by Abigail Owen
They moved into the living room and sat down. She quickly filled him in on what had happened during the few weeks they’d been apart. After Ellie had finally discovered where the Jenners lived, she and Griffin had had a huge fight about tracking them closer. Ellie, thrilled she’d found the people she had dreamed about and fed up with waiting for her brother, had taken off for Estes Park without him.
“I’m guessing it was Claude who called you?” she asked.
“Yeah, that’s how I found you.”
Claude was their lawyer who’d handled the purchase of the house for her. Ellie and Griffin had benefited from the fact that their family had amassed a large fortune, including investments in land, mines, and other continuously producing sources. It also helped that a member of their clan had possessed the ability to turn anything she touched to gold. Humans, in various roles, had managed the money, communicating long distance with the Aubreys through various media… online being the method these days.
Periodically Ellie or Griffin would pretend to die and will their fortune to themselves. Their great-grandfathers had set up this system long before, although Griffin, good with technology, had advanced things through the years, as well as adding to their investments.
“Well, you can’t say this is a show piece house at least.” She flashed him an impish grin.
“Huh,” Griffin looked around. “Definitely not drawing any attention here. That’s for sure.” They tried not to flaunt their wealth, fearing it would bring too much attention both from humans and from Vyusher. Hence the rather unassuming house she’d purchased here. “So,” he prompted, “let’s get on with you telling me about your day.”
Ellie took a deep breath and told him about meeting Adelaide, Lila, and Nate. About Adelaide’s mystifying actions in the lunch room. About them befriending her. And finally, about her encounter with Alex and with Adelaide’s power.
“She felt the shock, I know it.” Ellie dropped her head into her hands.
“Did she seem to think anything of it?”
“I don’t think so, but I can show you. I need to show you what I saw when I touched her, anyway.”
Ellie eyed her brother, unsure if he would go that far. She felt lucky that he was listening to her at all, given his reluctance to be involved. But beyond a tightening of his lips, Griffin didn’t object, and gave a brief nod for her to go ahead.
Ellie closed her eyes and concentrated on her memories of that afternoon in the school parking lot. She knew Griffin would be using his mind reading skills to watch her thoughts along with her.
She started with the shock she’d given Adelaide when she’d touched her arm briefly. She knew that people felt something similar to a charge of electricity when she used her power manipulation on them. Usually she could control it so that they wouldn’t feel the shock, and therefore wouldn’t know what she was doing. But when she wasn’t paying attention…like today…zap!
Ellie tried her best to remember Adelaide’s reaction accurately.
Griffin closed his eyes and whispered, “It looks like she didn’t really notice the shock. She seemed too preoccupied with something else, but I couldn’t tell what. I think you dodged a bullet there. You touched her though. What’d you see?”
“I didn’t touch her long enough to get any clue as to what I was seeing. It looked like glittering, almost electrical, strands of light in different colors…Like this…” Ellie concentrated on the image so Griffin could see it in her mind. She would’ve needed to hold the touch longer to be able to understand what the colors meant, but she’d seen a thick silvery strand between herself and Adelaide. And she’d seen a bright red line that shimmered and faded and then grew stronger, almost in waves, which connected Ellie to Alex. She felt fairly sure those glittering lines, and not the feel of shock, had made Adelaide gasp.
“I can’t be sure, but I’m guessing that Adelaide has the ability to see relationships between people, and that’s what those sort of shimmering strands of light were.” Opening her eyes, Ellie tried to gauge her brother’s reaction. “What do you think?”
Griffin wandered to the couch as he mentally walked through what she’d just shown him. While he’d been able to watch everything Ellie thought, it was a little like a game of telephone. He’d seen it all through Ellie’s eyes, through her emotions and her filters.
“That was quite a shock you gave Adelaide,” he started.
Ellie blinked. “Wait… you felt it?” she squeaked.
“It surprised me too,” Griffin admitted, allowing himself a small grin at his sister’s obvious astonishment. “One minute I’m driving through the mountains on my way here, the next… Ouch! I didn’t know what it was until you showed me just now.”
Ellie frowned and joined him on the couch. “You’ve never felt things through our link before. If the shock was that powerful, Adelaide surely would’ve noticed.”
