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way—they never happened when I was lying in bed, relaxing, floating off to sleep. No, they were way more inconvenient than that. I’d never had a dream that I mistook for a vision, or the other way around. Maybe because I wasn’t prone to nightmares? And why should I be, when I saw horrific enough things while wide awake?
    The memory of my father’s kidnapping and murder came flooding back, and a shudder racked my body. Hot tears burned behind my eyelids, and I blinked them away. I’d never be able to banish those images—ever. They’d continue to haunt me the rest of my life, no matter how hard I tried to erase them from my mind. I mean, how could a nightmare possibly compete with that ?
    It couldn’t, I realized. Not even the one I’d just had.
    “You want to talk about it?” Cece offered, climbing into her own bed and turning onto her side to face me.
    I shook my head. “Definitely not. Anyway, you promised to tell me about the breakup.”
    “Yeah, I did, didn’t I?”
    With that, I pushed aside all thoughts of the dream—the nightmare—and concentrated on Cece’s voice instead.

3 ~ Love Bites
     
    I was walking across campus to fencing practice when I first felt it—that familiar little buzzing in my head. And then Aidan’s voice, as loud and clear as if he were standing right there beside me.
    Violet?
    Excitement flooded my veins, made my heart accelerate.
    You’re here? I glanced around, hoping that nobody was watching me as I stood there smiling giddily to myself.
    I’m here, he confirmed. Where are you?
    On my way to the gym for practice. I’ll be done in an hour. Where are you?
    I’ll meet you at the chapel after practice, came his reply.
    Okay, see you then.
    Oh, man. This was going to be a long hour. I hurried my step, walking on air now. The anticipation was nearly killing me, like a sharp, searing burn beneath my skin.
    I slowed as I neared the gym, allowing myself to remember the last time he’d kissed me, just before I’d boarded the plane to Atlanta back in June. It had taken every ounce of strength I possessed to finally step away from him, to turn and walk toward that plane.
    I only hoped the reality of our reunion could live up to my imaginings. Which, I realized, seemed unlikely, given the enormity of the buildup in my mind. It was probably a good thing that I had to get through an hour’s worth of practice first, to focus my mind elsewhere.
    “Hey, Violet!” a voice called out, and I turned to see one of my teammates headed toward me, one hand raised in a wave.
    I waved back. “Hey, Suzanne.” She was a telepath, but since my own telepathy only seemed to work with vampires, I had to call out to her. “How was your summer?”
    She glanced down at her watch. “Great, but we better hurry or we’ll be late.”
    With a nod, I fell into a jog beside her.
    “So glad you could join us, ladies,” Coach Gibson called out as soon as we stepped inside, just two minutes late. “I was just introducing the newest member of the boys’ varsity team, Tyler Bennett.”
    I stood on my tiptoes and saw the new guy standing there looking slightly uncomfortable. Shaggy brown hair streaked with gold fell almost to his shoulders. He looked like he belonged on the beach beside a surfboard, not here on the piste.
    “McKenna, I think you might have finally met your match,” the coach added with a smile, clapping Tyler on the shoulder. “Finally, a boys’ top seed as strong as our girls’.”
    Great. Way to start him off on the right foot, I thought. The other guys on the team looked almost mutinous.
    “Okay, grab your foils and pair up,” Coach Gibson barked. “McKenna, I want you with Bennett.” Of course he did. “We’ll start with some warm-ups.”
    “Hey,” Tyler said with an easy smile as I approached. “So you’re McKenna?”
    “Afraid so.” I nodded as I took my place beside him. “But you can call me Violet.”
    Before raising his foil, he brushed his hair out of his