Savannah

Nope, this was no dream. Because in a dream, my date wouldn't be late. Though he would be in a nightmare. And this was starting to feel like one.

I'd spent the past ten minutes waiting in my truck in the school's main parking lot. The longer I waited, the more I wanted to slap myself.

What had I been thinking, agreeing to this date? No way could this be a good idea! I must have gone temporarily insane at the game tonight. Did I have some secret wish to start a war between the Clann and the vampires? At the very least, I must have a death wish. Because if my family ever found out I'd even agreed to go out with Tristan...

Panicking now, I reached for my duffel bag and dug for my phone, determined to send Tristan a text message calling the whole thing off. It was easier to think when he wasn't around; text messaging was definitely the way to go.

But a familiar black truck pulled up beside mine just as my hand closed around the phone. Crap. I'd have to tell him in person instead.

He jumped out of his truck, carrying a pizza box and a plastic bag. My heart shot up into my throat. I got out of my truck on wobbly legs.

"Hey," he said with a broad grin. "Sorry it took so long. They got the order wrong, and I had to wait for them to make another pizza for us. Did you get my text message?"

Us. The word sent a warm glow through my chest, replacing some of the panic and making it easier to breathe. "Um, no, it was in my duffel bag." I glanced down at the phone in my hand. I'd grabbed it for...some reason. Oh, yeah, because I'd been planning to...

He stepped closer to me, a foot away now, and I could smell the tiniest hint of his cologne. It slipped up my nose and down my throat. Oh, crap, I was losing it here. Maybe he'd put some sort of spell on me.

Okay. One date with him. Then I would absolutely have to put a stop to this. As long as the Clann and the vampire council didn't find out, one date would be no big deal, right?

"Still got your keys?" he murmured, his grin making him look like a little kid about to do something naughty.

Oh. The dance room. Perfect! No one would even know we'd been there.

Stuffing the phone in my pocket, I grabbed the keys from my truck's ignition then followed him across the dark campus up to the sports and art building's foyer doors.

"Deja vu," I murmured, unlocking the doors while he stood beside me, the warmth from his breath reaching out to caress my cheek in the cool night air.

He chuckled then followed me inside. The moon lit the way across the foyer. The stairwell was another matter though. It was on the side of the building opposite the moon. Lighted by the sun through the windows during the day, the stairs usually had no need for artificial lights to guide the way. Halfway up, the moonlight from the foyer faded away.

Strangely, I could still see. Weird.

On the third floor, I unlocked the dance-room doors and reached inside for the light switch. But a warm hand over mine stopped me.

"Maybe just the closet light?" he murmured.

I left the overhead lights off, found the closet light switch around the corner, then pushed open the door so the smaller room's light could shine into the dance room. He was right; the costume-closet light was equal to a lamp in the larger space beyond. And it shouldn't light up the dance room enough to be visible from outside the building.

"Sorry, I should have brought a blanket or something to sit on," he said with a sheepish grin.

"It's fine." Feeling suddenly shy, I sat down with him on the floor in the center of the dim room and tried to remember that this was the boy I'd spent countless hours with as a kid.

"I brought music if you want to put some on." He pulled out a stack of CDs from the plastic bag.

I took them over to the stereo then picked one out with shaking hands. The CD's label read Stressed Out #1. Smiling, I turned the volume all the way down before putting it in, then gradually turned the music up until it was at a good background level.

I returned to sit near him. "Stressed Out #1? Should I even ask how many volumes there are in that series?"

He laughed. "A few. The Clann are control freaks. All their rules make life a little...stressful."

"I know what you mean. I've got a lot of people setting the rules for me, too."

"You live with your grandma, right?" He opened the pizza box, picked up a slice of cheese pizza and set it on a paper napkin for me. Thank goodness he'd gotten a medium; I was so hungry I could eat the whole thing by myself. "I saw your grandma once. Last year. She looked like one tough lady."

I smiled. "She is. I live with my mom, too, though she's gone a lot of the time." He raised his eyebrows in silent question. I added, "She's a sales rep for a safety-products company."

