Crave

“I guess it’s a good thing I don’t want to date anyone in the Clann anyways, huh?”

Laughing, Mom picked up a hairbrush and began to tug it through my tangled hair, ignoring my facial expression each time she found a new snag. “Uh, yeah. Dating someone from the Clann could start another war. Lordy, I can see it now. The Clann would think you were stalking one of their own to drain them. The vamps would think you were siding with the Clann. It’d be mass chaos in no time.” She shook her head and grinned. “But we don’t have to worry about that, right? You’ve hated the Clann’s kids for years now.”

I forced a weak chuckle and took the brush away from her before she could accidentally brush me bald. “Yeah. Right. They’re first-class jerks.”

“Any other questions?” Her tone had turned bright and cheerful, like she had simply been helping me with my homework or something.

I shook my head and tried to remember how to breathe normally past the lump in my throat. Why couldn’t I just go back to my life of a week ago, back when things weren’t perfect, but at least they were normal?

“Aw, honey.” She patted my shoulder. “Please stop worrying. You’re going to be okay.”

“How do you know I’ll be okay? What if—”

“Because you come from my side of the family, too. And we Evans women are strong. With or without magic, we know how to kick butt in life.”

“And throw a mean plate?” I managed to joke.

She laughed. “Exactly. And speaking of which, aren’t you starving by now? Your Nanna made her special fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy just the way you like them.”

I made my lips curve into a smile. “Sure, sounds great.” Why wouldn’t I be hungry? After all, just because normal life as I’d known it was over, that shouldn’t affect my appetite, right?

I didn’t want to talk to anyone for the rest of the weekend. But Nanna said that my friends had been calling for me all week. So I made myself call Anne later that evening.

After chatting for a few minutes, I thought I’d better warn her about the changes in my appearance. But when I tried to describe how different I looked, she just laughed.

“Don’t worry about it, Sav. Every year I get the flu for a few days, and afterward I swear my head looks way too big for my body. Anyways, if you want to start coming early to school next week, I could help you get caught up on all the algebra homework you missed.”

“Mmm, good idea.” I hesitated, curious to know if anyone else had missed me while I was gone, one boy in particular. But I couldn’t find a casual way to ask and not make a big deal out of it. And why would anyone other than my friends have missed me? So I gave up and said goodbye instead.

When I called Carrie and Michelle, I didn’t mention the changes in my appearance. For all I knew, I was the only one who would notice them.

But when I returned to school Monday morning, too late to meet Anne at the picnic tables for tutoring, I felt more like a freak than ever. While some of the changes in my appearance might be my imagination, the bigger chest size definitely wasn’t. I’d gone up a full cup and a half. Mom and I had been forced to do emergency shirt and bra shopping yesterday so I’d have something to wear to school that didn’t scream slut.

Still, even with the bigger shirts, I felt conspicuous in the main hall before first period. So I made sure to carry my notebook against my chest. The freshmen boys weren’t exactly kind in their comments toward the curvier girls in our grade, and I so didn’t need more hall harassment in my life right now.

Unfortunately, even my notebook couldn’t block what happened next.

“O. M. G. Worst boob job ever!” Vanessa called out to me, laughing as she and her sister passed by, their voices somehow loud enough to carry over the noise of the hall even though they didn’t sound like they were actually yelling. Magically amplified? I wouldn’t doubt it. They would want everyone to be sure to hear them torture me.

And then I felt it. It was like a poisonous gas spreading over my skin, seeping past my shirt to make my skin crawl. And alien … whatever it was, the sensation definitely wasn’t coming from me.

What the heck was it? Nobody had warned me about this.

It had to be either magic- or vampire-based. Or had the Brat Twins hit me with a spell just now? I would have to call Mom as soon as I could find a restroom where I could talk in private.

I kept walking, forcing my hands to be still when all I wanted to do was scrub the vile sensation from my skin. I tried to think about something else, anything at all.

But then I had to refocus on the weird sensation, because it was changing now. In fact, the farther away I got from the Brat Twins, the more the sinister feeling of evil intentions faded away. Now it was more a mixture of stuff I couldn’t sort out. Kind of like cobwebs made of worry, happiness, sadness and fear all twisted together. Maybe I was going insane from learning too much crazy crap about my family and myself this weekend.

