Blue Violet

chapter 23

“Show us?” A slight frown marred Hugh’s brow, showing his bewilderment.

“Yes. Like you, my brother and I have gifts... powers.”

“That became pretty obvious when we all saw a jaguar turn back into you,” Alex muttered beside her. She guessed forgiveness for her long deception would not be quick in coming. Especially because he’d asked her directly. Had that only been this morning?

“Griffin has the ability to read minds,” Ellie said, ignoring Alex. “He’s still learning all the facets of his gift. Eventually he’ll have the ability to control people’s thoughts. He’s not quite there yet though, and he’s only just starting to be able to project his thoughts into other people’s minds.” She gave Griffin a cheeky wink and received a faint smile in return.

“I don’t understand,” said Hugh. “If he doesn’t have the ability to use those aspects of his power yet, then how would you show us?”

Griffin smirked. “Because Ellie does have the ability, in a roundabout way.”

Seeing nine pairs of very baffled eyes, Ellie hurried to enlighten them. “One of my gifts is the ability to manipulate others’ powers if I’m physically touching them. But I quickly become an expert, almost like I’ve had it for years, and so I’m able to use it to its fullest potential.”

“Awesome!” Nate said.

“Well… not being an expert at my own power yet, I do miss things here and there,” she confessed with a small shrug. “And it’s dependent on the type of interaction. The longer I spend in physical contact with someone, the more I learn their powers.”

“Should I be worried?” Alex asked dryly beside her, looking at their linked hands. Ellie took it as a good sign that he was joking with her. He couldn’t be that angry.

She flicked him a playful look. “I usually ask permission first.” She turned to the others. “So, with your permission, I can use Griffin’s power to show you.”

Everyone in the room immediately turned toward Lucy. She was already smiling. “She has good intentions. If anything, she’s been trying to protect us,” Lucy said.

“I would never hurt any of you,” Ellie swore.

“Nor would I,” Griffin quietly added, leaning forward to emphasize his point.

“They’re telling the truth,” Lila assured the room, shifting positions to pull her knees up to her chest.

Ellie blinked in surprise. She’d had the hardest time connecting with Lila. The other girl treated her with friendly camaraderie, but always with a slightly distant air. As a result, she hadn’t been able to figure out Lila’s power yet. It seemed she had the ability to see if people were telling the truth… a variation on her mother’s powers. Ellie gave a small nod of appreciation for Lila’s show of support.

“We can trust them,” Adelaide said.

“Why do you say that, Delia?” Hugh asked, turning to look at her.

“Because they will be part of our family.” Her eyes lost focus and she touched the air with her fingers like she was plucking the strings of a guitar. Ellie could tell that Adelaide was touching the shimmering lines that she alone could see. Adelaide continued, “I’ve seen it since the day I met Ellie. And it just continues to grow in strength every day. Tonight it solidified.”

Ellie gasped in shock. Silently, so did Griffin, because the girl had said “they.” Everyone else erupted into a bit of a ruckus…only Alex remained silent among all the noise. But he didn’t let go of her hand.

Eventually, the room quieted enough for Hugh to ask his daughter, “Why didn’t you say something earlier?”

“You know I don’t like to influence people with what I can see, Dad. And two additions to our family is a huge deal.” Adelaide’s answer soothed most of the ruffled feelings in the room. “I’m telling you now because it helps us all to trust one another, us to trust them, and vice versa.” Nate wrapped his arms around Adelaide, offering her his silent support.

“Was that why you approached me in the lunch room on my first day of school?” Ellie asked her friend.

Adelaide smiled gently. “Yes.”

Ellie wanted to ask more questions. She was thinking about the first time she’d met Alex and had accidentally seen Adelaide’s power at work. She hadn’t understood it at the time, and wondered what exactly she’d seen. But now wasn’t the time. One more thing to put on the back burner while she dealt with the immediate situation.

Looking around the room, Ellie could tell some doubt still lingered. “If you need to discuss this without us, Griffin and I can step outside.”

