Covet (Clann)

only seventeen.”
    Dad nodded as formally as if this were some kind of major vamp/Clann negotiation. “Agreed. No motorcycles.”
    I took a deep breath then let it out slowly. And my friends wondered why I didn’t want my parents to get back together. If I had to deal with this kind of crap on a daily basis, I’d have to run away from home!
    I cleared my throat. “Um, thanks for the gift, Gowin. Mom was just headed out. She has to get on the road for a sales meeting early in the morning. Right, Mom?”
    She glanced at me, then Gowin, then my dad. “Right. Sav, will you come with me for that one last present I promised? It’s in the RV.”
    “Sure!” I tried not to wince at how overly bright and chirpy that came out.
    “It was a pleasure to meet you.” Gowin gave my mother’s hand a quick squeeze then released it. Finally! I thought he was going to chop it off and keep it as a souvenir or something.
    “And the same to you,” she said. She looked at Dad, and a wave of sadness and regret projected from her to add its weight to my shoulders. “Good to see you again, Michael.”
    “You, too,” Dad murmured, his eyes warm. Then he stepped aside so we could pass between him and Gowin.
    As Mom and I headed for the foyer, I glanced back at the kitchen. The vamps were still facing off in the doorway. Were they about to fight like territorial animals?
    My rising panic allowed the vamps’ thoughts to slip through.
    Still in love with what you can’t have, old friend? Gowin thought with a smile and a shake of his head. You always were a bit of a masochist.
    Dad sighed. Do not worry, I have learned my lesson amply. I will not risk giving in to the bloodlust around Joan. And with her mother gone and all traces of her bloodlust dampening spell along with her…
    Mmm, Gowin thought in sympathetic regret. Such a loss, that one.
    I hustled Mom out the front door and down the porch steps.
    As Mom stepped onto the lawn, she hesitated, and I caught her thought. I’m in the dark alone with a new vamp and no protective charms.
    I froze, glad she couldn’t read my mind or see my face as the hurt from her fear slammed through me.
    No, she decided a second later. She is my daughter, Michael said she has good control, and I will trust them both.
    She continued across the lawn and up the steps of her camper trailer, pausing at the door to look back at me in confusion. “You coming, kiddo?”
    Smiling, I made sure I walked human-slow across the lawn to join her.
    As soon as we entered the RV, I heard the yapping. “Is that…a dog?”
    Mom’s face turned mischievous. “That, sweetie, is the surprise.” She hurried past the wall containing an electric fireplace and flat screen TV combo to the master bedroom, scooping up a furry brown-and-black miniature missile as it attempted to careen past her feet toward me. “Meet Lucy, your birthday gift!”
    The dog wouldn’t stop barking. I worried Mom’s arms were in danger while holding it, but the thing seemed to want to eat only me for now. “Wow. You, um, shouldn’t have.”
    Mom grinned down at the dog, stroking the long glossy hair at the back of its head. In an apparent attempt to make the thing cute, a pink-and-brown polka-dotted bow held up a tuft of hair between its pointy ears. The bow was now in danger of falling off due to the energy the dog was throwing into its every bark.
    “She just needs to get used to you,” Mom said, raising her voice to be heard over the barking. “She’s usually a real sweetheart! Your dad and I went halvsies on the fee for her, but I picked her out myself at the breeders’. She’s a purebred Yorkie.”
    More like a purebred demon spawn from Hell. “That’s great.”
    “Want to hold her?”
    Which was like saying Do you want to have your fingers chewed off?
    “Um, maybe we should let her settle down first.”
    “Okay.” Mom moved to sit on the couch. Holding the dog to her chest with one arm, she freed the other to pat the seat beside her. “Come catch me up on everything. Feels like I haven’t seen you in forever!”
    Keeping an eye on the dog as its beady black eyes watched my every move, I sat down across from Mom.
    The demon dog switched from barking to snarling. “She’s really lovely.”
    “Isn’t she the best?” Mom beamed down at the dog, raising it up to her face. My heart stopped as visions of the thing gnawing off her nose raced through my mind. But it only licked her cheek, then returned to growling at me.