Blue Violet (5 page)

In Ellie’s
experience, if Svatura were lucky enough to meet their
te’sorthene
,
their fated mate, it typically happened much later in life—if ever.
Te’sorthene
seemed to only occur between Svatura. It hadn’t been known to happen between
Svatura and humans. But people with their abilities were few enough in number
that many married humans rather than waiting on the somewhat remote possibility
of meeting their
te’sorthene
. That decision was a personal choice.

Seeing that
he’d lost her attention, Griffin cleared his throat, and she contained her
excitement with some effort.

“They’re
Adelaide and Lila’s parents.”

“Not Alex’s?”

“I don’t think
so. Her power is a very subtle one, but one you need to be very aware of,” he
warned. “She can somehow see a person’s essence, who they are, and their
intentions. With Svatura, she can see that they are gifted.”

Ellie wrinkled
her nose. She was going to have to avoid Lucy.

“Right,”
Griffin agreed, as he’d followed the path her mind had started down. “I think I
can help you with that.”

Ellie tilted
her head quizzically. “Have you decided to start helping me now?”

She caught a
resigned look in his eyes, before he masked it with a mischievous quirk of his
mouth. “How else am I going to make sure you don’t give us away too early?”

Ellie played
along and grinned back, but that flash of apprehension in her brother’s eyes
bothered her. Plus, he was still blocking her from seeing his thoughts.
Something he only did when he knew something he didn’t want to share. Something
that had him upset.

Griffin continued,
“It seems like Lucy used her power to gather the family together. With her
cunning sense of intuition, Lucy somehow knew when she was faced with one of
their kind. She could sense their intentions and the heart of who they were.
Everyone but their daughters she’s added to their group gradually.”

“Who else?”
Ellie leaned forward, fascinated.

“There’s a
woman named Charlotte Pierce. Her husband’s name I didn’t catch. They’re
te’sorthene
as well. There’s also another boy around Nate’s age whose name I don’t know
either.”

“Jeez. Two
sets of
te’sorthene
in such a small group. That’s incredible!” Ellie bounced
in her seat in her excitement, knocking her homework onto the floor, which she
then leaned down to pick up.

“Three sets.”

Ellie froze
where she was, bent over the scattered papers on the floor. “Wait… what!?!”

“Adelaide and
Nate as well.”

“Holy cow! I…
I can’t believe it!” Ellie blinked. The odds of that many
te’sorthene
pairs happening in such a small assembly of Svatura were inconceivable.

“Did you
figure out any other powers while you were listening?” Knowing that would be a
huge help in her quest.

“Only
one…Mostly, they were all concentrating on their discussion. But Charlotte has
the ability to teleport. Although, as far as I can tell, she can only go short
distances.” Seeing that Ellie was still frozen mid-action, Griffin moved to
help her finish gathering her homework off the floor. They sat down on the
couch together. Griffin picked up her legs and propped them in his lap.

  “So what did
they talk about?”

“Ummm… someone
named Alex just arrived.”

Ellie nodded,
blocking her true thoughts from her brother. “Yeah, I met him today. What about
him?” She hoped she sounded casual, even though her heart bounced around a bit
at the mention of his name.

“He’s been
away at college, and Lucy asked him to come home. Apparently her power also
includes some kind of general intuition. Feelings that something good or bad is
going to happen. The family seem to take her feelings pretty seriously. And
she’s got one now.”

That sounds
pretty ominous
, Ellie thought. Aloud she asked, “Good or bad?”

“A bit of
both,” Griffin answered. “Based on what I heard, she’s not sure which. On the
plus side for us, they think you’re just a normal high school girl…that you
would’ve figured them out or approached them by now if you weren’t.”

Relief
whooshed through Ellie as she released a big breath.

“But,” Griffin
continued, “that
does
mean you’re going to have to be extra careful
until we know for sure we can trust them.”

“We can trust
them. I already know that.”

“How do you
know?”

“I just do,”
she insisted.

He looked
skeptical.

“I could
always use Lucy’s power to show you. You said she sees intentions,” Ellie
suggested.