She tried to stand up but immediately collapsed. Alex reached out as she fell, and she landed right on his lap in the protective circle of his arms.

“You’re not going anywhere young lady,” Hugh said as Alex’s grip tightened. “All your wounds may be closed and fixed, but your body still has to go through a period of true healing on its own. You’ll be weak for several days at least.”

“Oh,” Ellie huffed her frustration. Definitely not convenient to be less than a hundred percent right now. Of course, she should just be grateful she was still alive. Still, she didn’t relish playing the role of an invalid.

She attempted to shift back to her previous seat on the couch beside him, but Alex’s arms remained firm, refusing to let her move away. Looking into his eyes, she murmured, “Are you going to let me go?”

He answered in a husky voice, “Not in this lifetime.”

Ellie’s heart paused and then resumed beating at a faster cadence. Has he realized we are te’sorthene? Her breath caught in her throat at the expression in his eyes. He settled her a little more comfortably on his lap. Without taking his eyes off hers, he said a bit louder, “I think we’re ready for you to show us your story.”

It took a pathetically large amount of will power to look away from him. She could think a little more clearly when she wasn’t trapped in his gaze. She glanced at Griffin.

“Not one word”, she ordered.

His lips twitched in a smile. He reached out and took her hand, giving it a little squeeze. Turning to the room he said, “You’ll all need to move in close and be touching one of us.”

“I’ve never tried projecting Griffin’s gift into more than one mind before,” she warned as they shifted positions.

Once they were all settled and waiting, Ellie gave an imperceptible nod, as if she was telling herself to proceed. With a deep breath, she allowed her power to flow through her in tingling waves. Behind her closed eyes she saw Griffin’s power within him, almost like a glowing golden beacon of light. Reaching out mentally, she touched the light and drew it inside herself. Once she had control of it, she concentrated on locating each mind in the room, one at a time, until she saw all ten. And then she focused very hard on an image, that of a magnificently terrible black wolf.

“Wow,” Alex said under his breath.

“Cool!” Nate exclaimed beside her.

Once Ellie felt sure everyone could see what she saw, she started playing through the scenes in her head, allowing everyone else to witness the pictures in her mind, organizing her thoughts into a cohesive story of what had led her and Griffin here.

Ellie’s memories almost overwhelmed her as she worked through them. She started with some of her earlier recollections of life…she thought of her people, their life, and stories. To the outside world they appeared to be just a band of gypsies. But in reality, they were the largest gathering of people with extraordinary abilities in the world. They called themselves the Darane Svatura, choosing to embody a gypsy term referring to magic and mythology.

In a way, they were the royals of their kind. Both Ellie and Griffin’s great-grandfathers were the original Phuro, or elders. There had been more before them, but in very small numbers. Powers were passed down from generation to generation.

As young men, her great-grandfathers had befriended each other. They both married gypsy women…princesses from two different tribes. At that time in the world, gypsies had a greater tolerance of people who were unusual or different. Certainly more tolerance than the people who’d killed Svatura for suspected witchcraft. As their great-grandfathers married and had children, they’d gathered more of their kind together.

Her parents were the descendants of the original patriarchs. By the time Griffin and Ellie had been born, their Svatura clan numbered in the hundreds. It had eventually broken into smaller groups, travelling far away from the original main group. But they continued to return to the larger community and her great-grandfathers for advice, for protection, for help, and sometimes for judgment or rulings.

When Ellie had been only a young child, the killings started. First, with the smaller of the families who had moved away. Just one or two would survive and make their way back to the main tribe, bringing with them stories of giant metamorphs who all turned into wolves and had decimated all their people. But no matter how they tried, the Svatura had been unable to track down the wolves responsible. They called them the Vyusher, which meant wolf in Romani, the language of their gypsy allies and ancestors. As far as anyone could tell, the Vyusher were gifted people like the Svatura. The biggest difference between the two clans was that the Vyusher were all wolf metamorphs, which seemed impossible given how few metamorphs roamed the planet.

