Crave (27 page)

Once we reached Mrs. Daniels's office, I had another brilliant idea. I also had my manager help me load all the Secret Sis gifts into my truck so Tristan wouldn't need to help me later.

Unfortunately, a quick stop by my locker before lunch proved I hadn't totally thwarted him. He hadn't just put out good-luck notes on the football players' lockers. He'd also left me a little note, handwritten across the back of a blue Charmers game-day note and stuffed between the slats of my locker. Usually the game-day notes said something like “Good luck at tonight's game!” This note said something different.

 

Please have dinner with me.

 

That night, I went through the first half of the game on autopilot, too lost in thought to see any of the action on the field.

I wished I could ask someone what to do about Tristan.
Then again, I knew all my friends and family well enough to guess what each one would say if asked.

Michelle kept an eye on social status like some people memorized sports stats. For her, my dating Tristan would be an easy and ecstatic
yes!
After all, Tristan was rock-star hot in every way. And as Michelle and many other girls at JHS would see it, dating Tristan would mean an instant rise in social status, making a girl immediately worthy of notice. The longer a girl could hold his attention, the more noteworthy she became.

How many girls used Tristan for status points alone, and not because they cared about him as a person?

I sighed.

Then there was Anne's take. She would be quick to point out how notoriously short Tristan's attention span was when it came to girls. No girl had lasted longer than two months on Tristan's arm before he moved to the next.

Did I really want to fall for someone who would break my heart in a matter of weeks?

Carrie also wouldn't hesitate with her answer. Boys were a waste of time. Focus on getting into a good college.

“Miss Savannah?” someone whispered. “Do you have an extra bobby pin?”

Without even looking, I grabbed a few from my bag and handed them over.

Nanna would scowl and threaten to throttle me for even asking.
You know the rules!
she would say while shaking a gnarled finger at me.

And my mother—

The referee blew his whistle, signaling the end of the second quarter and the start of halftime. And time for me to get back to work.

For a while, I was too busy to think about anything other
than helping the dancers get warmed up and stretched out before their performance on the field. Afterward, when we were all back in the bleachers and I had finished rewrapping dancers' strained knees, shins and ankles, I returned to my seat beside Tristan. He looked worried about something tonight, his eyebrows drawn into a constant frown as he stared out across the field. I yearned to ask him what was wrong, if he was upset about having to watch his former football team playing without him again. He looked so frustrated and miserable; I wanted to hug him, to tell him it would be okay.

What would Mom say, if I asked her for advice?

If I could go back in time and ask her when she was a teen, her answer would obviously be to go for it.
What would one date hurt?
her teenage self might say.
Live a little.
Or as Tristan would say,
Some rules were meant to be broken.

One date. One glimpse of what it would be like to be with Tristan. Just for a few hours, I could pretend that we were someone else. He wouldn't be in the Clann. I wouldn't be a half-blood outcast. We could just be Tristan and Savannah, two people on a date together.

All I had to do was say yes. One word. Three little letters.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Tristan's hands gripping his knees. I visually traced those fingers, imagined them reaching out to hold mine. To be able to hold his hand for a while…

My gaze slowly slid up to his mouth. I remembered how those lips had felt against mine, the warmth and light that had flooded me, filling me up from the inside out. To be able to kiss him again…

The world around us grew fuzzy and out of focus. But that was okay, because inside my mind everything was crystal clear now, every thought zipping like lightning.

The Clann and the council were only worried that I would
try to bite and drain him, right? But I wouldn't do that. I would never, ever hurt Tristan. And, yeah, my body was acting a little weird lately. But only when I lost control over my emotions. I could work harder to keep them under control. I could control myself around him.

I looked down at my duffel bag, still open. Lying right on top was his note, which I had been unable to throw away. And beside it…my phone.

One date couldn't hurt.

Before I could change my mind, I reached down and grabbed my phone. Breathing fast, my heart racing, my thumbs leaped across the keys with a will of their own as if possessed, sending just one text message to Tristan.

Yes.

Then I dropped the phone back into my bag.

I didn't look directly at him, didn't need to. I could still see him out of the corner of my eye as his cell phone buzzed in the left pocket of his slacks. He pulled the phone out, looked at it, and his entire body tensed up.

His thumbs practically flew over the keys as he text messaged me back.

