"Well, I didn't want to take all your dreams, just the bad ones," he said softly and he lifted me by my hands to stand in front of him.

"I usually don't remember them anyway."

I couldn't believe how refreshed I felt. How my body seemed to sing with contentment. I came to see it was Caleb. We'd have physical contact for who knows how long now while we slept. Both of us calming and soothing the other. It was actually good for me to sleep with him.

Peter was right. It was pretty ironic that the thing I needed most was going to be the biggest fight with my dad. I had no idea how to make it work, but I hoped we'd figure it out.

"I'm starving," I mused and smiled at him. "Come on." I grabbed his hand. "Point me towards the kitchen."

He laughed.

"The dining room actually. Follow me."

I held his arm as we walked. I even put my head on his shoulder and could feel Caleb's happiness about it beaming through to me. He didn't want to push me but wanted us to move forward in our relationship. He wanted us to be happy and at ease with each other but he wanted things to go on my pace. He was happy that I was getting more comfortable with him.

I felt so strange yet utterly put together at the same time. It was the sleep, I knew but I felt more bold and confident and comfortable with Caleb than I ever had.

Twelve.

"This is so good, Rachel. Thank you," I said and then took another big bite of mashed potatoes.

The dining room was grand. The walls were a soft yellow with green floor tiles and a big oak table that could have easily sat ten. We all sat at one end together.

"Good, I'm glad you like it. It's one of Caleb's favorites."

"I can't believe how hungry I am," I mused.

"It's the echoling," Peter advised as he wiped his mouth with the white linen napkin and leaned back in his chair. "It drains you like I told you, but not only are you tired but you're hungry. It also wouldn't hurt to drink some orange juice or take a vitamin when you get home."

"All that because a guy invaded my dream?"

"I'm afraid so. I'm sorry, Maggie, but unfortunately sometimes, we have to deal with these un-pleasantries with our kind."

I nodded and sat back, stuffed. All I wanted to do right now was crawl back into bed with Caleb but, it was getting later and would be dark soon. I needed to get home if we were going to appease me father.

I looked at him and saw him watching me. When he saw he was caught, that dimple of his became more defined as his smile spread. He chuckled silently and I cracked a smile. But I didn't blush. Progress!

He leaned his elbows on the table.

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah."

I thanked his parents again for dinner and everything else. Peter said he'd still be thinking about how to deal with the echoling and for me not to worry. He hugged me tight and then handed me off to Rachel who did the same.

"Be safe, dear."

I nodded and we walked to the bike slowly. As I was about to put my helmet on Caleb stopped me.

"We can take my truck if you'd rather this time."

"Um...if you want to."

"You want to take the bike don't you?" he said smiling.

"Yeah," I admitted.

He laughed and helped me with my helmet.

"You just keep getting better and better."

I shook my head at him as I slipped on his jacket and then climbed on behind him.

"You want to drive?" he asked suddenly.

"Uh...maybe but, not tonight. I don't want to add a time line of pressure to my nerves if I'm gonna be driving."

"Ok," he said amused. "Next time."

We pulled out the garage, then the gate and headed down the driveway to my house.

"So, if your uncle didn't teach you, how did you learn to play all those instruments?"

"Well, he wanted to teach me but I wanted to learn by myself. So I took piano lessons first, when I was six. Then my grandpa taught me to play guitar and the rest I just figured out on my own."

"Your grandpa. The one who looks so much like you?"

"Yeah. Grandpa Ray. He died four years ago."

"How?"

"Well...we aren't sure, old age. Significants heal each other so we usually live a really long time. We never have to go to doctors or anything like that, except for babies. We just heal whatever's wrong without knowing it. But Grandpa Ray didn't wake up one morning. I mean, he was eighty five years old, but we usually live longer than that. We can see it coming, but him...it was just out of nowhere."

"I'm sorry," I said and saw in his mind that significants usually die together or nearly. For Gran to live this many years after him was unprecedented. I could feel his anguish, remembering Gran crying and inconsolable for months. I would have put my hand on his to draw those feelings away from him but couldn't reach it on the handlebars so I improvised, needing to do something. I lifted the hem of his shirt and splayed my hand on his side. "I'm sorry," I repeated.

"Thanks." He pulled my hand in front of him, laced our fingers, his palm on the top of my hand. "It's ok. We still don't know what happened, but we just accepted it was his time. But now, with this echoling thing...I'm starting to wonder if maybe that had something to do with it. He was our Champion before my dad."

"Wouldn't Gran have been sleeping with him though?"

"Well, Gran said she'd been working on his birthday present. She was making him a jacket and had worked on it a couple nights in a row, waiting for him to fall asleep first, so she wasn't with him. That's why she was so upset. She thought he had a heart attack or something and she wasn't there to heal him. She blamed herself."

"Caleb. That's terrible."

"But she got better. And if dad hasn't thought of the echoling thing as a reason, maybe it's not possible. Maybe I'm just trying to make something out of nothing."

He didn't believe that. But he wasn't sure if he wanted to open Gran's wounds or not.

"You'll do what's right. You guys are lucky to be so close to each other, your family."

"Yeah, we are. Most clans are this way."

