Covet (43 page)

“Not really.”

I frowned. “Working without a teacher is dangerous, Sav.”

She laughed. “No kidding. I passed out the first time I tried to draw energy. I kept grounding by accident.”

I froze. “This summer?”

She nodded. “The day you texted me, actually.”

So that’s what I felt. “Did you sleep it off?”

“No. Nanna showed up and told me what to do.”

She had talked with her dead grandma. Which meant she must have been really far gone. Fear mixed with fury, pushing me to my feet. I stood in front of her so I could see her face clearly.

“Are you crazy? You almost died, didn’t you?”

“I had to do something. Dylan was threatening to hurt Anne. What would you have done?”

“You should have come to me for help.”

She sighed. “I’m tired of always having to ask someone else for help. It was time for me to grow up, take care of my own problems for a change.”

She wrapped her arms around her waist and looked away.

How could she be half vamp and supposedly dangerous to me and any other descendant, yet seem so fragile?

My gut knotted. I wanted to hold her, tell her she wasn’t alone, that I was right here for her. But she didn’t want to hear any of that.

We stayed there for a moment, the heated air between us quickly cooling and turning awkward.

“What you did today was reckless,” I said.

Shoving her feet back into her shoes, she stood up and headed for the entrance doors. “You just can’t help but try to boss me around, can you?”

I followed her back into the main hall. “I’m serious, Sav. Now that descendants have died, things are going to get even more tense. If you scare Dylan too much, there’s no telling what you might set off.”

“No kidding.” Her cheeks turned pink.

Remembering Dylan’s twisted thoughts about her today, it was my turn to look away now. I couldn’t believe he was that messed up.

“Did you know about…his dad? That he’s using magic to abuse him?”

I shook my head. “I swear, he never told me.” I wished he had, though. The Clann could have stepped in, either forced Mr. Williams to stop or maybe even taken Dylan away from all of that.

“I feel sorry for him. His dad’s the reason he keeps going after us. The Williamses want to make you break the rules bad enough to force your dad into a decision between protecting you or upholding the Clann rules. They figure he’d choose you over the Clann, and then they could push for a change in leadership.”

I shook my head. “What his dad is doing is wrong. But don’t make excuses for Dylan. He still makes his own decisions. He doesn’t have to play into his dad’s political games.”

At the main hall’s exit, I pushed the heavy metal door open, holding it for her so she could go through first.

Scowling, she ducked under my arm and outside. “Oh, so he should just refuse to obey his parents and take the constant punishment instead?”

“No, of course not. He needs to either stand up to his dad or else leave home.”

“What if he can’t? What if his dad’s too strong and he doesn’t have anywhere to go? You know, not everyone has gobs of money and power at their disposal.” She walked faster, arms crossed, headed for the catwalk.

Easily keeping pace with her, I ignored the jab about money. “Dylan’s a descendant. He has the entire Clann to turn to for help. All he has to do is ask.”

Not to mention he could have talked to me about it instead of stabbing me in the back.

She shook her head in silent disagreement.

“What, you think the Clann wouldn’t help him? Come on, Sav, they’re flawed but they’re not that bad.”

She shrugged and turned onto the ramp leading down to the cafeteria’s sidewalk. “They didn’t seem to have a problem kidnapping and torturing my grandma.”

“That was a mistake. My parents were desperate and freaking out and weren’t thinking straight. Otherwise my dad never would have allowed that to happen.”

Pressing her lips together, she walked down the ramp in silence.

Though I had no intention of eating lunch today and having to deal with the ticked off hordes of Charmers and descendants, I followed Savannah to the sidewalk, wanting this conversation with her to last as long as possible even if it wasn’t the happiest of discussions. If fighting with her was all I could get, I would take it.

As we circled the cafeteria’s brick exterior to the nearest entrance, I couldn’t resist saying, “Speaking of mistakes, do you want to talk about how you nearly vamped out and bit Dylan?”

She rolled her eyes. “I was just messing with him. I never would have bitten him. I don’t do that.”

“Ever?”

“Never.”

“You’ve never bitten anyone.”

“No!”

