Blue Violet (13 page)

“I’d point out
that you brought this on yourself, but you’ve been banged up enough for your
trouble, in addition to giving me a heart attack, so I’ll restrain myself.
Just… please don’t ever do something like that again.” His gruff concern warmed
her slowly from the inside out.

“How bad’s the
car?” she asked with another groan.

“Probably
totaled.” His face looked like a solemn mask. He sat back on his heels and ran
his hand over his face.

Alex couldn’t
share with Ellie his horror of watching her car hit the tree and then skid
toward the treacherous cliff.  If her car had gone over, she would never have
survived the impact. He’d had to use his powers on her, and hadn’t even stopped
to consider the potential consequences. If someone had seen him, they would’ve
seen him lift his hands, and the next instant, the car frozen in place. Even
the snow falling stopped in time. It’d been a stupid move. I
couldn’t just
sit there and watch her die,
he thought.

“Griffin’s
gonna kill me,” Ellie groaned.

Alex frowned. “Who
exactly
is
Griffin?”

Ellie ignored
the question. “He’ll be here any minute. And he’ll be furious with me.”

“He can get in
line.” Alex looked sternly at her as she wiggled down on the couch to try to
get more comfortable. “What on
Earth
were you thinking?”

She returned
his look with a glare of her own. “I was thinking I had to get away from you.”
She paused for a second, forcing herself to calm down. A repeat of the last few
minutes was a really bad idea. “And you really should go,” she finally
insisted.

Griffin was
close. He was already telepathically communicating his wrath to her. He’d seen
the crash in his mind, and now he was scolding her mentally before he could
finish the job in person. Ellie put her hand to her head, which was now
starting to ache for many reasons.

Alex noticed
the gesture. Concerned, he reached out and gently touched the lump just above
her eyes. Ellie flinched at the pain, although she was able to at least control
the shocking sensation.

“Sorry,” he
muttered. “You should go to the hospital.”

“That’s not
necessary.”

“Well, I
should at least get you some ice for that,” he insisted. But he didn’t move. He
just sat and looked at her for what seemed like an eternity. And Ellie couldn’t
break the contact. Didn’t want to.

Alex reached
out again, this time to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. He trailed his
fingertips along the smooth skin of her jaw.

Ellie’s breath
caught in her throat at the look in his eyes. A confession trembled on the tip
of her tongue… to tell him who and what she was.

The sound of
Griffin banging into the house had the two of them jumping guiltily apart.

Alex looked up
as Griffin entered the room. His jaw clenched, and a pained look crossed his
face. She didn’t need Griffin’s mind reading ability to know that Alex assumed
that Griffin was her boyfriend. She was about to set him straight when she
heard Griffin’s voice in her head.

 “Let him
think what he’s thinking.”

She gave her
brother a confused glace.

“He’s too
involved with you, Ellie. It’ll help keep him at a distance.”

Ellie battled
with that thought. She didn’t want Alex at a distance. He was her
te’sorthene
,
although Alex didn’t appear to have come to that conclusion yet. And while the
thought scared the bejeezus out of her, she couldn’t ignore the instinctual
pull to be with him. She reluctantly recognized that Griffin was right. It
wasn’t time yet. Soon though.

She felt
Griffin relax as she came to her decision.

“Ellie, what
happened?” Griffin asked. He could be a master actor when he needed to be…he
already knew
exactly
what happened. “I saw your car smashed against a
tree out in the road.”

“I had a little
accident. But I’ll be fine. This is Alex by the way.” She introduced them with
a general wave in Alex’s direction.

The two boys
nodded to each other silently. Each regarding the other somewhat coolly. Each
sizing the other one up.

“I’ll be okay
now, Alex,” Ellie said quietly, laying a hand on his arm. “Thanks for getting
me back to the house.”

Alex regarded
Ellie with a solemn face. His whole body practically buzzed with everything
that had gone on in the last half hour or so.

