Crave (31 page)

“Enough with the conspiracy theories already. She's not like that. My being tired after seeing her is just a coincidence. You don't know anything about her.”

“Not yet, I don't.”

Good mood gone, I peeled myself from my chair. “I'm going outside for a while.”

“Good. Do yourself a favor and do some drawing while you're there. And I don't mean the artistic type. I'll let you know what I discover.”

Sisters. What a pain.

Still, Emily usually had good ideas. Maybe I would go sit under my grounding tree and draw a little energy from the earth like she'd suggested.

A few minutes later while leaned back against the tree in the biting-cold air, I heard the squeak of the cafeteria doors. At the same time, my gut and stomach ached from Savannah's nearness. Smiling, I snuck a peek at her.

She wore a matching smile as she emerged from the cafeteria with her friends. Then she looked my way, and the smile she flashed me was like looking directly at a summer sun at noon, lighting up the gray winter day.

And then she glanced past me at something. Her smile slipped, and her feet stumbled to a stop.

I looked behind me. Nothing there but an empty road, the practice field and the edge of the woods that circled three sides of the school grounds. What could make her freeze up like that?

Savannah

They were definitely staring at me. I wasn't sure how I knew this, but I did. And the longer I looked at the trio of
adults standing at the edge of the woods behind Tristan, the more I could sense someone else's emotions…anger, curiosity, patient determination, fear, all roiling together in a dark, seething cloud against my skin despite my best efforts to shield against them. The emotions had to be coming from them. No one else nearby looked anything but happy.

Why didn't they ever blink? Or move?

I gripped my notebook, hugging it to my chest and stomach, my palms turning damp. Gut instinct screamed at me to run away. And yet my feet seemed frozen in place.

Why were they standing over there? And why were they staring at me?

From this distance, they looked like middle-aged adults, two men, one woman. Their faces watched me without any expression. The wind flipped the men's dark suit jackets and turned the woman's hair into a writhing black cloud around her head, yet she made no effort to push back the wild strands.

“Hey, Anne, do you know who those people are?” I jerked my head in the trio's direction, trying to act normal.

Anne glanced at the woods then gave me a blank look. “Who?”

“Those three people standing over there by the woods. At the edge of the practice field.”

She continued to look clueless. But she was just messing with my head. Miss Always Practical Carrie wouldn't, though. “Carrie, do you know who they are?”

Carrie looked in the correct direction. “Where?”

“Oh, not funny, guys. The two men and one woman standing right over there.” Feeling rude, I pointed anyway. Let the trio know I was talking about them. They'd been rude first by staring at me.

Carried stared at me, too, her blue eyes expressionless. “Sav, there's no one there.”

“Oh, come on! Michelle, you see them, right?”

Michelle shook her head, and now all three of my friends were looking at me as if I'd gone nuts.

Maybe I had. I turned toward the creepy trio. Yep, they were still there, still solid and unwavering, and still staring at me. Goose bumps raced over my arms and thighs.

“Y'all
swear
you don't see them?” I'd meant to sound calm, but the words came out in a croak instead.

“I swear,” Anne replied, and Carrie and Michelle nodded.

“Come on, let's…get to class,” Anne muttered, grabbing my arm and dragging me away.

Lovely. As if I wasn't already freakish enough, now I was seeing invisible people. Either that or ghosts.

Thankfully, my afternoon classes were in the main building on the opposite side of the campus. Regardless, every crashing locker door in the main hall between classes made me jump.

And looming ahead after school was the usual Charmers practice. In the field right next to where those watchers had been standing.

Please be gone now,
my mind chanted as I shuffled along the walkway to the sports and art building after the final school bell rang.

As I made my way up the cement ramp to the foyer doors, I glanced back at the woods. And stumbled. The trio were still there, and they were staring at me again. The woman's hair was impossibly tangled as the wind continued to whip it around her face unchecked. They looked as if they hadn't moved in hours and were perfectly capable of standing there until the end of time. Their seething mixture of emotions reached out like invisible fingers, spreading over my midsection like a malicious fog until I wanted to claw off my own skin just to get away from the sensation.

