Blue Violet (18 page)

Ellie shot her
a stilted smile. “Thanks.”

 “So why was it
so disastrous?” Charlotte asked.

“The problem
is that when you morph into a form, part of that form’s inherent traits takes
over. You can lose your humanity. It’s the same danger as being a wolf. I’ve
learned to control it in the jaguar. But the dragon…” Ellie shuddered. “The one
time I tried it, it completely took over. My great-grandfather, who could
eventually control himself as a dragon, pretty much had to take me out.”

She looked at
Griffin to finish the story.

“It took all
of our clan to force her out of the morph,” Griffin added, a grim set to his
mouth. “It’s possible for the dragon to take over so completely that she can’t
get back. But it’s also dangerous for everyone around her. According to our
great-grandfather, everything you’ve read about dragons, though just folklore
and mythology, is based on people with the ability to morph into one. And they
all decimated villages and killed many people before they were killed
themselves. As far as we know, only our great-grandfather ever had the ability
to control the dragon.”

Alex’s grip on
her hand tightened to an almost painful point. “No,” he said under his breath.

Ellie turned
to look at him and said quietly, “But it’s the only thing the Vyusher won’t
ever be able to defeat.”

“They defeated
your great-grandfather, right?” he demanded harshly.

“Not as a
dragon,” Griffin leaned around her to answer. “They killed him before he ever
morphed.”

Brother and
sister glanced at each other, keeping silent about the fact that it had seemed
like their grandfather couldn’t morph that night.  Having discussed it many
times through the years, neither Ellie nor Griffin were sure of what they were
seeing at the time.

Alex was
getting angry. Very angry. She could feel it in his grip, sense it in the tense
set of his shoulders. It surprised Ellie that her idea was what finally
triggered his anger. He had so many other things to get upset with her over.
This plan, at least, had noble intentions driving it.

“We can’t
allow you to try it, Ellie,” Hugh said.

“It’s… safer…
for me to try it now than back then. I’m older, more experienced. I’ve been
able to learn to control other aggressive morphic forms. And there’s Griffin…”
She felt the attention in the room turn to her brother.

He shifted in
his seat. “I can contain her now, with a defensive shield. My other gift. I
wasn’t strong enough last time. The power is inherited, but I’m the only one in
our clan to have it in the form of a physical force field. So this… backup
plan, I guess you could call it… wasn’t available when she tried last time.”

Ellie rushed
on, “We’re hoping that if I do get out of control… although I think I can
control it… But if I
can’t
control it, then Griffin can contain me in
his shield. He’ll be able to use our connection and our combined gifts to bring
me back.” 

Hugh was up
from his chair and already shaking his head before she’d even finished. “No, I
think it best not to attempt it. It sounds too risky. Your trying the dragon
could be as much of a danger to us as to the Vyusher. Possibly more so. Just
not worth it. But the other idea you had seem viable.”

Ellie slumped
back in defeat. Something in her knew the dragon had to be the key to winning
this fight. But Hugh made sense, and she recognized that. She nodded, and felt
the tension release from Alex, who ran his hands over his face and muttered,
“Finally she listens to reason.” 

She shot him a
glare.

She also saw
Griffin give a little sigh of relief.  He hadn’t been happy about this idea in
the first place. What they hadn’t told the others was that if she
couldn’t
control it and he
couldn’t
bring her back… then he would have to kill
her. And that would probably kill him too.

Now that
everything was explained, Ellie felt exhaustion wash over her in waves. Alex
must have felt her fading, because he said to no one in particular, “Ellie
really needs to get some rest.”

Closing her
eyes, Ellie flashed a thought at Griffin.

In response he
said aloud, “The Vyusher are less likely to attack if we’re closer to town. At
least that’s what we think. They seem to attack only when they can hide their
actions from the world. And that was before the advent of social media. The
house Ellie and I have can accommodate all of us… barely. But it’s located in a
more populated area, so it’s safer for the time being.”

“Is it safe
for us to travel tonight?” Hugh asked.

