Covet (47 page)

This was one too many surprises to deal with in one night. “I never realized the leader was actually elected.” Colemans had been leading the Clann for the past four generations. My dad had already been the leader before I was born, so I’d never seen a new leader take over.

“Usually it’s just a formality because everyone expects the next generation of male Colemans to step into the role. But this time, things are quite different, what with the unexpected loss of your father, your being underage—”

“The leader has to be eighteen?”

“Yes, in order to officially lead.”

“Is there an actual rule against females being the leader?” Emily was already old enough.

“No, not officially. But there’s never been a female Clann leader in the Clann’s history—”

“Why not?” Some kind of desperation was pushing the words out of my mouth as soon as I thought them. “Emily’s old enough. And she’s definitely got the skills to lead.”

Dr. Faulkner hesitated, cleared his throat, hesitated again. “The Clann is founded on ancient traditions—”

“Which are obviously in need of an overhaul.”

He stared at me for a long minute. “To be honest, son, your sister as Clann leader would be a tough sell even under the best of circumstances. But considering the situation as it is, with her loss of memory, her refusal to let others read her mind, and all the unanswered questions regarding her whereabouts at the time of your father’s death, no one’s going to vote for her. I’m sorry, but that’s the sad truth of it.”

“Because she could know something about Dad’s death.”

“Or worse.”

I stared at him, my mind refusing to even go down that road. “She’s my
sister
. She loved our father. She never would have—”

“I’m not saying she did. I’ve known that child since she was born. I’m her godfather, for heaven’s sake. I know she had nothing to do with it. But not everyone knows her as well as we do, and you’ve got to consider how others might view it. The facts are that you saw her and a stranger with your father just before his death, and everyone can see your memories and verify this. But Emily claims to have no memory of it yet either she can’t or won’t let anyone read her mind to see if she’s telling the truth.”

“Can’t? What do you mean?”

“Well, there have been cases where a descendant has practiced blocking their thoughts so much that they actually forget how to lower the barrier again.”

That was possible. “I can’t remember a time when she wasn’t blocking her thoughts, even from me,” I admitted.

“Okay, then let’s assume she is telling the truth and doesn’t remember. Then we’ve got a situation where something’s going on with her mind to make it unstable. And no one’s going to want someone like that for their leader.”

I sighed. “She could get her memory back.”

“Sure she could. But until then, Emily is not a viable candidate as Clann leader. Which brings us back to you. Now ordinarily the Clann would overlook the next few months until you come of age, allowing your mother to serve as temporary leader until your eighteenth birthday, at which time she could step down from the role. But this time, there is the added issue of an actual contender for the vote—Jim Williams.”

Dylan’s father. Of course.

If Dylan’s father took over the Clann, not only would we be at war with the vamps in no time, but Mr. Williams wouldn’t rest until every single vampire was staked or burned out of existence.

“Dad always acted like it was a done deal that I would be the next leader,” I murmured. Now that the shock and anger were wearing off, I was starting to have a tough time staying upright and on my feet. I didn’t want to deal with all this political crap right now. I just wanted to fall into bed.

“If he’d lived even one more year, it probably would have been.”

But he hadn’t. And now everything Grandpa and Dad had believed in and worked so hard for was about to fall apart.

“Do you really think a vampire killed my dad?”

Dr. Faulkner paused, considering. “Well, it’s certainly possible to fake a vampire bite with prosthetic fangs or even those plastic fangs you see everywhere at Halloween time. And he could have been drained elsewhere then brought back to the clearing. I’d have to do some tests to be sure, though, like checking the wound for saliva and running a pretty covert DNA test on whatever I find. I couldn’t go through the normal channels, of course, so it would take longer to get the results.”

“I’d appreciate it if you would.” Maybe a DNA test would prove it wasn’t a vamp bite at all. Or at least it could help match Dad’s killer with whoever had killed my aunt and uncle and cousins.

“Do you think the vamp council keeps DNA records on all the known vamps?” I asked.

