I looked at Savannah, reading the same cautious hope on her face that I could feel trying to take root in me. “If we could get that BlackBerry, we might be able to track this kid down and see just what it is about him that’s making Mr. Williams so antsy.”
“Oh, no, little brother.” Emily leaned back on the seat. “I know you’re not that crazy. That BlackBerry’s in our house. You know, the one right by the Circle that was just hit by the vamp council a few weeks ago? That whole area is going to be crawling with Clann guards now. You’d have to be absolutely stupid to even think about getting anywhere near that place!”
I looked to Savannah again. How about it? Feel like getting a little stupid with me?
CHAPTER 22
One corner of her mouth twitched as she fought a grin. She sighed instead. Tristan, you nearly died today.
If we don’t find a way to stop him, you and I both know today might not be the last of it.
Her hint of a smile evaporated. I don’t know. It sounds pretty dangerous. It would have to be seriously worth the risk.
I looked at my sister, searching her eyes since I couldn’t read her thoughts. “On a scale of one to ten, just how scared would you say Mr. Williams was about this kid?”
She scowled so hard it looked like she was sucking on a mouth full of fresh-cut lemon. “Eleven. But I only got a read on his thoughts for less than a second. And you just barely escaped the Clann an hour ago! Don’t you think that’s plenty enough excitement for one lifetime?”
“I’m not looking for excitement, sis. In fact, it’s the total opposite I’m hoping for. I want peace. I want to get on with living my life instead of running from it.” I stared at my sister. “Come on. Don’t lie to me and say you haven’t been wondering how you’re going to have and raise a baby on the run.”
Emily’s eyes narrowed. “That is a low blow.”
“But the truth. Right?”
She growled out a long breath, then raised her hands. “Fine. Get yourselves killed. See if I care!”
I smiled, but it felt a little dark around its edges. “And if we don’t die and get the phone?”
“If you manage to survive, and if you actually manage to get ahold of the BlackBerry, I’ll help you wade through Mom’s notes and contact list,” Emily muttered.
A hum suddenly filled our end of the trailer.
Emily’s eyes rounded. “What the…”
I glanced under the table and offered up an apologetic smile. “Sorry. That’s my knees.” My old habit of bouncing my knees, and the resulting soft tap of my heels against the f loor, sounded like a steady, low vibration once you threw in vamp speed.
I turned to grin at Savannah, expecting to see her as excited as me.
Instead, she was cringing. “Um, just one small problem. We’ll have to convince my parents first.”
Even without vamp speed of thought, it would have only taken me half a second to decide which parent to approach first. “Let’s get your dad onboard. Then he can help convince your mom.”
“Agreed.” She added a short but emphatic nod, realizing just as quickly as me that her father was way more pragmatic and strategic than her mother.
We waited till her dad returned from the store with new disposable phones to replace his and my old ones that were destroyed during the Clann’s ambush. He popped his head through the trailer doorway, intending to have us activate the phones and take one of ours in the meantime so we could call him while he drove in case of an emergency.
Savannah waved him all the way inside the trailer then quickly told him everything we’d just discussed.
“Hmm, I understand your line of reasoning,” he said, rubbing a finger over his lips in thought.
Hearing his voice, Ms. Evans stumbled out of her bedroom with a series of huge yawns.
“Time for a pit stop already?” she murmured. “I swear it feels like it’s only been an hour or two.”
“That is because it has been only an hour or two,” Mr. Colbert said.
She frowned at him. “Is something wrong?”
“Now, Joan, I want you to stay calm and hear these kids out,” Mr. Colbert said, which was probably exactly the wrong thing to say.
Ms. Evans’s face shut down. “Whatever it is, the answer’s no.”
“Mom,” Savannah groaned. “You haven’t even heard our plan yet.”
“I don’t need to. I can already tell I’m going to hate it.”
“Maybe,” Savannah said. “But you might also see the logic in it. Please just listen first?”
