Crave (Harlequin Teen)

Why?” Emily replied, her eyes wide with innocent confusion.
    “It nearly killed her.”
    The color drained from her face. In a different situation, I would have enjoyed my know-it-all sister’s look of shock. Right now, I just wanted to choke her.
    “Tristan, that’s impossible. I used the same spell every Clann parent uses on their kids for vamp protection. If it’s safe enough to use on a toddler, it should be more than safe enough—”
    “Well, it’s not. As soon as I put it on her wrist, Savannah passed clean out and was barely breathing. I couldn’t get her to wake up until I took the bracelet off her again. You must’ve screwed up the spell somehow.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “I never screw up spells. That’s your department, little brother. Are you sure she didn’t have an allergic reaction to the materials in the ribbons or something?”
    I snorted. No one had an allergic reaction like that to freaking cotton. “Don’t blame this on the damn ribbons. It was your spell work, and you know it. She didn’t seem to want to put it on at first, either, like she knew something was wrong with it before it ever touched her.” But Savannah had put it on anyway because she trusted me. Fury bubbled up inside me again, along with a slightly sick feeling. “She’s an easy target for the vamps until we get her protected. You’ve got to fix this. Now.”
    “All right, pushy.” She took the bracelet from me, frowning down at the ribbons. “Hey, did you get this thing anywhere near fire?”
    “No. Why?”
    She flipped it over so I could see the blackened side of the ribbons.
    I swore again. “Savannah had what looked like a burn line around her wrist after she tried it on. Did you use any chemicals or—”
    “No, it was straight energy and words, nothing else.” She kept frowning, and she had that thoughtful look.
    “What?”
    “Come on, little brother. Time for research. You can help.”
    I followed her over to the tech building and into a partially full computer lab. Emily talked to the teacher for a minute then led me to two computers in an empty corner in the back.
    “Grab a computer, pull up the internet and look up this word.” She wrote the name Lillith on a slip of paper.
    “Who’s she?”
    “The mother of all vampires. Now quit asking questions and look her up already.”
    Frowning, I pulled up the internet browser, waited for the Google search page to finish loading, then typed in the name. “What are we looking for exactly?”
    “I’ll tell you what to click on.” Muttering about stupid, slow school computers, she followed her own directions.
    We spent the rest of lunch period researching. When I didn’t click on a link fast enough, she growled and took my mouse away from me so she could work both computers herself.
    “We’re going to be late for third period,” I said after the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.
    “No biggie. The teacher here will give us passes.”
    An hour and twenty minutes later, just when I began to think we’d end up missing fourth period, too, she sighed. It wasn’t a happy sound, though. “Found it. Read this.”
    I leaned over toward her computer monitor to read.
While the King James version of the Bible refers to Eve as Adam’s first wife, ancient Hebrew texts state that Eve was Adam’s second wife, created from his rib. Adam’s first wife, named Lillith, was created by God from the clay of the earth just as Adam was. Because she was created in the same way as Adam, Lillith believed that she was Adam’s equal. However, Adam believed he was superior to her, and this led to much arguing.
Lillith shouted out God’s secret name, which gave her the power to fly away. Adam complained to God, so God sent three angels to bring her back. But she refused to return with them and threatened to become a plague upon mankind. So God punished her by killing one hundred of her children every day and creating a new wife, Eve, for Adam. In revenge, Lillith upheld her threat and became a demoness, seducing men in their dreams, harming pregnant women and babies, and drinking humans’ blood. To replace the human children she could no longer create, Lillith also shared her blood with chosen human victims from time to time, thus creating the first vampires on earth. It is believed that these incubus vampires continue to exist in secret to this day.
    When I was done reading, I was still confused. “Okay, what’s your point?”
    “Here’s your answer.