Crave (37 page)

“So your job really is to spy on me.”

“Think of me more as your lawyer who meets on your behalf with the council.”

“Which makes them, what…the court judge?”

“Consider them the government, police and the Supreme Court for all vampires. They create our laws, ensure our secrets are protected and rule over disputes among our kind.”

“So when they say they want to meet me, this meeting—”

“Is a trial,” he finished for me.

Savannah

Great, now I was on trial. “Am I going to be back home in a few days?”

“I do not know. If all goes well, yes. I am trying to convince them that we have much to learn from you still. I have spent the last few months pleading your case to them.”

He'd argued with the council…for me? Shocked, I blurted out, “Why would you do that?”

“Because you are my daughter. Why would I not try to protect you?” He said it simply, as if the answer was obvious.

“I…didn't realize you cared.” I stared down at my hands in my lap. “I mean, all those volleyball games and basketball games…I asked you to come watch me play, but you never did. So I thought…” I lifted one shoulder in a half shrug.

“I was trying to minimize the council's spying upon you. Everything I see, they see. If you had begun to show vampire or magical abilities early in life, I did not want them to see it.”

So all this time, he had been protecting me.

Except that still didn't explain his threatening Mom and
Nanna on the council's behalf. Unless… “At the restaurant today, you said elder vampires can command younger ones. Can the council command you?”

“Yes.”

“Even completely against your will?”

“Yes.”

“So when you passed on their threat to hurt Nanna and Mom if I didn't stop dancing…?”

“That was at their command.”

My throat tightened. “What if I had refused to go with you today?”

“I am under command to bring you to them one way or another. If you had refused, I would have been forced to drug you. It would have hurt me greatly to do so. You are and always will be my child. But a command from the council is unbreakable and cannot be ignored.”

I had to look away and blink fast as my eyes burned. I'd always thought he cared more about the council than me, that everything he did for them had been done willingly to earn their approval again. But if they had
forced
him to do it instead…

He was as much at their mercy as I was. And everything I'd thought about my father was wrong. Did I know him at all?

I had to take a few seconds to clear my throat before I could speak again. “So why don't they just command every vampire to follow the rules? Then they wouldn't have to worry about settling vamp problems or dealing with rule breakers.”

“They like us to feel as if we have free will.”

And yet the council could order vampires around like puppets if they chose, even as tools to be used against their own children.

I remembered everything I had accused him of, all the
times I'd refused to speak to him. Telling him he was no longer my dad. My hands shook. I pressed them against my knees to hold them still and forced myself to look at him. “Dad, I'm really sorry I made things harder for you with the council. And for giving you so much grief. Thank you for trying to protect me.”

He nodded. Leaning forward, he rested a hand over one of mine. “I may be old, but there are still human emotions left within me. I am only sorry you thought otherwise of me.”

In that moment, a heaviness inside that I'd long grown used to slowly began to lift, loosening the pressure on my chest. My dad cared about me. He'd fought the council for me. He was trying to help me now.

After a minute, he squeezed my hand then leaned back in his seat again.

I sat back, too, trying to smooth out the tangled mess of thoughts and emotions inside my head. So much was changing. It was definitely reassuring to know I wasn't alone here, that I had someone on my side to help me out. But it still didn't solve my biggest problem. How could I—we—convince the council that I wasn't a threat to them? And what would happen if we failed?

“Dad, are you still allowed to tell me the truth?”

“If I cannot, I am allowed not to answer you.”

That would have to be good enough. “How much trouble am I in?”

“I convinced them before your birth that it was better to let you live and learn from you. But they only agreed because you were not magically trained, you stayed away from the Clann and you did not have the bloodlust. You did not pose an immediate threat to them.”

And now I did.

They'd allowed me to live before. Now it seemed they might change their mind about that.

My mouth went dry, and I desperately reached for something else to think about. “So, um, you never told me where your…our…type of vampires come from exactly.”

