Clann 03 - Consume (15 page)

“That you know about,” Ms. Evans said. “When’s the last time you were in contact with anyone in the Clann?” In the wake of Emily’s silence, she smiled smugly and nodded. “Uh-huh. That’s what I thought. You could have been kicked out of the Clann by now and not even know it.”

“They wouldn’t do that.”

“Why not? They kicked out your brother. Or do you think you’re too good to be cast out? News flash. You’re not.”

“My mother only did what she thought was best for the Clann.”

“By being the biggest hypocrite of them all?”

“She wasn’t a hypocrite!” Emily said.

“She didn’t cast you out. Just like a typical Coleman. A hypocrite to the end, punishing the Clann’s rule breakers but only when it suits them.” Ms. Evans shook her head. “All my childhood life, all I ever heard was how wonderful the Colemans were, how fair they were, how hard they worked for the good of the Clann and to keep the peace, and how Sam Coleman was the most progressive leader the Clann had ever known. Mr. Vampires-Aren’t-Bad-Just-Misunderstood. So why did he marry your mother, who everyone knew was the biggest vamp hater of them all? And why was it okay to negotiate peace with the vamps, but it wasn’t okay for me to marry one or have a baby with one? And now look at you. The Coleman princess, knocked up with a vamp’s baby just like me. The perfect example of the biggest hypocritical family I’ve ever seen in the entire history of the Clann, and your mother still didn’t kick you out before she died.”

I stood up. This had gone way too far.

“You...” Emily’s hand rose in the air from her hip and drew back openhanded over her shoulder.

CHAPTER 16

I vamp blurred over to grab her wrist just in time, working hard not to bruise her as I held her back.

“Take it back!” Emily shrieked, fighting to get loose.

I glanced over my shoulder at Savannah, expecting her to step in and help out. Instead she just stood there staring with huge eyes, her hands shaking as she gripped the roll of paper towels in one hand and the plastic bleach bottle in the other.

Ms. Evans reached back into her room and grabbed her dog. “I’m going outside.”

I waited at least thirty seconds after the trailer door slammed before daring to release my sister. Then I vamp blurred back to the safety of the couch and braced myself for her wrath.

Emily surprised me, though, standing there silently for a moment, steaming behind the wall within her mind that hid all her thoughts.

Maybe getting pregnant and facing motherhood for the first time had matured her.

Then she huffed out a breath and crossed her arms over her chest. “Can you believe her?”

So much for the increased maturity.

Savannah’s face shut down as she turned away from us to dispose of the used paper towels.

“She’s unbelievable!” Emily continued. “Honestly, Savannah, I don’t know how you managed to turn out so sane after growing up with her.”

Savannah paused in the act of removing the trash bag from its metal container.
Oh, like your mother was perfect?
she thought but forced herself not to say out loud.

Hey,
I thought before I could stop myself.
Don’t bring my mother into this.

Savannah’s shoulders rose an inch.
Sorry. But your sister really needs to stop talking about my mother right now, okay? I know Mom’s not perfect. But nobody’s mother is. And Mom has sacrificed everything just so we could invade her home for months with no end in sight. The least your sister could do is show a little gratitude.

Outside the trailer, footsteps crunched up the asphalt road. A second later, Ms. Evans’s voice began to vent a stream of fury as she complained about Emily to Mr. Colbert.

Savannah sighed.
Great, now she’s dragging Dad into this.
She tied the garbage bag shut, stuffed the bottle of bleach into the sink cabinet, then put a new trash bag into the can.

“Would you stop that?” Emily snapped, turning from the pantry with a frown at Savannah. “Your mother’s dog made that mess. She should be the one to take it out.”

“Emily, let it go,” I said, watching how hard and straight Savannah’s back had become. “Sav doesn’t need you to fight her battles for her. If she has a problem with her mother, she can handle it herself.”

“I don’t have a problem with my mother,” Savannah said, her voice so low Emily could barely hear her.

“Oh, please. Why wouldn’t you?” Emily said, throwing her empty hands up in the air in frustration. “She shows that dog more love than she does her own daughter! It’s ridiculous, the way she talks to it like it’s her baby. And have you seen how she lets it lick her face? It licks its own butt!”

Okay, that was gross. But still, Emily needed to stop talking right now. Couldn’t she see how upset Savannah was? It didn’t take a mind reader to notice how quiet and still Savannah had become.

“And the way she leaves her dirty dishes on the counter all the time is just lazy,” Emily continued, oblivious to her audience’s reaction. “And then she has the nerve to complain about how I do the laundry? I wash her clothes, too, even when she can’t be bothered to pick them up off her bedroom floor and stick them in the hamper. Even though the hamper is right outside her bedroom door!”