Unless … somehow I could sense others’ emotions now?

Oh, Lord. When I concentrated, it grew worse, until I could feel each person’s mood as they passed me. Experimenting, I matched up what I felt with each person’s facial expression and overheard bits of conversations, and was able to piece clues together. Happiness nearly made me laugh from its tickling sensation. Worry was heavy and cold, an ice chunk sliding down my skin. Love was warmth and softness, heated cotton balls. Anger, a knife that slashed and ripped across my skin.

I managed to make it the hundred yards to my locker, then closed my eyes and tried to think about something else. Anything else to make the overwhelming mix of emotions go away. Something soothing. Something …

Tristan’s eyes staring down at me. The sound of his voice, low and husky, whispering my nickname, asking me if I was okay. His hands on my shoulders, warming me through my shirt in algebra class.

After a few minutes, the sensations of others’ emotions faded away. My shoulders, which had scrunched up near my ears, eased back down, and I could breathe deeply again.

Okay. So now I could sense others’ emotions. It wasn’t an ideal development, and I definitely could have used a little warning. But at least I could control it if I stayed calm. Was it magic- or vampire-based?

It had to be magic-based, some sort of natural Clann ESP ability, right? Which meant no cause for alarm, no vampire abilities developing here. It wasn’t exactly normal. But maybe all the descendants could do this and just didn’t show it. Even Tristan.

Oh, crap. Could they read my emotions around him? Could he tell—?

Face burning, I cut off that thought and headed away from my locker, debating whether to call my parents or Nanna and let them know about this new development. Then again, why should I? They’d wanted me to tell them about new developments so they could help me deal with them. But I’d handled this one on my own. All I had to do to control it and block out everyone’s emotions was to stay calm. There was no need for the rescue squad. Yet.

Okay, so no phone call to the family. But maybe I should go ahead and grab my entire day’s collection of books so I wouldn’t have to return to the main hall later. Just to be safe.

“Go, Savannah!” Captain Kristi, leader of the Charmers dance team and the assistant teacher for my pre-drill class, whooped as she ran over to give me a high five, hundreds of tiny black braids bouncing wildly around her head with her every step.

I couldn’t even feel her palm slap mine. I was too much in shock. A triple pirouette. When I couldn’t even do a proper single a week ago. It was an honest-to-goodness miracle.

At the end of pre-drill class, I floated downstairs, feeling like one of those Mylar balloons, all light and shiny, while I got dressed then walked over to the cafeteria for lunch. No doubt my cheeks would hurt tomorrow from the force of my smile. But I couldn’t stop myself. Today, for the first time ever, I had been every bit as good as the experienced dancers in my class. Not only had I succeeded in performing a triple pirouette, but I’d also finally gone all the way down to the floor in my splits, and my split leaps had all landed without a single thud or shake of the room. Still better, my wimpy high kicks, once only up to chest level, had nearly hit me in the face today. And hadn’t hit anyone else for a change. Even the experienced dancers in the class had seemed impressed by my improvement. And now that I wasn’t such a failure at it, dancing was fun!

This freak had finally learned some dance skills, maybe even good enough to make the Charmers dance team next month, if I was crazy enough to audition. Ha! Let the Clann sense these emotions!

“Hey, girls,” I greeted my friends as I dropped my backpack at our table in the cafeteria. I glanced at them, my face stuck in a broad grin. “Let me grab some food and I’ll be right back to hear what I missed last week.”

No one replied, but I didn’t give them much time to before I hurried to join the food line. The lunchroom was packed as usual, but apparently sensing others’ emotions only happened when I was upset, because I felt nothing now except my own pure joy. Which only made me happier.

Finally, I’d managed not to be a total klutz at something! Maybe I should try out for the Charmers. Making the dance team was pretty much an instant passport to popularity in Jacksonville, or at least a huge social upgrade. And getting to dance all the time would be a total blast.

Lost in thought, I didn’t realize at first that the boy directly ahead of me in the slow-moving line was smiling at me. Surprised, I smiled back, though I didn’t recognize him, then blushed and looked down.

