Blue Violet

chapter 22



Griffin had held onto his shields with difficulty. By the time Charlotte had reached Ellie, he’d been physically shaking with the effort. As soon as he’d seen Ellie and the two people with her disappear, he had finally been able to drop the shield around them. He’d kept track of Ellie mentally as she’d appeared next to the group of three guys who’d been fighting the wolves. It had taken only a second for them to touch Ellie and then she’d disappeared again, allowing Griffin to drop the second shield. All of the remaining people in the field had been making their way quickly to the house where Griffin could feel Ellie had transported herself.

Griffin had backed up as he followed them. As he moved, Griffin had gradually manipulated his shield. While still keeping the wolves at bay, he had slid the shield, paper thin, under their unsuspecting paws, even slightly under the ground they were standing on just to avoid their suspecting his actions.

“Now, Griffin!” he’d heard Ellie scream from inside the house. She must be too weak to use her powers to tell me mentally, he’d realized.

With an incredible jerk, creating a sound like thunder, he’d slammed the shield up in the air like a giant catapult. The wolves had gone flying. Griffin, satisfied that the immediate threat was handled, had turned and ran into the house.

*****

“Give me some space to work,” Alex heard Hugh quietly tell the others. He still hadn’t lifted his eyes from Ellie’s face. As Hugh knelt beside her, Alex held her limp hand between his own.

Come on, baby. You’ve got to keep fighting, he thought, trying to will her some of his own strength. You’re safe now. Just keep fighting to stay alive.

He was vaguely aware of someone taking her other hand. Glancing up, he saw it was Griffin, who looked almost as pale as Ellie. A stab of confusion pulsed through Alex, but he pushed it aside. Instead, he turned his attention back to the girl who’d somehow come to mean more to him than he’d ever realized.

What a time to figure out that you’re in love with the girl, he thought with wry desperation.

Hugh continued to work beside him, his face set in determination. It usually only took a few minutes at most for Hugh to heal anything. That was his power…his gift. Ellie’s injuries were extensive, so naturally it would take more time. Alex let go of her hand for a moment to cover her with a blanket. Everyone watched in total silence as Hugh poured his healing energy into Ellie’s still form.

*****

Though no one else could see it, Hugh saw a golden glow coming from Ellie’s body. It shown brightest where she was the most injured. He moved his hands over that concentration of light and poured his power into that area until the light turned white. Then he would move on to the next brightest spot. Over and over and over he did this, healing Ellie’s injuries one agonizing place at a time.

“Hugh?” Alex’s voice broke through Hugh’s concentration

“There’s a lot to fix, Alex. She’s still with us. Give me some time.”

*****

At Hugh’s words Alex fell silent. The tension in his voice told Alex and the others what they needed to know, that Ellie was in very bad shape. Helplessly he stared at the precious girl whose hand he still held. Alex leaned forward to whisper in her ear. He didn’t know half of what he said to her. He talked mostly about how she needed to fight, that she couldn’t leave him. Not now.

*****

Ellie gradually regained consciousness. At first, all she was aware of was a warm, tingling sensation coursing through her body. As the lovely heat seeped through her, she heard Griffin’s voice calling her name. Softly at first, and then louder and louder.

“Stop screaming at me, Griffin,” she finally thought. That was when she became aware that Griffin was beside her, holding her hand. She felt a great tension leave his body when he heard her voice in his head.

“Welcome back,” was his hushed response. For her reserved brother, the wealth of feeling in his voice said it all. Ellie still remained trapped in the warm darkness of semi-oblivion. She couldn’t open her eyes or talk. She frowned in concentration. Clearly Griffin had been worried about something.

“What happened? Why can’t I open my eyes?”

Griffin stayed silent so long that Ellie started to worry. A slight frown marred her brow. “Don’t force me to open my eyes and look at you, Griff,” she attempted to tease.

“I see your sense of humor has survived intact,” Griffin responded to his sister’s thoughts aloud this time. He was relieved to see the slight curve to her lips indicating her amusement. After watching for the past hour as his usually vital, vibrant sister looked like a corpse, Griffin could forgive her anything at this moment. Beside them, Alex’s head jerked up.

