Crave (Harlequin Teen)

her words poked at me. I wanted to forget everything he’d said.
    “Well, according to him I have a new problem. I used to be terrible at everything. Now he says I’m too good. He wants me to stop dancing, and says if I keep dancing I’ll end up exposing the entire vampire world. Or something stupid like that.”
    Mom’s face creased with worry under the flickering light of the streetlamps we passed. She turned to look at Nanna behind the wheel.
    “Savannah, maybe…” Nanna began as she guided the car around a corner.
    “Yes, maybe you should listen to your father this time,” Mom finished.
    I stared at Mom. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
    “Well, how often has he asked you to do anything?” Mom said.
    “Because he knows he has no right to!” The words exploded out of me. But I wouldn’t take them back, because it was the truth. Just because my father had helped create me didn’t make him a real dad. He had never been there for me when I needed him. What gave him the right to tell me what to do now? And not even for my own good. He was only worried his precious council would get mad at him.
    “He’s just worried about you,” Mom insisted.
    “Oh, come on! You know that’s a load of bull. He’s just trying to make his council happy. Bunch of paranoid dictators. Did you think that my dancing was too good tonight? That people would look at my dancing and know I was a freak?”
    “Stop using that word!” Mom snapped.
    I was too mad and desperate to care. I just stared at her and waited for her to answer me.
    She sighed. “No, I don’t think your dancing is a problem. At least, not yet.”
    “And that’s with me trying to impress everyone,” I added. “I know I can learn to blend in with a little practice. Until tonight, I didn’t even know I needed to worry about that.”
    “Hon, you really don’t want to upset the vampire council. They aren’t the nicest of vampires.” Mom’s hands twisted together in her lap.
    I rolled my eyes. “But they don’t rule the world, do they? I mean, who are they to say whether I can dance or not? If you two say it’s all right, shouldn’t that be what matters? You could watch me practice at home and tell me when to…to tone it down, or whatever.”
    Mom looked at Nanna.
    Nanna gave a sharp nod. “Savannah’s right. They shouldn’t get to tell us what to do.”
    “Mother…” Mom whispered, her eyes widening. My heart beat sped up with hope.
    “It’ll be all right, Joan.” Nanna’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the road. Her gnarled hands gripped the steering wheel harder. “Remember who we are, the strong line of women you’ve both descended from. If Savannah wants to dance, I say she ought to do just that. We’ve gotta give her a chance to learn how to control herself through all these changes. And have faith in her that she can. Michael’s people can just butt out of things and mind their own darn business.”
    Smiling through fresh tears of a different kind now, I took one last risk. “So, if I wanted to try out for the high-school dance team in three weeks…?”
    I stared at them and waited, my heart hammering at the base of my throat.
    Mom sighed. “Then I guess you’d better bring me the permission form to sign. And start practicing in the backyard for your Nanna and me.”
    Letting out a short whoop of victory, I reached through the front seats and hugged Mom, then squeezed Nanna’s shoulder in thanks. So what if my crappy excuse for a father and his council didn’t approve? The two women who had raised me, my real family, who had always been there for me, supported me now. And that was all I needed. Once I became a Charmer, I would show him, all the rest of those controlling vamps and everyone else in Jacksonville that I could fit in just fine.

CHAPTER 6
    Savannah
    Seventy girls all spraying their hair at once made one heck of a smell.
    All of the freshmen dancers had been packed into the third floor of Jacksonville High’s sports and art building. The twenty-seven Charmer veterans had been given much more room to spread out downstairs in the theater. They also had less distance to walk, since the theater shared a large foyer with the main gym.
    Where a panel of judges awaited to determine all our fates.
    I was in the second-to-last group, made up of myself and three dancers from various other pre-drill classes. Just my luck to audition during the year they’d decided to order everyone alphabetically in reverse, which