He nodded, and we ate for a few minutes. I tried to chew slowly, but it felt like my stomach was eating itself with impatience. The pizza wasn't even making a dent in the hunger yet.

He'd gotten us both bottles of orange soda. He opened one and handed it to me, as if he'd assumed I wouldn't be able to get the lid open. The gesture was both sweet and amusing. Then he opened the other bottle for himself.

"So...will you finally tell me why you wouldn't go on a date with me before?"

Embarrassed, I looked down at the bubbles floating up in my soda. "Well, don't be mad, but you're sort of off-limits to me. You and everyone else in the Clann, actually."

"It figures. You've been off-limits to us ever since you and I got married in the fourth grade."

Heat flooded my cheeks, tempting me to press my drink against them. "You remember that?"

He grinned. "Hey, it's not every day a guy gets hitched."

I played with my bottle lid for a moment before getting the courage to ask, "Did your parents ever tell you why we couldn't be friends anymore?"

"Nope. Did yours?"

I shrugged, considering how to answer without lying or revealing too much. "My mom broke some Clann rule before I was born. So they kicked out my family and banned me from ever learning how to do magic."

"Huh. Must have been a major rule. I've never heard of any descendant being kicked out of the Clann before. Your grandma break the same rule, too?"

"Um, no. I think they just held her responsible for not stopping her daughter in the first place."

"I'd love to know what that rule was." He sounded grim.

"Uh...why?"

"I might have to try breaking it myself."

"What? Why? Don't you want to be the Clann leader someday?"

"No, I don't."

"Why not? I would think being able to do magic would be amazing." I almost confessed that I'd tried to do magic a few times with no luck. But something inside me held back.

He gave a short, humorless laugh. "Magic isn't always amazing. Sometimes it's a real pain in the butt." Something about the surprise on my face pushed him onward. "No, really. Magic is the reason I'm not playing football now. You know when I shoved Dylan out on the field during that game?" I nodded.

"I didn't exactly hit him with my hands."

My mouth dropped open. I'd seen magic being used right in front of me and didn't even know it. Wow. "What does it feel like? Doing magic, I mean?"

"Like relaxing."

"Is it like that for everyone in the Clann?"

"No, I don't think so. At least no one else seems to have the problems I do in controlling it."

Because he was the leading family's son? "Well, I'm sure it's like anything else in life. You probably just need more practice, right?"

"That's what Emily says. But that's the problem. All I do is control it. Otherwise I would be blowing up crap and setting fires right and left by accident. It's like keeping your hand clenched up in a fist every second you're awake. I can never relax, never forget about it. I get tired of it. And then there's the whole issue of the Clann elders trying to run my life. They don't care what I want, only what they have planned for me."

"My parents told me descendants can read each others' minds. Can you? Read minds, I mean?"

"Sometimes, if I try really hard and the other person is focused. Mostly all I pick up are random thoughts, though, and it's too confusing to understand."

"Aren't you worried your parents will read your mind and learn about tonight?"

One corner of his mouth kicked up. "My sister's got me covered." He lifted his left wrist and pointed at his watch. "She gave me this a couple years ago. She told my parents it was to help me get to class on time. What she didn't tell them was that she'd also charmed it to block my thoughts from them. They just think it's some kind of new ability I naturally developed with puberty, and a sign that I should be the future Clann leader."

Nice to know even the all-powerful Clann elders could get it wrong sometimes.

"You know, you're really lucky to have such a good sister." I'd always wanted a big sister to look out for me, tell me what to do, what to wear, how to act to fit in at school.

"Yeah, she's cool. Though most of the time I'm pretty sure she only helps me because she likes getting away with things."

I laughed, trying to fit Tristan's description of his sister with the sweet, outgoing cheerleader image I had of Emily.

After a few seconds of surprisingly comfortable silence, I asked, "So if magic is such a pain for you to control all the time, why stay in the Clann?"