“Pass.”

Of course,
Griffin hadn’t gone into any details about what he was really bothered about,
but Ellie knew it would be useless to ask him. He tended to be a bit of a
thinker, and would only open up when he decided it was best.
If
he
decided it was best.

After a few
moments of contemplative silence, Griffin ran his hands over his face and said,
“If you’re sure you’re right about being able to trust them, then I think you
shouldn’t avoid Adelaide, Lila, and Nate.”

“Seriously?” 
Ellie loved the idea of befriending the trio. It’d been a long time since she’d
had anyone except Griffin as a real friend.

“Can you do it
without their finding out?”

“Ummmm…” Ellie
managed to momentarily put on hold her desperate wish for friends who truly
knew who and what she was, to give that question the serious consideration it
deserved. “Yeah, I think I can. Especially if I have your help,” she finally
decided.

“Okay.”
Griffin nodded and ruffled her hair. “You’d better finish your homework, young
lady.”

Ellie stuck
her tongue out in response. It felt so good to have Griffin on her side again.
Ellie headed upstairs, her head full of what tomorrow might bring.

Ellie woke
bright and early the next morning. Hopping out of bed, she dressed in her
warmest running clothes and headed out the door. She got in her car and drove
down to Lake Estes. After locking up, she walked over to a path partially
covered in snow and broke into a steady jog. Ellie kept her run fairly short
this morning, circling the lake only once, and then jogging over to the
downtown, stopping briefly at her car to grab her book. 

Once downtown,
she headed into a small coffee and pastry shop. Although she hadn’t been living
here long, this was already one of her favorite places. The food was good, and
the shop opened early. Ellie settled down to enjoy her breakfast and read more
of her book for her English class.

“Ellie,
right?” a deep voice resonated just above her.

Glancing up
from the book, Ellie’s mouth dropped open. Alex Jenner was standing beside her,
coffee in hand, also decked out in running clothes. Just as frickin’ gorgeous
as he had been the day before. And all Ellie could think was
I just finished
running, and I look and smell like nothing very pleasant. Why, oh, why did he
have to bump into me now?

Just barely
resisting the urge to fix her hair or sniff herself, Ellie closed her mouth
with a decided snap. With a concerted effort, she pulled it together, proud of
her oh-so-casual, “Alex, right? Adelaide and Lila’s brother?”

“Good memory,”
he toasted her with his coffee cup.  “Mind if I join you?” he asked, nodding at
the empty chair beside her.

“Sure.”

After seating
himself, Alex looked over and caught Ellie watching him.  With a blush, Ellie
lowered her eyes to her book.

“Good book?”
he asked, bringing her gaze back to him.

Ellie
shrugged, showing him the cover. 

“
To Kill a
Mockingbird
. I’ve always liked that one,” he said.

“Me too,” she
agreed, and kicked herself. Ellie usually wasn’t tongue-tied, but somehow the
connection from her brain to her mouth seemed to have jammed up.

“You just
finish working out?” Alex asked.

“Yeah…I run
most mornings.”

He raised his
eyebrows, impressed. “Even when it’s snowing outside?”

Ellie shrugged,
tucking her feet under her. “The only time I won’t is when it’s pouring. I like
to run. It’s when I do my best thinking.” Ellie frowned for half a second. She
didn’t usually provide additional commentary when she answered people’s
questions.

“Where do you
run?”

“Around the
lake, usually.”

“Do you drive
down and park there?”

“On weekdays I
do. But on weekends, I run from our house.”

Alex looked
slightly surprised. “How far a run is that?”

“It’s about
eight miles to run to the lake and all the way around it.”

“Does insanity
run in your family? No pun intended.”

Ellie laughed
at that bit of nonsense. She was a closet sucker for bad puns.

“Don’t your
parents worry about you?” He tilted his head.

“Not anymore,”
Ellie hedged.

“What do you
mean by that?” His eyes twinkled with curiosity.

“My family
trusts me, and knows where I am,” she said. “What about you?”

“What about
me?” he asked around his coffee cup as he took a sip.