At the sound of Griffin’s voice, Ellie became aware that Alex was also there, holding her other hand, and that he’d been talking to her. And then she realized that she’d been listening to him talk for some time. Her frown deepened as she tried to remember his words. She had a feeling they were important.

“What do you mean?” Alex asked Griffin.

Ellie also became aware of the other voices in the room. They’d been there all along, but she only now realized that as they all went silent.

“I can hear her thoughts,” Griffin explained softly.

“Is she okay?” Adelaide asked.

Ellie waited impatiently for Griffin’s response, as curious as the rest of the room.

“Answer the girl, Griff,” Ellie finally prodded him. Not wanting to be rude to the others in the room, she managed to say her question aloud this time. She heard someone choke back a laugh.

“I guess that answers that,” Griffin murmured, amused, giving her hand a squeeze.

“Well, I’m glad you’re satisfied, but I still don’t know what’s going on. And my eyes still don’t want to open,” Ellie replied in a sleepy huff. Her speech was slightly slurred and it felt like cotton wool was stuffed in her mouth.

“Feisty little thing, isn’t she?” another voice in the room commented.

Just then, Ellie became aware that she could control the warmth flowing through her body. Concentrating on it, she forced it to become more intense. And then she felt the hands on either side of her face jerk and realized someone other than Griffin and Alex was touching her.

“What the heck was that?” asked a voice above her head. It was calm and the speaker didn’t take his hands away, but it was evident that he was slightly apprehensive.

“What?” Alex and Griffin asked in unison.

“A tingly feeling, similar to an electric shock, but sort of being pulled out of me,” answered the detached voice.

“Ah,” Griffin relaxed beside her. “She’s definitely healing if you’re feeling that,” he said to Hugh. “One of Ellie’s gifts is the ability to use other people’s powers when she’s touching them,” Griffin explained. “That tingly feeling is her accessing your powers.”

“Just helping you along a little,” Ellie piped up.

Ellie guessed the unfamiliar voice must belong to Hugh, Lila and Adelaide’s father. Based on the little she knew of him, and given the current situation, she had an idea that his power was the ability to heal. She really was feeling so much better. Her thoughts were getting much clearer as that warm, tingly feeling continued to move and flow through her body. She now became fully aware of all the people in the room. Tapping into Griffin’s power to read minds, she discovered that the whole family was there.

“Just a few more minutes,” Hugh murmured.

The room fell silent for those few remaining moments it took the two of them to work in tandem, healing the last of the wounds she’d sustained in her fight with the wolf pack.

Wolf pack? Ellie thought. Why does that sound like something important…?

And in an instant, everything came rushing back to her.

A small gasp escaped her lips, and she struggled to open her eyes until she heard Griffin reassure her, “It’s alright. Everyone is safe and the Vyusher are gone, Ellie.”

“What’s wrong?” she heard Alex ask.

“She just remembered everything that happened.” Griffin’s calm explanation soothed the room in general. To Ellie, he added, “We’ll go over everything once Hugh is done fixing you.”

“That just about does it,” Hugh finally pronounced, satisfied though weary. The room stayed silent, and Ellie guessed they were all waiting for her to react in some way. But she preferred to just lie here and not have to face everything. She didn’t want to relive the fight. Nor did she particularly want to discuss with these people who she and Griffin were, as well as the reason for the wolves’ attack.

“Come on, lazy bones,” Griffin gave her a mental prod, clearly amused at her thought process.

“Get out of my head, Griff,” she responded.

With a resigned sigh, Ellie opened her eyes and sat up gingerly. The first person she looked at was Griffin, and the nightmare of what she’d just been through rushed over her in waves. Griffin obviously followed her thoughts because she found herself suddenly engulfed in a bear hug. “Don’t you ever do anything like that again,” he ordered gruffly. “I almost lost you there,” he added silently.

She hugged him back. “Love you, too.”