What did they
want?

Panic rose, icy cold, starting in my chest and stomach then spreading out to numb my limbs. I clamped my teeth together and hurried inside. At Mrs. Daniels's office, I leaned against the doorjamb and slid down as my legs went weak with relief, my breaths coming out fast and short.

Oh, crap. I couldn't go back out there. I would have to walk right past them to get to the field. I would be within feet of them. They might jump out and grab me or something.

I'd have to miss practice today. I'd have to…

I didn't hear Tristan come up the stairs. “Hey, Sav, what's wrong?” He crossed the distance to me in three long strides then crouched down before me. His hands surrounded mine, the heat from his skin letting me know how cold I was.

“You'll think I'm crazy.”

“Try me.”

“There're these…people outside by the practice field. At the edge of the woods. Adults. Three of them. They keep staring at me. They were there at lunch, too, but my friends swore they couldn't see them. None of them could. How could they not
see
them? I think they're ghosts or something.” The words poured out of me, my voice rising to a near shriek at the end.

“Okay, calm down. You say they were staring at you?”

How could I explain why the watchers freaked me out so much? “Yeah. But they're not blinking or moving or
anything.
They're like statues. Only their heads and eyes turn when I walk by.” A sudden thought hit me. “Do you think the Clann sent them to spy on us? Maybe your parents suspect we're dating and sent them. But why not make themselves invisible to me, too? Wouldn't that make more sense?”

“Whoa, slow down.” He stood and pulled me up with him. “If the Clann sent spies to watch me, which I doubt they'd do, they would make themselves invisible to everyone. Otherwise they wouldn't be very good spies, right?”

His calm confidence reached out to me like a soft, warm blanket. My heartbeat slowed down in response. Feeling stupid, I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. I was over-reacting. “You're right. But why can't my friends see them?”

“I don't know. Why don't we find out if I can?”

It took several tries, but I managed to unlock the office closet so we could get the sound system and my trainer's bag. Then we made our way downstairs and out the building.

The watchers were still there. This time their eyes widened as if in shock. Proof they probably weren't ghosts. Ghosts didn't act surprised and weren't affected by the wind, were they?

“Are they still there?” Tristan muttered, looking in their direction.

I nodded, fear closing my throat again. He couldn't see them, either. Oh, crap, I really was going crazy.

“Well, they won't hurt you as long as I'm here.” He reached out to hold my hand.

The woman in the middle lurched forward a step and hissed, but her companions grabbed her arms in restraint. Her fury washed over my skin.

I gasped and froze. “Let go of my hand. It upsets them.”

He released my hand. “We're going to be late for practice. Why don't we go around the opposite side of the math building—”

As if they'd heard, the watchers turned toward the practice field. Then they took off, moving so fast they became three blurs. Holy crap, how could they
move
like that? They couldn't possibly be descendants, not unless they'd used magic to give themselves superpowers somehow. Then again, maybe that was exactly what they had done. After all, what did I know about magic and what descendants could or couldn't do with proper training?

Where had they gone?

The only thing worse than being stared at by three creepy watchers was not knowing where they were now. I jogged down the ramp to the road and past the math building. I was just in time to see the watchers' blurs streak alongside the practice-field fence before they stopped at the far end, becoming solid once more.

“Wow. They move fast.”

“Where are they now?”

“Far end of the field outside the fence. And they're staring at me again.”

His eyes widened. “Yeah, that is fast.”

“You still can't see them, can you?”

“No. I'm sorry, I wish I could. Maybe if the Clann sent them then I could at least identify them.”

A horrible thought came to me. “What if that's the point? Send watchers only I can see so I think I'm going crazy. Try to scare me away from seeing you.”

We entered the field. I tried not to look at the watchers, but it was like trying not to look at a train hurtling toward me while I stood on the train tracks. Survival instinct demanded I glance their way every few seconds to make sure they hadn't moved again.

“Well, at least they're keeping their distance, right?” He helped me set up the sound system. “Just try to stay calm, and when I get ice in a while, I'll stop by the practice gym and ask Emily for advice.”