He stared down at the pizza box for a long moment before shrugging. "I guess part of me isn't ready to destroy my parents like that. My dad still thinks he'll convince me to follow in his footsteps. I told them I'm not interested, but..."

I studied the unhappiness in his eyes. He really loved his family; that much was obvious. But I didn't understand one thing. "If you don't want to hurt your family, then why..." I waved a hand at us, the pizza, the sodas.

"Because asking me to stay away from you is asking too much. They have no right to tell me who I can and can't see." He stared at me, tempting me to make eye contact. I barely managed to keep my gaze at his nose.

"Maybe they're just trying to protect you," I murmured.

"Protect me from you? Yeah, right."

Oh, crap. I had to tell him the truth about me, about my father. About what I could be turning into right now, right here with him. I opened my mouth-

Tristan rolled up to his feet then held out a hand. "Dance with me?"

I gulped. Here was one of my fantasies just handed to me on a silver platter. Okay, dance with him first, then confess. At least then I'd have the memory to hold on to.

I took a deep breath and placed my hand in his, then had to draw in another deep breath at the contact as tingling arced down my arm. Uh, maybe this wasn't such a good idea, after all. But he was already pulling me to my feet and into his arms.

It was like coming home. A sigh slipped out of me as he wrapped one arm around my waist, his hand pressed against my lower back. He held my other hand in his and led me into a two-step. My hand fit perfectly in the curve of his.

The music changed to a slow song. He never hesitated as he led me into the new rhythm, his steps confident, his hands guiding me with the subtlest of nudges and pulls.

"A guy who can actually dance. I'm impressed," I murmured, unable to hold in the surprise. Greg hadn't been any where near this smooth.

His chuckle sent a whisper of warm air over my forehead. I glanced up through my eyelashes to find he'd bent his head down close to mine. "My mother drags me to a couple charity balls every year. She insisted I learn how to dance right so I wouldn't embarrass her."

"She teach you herself?"

"Yeah, much to my embarrassment." He spun us around in a series of turns that made me grin. "At least every now and then the skill comes in handy."

I laughed as he twirled me out then in against his side. "I see what you mean."

He made me laugh twice more as he dipped me then waltzed me around the room, narrowly missing stepping on the pizza. Then another slow song came on. His steps changed to half count so that we barely moved. The top of my head just reached his shoulder, making it seem natural to rest my cheek against his chest and wrap an arm around his waist. It was like we were made for dancing together.

I could both hear and feel his sigh. He lifted our joined hands to his chest, as if he wanted me to feel how hard his heart was pounding. Moving this close together, our thighs brushed, our knees and feet nudging each other at times. I wished I could melt into him. He was holding me closer than I'd ever dreamed possible for us. I should be afraid of all the people who might find out about this. But all I felt was peace and total contentment. I wanted to stay here, in this exact moment, for the rest of my life.

My phone buzzed.

Oh, no. Nanna. She'd be worried. "Oh, crap. I forgot to call my grandma and let her know I'd be late coming home." I started to pull away, but his arms stopped me. "Savannah, wait."

I looked up at him in confusion, having to tilt my head way back so I could see his expression. And was surprised to find a hint of...was that worry in his eyes?

"Can I see you again?" His voice was impossibly deep and a little hoarse, its rough edges delicious on my nerve endings. I tried not to shiver.

A second date?

Needing time to think, I grabbed my still-buzzing phone from my pocket and answered it. "Hey, Nanna. I'm sorry, I went out for pizza after the game and forgot to call you." Good, no lies there. Technically.

"Mmm-hmm. Well, next time be sure to call. I was getting worried. You coming home now?"

"Yes. See you in a few minutes." I ended the call, put the phone back in my pocket and turned around.

And nearly collided with Tristan's chest.

"I would really like a second date with you." He gave a crooked half smile, but his eyebrows were still drawn together.

He wanted to see me again.

Part of me was leaping around inside, whooping with joy. He wanted to see me again!

But the other part of me didn't know what to do. Obviously I wanted to go on another date with him. Desperately. But...