He’d come here
this morning in a furious state, intending to confront her. But that
confrontation had gone all wrong. And then he’d watched as she had her
horrifying accident…as frightening as if it were happening to him. And somehow
the anger and resentment that had driven him here had faded into relief when he’d
realized she wasn’t dead. He could even ignore the twinge of jealousy he felt
toward Griffin now.

Ellie was
alive. And she was okay. That was all that mattered. 

“You should
get her to a hospital,” he muttered as he stood up and headed towards the door.

“I will,” said
Griffin.

Alex turned
back to Ellie, regarding her with solemn eyes, and with a final nod he left.

*****

“Close one,”
Griffin said under his breath.

Ellie fell
back on the couch with a thud.  She snorted inelegantly. “Which part? The part
where he clearly suspects I’m not who I claim to be? Or maybe the part where I
could’ve killed him if I’d morphed? Or the part where I idiotically rammed my
car into a tree?  Of course, there’s also the part where I was this close,” she
held up her hand with her finger and thumb millimeters apart, “to kissing him.”
Ellie buried her face in the couch.

“Huh. You have
been busy, haven’t you? You’re forgetting the part where you discovered that
he’s your
te’sorthene
.”  He watched her for her reaction.

Ellie blew out
a long breath and then said softly, “I’m not ready to talk about that yet.”

Sitting down
at the end of the couch, he nodded. “You’re also forgetting the part where he
saved your life.”

Ellie frowned.
“What’re you talking about?”

Silently he
took her hand, their link always at its strongest when they were both able to access
her ability to use others’ powers. Ellie watched Griffin’s view as Alex had run
out of the house after her. He’d stood in front of the car, leaping aside as
Ellie had gunned the engine. She saw the look of dawning horror on Alex’s face
as he’d watched her slam into the tree. And then, the flash of panic as the car
had started skidding toward the steep drop.

Alex had
lifted his hands, grim determination etched in every line of his body. Without
moving, he’d focused completely on her car as it started to tip over the edge.
Suddenly, it had frozen in place. And then slowly, and with a horrible
screeching sound of metal on rock, the car had inched back on to the pavement,
gradually crossed the road, and ended up back on her property. Only when the
car was safe and stable had Alex lowered his hands.

Ellie sucked
in a breath through her teeth.

“How’s the
head by the way?” Griffin asked as an afterthought.

She gave her
brother an aggravated look. “I’ll survive.”

“I’ll get us
some breakfast, and call a tow truck for the car,” he stood up, heading toward
the kitchen.

“What happened
to taking me to the hospital?” she grumbled.

“Do you really
need it?”

She paused and
pressed her lips together. “What do you think?”

“Hmmm… I think
I’ll keep that to myself,” he teased.

“Just get the
breakfast, Griff,” she mumbled, lying back on the couch and closing her eyes.
Immediately her mind turned to Alex and everything that had just happened.
Ellie hoped Griffin wasn’t listening. She was just too worn out to try to block
his telepathy.

Ellie and
Griffin spent the rest of the day hanging out at home. They discussed the
wolves several times. It still wasn’t clear if the Vyusher were involved or
not. But if they were, Ellie and Griffin worried about when to expect the
attack…the question was
when
, not
if
it was coming. It felt too
much like the last time.

Later that
night Ellie and Griffin agreed to split the patrols so they could get some rest
between watches.

 Ellie took
the first shift, having recovered sufficiently from her accident that morning.
“I’ll wake you up when I get back,” she said as she walked out the back door.

“You sure?
How’s the head?”

“I’ll survive,”
she replied stoically.

She quickly
made for the woods. One of the things she and Griffin had decided today was not
to go in and out of the house in their falcon forms. If Alex was suspicious, he
might be watching. And if anyone was watching, even if it wasn’t Alex, a large
bird shooting in and out would be too obvious to ignore. So Ellie headed into
the cover of the trees, and once she felt safe, she transformed into a falcon
and swiftly took flight.