“Probably
not,” Griffin replied. “But Ellie says she can move us all at once if Charlotte
will allow her to use her teleportation.”

Alex glared at
Griffin. “She’s falling asleep in my arms. She doesn’t even have the energy to
speak her thoughts out loud as it is. Is that really such a good idea?”

Griffin
allowed a rare grin to break across his face. “I’ve been dealing with her
stubborn streak for years now. Good luck convincing her otherwise.”

“Hugh,” Alex
appealed to his adopted father. “She seems to listen to you.”

 Hugh walked
over to Ellie and laid his hands on her, assessing her physical state. “She can
handle it,” he finally said. “But when we get there, young lady, you
will
rest for several days.”

Griffin
chuckled. “She agrees,” he translated. “But she says that means she’ll miss
school and I’ll have to write her a note.” Seeing confusion around him, he
explained, “Any time she’s in high school I take on the role of her older
brother and guardian. I look too old for high school these days, but she’s so
tiny she can pull it off still.”

“Let’s get
going,” Ellie said. She felt anxious to get home and allow herself to fall into
the blessed oblivion of sleep for a long while.

With a nod
from Hugh, Alex picked Ellie up and stood in the middle of the room. Once she
could feel each of them touching her, she searched for Charlotte’s power. As
she had with Griffin earlier, she reached out mentally and touched the source
of light inside Charlotte and pulled it into herself. Then she concentrated on
each of the people touching her, extending the glow to surround each of them.
And then she concentrated on the image of her living room.

“Don’t let
go
!” she thought, and heard Griffin repeat her instructions.

Instantly,
they were all standing in her living room.

“Usually
there’s a popping sound when I do it,” Charlotte complained.

“She can show
you how to control that if you’re interested,” Griffin voiced Ellie’s thoughts.
Then he turned to Charlotte with a commiserating smile. “Don’t take it
personally. She’s constantly telling me how to control my own powers or do
something new with them. You get used to it…” He grinned at his sister. “And
eventually you learn to just ignore her completely.”

Ellie stuck
her tongue out at her brother. Still held in Alex’s arms, she laid her head on
his shoulder, completely wiped out.

“Time for this
one to go to sleep I think,” Alex murmured.

Griffin led
the way up to her bedroom. Once there, Alex very gently laid her on the bed.
Griffin got out some clean PJs. Ellie’s clothes were ripped to shreds anyway.

Shooing the
boys out of the room, Lucy helped her get dressed. It had been so long since
Ellie had had a mother to take care of her that tears inadvertently filled her
eyes.

“Thanks,” she
said, her voice cracking a little.

Lucy tucked
her in and smoothed back her hair from her forehead. “Thank you for saving my
family tonight,” she whispered like a loving mother. “You rest now. You’ve
earned it.”

Turning off
the light, she left the room and closed the door with a quiet
click
.
Ellie fell asleep before the door was even fully closed.

The next three
days passed in a blur. Hugh hadn’t been kidding when he told Ellie it would
take some time for her to recover. Her body felt like lead, and when she
shifted position, every single part of her screamed in agony. She spent most of
the time drifting in and out of consciousness. From her few lucid moments, she
gathered Griffin had helped move everyone into their house. Hugh and Lucy were
staying in Griffin’s room, and he was sleeping in Ellie’s spare bed.

Lila,
Adelaide, and Nate had continued to attend school as usual, but they made
excuses for Ellie.
Bronchitis
, they said. No one questioned it. In fact,
no one in the outside world noticed anything different about their lives at
all…

When Ellie
managed to open her eyes, even if only for a few minutes, Alex was always right
there beside her. Sometimes he’d be sleeping in the chair next to her bed.
Sometimes he’d be reading a book. Every so often she’d open her eyes to find
him just looking at her. And each time she woke up, he immediately seemed to
know. He’d come over and brush her hair back from her face and give her a
tender smile, asking, “Hi, angel, how are you feeling?”

More often
than not, she’d drift back to sleep without answering, unaware of the small
smile which always graced her lips. Finally, after three straight days of deep
sleep, she woke up feeling completely refreshed and rejuvenated.

