Covet (Clann)

don’t you tell everyone here the truth and see how the sides line up then?”
    I saw the answer in his mind. He’d already tried to convince Caravass, but the vamp leader had dismissed his ideas, preferring to keep the vamp race pure. Which was why Gowin felt he had to kill his sire tonight and take over the council for himself.
    “Let her go, Gowin!” Tristan yelled.
    Gowin turned us both so I could see Tristan standing on the throne’s hill above the crowd, his hands raised.
    “Careful, or she dies!” Gowin said, his fingers at my throat curling into claws ready to rip.
    Tristan dropped his hands, his face more afraid and ticked off than I’d ever seen it.
    He wasn’t the only one. I was ready to tear Gowin’s head off myself. If I could just get free…
    “Gowin, you cannot win this fight,” my dad called out.
    “You’re a fool, Michael.” Gowin turned so he could see both Tristan and my dad. “You always were. Tonight, these descendants are going to pay for all the vamps they were arrogant and stupid enough to kill. Will you be on the winning side or not?”’
    “There are no sides here tonight,” Dad answered. “Only many people seeking the truth.”
    Wait. Nanna had said all I needed to do was focus on what I wanted and inject those intentions with my willpower.
    Well, I had plenty of willpower tonight. And Gowin had taught me something new about magic and vamps.
    Closing my eyes, I envisioned becoming a living flame, and that flame spreading over me, but not touching me, from head to toe.
     
     
    TRISTAN
    When I saw the fire engulf Savannah, I yelled out in panic, thinking someone had hit her with a spell. Then I saw the smile on her face through the flames.
    That’s my girl, I thought with a whoop of pride as Gowin instantly backed away from her.
    “She’s using magic!” Gowin screamed. “There’s your proof, councilmen. She’s on their side!”
    The vamp council must have believed him, because everything erupted into chaos then. Screams filled the air as Mr. Colbert went after Gowin while Gowin’s vamps led the council’s army in an attack on the descendants from two fronts.
    I raced across the battle arena that the Circle had become, ducking spell after flying spell until I could reach Sav. She was crouched on the ground, the fire gone from around her now.
    “Are you okay?” I shouted over the screams and roars of angry vamps and descendants, patting her shoulders and arms and cupping her cheeks to be sure she wasn’t burnt.
    “I’m good! Just powering back up,” she yelled, both her palms pressed to the ground.
    A vamp came toward us, fangs and hands out. I started to raise my hands, intending to hit him with a ball of fire. But before I could release the spell, an arrow appeared in his chest and he fell to the ground thrashing. What the…
    I looked in the direction the arrow had flown from, and there was a giant panther and a crazy-eyed Anne fighting back-to-tail against the vamps.
    “Savannah!” I yelled and pointed in their direction.
    Savannah turned and gasped, though the sound of it was lost beneath the screams and sizzling of flying magic in the air. “Are they crazy ?”
    They sure looked it. Panther teeth and claws and a compound bow and arrows might be cool, but they were no match against an army of vamps and magic.
    And where the heck had Anne found a trained panther that size in East Texas?
    I ran in a crouch toward the strange team, holding Sav’s hand so we wouldn’t get separated.
    “What are you doing here?” I yelled at Anne as soon as we reached them.
    “Savannah owed me a hunt!” Anne grinned even as she loosed another arrow. I turned to check. The arrow had found its home in the back of another of Gowin’s vamps. The vamp screamed then burst into a cloud of ash that plummeted to the ground to form a pile. Anne had surprise on her side for now, but once the vamps caught on to her, she’d be toast. “Thank goodness I ran out of my carbon arrows and had to bring the wooden ones today, huh?”
    “You’ve got to get out of here,” Savannah yelled at them. “This isn’t your fight!”
    I tried to tell her that, believe me, Ron thought. But she’s too dang stubborn!
    A vamp launched itself at our group and the panther reared up to catch the vamp’s neck between his teeth and paws.
    I looked at Savannah. “I think… Did I just hear Ron—”
    “Yeah, the panther’s Ron,” she shouted near my ear so I could hear her. “He’s a