Nighttime had
already descended, and despite concentrating on looking for the wolves and
watching over the Jenners and Pierces, Ellie was still able to revel in the
feeling of soaring through the air. As a falcon she could dive and reach speeds
faster than any other creature on the planet, the wind almost a physical
presence holding her, moving with her, supporting her. And then, in the same
breath, she could flare her wings and hover over the earth, the wind still her
constant companion, and the sights surrounding her so incredible that words
could never do them justice. Men risked their lives climbing mountains and
jumping out of planes to have just a momentary glimpse of what Ellie could see
any time she chose. The sight was truly stunning, and she never got over the
simple enjoyment of this miraculous gift.

The Jenners
and Pierces lived in two houses built side-by-side, well outside of town and
far away from anyone else. Like her and Griffin, Lila, Adelaide, and Nate didn’t
need much sleep to function and often spent much of the night together,
frequently moving back and forth between the houses and sometimes wandering in
the woods. This routine was one of the things that worried Ellie the most. The
Vyusher had to be aware of this nightly activity… a habit she felt the pack
would likely exploit.

It didn’t take
much waiting before Ellie saw her three friends crossing the woods between
their houses. They took their time, stopping to sit on the grass in a small
clearing, and appeared to be practicing their powers. Nate, ultra strong and
fast, was picking Adelaide up and lifting her effortlessly above his head. Ellie
couldn’t tell what the girls were doing.

Ellie found a
perch on top of a high tree from which to keep watch over them. She tried hard
not to spy, although she enjoyed observing them as they practiced their powers
on each other. She remembered her own adolescence and honing her skills with
Griffin and with her friends. However, she didn’t want to intrude on these
three. Besides, what she was watching for was not their activities, but for any
kind of threat to them. She just couldn’t shake the feeling that something
terrible was coming soon. And with that gut feeling overwhelming her, she
settled in and scanned the woods around them constantly.

Three hours
later, it was almost time to go trade shifts with Griffin. With one last look,
she took off and started to fly for home. In the middle of a swooping turn, a
movement in the trees caught her attention. Focusing her highly-sensitive
falcon’s vision, she made out a shape in the forest moving swiftly and silently
toward the clearing where her three friends were hanging out.

No
!

Dread rushed
through her as she arrowed her trajectory toward the movement. As she drew
closer, Ellie made out the shape of a large wolf.

And then she
noticed another wolf.

And another.

Vyusher.
Ellie’s worst fears were confirmed.

Doing a swift
about face, Ellie flew as fast as she could toward Adelaide, Lila, and Nate.
There were about half a dozen wolves headed straight toward them. Wolves just
like the ones that had attacked Ellie’s clan.

Doing some
quick mental arithmetic, Ellie worked through three important things as she
flew. The first thought was Griffin was too far away for her to be able to tap
into his powers. The second was that the rest of the family was too far away
for her to get help before the wolves reached them. And the third was that
between Nate, Adelaide, and Lila, only Nate had a remotely active and defensive
power. From what Ellie could tell, Lila’s and Adelaide’s powers would not be
useful in this fight.

She ran
through her options in rapid succession.
I can’t do this without Griffin
!
The realization sank in and settled like a rock in the pit of her stomach.

As she neared
the trio, she angled herself in a dive meant more for speed than prudence. She
couldn’t hear Griffin but prayed he’d be able to hear her. She gave a piercing
falcon’s cry, and her friends jerked their attention to her descent. Pulling up
sharply as she reached them, she morphed into her human form.

“Ellie?”
Adelaide gasped. The shock in her face turned to understanding faster than
Ellie would’ve expected. “Well that explains a lot.”

“I don’t have
time to go into details right now. There’s a pack of wolves headed this way,
and they’re coming to kill you!”

“What’re you
talking about?” Nate demanded, his face still showing signs of shock at Ellie’s
dramatic entrance.

“You need to
run as fast as you can to the closest house.” She pointed in the opposite
direction from the wolves. “Once you get there, tell the rest of your family.
Together, there are enough of you to defend against them.”