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Savannah

I took the longest shower our hot-water heater would allow, spending e new reality than I spent washingto the hope that it was all just a case ofwas too realthe slippery porcelain beneathits way overwild stories here All this stuff about de from my entire family, the three people I loved and trusted more than anyone else in the world

When the water ran cold, I got out, dried off, then studied my reflection in the mirror Was it because I was freaked out, or did I really lookdifferent? My eyes seeer, ht&039;ve become a little pointier than they&039;d already been I was definitely paler, but ouldn&039;t be after being sick? And e, ination, too? Maybe

I wondered if Tristan would notice, then banished that thought He was in the Clann Worse, he was the son of the Clann&039;s leading family

And I had to avoid him at all cost

"Mom?"

A few seconds later, as if she&039;d been nearby listening for me, she opened the door a few inches and poked her head in "Yes?"

"Why aren&039;t we in the Clann anymore?"

"Well, they weren&039;t too thrilled when I broke the rules and married your father And when your Nanna didn&039;t try to stop us, they kicked her out, too It&039;s a real no-no for vaet involved with each other"

"Because vahed

"They did before the truce At one point, before even your grandmother&039;s time, it was an all-out war between thereed to avoid each other as much as possible Which is why no va your father This is Clann territory And vampires have reason to fear descendants, too, since they can of course kill vampires much easier than normal humans can"

At my confused look, she explained, "Fire Vampires can be killed by fire Or decapitation or a stake through the heart, but those methods require a weapon Witches, real ones, can produce fire in the palm of their hand" She held out her hand pale flame burst to life in her hand At the same time, faint prickles raced over the back of my neck and down my arms

My brain blanked out for several seconds Then ear Hoooly crap, she wasn&039;t kidding She really could dotoward the flaet to learn that

"Oh, no" She snapped her hand closed, extinguishing the fire with a sizzle "Don&039;t even ask, because the answer is no Creating fire is too dangerous for you, in case your vaenes make it hard for you to control the flaic, either"

"Why not?" I tried hard not to whine But honestly, as the point of learning all of this stuff if I couldn&039;t even do real ic someday?

"Because both the Clann and the vampire council made your Nanna and I swear that ould never teach you how to do et to raise you and we could stay in Jacksonville"

"I can&039;t ever learn to do ic?"

She shook her head "Sorry, hon, not unless the Clann and the vaical side starts developing, like you said? Will I just start shooting out hed "Not likely, since it takes both your willpower and certain spell words for beginner witches to cast a spell Magic is like a muscle for most descendants If you never use it, like I haven&039;t for a while, it atrophies and is harder to use If you practice, you get stronger and it&039;s easier to do We&039;re hoping if you never do o away for you Or at least be very hard to do accidentally"

Disappointed, I frowned down at the sink This really sucked Nanna was always telling ood in every situation But there seeht now

After a slight hesitation, Moainst the edge of the sink&039;s counter "Look, Savannah, I know it&039;s hard, but try to see things from everyone else&039;s point of view, too You are special, incredibly so Other than in myths, you&039;re the first dhampir in proven existence from your father&039;s line, the first real live half vampire, half hu for sarcasht vaet a huot pregnant, and we got ave a sheepish grin "Yeah, you know, sometimes it works that way But it orth it Even when our e meant your father lost his seat on the council-"

"Because of me?"

She winced "Not quite More a co Clann blood to block his thoughts from the council so he could break their rules, otto have me So didn&039;t that still make it my fault that Dad was kicked off the council?

"Anyways," she continued, "when you actually made it to full term then survived the first year of life, everyone on both sides of the equation went nuts The va to be soical skills And the Clann is afraid you&039;ll either go fully vaainst thehed

I couldn&039;t breathe

Her smile faded "Oh, sorry, baby Your father and I spent years joking about everyone&039;s crazy fears They&039;re all ridiculously paranoid, on both sides of the line Before your birth, they actually thought he and I had teamed up to rid the world of both the Clann and all the vauess it&039;s not that funny to you at first"

I let a glare be ht I was starting to get a grip on all of thisnoas both a career ender for Dad and so time bomb? No wonder I was such a disappointment to him

"That&039;s why the Brat Twins call me a freak Why did you even keep me?" I muttered then clamped ripped aze "Savannah, fronant with you, you have been nothing short of a e, not scary, not a freak and certainly not a threat to anyone You&039;ve always been a sweet, precious miracle born out of love"

A love that had lasted all of three years "So if I was such a miracle, and you tere so in love you just had to break all the rules to be togetherwhy&039;d you get divorced?"

