Significance (Significance #1)(24)

“Oh, come now, Caleb.” He hugged me tightly. “This is the only time I’ll get this chance. Let me have my fun,” he said just like Gran had yesterday.
“Ok, Dad,” Caleb said smiling. “But can we remember that I saw her first?”
“Absolutely.” He pulled back to look at me with amusement. “And how are you, my dear?”
“Great. And I love your house.”
“I love it, too.” He winked. “Did Caleb extend our invitation to you?”
“He did. Thank you, I really appreciate it.”
“And?”
“And?” I said confused.
Caleb came over and stood beside me as Peter released me and leaned back on his desk.
“Dad, I haven’t had a chance to talk to you yet. You see, Maggie’s dad is going to be more of a...problem than we originally thought,” he said and looked apologetically to me.
Peter sat up straight and crossed his arms, looking pensive. “That right?”
“Yes. We’ve already had a couple close calls. So, I told Maggie she can stay here when she wants to, but she won’t be able to do anything more than that right now, Dad.”
“Hmm.” Peter rubbed his chin just like Caleb does. “Well, we’ll have to figure something out.”
“Yeah,” I chimed in. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him, but he’s all of a sudden decided to start parenting again.”
“Tell me.” He waved to the couch in front of him for us to sit. “Tell me what happened with him. Why he’s been so absent from your life until now.”
I sat down with Caleb and thought how to process and word it all. With Dad having confessed and apologized and now was being so awkward and upset with Caleb, it was like a fresh wound. Caleb’s hand came up to massage my neck, calming, soothing. I smiled at him gratefully.
“Well, he hasn’t been absent. We’ve always been happy and together until last summer, before school started. My mom left. After that my dad has been like a zombie.”
I told him the whole sad story up until present day. I watched his face as I told him and saw that he was concerned, but didn’t pity me.
“Hmm.” He rubbed his chin again and then ran one hand through his hair. I saw the same tattoo Caleb had on the inside of his wrist except his father’s half-circle had Rachel’s name around the curved side. “Well, he must see that what is between you two isn’t going to just go away. That’s why he’s so frightened by this. I understand, I have a daughter myself. It’s hard to watch them grow up. I think this is just what he needed to wake up.” 
“Yeah, but it couldn’t have come at a worse time. He said Caleb can’t come over in the mornings anymore.”
Peter jolted up. “Now that is a problem. Hmm. I’d hate for you two to have outs with each other when you’ve just gotten him back in your life.”
“Me, too,” I said truthfully.
“But you can’t deny the need for Caleb—”
“I know, believe me. Dad almost kicked Caleb out this morning and I..pletely freaked,” I admitted quietly. “I don’t know what we’re gonna do, but...we’ve gotta figure it out somehow. If I just leave him like that, I don’t know what he’ll do. I’m all he’s got.”
Peter nodded and looked sincerely understanding. “We’ll work it out somehow, Maggie. We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.”
“Ok, Dad. So, one more thing,” Caleb inched into the topic at hand.
“Ok,” he said warily.
Caleb pulled my sweater open and pulled the shoulder down to expose my upper arm. Peter growled his words out, just like Caleb had. “Again? How?”
“No, Dad, not again. This was a dream.”
His father paled and leaned against the desk further to keep from falling. I jumped up to him.
“Are you ok?” I asked.
“Dad, what is it?” Caleb asked at the same time.
“They have an echoling,” Peter answered breathless and then banged his fist on the desk.
“What’s that?” Caleb asked.
Peter looked at my arm and grasped it gently. “This is an echo. A dream that is so real that it becomes real, tangible. They dream it and fashion it how they see fit, and then send it, or echo it, to who the intended recipient is. They can imagine whatever they want and make it real. Make it happen to someone as if it were actually happening to them. They don’t have to even be aware that you’re asleep, you just receive the echo when you are sleeping. That’s why you have the offense mark, because for all intents and purposes, it did happen.”
I stared at him and waited for him to finish and to tell me that there was some way to stop it or make it go away. But he just sat there thinking.