He sighed. “There are many different theories about our origins. We are not a race that has traditionally valued our own history. However, I have done my own research and found that we actually predate Adam and Eve's descendants.”

Huh?

He told me then about Lillith, Adam's true first wife who ended up rebelling against God and becoming a demoness, as well as the mother of our race of vampires. She'd also gone around killing babies and seducing men in their sleep.

I thought of all the times I'd kissed Tristan in our shared dreams, unknowingly draining him of energy and life. I winced. “This Lillith sounds like a real role model for women. Did she eventually die?”

“No. She is still alive, sleeping deep beneath the Sumerian desert somewhere and awaiting the day she can seek final revenge on God.”

Talk about not being able to choose the family we're born into. “Wow. Sorry I asked.” I leaned back in my seat again, my stomach more knotted than it had ever been before, my head swirling with way too much information. I could definitely have lived without ever knowing about my blood ties to Lillith.

At least I knew one thing…Dad actually cared about me, after all.

He chuckled and reopened his paper. “You look tired. We have a few hours before our arrival. You should try to get some sleep.”

Nodding, I reclined my chair and tried to relax.

 

When I came to in the plane, now dim except for a reading light above Dad, he closed and folded his newspaper then turned up the general lights. “Good, you are awake. We will be landing shortly.”

Immediately, my heart began to race. Soon I would meet the control freaks who'd managed to reach out across an entire ocean and screw up my life. I wished they were on another planet instead of just another continent.

I wished Tristan could be here with me somehow. Or at least that I could know he was safe somewhere.

The plane stopped at the farthest hangar of the airport. A car with dark-tinted windows waited for us a few yards away. Once we were in the backseat, Dad held up a long, black satin scarf. A blindfold. “I apologize, but the council insists that this is necessary for their safety.”

“Uh, okay.” I held my head still while he tied the blindfold over my eyes then checked the edges to be sure I couldn't see out.

“Your hands may remain free as long as you do not touch the blindfold.”

The car eased forward, and we were on our way. Great. My first time in Paris, and I wouldn't get to see a thing. Not even the Eiffel Tower.

It seemed we turned a lot, surely more than was actually necessary for the half-hour drive. Maybe they were trying to confuse me. I could have told them not to bother. I frequently got lost even with a map and a compass.

Then the car stopped.

Dad exited first then held on to my forearm to guide me from the car and beyond. I had a fleeting sense of a breeze ruffling the tiny hairs on my arms. Then a heavy-sounding
door groaned open. We walked forward, and the breeze died away, replaced by chilly, moldy-smelling air.

We walked for what seemed like a long time, although it might have been only a couple minutes. The path had a wet-sounding hard floor and too many turns to count much less remember. We also went through a series of clanking metal doors others opened and closed for us. I sensed the guards we passed, the loss of sight making my emotional radar ramp into overdrive. Most of the guards projected boredom or mild curiosity. But none of them ever said anything. They must be using that vampire ESP stuff.

Dad stopped suddenly. Holding his mouth close to my ear, he breathed out in a rapid whisper, “I must warn you. In the beginning, the bloodlust is most often triggered by strong emotions. When you truly give yourself to the vampire side, only then will you find complete control over your needs. It takes fledgling vampires months to learn how to let go of their emotions in order to regain control. Some never do. But you
must
learn how to do this. Today. The council will have a surprise waiting for you to test your control. I am sorry, I did not know before we got on the plane, and then I could not safely warn you. So whatever you do, stay calm.”

A surprise? What kind of surprise would make me want to just surrender to the vamp within? And wasn't that backward anyways? Wasn't it the vampire genes inside me that were causing the bloodlust? How could giving in to that side actually help me regain control over the bloodlust?

It didn't make any sense. And a tiny part of me had to wonder if this was some kind of trick to force me to finish the change into becoming a full vampire.

But if I couldn't trust my dad, I would have no one on my side here. I
had
to trust him.

With a frown, I nodded.

