Melissa Darnell - Consume

Heaving a noisy sigh, he got into the car, and I had to hide a smile as I reached for my seat belt. “Put your seat belt on, please. I don’t want to get pulled over for a belt violation again.”

“Again? How often do you get pulled over?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to get pulled over by a Clann cop even once when you’re a vamp.”

I slipped and let a memory flit through my mind of the one time I’d been pulled over. To this day, I still occasionally had nightmares of the hatred and barely restrained violence in that uniformed descendant’s thoughts as he’d held me trapped there in my car for ten long minutes while he decided whether to be a good cop or an even better descendant.

Tristan grabbed my hand, his eyes furious. “Seriously? Did he do anything, or just think about doing it?”

Crap. I really needed to find a way to block this mind connection thing between us. I swallowed hard. “Don’t worry, he was a good cop. That day. But I don’t ever want to tempt him again. Which is why we can’t speed this morning to make up time.”

“I should—” he began in a growl.

“No, you shouldn’t. Just use it as a lesson. We’ve got to be on our toes about this stuff. And I’m not just talking about following the traffic laws here. We can’t do anything to give any of them a reason to go after us. Okay? No matter how much they may push us, we’ve got to keep it together. No mistakes, no losing control.” I searched his eyes, needing to know he was hearing me loud and clear here.

He sighed, letting go of his anger for now. “Yeah, okay.”

He put on his seat belt, and I put the key into the ignition. Then I caught his longing stare at the steering wheel.

He really wanted to drive my car.

I groaned. “Fine. Just this once, you can—”

But he was already out the door and around the car, opening the door for me like a chauffeur.

Laughing, I got out and let the spoiled brat have his way, as usual.

Ten minutes later we pulled into the parking lot with two whole minutes to spare, Tristan still grinning just like he had the whole way here. Shaking my head, I grabbed my trusty blue leather Charmers duffle bag, got out and circled the car so I could lean in through the driver’s side window to say goodbye.

The plan was for him to stay in the car till the bell for first period rang in an hour and a half. Then he’d head for the office in the main hall, where he would once again be helping out as an office aide till second period.

So I was surprised when he got out of the car with me.

“Just wanted to say a proper goodbye now that we don’t have to hide anymore,” he murmured, leaning against the side of the car and pulling me against him for a kiss.

Realizing we were out in the open where anyone could see us together sent a thrill skittering across my every nerve ending and made my lips curve into a huge grin against his. “Hmm. I could get used to this.”

We kissed again, then he leaned his head back a few inches and grinned. “And just think, we’ve also got lunch together in the cafeteria to look forward to.”

I pictured his sitting beside me at my friends’ table. Just the idea seemed like a fantasy that couldn’t possibly ever come true. And yet it would. Today. My heart skipped another beat in anticipation.

Then I remembered...all the Clann kids would be staring at us in the cafeteria. I could already imagine how much they would love seeing their former leader, now a vamp, sitting with the enemy instead of them. I sighed, my excitement deflating a bit. If only we were at some other school...

“They’ll get over it,” Tristan said. “Today might be rough, but eventually they’ll get so used to seeing us together that they won’t even think about it anymore.”

“Promises, promises,” I muttered. Then I checked my watch and hissed. “Ouch. I have really gotta go.” I gave him one last kiss, turned away then hesitated. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“With sitting in the ’Vette till first period? Sure. What’s the big deal?”

“No, I mean with...this.” I waved a hand at the school campus. “You, me, being back here so soon. I know what Dad and the council and your mother want, but are you sure—”

The image of him pinning that nameless hunter to a tree in the Arkansas woods flashed through my mind. I pushed it away, but not fast enough.

Tristan’s head rocked back as if I’d slapped him. After a long beat of silence, he muttered, “That won’t happen again, Savannah.”

Great. Now I’d done it.

“Right,” I said too quickly with a smile that felt fake even to me. “I know that. You weren’t yourself that day. Now you are.”

Except now we would be facing a way bigger challenge than resisting regular human blood. Today we would be around members of the Clann, each one of them full of the most tempting blood any vamp could ever wish for, thanks to the powerful extra energy their magical abilities filled them with. Tristan was going to feel like a newly recovering alcoholic forced to spend eight hours trapped inside a bar.

A bar where just asking for a drink could risk starting a war, and would also probably send the vamp council after us, as well.

And there was nothing more I could do to help him resist that urge to drink.

He looked down at his feet, staring without seeing, his mind filling with images and memories...of the feel of that hunter’s fragile neck trapped within his hand, the human’s heartbeat pounding beneath his fingertips. The taste of the blood as it had rushed down Tristan’s throat, warming him, filling him not just with energy and life but a rush of power and excitement, as well.

Just a short moment in time that had seemed so good yet now had become his worst mistake ever. A mistake that had haunted his nightmares yet again last night.

He hated himself for that mistake, for what he had done and nearly could have done to that innocent human. Thanks to his victim’s blood memories, he knew that man, though divorced, still loved and missed his wife and the two little girls he only got to see at Christmas now that their mother had moved them three states away. He knew that man had been in those woods hunting only because this Christmas, he hadn’t had enough money to see his girls, so he’d gone hunting alone to try to distract himself from his misery and loneliness. And he’d nearly died because Tristan had lost control.

“But he didn’t die,” I murmured, my heart hurting for Tristan so much it caused a physical ache within my chest. “He’s still alive with no memory of what happened.”

“Yeah, well, you and I sure remember.”

Tristan wouldn’t look at me now, his gaze rising only as high as my knees. But I could see the misery in his eyes.

All the joking around about who would drive us to school this morning had been an act, a distraction to keep him from thinking about what he would be facing today. He was worried, too, afraid he wouldn’t be strong enough, and scared to admit that fear to me or even to himself.

And here I was with my stupid, wayward memories adding to his fear and making his first day back even harder on him.

“I’m sorry I remembered that.” I laid a hand along one hard side of his face, waiting until he looked me in the eyes. “I wish I wasn’t worried, or that at least I could turn off this mind connection thing sometimes so you wouldn’t have to feel my worry. But just because I’m worried doesn’t mean I don’t have faith in you. I know you’ll do your best to stay in control today. I just also know how hard it can be to fight the bloodlust, especially for Clann blood.” I hesitated, then handed him a thin braid of red, brown and white.

“What’s this?” he asked, his voice coming out rough.