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I felt his lips curve into a grin againstme as he whispered, "Please, Sav? We can keep it a secret if you want The Clann and our fae to date each other without anyone finding out?

He kissed, I foundthe entire drive hoest mistake of both our lives

Nanna met , old-fashioned cotton and lace-triown 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&039;t spoken towhen he&039;d ain and passed on the council&039;s threat to hurt Moe But he wants you to call hirowled under my breath

"You know I don&039;t want to talk to hi fast down the hallway toward ument

She followed me, her bare feet silent on the worn linoleum floor in the hall then whisper soft on

"I know you don&039;t want to talk to him," she said "And I&039;m sure he knows it, too But he said this time it&039;s important, and if you don&039;t call hi till you talk to hi face as my heart pounded in my ears Had the vampire council soht? "Did he say why?"

"Nope I wrote down the number for you"

Okay, thentoo life threatening or he would&039;ve told Nanna Maybe he was just in an extra-deht

Reluctantly, I accepted the phone and slip of paper fro the door behind her

I took off h So I went ahead and got ready for bed, brushingwhite nightgown, the one with the spaghetti straps that led 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, buttoo hard to work the clasp After several frustrating atteave up and dropped the locket onelse 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&039;s first words

Unbelievable "This is the first time I speak to you in months, and that&039;s how you want to start this conversation?" I was shaking froe 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 askon Fridays, yes, I&039; ho football and basketball seasons But shouldn&039;t you and your council already know that froh Nanna and Mohed "I understand why you are angry, Savannah I do not like the situation anymy j-"

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

More silence filled the phone, and I could practically hear hi his teeth Good, maybe I&039;d finally made a dent in that infamous icy-cold vaet mad, he&039;d have to actually care in the first place Which he didn&039;t

"I aht"

Oh, crap They knew! I held thened for a full ain "Savannah, is there anything you would like me to tell the council?"

They did kno 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 requestedtoarding your changes before I leave And to be able to truthfully tell them I have received those updates directly froh with relief They didn&039;t know

He continued "While I aain

"I would like you to seriously consider co 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 thiswithduring your formative years"

Of course it would be the council&039;s wish and not his "I don&039;t s But like you said, I&039;ve spent my whole life here With my real family This is my horaduation" Not to mention I&039;d rather die than live with a heartless council spy like hie 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&039;t even make it onto his list

"You should knohile I arandmother for updates as frequently So please tell them I will be in contact with them as often as I a to baithim questions? Because that would requiresilence, he gave one last sigh "Goodbye, Savannah"

"Bye" I ended the call then stared at the phone That&039;s when I realized just how badlyIf the vampire council had found out aboutwithThe vampire council didn&039;t know about ht At least, not yet Because if they had, my father would have asked me about it, or at least sounded disappointed with me

I&039;d broken one of their stupid rules Yet as all-powerful as they claimed to be, they still didn&039;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, ould both be sooo dead Butit had been totally worth it Tristan&039;s kisses were beyond addictive And I was one hooked girl

I thought of never seeing hio live with my father now, I&039;d have to move to another state I wasn&039;t even sure which state my father was in at thefor months and occasionally years at a time wherever his latest historical-houarantee that he would never live anywhere near Jacksonville, not with sowith my father would definitely force me to switch schools

No limpses of hi how it had felt to dance with Tristan So I wasn&039;t surprised when I ian to dreae of a forest turned gray with ht "Want to take a itha whispering sound with every step across the cool grass When he held th I felt from his touch seemed every bit as real as if I&039;d been awake

He smiled down at ht He led me deeper into the forest, and I realized neither of us seemed to feel any pain, despite the fact that ere both barefoot Shouldn&039;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 beneathon a cool, thick towel

We continued in silence for a while until we ca with a waterfall and a stream On the bank, someone had spread a blanket and left a picnic basket The h the trees here,them like a little kid It all felt so familiar, too, as if I&039;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&039;t a norht now?"

"Uh-huh So you&039;re saying you&039;re not just a figer 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&039;ve done this a lot before? Connected with other people&039;s minds while they&039;re asleep?"

"No, just yours You&039;re the only descendant I&039;ve ever wanted to dream connect with It takes two descendants to dream connect Otherwise I could see you but you wouldn&039;t be able to see or hear rinned "But fun, too We used to dream connect all the time ere kids Do you remember?"