Quickly Emily and I took turns explaining what Emily had seen in Mr. Williams’s mind, our mother’s dying words that Savannah had overheard and why we all felt we should track this kid down. Then Savannah carefully described how we would need to find Mac using the Clann contact list on my mother’s BlackBerry.
“Which you now have?” Ms. Evans asked Emily. Emily shook her head. “It’s at my house.”
Ms. Evans’s eyes f lared wide then narrowed and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Absolutely not.”
“Joan—” Mr. Colbert began.
She turned on him. “Don’t. Don’t even start. How can you even think of standing there and siding with them on this crappy idea? You and Tristan could have died today. Oh, wait, I nearly forgot, Tristan actually did die today!”
Savannah tensed beside me. I rubbed a thumb over her knuckles to try to help her relax again.
“That’s right, I did,” I said. “And yet I’m still willing to put it all on the line and go for it. You grew up with Mr. Williams, didn’t you?” At Ms. Evans’s hesitant nod, I continued, “Then I think you know better than any of us here that he’s never going to stop destroying everything his power can reach until someone makes him stop.”
Ms. Evans drew in a long breath, held it, then let it out fast and loud. “Fine. But I’m going with you to make sure Savannah is safe.”
“No way,” Savannah said at the same time as her father shook his head and said, “Absolutely not, Joan.”
Ms. Evans’s eyes went as round as I’d ever seen them, and I actually found myself leaning back a few inches on the bench seat. “First off, Savannah, you’re my daughter. I tell you what to do, young lady, not the other way around. And as for you…” She jabbed a finger at Mr. Colbert’s chest. “You aren’t allowed to tell me what to do anymore, either! We’re divorced, remember?”
That shut up Mr. Colbert, but not Savannah.
“Mom, please try to be reasonable about this.” She hesitated, winced but forged on. “You can’t do magic, remember? If you come with us, I’d have to worry about protecting you and myself and helping Tristan all at the same time. You wouldn’t want me to be distracted and end up getting hurt because of it, would you?”
Ooh, low blow, using the guilt trip on your mother! I thought with a silent laugh.
Savannah glanced sideways at me, trying not to grin. Hush. Now you’re distracting me!
Ms. Evans’s anger def lated, pulling some of the heat out of the air as it faded. Her face crumpled. “I guess I see your point. But if I can’t go, then neither can Emily, right? She can’t do magic, either.”
And I really don’t want to be the only one left out of this! Ms. Evans thought to herself, forgetting almost everyone present could read her mind.
“Excuse me?” Emily said. “I’m the only one who probably remembers what my mother’s phone even looks like or where it might be in our house. If I don’t go, how will anyone find it?”
“I’m sure Savannah and Tristan can look it up on the internet to see what it looks like,” Ms. Evans said, her tone just a tad smug now. “And you can always give them ideas of where to search ahead of time.”
I cleared my throat. “Uh, sis, she kind of has a point. You can’t do magic. And the baby’s too far along. You’ve got to stay safe and think about protecting it.” I nodded at her stomach.
Her hands darted up to rest over her stomach as her mouth dropped open then snapped shut.
She f lopped back against the seat with a huff and a scowl. “Fine. So we’ll both stay in the RV somewhere.”
Savannah squirmed then finally spoke up again. “Um, yeah, about that. The Clann’s probably got the Keepers searching all over East Texas right now for us. I don’t like the idea of leaving you two alone like sitting ducks while we’re gone.” She looked to her dad with raised eyebrows.
He hesitated, his face darkening and freezing like a rock. Finally he sighed. “Agreed. I will stay with them and protect them during your mission.”
“Are you insane?” Ms. Evans hissed. “I don’t care if we’re sitting ducks! Michael, you can’t be serious about allowing those two to go running right into the heart of Clann territory alone.”