“Hi, I’m Greg Stanwick.” He grabbed a mint-green tray from the stack then offered me one, as well.

“Oh, hey. I’m Savannah.” I hadn’t planned on getting the lunch of the day since I usually had pizza or chili cheese fries instead. Then again, maybe I should eat something healthy for a change and reward my body for all its amazing improvements in pre-drill. “Um, thanks.”

Greg seemed to take that as encouragement. “So, what grade are you in?”

“Ninth.”

“Eleventh for me. Hey, do you ever go to the soccer games?”

I shook my head.

“Well, you should really think about seeing some. We’ve got a killer team this year. Four-time champions. I should know, I’m on the varsity team.” His smile was a few watts too bright, reminding me of a game-show host. And he was only a few inches taller than me, putting him somewhere around five-nine or -ten. But overall he was kind of hot, with short black hair and soft brown eyes that reflected warmth from his smile.

I realized Greg was still talking and tried to look interested as he chatted about his soccer team and all the ways they were training hard for another winning season.

“Maybe we’ll run into each other again,” he said as we paid for our food.

“Um, sure. Nice meeting you.”

“Nice meeting you, too, Savannah.” But he didn’t turn away. Instead, he stood there watching me. I could feel his gaze on me as I returned to my table.

Okay, that was weird but sort of nice. Guys never paid any attention to me. Maybe it was the bigger boob size?

I set down my tray and sat.

Suddenly, I felt someone standing next to me.

I looked up and found Greg grinning down at me.

“Hey,” he said. “I forgot to mention, we’ve got a home game this Friday, if you want to come watch. It’ll start at six at the Tomato Bowl.”

Total silence, not only at our table, but at all the surrounding tables, too, made my cheeks burn. The unwanted attention had to be because of Greg, because I wasn’t exactly on anyone’s social radar around here.

I blinked a few times and struggled to think of a reply. Then I remembered. “Um, that sounds like fun. But I have a dance recital that night. So … maybe next time?”

Greg looked away for a moment. At the same time, goose bumps and a prickling sensation raced up my arms and across the back of my neck. Someone must have cranked up the air-conditioning or something. Shivering, I rubbed my arms.

When Greg looked back down at me, his smile wasn’t quite as blinding. “Yeah, sure. Next time.” Then he walked away.

I cringed, hoping I hadn’t hurt his feelings. Though why he’d care if I came to one of his games or not was beyond me.

I glanced at my friends and grinned. Their shocked expressions matched how I felt. “Did that just happen?” I asked, a short laugh slipping out.

Silence at our table, even as the other nearby tables recovered.

In the continuing silence from my friends, I leaned forward and looked more closely at them. “Um, hello? Anyone care to comment on that?”

Yeesh. Yes, it was true that boys never talked to me, and definitely none had ever made a point to come up to me during lunch. But my friends were acting like he’d also jumped up on the table and performed a song and dance for us or something. I’d never seen them all this speechless at the same time. I had the strong urge to snap my fingers under their noses just to bring them back to planet Earth.

I met Anne’s stare first, then Carrie’s, then Michelle’s. Without fail, each girl’s eyes widened as I met their gazes. Okay, this was getting weirder by the moment.

“Look at me.” Anne’s command, an echo of Dad’s demanding tone on Saturday, reminded me of my changed appearance. And of the crazy family secrets I wanted to forget as quickly as possible.

“Oh, yeah.” My good mood faded. “I forgot, you haven’t seen how weird I look.” Now Anne would tell me what an imaginative idiot I was and how I looked the same as I always did.

Her eyebrows drew together. “You don’t look weird. But you do look different, that’s for sure. What’d you do to your hair? It looks like a flippin’ Garnier commercial. Did you get it colored? It’s not so orange now. And it’s … poufy.”

Oh. So maybe I hadn’t imagined the changes in my appearance.

Feeling like a circus sideshow, I blushed. “I know, it’s kind of odd. But I swear I didn’t do anything new to it.”

“And your eyes,” Michelle whispered.

I looked at Michelle, who reminded me of a nervous rabbit today for some reason. Her gaze darted away.

Oh, crap, that’s right. Dad had mentioned that my gaze might have a strange effect on others. But he hadn’t said what kind of effect. He should’ve warned me that my friends would treat me like an alien that had crash-landed at our table.