By the time Ellie and Griffin were in their early adolescence and coming into their powers, the worldwide community that had once numbered in the hundreds had been whittled down to only about fifty. They had all banded together for support and protection.

Ellie remembered the heavy feeling of fear that had permeated this time in her life. People with extraordinary gifts—gifts that should have protected them and their families, should have allowed them to fight back— these people had been killed in the attacks. No one knew when or how the attacks came. The survivors were most often younger and weaker or had only just come into their powers. For some reason, they seemed to go undetected by the wolves.

The attack on the one remaining tribe had come eventually. Even her great-grandfather, a metamorph of incredible size and strength, hadn’t been able to prevent it…or survive it. The wolves had attacked him first, along with the other strongest members. And somehow he hadn’t been able to morph in time. The Vyusher seemed to know what powers each Svatura possessed. It had been coordinated and strategic. And deadly.

This part Ellie showed in patches, like she remembered it. She also tried her best to not really think about what she was showing. Emotional transfer tended to be a part of the ability to show people memories, or at least it had been when she’d practiced this on Griffin. This was the worst moment of her life, and she didn’t want anyone else to experience that pain if they didn’t have to.

Ellie and Griffin had been the only survivors. Ellie suspected two reasons behind their supposed luck. As adolescents their powers were still new and underdeveloped. So they would have been left for last, possibly even overlooked if they’d tried to hide. They hadn’t, though. They had done their best to try to help protect their family. But to no avail.

In the end they’d survived because of their combined powers. They had each discovered new powers that night, which is why Ellie suspected the wolves hadn’t been prepared for what happened.

Toward the end of the attack, after most everyone else was dead, Ellie and Griffin had been surrounded. Ellie had already discovered her ability to morph into her falcon form. But that night she’d discovered something new – usually, when she used other people’s abilities, the second she lost physical contact with them, she lost the access to that power. That night she learned that once she touched another metamorph she would always have access to that form, as if it were her own, even after the physical contact had been broken.

A huge black wolf had been circling them. As it lunged for Ellie, she’d held up her hands and touched it, immediately morphing into a wolf. The attacking creature had stumbled back in bewilderment. In the wolf form, Ellie had been able to hear all of the wolves, their thoughts, their memories. They truly were a pack, including their minds.

What she hadn’t realized was that the pull of that hive-like mind would immediately start to affect her. Metamorphs tended to take on some of the aspects of their morphic form. Consequently, some of the more predatory animals were harder to control as the metamorph battled between their humanity and their animalistic instincts. The wolf form, at least with the Vyusher, could start to completely take over. Ellie, still linked to the pack, had seen that some of the wolves hadn’t been in their human form in many, many years.

The large wolf had beckoned her to join them, and she’d started moving to comply. Griffin had saved her….and that moment was also when he learned he could project his defensive shield. He’d thrown it over both of them, keeping the wolves from getting anywhere near. Then he’d touched her, linking her to him, allowing her to use his power.

Ellie’s power manipulation at that time was so untutored that she couldn’t control it. The second she touched someone she was linked to them, tuned in to their power. Griffin had counted on that fact. She instantly started using his mind reading ability, and he had screamed her name. As if she was coming out of a fog, Ellie had pulled out of the wolf form.

In tandem, each reading the other’s minds, they’d both morphed into the falcon. Griffin kept the defensive shield around them as they escaped… flew as far away as they could before becoming physically exhausted. They’d been alone ever since.

Because of Ellie’s brief connection with the Vyusher community mind, she’d learned they only attacked large gatherings of people with powers. So she and Griffin had deliberately avoided others of their kind after that. As long as it was just the two of them, they wouldn’t be a target for the wolves. It’d stayed that way until Ellie had had her dream about the Jenners and Pierces.

Now she and Griffin were here with the people she’d seen in her dream. It seemed like forever ago. And the Vyusher were once again threatening their lives. If their incredibly powerful ancestors hadn’t been able to survive, how could just the two of them stand a chance of helping this family?

