Crave (32 page)

I had to tell him the truth. He deserved to know the risks. Especially since he was breaking the Clann's rules by dating me.

But if I told him I was a dirty half-breed, he might not want to see me anymore.

Although…we'd just started actually dating. Who bared their entire souls right after they started seeing each other?

I should wait awhile, see how long we lasted before I started sharing more family secrets with him. Tristan was notoriously commitmentphobic. He'd probably get tired of me like he had all his previous girlfriends and break up with me after a few weeks.

In the meantime, I would just have to be extra careful not
to let the watchers see us doing anything romantic together. Like holding hands. Or kissing. No hugs, either. Public dates were even more out of the question now, of course. As long as the vampires or anyone else could see us, it would have to be strictly a working relationship, nothing more.

Never mind how torturous that would be for me to endure.

I pulled into the driveway, parked behind Nanna's car and rested my forehead on the steering wheel. No public dates. No public displays of affection. No eating together at lunch or walking together between classes. How long would Tristan want to keep seeing me in a relationship like that? Did that even count as a relationship?

Tristan

I overslept the next morning.

“Mom's right, we should get you a doghouse.” Emily kicked my foot. “You'd better get up. You're going to be late for practice.”

Groaning, I dragged myself upright. Wow, I was wiped out, which might explain why I'd failed to dream connect with Savannah last night. I hadn't had enough energy for it.

“Do some energy drawing before you shower,” she suggested. “And give you-know-who this to wear when you see her this morning.”

A braided ribbon bracelet dropped into my lap. “Is this what we talked about last night?”

“Yep. It should work even if she gets it wet. So tell her not to take it off for any reason. See you at lunchtime.”

“Thanks, Emily. You're the best.”

“I know.” Grinning, she went back inside the house.

Hmm, she was right as usual. I could use an energy boost. Quickly, I spread my hand out flat on the ground and drew up the energy into my body. But I pulled too hard, leaving a
scorched hand shape on the grass. I winced, then shrugged it off. It would grow back. Eventually.

I rushed through my shower, deciding to go to school with wet hair so I wouldn't be late for practice. I barely reached the sports and art building before Savannah arrived.

From where I stood at the entrance doors, I could watch her every step of the way from the time she parked and got out of her truck until she reached the cement ramp. Watching her from here seemed a good compromise between keeping her safe and letting her have some freedom. Somehow, I didn't think she'd appreciate it if I gave in to the urge to hover over her every second of the day just to protect her from the vamps. Though denying that urge meant waiting for her with clenched teeth and a racing heart.

As she headed up the cement ramp toward me, she glanced behind her at the woods and turned pale. She started walking faster.

“Still there?” I murmured as she reached me and unlocked the doors with shaking hands.

She nodded, frowning and rubbing her forehead. She was even more pale than usual, too. She must not have gotten much sleep last night.

I waited by the hallway door upstairs until she finished her unlocking routine.

“Emily sent you something that should help with our problem.” I walked toward her.

She grabbed the office doorjamb behind her. “Oh. Wow.”

“Yeah. You feel the magic in it, too? Emily's really good. I don't know why Dad doesn't just train her to be the next leader of the Clann instead of me. But he's being old-fashioned. And hardheaded.” Smiling, I held out the bracelet with both hands.

“Uh…what is it?” She stared at the bracelet, licking her lips.

“It's okay.” I chuckled. “Hold out your wrist.”

She hesitated then slowly lifted her left wrist. I tied it on with a quick double knot.

And she dropped to the floor with a loud smack. Son of a…

“Savannah!” Hitting my knees, I pulled back her hair from her face. She was out cold. I tapped her cheek and called her name again. No response. Panicking now, I tried again, but her head just rolled away from my hand. I put my ear near her nose and mouth. She was breathing but barely.

The bracelet. Something must have gone wrong with the spell. My fingers were suddenly too big, too clumsy as I fought the knot I'd created.

Get it off her. Got to get it off her. Now!

Finally the knot came loose. I threw the bracelet to the side, noticing a red welt around her wrist as if the bracelet had given her a chemical burn. She gasped like a drowning person resurfacing.

I lifted her head. “Savannah? Can you hear me?”

Her eyelids drifted open. “What…”

“You passed out. Are you okay?”

“I… Yeah.” She struggled to sit up, pressing the heel of a hand to her forehead. “Oh, ow, my head.”

Had she hit it on the floor? I carefully checked her skull but didn't find any lumps. I held her against my chest for a minute until my heartbeat slowed down and my hands stopped shaking. “Oh, man, I'm sorry, Savannah. Something must have gone wrong with the spell. I'll get Emily to fix it at lunch.”

“What was it supposed to do?”

“It's just a basic vampire ward. The Clann parents give them to all the kids to wear until puberty. Then our power kicks in and we learn how to protect ourselves against vamps so we
don't have to wear the wards anymore. I swear it shouldn't have done this to you.”

She turned even whiter and didn't say anything as I helped her up. “Are you okay to walk?”

She nodded. “But I might have to ask for some help with my trainer bag today.” She forced a smile, but her words came out a little slurred.

“No problem.” Anything to make up for causing her to pass out like that. Just wait till I could get my hands on Emily. This better have been an accident. I pocketed the bracelet then loaded up for the trip out to the practice field.

We started to skirt the watchers' post near the woods, but she said the vampires were still keeping their distance and had moved away again.