“No, don't. Your sister will think I'm a nutcase.”

“No, she won't. I promise. And if the Clann did send spies or someone to try to scare you, she can ask around without looking as suspicious as I would.” He smiled. “Trust me, the girl is a mastermind. She can dig information out of anyone.”

“Do
you
think I'm nuts?”

“I hope you are. About me, at least.”

I managed a half smile. “Uh-huh. But seriously. Am I nuts?”

“Because of the watchers?” Crouching down beside me, he lifted his head, closed his eyes and pressed his fingertips to the ground. After a moment, the smile left his face. “No. Something doesn't feel right. And it's probably them.”

Tristan

It was a long hour and a half before practice neared an end and I could go for ice. I stopped by the practice gym first, interrupting the varsity cheer squad as I waved their captain over.

“This better be good,” Emily said as she walked up to me.

“It is.” I gave her a rundown of the problem and possible theories.

“Well, they can't be like us,” she said when I finished. “We'd both feel it if they were using power.”

“Then who are they?”

“You mean what.”

A hundred childhood stories full of warnings against all kinds of scary things rushed through the back of my mind. “What are you thinking?”

“Shape-shifters. Vampires. Ghosts. Demons. Any of those would be able to move fast like that. Though shape-shifters can't make themselves invisible at all, so cross them off the list. And most descendants would be able to sense ghosts and demons almost like a use of power.”

Which left vampires. Vampires here at JHS. Unbelievable. “What do they want?”

“Why don't you ask your girlfriend? Because I can guarantee the Clann would never have sent them. You know we don't mess around with vamps. They're magic leeches. Just because the Clann has a peace treaty with them doesn't make them any less dangerous to every descendant alive.”

Our eyes widened in unison.

“Sav. She's a…” I started to say. Fear on a level I'd never felt before exploded inside me. “Emily, she's completely untrained. She wouldn't know how to protect herself at all.”

“Be careful,” she yelled as I sprinted out of the gym and back to the practice field. And felt my frozen mind kick into gear again when I spotted Savannah calmly sitting at the side of the field with a dancer.

“Hey. Where's the ice?” Savannah secured the dancer's bandage with a metal butterfly clip.

I leaned over and whispered against her ear, “Don't go anywhere or let them leave you here alone. I'll be right back with the ice. Promise me.”

She nodded, her dark blue eyes wide even as she tried to fake a smile at the dancer she was helping.

I shot a warning glare toward the end of the field where I assumed the vampires were still lurking around. They'd better not even think about getting near Savannah while I was gone, or so help me, I'd stake every last one of them, and to hell with the peace treaty between our worlds.

Then I ran across campus to the field house. These would be the fastest bags of ice I'd ever thrown together.

I was on the last bag when Dylan strolled over to the locker-room doorway.

“Missing football so much you had to start hanging out in the field house?” he said.

Just what I needed right now. Normally I came here before football practice ended so I could avoid my old teammates. Talking with Emily and then running back to warn Savannah had thrown me behind tonight.

“Just helping out the Charmers,” I said, shoveling ice into the clear plastic bag faster. Through the field house's open front door, I could see the campus getting darker as the sun set behind the trees and houses in the nearby neighborhood, throwing long shadows over the practice field.

“Rumor has it you're here every day now. That Colbert girl must be a pretty good—”

There was no thought. One minute I was shoveling ice, the next I'd dropped the metal scoop in the ice machine and had a softball-size fireball fully formed and rolling around inside my hand just waiting to be thrown.

A matching orb of energy slowly grew in Dylan's right hand. He growled, “Careful, Coleman. Wouldn't want you to lose your control again and get kicked off yet another team.”

As ticked off as I was, part of me really didn't care what happened as long as I could shut him up once and for all about Savannah. But deep down inside, another part of me was yelling,
Don't be stupid, Tristan! This is exactly what he wants!

Footsteps at the locker-room door only gave us seconds to snuff out the magic before Ron Abernathy walked in. “Hey, guys, what's up? Oh, hey, Tristan. Haven't seen you around much lately. How've you been?”

