Covet (Clann)

partially visible between the cafeteria and math buildings. Sure enough, Sav’s small primer-gray pickup truck was still there, the only vehicle in the lot’s growing gloom. Which meant its owner was probably up on the third floor of the sports and arts building, locking up the dance rooms. Alone.
    Unless Ron was with her…
    At my truck now, I unlocked the driver’s side door, tried to hit the electric button on the inside handle to unlock the passenger side for Bethany, then remembered. My new truck was actually an older used vehicle and didn’t have quite the number of upgrades my previous one had, including power locks.
    Sighing, I leaned across the single cab’s bench-style seat and jerked up the lock so Bethany could get in. While she did, I glanced around us.
    Ron’s stupid black Mustang was already gone. Which meant Sav really was all alone on campus.
    I shouldn’t care anymore. She’d dumped me. Twice, even though I’d all but begged her not to. And she had a new boyfriend. I should let him worry about her now. She’d made it more than clear that I was the only one still hung up on the past.
    Not to mention she was a vampire. They could handle themselves. Supposedly. Heck, she was practically the enemy now, one of the only monsters on the planet that I was supposed to fear.
    All of that made for a long list of good reasons that I should drive out of here without a single look back.
    Except I couldn’t do it.
    Cursing under my breath, I threw my door open.
    “Tristan?”
    Crap. I’d forgotten about Bethany. “Uh, I forgot something. Lock the doors. I’ll be right back.” I started the truck and turned on the heater. Then I headed back to the field house, taking my time and keeping one eye on the sports and arts building’s foyer doors where Sav would have to exit when she left.
    At the field house, I realized I didn’t have a single reason to be there. So I pretended to look for something in my locker for a few minutes. Then I headed back, taking my time crossing through the back lot. At the corner of the girls’ gym, I paused, feeling like an idiot, hands shoved inside my wool letterman jacket as the early evening steadily grew cooler now that the sun had finished setting.
    Mercifully, I didn’t have to wait long, as Sav emerged a couple of minutes later.
    I took my time returning to my truck as Sav headed down the cement ramp that led away from the building’s foyer doors. We had to be at least a hundred yards or more away from each other, the lot barely lit by a couple of lights. And yet she still looked right at me. She hesitated at the end of the ramp for a second, like she didn’t know what to do. And even knowing she didn’t care anymore couldn’t stop my heart from taking off like a jackhammer.
    Her hands fisted around the shoulder strap of her duffel bag as she turned in the opposite direction and walked across the grass past the math and cafeteria buildings.
    I returned to my truck, and Bethany leaned over to unlock the door for me.
    “Did you find it?” she asked as I slid in behind the wheel.
    “Find what?” I put on my seat belt, fiddled with the heater and the radio. Finally, headlights shone from the front parking lot then swung away.
    I shifted my truck into gear and followed those taillights at a distance.
    “Whatever you were looking for. Did you find it?” Bethany patiently repeated.
    “No, I didn’t.”

CHAPTER 21
    SAVANNAH
    The look on Tristan’s face was burned into my mind. The memory of it kept flashing before me when I least expected it. He’d looked so…hurt. And angry.
    I’d thought he had moved on. He’d been dating Bethany for months. How could he still be mad at me for making the right call and keeping him safe?
    Maybe it was the fact that I was one of the few girls who had broken up with him, instead of the other way around. Maybe it was just his ego that was hurting and not his heart.
    Whatever the reason for his anger, now that he’d figured out I could read his mind, he seemed bent on using it to punish me every chance he got.
    By the second week of being loudly tortured by his never-ending variety of mental imagery, which ranged from memories of him and me together to memories of him with Bethany, I’d lost all sympathy for his side of the situation. He was acting like a spoiled brat. If he kept this crap up, I would have to call Emily and beg her to make me a memory confusion charm or whatever it was Tristan used against my gaze daze