We stopped at the doors. “And yet I never see you eat anything in there.” I jerked a thumb at the cafeteria.

“My dad gets me donated blood once a week. I just go to lunch every other day to see my friends since we don’t have any classes together this year.”

“Donated blood? I guess that’s not so bad.” Maybe being a vamp was a lot easier nowadays than her dad had made it out to be. They might even have their own blood bank system by now, complete with delivery boys. Ordering blood was probably as simple as calling out for a pizza.

She snorted. “It’s still bad, Tristan. Living off of other peoples’ blood comes with a lot of complications.”

“Yeah? Like what, deciding which blood type tastes best?”

“No, more like the fact that every time I feed, I take in that person’s memories. Good, bad, crazy, boring, all of it hits me like a flood, and I can’t control it for hours. It’s definitely nothing I would ever wish on anybody. Even Dylan.”

“Or me?”

“Especially not you,” she whispered.

“Shouldn’t you let me make that decision?”

Her chin lifted. “No. Because even if by some miracle the turning process actually worked for you, you couldn’t possibly understand the consequences of that choice until after it’s too late. No matter how much you might regret it later, you can’t undo this.”

“I would never regret getting to spend forever with you.”

Swallowing hard, she looked away. After a minute of silence, she finally made eye contact again only to change the subject. “I heard about you and Bethany. Sorry it didn’t work out.”

“I thought you didn’t want me to lead her on anymore.”

“I wanted you to be
happy
with her. And honest with her if you couldn’t be.”

I gave in to the urge to study her face, rememorizing every curve, the wispy curls at the edges of her forehead, the new pearl-like gleam to her skin. “You were right. I was leading her on, though I swear I didn’t know it. And when I finally did, I told her the truth.”

One corner of her mouth deepened. “From the Charmers’ reaction, I take it that didn’t go over well with her.”

“Yeah, not so much.” I gave her a sheepish smile, appreciating the sympathy even if I didn’t deserve it.

She opened the door, and I grabbed the edge of it to hold it for her, taking one last chance to be close to her.

“Hey, Sav?”

She stopped, turned back, looked up at me and was close enough to kiss.

“Be careful, okay?” My hand ached to touch her cheek. “Dylan and the twins are going to be suspicious now, no matter what I tell them. They might try to push you again just to prove to the adults that you’re breaking the rules. Don’t let them make you lose control again. You’re stronger than that, stronger than them.”

She searched my eyes, a faint smile curving her lips. “Thanks, Tristan.”

Still wearing that trace of a smile, she entered the cafeteria, letting the doors drop closed between us.

Taking a deep breath, I reached for another charmed stick of gum in my pocket.

CHAPTER 29

It was a long week. Mom and Dad took turns shouting and threatening me over the phone about the burned vamp ward. But I flat-out refused to wear one and risk hurting Savannah. I told them I didn’t care if they grounded me again, flew home and ordered me to, or had Emily and Mrs. Faulkner beat on my bedroom door and yell about it for days. It wasn’t happening, and that was all there was to it.

Mom nearly went ballistic. Dad promised we’d have a talk when they got home next week. And that was the end of the discussion for now.

I stayed busy all week, using every bit of spare time to make replacement vamp ward blocks. Along with the other descendants on campus, Dylan and the twins stuck to wearing only one ward each, but even those few wards were enough to wear out my blocking charms on a daily basis. Even with drawing energy, I was distracted and played lousy during Friday night’s away game. Coach Parker ended up benching me for most of the game in disgust.

I used the weekend to draw energy and worry about Savannah. Would she listen to my warning to be careful? Or was she still practicing using power without supervision? How often did she practice? She would have to go somewhere away from her dad to keep it a secret; there was no way the vamp council was knowingly allowing her to develop her skills. Was she outside in the cold?

Short of calling her and demanding that she let me supervise her practice sessions, there wasn’t much I could do to keep her safe. And it made for a lot of sleepless nights.

She was at school on Monday, though, so I could relax while at school. That afternoon after football practice, I headed home and was surprised to find Dad’s car already in the garage. They’d gotten home late last night, Mom sleeping in this morning and Dad off to work long before breakfast. I checked my watch. It was only five-thirty, hours before I’d figured he would come home tonight since he probably had a ton of work to get caught up on.

