Covet (3 page)

Savannah took a step forward. “They’re not trying to start another war, Mr. Coleman. They just brought him in to test me, to see if I’m a danger to anyone. And my dad wasn’t the one who took him. No one in my family had anything to do with Tristan’s involvement.”

“They didn’t kidnap me. I went voluntarily to help Savannah,” I said, desperate enough to lie at this point.

“Tristan, don’t,” Savannah hissed.

I didn’t look at her, my gaze locked on the only person here who had the power to decide. My father.

Dad’s face darkened. “So Dylan was right. You are dating her.”

I didn’t hesitate to answer him. “Yes. I love her.”

The descendants gasped. Savannah froze. I fought the urge to smile as a weight I hadn’t been aware of fell away from my shoulders. This was it, the moment I’d been waiting for, when the Clann would finally be forced to give us our freedom.

Beside our father, Emily slowly shook her head, one corner of her mouth deepening in that look that always said,
Oh, little brother, you’ve gone and done it now
.

Widening my stance, I crossed my arms and met her stare head-on. Emily might be older than me and think she knew it all, but she had no clue what it felt like to be in love, to need someone like I needed Savannah. In her own way, my sister was even more of a player than I used to be, ready to drop a boy from her dating schedule for the slightest reason. She’d never dated anyone longer than a couple of months, never broken any rules, Clann or otherwise, just to be with someone. And she’d certainly never be willing to leave the Clann if that was what it took to be with the person she loved.

But I was. And it was time the Clann knew it.

“It’s time to let go of the past,” I said, raising my voice so everyone could hear and not just my parents. “We’ve been at peace with the vamps for decades now. How long does that peace have to last before we can get over our old prejudices and fears? I love Savannah, and she loves me. And I’ll do whatever it takes to make you see we’re meant to be together. Including leaving the Clann if necessary.”

“Tristan!” Mom gasped as Dad jerked forward in his seat, his bear-paw-size hands gripping the carved armrests.

Lightning flashed in the distance. A few seconds later, thunder rumbled out a warning of the storm’s approach.

“He believes he loves me,” Savannah said. “But the truth is…this is all
my
fault.”

What the…?

I turned to her, sure I’d heard her wrong.

“Continue,” Dad commanded.

She swallowed hard, refusing to look at me. “I’m half vampire. All this time, your son believed he was in love with me because my vampire side basically…well, put a spell on him. I gaze dazed him with my eyes. He couldn’t help himself.”

She’d lost her mind. The stress of facing down first the vamp council and now the Clann must have made her go nuts. She knew the gaze daze didn’t work on me!

“I knew it,” one of the Brat Twins crowed. I couldn’t tell if it was Vanessa or Hope. “I knew she had freaky eyes.” Their mother shushed her into silence.

“Savannah, stop it,” I growled, clenching my hands at my sides so I wouldn’t give in to the urge to shake some sense back into her. “You know the gaze daze doesn’t affect me.”

“Apparently it does.” She kept her voice loud so everyone could hear what should have been a private argument between us. “Why else would you suddenly decide to break the Clann’s rule this year and date me, if not for being gaze dazed?”

Half vamp or not, she had the worst poker face I had ever seen. She knew she was outright lying to everyone. But why? It didn’t make sense to throw herself off a cliff now, when the truth was finally out. We were almost home free. All we had to do was stick together and refuse to back down, and the Clann would be forced to see reason.

“You know why,” I murmured, taking a step closer to her. But she quickly stepped back, maintaining the distance between us. “Sav, don’t do this. Just tell them the truth.”

She shook her head, her eyes melting back to a dark slate-gray in sadness. “You’re gaze dazed. You’d say anything right now in order to be with me.”

“See?” Mom hissed to no one in particular as she glared at Savannah. “I told you Tristan would never willingly break the rules. She was making him do it.”

Savannah nodded. “Yes, I was. And I’m very sorry. I didn’t understand what my vamp side could do. But now that I know what I am and what I’m capable of, I can promise you…” Her throat worked as she gulped.

“Sav, don’t,” I said through gritted teeth.

She straightened her back and lifted her chin. “I promise you I will no longer be involved with your son in any way. As long as you agree not to punish Nanna or Tristan. Nanna didn’t even know about us, and Tristan—”

“No,” I shouted, her words clawing at my insides. “I knew what I was doing. Don’t listen to her. She’s lying to try and—”

“How do we know you’ll keep this promise?” Dad asked, ignoring me.