“What do you think, Carrie?” I met her stare head-on, my hands clenching into fists under the table as fear battled with a tiny bit of curiosity. Exactly what did they see when they looked into my eyes now?

Carrie was the calmest, coolest, most levelheaded member of our group. She had a mind like a scientist, or the doctor she claimed to want to become someday. She could offer some practical, objective feedback.

I held her gaze for several seconds as something like the weekend’s panic threatened to overwhelm what little curiosity I’d had. Maybe I didn’t want to know, after all.

Then I saw it … that same fearful widening of the eyes just before Carrie looked away.

Ohhh, crap. And according to Dad, that was a vampire thing.

I tried to remember how to breathe past the growing thickness in my throat. The noise of the cafeteria ramped up, roaring in my ears like an angry ocean during a storm, even as too many different emotions from others rushed in waves over my skin. I wrapped my arms around myself in a futile effort to block them out.

Did this mean I was turning into a vampire?

“Here, let me see again.” This time, Anne’s voice was far from its usual command.

And suddenly, I did not want to make eye contact with her. I didn’t want to see my best friend look at me and become afraid. Then again, maybe it was all in how I was looking back at them, and I just needed to relax. Maybe then they would settle down and it would be no big deal.

I slid my gaze up and over, seeing Anne’s chin first, then her mouth and nose. I hesitated, took a deep breath, focused on being calm and hopefully projecting soothing thoughts with my eyes, then made direct eye contact. And heard her gasp.

Well, crap. That didn’t work, either. My gaze dropped to the tray of food I no longer wanted as my head began to swim.

After a minute, Anne took a deep breath before saying, “It’s okay, Sav. Your eyes aren’t that different, at least not in a way I can really describe. They just seem kind of … intense for some reason.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Michelle said. “Reminds me of how my mom looked at me when I accidentally broke the coffee table last month. Like she wanted to kill me.”

“But I’m not mad!” I blurted out. “In fact, I was pretty dang happy a minute ago. That guy who just came over, Greg Stanwick, is a junior and a varsity soccer player. He just introduced himself out of the blue while we were in the food line. It was kind of weird actually….” Weird didn’t even begin to cover all the recent things I’d been going through since last week. And couldn’t talk about with them. How in the world could my friends believe me, much less understand? They hated the Clann. Michelle thought witches sacrificed small animals, Carrie was too practical to ever believe in vampires and Anne’s Pentecostal family would never let her be friends with a half vampire/half witch. They barely liked her hanging out with a bunch of Methodists and Baptists. And I still hadn’t figured out how she’d convinced them to let her wear jeans every day and cut her hair. The other Pentecostals on campus had to wear skirts and couldn’t cut their hair, which they wore down to their knees.

“He’s a junior?” Carrie said, her stiff posture melting around the edges a little.

“Ooh, and a varsity soccer player, too?” Nothing like a new piece of gossip to make Michelle sound like her old self again. She claimed she wanted to be a nurse and help Carrie in the operating room someday, but Anne and I had a private bet that she would end up working for a gossip magazine instead.

A little of the tightness in my chest eased as all three of my friends attacked the juicy news, and gradually the tidal wave of everyone else’s emotions fell away. I forced a smile as I answered their questions about Greg and ended up giving a word-for-word playback of my earlier conversation with him. But I was careful never to look higher than their noses while I spoke. I didn’t want to risk freaking them out again with my eyes.

My vampire eyes.

“Oh, speaking of boys acting weird,” Michelle said. “Savannah, you seem to have another fan.”

As soon as Michelle said the words, I could feel it. Tristan was staring at me from the Clann kids’ table across the cafeteria. I didn’t know how I knew it was him, but I would have bet a lot of money on it.

“And he’s staring at you right now,” Michelle added with a grin, completely unsubtle in trying to bait my curiosity.

“Tristan Coleman, right?” I tried to keep my voice calm, hopefully even bored-sounding.

“How’d you know?” she gasped.

Because I can feel his gaze boring into the back of my dang head, I wanted to growl. Instead I shrugged and tried to act like it didn’t bug me.