Hoping he was tired and comatose on the living room couch, I walked softly down the hall between there and the kitchen to check on him.

Halfway down the hall, I passed his open study door and discovered him on the phone behind his desk.

Great. Maybe he’d be too busy working from home to give me that “talk” he’d promised.

I turned toward the foyer, but I wasn’t quick enough. A sharp snap of fingers commanded me to turn around again and join him in his study.

I eased down into the creaky leather armchair across from him. This was not going to be good.

My left knee bounced as I stared at my hands. Then I began to actually listen to what he was saying.

“No, you don’t want to do that, and here’s why. We don’t know for sure that vampires are the killers in the first place. Yes, I’m serious! Two holes in the neck does not automatically equal a vamp killing.” He paused. “Yes, that’s true, their bodies were drained. But they could have just as easily been bled out somewhere else then dumped where they’d be found fast. Think about it. Anybody under the sun could be behind it. If we start jumping to conclusions, we could be playing right into their hands. That’s why for now I’m asking everyone to stay calm, lay low, wear a ward and let me and the vamp council do the investigating. I guarantee you, we will find out who’s behind these murders, and they will be made to pay for it.” Another pause. “Yes, I said the vamp council. No, I already told you, these are not council-sanctioned attacks.” One last pause. “You be safe, too, and be sure to stay in regular contact with other descendants, at least once a day or so. Okay? Yep, you, too.”

He hung up, ran a hand over his receding silver hair, then sighed loudly. “And that’s the life of the Clann leader in a nutshell. Putting out brush fires one call at a time.”

“We should get a website or something so we can release one mass statement to all the descendants at the same time.”

Dad grinned. “You know, that’s not a bad idea. We could use a little more organization around here.”

The tension in my shoulders eased. Maybe he wasn’t planning on punishing me after all.

I looked at his desk, which appeared to have been barfed on by a paper monster, and laughed. “Yeah, because obviously being organized is a major focus in this house.”

He chuckled.

“But seriously, Dad, how do you do it? How do you say the same things over and over without going nuts?”

“That’s the life of any leader worth a dime. You’ve got to have patience.”

“Even with the prejudiced idiots?”

“Even them. We’re only the Clann leader till death or revolt.”

“I heard you warning them to wear their wards. Which is what I kind of needed to talk to you about.”

“Mmm-hmm. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it, too.”

Uh-oh. Here it came. “I’m sorry I refused to wear the ward.”

Silence. His eyebrows shot up, and he leaned back in his chair and clasped his thick fingers over his gut. “But?”

“But I couldn’t do it. Not with a half vamp with no immunity to the wards on campus. She can’t help what she is any more than I can. Why should she pay for something that’s going on halfway across the country?”

Dad’s mouth turned down. He rubbed his chin through his beard. “You know, your momma’s really sore about it. She made that ward herself.”

“Yeah, I know she was mad. But it just wasn’t right. And it’s not like I don’t have other ways to protect myself.”

He nodded slowly. “That’s what I told your mom when she was sobbing about her poor, unprotected little boy and nearly making herself sick over it.”

I tried not to roll my eyes at the less-than-subtle guilt trip attempt.

He sighed. “She’s mad, but she’ll get over it. Did anything else happen while we were gone?”

I rocked back in the chair. He sounded like he was asking for a report or something. “Um, not really. Well, there was a small problem with Dylan showing up at school wearing two wards. But I had a talk with him about it.”

“Oh yeah? What kind of talk?” He grinned, leaning forward in his chair.

“I, uh, might have flash burned one of his wards.” Seeing his eyes widen, I added, “But I ripped it off his wrist first. And I made sure no one else was around to see.”

“So I should be expecting a whining call from his father any second now?”

“Maybe.” In fact, I was surprised Mr. Williams hadn’t already called. “He might not have told his dad about it, though. It happened while Dylan and I had a little face-off about Dylan wrecking Savannah’s truck a couple of weeks ago, and then his working with the Faulkner twins today to try and wreck her new car.”