She bit her lower lip, hesitating for a long tiuess Mostly, it wasto handle it all And too young to really knohat love was I thought I was in love with your father But now I knoaswith a va the rules We were like Bonnie and Clyde,out on the larinned "It was a lot of fun Until we had a baby who needed safety and security Then suddenly being on the run wasn&039;t so much fun anymore When I realized I was responsible for your life and protecting you, it just didn&039;t make sense anyreed you and I could live with your grande And while I still loved your father, I wasn&039;t in love with hi your father was an adventure and a selfish fantasy, and it was great while it lasted But having you row up and think about others for a change"

"Let ht You broke up with Dad for me?"

"Not just for you For peace between the Clann and the varoups have meether, ar could have broken out again between them A lot of people would have died, and that would have been h anymore for it to be worth that"

"But why come back to Jacksonville? Why not raise me somewhere else? Someplace where there weren&039;t as ed "Because Jacksonville has always been randma&039;s help to raise you Dhampir babies don&039;t exactly coed a so to school with kids who seeed ot to learn how to live your own life and don&039;t worry about what the Clann thinks, or what the vampire council thinks, or what anybody says about you None of this changes who you are inside That&039;s only up to you and what you choose And even though this is all a shock, and e a little here and there, I pro as you follow the rules, that is"

Which was to stay away froot it already Except "Mom, you and Nanna used to be in the Clann, too What if I-"

"Don&039;t worry Like you teens love to saywe&039;ve got skills" She gave a lopsided grin "Or at least your Nanna does All I ever learned how to do was throw stuff and make fire And even that was only because your Nanna absolutely insisted on it for minimal protection"

"Why didn&039;t you want to learn how to do ic?"

"Hon, you live in the post-Harry Potter world, where you teens think ic is awesome I lived in the pre-Harry Potter times I itchy itchy wasn&039;t cool"

Huh "What about the Clann kids at school? Dad said to avoid theot classes with them, have to pass them in the halls, eat with them in the cafeteria?"

"You should be okay at a distance Like your father said, they&039;ve probably got charms on them to dull their attraction to any vampire And even if you do start to feel the bloodlust at some point, if you keep your distance and pay attention to your body, you&039;ll know if it becomes a problem If it does, you call o to the nurse&039;s station till one of us gets there Okay?"

I thought of how close Tristan sat behind ebra, and the pain in my chest and sto ht be a problem I&039;d just have to try to sort outnew that ht come up Like a sudden attraction to his neck

"Why is the Clann even letting us stay here? Wouldn&039;t they want me as far away from them and their kids as possible?"

Her s &039;keep your friends close and your enemies closer&039;? I think it&039;s like that They don&039;t want you to get too close or spend time alone with any of their descendants But they also want to be able to keep an eye on you Plus there&039;s the chance that one day you ht decide tohelp them out"

"Help them out?"

"You know Be on their side if there&039;s ever another ith the vaainst my own father? I snorted They must be insane After the way the Clann kids had treated me and my family for the past five years

Well, not all of theh , warebra class, when he could have just let ood thing I don&039;t want to date anyone in the Clann anyways, huh?"

Laughing, Moled hair, ignoring"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 the with the Clann It&039;d be rinned "But we don&039;t have to worry about that, right? You&039;ve hated the Clann&039;s kids for years now"

I forced a weak chuckle and took the brush away froht They&039;re first-class jerks"

"Any other questions?" Her tone had turned bright and cheerful, like she had si

I shook my head and tried to remember how to breathe noro back to s weren&039;t perfect, but at least they were normal?

"Aw, honey" She pattedto be okay"

"How do you know I&039;ll be okay? What if-"

"Because you come fro With or without ic, we kno to kick butt in life"

"And throw a hed "Exactly And speaking of which, aren&039;t you starving by now? Your Nanna ravy just the way you like thereat" Why wouldn&039;t I be hungry? After all, just because normal life as I&039;d known it was over, that shouldn&039;t affect ht?

