Covet (Clann)

me away.
    “He’s not gone,” she growled, sounding like something wild, completely unlike the mother I’d known. My mother had often been scary during my life, especially when I’d done something wrong. But she’d never sounded this inhuman before.
    She tried spell after spell on Dad’s body, lighting up the surrounding woods and the clearing with her magic and her will.
    “Mom, he’s gone,” I said.
    “No, he’s not! I just need the right spell. Your father’s too strong to die. He’s still in there. If I can find the right spell, I can bring him back.”
    But no one knew the old Clann ways that had once affected things on the DNA level, and the ability to bring someone back from the dead was lost to us now. No one could bring Dad back.
    If only one of us had gone to check on him hours ago…
    If I had only gone out to talk to him and Emily and that stranger…
    Emily. She didn’t know.
    “Mom, we need to tell Emily.”
    “No, we’re not telling her anything because he’s not gone.”
    I touched her shoulder, trying to bring her back to reality. She hissed at me and slapped my hand away. “Leave us!” She leaned over Dad’s body, whispering, “Come back to me, Samuel. I’m here now. I won’t leave you. I know you can still hear me. Come back to me now.”
    I couldn’t leave her here. Whoever—or whatever—had killed Dad could still be around. But I also knew I had to get Emily. She would never forgive us for taking even this long to tell her. She would be furious, sure that, like Mom, she could have done something to save him.
    And the Clann. I would have to call the elders, tell them we were leaderless now that Dad was gone…
    My dad was gone…I debated picking Mom up and carrying her back to the house. She was tiny enough. But she would fight me.
    She pounded on Dad’s chest with the heels of her fists now, and I couldn’t watch. It wasn’t right, her beating Dad’s body and trying to bring him back like this. Anyone else could tell he was gone.
    “Mom, it’s too late,” I tried to tell her again.
    She shoved me with both hands, and I had to grab a nearby tree trunk to stay on my feet. It was like she was possessed. There was no reasoning with her, no calming her. And there would be no removing her from here, at least not by me. Not without force.
    I couldn’t do that to her on top of everything else. I couldn’t just throw my own mother, as temporarily nuts as she was, over my shoulder like some kind of Neanderthal.
    I would have to make a run for it, call Dr. Faulkner, try to yell for Emily and get her to come back with me to the woods, all as quickly as I could.
    I took Mom’s ward from my wrist and carefully snapped it around Mom’s. Not that it would do any good. If a vampire truly had killed my dad, he had done it in spite of the wards around the clearing. But I had to at least try to offer her what protection I could. I also left the flashlight with her, keeping it on and on the ground pointed away from Dad down the path toward the house. It might help her, and it would help the descendants find her.
    Then I ran as fast as I could, faster than I ever had in any football game, back to the house, stopping only when I reached Dad’s desk so I could hunt through the drawers for the black spiral-bound leather notebook that contained all the descendants’ names, addresses, and phone numbers.
    Dr. Faulkner answered quickly. He was silent after I told him about Dad. Then, “I’m on my way. Have you called anyone else?”
    “No. I need to get back to the clearing. Mom wouldn’t leave…Dad.”
    “Good. I’ll call everyone soon enough. Just take care of your mother and sister till we can get there.”
    I hung up Dad’s office phone, then ran out of the study to the base of the stairs, yelling for Emily.
    No response. She probably couldn’t hear me over her own snoring. She’d always been a heavy sleeper anyways.
    Should I run upstairs and tell her?
    No, I needed to go keep Mom safe.
    But then Emily would be here in the house alone. What if Dad’s attacker came in here and went after Emily?
    Cursing, I ran up the stairs two at a time then burst into her room and shook her awake.
    “Wha…” she muttered groggily, raising up on an elbow and rubbing her eyes.
    “Emily, wake up. It’s Dad.”
    She frowned, blinking a little faster now. “What? What’s going on? Is he home now? Tell Mom I’m really not hungry, okay?”
    What was she talking about? She knew he