Still staring at Dylan, I muttered, “Okay, and you?”

“Not bad. Heard you were helping out the Charmers now. You lucky dog, getting to work with all those girls wearing nothing but leotards all the time. They got any more openings for managers? Might have to join the team myself!”

I forced a tight smile, though it felt like I was having to chip
the expression out of stone to pull it off. “I'll let you know if any come up.”

I was waiting for Ron to get lost so I could finally take care of an old problem here. But he showed no signs of leaving as he stood there watching us. Was he hoping to see us fight again, or trying to stop the fight before it began?

As the seconds ticked by in silence, the anger eased back down to something I could control again. This wasn't over by a long shot. Dylan would have to be dealt with eventually. He was like a bulldog once he saw something, and obviously he wasn't ready to let our issues go. But tonight, I had bigger problems to deal with.

Gritting my teeth, I turned away and finished filling the last ice bag, then closed it up with a metal twist tie. As I headed for the door, my arms filled with ice bags that did nothing to cool the blood still boiling beneath my skin, I told Ron over my shoulder, “See you later.” He raised a hand in answer.

“See you later,” Dylan said, his tone making it a promise.

“Looking forward to it.” I smiled, and this time I didn't bother to try and make it look nice.

Once outside the field house, I took off at a jog through the fading light across campus to the practice field. By the time I got there, the team was still wrapping up practice. But now the sun had fully set. The field and surrounding track were lit by several stadium lights. But the wood-lined walk between the field and sports and art building had no lights at all. And after we got through that section, I would still have to get Savannah out of the building and across the dark campus to the front parking lot and her truck.

Once practice ended and she and I were headed toward the practice-field gate, I tried a different plan. “Listen, I think I should lock up the dance rooms for you tonight. Then you can go straight from here to your truck and home.”

She glanced at me, then kept walking toward the campus road and the shadowed section by the woods. Hardheaded woman. “I can't. It's my job to make sure the sound system's secured and the dance floor's locked up. Our equipment costs way too much. We couldn't afford to replace it if it got stolen or damaged.”

“I'll make sure everything is locked up properly.”

“That's really sweet of you, but you have no idea how mad Mrs. Daniels would get if she found out I dumped my job off on you. Come on, let's get this done so we can go home.”

Frustrated, I tucked the MegaVox under my right arm and carried the jam box using my right hand. I'd at least have my left hand free. I clenched it into a loose fist and willed a tiny flame to life inside. If anything came at us, I was as ready as I'd ever be.

Savannah rubbed her arm through her coat. “Hey, are you using…”

“Just keep walking please. I'll show you later, I promise.”

Catching the worry in my tone, she nodded and walked faster.

As we drew closer to the dark section of the road, I put myself between Savannah and the woods at our left. For added measure, I guided her to the opposite side of the street, using the brick backside of the math building to help protect her. I also kept her moving at a near jog.

“Where are they?” I muttered.

She glanced behind us and whispered, “Still back at the practice field.”

My ears strained for any little noise from the woods or behind us. The gravel crunched beneath our feet, seeming extra loud in the silence. In the distance, a girl shrieked then laughed in the front parking lot, making my muscles twitch.

Time stretched. The walk took only minutes, but it seemed
like hours before we made it past the woods to the cement ramp and then into the foyer. We were both breathing hard as we hurried inside. Now I just had to get her home safely.

On the way up the stairs, I showed her the flame inside my fist before I put it out. Then I told her what Emily had said.

Savannah turned pale. “But…they can't be.”

“Trust me, Sav, vampires really exist.” At Mrs. Daniels's office now, I stowed the equipment in the closet.

She frowned. “I know. But why would they be here?”

“You're still a descendant by birth. That means you can reach out and pull the earth's energy into yourself if you need to. That makes you like a big, limitless generator for vampires. They need energy. We've got it. Most of us know how to protect ourselves. But you were never trained. So the temptation must be irresistible to them.”