“I highly doubt it. The security risk in maintaining such a database would be astronomical. But it couldn’t hurt to ask them. You know, your dad wasn’t lying to everyone when he said he was working with the vamp council to investigate the descendant murders. Now that he’s gone, and especially with the Clann reaction that’s sure to come, maintaining contact with the council is going to become more crucial than ever. If you were to reach out to the council personally, that could help preserve the peace treaty a little longer until we can catch the killer. Not to mention adding some important credibility to your bid for Clann leadership.”

I opened my mouth to tell him the truth, that I’d never really wanted to be Clann leader. That it was my parents’ dream, a dream that wasn’t ever going to take place because my dad was going to live forever. And that I would probably fail miserably at trying to lead a bunch of people spread out all over the world, most of whom I didn’t even know.

But then I thought about what would happen if I didn’t step into Dad’s shoes… How disappointed Dad and Grandpa would have been, not to mention Mom… What the Clann could turn into with vampire haters like the Williams family running things.

And what that would mean for Savannah.

I took a deep breath. “You’re right. I’ll see what I can do to make contact with the council. Savannah’s father is a former council member. I’ll talk to him and see if he can set up a line of communication for us.”

Dr. Faulkner stared at me, a strange look on his face. After a long moment, he said, “Your dad would be incredibly proud of you tonight.”

My chest tightened to the point where it was almost a struggle to breathe. “Thanks.”

“Get some rest if you can. Tomorrow we rally the allies and start pushing for the vote. The sooner we can get everyone thinking of you as the natural and best choice for leader, the harder it’ll be for Williams to gain support.”

I saw his point. It also made me think of something I’d heard in world history class, how when a king died people would cry, “The king is dead. Long live the king!” I’d never understood what they meant before. Now I was starting to get it.

It didn’t make it seem any more right, though. Politics just plain turned my stomach. It didn’t take into account stuff like pain or loss or needing time to grieve, or shock or fears and doubts.

Would I even make a decent leader? I’d assumed I would have decades to learn from Dad. Had he had enough time to teach me what I needed to know to carry on his dream?

I said goodbye to Dr. Faulkner then trudged back inside the house. Officer Talbot was gone, Emily already in her room, Mom moaning in her sleep.

I locked the front door, reset the alarm system, went upstairs to my room and toed off my shoes. Across the hall, Emily’s sobs were muffled by her closed door.

Part of me wanted to knock on her door, offer her a hug, pull together like we always had in times of trouble. No matter how different our opinions had been on any one subject, we’d always stuck together. I’d always been able to count on Emily to figure out a game plan if I didn’t already have one.

But after watching her either lie or at least hide something about Dad’s death, the greater part of me held back from reaching out to her. There were too many unanswered questions, too many secrets she was keeping. Even a tiny clue might lead us to the murderer. Until she opened up and told me what she knew, I just couldn’t trust her like I used to.

So I shut my bedroom door and lay down on my bed in the dark. And tried to forget the image of Dad’s unseeing eyes staring blankly up at me, until exhaustion pulled me under.

CHAPTER 33

I had always believed it was my mother who had placed the charm on my bedroom to keep me from dream connecting with Savannah all these years. But it turned out that my dad was the one who had actually created and maintained the charms at Mom’s request. And with his death, the last bit of his magic in the already weakened charm on my bedroom died, too.

I learned this when my subconscious reached out to Savannah’s that night, connecting our minds in our sleep as easily as if we’d never stopped.

“Tristan!” She hurried across the dimly lit yard toward me. “What’s going on?”

I was sitting in the grass of my backyard, with no energy or will to get up. I waited till she was standing right beside me before I told her. “My dad’s dead.”

She drew in a long breath through her nose then dropped to her knees beside me. “Oh my God. Tristan, I’m so sorry. What happened?”

“Someone killed him in the clearing.” The clearing where so much had happened: where Savannah and I had pretended to play together in our connected dreams in the fourth grade, and again where we’d kissed and danced and talked for hours while dream connecting last year. And where her grandmother had died.