Lazy?
Savannah thought.
My mother’s one of the hardest-working women I know!
She turned toward Emily, her eyes blazing green.

“Emily,” I said. “Shut up.”

Emily turned her scowl on me. “What? I’m only saying the truth.”

“Savannah doesn’t want to hear it,” I said, pointedly flicking a glance at Savannah, who was staring at Emily as if considering which body part to rip off her first.

Emily rolled her eyes. “Right. Because she’s perfectly fine being the group doormat. Well,
I’m
not okay with it, and—”

The irises of Savannah’s eyes turned white.

I jumped to my feet, not bothering to move human slow. “Emily, shut. Up. Just go away. Right now. Go away.”

Gasping, Emily took a half step back out of pure instinct. Then her eyes narrowed. “Oh, so now you think you can scare me with your vamp speed, little brother? Well, I’ve got news for you—”

“Emily! Shut up or so help me God I will throw you into that bedroom myself!” I shouted.

“Fine!” Emily shouted back. “Side with the doormat and her mother and her demon dog!” She stomped past Savannah and me through the kitchen and to the bunk room, sliding its door shut behind her so hard it bounced open again in its track and she had to slap it closed again. The springs on her futon-style couch bed squeaked in protest as she flopped down on the mattress and burst into tears.

Holy hell on earth. I blew out a long breath. “You okay, Sav?”

She stood there shaking. Instinct told me I should hug her, rub her arms, do some kind of physical contact to help her shake off her emotions. But then I remembered how she’d chosen not to sit directly beside me on the couch earlier. With the way things were between us lately, she might not welcome any physical contact from me after all.

Finally she took a deep breath. “I’m fine.” But she said it through gritted teeth as she grabbed the full trash bag from the kitchen floor and vamp blurred out through the trailer doorway.

I took a long, slow breath in then out. There was no way this argument had come out of nowhere. It must have been brewing for months. And if I’d come around the ladies more often than just to space out in the bunk room for a few hours a week after feeding, I probably would have sensed it and been able to prevent it.

Instead, I’d been trying to give Savannah space and time to think and hopefully miss me enough to change her mind about taking out Mr. Williams. And all I’d really done was left her to get caught between the two princesses of the RV park.

I stepped outside and looked around for her, finding her on the trail past the nearest metal trash barrel. Judging by the jut of her chin and the determined, steady pace of her walking, she looked ready to escape this park on foot if need be.

“Sav, wait up,” I called out to warn her of my approach as I caught up with her at a human pace for the benefit of any fellow campers who might be looking.

Her shoulders hitched up another inch. But she didn’t tell me to go away at least.

“I’m sorry about what Em said,” I muttered, shortening my stride to match Savannah’s as I shoved my hands into my pockets. “She was way out of line.”

“Yeah, she was.” She snapped her mouth shut, refusing to vent the hundred and one heated thoughts thrashing around inside her head. “So was Mom, though. They’re both being ridiculous.”

I don’t know how much more of it I can take!
she thought, and I didn’t know if she was just thinking to herself or had meant for me to hear that part.

“I didn’t realize it was getting that bad.”

She glared at nothing ahead of us. “You wouldn’t believe how much complaining I have to listen to. And not just from Mom. Every time one of them’s not around, the other one takes the opportunity to vent to me. It is
constant.
I’ve tried mediating. I’ve tried to explain why they’re doing the stuff they’re doing. They’re both so used to living on their own and doing what they want.”

“And they’re both too stubborn to want to change their ways for someone else’s sake.”

“Exactly. And they’re both completely blind to how they’re so much alike!”

I tried not to smile. I could see the humor because I hadn’t had to live in the middle of it all for two months. “So what are we going to do about it?”

She looked at me then. “We? Uh-uh. You. You can talk to your sister and tell her to clean up her crappy attitude and stop criticizing every single thing my mother does wrong.”

“Oh, come on, Sav. That’s not fair and you know it. Your mother’s just as much to blame for this situation as Emily is. She was way out of line back there, talking about my family.”

“Really? Because I thought she was just pointing out the facts. Your father did claim to be all ‘equal opportunity’ for the vamps and yet still strangely chose to marry a vamp hater. Why is that, Tristan?”

I took a deep breath to push back the anger so I could answer her in a steady tone. “I don’t know. And to be honest, I don’t care because it doesn’t really matter now, does it? They’re both dead.”

She flinched and looked away. “Right. So I guess we’ll never get to find out why your mother kicked you out of the Clann but not your sister.”

