Clann 03 - Consume (21 page)

Emily’s mouth hitched into a wry grin. “Yeah, good times, good times.”

“Let’s face it, if Dad could have gotten over his old-fashioned ideas, I think we both know which one of us should have really been next in line to lead the Clann.”

Emily’s throat worked as she looked down at her hands, clasped loosely on the table. After a moment, she sighed. “We can’t change the past. But maybe we could find a way to change the currently crappy future. If killing Mr. W is off the table...”

“It is,” Savannah growled.

Emily looked at me. I shrugged one shoulder.

She sighed. “Then I guess all that leaves us with is to ruin him politically somehow, like you said.”

“Why can’t you two just tell the Clann who really killed your mom?” Savannah said.

Emily scowled. “For one thing, memories can be planted or made up, and they know I’m biased toward protecting my brother whatever it takes. For another, I was upstairs when Mom died, so I can’t actually show them a firsthand memory of her death and who exactly killed her.”

Savannah and Emily tossed around a few more options, but I’d stopped listening for a minute, distracted by the way my sister kept making this weird twisty expression with her mouth every time she said Mr. Williams’s name.

“Sis, what are you really thinking?” At her raised eyebrows, I added, “You keep making this weird face like something’s bugging you.”

“It’s just something about the night Mom died that keeps nagging at me. But I can’t figure out what it means or even if it means anything at all.”

“Walk us through it,” Savannah said.

“It was when I was upstairs fighting Mr. Williams and a couple of his apes outside my bedroom. Remember, Tristan? And you came roaring up the stairs?”

I nodded, and she continued. “Before you showed up, I kept trying to read his thoughts to see what his strategy was and if there was a way for Mom and me to escape. Of course, I guess she was already gone downstairs....” She cleared her throat. “But his thoughts were shielded even better than my own. I couldn’t get a single thought out of him, until you came up the stairs and suddenly he had to fight us both. And then his shield slipped, just a little, and for a second I picked up this image of a kid in his mind. There was something about the kid that he was afraid of. But before I could get more than a picture of the kid’s face and a sense of Mr. Williams’s fear, he clammed up again.”

She shrugged. “Like I said, not sure if it means anything or nothing at all.”

Savannah leaned forward, her eyebrows pinched. “If Mr. Williams is afraid of it, then it’s got to be a weak spot for him. Maybe this kid knows something that could help us.”

“Did you get the kid’s name?” I asked.

Emily shook her head. “I didn’t have to. I recognized him. His name’s Mac Griffin. I remember Mom talking about him and showing me his family photo back when we were prepping for your big leadership run against Mr. Williams.”

Savannah gasped. “Did you say his first name’s
Mac?
” At Emily’s nod, Savannah said, “Your mom...when she was dying and I was trying to figure out what was wrong with her, she said or thought something about Mac and how it was the key to the lies, or something like that. I thought she was referring to a computer or maybe just talking nonsense because she was in so much pain and kind of out of it. But...”

I rubbed a hand over my mouth. “Was this Mac kid at the voting?” I’d talked to so many people that afternoon at Dad’s wake and funeral.

“No, he was too young. He’s only fourteen, I think. But I remember Mom talking about him because of what happened to his parents. They were victims of one of Gowin’s hits on the Clann. Mac was the only survivor. Dad had Dr. Faulkner looking into all those descendants’ deaths. And then after Dad died, Dr. Faulkner kept looking into them. He kept telling Mom there was something off about Mac’s memories of the night his parents died. The week of her death, she even went to see Mac in person. When she came back, I noticed she was mentally shielding even harder than usual, and she wouldn’t tell me anything about her trip other than that Mr. Williams had some explaining to do.”

“How in the world did this kid survive a vamp attack?” Savannah asked.

“Mom said apparently he wasn’t home when the vamps hit. By the time he returned, they were long gone and his parents were already dead.”

“I think we should talk to him,” I blurted out, surprising us all, including myself. At the girls’ questioning looks, I added, “Like Sav said. Anything, or anyone that makes Mr. Williams afraid has to be worth looking into. And besides, if Mom’s last words were about this kid, then he’s got to be pretty important. Maybe she was trying to tell us to look into it.”

Emily frowned. “Just one problem. I have no clue which Clann couple he was placed with.”

“Who would know?” I asked.

“Dr. Faulkner does. But I don’t know if we can trust him.”

“Who else?” I said.

“Well, Mom had their names and addresses in her BlackBerry. You know how anal she was about using that thing for everything she did. She always kept a record on it of every trip she made and important conversations she wanted to remember for later.”

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 floor, 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 flared 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 deflated, 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 flopped 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, reflexes, 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 flooded 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 flicked 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.