A/N: Thanks to all those who read and reviewed. You guys make me wanna write more. So write I did =] Enjoy. Oh and, anonymous, thanks for your comment about the boys being in character. That's one of the hardest things to do when I'm writing fanfic.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Covenant. "From ancient grudge" is from Romeo and Juliet.

IN MY DREAMS

CHAPTER THREE - FROM ANCIENT GRUDGE

I felt warm and safe, lying down with my head resting on something firm and gently thudding. I opened my eyes.

I was snuggled up in the arms of someone familiar, someone very dear to me. My ear was pressed against his chest and I smiled at the rhythm of his strong, comforting heartbeat

I had missed this, more than I would ever admit. I missed feeling this warm, this loved. My chest – my heart – was filled to the brim with something heated and overwhelming. Love. This was love, it had to be.

I sighed and he looked down at me. His eyes, a beautiful clear brown, stared back at me intently. He was captivating. The warm sensation in my heart flowed over and I couldn't resist him anymore. I shifted up and kissed him, just like we used to.

The kiss was everything I'd remembered, leaving me short of breath and my heart racing. I wanted to cry for happiness. I had forgotten how good it was to feel like this. I'd never let this go.

But then a muffled noise echoed, almost like scratching, way off in the distance.

He didn't seem to notice it, and I ignored it for as long as I could. But the sound was getting louder and clearer. It was a ringing. It could have been seconds, or minutes, maybe even an hour, but soon the ringing was shrill and blaring in my ear. I broke off the kiss and blinked.

--

Rachel opened her eyes. For a few seconds everything was fuzzy, but she woke up properly then and grabbed her phone off the bedside table. She pressed the call end button on her cell, and her ringing alarm stopped.

Reality sunk in and Rachel realized she'd been dreaming. Dreaming about him. Her chest filled with an ache; it constricted and the sensation moved up to her throat. She wanted to cry.

Tossing her phone onto her bed, Rachel sat up and the sensation slowly drizzled away. She was empty. A cool numbness filled her chest and emanated out until it hit her stomach. God. Why was she still dreaming about him? She was the one who ended the relationship. She'd moved away and she'd left him behind. She even found herself flirting with Josh sometimes. So why couldn't Rachel get her ex-boyfriend out of her head?

--

"Reid, come on."

Reid opened his eyes to the sight of Tyler sitting across the dorm room already dressed for class.

"Ten minutes," Tyler announced, throwing Reid's blazer over to his bed.

The blond boy grimaced but got up, dressing with lazy, heavy motions as Tyler sorted through the mess on his desk for the right books he would need for his first four periods. Neither boy said a word, but Reid could tell Tyler wanted to say something. The younger boy kept glancing his way, questions in his eyes. Questions about last night.

It was incredible, and at the same time horrific. After the event itself, which had been painful and somewhat embarrassing to endure in front of his friends, Reid had felt powerful. The power that he'd had since he was thirteen had multiplied and he could only liken it to comparing a glass of lemonade with a bottle of absinthe. And now, Reid's bottle was bottomless. When he opened his eyes after the Ascension, it was as if he'd never seen anything clearly. As if he'd been blind his whole life and now the world was bright and lit from behind.

As soon as the pain of Ascending had ceased, all he wanted to do was Use. Just a little, just to test it. But Reid knew the rules. He knew the dangers of Using now that he'd Ascended.

As much as he joked around about it, as much as he'd rebelled against these rules, he didn't want to turn out like Caleb's father. He wanted to enjoy his youth for as long as possible, so he'd promised himself that he would Use only when necessary.

Caleb and Pogue lived by this same promise. The difference was that Reid had Used much more than Caleb and Pogue ever did. He was already relying on it when he was still seventeen, Using for whatever he wanted. And now his power was calling to him more than it had before. He was more susceptible to it, Reid knew that. But he'd hold out as long as he could.

--

Rachel's first week passed by quickly. After overhearing – not eavesdropping – Reid and his friends arguing last week, she'd been anxious to see them again. Just to see if she could piece together more of the mystery. But she was a junior and she didn't share a class with any of them.

Josh was sick on the Monday of her second week. He was in bed with the flu and that left her by herself for lunch. She was like any other sixteen year old girl. She didn't want to sit alone at lunch; it would be embarrassing, awkward and, above all, boring.