“Because…” Savannah’s voice wobbled. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Because I already made the vampire council the same promise. And they’ll be checking on me to make sure I keep it. Just like I’m sure you will be.”

She was lying. She had to be.

I searched her face. But this time, she was telling the truth. It was all right there for me to see in the trembling of her chin, the tears gathering in her eyes, the sudden slouch of her shoulders.

She’d promised a bunch of strangers that she would break up with me. Hours ago. Long before we ever got on that plane together in Paris. Before she sat curled up against me, letting me hold her, watching me smile and even fall asleep, letting me believe everything was finally working out for us.

All that time, she had been planning
this
—to break up with me. To
dump
me. And I hadn’t guessed a thing.

The wind returned, whipping Savannah’s long red curls into a frenzy that hid her face from me. The gusts tried to rock me off balance, but I couldn’t feel them.

“We agree to your request,” Dad said.

With a nod of his head, Sav’s grandmother began to lower to the ground.

Savannah turned to watch her ease ever closer. I should be reaching out to help her catch Mrs. Evans, but I couldn’t move. I was frozen, a statue ready to be pushed over and smashed into pieces.

This wasn’t happening. Sav and I were meant to be together forever. She knew that. She loved me. I knew she loved me. She was just taking the easy way out, caving under the pressure because she couldn’t see how close we were to freedom.

I had to stop this somehow, find the words to undo what she’d done.

I forced one foot forward, then the other, finally closing the distance between us. “Savannah, don’t do this. You know we’re meant for each other.” I reached out and touched her upper arm, silently begging her to face me. “Don’t give up on us.”

She still wouldn’t look at me.

“Savannah,” Mrs. Evans gasped as the last of the elders’ magical hold on her fell away. She collapsed forward, and both Savannah and I managed to catch her dead weight.

Then two pairs of hands grabbed my arms, dragging me backward and forcing Savannah to take her grandmother’s entire weight on her own. They went down to the ground together.

As soon as my captors set me back on my feet, I turned to snarl at them.

Dylan Williams and another descendant two years younger than us. I should have known.

“I warned you, man,” Dylan murmured, sneering from underneath his too-long blond hair.

Cursing, I tried to break free, but the elders must have been lending their power because I couldn’t shake my new jailers’ grip. Their hands were like metal cuffs.

The wind tore through the clearing again, carrying with it a chorus of shrieks from the descendants. Savannah’s father had darted out from the surrounding pine trees to kneel on the soggy ground with his daughter and former mother-in-law.

Hands rose all around us in silent threat. I tried to think of a spell to block them, but Savannah was faster.

She threw out her arms. “No! Wait, he’s my dad, he’s just here to help.”

She and her father crouched together on either side of Mrs. Evans, their matching silver eyes warily scanning the tense line of descendants.

“Let him be,” Dad said, and everyone slowly lowered their hands.

Savannah looked down at her grandmother. “Nanna, are you okay?”

Mrs. Evans reached up with a gnarled, shaky hand, which Savannah took. And that’s when the clouds finally let it rip, dumping sheets of rain on the Circle and everyone within it.

SAVANNAH

Nanna’s pulse skipped all over the place beneath the crepelike skin at her wrist. She’d always been the strongest member of my family despite her age. When had Nanna become so fragile?

I leaned over her, trying to use my upper body to shield her as the clouds rained down their own stinging punishment on our heads. Despite my best efforts, within seconds we were both soaked.

Dad laid his cheek against her chest for a few seconds, then straightened up and leaned toward me.

“Her heart is damaged,” he murmured near my ear. The wind did its best to tear his words away before I could catch them.

“I fought too hard,” Nanna whispered, and even with my vampire hearing, I had to lean close to her mouth to hear her. “I was a foolish old woman. I shouldn’t have tried to fight them.”

“It’s going to be okay now. Dad and I will take you home.” I wiped the water from her cheeks.

But Nanna shook her head. “Too…tired.” Her grip loosened on my hand.

“Someone help her,” I shouted at the shocked faces around us. Were they so cold and uncaring that they would let an innocent old woman die right in front of them? She used to be one of their own!