I didn&039;t want to talk to anyone for the rest of the weekend But Nanna said thatfor

After chatting for a few es in my appearance But when I tried to describe how different I looked, she just laughed

"Don&039;t worry about it, Sav Every year I get the flu for a few days, and afterward I swearforearly to school next week, I could help you get caught up on all the algebra hoood idea" I hesitated, curious to know if anyone else had one, one boy in particular But I couldn&039;t find a casual way to ask and notdeal out of it And ould anyone other than oodbye instead

When I called Carrie and Michelle, I didn&039;t es in my appearance For all I kneas the only one ould notice the, too late to , I felt es in er chest size definitely wasn&039;t I&039;d gone up a full cup and a half Mo yesterday so I&039;d have so to wear to school that didn&039;t screaer shirts, I felt conspicuous in the main hall before first period So I ainst my chest The freshmen boys weren&039;t exactly kind in their corade, and I so didn&039;t need ht now

Unfortunately, even my notebook couldn&039;t block what happened next

"O M G Worst boob job ever!" Vanessa called out toas she and her sister passed by, their voices soh to carry over the noise of the hall even though they didn&039;t sound like they were actually yelling Magically amplified? I wouldn&039;t doubt it They would want everyone to be sure to hear theas spreading overpast my shirt to make my skin crawl And alienwhatever it was, the sensation definitely wasn&039;t co from me

What the heck was it? Nobody had warned ic-or vampire-based Or had the Brat Twins hit me with a spell just noould have to call Mom as soon as I could find a restroo my hands to be still when all I wanted to do was scrub the vile sensation fro at all

But then I had to refocus on the weird sensation, because it was changing now In fact, the farther away I got fro of evil intentions faded away Noas more a mixture of stuff I couldn&039;t sort out Kind of like cobwebs ether Maybe I was going insane fro too much crazy crap about my family and myself this weekend

Unlesssomehow I could sense others&039; ereorse, until I could feel each person&039;s , I matched up what I felt with each person&039;s facial expression and overheard bits of conversations, and was able to piece clues together Happiness nearlysensation Worry was heavy and cold, an ice chunk sliding down my skin Love arer, a knife that slashed and ripped across ed to make it the hundred yards to my locker, then closedelse tosoothing So down ath ebra class

After a few minutes, the sensations of others&039; emotions faded away My shoulders, which had scrunched up near ain

Okay So now I could sense others&039; emotions It wasn&039;t an ideal develop But at least I could control it if I stayed calic-based, soht? Whichhere It wasn&039;t exactly normal But maybe all the descendants could do this and just didn&039;t show it Even Tristan

Oh, crap Could they read , I cut off that thought and headed away fro whether to call my parents or Nanna and let theain, why should I? They&039;d wanted me to tell them about new developments so they could help me deal with them But I&039;d handled this one on my own All I had to do to control it and block out everyone&039;s emotions was to stay calm There was no need for the rescue squad Yet

Okay, so no phone call to the farab my entire day&039;s collection of books so I wouldn&039;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 h five, hundreds of tiny black braids bouncing wildly around her head with her every step

I couldn&039;t even feel her palm slap mine I was too much in shock A triple pirouette When I couldn&039;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&039;t stop myself Today, for the first tiood as the experienced dancers ina triple pirouette, but I&039;d also finally gone all the way down to the floor in le thud or shake of the rooh kicks, once only up to chest level, had nearly hit me in the face today And hadn&039;t hit anyone else for a change Even the experienced dancers in the class had seemed impressed by my improve was fun!

This freak had finally learned soh to h to audition Ha! Let the Clann sense these ereeted my friends as I dropped lanced at therab soht back to hear what I ive them much time to before I hurried to join the food line The lunchroo others&039; e now except my own pure joy Which only ed not to be a total klutz at so 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 tiht, I didn&039;t realize at first that the boy directly ahead ofat nize hi Stanwick" He grabbed a reen tray from the stack then offered me one, as well

"Oh, hey I&039; the lunch of the day since I usually had pizza or chili cheese fries instead Then again, e and rewardi seerade are you in?"

"Ninth"

"Eleventh for ames?"

I shooksoot a killer team this year Four-time champions I should know, I&039;ht, reame-show host And he was only a few inches taller thanhim somewhere around five-nine or -ten But overall he was kind of hot, with short black hair and soft brown eyes that reflected war and tried to look interested as he chatted about his soccer tea season

"Maybe we&039;ll run into each other again," he said as we paid for our food

"U you, too, Savannah" But he didn&039;t turn away Instead, he stood there watching aze on me as I returned to my table

Okay, that eird but sort of nice Guys never paid any attention to er boob size?

I set downnext todown at ot a hoame this Friday, if you want to come watch It&039;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&039;t exactly on anyone&039;s social radar around here