After her fourth period she shuffled off to the dining hall, worried about having to sit by herself. And, for a while, it seemed she would have to. Rachel took her tray and sat down at one of the long, empty tables. She dug at her lunch, a vegetable pasta dish, and jumped when the chairs around her screeched back. She looked up and saw Aaron and Kira standing over her.

They sat down without a word, as if they sat with her everyday. Rachel glanced around the dining hall and bit back a chuckle when she realized that all the other tables were occupied.

"Got out of class late?" Rachel asked with a barely concealed smile. She couldn't help but enjoy making fun of Kira, even if it was about something as small and juvenile as this.

The redhead glared but looked up at Aaron and received a meaningful look. She turned her attention back to her lunch. How much pressure was Rachel's stepfather putting on Aaron to make him be nice to her?

A skinny girl with big, curly blond hair appeared at Aaron's side. She wasn't as pretty as Kira, but held herself with the same obnoxious air. Rachel smirked into her lunch when the blond tried to initiate a conversation and Aaron merely ignored her.

After a second attempt, the blond left in a huff and Kira waved at her with a mockingly pleasant smile. Rachel looked up and the two girls shared a satisfied, mischievous grin, as if they both played an active role in getting rid of the blond.

"So where did you move from?" Kira asked. Rachel was shocked; this was the first time she had regarded her pleasantly, even if her tone had been a little sharp.

"Riverside," she answered. Kira raised an eyebrow in question. "California, in the south."

"California. Cool."

The ice was broken. Kira and Rachel spoke about California, speaking as if they were classmates, as if Kira hadn't initially regarded her with contempt. Maybe the redhead wasn't that bad after all.

"Ugh."

Both girls turned to Aaron to see him sneering over at another table across the hall. He was glaring, it seemed, at Reid Garwin. Rachel scanned the table he was sitting at, but none of his three friends were there. Instead, he was sitting with a group of young girls, laughing animatedly.

Rachel frowned as she watched him. He was flirting with these girls. "Sophomores?" she muttered. The girls sitting at the table looked so young.

"Ninth graders," Kira corrected. Ninth graders? But…he was a senior. He was hitting on girls four years his junior. Rachel pulled back in her chair, disgusted, and looked from Kira to Aaron. They really did hate him, and now she saw why.

"What're you looking at, Abbott?"

Rachel jumped, seeing Reid stride over to their table. He looked like a different person from a minute ago. The expression on his face was hateful and ugly; he looked like he was ready for a fight.

Although she didn't feel particularly sympathetic towards Reid at that moment, she didn't want to see a fight. She touched Aaron's shoulder lightly when he moved to stand up and was afraid she would need to do more to hold him back. Kira watched intently, but made no move to help her.

"Reid!"

Everyone at their table, and within a three table radius, turned and saw Caleb stalking over. His face, that Rachel had remembered as looking pleasant and kind, was contorted in anger and stress. A few tables away, Rachel saw their other two friends. Blue eyes watched in amusement, green eyes watched in concern.

"Stay out of this," Aaron hissed, standing up now. Kira stood up too, and Rachel followed suit quickly, her legs shaking.

Reid seemed to agree with his enemy, snatching his arm away as Caleb moved to grab it. The blond boy stared at Aaron and sneered. "Keep your eyes to yourself, Aaron." Was that why he was starting a fight – because he saw Aaron looking at him? The intensity of his glare seemed to suggest there was something else. There must have been something else.

For a second, it looked as if Reid was going to attack. He wound back to punch Aaron and clenched his teeth together, hate pouring from his eyes. But he didn't do anything. Reid seemed to have changed his mind and left the dining hall with Caleb close behind him.

"Pussy," Aaron hissed so quietly that Rachel almost didn't catch it. She flinched, hating the word and its context. She was frozen to the spot, aware that many of their fellow diners were staring at them.

Aaron sat down with a loud clash as his chair scratched against the polished wooden floorboards. Kira and Rachel sat down together, one girl watching Aaron and the other looking down at her food.

Within one lunch period, Rachel's distaste for Kira turned to cautious friendliness, her cool partiality for Aaron became a protective concern, and her curiosity about Reid Garwin was now hate.