"So, you said your mom was part of another clan until she met your dad. So, how do you meet other clans? Do you have an Ace's convention or something?"

He laughed and I was happy that the sadness of his grandparents was forgotten for now.

"No- well...yeah, actually. Every year we get together in London. That's the central base for our kind. It's called reunification. Aces came over to America on the Mayflower, you know."

"Really?" I said intrigued.

"Nah." I b.u.mped his back as he laughed. "But we did migrate here and all over the world over the years. We all make a trip for one week, every year, to London and get together to keep in touch and see the new couples, new babies. All the clans go, or use to, even rival ones."

"I bet you have a lot of imprints that week," I mused.

"Kinda. Imprints are a private thing and mostly, you won't imprint in front of anyone else, or at least not in front of someone you don't know well. Most of the imprints happen when they are saying goodbye, or when they meet up later for a visit or something. We've all known each other since birth so, it's not usually like it was with you and me, where we've never met before."

"I bet there's a line a mile long of Ace girls who hate me now," I joked.

"I doubt that." He laughed. "Kyle is the ladies man. Not me."

"I don't believe that. I think you just don't know the effect you have on people."

He sighed in embarra.s.sment. I saw glimpses in his mind of a big golden room and him being followed by girls of all ages throughout the days when he was in London. Then he pushed it away.

"Well, anyway. That's where my parents met, even though they both were from Tennessee. They got together after the reunification for a bi-family lunch and that's when it happened. Some of the clans that are close in geography will get together sometimes."

"So are there like...rituals they're going to try to perform on us at this thing?"

He laughed.

"We're clans, Maggie, not covens."

"Ok," I conceded. "So is there like a million people there?"

"Nope. There's really not that many of us, only about three hundred around the world. There are three families here in Tennessee. They're two more families in the United States, in Chicago, and then two in London, one in Sydney, Australia, two in Paris, and one in Prague."

"Wow."

"Yeah. Some of the other families are a little eccentric but, for the most part, they're all pretty normal and want to seem as human as possible and with loads of cash of course." I laughed and he did too. "The next reunification is in six weeks, right before school starts back."

"Will I go to this with you?" I asked and felt timid about it, like I didn't belong or something.

"Of course you will, you're family. We'll work something out with your dad by then. From what I hear through my gossiping aunts, everyone in London is pretty anxious to meet you."

"Why? Because no one has imprinted in a long time?"

"Yes, that but also because you're human. There are only three humans imprinted out of three hundred people. You, Gran and a man named Philippe. He's a genius. He can name any capitol of any city in the world."

"What's his ability?"

"That is his ability. He can remember anything. He brings new meaning to the phrase photographic memory. Anything you say to him, he'll remember after only hearing it once. He's a walking dictionary."

"Hmm. That'd be useful."

"Yeah. I'd kill for that one for mid-terms."

"Ditto. So, I'm gonna be a freak show on display at this reunion thing, right?"

"Reunification. And no, you won't be a freak," he soothed and swirled his thumb over my knuckles. "They're just happy for us and hoping that the imprints are coming back. They're a lot of single people out there but the other clans don't have the no-dating rule like us. A bunch of them have married since this whole thing started, without imprints. Now, I think they're afraid the imprints are coming back and they'll imprint on someone else. A lot of these people have kids and stuff."

"Hmmm, wow." I didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah. But don't worry about the reunification. Everybody's great. You'll see for yourself and I can't wait to go. I hope this is the start of something for our kind. They've been worried for too long."

The rest of the ride was cold but I could feel his warmth through his shirt. I laid my cheek on his back and held on as I tried to relax and not get worked up again about everything. It didn't work a few times. Thoughts would creep in about how impossible it all seemed. I mean, I can't go to sleep. What am I supposed to do? And what about this reunification thing. I didn't like crowds and he was talking about a crowd of three hundred all staring at me like I am somehow the answer to all their problems.

But he would touch my hand, rubbing my knuckles with his, when these thoughts took over and I'd be instantly brought back down. Once he even brought his hand over his shoulder to caress my neck. I didn't remember Chad ever being like this.

Chad kissed me, yeah, but not hungry kisses. We never used tongues, they were more like pecks. He touched me but it was just hand holding. He never caressed my face, never tried to go up my shirt or under my skirt, never tried to have s.e.x with me. He never even kissed my neck; ever. And I realized I should be grateful for those things, for him not pushing me too far but he should have wanted to do those things, right? I mean he didn't even try, he never talked about it, and I never saw pa.s.sion in his eyes when he looked at me.

I hadn't realized what it was I was missing until Caleb.

So when we pulled up in front of my house to see Chad sitting on my front steps, I was more than a little blown away.

Caleb tensed when he saw him, then he pushed down the kick stand. I climbed off and let him help me take off my helmet but I kept the jacket.

"I have no idea what he's doing here," I whispered.

"I'm sure I have a pretty good idea," he muttered as he took his helmet off. "You want me to go?"

"No," I said quickly and then smiled at his smug smile.

"Well, at least there's that."

We walked up to the walkway. I grabbed Caleb's hand as he was giving me s.p.a.ce. He didn't want to seem like he was claiming me or grandstanding that we were together now, though, in his thoughts, that's exactly what he wanted to do.