I really hated not being able to see them for myself. Fighting an enemy blind sucked.

Savannah wore a frown throughout practice, and I caught her rubbing her forehead several times. She massaged her temples again at the end of practice as I put away the sound system.

“If that headache sticks around, promise me you'll take some aspirin,” I told her.

With a weak smile, she nodded.

She winced as I kissed her cheek goodbye. Her head must really hurt.

Second-period English had never seemed so long. I spent the entire hour and a half wondering if her headache had finally gone away, and what in the world Emily had done to that bracelet. When the lunch-period bell rang, I was the first one out the door.

In the cafeteria, I grabbed Emily's elbow before she could take her seat at our table. “We need to talk.” I steered her outside toward my grounding tree.

“What did you put in that bracelet?” I demanded once we were out of hearing range of the students at the picnic tables.

“Just the traditional vamp ward. Why?” Emily replied, her eyes wide with innocent confusion.

“It nearly killed her.”

The color drained from her face. In a different situation, I would have enjoyed my know-it-all sister's look of shock. Right now, I just wanted to choke her.

“Tristan, that's impossible. I used the same spell every Clann parent uses on their kids for vamp protection. If it's safe enough to use on a toddler, it should be more than safe enough—”

“Well, it's not. As soon as I put it on her wrist, Savannah passed clean out and was barely breathing. I couldn't get her to wake up until I took the bracelet off her again. You must've screwed up the spell somehow.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I never screw up spells. That's your department, little brother. Are you sure she didn't have an allergic reaction to the materials in the ribbons or something?”

I snorted. No one had an allergic reaction like that to freaking cotton. “Don't blame this on the damn ribbons. It was your spell work, and you know it. She didn't seem to want to put it on at first, either, like she knew something was wrong with it before it ever touched her.” But Savannah had put it on anyway because she trusted me. Fury bubbled up inside me again, along with a slightly sick feeling. “She's an easy target for the vamps until we get her protected. You've got to fix this. Now.”

“All right, pushy.” She took the bracelet from me, frowning down at the ribbons. “Hey, did you get this thing anywhere near fire?”

“No. Why?”

She flipped it over so I could see the blackened side of the ribbons.

I swore again. “Savannah had what looked like a burn line around her wrist after she tried it on. Did you use any chemicals or—”

“No, it was straight energy and words, nothing else.” She kept frowning, and she had that thoughtful look.

“What?”

“Come on, little brother. Time for research. You can help.”

I followed her over to the tech building and into a partially full computer lab. Emily talked to the teacher for a minute then led me to two computers in an empty corner in the back.

“Grab a computer, pull up the internet and look up this word.” She wrote the name
Lillith
on a slip of paper.

“Who's she?”

“The mother of all vampires. Now quit asking questions and look her up already.”

Frowning, I pulled up the internet browser, waited for the Google search page to finish loading, then typed in the name. “What are we looking for exactly?”

“I'll tell you what to click on.” Muttering about stupid, slow school computers, she followed her own directions.

We spent the rest of lunch period researching. When I didn't click on a link fast enough, she growled and took my mouse away from me so she could work both computers herself.

“We're going to be late for third period,” I said after the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

“No biggie. The teacher here will give us passes.”

An hour and twenty minutes later, just when I began to think we'd end up missing fourth period, too, she sighed. It wasn't a happy sound, though. “Found it. Read this.”

I leaned over toward her computer monitor to read.

When I was done reading, I was still confused. “Okay, what's your point?”

“Here's your answer. Savannah had it right the first time. Those vampires aren't here to leech off her. They're here to watch her. She's one of them.” Emily looked at me, waiting for me to piece it all together.

“What? No, she's not. I've seen her mother and grandmother. They're both human. They're descendants, remember?”

“So she could be a dhampir instead.”

I stared at her, one eyebrow raised. She realized she was
talking to someone who didn't spend all his time reading old spellbooks, right?

“Half human, or in this case half descendant, and half vampire.”

Huh? “There's no such thing. Everybody knows vampires can't have kids.”

“How do we know for sure? What if everyone just thinks that because most vampires can't stand to be around humans for long without draining them? What if Savannah's father is a vamp and he found some way to resist draining her mother?”

“Have you ever seen her father?”

Emily nodded. “I saw him once with Savannah at Chez Corvet's. He totally looked like a vampire.” Chez Corvet's was the local Italian restaurant.

But I still couldn't believe it. Savannah, half vampire? I'd known her for years. Sure, she was pale and tended to sun burn every year instead of tanning. But that could be from her Irish roots instead. “We're talking about something that the Clann doesn't think is possible. And even if we go way out on a crazy limb here and pretend dhampirs do exist, that still doesn't mean she would have any vampire abilities. I've never seen her show any fangs or want to drink my blood or whatever.”

“But you did say you felt tired after every time you see her.”

I gave a half shrug. “Well, yeah. We kiss when we say hello and goodbye….”

Aw, hell. Vampires could take human energy through a bite or a kiss. Every descendant was taught that from day one.

Emily nodded, seeing the understanding on my face. “Like I said, she's draining you every time you two make out. You'll be dead in a week!”

Dragging a hand through my hair, I slumped back in
my seat. “I'm not that stupid. I know how to draw energy afterward, remember?” And Savannah's kisses were worth it.