Blue Violet

chapter 14



Now that Adelaide thought about it, Ellie didn’t really talk about her family, and any references she’d made to them were pretty ambiguous. She realized Ellie was elusive when it came to saying anything about herself. This fact didn’t really worry Adelaide, because of the developing strand of relationship she saw between Ellie and various people in Adelaide’s own family. But what did confuse her was Griffin. He and Ellie appeared to have the same relationship as she and Lila did. Relatives, definitely. Siblings, also definite. Twins, most likely. But if that was the case, Adelaide had a ton of questions. Like why wouldn’t Ellie have told them about him? Why was she being so secretive about something that should be so innocuous? And why wasn’t he in school?

Adelaide decided she’d talk with Lila about it later and see if she’d picked up on anything odd. Lila’s gift was the ability to see if people were being truthful or not, and they would often compare their combined observances. She and Lila had no secrets from each other. Based on the future relationships she could see between Ellie and Griffin and herself, as well as with the other members of her family, Adelaide knew she’d find out in time. For now, she’d give Ellie the benefit of the doubt that she had a good reason for not saying anything. And while she waited on Ellie, maybe she and Lila would be able to figure it out and help move things along.

*****

Ellie only breathed a sigh of relief when she and Griffin made it all the way back to the library without incident. They hopped in her car and drove it home, just in case they were being watched. It would be pretty awkward if one of the Jenners or Pierces saw her car still parked there later.

Once they were safely at the house, Ellie and Griffin rushed inside and opened the window in her bedroom. It provided the most privacy and would allow them to enter and exit relatively undetected – hopefully. Griffin tapped into Ellie’s power and together brother and sister each morphed into the peregrine falcon form, one inky black and one golden. Then they took flight.

The falcons made a striking pair as they wheeled in unison and headed to where Griffin had spotted the wolves. They scouted from the air, flying in ever-widening circles, and still had no visual sighting of the pack.

“Let’s try their tracks,” Griffin’s voice sounded in Ellie’s mind.

Together they swooped into a great dive, flaring their wings at the last second and shimmering back into human form as they landed. They immediately found the tracks. Ellie quickly morphed into the form of a great, midnight black jaguar.

As a jaguar, she used her hunting instincts to try to find the wolves. But the ominous clouds that had been circling above now rolled in over the mountains. A light snow began to fall, making tracking extremely difficult. Finally, the scent and the lead abruptly ended. As if they’d disappeared midstride.

She morphed back into a human. Having followed her thoughts, Griffin did the same.

“Well, either someone in their group is a teleporter who is strong enough to transport others with them, or they can all morph like you do and they took flight,” Griffin said.

Ellie shook her head, grim. “We’ve never known of anyone else with multiple forms. We’re only about a mile from the Jenner and Pierce houses. They’re getting awfully close.” She wrapped her arms around her body in a feeble attempt to ward off the biting cold.

Griffin furrowed his brow. Leaning down he traced one paw print with the tip of his finger. “You think they’re testing the situation? Seeing how close they can get with no one noticing?”

Ellie bit her lip and nodded. “That’s what it seems like. But if the wolves you saw are Vyusher, wouldn’t they already know everyone’s powers in those houses? Why would they need to test anything?”

“I’m not sure,” he replied, standing back up. “When I saw them earlier, I tried to listen in…but as wolves, the pack mind really takes over. I had difficulty making sense of any of it. That’s the closest I could come to any kind of explanation. It was…” Griffin searched for a word. “Recon… of some sort.”

Ellie shivered and Griffin added, “They’re long gone now. It’s freezing out here. Let’s go home.”

When Ellie got back to her bedroom, she saw she had a text message from Alex:

“Can’t make it in the morning. Sorry to flake. See you later.”

Ellie shook off a feeling of disappointment. If Alex couldn’t make it, he’d have a good reason.

After school Friday, Ellie headed home to get ready for her night out with her friends. It was only the movies, but still, she could sometimes be a girly-girl and wanted to look nice. The theater was situated in the shopping center just below the Stanley Hotel. Ellie adored the old hotel that had been built by the maker of the Stanley steam engine many years before. It was also the hotel the novel The Shining had been based on.

The setting was idyllic. Mountains rose up behind the gleaming white buildings with their red tile roofs, and she could easily imagine holding a beautiful wedding there. Suddenly, an image of Alex popped in her head…his charming but slightly goofy smile, strong arms, eyes that crinkled around the corners when he laughed. The way he listened to her with total focus, like she was the most interesting person on the planet. The way his laugh made chills run up her spine. She’d missed his company on her run the last few mornings. More than she wanted to admit.

Brian had caught her coming out of calculus earlier that day and offered her a ride to the movies. Since they both lived in Carriage Hills, Ellie accepted. She knew he was going to ask her on a date, just the two of them this time. But this worked out anyway. It would give her the chance to establish their boundaries as just friends.

“Explain to me why you’re going out with these high school kids again,” Griffin said. He was leaning in the doorway of her bathroom watching as she primped.

“I do happen to be in high school, Griffin,” she said. She put down the curling iron and fluffed out her hair.

“But you’ve never done this before,” he complained, gesturing to the abundance of grooming paraphernalia scattered around the bathroom. Ellie grinned as she got up and grabbed her jacket and purse.

“I’ve never had to before, and it always seemed safer to stay in the background. But I have to admit it’s kind of nice to spend time with people other than my brother.” She poked her index finger in the center of his chest.

“Hey!”

Laughing, she hugged him to take the sting out of her words. “You know I love you. But it’s been just us for such a long time. Do you remember when we had family? A whole clan of people around us? It’s just nice to have something a little bit like that again. That’s all.”

“Yeah,” he grumbled. “I guess I get it.”

“Tell you what,” she cajoled. “At our next place, you can go to college and you get to have the friends.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he said, finally smiling back.

Brian knocked on their front door right on time.