Blue Violet

chapter 30



Ellie awoke to the sensation of a sweet, lingering kiss. She opened her eyes to Alex’s smoldering gaze.

“Hi, sleepyhead,” he greeted her with a tender smile. He softly cupped her face with one hand.

“Hi.” She returned a shy smile and leaned into his caress. As consciousness returned, she sat up with a gasp.

Alex put a finger to her lips. “Everything’s fine… I have a surprise for you. Come on. Get dressed. I have something I want to show you.”

She tipped her head to the side. He looked so pleased with himself. It would’ve been cute, if he hadn’t been so ruggedly handsome. Cute just wasn’t a word you’d readily apply to Alex…more like drop dead, gobsmackingly, hunkalicious…

“I’ll wait for you downstairs. Dress warmly,” he instructed and left the room, softly closing the door behind him.

Ellie hurriedly got dressed, brushed her teeth and hair, and headed downstairs.

“What’s up?” she whispered as she met Alex in the living room.

He gave her a fast, hard kiss and handed her a jacket. Taking her hand, he led her outside.

“It’s snowing!” Ellie exclaimed. It seemed way too late in the season for it to still be snowing. Smiling, Alex led her into the woods and up to the middle of the clearing where they had practiced earlier. Facing her, he took both her hands in his.

“You’re not using your power on me, right?” he asked.

“I told you I don’t do that to friends without asking permission first,” she confirmed, head tilted slightly sideways, still trying to figure out what he was up to.

“Then close your eyes.”

Ellie raised her eyebrows but complied. She felt him lean in and brush her lips with a feather-light kiss. The cold no longer bothered Ellie as lovely warmth washed over her.

“Now open them,” Alex said.

Ellie opened her eyes and let out an astonished gasp. All of the falling snow around them was frozen in place, mid-fall. It looked exquisite...magical…miraculous. Like glitter hanging on invisible strings all around her. She threw her head back and laughed with delight as she reached out to touch one of the snowflakes. Then, like a child, she put her arms out and twirled, her hair and clothes, catching bits and pieces of snow as she did. Alex chuckled beside her and she stilled, came back to him and linked her arms around his neck. She pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

“May I?”

“Be my guest.” He clasped his arms behind her waist, pulling her in closer.

Ellie laid her hand on his cheek. Closing her eyes, she concentrated. There it was... that light glowing inside Alex, a bright golden light. She could almost feel its warmth. She pulled it inside her, under her control.

She opened her eyes, a soft smile playing around her lips. “Wow! So you can freeze anything you want with your mind?”

“With a few limitations, yes.” He frowned. “I struggled with slowing the bleeding in your leg without blocking the blood flow that night. And apparently, holding a pack of metamorph wolves still in mid-fight might take some more practice. And I can’t reverse a course of events usually. Every once in a while, like when you drove into that tree…” he gave her a hard look, “I can nudge things in a different direction.”

“Hmmm…” she murmured, fascinated. “Let’s see… you don’t seem to have limits of size. It looks as though you could freeze everything on an entire mountain if you wanted to. And you could freeze things down to tiny increments. Cells within bodies. You could be very dangerous if you weren’t such a good person,” she teased.

“Anything else?” He was clearly amused at her clinical assessment of his skills.

“Looking…” She concentrated harder. “You can pick and choose what you freeze. Like the snow and wind but not us. And…” She grimaced and snapped open her eyes. “You said you were born shortly after the Civil War, right?”

Alex looked vaguely confused. “Right. I’m not that much younger than you. Closing in on a century and a half. Why?”

Ellie’s frown deepened. “You said your grandfather taught you to use your skill. Did he spend much time working with you on it?”

“Yes,” he said. “My power’s pretty much an exact clone of his. We spent most evenings practicing. How’d you know?”

“It seems like you’ve mastered your abilities to the fullest extent of the possibilities, at least the ones I can see…I’m impressed!”

“Is there something strange about that?”

Ellie rolled her eyes. “Ego-alert, darlin’,” she drawled. “Only you would be unimpressed with this.” She looked at him with loving amusement.

“You know that when I touch Svatura, I can see the full extent of their capabilities. You’ve seen me do it, right? And because I’m still learning and perfecting my own abilities, I still miss things sometimes. Or, a better way to put that is that I still discover the uses and extent to others’ powers in stages, like they would, but it’s speeded up a bit.”

He nodded.