Now I understood how a real-life memory could poison even the dream version of a place. I would never be able to step into those woods, or even look at them, without remembering Dad’s lifeless, cold body lying there on the path.

“He died alone, Sav. In the cold. In the dark. He didn’t have a flashlight with him. He didn’t even look like he fought back! Why wouldn’t he fight back?” I was shouting, my fingers clawing up chunks of dirt and grass at either side of me. I had to get control of myself. I couldn’t let Savannah see me go nuts like this.

“Shh,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around me.

I couldn’t hold her at first, scared if I reached out for her I would lose it. But then I found myself turning in her arms, holding on to her, and it was there in that moment that it finally, truly sank in.

I would never see my dad again, never talk to him or have the chance to ask him anything about how to lead or what to do. He would never be able to teach me anything new about magic or football or the best way to deal with my neurotic, controlling mother in any situation.

“He’s gone, Sav. He’s really gone.” I buried my face in the curve where her neck and shoulder met, my arms around her waist, grateful for once that she was so strong and I didn’t have to worry that I might break her. The rage and pain rose up, trying to drown me from the inside out, but she was my anchor, saving me, grounding me, holding me together, her hands stroking my back in soothing motions that gradually tugged me away from the darkness.

She knew how I felt right now. She’d gone through it, too, after her Nanna’s death.

I hadn’t known then, couldn’t possibly relate. This level of pain and loss was something that had to be personally felt in order to be understood.

“I know,” she murmured. “It feels like someone’s ripped out your insides, doesn’t it?”

I nodded, unsure I could even speak. I’d lost all control, even wet her shirt with childish tears. She was the last person I’d ever wanted to see me like this.

I dragged my sleeves over my face before leaning back to search her eyes, wondering if she thought I was weak. But all I saw was…love. It shone out of her gaze, warm, without judgment, telling me we were still the same. Vampire or witch, right or wrong in everyone else’s eyes, when I looked at Savannah, I saw beyond the exterior to the person she was deep down, and I recognized the one person on this planet who made me more, who matched me so completely she left me breathless and lost in wonder. She didn’t complete me, or fill some stupid, imaginary hole inside me. And it was way bigger and more important than our being two puzzle pieces made to fit together. It was something for which I had no words, only an undeniable feeling of everything being right when we were together and wrong when we were apart.

“I don’t know who I am without you,” I murmured, cupping her face, needing her to stay and hear me and not run away like she always seemed to be doing lately. “I don’t like who I am without you in my life. Without you, everything is just wrong.”

Tears shimmered in her eyes then slipped over the edges and fell down her cheeks. “I know.”

I took a deep breath, hoping she would hear and believe me. “Things are going to be seriously bad for a while.”

She nodded.

“No. I mean it, Sav. You’ve got to really hear me this time, okay? With Dad gone, the Clann’s going to be leaderless until Saturday. That means there will be no one to stop any descendant from doing whatever they want. So you need to leave Jacksonville for a while.”

She ignored that last point, setting my gut to churning with fear that she wasn’t taking me seriously. “What happens on Saturday?”

“The Clann will elect a new leader after Dad’s funeral.”

“And that’s when you’ll officially become the leader.” I could see her pulling away from me. The growing distance was there in her eyes.

“Not necessarily. Dylan’s dad wants the job.”

Her eyes widened. “Then you’d better get the majority vote. If you don’t…”

“Yeah. We’ll be dragged into another war for sure.”

She swallowed hard, and though she didn’t pull free from my hands where they still framed her face, she looked down at her lap.

“Then I guess I’d better wish you good luck for Saturday.”

“I don’t want to be Clann leader, Sav. But we need this.”

“I know.”

“Then what’s wrong? What’s going on inside that mind of yours?”

She bit her lower lip for a few torturous seconds then forced a smile that didn’t reach her eyes as she looked up. “I’m sure you’ll still be chosen. The Williams family is too annoying and unlikable to vote for. And once you’re Clann leader, my dad and I will be safe, right?”