And in a rush, all those dreams came back to me I had been here beforein our drea where I&039;d dreaether 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 h I preferred Barbie cars and scooters instead" I laughed "Myoffunder them She never understood, since I didn&039;t play in the dirt in real life"

He chuckled

"But why did we stop?"

He frowned, thinking about it for alately I thought at first that it was because my parents stuck soet around that Connecting has still been hit or &039;s different about you tonight" He kept staring at ers "That&039;s it Your necklace You alear that gold locket"

I instinctively reached for my necklace, then reled in et it back on, so I just left it off"

"When did you get it? Did sorandrade"

We stared at each other in understanding

"That&039;s gotta be it," he said "The locketto me Othere&039;d have no problem Everyone&039;s parents in the Clann can dream connect My parents joke about it all the tienes hadn&039;t prevented it before

"Okay But how do I knohat you&039;re saying is true, that we&039;re really connecting andall this up?"

"Easy Tellnow that I wouldn&039;t know in real life, and I&039;ll repeat it to you Monday "

"Okay" I had to think for a ht,in with hi schools"

Tristan stared atthat up?"

I shook my head

"What was your answer?"

"I told him no way I barely know him And he&039;s" I almost said he was a vampire and a council spy "He definitely cares more about his job than me" I told hi without seeing my jazz routine

"Ouch, that must&039;ve hurt Did he say why?"

I pulled up a section ofmy answer carefully "His faht he asked "

"But you tried out for the Charht?"

I nodded "His fas and h"

He muttered a curse almost too quiet for me to hear "I&039;m sorry your dad and his faht for what you wanted"

My eyes stung I shrugged and stared down at the hunk ofoff the little fuzzy pieces from its surface After a while, I sed "Maybe we could talk about so else"

"Okay" He reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear so I couldn&039;t hide behind it anymore "Have I told you how brave I think you are?"

That ht" I wasn&039;t brave at all Just one secret date with Tristan had uilt and fear that we&039;d end up getting caught

"No, you really are," heeven lower "It&039;s one of the things I kind of admire about you"

"Tristan, if I was so brave, I would be dancing with the Charmers noays"

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

I frowned in confusion "Like what?"

"Like how you&039;re not afraid to be alone on caht after practice Or when you go to the school alone during a hoet 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 ofoff his words He just didn&039;t knohat I really was Why would I be afraid of being on ca that would ever walk those grounds, ith my monstrous mixed blood Not that I could ever hope to explain any of that without totally repulsing hie the focus back to him "I mean, you&039;re not supposed to even be friends withfor a week"

"Because you&039;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 beco, but he becaet to be around you enough to convince you to date h, I knew it! You sneaky-"

Laughing, he pulled rue battery y, so war ainst the top of hThat had to have been the best dreao back to sleep and pick up where it had ended But I&039;d proirl time with my friends today I only saw them at lunch lately since I&039;d been so busy with tearoup trip to the nearest mall, about thirtyto do last- for the Fall Ball, which the Char next weekend

Not that it reallythe concession stand all night I justout with my friends beyond lunch at school every day I juot ready I hesitated, then put on my locket Was it really charreen Ford F150, I yelled goodbye to Nanna and ran to the truck It ot home The thick bed of day, rerin

Since Anne had picked un I hopped onto the front seat in one step

"Whoa, you&039;re energetic this ave me a startled scowl as she backed out of the driveway

"Yeah, I guess I a person?"

"This ht about it, I really did feel a "Hreat dreay"

"What&039;d you do, drink a ton of energy drinks in that dreauy in it"

She rolled her eyes, but a sht Tell me all about it"

"Okay But I won&039;t tell you who, so don&039;t bother asking"

"What? Why not?"

"Because So listenhe&039;s standing there at the edge of a forest, and he holds out a hand and says, &039;Come ith me&039;" I did o 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&039;clock in theand you sound more hyper than Michelle usually is? Honestly, try to reht 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&039;re almost to Carrie&039;s house already If I tell them about it, they&039;ll just tease hed "Fine, by all means, continue where you left off But just so you know, you are officially banned froh the dream so I could tell her how the kiss at the end had see Tristan in the drea him in real life-"

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