Covet (Clann)

that annoying vamp blur thing to reappear a couple of feet away from me.
    “Are you going to teach me how to do that, too?” I asked, only half sarcastic now.
    “Actually, I am going to teach you how not to do that. At least, not without deciding to. Moving faster than the human eye can see will come with time and feeding, along with steadily increased strength, whether you want these abilities or not. The point of our training will be to teach your body how to retain control and self-discipline so that you do not accidentally reveal how fast and strong you are around humans.”
    I groaned. Why did my parents always have to take the cool out of everything? I was half witch, but no one would let me learn to use magic. Now I was becoming a vamp, and no one wanted me to have fun with that, either!
    “Fine. So then what, I just practice moving slow and acting weak all the time?” I made my voice as high as it would go and batted my eyelashes. “Oh no, this bag is just too heavy. Won’t someone please help me carry it?” I reverted back to my normal voice with a grin. “Easy. Done. Training’s over.”
    Dad glared at me. “Ignoring what will soon come naturally to your vampire body is not going to be so easy. You will have to be vigilant not to give away your true abilities. The best way to remember to do that is to make it a habit for your body to move slowly. It will feel awkward at first, so you must practice to allow your body to grow accustomed to the sensation. We will also work on teaching your muscles using kinetic memory.”
    I stared at him, completely lost now. “Connecticut what?”
    “Kinetic memory. You have not heard of this?” His eyebrows shot up. “Dancers use it all the time. Your muscles have their own memory. If you repeat the same motions often enough, your muscles will begin to remember those movements for you. Then your mind will have to remember less for you, and moving humanly slow will once again feel natural to you.”
    I sighed. “If you say so. So what, I just pretend to be a mime and do everything in slow motion?”
    One corner of his lips twitched. “I was thinking more along the lines of tai chi.”
    I stared at him. “Isn’t that what old people do in the park?”
    “People of all ages practice tai chi as a way to focus and quiet their minds while teaching their bodies to have control and self-discipline.” He sounded a little huffy. Did vamps ever get self-conscious about their real age?
    Then I thought about what he’d said. Control over my body. Now that I could get excited about. “All right. What do I do?”
    * * *
    We trained for two hours, slowly going through several tai chi moves that became almost like a dance routine. Well, a really flat-footed ballet routine, maybe. Still, there was something soothing about tai chi, even if it was a little strange at first.
    It reminded me of when I first started taking dance in the ninth grade, before my vamp abilities began to develop and the vamp council banned me from dancing in front of others. Of course, I had a lot more grace now. But it was still new and awkward, learning the precise positioning of each move and trying to teach my body how to go through the new motions far slower than it wanted to. The challenge of it had the added benefit of taking my mind off other things.
    And my mind could definitely use a break.
    We stopped for lunch. I wanted to skip it, but Dad insisted we experiment with fruits and steamed vegetables I normally wouldn’t consider eating much of. Since I refused to drink blood, he seemed bound and determined to find the healthiest human food I could stand to eat and then fill me up with a week’s worth of it.
    It wasn’t all bad, though. I discovered that my new favorite foods were canned pears and steamed carrots. Their soft textures didn’t hurt my extra-sensitive teeth, which seemed to ache all the time lately, and their flavors were subtle enough not to send my stomach into immediate revolt. I also found I could stand vegetable juice, though it had to be watered down so it wouldn’t make my taste buds scream in pain.
    Apparently vampires had extremely delicate palates.
    We practiced more tai chi after lunch, focusing on breathing techniques this time, and the hours somehow slipped by unnoticed.
    “Thanks, Dad,” I murmured as the light streaming in through the wooden blinds at the living room windows began to turn more orange and fade. “I really needed this.”
    He returned my