I peeked through the opening of my bag at my phone's lit display. It read, Tonight?

Feeling his gaze on me I gave the tiniest of nods. It had to be tonight. I might come to my senses if we waited any longer than that.

He sent me another message. Meet me back at the school after the game?

I dipped my head half an inch in agreement, my heart pounding against my chest wall.

He put away his phone with a grin. Then his knees began to jiggle, just like they used to do in the fourth grade when he'd been nervous. They didn't stop for the rest of the game.

When the third-quarter buzzer sounded, he got up and disappeared into the crowd at the concession-stand area. I swear it felt like a rope had been tied around the both of us and was trying to drag me after him. The rest of the team soon followed, but I ignored the urge to go and stayed behind instead. After a few minutes, I received a text message from him.

Do you like pizza?

I smiled and typed, Doesn't everyone?

Favorite kind?

Cheese.

He took a while to reply. Someone must have interrupted him. Favorite drink?

Playing 20 questions?

I'm thinking picnic.

Another thrill raced through me, making me shiver. A picnic. At night. Just the two of us. Orange soda, I replied.

OK. Meet you at the school.

I couldn't help it. I sighed. Maybe tonight would be our one and only date. Maybe tomorrow I'd wake up and find that this had only been a crazy dream.

But I would definitely enjoy it while it lasted.

Savannah

Nope, this was no dream. Because in a dream, my date wouldn't be late. Though he would be in a nightmare. And this was starting to feel like one.

I'd spent the past ten minutes waiting in my truck in the school's main parking lot. The longer I waited, the more I wanted to slap myself.

What
had I been
thinking,
agreeing to this date? No way could this be a good idea! I must have gone temporarily insane at the game tonight. Did I have some secret wish to start a war between the Clann and the vampires? At the very least, I must have a death wish. Because if my family ever found out I'd even agreed to go out with Tristan…

Panicking now, I reached for my duffel bag and dug for my phone, determined to send Tristan a text message calling the whole thing off. It was easier to think when he wasn't around; text messaging was definitely the way to go.

But a familiar black truck pulled up beside mine just as my
hand closed around the phone. Crap. I'd have to tell him in person instead.

He jumped out of his truck, carrying a pizza box and a plastic bag. My heart shot up into my throat. I got out of my truck on wobbly legs.

“Hey,” he said with a broad grin. “Sorry it took so long. They got the order wrong, and I had to wait for them to make another pizza for us. Did you get my text message?”

Us.
The word sent a warm glow through my chest, replacing some of the panic and making it easier to breathe. “Um, no, it was in my duffel bag.” I glanced down at the phone in my hand. I'd grabbed it for…some reason. Oh, yeah, because I'd been planning to…

He stepped closer to me, a foot away now, and I could smell the tiniest hint of his cologne. It slipped up my nose and down my throat. Oh, crap, I was losing it here. Maybe he'd put some sort of spell on me.

Okay. One date with him. Then I would absolutely have to put a stop to this. As long as the Clann and the vampire council didn't find out, one date would be no big deal, right?

“Still got your keys?” he murmured, his grin making him look like a little kid about to do something naughty.

Oh. The dance room. Perfect! No one would even know we'd been there.

Stuffing the phone in my pocket, I grabbed the keys from my truck's ignition then followed him across the dark campus up to the sports and art building's foyer doors.

“Déjà vu,” I murmured, unlocking the doors while he stood beside me, the warmth from his breath reaching out to caress my cheek in the cool night air.

He chuckled then followed me inside. The moon lit the way across the foyer. The stairwell was another matter though. It was on the side of the building opposite the moon. Lighted
by the sun through the windows during the day, the stairs usually had no need for artificial lights to guide the way. Halfway up, the moonlight from the foyer faded away.

Strangely, I could still see. Weird.

On the third floor, I unlocked the dance-room doors and reached inside for the light switch. But a warm hand over mine stopped me.

“Maybe just the closet light?” he murmured.

I left the overhead lights off, found the closet light switch around the corner, then pushed open the door so the smaller room's light could shine into the dance room. He was right; the costume-closet light was equal to a lamp in the larger space beyond. And it shouldn't light up the dance room enough to be visible from outside the building.

“Sorry, I should have brought a blanket or something to sit on,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“It's fine.” Feeling suddenly shy, I sat down with him on the floor in the center of the dim room and tried to remember that this was the boy I'd spent countless hours with as a kid.