He slid his hands up my arms to my shoulders and ducked his head until his mouth was an inch above mine. "May I?" His breath whispered over my lips, making me shiver.

Oh, Lord. Should I? No, I really shouldn't.

I nodded anyway.

He touched his lips to mine, a small brush, then again, lingering. The need rose up, making me want to fall through the floor and fly at the same time. Someone whispered, it couldn't be me, I'd never sounded like that before. I grabbed his shirt at his lower back, hanging on to the soft folds for dear life as the kiss deepened. This was what I had needed so badly in history today. I knew how to define that craving now. His mouth on mine, his arms around me, was food and water enough to survive on for the rest of my life.

He moaned, the sound filling my mouth like a dessert to savor. Something told me I should stop kissing him now, that continuing this kiss could be bad in a way I didn't understand. There was something I was supposed to remember. But that nagging thought was gone, lost beneath the swamping need. He tasted so good, his warmth filling up that cold cavern inside that had tried to drown me in icy waves in class.

Then he staggered, breaking off the kiss, and rested his cheek against the top of my head.

I listened to his ragged breathing with a dazed smile of my own, and had to bite my still-tingling lower lip. Wow. I could swear I'd just swallowed the sun. I was filled with light and heat. Kissing Greg had never felt like this. Not even close.

When I eased back, I was surprised to feel Tristan shaking a little. Wait. Boring, plain-Jane me had made the most gorgeous guy in school shake? Impossible. I stepped away, and he leaned back against the wall with a grin.

"Um, are you okay?" I asked with a laugh. Now he was just being goofy.

He gave me that little-boy grin and laughed, too. "Yeah. Your kisses are...a whole new ball game for me."

Hmm. "Um, is that good or bad?" Biting my lower lip, I moved over to our picnic area and began to gather up our drinks and trash. I let my hair fall forward to hide my face. Could he tell I'd only kissed one other boy besides him?

"Definitely good. Maybe too good. I'll probably need some practice to get used to them." He startled me when he was suddenly there beside me and pulling me to my feet again.

I laughed, my hands grabbing on to his shirt for balance. "Tristan, we have to go! I don't want to go, either, but I told Nanna I would be home in a few minutes and-"

"I know."

"Then..." I waved at our things still left to be cleaned up.

"I'll do it. I don't want you cleaning up for me. I meant it when I said I don't need a slave." His hand coasted over my hair in the lightest of caresses, making me glad I'd left it down tonight.

"Helping others isn't being a slave, Tristan. It's called teamwork and getting things done."

He grunted in response, apparently unwilling to argue any more about it tonight, and helped me gather up everything. I waited for him to reach the hall door. Then I shut off the closet light, which I made the mistake of looking up at first. Temporarily blinded, I had to find my way over to him by following the soft sounds of his breathing. For once, my supersensitive hearing was actually helpful.

I knew I'd found him when my hands touched the hard curves of his upper arms.

His hands were full of the pizza box and plastic bag. The darkness hid me, made me bolder, and the temptation was too much to resist. Grinning, I slid my hands up to his cheeks, stood on tiptoe, leaned in and whispered, "May I?" before I kissed him.

I understood then why humans have noses. So we can find each other to kiss in the dark.

I held the kiss long enough to make us both breathless. Then I pulled away while I still could and led him down the stairs, my entire body buzzing.

Once the building was locked up again, we headed down the cement ramp to our trucks. He shoved the pizza box under one arm so he could reach out and hold my hand. During the slow walk together across the campus in the dark, the silence broken only by the occasional cricket and our feet rustling over the grass, a sudden thought hit me.

Mom had been a senior here at JHS when she'd met my father. Had my parents done this? Walked side by side across this same campus, defying the rules so they could be together, risking starting a war, too, just because they loved each other?

They'd ended up getting married, yet even that hadn't started a war between the vamps and the witches. But it had ended up getting my family kicked out of the Clann.