Alex opened
his eyes as she sat up. He unfolded his body, lowering his propped up feet to
the floor and uncrossing his arms to lean forward.

“Finally
awake, Sleeping Beauty?” he teased.

“Mmmm…” Ellie
yawned and stretched her arms above her head. “How long have I been out?” she
asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“Three days.”

“Wow! 
Really?”

“Really. I
have a crick in my neck to show for it.” He massaged the back of shoulders to
prove his point and then gave her a wink.

Ellie played
with the tasseled edges of the blanket, unable to meet his questioning gaze. A
lot had happened between them over the last few days, not the least of which
was her discovery that they were
te’sorthene
. But they hadn’t talked
about any of it yet. And while
she
knew what they were—every instinct
inside her screamed this undeniable truth—she had no idea if
he
realized
it yet. He seemed to care, but he could’ve been waiting all this time for her
to wake up so that he could yell at her about all her lies.

 “Hey,” he whispered
as he reached out and tipped her chin toward him. “What’re you thinking about?”

Ellie gave him
a candid look. “Why aren’t you mad at me?”

Alex’s mouth
twisted into something between a grin and a grimace. “I’m
furious
with
you, Ellie. I asked you point blank, and you looked me straight in the eyes and
lied about who you were.”

 “I didn’t
lie. I just didn’t tell you
everything
,” she insisted. A fine line, but
an important one in her mind. She bit her lip, hiding the fact that her eyes
had filled up with tears.

“Hmmm… Well, I
wish that you would have just trusted me,” he continued.

Ellie nodded,
still not looking at him.

“But you
showed me why you did what you did. And your reasons were good ones.”

Ellie nodded
faster.

“In fact, they
were the same reasons I had when I suddenly stopped running with you,” he told
her quietly.

Ellie glanced
up, surprised. “I thought you…” She trailed off, unable to continue.

“You thought
that I no longer wanted to be friends? That I didn’t care?”

Ellie shrugged
and bit her lip.

Alex gazed
deeply into her eyes, as if he could communicate with her soul. Running one
finger softly down the side of her face, he murmured, “
Te’sorthene
.”

 His voice was
so tender, so quiet, she almost didn’t hear him. But she did, and her heart
felt like it stopped beating and exploded into a crazy rhythm all at once. She
gasped.

Alex gave her
a small smile. “You know this word?”

Ellie licked
her lips, stopping when she saw how his eyes were drawn to the motion. “I
thought only people from my clan knew that word.”

“I don’t know
where it originated, but I know what it stands for.” He picked up her hand in
his and started drawing concentric circles on her palm with the tip of his
finger. “I know, for instance, that it refers to a fated bond between two
people like us--”

“Svatura,”
Ellie murmured.

He glanced up,
stopping the hypnotic motions with her hand. “Yeah... I know that it’s supposed
to be rare. And that every… Svatura… seeks the other half of their
te’sorthene
bond.”

Ellie cleared
her throat. “It happened a lot in my clan because there were so many of us.”

“So you’ve
witnessed it firsthand?”

“Yes. My
grandparents, my parents, among others.”

“I’ve also seen
it. My grandparents, too… and of course several couples in my new family. Which
is why I can’t believe that I didn’t recognize it when I saw it again… with
us.” Alex searched Ellie’s eyes.  “We’ve had so much unsaid between us, so I
want to be very clear now. We are
te’sorthene
, Ellie.”

Ellie gave
Alex a sparkling smile, almost glowing with her delight. “I know.” Happiness
burst through her, but she forced herself to remain calm, composed. Although
inside she felt anything
but
calm and composed.

Alex released
a rush of breath, his hand tightening on hers. “You know?”

“Uh-huh. I
knew when I crashed my car. And I couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured it out
sooner… I knew I felt a connection between us. And, unlike you, I knew we were
both Svatura.” Ellie shook her head at her ignorance. Licking her bottom lip
again in her nervousness, she glanced back up to catch him staring at the small
movement. “How…” she cleared her throat again. “How do you feel about it?”