“So, they can just climb into my dreams whenever they want and hurt me?”
Caleb came closer and laced our fingers.
“Yes,” Peter said bluntly. “They can hurt you and drain you of your energy and essence. When you wake up you feel like you haven’t slept at all when they are in your dreams. Unless...” He sighed. “The solution is a little ironic I guess in this case.”
“What? Whatever it is, we’ll do it,” Caleb answered forcefully.
“Well, the only way to stop it is for Caleb to be with you. His touch calms you, it heals you and also keeps you from harm, from attack of another’s ability. He anchors you, grounds you, so to speak. He’s your shield.” I guess Caleb and I continued to stare at him because he sighed and said more bluntly, “You have to sleep with Caleb. Just sleep,” he insisted quickly, “but he has to be touching you while you sleep in order to keep Marcus or anyone else away. He’s your barrier.”
I blinked. “I don’t understand.”
“Your imprint works so that you are always together, Maggie. You live best, work best, play best, love best and fight best when you’re together. You’ll even sleep best when you are. I know I do all those things best with Rachel.”“I have no idea how we’ll pull that off with my dad the way he is lately.”
“Me either. Let me think on it. In the meantime, just stay together as long as possible. Ok?”
I nodded and then had another thought. “I thought no one in their clan had ascended either? How can Marcus have abilities?”
“He doesn’t. Someone’s helping him. That’s what worries me most.”
I let Caleb pull me from the room. He called out over his shoulder. “Bye, Dad. Thanks.”
“Caleb.” He came to the hall to speak. “I know this is hard for you both. You’re both young and you’re trying not to hurt Maggie’s father, but this is inevitable. You two can’t be apart.” He looked at me. “Maggie, I know this is strange for you, but I feel the need to stress the severity of the situation. It won’t just make you ill if you’re apart, Caleb will be ill, too. I’ll work on trying to figure something out about your father, but if it doesn’t pan out and he forbids you to see Caleb-”
“I understand. We have to be together, even at the cost of angering my father. I understand, I do.”
He smiled sadly at me.
“I’m so sorry, Maggie. Usually, for us, these first few years after imprinting are very special and joyous times. I’m sorry that it doesn’t seem to be that way for you now, but it’ll get better.”
“It’s ok. Thank you.”
“Will you stay? For a while? Rachel would love to have you both for dinner, I’m sure.”
I looked at Caleb and shrugged.
“Yeah. We’ll stay,” he told him.
“Good. I’ve got to get back to work. See you in a few hours.”
We made our way down the hall and into another wing, past a huge white foyer.
“The wing with Dad’s office is for business. This wing is where the bedrooms are,” he advised and we turned a corner, then he stopped at a wide door. “My room.”
He opened the dark oak door and I was bombarded with his scent. The scent I smell when I inhale the skin at his neck, my favorite smell. I took a deep breath and walked in after him, he closed the door as I looked around.
It was a strange room for a college boy I thought. It was clean and his bed made. He had sheet music and guitars everywhere with a baby piano in the corner and a trumpet on the wall stand. There were no posters above his bed. Just a plain room with lots of shelves, filled with books and CDs.
“I like your room,” I said truthfully.
“Yeah? I like it, too. Mom tried to guy it all up when I left for school, but...”
“Guy it all up?” I asked cocking a questioning brow at him. 
“Yeah. When I came back my first break from college, she had decorated everything in swimming. Water waves bedspread, Michael Phelps posters, my old trophies and metals on my shelf. She even had a poster over my bed that said ‘Swimmers Do It Right’.” I laughed and then covered it with my hand. “Yeah, so I fixed it. I like things plain, not loud.”
“Me, too.”
He kicked his shoes off and walked to the piano. I took my flops off and sat on his bed while he played something I’d never heard before. It was sweet and slow.
“Did your uncle—the one who can learn and teach anything, whatever he’s called—did he teach you to play all these instruments?”
“Nope. And he’s called a Novice.”