Covet (52 page)

“Mrs. Coleman, he—” I began.

“Do not speak to me, vampire,” she hissed in my general direction before ignoring me again. “Tristan, say something so I know you’re all right.”

She picked up one of his hands between hers. Her dark eyes widened. Slowly her gaze traveled up his arm to his pale face gleaming in the light from scattered fires in the clearing, then to his eyes, which were now a strange greenish-silver.

“Oh. My. God,” she breathed out slowly, pulling her hands away. “You’re…”

“He’s alive,” I told her. “It was either this or let him die.”

Gasping, she dropped his hand. “What have you
done
?”

“He was dying. I did the only thing I could to save him.”

Her gaze darted from me back to Tristan. Seconds ticked by as emotion after emotion rolled off of her. She couldn’t decide whether to be happy he was still alive or horrified that he’d become the enemy she feared more than anything else in life.

“You should be killed for this,” she snarled at me. “This is all your fault! If not for you—”

“If not for Savannah, your son would have died,” Dad said.

“Stop this now!” Caravass shouted. “Vampires, come to me.”

The fighting stopped as the vampires began to walk, some even backward, toward their leader. Even my father was pulled by the call and walked over to join them. The absolute control was both a relief and chilling. Thank God our Clann genes prevented the command from affecting Tristan and me.

But where was Gowin?

I searched the clearing and found Emily kneeling over a pile of ash two feet from Caravass, her shoulders shaking with her sobs. A quick read of her mind told the whole story.

Seeing her boyfriend try to kill her brother, Emily had made her decision and hit Gowin with a ball of fire as he tried to attack Caravass. She had saved the vamp council leader and killed her father’s murderer. And her unborn baby’s father.

Unfortunately, that left only me to hold Tristan as he sat up and inhaled deeply.

“Look at him, sniffing the air like an animal,” Nancy said, scrambling to her feet and backing away from us. “He smells the blood. He already has the bloodlust!” Her gaze shifted back to me, her eyes dark and wild. “You’ve taken my son from me.”

In the silence, the surviving descendants heard her and became aware of Tristan’s change. Murmurs rose to shouts as their fury found a new target. Me.

“She turned our leader!”

“Tristan’s a vamp now. He’s on their side!”

“We should kill them all, punish them for taking our leader!”

The shouting grew, along with my fear. Would we survive Gowin only to be killed by the Clann?

Dad leaned over and whispered something to Caravass. The vamp council leader nodded, and Dad rejoined us at a slow and cautious human walk.

“Savannah, we must take Tristan away from here.”

“But…his family.” I looked at Emily, who was slowly becoming aware of the Clann’s growing anger toward us. She stood up, saw Tristan and went pale. She might not be any help, either.

“Tristan, can you get up?” I whispered.

With Dad’s and my help, Tristan got to his feet, still sniffing the air.

What is that smell?
I heard his voice say in my mind.
It smells…good.

Oh God, his mother was right. He was already feeling the bloodlust.

What is this bloodlust?
he thought, and I jumped.

He could hear my thoughts.

Yes, just like you can hear mine. Right?
He turned to me with a frown, his eyebrows drawn in confusion. He still held my hand, his grip tight.

Swallowing hard, I nodded.
Right. Um, listen, Tristan, this is really important. I want you to try and ignore that scent for now. Okay?

But it smells so good. It makes my stomach hurt.

Emily walked over to us on unsteady legs. “Tristan? You’re all right!” She stepped forward to hug him.

Dad moved to block her even as Tristan’s head cocked to the side, his now silver eyes studying her without any trace of recognition.

“I would not do that,” Dad murmured to Emily. “Gowin nearly killed him. Savannah had to turn him before he died. And he is already struggling with the cravings.”

Her mouth opened, closed, and she jerked to a halt. Wrapping her arms around herself, she turned toward the still-shouting crowd of descendants, her eyebrows pinching together.

Mom, stop this,
Emily thought. Mrs. Coleman’s shoulders hunched as she turned to face her children from many yards away.
Don’t let this get even more out of hand. I know you can’t see it now, but your son’s still alive. Let them get out of here safely so he can come back to us someday.

Mrs. Coleman’s jaw clenched for a moment, and my heart pounded hard in my chest. Finally, Mrs. Coleman nodded and faced the Clann.

“Descendants! I know you’re upset over the loss of our newest leader. He…” Is. Was. Is. Was. Her mind struggled with the choice. She forced herself to say, “…is still my son, however, even if Clann law forbids him to continue as our leader now.”

“Then I accept the leadership,” Mr. Williams said, stepping forward to the front of the crowd.

Dr. Faulkner stepped forward. “Ah, but Clann law says you will not. Not as long as the parent of the previous Clann leader is still alive and willing to accept the role in their child’s stead.” He sounded like he had memorized every Clann law under the sun.

Silence as everyone waited for Mrs. Coleman to react. Finally she spoke. “As Tristan’s surviving parent, I accept the leadership and will gladly take this position effective immediately.”

Mr. Williams’s face turned red then purple. But he said nothing, his thoughts revealing that he knew Dr. Faulkner was right and hadn’t expected anyone to know such an old law. He would have to find some other way to become Clann leader.

It took a few minutes for the rest of the descendants to realize that the Clann leadership had once again changed. During that time, Tristan’s grip on my hand grew steadily tighter to the point of near pain.

