Covet (Clann)

Clann ally would lie against a vampire,” Gowin said, still calm, even smiling. “I am here in support of my council. Unlike you. Exactly whose side are you on, Savannah?”
    “Everyone’s,” I said. “There’s no reason to fight, unless it’s because you want to take out—”
    Gowin moved so fast I never saw it coming. One second he was yards away with the others. The next second he was at my back, one of his hands wrapped around my throat, the other around my waist to hold me still.
    “Gowin, let her go!” Dad shouted as he appeared at the edge of the clearing.
    “But she’s sided against us, Michael.” Gowin sounded so calm. “She’s making wild accusations against me that are completely unfounded.”
    Dad looked at me, his eyebrows pinched together.
    “Dad, I read his mind and I swear to you he’s the one killing the descendants.” I had to fight for control over my emotions. Losing control would only make me look like an emotional teenage female, especially in the eyes of these centuries-old vampires. “He’s using Clann blood to temporarily give him the ability to do magic. It’s how he got through the vamp wards into this clearing and then took down the wards for everybody else.”
    “Or you could be the one who took down the wards,” Gowin said. “You should be careful, little one. The council knows we can’t force you to tell us the truth, nor can anyone here read your mind.” He cocked his head and smiled. “Of course, you’re probably betting on exactly that, aren’t you? You know you can tell wild lies about anyone here, and no one will be able to read the truth in your thoughts.”
    My heart raced with panic. He was right! It was my word against his and his small army. Unless…
    “I can prove I’m telling the truth.” I held out a forearm toward the council. “Drink my blood. The blood memories will prove that I’m not lying.”
    Gowin froze behind me, and I smiled. Called your bluff. Now what are you going to do?
    Dad turned to the council. “Well? My daughter is freely volunteering to allow you to feed upon her to support her claims. Surely one of you will accept this offer in order to prove or discount what she says about one of your own council members?”
    “Gowin, please, don’t do this,” Emily cried out, pushing through the gathering, tears shining on her cheeks. She looked awful, with black circles under her eyes and her skin too taut and pale over her bones.
    But Gowin didn’t see her that way. He saw the possibilities she had given him, that first drink of blood that had allowed him to sneak up on his initial Clann victims. And the baby she carried within her now, his, the first of the true super army he was building. No, not building…growing.
    This was the missing piece of the puzzle. He wasn’t sharing the descendant blood with other vamps, and drinking Clann blood for the magical abilities wasn’t his goal either; it was a means to an end. He planned to use the Clann’s magic against its own members in order to force all the female descendants to bear his children. Children who would be hybrids like me but raised to obey him for all eternity. And then they would be bred together, and on and on in an endless hybrid army factory while he took over the entire world.“Oh my God,” I whispered. He’d gotten the idea from my dad and mom. He’d originally hoped to make me fall for him as his first hybrid broodmare, but when my heartache over the breakup with Tristan made me resistant to his charms, he’d gone for another Clann member young enough to still be impressionable to his flattery. One who would give him the first descendant blood needed so he could overpower other descendants for their blood. One who would also be smart enough to know about the Keepers’ geneological records that would map out the location of the rest of his victims.
    And Emily had completely fallen for him.
    Gowin hummed in surprise. “So it’s true then. You have learned to read everyone’s minds. Well, in that case…”
    Join me or die, he finished silently.
    Oh crap. He could read my mind, too.
    “You’re kidding, right?” I hissed as his grip around my throat tightened, cutting off more of my air. “Who do you think you are, Darth Vader?”
    “Well, Caravass, I tried,” Gowin said to his maker. “But she’s well and truly joined the other side, it seems. She refuses to side with the vamps.”
    “Not all vamps, just you, Gowin,” I croaked. “Why