Covet (31 page)

How did Tristan do this to me? Nobody on this planet could make me laugh or cry as easily as he could. One minute he had me trying not to burst out in laughter during class. The next second, I was ready to choke him with my bare hands! Even Dylan and the Brat Twins couldn’t drive me as crazy as Tristan could.

Which made me wonder if the evil trio would soon be back in business, too. Other than the blood on my locker, they hadn’t bothered me in quite a while. Were they tired of messing with me? Had their parents told them to leave me alone?

Maybe they knew Tristan had taken up their cause for them.

If so, they couldn’t have chosen better. No matter how I tried to steel myself against him, Tristan kept finding ways to get around my defenses.

And what was with all the references to “me and Ron” and Ron being my “boy toy”? He was acting like he thought Ron and I were dating or something.

Even if Ron and I had been dating, why would Tristan care?

He had Bethany now, and it was clear to every single person on this campus that she was beyond in love with him. Why couldn’t he just be happy with her and stop punishing me already? We’d broken up months ago. And obviously he didn’t love me anymore, judging by the way he seemed bound and determined to make me miserable.

Whatever the reason behind his attitude, the torture had to stop. My showing fangs in class definitely wouldn’t make the vamp council or the Clann happy. If Tristan kept pushing me like this, either I would have to use a spell on him or I’d have to start homeschooling. I couldn’t take much more.

I waited till the dismissal bell rang then returned to English class, expecting the room to be empty. It wasn’t. Both Ron and Tristan were waiting for me.

“Sorry, Sav,” Tristan muttered. He was standing in the aisle between our desks, leaning forward, his hands braced on the backs of our chairs. He wouldn’t look at me. And I couldn’t hear his thoughts for a change.

My fangs had retracted in the restroom. Still, I thought it was a good idea to stick with a short nod before I gathered up my books and bag and left with Ron. If I spoke one word to Tristan right now, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be anything nice.

Grateful that it was a tutorial day, I retreated to the sanctuary of the library with Ron. My hands shook as I flipped through the English lit textbook, my eyes unable to focus enough to make sense of the words running across the pages.

Tristan had gone way too far this time. His fighting Dylan and Greg had made at least a little sense each time. But to want to hit Ron just because Tristan thought I was dating him?

And where had he gotten that idea anyway? Everyone else knew Ron and I were just friends, nothing more. Couldn’t Tristan be bothered to ask around instead of jumping to conclusions? Heck, he might as well be jealous of Anne, Carrie and Michelle while he was at it!

The whole thing was ridiculous. Tristan was being completely unreasonable.

“Want to talk about it?” Ron asked, making me jump.

“About what?”

“Oh, I don’t know. How about whatever Tristan thought back there to make you lose it like that in class?”

“It’s… Hang on, what do you mean, ‘whatever Tristan
thought
?’”

“It’s rumored that descendants can still hear each others’ thoughts. Since he didn’t say anything out loud today, I assumed you two must be doing the ESP thing instead.”

My eyes narrowed. “How do you know so much about descendants?”

Ron shrugged. “I grew up hearing stories about them. Everyone in my family did.”

Just what the heck were they discussing in his mother’s genealogical society meetings?

“I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to talk about Clann abilities to an outsider,” I mumbled, feeling awkward now.

He leaned forward and grinned. “But you
can
hear his thoughts, right?”

In the background, I heard his mother at the front desk, her voice rising enough to carry down the entire length of the library. Whoever she was on the phone with was getting an earful.

“What’s up with your mom?”

“Aw, she’s just ticked off ’cause some punks broke into the genealogical society office and trashed the place.”

“Whoa. How bad was it?”

“They busted the locks off the filing cabinets and threw a bunch of paperwork all over the place. Probably bored and stupid with nothing better to do. Don’t worry, she’ll get over it once she gets tired of hearing the detectives tell her there’re no new clues to follow.”

Though beautiful, Jacksonville was a little short on teenaged entertainment, other than the movie theater and annual festivals and rodeo. For an average weekend when nothing was on the local calendar, most people drove the half hour to Tyler or even farther to Dallas or Houston.