“Well, I bet you didn’t know that he was asking about you last week.” Pride flooded her voice. “He said he and the Clann girls at his lunch table had heard you were sick and were worried about you.”

Whoa. Tristan had noticed I was gone and asked about me? Out of personal interest, or for the Clann?

Anne snorted. “Oh, please. As if any of those spoiled brats care about anyone outside their elite little circle.”

Unless their parents had told them all about me, and now they were worried I would attack them in the halls.

“Well, why would he lie about it to me?” Michelle said.

“Maybe because he’d already asked me and I told him to mind his own business,” Anne said.

I stared at my best friend in surprised horror.

“Well, in so many words,” she added in a mumble.

“Why didn’t you just tell him how I was doing?” I said.

“Because I honestly didn’t know, okay? All your grandma would say was that you were sick and they weren’t sure when you’d be back at school, but you weren’t in the hospital. Besides, he’s a mega … mega …” Anne scowled, her nose scrunching as she searched for the word she wanted.

“Megalomaniac?” I offered.

“Yeah. That!”

I sighed. “I’m sorry if I worried you. I really was … sick. In fact, I don’t remember most of last week beyond Monday afternoon. I think I scared Mom and Nanna, too.” There, that was the truth. Mostly.

Three faces stared at me with open shock once again. I tried not to cringe in reaction. All this unexpected attention today made me want to find a hole to hide in.

“So what was wrong with you?” Anne said.

I shrugged and braced for the necessary lie. I would have to tell them it had been the flu. But the bell rang, cutting short the conversation. Thank goodness, too, because I really sucked at lying. And there was no way they would ever believe even half the stuff my family had told me this weekend. Hopefully they would just forget that I’d been out sick and had weird eyes now.

If I was lucky, maybe I could forget, too.

Tristan

My knees bounced beneath the descendants’ table as I ate my lunch and watched the clock on the cafeteria wall. Two hours left until fourth-period algebra.

I’d made the lunch-chair trade with Dylan permanent, though he wasn’t happy about it. But I’d had to pull rank on him; the view was better from his old seat. Or at least it had been, until the view showed a dark-haired boy, short and wiry, stopping at Savannah’s table.

Probably one of her friends’ boyfriends.

Except the guy was standing inches from Savannah and talking to her, not the others.

My knees stopped bouncing.

A classmate asking for help on an assignment? No, he looked too old to be a freshman like us.

I leaned sideways toward my sister. “Who’s that guy?”

“Huh?” Emily looked around then smirked. “Oh, you mean the one talking to a certain—”

“Yeah.”

She got the hint and whispered, “Tell you in a minute.” Then she pretended to return to her lunch. But I noticed her casually scoping out the cafeteria every few seconds.

The guy braced one hand on Savannah’s table, another hand on the back of her chair, and leaned down toward her.

I sat up, my hands clenching into fists on my thighs. Back off. Now, I thought to the would-be Romeo, adding a little magical push to the thought. Some humans were too thickheaded to pick up on Clann mental commands. This guy wasn’t, thankfully. His head shot up and he looked toward me.

I knew I should be acting more casual in case the Clann noticed. But I’d lost control. I glared back at him, willing him to take a silent hint and get lost.

After a few seconds, he straightened up and walked away.

I eased down in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest. But I still wanted to hit something.

Once the guy was several yards away from Savannah, Emily leaned over and threw an arm around my shoulders. “That was Greg Stanwick. He’s a junior. Plays on the varsity soccer team, so apparently he’s good. I’ve heard he’s pretty charming and doesn’t mind dating younger girls. Like freshmen.”

A growl started in my chest. Not Savannah, he wouldn’t. She needed someone … taller. Someone who didn’t smile like a freaking game-show host.

“Youch. Want to ease up on the energy level there, little brother?” Emily peeled her arm from my shoulders and rubbed her skin through her shirtsleeve.

“Sorry,” I muttered and glanced around our table. Everyone was staring at me. “Sorry,” I called out to the entire group. Several of them rolled their eyes and rubbed their arms or the back of their necks, but everyone seemed to accept the apology and looked away again. Everyone except Dylan, who kept watching me with raised eyebrows. I shrugged in answer to his silent question. He could be nosier than a girl looking for gossip sometimes.