, my aunts and uncles, even my pain in the butt cousins—”

“Not the same thing and you know it.”

Silence filled the cab as we waited for the light to change. When it did, she turned left without using a blinker, and I sent up a prayer of thanks that there wasn’t any oncoming traffic.

She stomped on the gas as we passed the Tomato Bowl, and we hit the railroad tracks fast enough to get an inch or two of air between our butts and the seat before the curve in my street forced her to slow down. The tires squealed as she slammed on the brakes at the curb before my house, rocking both of us forward then back. I sighed in relief as she shoved the gearshift into Park then killed the engine.

The silence grew, the ticking of the cooling engine the only sound inside the cab. I could have gotten out, let her run away from the conversation. But I refused. Not this time. She needed to see what she was doing to herself and Ron.

“You know, I’m not the only one who’s scared around here,” she muttered. “What about you and Tristan?”

“What about him?”

“You come up with all these reasons why the two of you can’t be together. But let’s face it. If you really wanted to still be with him, you’d make it happen and to heck with the consequences. Just like when you first decided to start dating him.”

“That was a dumb decision I made last year. I had no idea my grandma would pay for it. Once the consequences of what we were doing became clear…”

“That’s a load of crap and you know it. You decided to break up with him hours before your grandma died. Remember? You said you promised the vamp council that you would break things off with him
back in France
.”

“Because I found out my kisses were killing him!” Okay, now she was going too far. I tried to twist sideways to face her head on. The seat belt bit into me. Growling, I wrestled with the buckle till it finally snapped free. “So, what, I should just not even care if I accidentally kill him? To heck with risking his life, as long as
I’m
happy?”

She hesitated, and I heard her think,
Well, no, but…
“You could find a way. What about turning him?”

She sounded like Tristan. This was an old argument I shouldn’t have to rehash with my so-called best friend. “I can’t. For one thing, I’m not even a full vamp. And even if my vamp genes were strong enough to take hold, he’d still die from the process. Every descendant who’s ever tried to turn died.”

She looked away. “Sounds like a cop-out to me.”

“No, what it sounds like to me is that right here, right now, you’re
still
running away! Why face the harsh reality of your own mistakes when you can try to turn the tables and make your best friend feel bad about what she can’t have instead?” I grabbed my door handle, gave it a jerk, thrust open the door and slid out. “If I could be with Tristan without risking his life, you’d better believe I’d do it. But there isn’t a way. I can’t turn off what I am. You, on the other hand, are miserable simply because you’re acting like a spineless idiot!”

Her jaw dropped. “I am not a spineless idiot!”

“That’s right. You’re not. Which is why I said you’re
acting
like one. And now that you know it, and I know it, and Ron sure as heck knows it, would you please do us all a huge favor and pull your head out of your butt already? Call him. Tell him you made a mistake and you’re sorry. I swear to you, if he doesn’t take you back and forgive you immediately, I’ll…I’ll…” I was so mad I couldn’t even think of a good promise to offer. “I’ll go hog hunting with you!” There!

I slammed the door, rocking the truck but thankfully not denting the metal, then gave in to the urge and did a vamp blur across the lawn up to the porch. Inside, it was all I could do not to slam the front door too and break its custom stained-glass design.

Outside, Anne started her truck, cranked up the radio to blaring, and took off with a roar of the engine.

“Have an educational outing in the woods with the Abernathy boy?” Dad greeted me from where he was reading the newspaper on the living room couch.

“Oh yeah,” I snapped. “Very illuminating.”

Stupid humans! Anne had a chance at love, maybe even true love, that I would never have again, and she was throwing it away! She had no idea what I would give to have Tristan back in my life.

“I’m going to bed,” I said before blurring up the stairs and down the hall to my room.

By my bed, I flipped on my MP3 player’s docking station, kicked off my shoes, then put on Kelly Clarkson’s “What Doesn’t Kill You.” I listened to the words for a minute, my feet tapping the hardwood floor to the beat. Then my head started bobbing along. The next thing I knew, my body was whirling and punching and jabbing to the rhythm, and it felt
good
. Good enough to stop me from calling Anne and giving her another piece of my mind.

A minute later, something wet slid down the side of my nose. It wasn’t a tear. Vampires didn’t cry. Keeping my eyes closed, I brushed it away with the back of my hand.

But then another rolled down my cheek, and another, and suddenly my lungs and throat were burning like they used to when I was still fully human and tried to run for more than thirty seconds.

Even singing a song about feeling stronger felt like lying to myself.

I slumped onto the edge of my bed and held my head in my hands. I had been such an idiot, trying to fix my best friend’s love life. How could I have possibly ever thought I could fix someone else’s problems when I couldn’t even fix myself?

CHAPTER 25

TRISTAN

The velvet cake wasn’t just a birthday present. It was also my peace offering. I didn’t want to fight with Savannah anymore, even if I was still hurt and frustrated that she wouldn’t fight for what we once had. She’d moved on. She had Ron now. It was time I found a way to move on, too.

The Indians fought a good battle on our home turf Friday night. But even the hard workout on the field hadn’t managed to take the edge off my restlessness. I felt…off, like I couldn’t find my balance.

And Bethany’s constant chatter with everyone in sight on the front lawn at the Tomato Bowl’s entrance after the game wasn’t calming me down any.

A hand slapped my back, rocking me forward onto the balls of my feet. “Son, that was a fine game you played back there!”

Dad and Mom. I forced a smile for them. “Thanks.”

Silence grew within our group, contrasting sharply with the noise of everyone else’s talking and laughter.

“It’s good to see you again,” Mom said to Bethany. She gave me a meaningful smile and a nod of approval, then looked up at Dad. “You know, I think I’m in the mood for a little ice cream. What do you think, hon? Did you save any room after those four hot dogs?”

Dad grinned and stroked his beard, pretending to consider it. “Hmm, I think I might have a little room left in the ole tank.” He patted his gut. “I guess it depends on what kind of ice cream. Are we talking Coke floats? Or brownie sundaes?” On that last part, his thick eyebrows dipped and wiggled.

Mom laughed, a delicate hand rising to smooth back nonexistent wisps of hair at the side of her bun. “Oh, I’m definitely thinking brownie sundaes.”

Dad turned his grin on me. “Don’t come home too soon, son. In fact, maybe you should take your girl here out for her own brownie sundae.” He leaned close to me and stage-whispered, “Women like chocolate. Remember that. It’ll make your life a whole lot brighter if you do.”

Bethany giggled as my parents walked with their arms linked down the cement steps, stopping every few feet to say hello to at least half the crowd on the way.

“Your parents are so cute.”

I looked away from them. “Yeah. They’re adorable.”

Her smile wobbled. “Is something wrong?”

“Nope. Everything’s just perfect.” According to my parents.

A breeze kicked up, brisk with the first snap of true fall. I tilted my head back and stared up at the sky, trying to see the constellations. But the lights of the stadium were too bright, blocking my view.

I was still hot from the game, and I’d overdressed for the weather. Too many layers, and my varsity jacket was tight, making it hard to breathe. I unsnapped its metal buttons, and the wind snuck in past the open edges like familiar hands to soothe my burning skin. Better. I sighed, remembering another crisp October night like this one under the stars, and how a certain girl’s always-cool hands had rested at the back of my neck while we danced….

“Tristan? Hello, earth to my little brother.” A small hand waved before my face, making me blink. It was Emily.

“Hey, sis! What are you doing here?” I bent over and gave her a quick hug.

“What, I can’t come home to see my baby brother shining on the battlefield?”

I smiled. “I take it college life isn’t all you thought it would be?”