We started walking again in silence for a few more minutes, then paused one last time. Dad must have had to wait for permission to continue. With every second that passed, my nervousness cranked up another notch.

Finally, a loud, metallic groan signaled the opening of yet another door. We walked forward three steps, the sound of our footsteps becoming muffled on something soft and dry. Dad tugged on my forearm to stop me. I couldn't hear anyone nearby, not even breathing or heartbeats to signal we were with others now. But I could feel their emotions projected across my skin. They were nervous, angry, a little worried, but mostly afraid.

Afraid…of
me?

The door clanged shut behind us, and Dad removed the blindfold.

Stay calm,
I reminded myself, working to keep my breathing even.

I slowly opened my eyes, squinting a bit at the bright light in the room.

The council seemed to like the color red. The cement-block walls were bathed in it, and nine council members sat at a long, half-round table draped in a crimson-and-gold cloth.

“Honorable council, may I present my biological daughter, Savannah Colbert.”

The members stared at me with faces like stone. But their emotions betrayed them, intensifying until I nearly gasped from their overwhelming flood of fear and curiosity.

“You have tested her, Michael?” the vampire in the center asked. His skin was as smooth and white as marble. His eyes, so light they appeared solid white except for their ebony pupils, never left me.

“I have.”

Silence filled the room while they apparently read his mind for his report. I focused on not fidgeting.

“May I respectfully request that the council consider further discussing these deliberations out loud?” Dad said. “This would allow Savannah to follow the proceedings and elaborate on her abilities in her own words.”

Yep, just as I'd guessed. They had been talking about me behind my back…right in front of me. The exact opposite of what the Brat Twins did to me in history class. Talk about annoying.

Another long pause, then the center councilman nodded. “We agree. Savannah, were you ever magically trained?”

“No. Even when it would have been helpful, my grandmother and mother refused. They promised everyone that they wouldn't.” Thank goodness for it, too.

“Michael, you were not aware before that she has the bloodlust?” the council leader said.

“No, Caravass. I became aware of it when you did.”

A ripple of alarm projected from the council.

“However, my memories today should have shown that Savannah was tested and is in firm control over it,” Dad added.

“With regular human blood,” Caravass corrected. “The watchers' report showed that she has no such control with regard to Clann blood. This is cause for great alarm. She cannot be allowed to violate our peace treaty with the Clann nor expose us to the world at large. If she cannot be controlled, she is a danger to our entire society.”

“No, I'm not.” I couldn't believe I'd had the nerve to speak up. No doubt any one of them could snap my neck before I even saw them leave their seats.

Caravass stared into my eyes. “How can you be sure of this?”

“Because I've been alone with a Clann descendant a lot over the last six months. I've had plenty opportunity to…” Feed? Drink from him? What was the right term? “…to bite him. But I haven't.”

“Admirable control,” Caravass said. “And yet you lost a little of that control when you actually saw and smelled his blood recently, did you not?”

I gulped. Just talking about it made the memory of that taste flood my mouth. “Yes. But that was my first time to ever feel the bloodlust. Now that I know what it feels like, I know I can control my reaction to it. And it's not like I actually bit him or anything.”

“We desire proof. If you really believe you have complete control now, you will voluntarily agree to our test.” Caravass waved a hand, and a guard at the right wall pressed a button. A smooth section of the wall slid away into a recessed pocket, revealing a window into what looked like a police interrogation room.

Handcuffed to a metal chair in the center of the otherwise empty, gray room sat Tristan, unconscious.

Against my will, I sucked in a sharp breath through my nose.
Tristan.
What had they done to him? Was he okay?

Dad might have warned me that Tristan was the surprise. The Clann would go crazy over this. I'd probably get blamed for it, too. Then again, if I'd never given in to the temptation to date him, he wouldn't be here in the first place. So I guessed it was my fault, after all.

“It is clear already that you do not have complete control around this witch boy,” Caravass said.