Covet (Clann)

thin wrapper open with my teeth and covered the cut on my finger, then headed out to the porch on shaking legs.
    “If you knew, why bother telling me what being a vamp is like?” He’d been toying with me since I got here, making me think I had a shot at becoming a vampire and being with Savannah forever. If he hadn’t been her father, I would have been tempted to punch him.
    “So you would know just how impossible it is for you two to be together.”
    I stared at the street lamp, its light throwing long shadows across the yard.
    Sheer desperation made me say, “There has to be a way we can be together. If you love her, tell me what to do, what to say to make them change the rules. You know it can be done. You did it yourself. You married her mother. Give us the chance to have that, too.”
    “But it did not work. Even after Savannah’s mother was kicked out of the Clann, our union was a danger to the peace treaty because of what it produced.”
    “You mean Savannah.”
    He nodded. “You two could produce another dhampir like her if she does not fully turn vampire first. And the council, as well as the Clann, will never allow that to happen again.”
    An image flashed before me of a little girl with curly red hair like her momma. And maybe green eyes like her daddy. I’d never thought about being a dad someday, but something clenched in my chest all the same, making it hard to breathe.
    Mr. Colbert didn’t seem to notice. “That child would be a danger to vampires and descendants alike, even more than Savannah is. Like Savannah, it could grow into a fully immortal vampire with its father’s legendary Coleman magical abilities, or into the next Coleman witch with the speed, strength and agility of a vampire. Either way, it would present enormous risks. Risks that the council—and I am sure the Clann—will never consider acceptable.”
    I couldn’t be turned into a vampire. And as long as I was still human and Savannah could still have kids, the Clann and the council wouldn’t let us be together. “What happens if she fully turns?”
    “There will still always be the risk that she could end your life. Your parents will not care whether you are a member of the Clann. You will always be their child, and they will do whatever is necessary to protect you.” He turned to me now, placing a hand on my shoulder. “If there was a way for you and my daughter to be happy together, I would do everything in my power to assist you. But there is no way the rules will be changed for you. And I can promise you from experience that even the strongest of love cannot long survive being on the run, or some of the tactics either side might employ in an attempt to draw you out of hiding.” His hand fell away. “The constant hiding alone drove Savannah’s mother away from me.”
    I wanted to believe he was wrong, that things would be different for Savannah and me. That what we had together could survive anything, including being on the run from the council and the Clann.
    But what if he was right? The Clann had already taken Sav’s grandmother from her. Would my parents be desperate enough to go after Sav’s mother next? Or her father? Would the vamps go after Emily to get to me?
    Savannah and I could never live with ourselves if any of that happened. Savannah was struggling to deal with her grandmother’s death as it was.
    And that’s when it hit me. There was nothing left to try. The Clann and the council were going to get their way, no matter how much Savannah and I wished otherwise.
    No amount of football game losses could have prepared me for the crushing defeat that slammed me now. I’d never been in this situation before. I’d always been able to find a way to get what I wanted in life. Not because I was spoiled, as Emily teased me, but because Dad had always said if you wanted something enough and kept working at it, you’d find a way.
    He was wrong. The one thing I wanted more than anything else in life was to be with Savannah. But I couldn’t. Not now, and if her father was to be believed, not ever. Not as long as the Clann and the council hated and feared each other.
    I made my feet carry me down the porch steps to my truck, and then I headed for the prison that my home had become.

CHAPTER 6
    SAVANNAH
    Tristan had given up.
    Until that moment, I hadn’t realized just how much faith I secretly had in him. Tristan was a fighter at heart, and he almost always got what he wanted. He wanted us to be