I vamp blurred out the back door, around the house and down the driveway, stopping at Anne's truck. "Sorry, guys, gotta go. Tristan's in trouble at the clearing."
Then I took off running before Dad, Ron or Anne could try to stop me.
I reached the edge of the Coleman property a few minutes later, my hands and face numbed by the cold wind I'd just run through. Carefully I climbed over the wooden fence that surrounded the property, and immediately my skin began to crackle. Either they were using magic to take the vote, or I was too late and the battle was about to begin.
The backyard behind Tristan's house was quiet, the front yard and circle drive filled with too many vehicles to count. When I reached the edge of the woods, I slowed to a crawl, choosing each step carefully so I landed on soft moss instead of pinecones or twigs that might give me away.
When I could see the clearing, I realized the fighting hadn't started yet. The Circle was filled with descendants, all turned toward the still empty stone chair in the center.
A familiar man's voice boomed out. "And our new Clann leader is...Tristan Coleman!"
I froze, my throat locking tight. So he'd gotten the majority vote after all.
Now I had to help him stop the war from starting here tonight.
I saw Tristan give the crowd a tight smile and sit down in the stone chair I'd once seen his father resting in.
"Good job, baby," I whispered, a tear slipping down my cheek. Tears of pride, I told myself as I wiped them away.
Then, beneath all the cheering of the descendants, I heard twigs snap close to the edge of the clearing.
Gowin approached the Circle with at least twenty vampires behind and at his sides. But I didn't recognize any of the other vamps with him. Had the council sent him and a small army to represent them instead of coming themselves?
And more important, how the heck were Gowin and the other vamps able to reach the edge of the Circle?
I understood that my Clann blood had allowed me to get past the vamp wards. But there was no way Gowin and his vamp buddies should be able to. Not unless a descendant in that clearing was consciously allowing them to.
Maybe I was panicking for nothing. If the council said they were personally coming here, they must be. So either Gowin was just leading the advance team to scout out the area for the council or...
Wait. Gowin was supposed to be investigating the descendant murders. Had he been invited here to reveal the identity of the killer to the entire Clann?
Hopeful that he had come with good news, I focused on him, working to read his thoughts.
He spread his hands palm out at his sides and thought, Vamp wards down now.
Familiar pinpricks of pain exploded along my neck and arms, and I joined all the rest of the descendants in a gasp of shock.
Oh my God. Gowin had just taken down the vamp wards. But how? He wasn't a descendant. He shouldn't have any Clann abilities.
While the descendants looked among themselves for the source of the use of power, I focused harder on Gowin, working to block out all others' thoughts. And when I succeeded, I almost wished I had failed.
Gowin was the killer.
He was preying on descendants because filling himself with their powerful blood also temporarily gave him Clann abilities. He was trying to turn himself into a hybrid like me. But why? The effects of drinking descendant blood was only temporary. Even if he drained every descendant alive, eventually he would run out of Clann blood. And unless the council had sanctioned his plan, they would kill him for this.
I dug harder through his memories, seeing each like a random movie scene...the descendants he'd drained, the walk-in cooler full of vials of Clann blood he'd amassed. His "armory," as he thought of it. I also saw shelves filled with the genealogy records he'd taken from Ron's mother, which he'd covered by making it look like an act of vandalism on the genealogical society offices. Those records were going to help him locate future descendant victims all over the U.S.
The shelves also contained numerous Clann spell books he'd stolen from his victims and studied to learn how to use power. He had been practicing spell after spell for days now. The fire spell was his favorite because it didn't burn him for some reason no matter how close it got to his skin. He planned to use it tonight on Caravass after the fighting began so he could blame the leader's death on the Clann and then take over the council with less resistance.
It wasn't the entire plan. Instinctively I knew I was missing a crucial part of it, but it was enough to warn the Clann with before the council showed up and the situation got out of control.
