Covet (Clann)

couldn’t resist riding in to the rescue again.
    “Let me go.” He glared at me now, the terror in his voice turning to fury as he fell for the lie.
    “Are you going to stop messing with her and learn to play nice?” I said.
    He hesitated, considering.
    I ratcheted my energy level up yet another notch, and beads of sweat formed on his forehead and upper lip. Savannah twitched under my hand.
    Sorry, I told her. Hang in there just a little longer.
    “Fine,” Dylan mumbled.
    “What’s that?” I pretended I couldn’t hear him.
    “I said okay, I’ll leave her alone.” He looked away as sweat rolled down past his eyes.
    I leaned back. Then on second thought, I reached down and ripped one of the cuffs off his wrist. While he watched, I flash burned the ward until it was reduced to a tiny indoor snowstorm of ashes falling to the polished vinyl floor.
    “One ward’s enough,” I told him. “Two’s an attack. Next time I see you wearing more than one ward, I’ll burn it while it’s still on you.”
    I stepped back, and Dylan slunk off down the hall toward the cafeteria. I didn’t move until he was through the exit doors and out of sight.
    Savannah sighed loudly and leaned against the lockers. Then she started to slide down toward the floor.
    “Whoa, I’ve got you, Rocky.” I wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her up.
    She gave me a weak grin. “Thanks. No one ever warned me how exhausting this stuff is.”
    “It takes energy to use energy.” I slung her closest arm over my shoulders so she could hang on. “You need to refuel. Do you have some bl—”
    “I’ve got an emergency stash. But if I use it, I have to go home. There are…complications. I could draw energy, though. Just help me get outside?”
    “Or you could kiss—”
    “Don’t start, Tristan.” She tried to pull away.
    “Okay, okay. I was just joking.” Sort of.
    We headed out the front doors, turning left past the entrance toward a small courtyard where we sat on a blue metal bench, Savannah at the end closest to the grass. She kicked off her shoes and angled her legs so she could rest her bare feet on the grass, then closed her eyes and sighed.
    Needles arced over my skin, but I ignored them, too caught up in watching the play of emotions on her face.
    After a few seconds, she opened her eyes, glanced down at the goose bumps on my hands, and smiled. “Guess it’s my turn to apologize and tell you it’ll be over in just another minute?”
    “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t hurt that bad. It’s just…weird.” At her raised eyebrow, I added, “I mean, that you’re doing it.”
    I leaned forward, bracing my elbows on my knees. “For a beginner you’re sure progressing fast. Is someone helping you or…?”
    “Not really.”
    I frowned. “Working without a teacher is dangerous, Sav.”
    She laughed. “No kidding. I passed out the first time I tried to draw energy. I kept grounding by accident.”
    I froze. “This summer?”
    She nodded. “The day you texted me, actually.”
    So that’s what I felt. “Did you sleep it off?”
    “No. Nanna showed up and told me what to do.”
    She had talked with her dead grandma. Which meant she must have been really far gone. Fear mixed with fury, pushing me to my feet. I stood in front of her so I could see her face clearly.
    “Are you crazy? You almost died, didn’t you?”
    “I had to do something. Dylan was threatening to hurt Anne. What would you have done?”
    “You should have come to me for help.”
    She sighed. “I’m tired of always having to ask someone else for help. It was time for me to grow up, take care of my own problems for a change.”
    She wrapped her arms around her waist and looked away.
    How could she be half vamp and supposedly dangerous to me and any other descendant, yet seem so fragile?
    My gut knotted. I wanted to hold her, tell her she wasn’t alone, that I was right here for her. But she didn’t want to hear any of that.
    We stayed there for a moment, the heated air between us quickly cooling and turning awkward.
    “What you did today was reckless,” I said.
    Shoving her feet back into her shoes, she stood up and headed for the entrance doors. “You just can’t help but try to boss me around, can you?”
    I followed her back into the main hall. “I’m serious, Sav. Now that descendants have died, things are going to get even more tense. If you scare Dylan too much, there’s no telling what you might set off.”
    “No