“I brought music if you want to put some on.” He pulled out a stack of CDs from the plastic bag.

I took them over to the stereo then picked one out with shaking hands. The CD's label read
Stressed Out #1.
Smiling, I turned the volume all the way down before putting it in, then gradually turned the music up until it was at a good background level.

I returned to sit near him. “
Stressed Out #1?
Should I even ask how many volumes there are in that series?”

He laughed. “A few. The Clann are control freaks. All their rules make life a little…stressful.”

“I know what you mean. I've got a lot of people setting the rules for me, too.”

“You live with your grandma, right?” He opened the pizza
box, picked up a slice of cheese pizza and set it on a paper napkin for me. Thank goodness he'd gotten a medium; I was so hungry I could eat the whole thing by myself. “I saw your grandma once. Last year. She looked like one tough lady.”

I smiled. “She is. I live with my mom, too, though she's gone a lot of the time.” He raised his eyebrows in silent question. I added, “She's a sales rep for a safety-products company.”

He nodded, and we ate for a few minutes. I tried to chew slowly, but it felt like my stomach was eating itself with impatience. The pizza wasn't even making a dent in the hunger yet.

He'd gotten us both bottles of orange soda. He opened one and handed it to me, as if he'd assumed I wouldn't be able to get the lid open. The gesture was both sweet and amusing. Then he opened the other bottle for himself.

“So…will you finally tell me why you wouldn't go on a date with me before?”

Embarrassed, I looked down at the bubbles floating up in my soda. “Well, don't be mad, but you're sort of off-limits to me. You and everyone else in the Clann, actually.”

“It figures. You've been off-limits to us ever since you and I got married in the fourth grade.”

Heat flooded my cheeks, tempting me to press my drink against them. “You remember that?”

He grinned. “Hey, it's not every day a guy gets hitched.”

I played with my bottle lid for a moment before getting the courage to ask, “Did your parents ever tell you why we couldn't be friends anymore?”

“Nope. Did yours?”

I shrugged, considering how to answer without lying or revealing too much. “My mom broke some Clann rule before I was born. So they kicked out my family and banned me from ever learning how to do magic.”

“Huh. Must have been a major rule. I've never heard of any descendant being kicked out of the Clann before. Your grandma break the same rule, too?”

“Um, no. I think they just held her responsible for not stopping her daughter in the first place.”

“I'd love to know what that rule was.” He sounded grim.

“Uh…why?”

“I might have to try breaking it myself.”

“What? Why? Don't you want to be the Clann leader someday?”

“No, I don't.”

“Why not? I would think being able to do magic would be amazing.” I almost confessed that I'd tried to do magic a few times with no luck. But something inside me held back.

He gave a short, humorless laugh. “Magic isn't always amazing. Sometimes it's a real pain in the butt.” Something about the surprise on my face pushed him onward. “No, really. Magic is the reason I'm not playing football now. You know when I shoved Dylan out on the field during that game?” I nodded.

“I didn't exactly hit him with my hands.”

My mouth dropped open. I'd seen magic being used right in front of me and didn't even know it. Wow. “What does it feel like? Doing magic, I mean?”

“Like relaxing.”

“Is it like that for everyone in the Clann?”

“No, I don't think so. At least no one else seems to have the problems I do in controlling it.”

Because he was the leading family's son? “Well, I'm sure it's like anything else in life. You probably just need more practice, right?”

“That's what Emily says. But that's the problem. All I do is control it. Otherwise I would be blowing up crap and setting
fires right and left by accident. It's like keeping your hand clenched up in a fist every second you're awake. I can never relax, never forget about it. I get tired of it. And then there's the whole issue of the Clann elders trying to run my life. They don't care what I want, only what they have planned for me.”

“My parents told me descendants can read each others' minds. Can you? Read minds, I mean?”

“Sometimes, if I try really hard and the other person is focused. Mostly all I pick up are random thoughts, though, and it's too confusing to understand.”

“Aren't you worried your parents will read your mind and learn about tonight?”

One corner of his mouth kicked up. “My sister's got me covered.” He lifted his left wrist and pointed at his watch. “She gave me this a couple years ago. She told my parents it was to help me get to class on time. What she didn't tell them was that she'd also charmed it to block my thoughts from them. They just think it's some kind of new ability I naturally developed with puberty, and a sign that I should be the future Clann leader.”