But then several yards to the right of Gowin's group, a larger second group of vamps, led by Caravass, approached the clearing. They moved in a more organized, almost military-like way, with more than a few hulking vamps in bulging suits within their force.
I was too late to warn anyone.
But I could at least reveal the truth and hopefully turn the spotlight on the real problem.
I ran into the clearing ahead of the vamps. The descendants all turned toward me, saw the vamps behind me. Hands rose up to throw spells at me.
"No, don't!" Tristan yelled, his hands flying out. I felt his magic form a wall between me and the descendants seconds before the others' spells flew. Fireballs bounced off Tristan's shield in showers of sparks like rockets hitting an invisible force field.
Everyone stopped throwing spells at their new leader's command.
"Please listen to me," I called out. "I know what you believe, and the lies you've been told. But the real killer here isn't all the vampires, and it's not the council. It's him." I pointed at Gowin. "His name is Gowin. He may be on the council, but he has not been acting with their approval. He hasn't been investigating the murders-he's been causing them, gathering descendant blood to give him the ability to use magic, not just against the Clann, but against his own kind, too."
"She's lying," Gowin answered calmly. "Obviously the witch boy has pulled her over to the Clann's side. Why would I want to act against my own kind? I've been a vampire and a council member for centuries."
"Because you're trying to create an army of super vamps," I said, picking the words out of his mind even as I spoke them.
"Obviously a Clann ally would lie against a vampire," Gowin said, still calm, even smiling. "I am here in support of my council. Unlike you. Exactly whose side are you on, Savannah?"
"Everyone's," I said. "There's no reason to fight, unless it's because you want to take out-"
Gowin moved so fast I never saw it coming. One second he was yards away with the others. The next second he was at my back, one of his hands wrapped around my throat, the other around my waist to hold me still.
"Gowin, let her go!" Dad shouted as he appeared at the edge of the clearing.
"But she's sided against us, Michael." Gowin sounded so calm. "She's making wild accusations against me that are completely unfounded."
Dad looked at me, his eyebrows pinched together.
"Dad, I read his mind and I swear to you he's the one killing the descendants." I had to fight for control over my emotions. Losing control would only make me look like an emotional teenage female, especially in the eyes of these centuries-old vampires. "He's using Clann blood to temporarily give him the ability to do magic. It's how he got through the vamp wards into this clearing and then took down the wards for everybody else."
"Or you could be the one who took down the wards," Gowin said. "You should be careful, little one. The council knows we can't force you to tell us the truth, nor can anyone here read your mind." He cocked his head and smiled. "Of course, you're probably betting on exactly that, aren't you? You know you can tell wild lies about anyone here, and no one will be able to read the truth in your thoughts."
My heart raced with panic. He was right! It was my word against his and his small army. Unless...
"I can prove I'm telling the truth." I held out a forearm toward the council. "Drink my blood. The blood memories will prove that I'm not lying."
Gowin froze behind me, and I smiled. Called your bluff. Now what are you going to do?
Dad turned to the council. "Well? My daughter is freely volunteering to allow you to feed upon her to support her claims. Surely one of you will accept this offer in order to prove or discount what she says about one of your own council members?"
"Gowin, please, don't do this," Emily cried out, pushing through the gathering, tears shining on her cheeks. She looked awful, with black circles under her eyes and her skin too taut and pale over her bones.
But Gowin didn't see her that way. He saw the possibilities she had given him, that first drink of blood that had allowed him to sneak up on his initial Clann victims. And the baby she carried within her now, his, the first of the true super army he was building. No, not building...growing.