*****

Alex was unsure what to make of the scene unfolding before him. Clearly Ellie and Griffin had a close relationship, though just what the relationship was remained unclear. Alex felt conflicted – on one hand, he was relieved Ellie was better. But on the other, she was in the arms of another guy.

Who is this guy? Alex thought, as he realized that Ellie was still holding his own hand tightly. What is going on here?

*****

Ellie moved from Griffin’s embrace. Still holding Alex’s hand, she pulled him up off the floor and onto the couch beside her, cradling their linked hands in her lap. Griffin moved around from the back of the couch and took a seat on her other side. She silently assessed her surroundings. They were in a large living room. A great stone fireplace took up one wall, with a large flat-screened TV mounted beside it. The furniture was comfortable and laid out in a way that encouraged social gatherings. The other wall was entirely windows, facing out into the clearing behind the house. A lovely, homey room.

Then she glanced around at the group of Svatura that she and Griffin had been watching from afar. Nate sat beside Adelaide on the floor, cradling her slightly as she leaned back against him. Lila sat beside her sister. Despite the anxious expressions of every single person in the room, Adelaide seemed very pleased about something. Ellie made a mental note to ask her later.

Hugh had moved across the room to sit with his wife on the loveseat. He had light brown hair and kind brown eyes….what one would consider conventionally handsome. And now Ellie knew that his power was the ability to heal. Judging by the extent of her wounds, and the relatively short amount of time it had taken him to fix her, he had to be very powerful.

Looking at Lucinda, or Lucy, as they all called her, Ellie saw where Adelaide and Lila got their looks. She had long, honey-blonde hair, wide green eyes and an open, welcoming demeanor. Thanks to Griffin, Ellie already knew of Lucy’s ability to see people’s intentions, as well as the essence of who they were.

Ellie looked at the other three people in the room. She was aware of their names but knew little else about them. Dexter and Charlotte, the other married couple, sat together in the corner of the room. They were younger than Hugh and Lucy, but still appeared old enough to be Nate and Ramsey’s parents. They both had dark brown hair and eyes. But where Charlotte was tall and willowy, Dexter was stocky and solidly built. Both regarded her with somewhat wary and perplexed expressions.

Ramsey sat at Charlotte and Dexter’s feet, so determining his height was difficult. He had dark red hair and bottle green eyes. While he shared his adopted parents’ wariness, anger also burned in his eyes. Ellie, unsure who the anger was directed at, glanced at Griffin.

“He’s not mad at us,” Griffin answered her silently. “Yet.”

Ellie wrinkled her mental nose at her brother, receiving a quiet chuckle in return. She’d been so curious about these people for so long now. Keeping what she and Griffin really were from them had been incredibly difficult. Too tempting to join their fun, their togetherness. How would they react now? She truly hoped that this family, this group of people just like them, would give her and Griffin the benefit of the doubt and welcome them as one of their own.

She looked at her twin and shrugged. “I don’t know where to begin.”

“Good luck with that,” was Griffin’s less than helpful response. He leaned back, casually draping his arms across the top of the couch.

“Where to begin? So are you planning on telling us what this is all about?” Hugh asked, seeming amused by Ellie and Griffin’s banter.

“The beginning is a very long time ago,” Ellie replied softly. “It would take too long to go back that far.” She looked up at him with candid eyes. “I’m not trying to be difficult. It’s just that it’s a fairly long story.”

“So you’re like us?” Adelaide asked. She folded her legs daintily beneath her as she sat on the floor beside her twin.

Ellie nodded. “Adelaide, Lila, and Nate already know me. So does Alex.” She glanced at him fleetingly. “For the rest of you, my name is Ellie Aubrey. This is my twin brother, Griffin.”

Ellie felt Alex’s hand clench slightly in her grasp. She shot him another glance, catching what she suspected was a relieved smile. Still holding his hand she looked away. Alex and their relationship was something she would have to deal with later. She was content for now that he remained sitting beside her. First, he and the rest of the people in the room deserved an explanation.

She glanced at Griffin and their eyes locked. He nodded slowly in reply to her silent question. Ellie cleared her throat.

“It would actually be easiest to show you our story rather than tell you.”