“You are the only person, and granted my experience with this is limited, but you’re the only one ever who’s mastered the nuances by your age.”

Alex took a moment to think about this. Looking at her with stunned eyes, he pulled a hand from behind her back to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Shrugging casually, he said, “What can I tell you? I’m sure it’s because of my grandfather’s tutelage.”

Ellie felt almost irritated by his seemingly casual acceptance of what, to her, seemed inconceivable.

“I don’t think you’re getting exactly what a big deal this is,” she insisted. “I haven’t even mastered my skills yet, although I can see what the potential is. Which, by the way, is highly frustrating for me.”

Alex looked down into her earnest expression. Wrapping his arms around her, he gave her a gentle hug. “I can’t explain it, baby. But maybe I’ll be able to pass it on to our children one day.”

Ellie froze. Everything. Her breath, her thoughts, her heart. All frozen. And not due to Alex manipulating her. This feeling was just her reaction to his statement. Alex pulled back and looked down into her eyes, slightly worried by her lack of any reaction or movement.

“Children?” she finally croaked, a little shell-shocked.

Alex nodded. And then, with a heart-wrenchingly earnest expression he said, “I love you, Ellie. You are my te’sorthene. You are the center of my life now. We can take things slow. We have all the time in the world. But you should know all of this.” He watched her reaction closely, and breathed a huge sigh of relief as she started to smile and then caught it again as that smile became so beautiful it was breathtaking.

Her smile turned mischievous. “I hope you’re planning on making an honest woman of me before the kiddos come along.”

“Mmmm… that would be the plan,” he agreed.

Ellie looked deep into his eyes. “I love you with everything I have in me. My life is wherever you are from now on.”

Almost before she’d even finished speaking, Alex’s mouth covered hers, stealing her breath. His arms pulled her tight against the length of his body. The world melted away in the heat of the kiss. As his tongue snaked out and touched the seam of her lips, Ellie willingly parted them, allowing him more intimate access. Alex released a groan as their tongues intertwined.

Suddenly he moved, and Ellie found herself lying on a pile of soft snow, Alex’s length covering hers. He pinned her beneath him, and Ellie reveled in the feel of his hard body above her. Kissing his way down the column of her throat, Alex nibbled back up to her ear, taking the lobe between his teeth and tugging gently. Shivers of ecstasy raced through her body.

Ellie strained to get closer as he took her mouth with his again. Alex suddenly broke off the kiss, eliciting a whimper of protest from Ellie. Burying his face in her neck, he lay there motionless for a time, waiting for his body to calm.

“Too much, too soon. I know, baby. Sorry, but you are just too damn tempting, Ellie Aubrey.” They gazed into each other’s eyes, content for now to just lie there together.

Only when Ellie shivered from lying in the snow so long did Alex finally let her up.

“Come on.” He tugged on her hand, leading her back home. “Let’s get you warm.”

If only he knew how hot he’d made her already…

“Hey…you are planning on letting me finish high school… and maybe even college… before marriage and kids? Right?”

Alex shrugged and gave her hand a small squeeze. “I guess there’s no rush while you’re in high school,” he agreed. “Although I would like to get a ring on that finger that scares off all those over-eager college guys. You still sure you want to go?”

Ellie rolled her eyes, secretly enjoying his small display of possessiveness. She knew he was confident enough in himself and their love. “You want to finish your degree right? Well, where you go, I go. Besides, I haven’t tried college before. I like the idea of getting a degree. It’s only in the last century or so that it’s become acceptable for women to receive a higher education.”

“Have you decided on a major yet?”

“Ummm… there’s too many to choose from. I don’t need a degree for a living like most people since we have so much money—“

“And we have Dexter.”

“Huh?” Ellie tripped over her feet as she turned to look at Alex.

“He can turn anything into metal,” he steadied her with a hand at her elbow.

“So?”

“Gold and silver are metals… he can turn anything into gold. That’s one of the ways we make money. Although he’s still mastering the skill.”

“Oh!” Ellie almost slapped her forehead as a thought occurred to her. I’ll have to talk to Dexter later, she thought to herself.

They paused outside the back door, snatching one last kiss, one last moment of privacy, before joining the chaos of their family.

Everyone else had woken and started breakfast during their absence. As they walked into the kitchen, Adelaide, sitting at the bar in the dining room, grinned the second she saw them together.

They just smiled back but didn’t say anything and knew that Adelaide wouldn’t either. They had lots of time.