But as the wind grew stronger and tried to steal their umbrellas, the descendants stumbled back beneath the shelter of the trees.

They weren’t going to help.

Then a single man stepped forward into the sheets of rain. As he strode over to us, I recognized him as Dr. Faulkner, the Brat Twins’ father and a surgeon at the local hospital.

“I’m a doctor. I can help.” Dad moved out of his way, and Dr. Faulkner knelt at Nanna’s shoulder, ignoring the wet moss that quickly soaked and stained his slacks. He pressed two fingers at the side of her neck while checking his watch.

The pulse in her wrist stopped beneath my fingertips.

“Nanna?” I shouted over rumbling thunder as I repeatedly patted the back of her hand. “Nanna!”

Time slowed and the roaring wind blocked out all other sound, making the moment surreal, like a movie I was watching instead of living. I saw Dr. Faulkner use his hands like electric paddles to zap Nanna’s chest, making her lifeless body jerk. Tristan’s dad ran over to us as if in slow motion, abandoning his throne to kneel on the soaked sponge that the moss had become, joining Dr. Faulkner’s attempts. Their combined energy made Nanna’s upper body lift several inches off the ground with each electrical jolt, then land with a small splash in the growing puddles beneath us. I tried to think of something I could do to help, but Clann rules had forbidden my family to teach me anything about magic. I wasn’t yet a full vampire, either, so I couldn’t turn Nanna into an immortal. Despite all the fears of both the vamp council and the Clann regarding what I might be able to do someday, the reality was I was powerless to save even my own grandma. All I could do was cause destruction and the threat of another war between the species.

And make dumb decisions that resulted in my grandma fighting for her life in the woods during a storm.

Mr. Coleman and Dr. Faulkner fell into a rhythm as a two-man team, taking turns zapping her chest, checking her pulse and blowing air into her mouth. I lost all sense of time as they worked for minutes that could have been hours, the rain soaking through their clothes and hair and eventually pouring in tiny streams down their arms.

Nanna never woke up.

Eventually, the men’s hands withdrew from Nanna’s too-still body. Dr. Faulkner was saying something to me. But I couldn’t hear him.

“What?” The dreamlike feeling of shock drained away, leaving me soaked and chilled to the bone. Only then did I realize the wind had died down again and it was only my blood rushing in my head that was causing the roaring sound in my ears. “Is she all right?”

I reached past Mr. Coleman to pat Nanna’s cool cheek, willing her to wake up. “Nanna? Can you hear me? Come on, Nanna, you’ve got to wake up. I’ve got to get you home now and into some dry clothes. Wake up, Nanna. Come on, wake up!”

Her eyes remained closed.

I circled around Mr. Coleman, kneeling so I could lift her head and shoulders and cradle them in my lap. She was still asleep, but she would wake up soon. I just needed to elevate her head, help her breathe easier. All she needed was a little time to come around.

I looked up at the sky, ignoring the flock of crows beneath their umbrellas still lingering at the edges of the clearing. At least the storm seemed to be passing. The thunder and lightning had eased, and the rain was coming down in actual raindrops again instead of a waterfall. That was good. Dad could carry Nanna back to the car now. We’d get her home and into a hot shower to warm her up, then into some dry clothes. She’d tell me how to fix her a cup of hot tea the way she liked it using some of her homegrown mint leaves….

A heavy paw of a hand rested on my shoulder.

I looked up at Mr. Coleman, but he was too blurry to see clearly no matter how much I blinked. All I could make out was his bushy white beard.

“I’m so sorry, Savannah. We tried everything. But…she’s gone.”

“No.” She wasn’t. She was just asleep. Raindrops splattered over Nanna’s cheeks again, gathering in the deep laugh lines at either side of her mouth, and I wiped them dry.

“Savannah, it is too late,” Dad said, standing at my other side. “There is nothing else we can do.”

“No.” I shook my head, staring at Mr. Coleman, willing him to help me. “Use your powers—”

“We did,” Mr. Coleman said.

“Then try something different!” I turned to Dr. Faulkner. Why was I the only one here still fighting for Nanna’s life? He fixed people for a living
and
he was a descendant. He had to be able to heal her. “You’re a surgeon. Can’t you go in and magically repair her heart?”