Covet (Clann)

really and truly not that good yet. I’ve only been practicing how to use power for a few months now. She’s just lucky I could fix her wrist.”
    Ron froze, then took a huge step forward and grabbed both of Anne’s hands.
    “Hey!” she said. “What do you think you’re doing? Hands off!”
    He turned her hands over, running his fingers over her wrists despite her struggling. “What happened?” He searched her face, both of them eye level due to her sitting on the tailgate. “Why didn’t you tell me you got hurt?”
    “I didn’t tell you because, one, it’s none of your business anymore, and two, because I’m not hurt anymore. Sav fixed me with her hoodoo voodoo.” She jerked her hands free and gave me the evil eye. “Which, by the way, I did not spill the secret about, thank you very much!”
    He looked to me now for answers, his eyebrows pinched. “Savannah?”
    Her eyes widened then narrowed in an unspoken warning not to tell him. But she hadn’t made me promise not to. And diehard romantic that I was, I couldn’t help but be moved by the anxiety and confusion pouring off her ex.
    “We…uh, had a little encounter with Dylan Williams at lunch today,” I said.
    “Sav, seriously, it’s none of his business,” she hissed.
    “Yeah, it really is,” Ron said. “What’d he do?”
    “He went after Sav, so I went after him,” Anne said. “End of story.”
    He ignored her, staring at me, wanting more details. I gave in. “Well, yeah, it’s basically like she said. He figured out I could read his mind and flipped out. When he went after me, Anne hurt her wrist while trying to put the hurt on his nose.”
    “Which totally would have worked if the jackass hadn’t been able to fix it immediately afterwards,” she said. “But then Sav healed my wrist, too, so we were basically even. And now you know everything. Happy?”
    The muscles in his jaw worked for several seconds. Finally, he stepped back, arms crossed. I expected him to throw a million questions at me about my spell-making abilities. Instead, gratitude radiated from him. “Then I guess I need to thank you, Savannah.”
    I shrugged. “It was no big deal. She wouldn’t have gotten hurt if not for trying to protect me.”
    Why wasn’t he curious about my ability to heal Anne?
    I snuck a peek at his thoughts and got the answer. “Your mom told you about me, didn’t she?”
    He nodded. “And why your family was kicked out of the Clann and why you didn’t know about the Keepers.”
    So he knew I was half vamp and half witch. And yet he didn’t seem scared. “How long have you known?”
    “Since that day I told you about the panthers of East Texas.”
    I thought back over the weeks and months since then. How he’d guessed that I could read Tristan’s mind and didn’t seem bothered by it. The way he’d acted so quickly to help me when Dylan left his blood on my locker.
    And how he hadn’t once been afraid to be alone with me in the library. My throat got a little tight at that.
    “Thanks for not freaking out about it,” I said.
    Smiling, Ron shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”
    So now two normal people knew all about me and were fine with it.
    I took a deep breath. “Okay, but none of this explains why we’re out here tonight. I mean, I feel bad for the Keepers. Believe me, I’ve had more than my fair share of crap from the Clann, too. But what do you want me to do about it? Even if we could find and catch one of those poor creatures, I’d never be able to change it back to human. Especially if it took a whole group of descendants to do the spell in the first place. I’m not that strong, and I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
    One side of Anne’s mouth hitched. “Oh, we don’t have to hunt down a Keeper. They’re much easier to find than you think. In fact, I bet if we sit here for a few minutes, Ron can go find us a Keeper, can’t you?” She looked at him, eyebrows raised with a weird twisted sort of smile.
    He made a face back at her. “Sure. I’ll be right back.” And then he took off into the woods.
    Whoa. Was he suicidal? “I thought you said these woods were filled with wild hogs. Isn’t it dangerous for him to—”
    “He’s fine. Trust me. The hogs will be more afraid of him than the other way around. You’ll see.”
    Silence as Ron’s footsteps faded.
    “So why’d you think I’d need emotional support for this Keeper stuff?” I asked. “Or was it really that you just wanted an