Feeling the mood shift uncomfortably around her, Ellie turned her focus away from her fears and to the last few months. Meeting the Jenners. Befriending them. Protecting them.

With a deep breath and mentally poking at Griffin to check that she hadn’t left out anything important, Ellie stopped projecting her thoughts into the other’s minds. She released Griffin’s hand before sinking into Alex’s arms. She shivered both from exertion and emotional upheaval.

No one spoke, trying to simply absorb and assimilate what Ellie had revealed.

“So let me get this straight…” Nate finally broke the silence. “You’re a gypsy princess?”

The incredulity in his expression made Ellie laugh and had everyone else chuckling with her as they all moved back to their original seats. Even Griffin. She suspected Nate had done it on purpose to lighten the mood, and it had worked.

“Out of all of that, that’s what you decided to focus on?” She raised her head from Alex’s shoulder to tease in return.

“We have to leave,” Lucy said, fear evident as she wrung her hands.

Griffin shook his head. “They’ll expect that and follow you.” Suddenly, he swung his head sharply to look at Ellie as she mentally sent an idea his way. “Really?” he asked, also using his telepathy.

She nodded in response. “They won’t be able to know.” She paused and thought for a second. “I think we could…” She paused again thinking through her plan, letting him follow along with her mental process.

Everyone else in the room sat forward, glancing at each other with baffled expressions.

“Can you do that?” Griffin asked her aloud, having noticed the confusion in the room.

“If I have enough time to heal and then to practice, I think so,” Ellie answered, aloud as well, sitting up.

“You’ve never tried.” He popped up from the sofa to pace the room.

“I’ve never had the chance to try the first part,” she reminded him quietly. “And the other part, well you’re powerful enough now to contain me if I can’t control it.”

Griffin stood at the window staring outside as he thought. Finally he turned to look at her and then nodded. Ellie relaxed slightly. Her reluctant brother had agreed to help her protect this family.

“Would you care to clue the rest of us in?” Alex murmured in her ear. He slid his hand under her hair to rest lightly at the nape of her neck. He was the only one who seemed amused by the interchange between the twins, as everyone else appeared equal parts confused and frustrated. Ellie felt secretly relieved by his behavior, wondering why he was taking all of this so well. But she didn’t want to press it.

“That was about a couple of different things. First, during my fight with the pack today, I touched several of them. I learned a few things, although in flashes only.” She paused, remembering.

“That black wolf wasn’t there tonight,” she continued, plucking at a loose thread in her sweatshirt. “Although he did give the orders for the attack. He’s the king of the Vyusher, as far as we can tell. His name is Gideon. All of the Vyusher are wolf metamorphs, but like Griffin and me, some have additional skills. Someone in the pack—it’s hard for me to tell who, but it seems like it might be Gideon—has the ability to see anyone with powers, what those powers are, and how the person uses those powers. Past, present, and future. But it’s easier for them to zero in on large groups. They have a hard time when it’s only a couple of us.”

She turned to Griffin as he resumed his seat beside her. “That seems to be part of how they were so effective at decimating our clan. They knew exactly what our powers were. They prepared a plan around each of us, and in what order to attack. And they always attacked the strongest first, although there seems to be more to it than that.” Ellie’s brow furrowed, frustrated with the gaps in her vision.

“Is there a way around Gideon’s power?” Hugh asked. He steepled his fingers as he contemplated the brother and sister.

“There is for your family. Apparently, someone in this group is able to block their ability to see and understand your gifts. They can tell that you have them but not what they are. It seems like Griffin and I were also protected under this power. Based on what I could see in the pack collective mind, that small attack had been more recon than anything— they don’t know how many of us there are, or what powers we have. It gives us an advantage.” Ellie paused for a second and then added quietly, “Unless you want to scatter and live apart the rest of your lives. And even then, you’d be in constant danger. We’re going to have to fight them. And defeat them. There’s no other option.”