Then again, what could the Clann do to us now? They couldn't exactly kick us out again. I was already banned from learning magic. And Mom could've been exaggerating about our starting a war anyways. Not to mention...talk about her being a hypocrite! How could she have the nerve to tell me to stay away from all descendants when she'd married a vampire?

He followed me to the driver side of my truck, waiting while I got in, snapped on my seat belt and rolled down the window.

"Can I see you again next week?" he asked.

I frowned. All arguments aside, we were still breaking the rules. "Tristan, let me think about-"

He leaned forward and kissed me. By the time he stopped, I couldn't think straight again. "Ohhh, no fair using kisses...."

I felt his lips curve into a grin against mine, teasing me as he whispered, "Please, Sav? We can keep it a secret if you want. The Clann and our families wouldn't find out."

Could we really manage to date each other without anyone finding out?

He kissed me again, slowly this time, the tip of his nose nuzzling mine, robbing me of breath and reason.

Before I knew what I was doing, I found myself nodding in agreement.

And then praying during the entire drive home that we weren't making the biggest mistake of both our lives.

Nanna met me at the door, already dressed for bed in her favorite long, old-fashioned cotton and lace-trimmed night gown. She held the cordless phone in one hand and a slip of paper in the other. "Your father wants to speak with you."

"Right now?" I froze. I hadn't spoken to my father in months, not since that phone call last spring when he'd made me promise never to dance again and passed on the council's threat to hurt Mom and Nanna if I refused.

"No, he left a message. But he wants you to call him back as soon as possible."

She took a message for him. I growled under my breath.

"You know I don't want to talk to him," I said as I quickly circled around her, moving fast down the hallway toward my bedroom in the hopes of avoiding an argument.

She followed me, her bare feet silent on the worn linoleum floor in the hall then whisper soft on my bedroom's brown shag carpeting.

"I know you don't want to talk to him," she said. "And I'm sure he knows it, too. But he said this time it's important, and if you don't call him back, he'll just keep on calling till you talk to him."

I keept my back to her to hide my burning face as my heart pounded in my ears. Had the vampire council somehow found out about my date with Tristan tonight? "Did he say why?"

"Nope. I wrote down the number for you."

Okay, then my father hadn't called about anything too life threatening or he would've told Nanna. Maybe he was just in an extra-demanding mood or something tonight.

Reluctantly, I accepted the phone and slip of paper from her. After one last stern look, she left the room, shutting the door behind her.

I took off my socks and shoes. But that didn't take long enough. So I went ahead and got ready for bed, brushing my teeth and washing my face in the bathroom. Then I pulled on my favorite long white nightgown, the one with the spaghetti straps that made it almost like a dress. As I brushed my hair, it tangled with my necklace. The only way to free the strands was to take off my necklace and slowly unthread it from my hair. I tried to put the necklace back on, but my hands were shaking too hard to work the clasp. After several frustrating attempts that only wound my nerves tighter, I gave up and dropped the locket on my bedside table.

With nothing else to do to delay the inevitable, I took a deep breath and forced myself to dial the number.

"Do you always stay out this late?" were my father's first words.

Unbelievable. "This is the first time I speak to you in months, and that's how you want to start this conversation?" I was shaking from head to toe. I had to sit down on the edge of my bed and take a deep breath before I totally lost it. "And in answer to the question you really have no right to ask...on Fridays, yes, I'm usually this late coming home. Especially when our school has out-of-town games during football and basketball seasons. But shouldn't you and your council already know that from spying on me through Nanna and Mom?"

Silence filled the phone before he sighed. "I understand why you are angry, Savannah. I do not like the situation any more than you do. But I am just doing my j-"

Oh, spare me. "What did you need to talk to me about?"

More silence filled the phone, and I could practically hear him gritting his teeth. Good, maybe I'd finally made a dent in that infamous icy-cold vampire self-control of his. Of course, for him to truly get mad, he'd have to actually care in the first place. Which he didn't.

"I am calling officially on behalf of the council tonight."

Oh, crap. They knew! I held my breath and waited for him to continue.