Mr. Colbert’s chin lifted an inch. “I am and I will. Like it or not, with their combined Clann abilities and vamp speed, ref lexes, strength, and the ability to both smell and hear any Clann or Keepers even thinking around them, they are far more capable than us now, Joan.”
“But there are only two of them up against who knows how many guards!” Ms. Evans whispered, her eyes shimmering with fear and tears.
Savannah froze and stopped breathing, feeling her mother’s fear as it f looded the air. No, not now! she thought, the words almost a scream within her mind. Then I noticed her jaw muscles clenching as she fought to keep her fangs from extending.
Savannah, I thought, squeezing her hand out of pure instinct.
Don’t breathe, she thought, even as a strange, fast drumbeat filled my ears. Tristan, look at me. She shifted just the tiniest bit toward me so I could make full eye contact with her. Just look at me and don’t breathe.
Twin points pricked the inside edge of my lower lip as my fangs tried to distend and my pulse raced. Oh, hell. The bloodlust.
“Emily…” I muttered, gaining my sister’s attention while Mr. Colbert murmured soft but steady arguments and reassurances to his ex-wife about the mission.
Emily glanced at us, did a double take, then casually slung her arm up along the edge of the dinette seat below the window. A second later, she f licked her wrist and slid open the window. A fresh burst of air blew in on the evening breeze, clearing the small space of Ms. Evans’s fear-based pheromones that were triggering Savannah’s and my bloodlust.
Still, I waited a minute before daring to take another breath. It’s okay, Sav.
She hesitated, then took a half breath. Immediately her shoulders sagged and her gaze dropped to the table. But she couldn’t hide her horror and guilt from me.
Sav, look at me.
She hesitated again before looking at me. Her irises were slowly turning from white to light gray again.
It’s only instinct, I reminded her. Didn’t you tell me the only thing that makes us monsters is the choices we actually make?
She looked at the tabletop again. After a few seconds, she dipped her head once in agreement.
“Good,” Mr. Colbert said. “Then it is settled.”
At first, I thought he was agreeing with Savannah and me until I remembered we’d kept our conversation silent and he couldn’t read our minds. He must have finally gotten Ms. Evans onboard with the plan.
He walked toward the trailer door. “Let us get this rig turned around, then, shall we?” Flashing us a dark smile, Mr. Colbert exited the trailer. A second later, our truck’s engine restarted and we felt the trailer being pulled out of the parking lot back in the direction we’d just come from.
“Jacksonville, here we come,” Emily murmured in an ominous singsong voice, her smile tight and forced as she massaged the small of her back.
CHAPTER 23
SAVANNAH
We didn’t drive all the way back to Jacksonville. Instead, Dad found an RV park in Mineola to camp out at. Then we said our goodbyes.
Mom was openly sobbing as I hugged her. It was awful, and I thought I’d have to use a little of my vamp strength just to pry her arms loose.
“Joan, you are distracting her,” Dad muttered. “Right.” Mom sniffed loudly and let me go. “You just be careful and get back here in one piece, okay? With or without the darn phone, I don’t care. Just get back safely.”
“I will.”
I hesitated before Dad then went ahead and hugged him, too. He wasn’t always big on physical displays of affection. But I could have lost him earlier today. And in case anything did go wrong tonight, I just couldn’t leave without saying a proper goodbye. The gesture surprised him, making him freeze up. Then he relaxed and returned the hug, even reaching up to pat my back twice before I stepped away.
“Drama, drama, drama,” Emily muttered. But then she reached out and grabbed her brother and only remaining family for a sideways, one-armed hug. “You heard her. Get your butts back here safely, even if you can’t find the phone.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Tristan said, f lashing a grin at her. He used his height advantage to reach down and mess up her hair, then grabbed my hand and we stepped out of the trailer.
As soon as we had our bearings, we took off at a run. Both of us tried not to think, focusing on staying in the right general direction but within the cover of the woods as much as possible. The air was still muggy with the heat and moisture of the day, making it feel like we were running through a jungle instead of our home state. But the heat felt good on my perpetually cold skin and helped my muscles loosen up. So did the rare opportunity to stretch my legs and run free.