Hands free at last, I walked over to hold hers. They were cold and shaking.
Oh, good job making her feel protected, Cole man.
“Hey, listen, you're going to be fine. Between your family's magic and mine, we'll have you covered 24/7. No vamp would try to attack you here with so many descendants around to witness it. And for the times when we can't be with you, your family can get you set up with some vamp wards for protection.”

“No, they can't.” Her eyes widened, as if she'd given away some secret.

“Why not? Don't they know how to make them?”

“No, it's not that. It's…we're…forbidden to do magic.” She nibbled the inner corner of her lips, and I was a little distracted by the movement.

After a few seconds, I blinked and remembered what we had been talking about. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. No big deal, Emily should know how to make them by now. And
until then, I can teach you how to make fire.” I reached for her hand.

She jerked it away. “No, I can't!”

Huh? “Sure you can. It's one of the first things we learn how to do when our abilities start showing up at puberty. Just hold out your hand…”

She shook her head, her eyes wild and panicky.

A short laugh escaped me. “Come on, Sav. There's no reason to be afraid. The fire is a part of you, like a natural extension of your willpower. You just will it to life, like this.” I held out my hand, willed the fire to life, and blue flame popped up from my palm.

She froze.

“Seriously, I promise you it doesn't hurt. And the Clann won't find out. I swear.”

She stared off into the distance. After a long hesitation, she licked her lips and held out her hand palm up.

She stared at her palm. The seconds ticked by. Nothing happened.

“Are you picturing the fire coming to life in your hand?”

Her lips pressed together into a thin line as she gave a single, sharp nod. “It's not working.”

Maybe the Clann had cast a spell on her family to somehow block their abilities. Sighing in frustration, I closed her hand. “Okay, don't worry about it. We'll just go with plan B and get some vamp wards from Emily. Until then, let's get you home.”

She nodded, her eyes bleak. And she wouldn't really look at me. She was scared. And maybe embarrassed about the lack of magic abilities.

“Do we have any fundraisers coming up?” I asked, trying to refocus her.

“The Fall Ball on Saturday. After that, none for a while.”

“And you'll be with me there. Okay, so we just need to worry about preventing alone time during team practices—”

“Um, you know, I think it's going to be okay, Tristan. Let me lock up, and I'll go home and tell Nanna about this. I'm sure she'll know what to do.”

She finished her locking-up routine, her movements jerky.

As she locked the downstairs foyer doors after us, she murmured, “Maybe we'd better walk separately from here.”

Was she crazy? “I don't think so. I'm not leaving you alone for those vamps to go after.”

She frowned, her shoulders stiff as we hurried across the dark campus toward the front parking lot. At her truck, I leaned in through the open driver-side door, intending to kiss her cheek. She sucked in a fast breath and ducked back inside the truck. “Tristan…they might see us.”

“Who?”

“The…” She looked at me for a moment, her eyes unreadable. “Anyone still on campus.”

Before I could argue that we were all alone except for the vamps, she shut the door and started the engine. With a quick wave, she was gone, driving fast like she thought she could somehow outrun the vampires.

Savannah

Vampires had come to Jacksonville.

The thought pounded through my head the entire way home. On its heels came…
Why?

Obviously the council had sent them to watch me. Which was probably why the term
watchers
had come to me in the first place. My father had used that term to refer to council spies back when I'd first started changing. But why had the council sent watchers? Because they knew about Tristan and me?

Well, if they hadn't before, they had to suspect now.

But if they knew about us for sure, why hadn't they done anything about it, instead of just standing around all day watching me? Wouldn't they have done something to stop us from walking together, something to make me get away from Tristan?

They must be there only to ensure that the peace treaty wasn't broken. Maybe they were waiting for me to lose control around him first, then they planned to step in if I attacked him or tried to drink his blood. If so, they were going to be disappointed, because I didn't have the slightest interest in his blood.

It was his heart I craved.

He had run all over the campus to get answers for me tonight, so confident that he could protect me from the vampires. And then he'd tried to help me learn how to create fire by magic, despite the rules forbidding it.

If he'd known I might be in the process of becoming a vampire and that I'd only pretended to try to create fire, what would he have done?