The silence lengthened for a full minute before he finally spoke up again. "Savannah, is there anything you would like me to tell the council?"

They did know! How had they found out so fast? I slid off the bed to the floor and struggled to breathe as my mind raced. "Umm, no, why?"

"The council has requested my presence at their headquarters overseas, and I am leaving tomorrow. I needed to check for any last-minute updates regarding your changes before I leave. And to be able to truthfully tell them I have received those updates directly from you."

I tried not to sigh with relief. They didn't know.

He continued. "While I am away, however..."

My heart started racing again.

"I would like you to seriously consider coming to live with me instead."

Now that was random. "Why?"

"The council has expressed concern that you have been raised your entire life by former Clann members, and that this may have biased you. They would like you to consider living with me instead so that you will have a more balanced upbringing during your formative years."

Of course it would be the council's wish and not his. "I don't mean to hurt your nonexistent feelings. But like you said, I've spent my whole life here. With my real family. This is my home. All my friends are here. And I only have two years till graduation." Not to mention I'd rather die than live with a heartless council spy like him.

He sighed. "I will suggest to them that such a change in your living situation be delayed at least until you begin college. Perhaps that will appease them for a while."

"Tell them whatever you like." He would anyways. The council always came first for him. My needs probably didn't even make it onto his list.

"You should know, while I am there I may not be able to call your mother and grandmother for updates as frequently. So please tell them I will be in contact with them as often as I am able to."

Well, that sounded mysterious. Was he trying to bait me into asking him questions? Because that would require me to actually care about him.

After another long silence, he gave one last sigh. "Goodbye, Savannah."

"Bye." I ended the call then stared at the phone. That's when I realized just how badly my hands were shaking. If the vampire council had found out about me and Tristan...

Unpleasant as talking with my father had been, at least it had revealed one thing. The vampire council didn't know about my date with Tristan tonight. At least, not yet. Because if they had, my father would have asked me about it, or at least sounded disappointed with me.

I'd broken one of their stupid rules. Yet as all-powerful as they claimed to be, they still didn't know about it.

I closed my eyes and instantly remembered how it had felt to kiss Tristan. A slow smile spread across my mouth. If anyone found out about us, we would both be sooo dead. But...it had been totally worth it. Tristan's kisses were beyond addictive. And I was one hooked girl.

I thought of never seeing him again. If the council made me go live with my father now, I'd have to move to another state. I wasn't even sure which state my father was in at the moment; he moved around so much, living for months and occasionally years at a time wherever his latest historical-home restoration project took him. But I could guarantee that he would never live anywhere near Jacksonville, not with so many descendants concentrated here. Which meant living with my father would definitely force me to switch schools.

No more history or Charmers with Tristan. No more glimpses of him in the halls...

I shuddered.

I fell asleep remembering how it had felt to dance with Tristan. So I wasn't surprised when I immediately began to dream about him.

"Hi, Savannah." Tristan stood at the edge of a forest turned gray with moonlight. "Want to take a walk with me?"

"Okay." I walked over to him, my bare feet making a whispering sound with every step across the cool grass. When he held my hand, the warmth and strength I felt from his touch seemed every bit as real as if I'd been awake.

He smiled down at me, his eyes like mysterious emeralds in the silver light. He led me deeper into the forest, and I realized neither of us seemed to feel any pain, despite the fact that we were both barefoot. Shouldn't we have stepped on sticker burrs or pinecones by now? I looked down. A thick bed of soft moss covered the entire forest floor and halfway up the trees like a green snowbank. It felt spongy beneath my feet, like walking on a cool, thick towel.

We continued in silence for a while until we came to a clearing with a waterfall and a stream. On the bank, someone had spread a blanket and left a picnic basket. The moonlight shone in slanting rays through the trees here, making me yearn to dance and spin among them like a little kid. It all felt so familiar, too, as if I'd been here before.

"Come sit with me," he said, and I was only too happy to follow him to the blanket.

"This is where I wish I could have taken you for our first date. Somewhere as beautiful as you."