This was the missing piece of the puzzle. He wasn't sharing the descendant blood with other vamps, and drinking Clann blood for the magical abilities wasn't his goal either; it was a means to an end. He planned to use the Clann's magic against its own members in order to force all the female descendants to bear his children. Children who would be hybrids like me but raised to obey him for all eternity. And then they would be bred together, and on and on in an endless hybrid army factory while he took over the entire world."Oh my God," I whispered. He'd gotten the idea from my dad and mom. He'd originally hoped to make me fall for him as his first hybrid broodmare, but when my heartache over the breakup with Tristan made me resistant to his charms, he'd gone for another Clann member young enough to still be impressionable to his flattery. One who would give him the first descendant blood needed so he could overpower other descendants for their blood. One who would also be smart enough to know about the Keepers' geneological records that would map out the location of the rest of his victims.
And Emily had completely fallen for him.
Gowin hummed in surprise. "So it's true then. You have learned to read everyone's minds. Well, in that case..."
Join me or die, he finished silently.
Oh crap. He could read my mind, too.
"You're kidding, right?" I hissed as his grip around my throat tightened, cutting off more of my air. "Who do you think you are, Darth Vader?"
"Well, Caravass, I tried," Gowin said to his maker. "But she's well and truly joined the other side, it seems. She refuses to side with the vamps."
"Not all vamps, just you, Gowin," I croaked. "Why don't you tell everyone here the truth and see how the sides line up then?"
I saw the answer in his mind. He'd already tried to convince Caravass, but the vamp leader had dismissed his ideas, preferring to keep the vamp race pure. Which was why Gowin felt he had to kill his sire tonight and take over the council for himself.
"Let her go, Gowin!" Tristan yelled.
Gowin turned us both so I could see Tristan standing on the throne's hill above the crowd, his hands raised.
"Careful, or she dies!" Gowin said, his fingers at my throat curling into claws ready to rip.
Tristan dropped his hands, his face more afraid and ticked off than I'd ever seen it.
He wasn't the only one. I was ready to tear Gowin's head off myself. If I could just get free...
"Gowin, you cannot win this fight," my dad called out.
"You're a fool, Michael." Gowin turned so he could see both Tristan and my dad. "You always were. Tonight, these descendants are going to pay for all the vamps they were arrogant and stupid enough to kill. Will you be on the winning side or not?"'
"There are no sides here tonight," Dad answered. "Only many people seeking the truth."
Wait. Nanna had said all I needed to do was focus on what I wanted and inject those intentions with my willpower.
Well, I had plenty of willpower tonight. And Gowin had taught me something new about magic and vamps.
Closing my eyes, I envisioned becoming a living flame, and that flame spreading over me, but not touching me, from head to toe.
TRISTAN
When I saw the fire engulf Savannah, I yelled out in panic, thinking someone had hit her with a spell. Then I saw the smile on her face through the flames.
That's my girl, I thought with a whoop of pride as Gowin instantly backed away from her.
"She's using magic!" Gowin screamed. "There's your proof, councilmen. She's on their side!"
The vamp council must have believed him, because everything erupted into chaos then. Screams filled the air as Mr. Colbert went after Gowin while Gowin's vamps led the council's army in an attack on the descendants from two fronts.
I raced across the battle arena that the Circle had become, ducking spell after flying spell until I could reach Sav. She was crouched on the ground, the fire gone from around her now.
"Are you okay?" I shouted over the screams and roars of angry vamps and descendants, patting her shoulders and arms and cupping her cheeks to be sure she wasn't burnt.
"I'm good! Just powering back up," she yelled, both her palms pressed to the ground.
A vamp came toward us, fangs and hands out. I started to raise my hands, intending to hit him with a ball of fire. But before I could release the spell, an arrow appeared in his chest and he fell to the ground thrashing. What the...
I looked in the direction the arrow had flown from, and there was a giant panther and a crazy-eyed Anne fighting back-to-tail against the vamps.
"Savannah!" I yelled and pointed in their direction.
Savannah turned and gasped, though the sound of it was lost beneath the screams and sizzling of flying magic in the air. "Are they crazy?"
They sure looked it. Panther teeth and claws and a compound bow and arrows might be cool, but they were no match against an army of vamps and magic.