“I can tell you why. Because Emily never told her who the baby’s father was.”

“Because no one can read her mind unless she lets them?”

I nodded.

“That is so weird. How can she do that?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. She’s always had the best mental shield of anyone in the Clann. How do you think she always got away with so much crap without getting caught?” I’d told Savannah about several escapades my sister and I had gotten into as little kids.

She sighed and looked away. “Whatever. The point is—”

“The point is, they’re both in the wrong, and they could both act a lot better for the sake of the team.”

“The team?” Now a hint of a smile kicked up the corners of her mouth.

“Yeah. Well, you know, it’s like sports. We’re all in this together, right?” At her reluctant nod, I added, “So if we all want to keep from killing each other, then we all have to compromise for the sake of others.”

“Which neither of them wants to do, if you couldn’t tell from that fight back there.”

“Right.” I sighed. “I’ll talk to Emily, and you talk to your mother. We’ll make them see that they’ve got to ease up on each other and stop focusing on every little thing the other does wrong.”

Savannah hummed a grouchy note deep in her breath. “Maybe you should talk to both of them.” At my pointed stare, she said, “You don’t understand. She’s my mother. I can’t just walk up to her and tell her what to do!”

“Not tell her what to do, but make suggestions.”

Silence.

“Sav, she’s your mother. She loves you. She’ll listen to you.”

“Or ground me for sassing her.”

I couldn’t stop a smile this time. “Ground you from what? Ever leaving the trailer?”

She smiled down at the gravel road beneath our feet.

“So you’ll talk to her?” I pushed a little. “Today?”

She chewed the inner corner of her mouth, vertical lines forming between her eyes.

“Sav...” I coaxed. “You need to talk to her. I can’t do it. I’m not her kid.”

“Maybe I can get Dad to talk to her.”

“Sav!” I said with a half laugh of disbelief. “You’re a vamp now. I don’t think she’s going to throw you over her knees and spank you.”

She looked at me with eyebrows raised. “Want to bet?”

I was starting to lose my patience. I took another deep breath. “Okay, out with it. What’s the real reason you don’t—”

“Because our relationship’s not like that anymore, okay? Used to be, I could talk to her. Now, it’s like there’s all this distance between us. She’s always so polite with me. It’s like being around a stranger. And...maybe Emily’s right about some stuff. Let’s face it, Mom doesn’t have to be here with us. She could just go get a new car and take off. The only reason she’s stuck around is probably to make sure I’m safe.”

“Have you talked to her about this?”

She shook her head. “I can’t.”

“You need to, or it’s going to keep bugging you.”

Her chin stuck out as she shook her head again. “I’ll be fine. Trust me, sometimes it’s way better to just keep your opinions and feelings and issues to yourself.”

A memory of Emily and her mother arguing flashed through her mind.

“Yeah, for those two. But not for you. You never tell anyone when they’re upsetting you or irritating you. You just keep it all bottled up inside.”

“It’s called keeping the peace,” she muttered through gritted teeth.

“Yeah, well, when you’re the only one who’s trying to do that, it’s never going to work. All it does is make you miserable. How do you expect anything to change if you don’t talk it out?” Not to mention how eating down all her anger instead of letting it out had nearly made her vamp out today.

Oh, like telling you my feelings worked out so well for us last time?
she thought, then looked away, hating that I could read her every thought.

“Just because we had one argument doesn’t mean you should be afraid to say how you feel. Especially to me.”

She sighed. “Don’t you get it? It’s all this sharing of opinions and feelings that’s gotten everyone into this mess right now. Mom, Emily, you and me. Everyone is mad at everyone else because nobody can agree on anything. I just want everyone to stop fighting and get along already!”

And then she burst into tears.

Whoa. I turned and took the risk of gathering her to me. She surprised me by not fighting me and instead burrowed into me. I bent my head, resting my chin on her soft hair, its familiar lavender scent filling my nose.

Oh, yeah, the situation had definitely gone way, way too far. But at least it had finally gotten my girl back into my arms.

Silver linings.

Now if I could just find a way to keep her here...

I stroked her back until her sobs calmed down. “Sav, you’ve got to stop doing this to yourself. It’s not your fault that Emily and your mom aren’t trying harder to get along. And you and I are going to be fine, even if we argue sometimes.”

“I don’t want to fight with you anymore,” she said, her voice thick and muffled against my shirt. “I miss the way things used to be between us.”

I turned my head, resting my cheek against her hair and smiled. She’d finally come around. “I missed you, too.”

But she was listening to my thoughts instead of what I said. She stepped out of my arms with a frown. “I didn’t say I’d changed my mind about killing Mr. Williams.”