If not for the destination and needing to check the surroundings f lashing past us for warnings of nearby Keepers or Clann, I almost could have enjoyed the journey.
Then we hit Jacksonville, and I saw in person all the wreckage of its downtown buildings, including my last home near the Tomato Bowl, which itself still bore the black-soot scars and scorch marks of the recent battles waged on its grounds. There were signs everywhere that Jacksonville was trying to rebuild…large rectangular metal bins heaped full of burned wood and other debris, orange-and-white-striped barricades to keep people from parking close to the burnedout shells of the buildings hardest hit by the fires, even several small trailers bearing various construction company logos on their sides parked along the main street’s curb to provide headquarters for the construction crews.
We stopped there for a few seconds, both of us struggling to absorb the impact of what the war had done to our hometown.
It was Tristan who shook himself free of the paralysis first. “Come on. Let’s go find a way to make sure this never happens again.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, nodded, and we began running through the shadows again, fugitives in our own hometown.
Heat stirred to life again in my stomach. I had spent months pressing it down. But this time, I let the burn build and spread, fueling me as we ran through block after block of homes and more pine trees, leaping chain-link fences, only to come out two minutes later at the most familiar landmark of all…Jacksonville High School. Again my feet stumbled as instinct demanded I stop and stare at the place where I’d spent so much of the past three years of my life. At least the campus buildings seemed to have come through the war untouched so far. Maybe because of the magic crawling all over the place, which was making my skin feel like it was under attack from an entire mound of fire ants. I couldn’t stop myself from rubbing my forearms to try to get rid of the sensation.
A part of me yearned to take a look around and see if any of the outer buildings, like the sports and arts building containing the Charmers’ dance room and the theater where we practiced so much for Spring Show, had been affected by the war. But there was no time to look around or feel nostalgic. We had to keep moving fast.
I pushed aside my personal feelings and picked up speed again, Tristan having slowed so I could catch up. We circled around the south side of the campus and turned straight west, the trees patchy and offering far less cover as we crossed the last seven hundred meters until we came to a stumbling halt in the woods at the edge of the Coleman property.
As soon as we stopped
, I could feel it…magic in use, and a heck of a lot of it, judging by how my entire body was covered with a million tiny stabbing pinpricks. Just the sensation of that much power in use in one place was a major distraction and might become a problem all its own if we had to stay here for long.
Sense anyone? Tristan thought, sniffing the air with his head cocked at a slight angle as if listening, as well.
But we were both using many more senses than just our ears and noses. The entire night seemed filled with things trying to distract us…insects in the grass, a breeze that kept shifting directions and making it hard to figure out how to stay downwind of anything that might be sharing the night with us. Even the clouds racing through the sky were another movement I had to mentally ignore as I searched the area.
There, beyond the house about three hundred yards away, I thought. Keepers?
He looked that way, drawing in a long breath through his nose. Yeah, I’ve got them now. They’re upwind of us.
For now. With this shifting wind…
Yeah. Probably a spell to help the Keepers.
I frowned. The Clann sure weren’t messing around with their protection of their sacred Circle now. Think we can get to the house without their smelling us?
If we move fast.
But what about when we reach it? Won’t the doors and windows all be locked? How will we get in without making any noise?
A silencing spell?
I frowned. Won’t they feel that?
With all this power in use? Nah. Any spells we use will blend right in. He reached out and covered my hand with his, stopping me from scratching at my arms.
I glanced down at myself. Wow. I hadn’t even realized I was clawing at my own skin. I looked at him. How can you stand it?
He shrugged one shoulder, still scanning the grounds with all of his senses and his mind. Used to it, I guess. Comes with the territory of living beside the Circle all your life. That and growing up with the Clann leader.
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