Page 6 (1/2)

Tristan

I ran up to my room and looked around What could I put the spells in? Pens? Pencils? Paper clips? Nah, Savannah was always loaning out stuff like that in algebra Maybe Ee ofme tampons just to torture lanced at ht fifty-six Not too late to call for sorabbed a telephone book and my cordless phone

"Hello, may I speak with Anne, please?" I said when a wo?" It was probably Anne&039;sdepartood If sheSavannah&039;s best friend at ho fast, I replied, "Arthur"

"Arthur, it&039;s a little late for phone calls"

At eight fifty-seven? Now I knehere Anne got her personality from "Yes, ma&039;aency" That wasn&039;t too much of a stretch on the truth

"One moment"

I heard round Then Anne picked up the phone "Why, hello, Arthur Having trouble with that warty little proble satisfaction

I rolled s S-I mean, your friend usually carries around in her backpack" I barely stoppedmy parents, they&039;d probably put a spell on ain

"What doesn&039;t she have in there? The girl never cleans anything Not her backpack, not her locker, not even her bedroo half the ti her room just so I have some space to breathe Drives me crazy!"

I pictured lacy scraps of underwear and bras lying around a sleeping Savannah, and fought to exhale "Uh, not to interrupt the venting here, but I could use your help now"

"Ha! I knew you couldn&039;t handle it on your own" She sighed "All right, what do you want?"

"I need access to her backpack at lunch tomorrow Or better yet, maybe you can make the delivery"

"And ould that be exactly?"

"Don&039;t worry I wouldn&039;t give you anything that would get her or you in trouble It&039;s just so as possible, say a couple months, at least"

Silence filled the phone

"Anne? You still there?"

After another few seconds&039; hesitation, I heard a door click shut on her end of the line before she whispered, "These things for her backpackare they aa Clann thing?"

Surprise made it my turn to hesitate What had Anne heard about the descendants? "Define what you think &039;Clann things&039; are"

"You knoitchy stuff Stuff that would o nuts They&039;re Pentecostal"

She said "they," not "we" It sounded like she was about as on board with her faious choices as I ith my parents&039; plans foror si in common

"No offense, but I&039;m really not allowed to talk about the Clann" There, that was honest and still playing by the rules Descendants weren&039;t allowed to discuss their abilities with outsiders other than their husbands and wives And even those outsiders had spells cast on the the Clann to anyone else The elders didn&039;t h gusted into the phone "Fine Just tell me thiswill it really help Savannah?"

"Yeah It will"

"Then I&039;ll do it Just don&039;t use anything made out of chocolate, or she&039;ll eat it It&039;s like her kryptonite"

I laughed before I could stop myself "I&039;ll have to re what I could use and starting to get frustrated again

Then I saw ita box of those little conversation heart candies Savannah had given therade The saet ned her name on the box, so Mom never made me throw them out

"How does she feel about really old conversation heart candies?"

"Oh, she hates those Apparently theylike that"

I glared at the ceiling, unsure whether to be happy that Savannah had talked about ed that she still seemed to be ticked off at me

"So don&039;t put them in a box, or she&039;ll throw thenore them if they&039;re just loose in the botto them to you?"

"Before school would be best She&039;s always running late, so she won&039;t be there"

"Right See you then And, Anne?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks"

"Don&039;t let it affect your ego there, Arthur I&039; it for Savannah" I could practically hear the eye roll in her voice Man, she was a pain But I was also starting to get why Savannah was friends with her So that went against their faious beliefs, even to help out a friend

I grinned "Yeah, yeah, as if I could forget"

She hung up without saying goodbye I hit the phone&039;s off button with a shake ofgood for the first tiht work

Back outside, I sat down in the wet grass at the edge of the patio then shook three hearts out of their box As an afterthought, I added a fourth to the lineup for that Ro the first candy, I pictured one of the creeps, mentally whispered the spell word and tapped the candy while visualizing a surge of energy entering it How uys want to talk to Savannah? Twenty tiht about howto her Better make that at least a hundred times per candy I could always createout too soon

I went down the row of hearts, saving the soccer jerk for last With every tap of iness seeped out of o back over theuys proved to be even half as strong as the effect she had onout on the grass seeood idea The yard et and cold, but I could deal with it This was an just as I started the second pass on Stanwick&039;s oddess, her hair down and blowing behind her in the wind along with the folds of her long white nightgown She stood facing a setting sun, dark asphalt sparkling beneath her bare feet We were on the flat rooftop of a building overlooking Jacksonville

Behind her, a crowd of guys I recognized froy, staring at Savannah ild expressions on their faces, ready to lunge at any second Like a pack of jackals snapping at her heels What held them back?