“Did you just
finish working out?”

Alex gave her
his adorable lopsided grin, and her heartbeat picked up in response. “I also
just finished a run.”

“In this
weather?” Ellie teased. She was rewarded with a deep chuckle that danced up and
down her spine.

“Hey, maybe we
could run together some time,” he suggested. Ellie gave silent thanks that he
hadn’t noticed her reaction to him.

“Maybe…” Ellie
nodded and smiled to take the sting out of what could’ve been perceived as a
rejection.

“You do that a
lot, you know,” he said.

It was Ellie’s
turn to raise her eyebrows in surprise. “Do what?”

“Answer with
something vague.”

“Do I?” Ellie
feigned surprise.
Huh. Impressive. Most people don’t even notice when I’m
giving vague answers
, she thought.

“There you go
again!”

“Huh.” Ellie
grimaced and tried a different approach. “I don’t even notice I’m doing it.  I
guess I don’t talk about myself much in general.”
Especially to hot guys
,
she mentally tacked on.

“Fair enough.”
Alex let her off the hook with good-natured grace. “So back to that run?”

Ellie
laughed.  Clearly she wasn’t going to get away with keeping her distance. Not
that she wanted to. She was just trying to avoid further complication. And Alex
Jenner had the potential to be a rather
major
complication.

“Sure. Meet me
at the lake parking lot tomorrow at five-thirty for a quick five miles?”

Alex froze
with his cup half-way up to his mouth. “A.M.?” was his incredulous response.

“That’s my
offer, take it or leave it.”

Alex regarded
her for a moment, his eyes intensely focused. “I must be a glutton for punishment,”
he muttered, almost to himself.  “Five-thirty a.m. it is. What’s your cell
phone number, just in case?” After they’d exchanged numbers, he said, “Well… See
you tomorrow, Ellie.” And with another salute of his coffee cup he got up and
started to leave, pausing to ask, “You want a ride to the lot instead of having
to run back to your car?”

Ellie
chortled, but waved him away. “No, thanks. I like to run.”

“Suit
yourself, crazy girl.” And with a final sexy grin he turned and left.

“Ellie,”
Griffin called her name the second she got home. Disapproval was running
rampant through his voice, mimicked by his posture as she discovered when she
found him in the living room where he’d been sitting watching TV. 

“I know. I
know. One more complication that we don’t need,” she answered, as she made her
way over to the couch.

Griffin sighed
in resignation.

“Okay. It’s
done now. Besides, I don’t like you running by yourself anyway. Especially when
it’s so dark outside.”

Ellie gave a
mental eye roll. This was an old, well-hashed argument between brother and
sister. “You could join me,” she suggested.

“I only run
when someone is chasing me.” Turning his eyes back to the TV he grumbled, “At
least use the time tomorrow to try to get more information.”

“You got it.”
Ellie hugged him and then flew upstairs to shower and dress for school. She
hugged the idea of seeing Alex again to herself, secretly thrilled... whatever
the cost might be.

Ellie headed
to school, which she hoped would be an improvement over her first day. So much
had occurred in such a short time, Ellie almost couldn’t believe it was only
the second day at her new school. The night before, she’d spent the remainder
of the evening working on her assignments. Since Svatura only needed a few
hours of sleep each night, the extra time came in handy for keeping on top of
homework. At least that’s what Ellie often thought. She often wondered how the
normal kids managed to do everything with fewer hours available.

More often
than not, however, the extra hours could become tedious. Lonesome. And these
days Griffin was so grumpy, it wasn’t like he was great company.

Ellie pulled
into a space in the school parking lot. Just as she was reaching for the door
handle to get out, she caught a flash of movement in the distance.

“Griffin
,”
Ellie called her brother mentally.

“What?”
he immediately responded.

Ellie remained
silent for a minute. “
Elle?
” Griffin prompted.

“Nothing.
It’s nothing”
, she finally answered.  “
I thought maybe I saw something.
I think you’ve got me spooked with all the talk about the Vyusher.”

“Good. You
need to be spooked. You take too many chances.”