And where the heck had Anne found a trained panther that size in East Texas?
I ran in a crouch toward the strange team, holding Sav's hand so we wouldn't get separated.
"What are you doing here?" I yelled at Anne as soon as we reached them.
"Savannah owed me a hunt!" Anne grinned even as she loosed another arrow. I turned to check. The arrow had found its home in the back of another of Gowin's vamps. The vamp screamed then burst into a cloud of ash that plummeted to the ground to form a pile. Anne had surprise on her side for now, but once the vamps caught on to her, she'd be toast. "Thank goodness I ran out of my carbon arrows and had to bring the wooden ones today, huh?"
"You've got to get out of here," Savannah yelled at them. "This isn't your fight!"
I tried to tell her that, believe me, Ron thought. But she's too dang stubborn!
A vamp launched itself at our group and the panther reared up to catch the vamp's neck between his teeth and paws.
I looked at Savannah. "I think... Did I just hear Ron-"
"Yeah, the panther's Ron," she shouted near my ear so I could hear her. "He's a Keeper, a shapeshifter the Clann created as allies centuries ago. He-"
Anne stood up so she could shoot over us. "Less explaining, more fighting!"
"It's a long story," Savannah finished. "I'll tell it later. But you need to know descendants and Keepers can read each other's minds, okay?"
"Albright!" Dylan screamed from several yards away. He threw his hands into the air.
Anne dropped like a stone, grabbing her throat as if choking. A second later, her eyes rolled up in her head as the veins beneath her skin turned black in snaking lines down the sides of her face and throat toward her chest. What had Dylan hit her with?
I whirled around to hit him with a spell, but a vampire had already found him. Good, I hoped the fanger ate him.
I turned back to find Ron, still in panther form, crouched over Anne and howling as Savannah pressed her hands to her unconscious friend's neck.
"Tristan, I can't stop it!" Savannah cried out. "Whatever he hit her with, it's like poison or something."
"Cover us," I told her and Ron as I dropped to my knees beside Anne and got to work.
The spell was as devious as its owner, spreading like wildfire through Anne's veins. It took all my concentration to push it back from Anne's heart, which seemed to be its ultimate target. Savannah and Ron worked to block us from more spells and vamps while too many seconds ticked by.
Finally, though, I could feel the poisonous spell fading as I drove it to Anne's lungs and out through her every breath. When it was fully expelled, she began to breathe again. She was still unconscious, but she'd live.
"Ron," I called out. The panther tossed aside the vampire he'd been ripping to shreds and leaped back over to us. "You've got to get her out of here somewhere safe. She'll be okay, but she's got to rest for a while."
The huge panther's head dipped once. He ran behind some nearby trees. A few seconds later he came running back in human form, still barefooted but wearing jeans and an unbuttoned flannel shirt. "Thanks, man. I owe you big-time."
He scooped Anne into his arms, cradling her limp body against him.
"Savannah, we've got to cover him so he can get her out of here," I yelled, moving to stand beside Savannah as she blocked fireball after fireball thrown our way from too many directions to track.
She nodded, and we split our focus between shielding ourselves and our friends as Ron ran with Anne in his arms through the woods toward my house, where I hoped their vehicle was parked.
Once they were out of sight, Savannah said, "We've got to get to Caravass. He's the oldest. He can command the vamps to stop."
"Okay." Staying low, I kept a hand on her back, blocking spells as we ran toward the edge of the clearing where Caravass had taken a stand, weaving our way through battling witches and descendants on all sides.
Caravass and the other council members were engaged, too, though it looked mostly defensive now. They were dodging spells and hitting attacking descendants just hard enough to knock them out, unlike Gowin's small army who were breaking necks and slashing arteries as quickly as they could.
"Over there!" I yelled, using my hand at her back to nudge her toward the council.
"Not so fast," Gowin said into my ear a second before pain exploded in my chest.