I would

I was outnumbered, but I had to try anyway Maybe if I stood close to her when they attacked, I could cast a blocking spell strong enough to protect both of us at once If that didn&039;t work, I&039;d have to risk taking the brunt of the attackas I could h the dream, hers but huskier, more sultry The voice of Savannah as a dark seductress And yet her lips didn&039;t move "Look at them, Savannah Give them what they crave, and they will end your thirst"

The words h Tears slid down her cheeks as she shook her head and whispered, "No I won&039;t look at theht"

"Look at them!" the voice shrieked, and Savannah&039;s hands darted up to fidget with the gold locket she alore at her neck

"No, don&039;t, Sav," I said, trying to walk toward her But solass, heldit to give and let h "Savannah, listen to rowled, their patience wearing out They buroup inched forward al mass

"Savannah!" I yelled But she couldn&039;t hear , I hit the barrier between us The heat burned e of the roof and looked down

Cold terror poured over me "Savannah, don&039;t! Wait for ain with ainst it A ive in to the temptation," the evil voice whispered, already sure of its triumph "You need them You need the power"

"No Never," Savannah promised, her voice choked and hollow

And then she dived over the edge

"No!" My roar sed ht it would never stop I could feel e of crazy, but it didn&039;tinto ht me to my knees

I needed her, needed her to be alive even if we couldn&039;t be together any out the pain as I woke up the next rass of my backyard

The ainst the need to keep shouting, h my nose My chest burned My fists were on fire The dew on the grass beca the flames on my skin

Just a dream But the dreaed quality to it as the drearade

I stared at ht of the sunrise They weren&039;t even red But the pain had see, I dried them off on my sweats then scooped up the charet ready for school

I couldn&039;t shake theterror and pain stuck with me all day I barely said more than "Here" and "Thanks" to Anne when I shoved the protective char before school I wasn&039;t in the mood to even fake a s classes, much less talk

At lunch, I couldn&039;t eat, especially after seeing Savannah enter the cafeteria and join her friends She&039;d worn her hair down today for a change The ends looked wet,those red strands down and floith her every little move reminded me too much of the dream And the way her hair had streamed out like blood as she&039;d flown over the side of the roof

"See you later," Iout I was tired for the first ti Still, my feet led me to the saainst its trunk The rough bark scraped atme that I ake, that this was reality I tilted backthe play of light and shadow abovea sound like soht&039;s dream as it drove Savannah to jump off the roof

I closed ain in that dreaain I saw her fall The repetition should have nureorse, until I wanted to yell from it

I couldn&039;t stand it anymore I had to fix this

There was only one solution, only one way to keepinsane here I would stay away fro at her in algebra or reacting to her laughter in the hallways These crazy feelings she created in me were just too much I&039;d have to check on her every now and then to make sure the char like this

"She&039;s just a girl," I irl Nothing , bracing h I didn&039;t have math class today, it see the day I thought I saw one of them in the main hallway before first period He looked at me, took a couple steps in my direction, then frowned and headed the other way

Lunchtime was even worse

"Are you okay?" Anne leaned over and whispered while Michelle and Carrie worked together on homework

"Sure! Why?" I pasted on a smile

One of her eyebrows arched "You haven&039;t eaten anything And you&039;re paler than usual Whichto fake a s into the Warty Boys again?"

Warty Boys? I looked at her, letting ebra The creeps that were bugging you before class"

"Oh Yeah Think they&039;ll be asweird today?"

"Only one way to find out We&039;ll walk past them after lunch and see how they react"

My stoain so soon isn&039;t such a good idea"

"Why?"

I hesitated I couldn&039;t tell her the truth, at least not all of it But not telling her anything made me feel so alone here on ca any rules?

I decided to take a risk "Proh too loudly"

She nodded

"I think it&039;s becausebecause I made eye contact with them after lunch"

"You think, just because they looked into your eyes, you did so?"

"Umyeah"

She snickered "Oh, sure Because I do that all the tiirl&039;s eyes, and poof! All the boys are gaze dazed"

Irritated, I forgot and glared at her,eye contact in the process

Within seconds, she shivered and looked away "Huh Okay, maybe you have a point"

I didn&039;t knohether to feel sument or sick toabout yesterday and thatnormal after I made eye contact with the weirded out

Anne cleared her throat "Have you e reactions?"

"You estured at everyone at our table Carrie glanced up fro to tutor Michelle, then went back to their studying