Still, who would want to break into a genealogical society’s office?

“Now quit avoiding the subject,” Ron said. “That’s why you went berserk today, isn’t it? Because you can read Tristan’s mind. He’s been driving you nuts with his thoughts, hasn’t he?”

Ugh. Ron had a pit bull’s gleam in his eyes. He wasn’t going to let this go.

I sighed, exhausted by all the secrets everyone expected me to keep. “Yes, I can. And yes, he’s driving me insane. When he’s not drudging up our past, he’s picturing making out with Bethany.”

“What a jerk.”

The overly sympathetic tone made me smile. “Yeah, lately he is.”

I glanced down at the textbook, realized it was turned to completely the wrong lesson, and found the right page. “What did you say to him after I left today? He was awfully quick to apologize when I got back.”

His face became the image of innocence. “Nothing.”

I grinned. “Yeah, right. What’d you do, threaten to beat him up or something?”

Now there was a fight I definitely wouldn’t want to see. Both guys were around the six-foot mark in height, both broad-shouldered, muscular and fast from all their football training. They were evenly matched physically. The only way Tristan could gain the upper hand in a fight with Ron was to resort to magic.

Before today, I would have said Tristan would never stoop that low in a fight with someone who wasn’t a descendant. But after today, I had to wonder.

“No, I swear, we didn’t say a word to each other,” Ron said. I stared at him, but he didn’t blink. “Maybe he just felt bad about making you cry.”

My throat tightened, making my voice come out raspy. “He hasn’t done that in a long, long time.”

Ron reached across the table and patted my shoulder. “Want me to beat him up for you?”

A laugh burst out of me. “I made that same offer to Anne about you.”

His eyebrows shot up. “I take it she turned you down?”

Smiling, I went back to reading the lesson I’d missed this morning. “Maybe she didn’t. Maybe she requested a surprise attack.”

He snorted. “I wouldn’t put it past her. When that girl gets ticked off…”

“Yeah, she’s a true warrior. Get her mad enough and she’ll fight just about anybody who’s doing wrong in her eyes.”

“Which is how I know she’d never ask you to try and beat me up for her.”

I laughed. “Of course not. She’d rather do it herself.”

CHAPTER 22

TRISTAN

I’d made Savannah cry today.

I’d seen her close to tears before, and red-eyed and red-nosed from crying about Greg Stanwick once just before their breakup. I’d seen her kneeling in the rain as her grandma died, and the drops running down her face probably had been a mixture of rain and tears.

But today, there hadn’t been a shred of doubt about what had happened in English lit. Savannah had burst into tears. Because of me.

Which made me the biggest jerk in East Texas.

What was wrong with me lately? I was just so dang ticked off all the time! And nothing seemed to make it go away, not even playing football.

“Tristan?”

“Hmm?” I answered out of habit.

“Have you heard a word I’ve said?” Bethany’s tone finally got my attention. She actually sounded a little irritated.

“Oh. Sorry. What’d you say?”

She said something about costumes.

“Great,” I murmured.

Was Ron hugging Savannah now, even kissing her in the library to comfort her? Probably. At least, that’s what I would have done. She sure as heck wasn’t here in the cafeteria. Where would she be if not in the library with him?

Bethany was rattling on about costumes for the dance, which I’d agreed to take her to. She’d complained about not having a date, and offering to take her had seemed the friendly thing to do.

Last year, Savannah and I had spent days trying to choose costumes that would secretly match each other, teasing and tormenting each other in the process. It was during one of those costume tryouts that I’d first blurted out
I love you
. Man, I’d been a nervous wreck for a couple of minutes, waiting for her reaction.

And then she’d said those three little words back, looking up at me with that sweet, beautiful smile of hers….

A pause. The silence made me glance at Bethany. She was glaring at me.

“What?” I asked.

“I said that I had our costumes overnighted. So when yours arrives today or tomorrow, could you please remember to try it on and let me know if it fits?”

“Sure,” I agreed, taking a long chug of soda.

I glanced across the cafeteria to where Savannah should be sitting with her friends. The empty seat beside Anne was like a punch to the gut.