He read the thought in my mind and forced his muscles to relax.
I’m sorry. It’s just that the smell is hurting me. I can’t ignore it any longer. I have to—

“Tristan, no!” Panicking, I blurted it out instead of only thinking it.

Tristan lurched forward and dropped my hand. Dad’s hands darted out to grab his shoulders and hold him still.

Emily gasped. “Oh God. Tristan, no.”

“Savannah, we must leave,” Dad said as he pulled Tristan backward.

Tristan’s eyes had narrowed, his lips pulled back to expose fangs as he growled.

I stood there frozen as for the first time I watched a vampire lose control over the bloodlust.

Mrs. Coleman turned to face us again, her eyes wide. She took a deep breath, and I heard her think,
I must do this, for my son and the Clann.
Then she said loud enough for everyone to hear, “Tristan Coleman, you are hereby banished from the Clann. Leave here, and do not ever return.”

As if it were some kind of formal act, every descendant there except Emily and Mrs. Coleman turned their backs on us.

“Goodbye, my son.” Mrs. Coleman silently mouthed the words, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Come on,” Emily muttered, grabbing my elbow and dragging me through the woods behind my father as he shoved Tristan down the path ahead of us.

The farther we got from the Circle and all that descendant blood on the ground, the less Tristan struggled against Dad. Finally Tristan began to have coherent thought again.
Why does it hurt so much?

I know, baby,
I thought.
But it’ll stop if you keep walking with my dad.

This man is your dad?

Yes. Trust him. He’ll keep both of us safe and get you something to…eat, so your stomach will stop hurting.

Okay. I trust you, so I’ll trust him, too.
But Tristan’s eyes still darted from side to side like a wild thing in spite of our reaching his own backyard.

“We will meet you at the house,” Dad said, his tone allowing no argument. Then they were gone, Dad teaching Tristan to run for the first time, using the woods along the way as their cover.

“Oh my God,” I whispered once I could no longer hear Tristan’s thoughts. “What have I done?”

* * * * *

We hope you enjoyed
COVET,
Book 2 of
THE CLANN!
Want to know which songs Sav and Tristan listened to in
COVET?
For the official
COVET
playlist and other information about The Clann and Melissa Darnell, visit
www.TheClannSeries.com
!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my editor, Natashya Wilson, for your tireless and truly brilliant editorial guidance throughout this series, as well as your undying faith in Tristan and Savannah. I am convinced that no one on this planet could possibly adore Tristan more than you do!

I would also like to thank everyone else at Harlequin for their outstanding work on making each version of every Clann Series book so beautiful, as well as for spreading the word about it in so many wonderful ways. You guys are awesome!

As always, thanks goes out to my agent, Alyssa Eisner-Henkin at Trident Media, for choosing to represent me and for your enthusiastic support for this series.

And finally, I would like to say a heartfelt thanks to Walker Carrigan, Scheels Bow Technician, for taking so much time to not only teach me the basics about compound bows but also for going the extra mile and showing me how to shoot one correctly without taking out my foot (or anyone else in the store!). If I sound like a bow hunting genius in this book, it is due to your invaluable lesson. And if I got anything wrong, I’m blaming it on Savannah’s lack of knowledge about compound bows!

Read on for an exclusive excerpt from
CONSUME
by Melissa Darnell, book 3 of The Clann.
Coming in 2013.

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I stared at the surrounding forest on Rich Mountain, one hand braced against the trunk of a leafless hardwood tree at my side, my too quick breaths making puffs of fog in the afternoon air as the feeble sun edged beneath the winter-stripped branches of the treeline. The air was smoky, acrid with the false promise of comfort from the chimney of a cabin several yards behind me, which I was struggling to ignore during my few blessed minutes of solitude outside.

It should have been perfect…Tristan and me and a remote log cabin with a crackling fireplace nestled on a west Arkansas mountain in December. No Clann or vampire council members nearby to bother us. No more rules or secrets to keep us apart. No more risk of accidentally killing Tristan with a kiss.

Instead, it was all wrong, and I was staggering under the weight of what we now faced.

We weren’t alone. My dad had come along, not for Tristan’s safety or even my own, but for everyone else who might come too close and trigger the bloodlust within Tristan. Tristan’s bloodlust could never be underestimated. If not for Dad holding him back, Tristan might have slaughtered his own family in the Circle, the Clann’s clearing in our hometown woods where so much Clann and vamp blood had been shed only hours ago.

Just the memory of how Tristan had looked there—his once soft emerald eyes turned white-silver with need, his normally curved lips baring newly formed fangs as he snarled with rage—forced a shudder to ripple down my body. Until that moment, I’d never seen a vampire lose control to the bloodlust. Now that I had, I would never forget it.

Not coming to this isolated cabin hadn’t been an option, and staying here promised to be anything but fun or peaceful. We’d had to load up Dad’s car and come here immediately after the battle in the Circle just to get Tristan away from all humans before the bloodlust drove him crazy. Even stopping for gas had been a nightmare. Thank heavens the cabin was only a day’s drive from our East Texas hometown of Jacksonville so we hadn’t been forced to stop often. Now that Tristan was a full vampire like me, his strength was once again far beyond my own—becoming a vamp enhanced whatever each human had to start with, and unlike me, Tristan had worked out all the time for football before being turned last night. The one time we had stopped, I’d had to fill the car’s gas tank so Dad could hold Tristan inside the car and away from all the humans at the gas station.