Crave (Harlequin Teen)

inside me like a fountain of liquid sunlight. “Really?” I whispered, unable to stop a grin from forming.
    “Yeah. Really.”
    “I love you, too, Tristan.” And in that moment, they were the easiest, most natural words in the English language to say.
    He tugged the rubber band out of my hair, setting my wild curls free so he could bury his hands in them. Then he kissed me, and I kissed him back, forgetting to keep it light, letting myself drown in the sensation of his lips moving over mine until the dream ended.
     
    I woke up but kept my eyes closed, the memory of those three little words warming me from head to toe.
    If only we could stay asleep and in our dreams together for the rest of our lives, my life would be perfect.
    But gradually, maybe inevitably, the sensation of his kiss faded from my lips and an ache filled my lungs. Being with him felt so right. Until we were apart, when it all suddenly felt so wrong.
    I loved him. Utterly. Completely. Totally. There wasn’t a single cell inside my body that did not adore him. If he weren’t in the Clann, he would be the single most perfect boyfriend imaginable.
    But he was in the Clann. And worse, he was expected to become their future leader.
    And I was a half-breed outcast.
    And all the love in the world couldn’t change those two facts.
    Hot tears burned their way down my cheeks. I let them fall, too tired to bother wiping them away. No one could see me in the predawn darkness of my bedroom anyway.
    What could I do to change things, to make it okay some how for Tristan and me to be together openly? Could I talk to my father, maybe get him to convince the vampire council to change their minds? Could Tristan talk to his parents and the other elders in the Clann, make them see that they were wrong about him and me?
    I rolled over, hugging my knees beneath the blanket Nanna had crocheted for me.
    Who was I kidding? The Clann and the vampires had been fighting each other for centuries. Their hate and fear of each other had begun long before even Nanna was born. They hadn’t changed their minds for my father and my mother. Why would they change their minds just because Tristan and I had fallen in love, too?
    I remembered the way Tristan had looked at me in last night’s dream, all the elaborate details he’d pulled together just to give us a perfect New Year’s Eve celebration. The way he’d stared right into my soul and told me that he loved me.
    Everything might change if he knew the truth.
    What would he think if he knew I was half vampire? There was no telling what he’d been told all his life about vampires. At the very least, he had to have been taught to fear them, to view them as the enemy waiting for a chance to drink his blood and drain him dry.
    He might start to see me that way, too.
    Maybe if I loved him a little less, I could take that chance and tell him the truth. But I couldn’t. I loved him too much to risk it. I never wanted him to question even for a second why I was with him or how I felt about him.
    I just prayed that the adult descendants in the Clann kept their promise and never told him, either.

CHAPTER 17
    Tristan
    The new Charmers spring practice schedule was killing me.
    Starting in February, for the next two and a half months, it seemed like the Charmers intended to eat, sleep and breathe preparations in the school auditorium for the team’s annual Spring Show. In addition to their regular morning practices, afternoon practices had been extended from six to seven o’clock every evening, plus Saturday practices.
    Savannah had put me on the stage crew with the other escorts and team dads. Unfortunately, they also took volunteers, including Dylan Williams this year. He was dating one of the Brat Twins, and no descendants were Charmers. So he must be volunteering either to annoy me or spy on me. Whatever his motives were, I was ready to kill him with my bare hands. And we were still only three weeks into the show preparations.
    The jerk was always around, always watching. Every time I started to pull Savannah behind a prop or curtain for a kiss during the after-school practices, Dylan popped up with some request for help or a question for her. At least I still had the mornings with her, though.
    Right now, that was all we had, since the spring weather was so crappy I hadn’t been able to sleep outside in order to dream connect. Even morning practices didn’t give us many chances to be alone together, because she worked