Anne was laughing about something with the other girls at their table. Must be nice to be that clueless.

How could Anne not know what was going on between her best friend and her ex?

Bethany said something about a game.

“What about the game?” I muttered, staring at that empty seat across the cafeteria.

Bethany huffed, which finally got my attention. I gave her a sheepish smile and she calmed down.

“I asked you if we’re still on for you to give me a ride home after the game this Friday,” she said.

“Oh. Sure.” It was an away game this week, Pine Tree maybe. Whoever it was, we’d have to ride the buses with our teams back to the campus. But from there, Bethany would need a ride home, which I must have offered her at some point earlier in the week.

The bell rang. She smiled and gave me a peck on the cheek goodbye before racing off for her next class.

I walked more slowly to mine. Would it be wrong of me to put an anti-love spell on Sav to make her forget about Ron? Dating him was obviously a sign that she’d lost her mind. Maybe if I broke them up before Anne found out, I could save Sav and Anne’s friendship.

I entered the main hall and blew out a long breath. No, I’d better stay out of her mess of a love life. If she wanted to turn all self-destructive with her friendships, there wasn’t much I could do about it.

SAVANNAH

Usually I could write off the feeling that everyone was watching me as vampire paranoia. But Wednesday morning at Charmers practice and then again in second period chemistry class, everyone really did seem to be staring at me and whispering. Apparently the grapevine had caught word of my blowup in English lit yesterday. Which meant I would have to work extra hard to tune out everyone for the next few days.

During chem lab, Ron leaned over and murmured, “Is it just me, or does it seem like everyone’s talking about us today?”

I shook my head, my jaw clenched. “It’s not you. I think they heard about yesterday.”

His eyebrows shot up. “And they care because…?”

“Anything having to do with you-know-who seems to interest them. Because obviously they need to
get a life
.” Anger made those last words come out a little louder than I’d intended.

Someone giggled, and the whispers ratcheted up another notch, making me want to cover my ears with my hands. But that would probably only fuel the gossip even more.

Sighing, I said, “Just ignore them. Now what are we not supposed to blow up in here today?”

* * *

By the end of Charmers practice, I was exhausted. It had taken way too much energy to block out thoughts, thanks to the little scene Tristan and I had enacted yesterday in English lit.

I trudged across the parking lot, my Charmers duffel bag banging against my hip hard enough to make my bones rattle, only to discover a very unwelcome visitor waiting for me at my truck.

“Get lost, Williams,” I said as I unlocked the driver’s side door and tossed in my duffel bag so I wouldn’t be tempted to hit Dylan over the head with it instead. I was so not in the mood to deal with him today. And I really didn’t appreciate the way he was leaning against my truck as if he owned it.

“Heard about you and Tristan in English yesterday.” Rolling off my truck, Dylan tossed his long blond bangs out of his eyes and moved closer to me.

I refused to move back, even though he was definitely in my space now. “Give me a break, Dylan. We were fighting, not getting back together.”

“Really? Because what I heard was that you two were creating sparks hot enough to set off a bonfire.”

I sighed, and it felt like the last remaining drop of my energy seeped out with it. “What do you want from me? I broke up with him months ago, and we’re not going to get back together.”

I want you.

I blinked fast several times, sure I’d heard his thought wrong.

He hesitated before replying. “I’m here to warn you. Don’t think the Clann’s stopped watching you, because we haven’t. We know that Tristan’s coming around the Charmers practices again. And we know about your ability to lure victims in with those freaky eyes of yours.” I noticed he was extra careful not to make eye contact with me, his gaze hovering somewhere in the vicinity of my mouth instead.

His fear of being gaze dazed would have been amusing if his warning wasn’t so dang annoying. “Well, if you’re really doing such a good job as the Clann’s little spy, then you should already know that the only reason Tristan’s at Charmers practices lately is to pick up and drop off Bethany Brookes.”

“Maybe. Or maybe that’s just an excuse to see you again.”

The door between us groaned, and I realized I needed to ease up on my grip. “Or maybe
you’re
just paranoid and delusional. Tristan hates me now thanks to you and your stupid Clann.”