Crave (Harlequin Teen)

“Why, thank you, dear! See you tonight.”
     
    I arrived at our usual restaurant, Chez Corvet’s, faster than I’d expected. My father was already waiting for me at a white cloth-draped table in the middle of the mostly empty restaurant.
    He looked the same as always, perfectly polished in one of his usual dark blue suits. And yet the way he stared at me to day was different, colder somehow. The look definitely didn’t invite any ecstatic, long-lost reunion hugs from me. Just seeing him staring at me like that reminded me why I’d given up trying to please him and refused to talk to him for months.
    I sat across from him. After the waiter took my drink order and left, my father said in a voice so low I had to strain to hear it, “Can you hear me?”
    The restaurant wasn’t busy at this hour. Most of the lunch crowd wouldn’t get here till twelve. Yet he acted as if we were surrounded by tables full of nosy eavesdroppers instead of empty chairs and one couple in a booth against the back wall.
    Still, if he wanted to act mysterious, I guessed I could play along for the sake of getting some much-needed answers.
    “Yes, I can hear you, barely,” I whispered.
    “Good. Keep your voice quiet just like that.” He reached into his jacket’s inner pocket and withdrew a black-and-silver flask.
    “You carry around your own liquor?” I frowned at the flask as he reached for one of the empty wineglasses on our table.
    His face remained expressionless as he slowly filled the glass with a dark red wine.
    I sighed, getting impatient. Then a scent wafted over from the kitchen that made my mouth water. Oh, yeah, I’d forgotten to eat this morning. And last night, too. Well, I’d definitely be ordering whatever the chefs were making in the kitchen today. My stomach grumbled.
    He slid the glass toward me. “Tell me, does this smell good to you?”
    Huh? “You know I’m way too young to drink wine.”
    “I never said it was wine.”
    My heart skipped a beat. “Then what…” I stared down at the dark red liquid. “Oh.” He was a vampire. Of course. So this was…blood. “It doesn’t smell right.” But it did smell…good. Ew, gross!
    “You mean it does not smell like Tristan Coleman’s.”
    I froze. He knew. Oh, holy heck.
    I stared down at the table between us, my thoughts scrambling. I’d really hoped to leave my relationship with Tristan out of today’s conversation and just focus on my latest changes instead. So much for that plan.
    One dark eyebrow rose as he leaned back in his seat. “Tell me about last night.”
    “It sounds like you already heard about it. Did your council’s other spies give you a call?”
    “They did report to the council, yes. But I would like to hear your version of it. You two have been spending a lot of time together? Alone?”
    It was either lie or tell the truth. And I was really, really tired of lying. After a long hesitation, I nodded.
    “You care about this boy.” It wasn’t a question. My face must have already given me away.
    “I’m sorry. I know I wasn’t supposed to. I swear I tried not to. And I’ve been trying to break things off with him for a while now. But it’s…it’s harder than I thought it’d be.”
    “I know what that is like. I experienced the same difficulty with your mother.”
    His understanding tone surprised me. Hope flared too bright and quick inside me to be stopped. I gripped the edge of the table. “Would it really be so bad if I kept dating him? What if I swore to never, ever join the Clann?”
    “They could still use him to manipulate you into helping them.”
    I closed my eyes, feeling my shoulders sag.
    “And then there is the issue of the constant danger you pose to him. Every time you two are together, every time you kiss—”
    “Kiss?” My eyes flew open.
    He nodded. “Do you not remember? You also come from the incubus. We are able to take energy through a kiss.”
    I wanted to slap my forehead. I’d completely forgotten. So all the times I’d kissed Tristan, and I thought he was just joking around about feeling light-headed…
    “And then there is the small matter of last night’s events,” he added.
    I closed my eyes against the growing panic, trying to hold down the sickening horror rising up in my stomach. “The bloodlust.” No point denying any of it now. I was so royally screwed. “Is the council going to make me live with you now?”
    When I finally found the courage to look at him, I expected him to