Nice to know even the all-powerful Clann elders could get it wrong sometimes.

“You know, you're really lucky to have such a good sister.” I'd always wanted a big sister to look out for me, tell me what to do, what to wear, how to act to fit in at school.

“Yeah, she's cool. Though most of the time I'm pretty sure she only helps me because she likes getting away with things.”

I laughed, trying to fit Tristan's description of his sister with the sweet, outgoing cheerleader image I had of Emily.

After a few seconds of surprisingly comfortable silence, I asked, “So if magic is such a pain for you to control all the time, why stay in the Clann?”

He stared down at the pizza box for a long moment before
shrugging. “I guess part of me isn't ready to destroy my parents like that. My dad still thinks he'll convince me to follow in his footsteps. I told them I'm not interested, but…”

I studied the unhappiness in his eyes. He really loved his family; that much was obvious. But I didn't understand one thing. “If you don't want to hurt your family, then why…” I waved a hand at us, the pizza, the sodas.

“Because asking me to stay away from you is asking too much. They have no right to tell me who I can and can't see.” He stared at me, tempting me to make eye contact. I barely managed to keep my gaze at his nose.

“Maybe they're just trying to protect you,” I murmured.

“Protect me from
you?
Yeah, right.”

Oh, crap. I had to tell him the truth about me, about my father. About what I could be turning into right now, right here with him. I opened my mouth—

Tristan rolled up to his feet then held out a hand. “Dance with me?”

I gulped. Here was one of my fantasies just handed to me on a silver platter. Okay, dance with him first, then confess. At least then I'd have the memory to hold on to.

I took a deep breath and placed my hand in his, then had to draw in another deep breath at the contact as tingling arced down my arm. Uh, maybe this wasn't such a good idea, after all. But he was already pulling me to my feet and into his arms.

It was like coming home. A sigh slipped out of me as he wrapped one arm around my waist, his hand pressed against my lower back. He held my other hand in his and led me into a two-step. My hand fit perfectly in the curve of his.

The music changed to a slow song. He never hesitated as he led me into the new rhythm, his steps confident, his hands guiding me with the subtlest of nudges and pulls.

“A guy who can actually dance. I'm impressed,” I murmured, unable to hold in the surprise. Greg hadn't been any where near this smooth.

His chuckle sent a whisper of warm air over my forehead. I glanced up through my eyelashes to find he'd bent his head down close to mine. “My mother drags me to a couple charity balls every year. She insisted I learn how to dance right so I wouldn't embarrass her.”

“She teach you herself?”

“Yeah, much to
my
embarrassment.” He spun us around in a series of turns that made me grin. “At least every now and then the skill comes in handy.”

I laughed as he twirled me out then in against his side. “I see what you mean.”

He made me laugh twice more as he dipped me then waltzed me around the room, narrowly missing stepping on the pizza. Then another slow song came on. His steps changed to half count so that we barely moved. The top of my head just reached his shoulder, making it seem natural to rest my cheek against his chest and wrap an arm around his waist. It was like we were made for dancing together.

I could both hear and feel his sigh. He lifted our joined hands to his chest, as if he wanted me to feel how hard his heart was pounding. Moving this close together, our thighs brushed, our knees and feet nudging each other at times. I wished I could melt into him. He was holding me closer than I'd ever dreamed possible for us. I should be afraid of all the people who might find out about this. But all I felt was peace and total contentment. I wanted to stay here, in this exact moment, for the rest of my life.

My phone buzzed.

Oh, no. Nanna. She'd be worried. “Oh, crap. I forgot to
call my grandma and let her know I'd be late coming home.” I started to pull away, but his arms stopped me. “Savannah, wait.”

I looked up at him in confusion, having to tilt my head way back so I could see his expression. And was surprised to find a hint of…was that
worry
in his eyes?

“Can I see you again?” His voice was impossibly deep and a little hoarse, its rough edges delicious on my nerve endings. I tried not to shiver.

A second date?

Needing time to think, I grabbed my still-buzzing phone from my pocket and answered it. “Hey, Nanna. I'm sorry, I went out for pizza after the game and forgot to call you.” Good, no lies there. Technically.

“Mmm-hmm. Well, next time be sure to call. I was getting worried. You coming home now?”