"Me, beautiful? Now I know this is a dream."

"What if I told you this wasn't a normal dream? That our minds really are connected right now?"

"Uh-huh. So you're saying you're not just a figment of my imagination?"

"Basically, yeah." He traced a finger over the back of my hand, then he looked at me, and I loved the fact that I could safely stare directly into his eyes.

"So then you've done this a lot before? Connected with other people's minds while they're asleep?"

"No, just yours. You're the only descendant I've ever wanted to dream connect with. It takes two descendants to dream connect. Otherwise I could see you but you wouldn't be able to see or hear me."

"Weird."

He grinned. "But fun, too. We used to dream connect all the time when we were kids. Do you remember?"

And in a rush, all those dreams came back to me. I had been here before...in our dreams. This was our place, our clearing where I'd dreamed that we'd played together count less times. "You ate all my pretend cupcakes when I asked you to, and you helped me decorate our tree house. Oh, and you also showed me how to dig really good tunnels for toy cars! Though I preferred Barbie cars and scooters instead." I laughed. "My mom used to ask me why I kept chewing off my nails. I told her it was to keep the mud from getting under them. She never understood, since I didn't play in the dirt in real life."

He chuckled.

"But why did we stop?"

He frowned, thinking about it for a moment. "Well, it hasn't been for my lack of trying lately. I thought at first that it was because my parents stuck some charms or a spell on my room. But I managed to get around that. Connecting has still been hit or miss, though." He tilted his head, studying me. "Something's different about you tonight." He kept staring at me for a long moment, then snapped his fingers. "That's it. Your necklace. You always wear that gold locket."

I instinctively reached for my necklace, then remembered. "Oh, yeah, I had to take it off tonight. It was tangled in my hair. And then I couldn't get it back on, so I just left it off."

"When did you get it? Did someone in your family give it to you?"

I nodded. "My grandmother gave it to me...in the fourth grade."

We stared at each other in understanding.

"That's gotta be it," he said. "The locket must have a charm on it that keeps you from connecting to me. Otherwise we'd have no problem. Everyone's parents in the Clann can dream connect. My parents joke about it all the time."

And obviously my vampire genes hadn't prevented it before.

"Okay. But how do I know what you're saying is true, that we're really connecting and my subconscious isn't just making all this up?"

"Easy. Tell me something now that I wouldn't know in real life, and I'll repeat it to you Monday morning."

"Okay." I had to think for a minute, then it came to me. "Tonight, my father tried to talk me into moving in with him and switching schools."

Tristan stared at me, his smile fading. "Are you making that up?"

I shook my head.

"What was your answer?"

"I told him no way. I barely know him. And he's..." I almost said he was a vampire and a council spy. "He definitely cares more about his job than me." I told him how my father had left my dance recital early last spring without seeing my jazz routine.

"Ouch, that must've hurt. Did he say why?"

I pulled up a section of moss at the edge of the blanket, choosing my answer carefully. "His family doesn't approve of my dancing. That was the night he asked me to totally quit dancing."

"But you tried out for the Charmers anyways, right?"

I nodded. "His family pulled some strings and made sure I didn't make the team, though."

He muttered a curse almost too quiet for me to hear. "I'm sorry your dad and his family suck. But at least you tried to fight for what you wanted."

My eyes stung. I shrugged and stared down at the hunk of moss in my hands, tearing off the little fuzzy pieces from its surface. After a while, I swallowed. "Maybe we could talk about something else."

"Okay." He reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear so I couldn't hide behind it anymore. "Have I told you how brave I think you are?"

That made my cheeks burn. "Yeah, right." I wasn't brave at all. Just one secret date with Tristan had made me shake in my shoes with guilt and fear that we'd end up getting caught.

"No, you really are," he murmured, his voice dropping even lower. "It's one of the things I kind of admire about you."

"Tristan, if I was so brave, I would be dancing with the Charmers now anyways."

"What about all the stuff you do for the Charmers?"

I frowned in confusion. "Like what?"

"Like how you're not afraid to be alone on campus early in the mornings and late at night after practice. Or when you go to the school alone during a home game just to get another hat for one of the dancers."

Part of me wanted to hold on to those words like they were treasured bits of gold. He seemed almost proud of me, or at the very least impressed. But I had to shrug off his words. He just didn't know what I really was. Why would I be afraid of being on campus alone? I was the scariest thing that would ever walk those grounds, what with my monstrous mixed blood. Not that I could ever hope to explain any of that without totally repulsing him.

"Well, what about you?" I said to change the focus back to him. "I mean, you're not supposed to even be friends with me. Yet you asked me out on a date. And kept asking for a week."

"Because you're irresistible." Grinning, he leaned closer to me.

I had to smile back. "Oh, yeah, so irresistible you just had to break fifty years of tradition and become the Charmers first male manager?"

I was joking, but he became serious. "Well, yeah. How else would I get to be around you enough to convince you to date me?"

I made a face and threw the clump of moss at him. "Ugh, I knew it! You sneaky-"

Laughing, he pulled me over to him, swallowing my annoyed groans and grumbles in a kiss. It was like plugging myself into a low-voltage battery minus the unpleasant shock... I could feel the electric energy, so warm, so bright and good, flowing from him to me, filling me up. The energy rushed to my head, pulsed against the top of my skull, pounded through my heart...

I woke up with a jolt, already grinning. That had to have been the best dream ever. I wished I could go back to sleep and pick up where it had ended. But I'd promised to spend some much-needed girl time with my friends today. I only saw them at lunch lately since I'd been so busy with team stuff. Anne would be picking me up in an hour for a group trip to the nearest mall, about thirty minutes away in the small city of Tyler. We were all going to do last-minute costume shopping for the Fall Ball, which the Charmers would be hosting next weekend.

Not that it really mattered what I wore, since I'd be working the concession stand all night. I just missed getting to hang out with my friends beyond lunch at school every day. I jumped out of bed and got ready. I hesitated, then put on my locket. Was it really charmed?

When Anne pulled up an hour later in her forest-green Ford F150, I yelled goodbye to Nanna and ran to the truck. It must have rained last night after I got home. The thick bed of damp pine needles beneath my shoes was soft and spongy, reminding me of the moss in my dream last night and making me grin.

Since Anne had picked me up first, I got to ride shotgun. I hopped onto the front seat in one step.

"Whoa, you're energetic this morning." Anne gave me a startled scowl as she backed out of the driveway.

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"Since when did you become a morning person?"

"This morning, I guess." I shrugged. Actually, now that I thought about it, I really did feel amazing. "Hmm, that's weird. I don't know, I just had this great dream and woke up with all this energy."

"What'd you do, drink a ton of energy drinks in that dream?"

"No. But I did kiss a really hot guy in it."

She rolled her eyes, but a smile tugged at the edges of her lips. "All right, all right. Tell me all about it."

"Okay. But I won't tell you who, so don't bother asking."

"What? Why not?"

"Because. So listen...he's standing there at the edge of a forest, and he holds out a hand and says, 'Come walk with me.'" I did my best to imitate Tristan's deep voice. "Then we go into this forest, and the floor is all covered in really soft moss-"

"Oh, brother," she muttered. "Do you realize it is all of nine o'clock in the morning and you sound more hyper than Michelle usually is? Honestly, try to remember you're talking to the unconverted night owl here, and sound less like a squirrel high on drugs."

"But, Anne, I have to tell you about this dream before we pick up Carrie and Michelle, and we're almost to Carrie's house already. If I tell them about it, they'll just tease me and ruin a perfectly fabulous dream."

She sighed. "Fine, by all means, continue where you left off. But just so you know, you are officially banned from caffeine for the rest of this trip."

I hurried through the dream so I could tell her how the kiss at the end had seemed to fill me with energy. "And kissing Tristan in the dream was just like kissing him in real life-"

She slammed on the brakes and yanked the truck over to the side of the road.