“I don’t think she did.”
Ellie took a deep breath of relief.
“You’d be the best judge as to Adelaide’s abilities and what those strands of light mean,” Griffin continued.
“I didn’t touch her long enough to determine much,” Ellie muttered.
Seeing ideas starting to form in Ellie’s eyes, Griffin said, “I think you should wait a while before you try to figure that out.”
Ellie wrinkled her nose. “Fine,” she grumbled.
Griffin paused for a second. “They don’t know about me yet, right?”
Ellie shook her head.
“Okay.” Griffin fell silent.
Ellie didn’t push him; she just felt grateful that he seemed to want to help. They were at their best when they acted as a team, and she needed him now.
After a couple of minutes, he said, “Let me think about this for a while. We can talk again in the morning.”
With a nod of agreement, Ellie hopped up and headed upstairs to work on her homework and do some more thinking herself. Ellie hadn’t shown Griffin what had happened to her when she’d first seen Alex. It was too new. Too unclear to her how she felt and what it meant.
…but she knew she definitely felt something... and she felt both terrified and oddly eager to find out what.
Chapter 6
Alex tried his best to keep his mind off the girl he’d met today. Ellie…cute name…what was that short for? He remembered as she’d walk away in the parking lot, he’d felt like he’d just been punched in the gut. That sensation had lingered, bothering him for the rest of the afternoon. He was not interested in high school girls. Not even when he was in high school. But when he’d looked up and his gaze had connected with hers, he’d felt a connection. A strong one.
Alex rolled his shoulders and forced the girl from his mind. He’d come home for a specific reason. And it wasn’t to crush on one of his younger sisters’ friends, no matter how adorable she was.
After Ellie had walked away, he’d ushered his siblings over to their car. “Did I hear something about a study session? You might need to cancel that, Delia. This week at least.”
“I figured there was a reason you’re here,” Adelaide replied.
“Yeah, what’s up, Alex? You’re supposed to be off at college,” Nate added.
“Your mom called. She’s having one of her feelings again.” Alex locked his eyes on Adelaide.
All three frowned at this news. Lila and Adelaide’s mother, Lucy, had the ability to sense others’ emotions and intentions. Sometimes this translated to an intuition of something coming. She could feel if it was negative or positive. And almost always it related to her family in some way. Lucy herself didn’t claim this as part of her powers. She thought of it more as mother’s or women’s intuition. Either way, they’d all learned to take her premonitions seriously.
“Did she say what the feeling was?” Lila asked. She tossed her backpack in the trunk of Nate’s car.
“No, she just asked me to come home. And when I got there, she sent me here to make sure you three came straight back after s
chool.”
“Well, let’s go find out what this is about,” Nate said, and they all loaded up in their cars.
Adelaide and Lila beat him back to the house. As he walked in the door, he heard Adelaide on the phone.
“I’m sorry we have to flake on you, Ellie,” she was saying. “But with Alex home from college, we’ll be doing family stuff most of the week...”
Alex tamped down on his unusual curiosity about the girl he’d met today and went into the living room where the others were gathered. He greeted everyone he hadn’t seen yet with warm hugs.
“What’d you tell her?” Nate asked, as Adelaide sat beside him on the floor and took his hand.
“That with Alex home, we decided to have some family time,” she replied with a shrug.
Nate nodded. “Not bad. About as truthful as you could be.”
“Mmm…yeah.” she agreed. “You know I don’t like lying.” She paused for a moment, her expression thoughtful. “Besides, I have get the impression that she sees a lot more than she lets on.”
“Who are you talking about?” Lucy walked into the room, followed by Hugh. They headed straight to Alex to give him warm hugs.
“Oh, this girl Adelaide met at school,” Lila answered. “New girl. Her name is Ellie, and today was her first day. Lila walked right up to her in the lunch room.”
Lucy raised her eyebrows as she took a seat on the couch. “You don’t think she suspects anything?” she asked with a concerned frown.
“How could she? She’s only known us one day,” Nate said.
Lucy’s frown didn’t let up.
“Do you think your feeling has something to do with this girl?” Hugh asked quietly. He rested one hand on his wife’s leg in an attempt to soothe her.
“I don’t know…” Lucy glanced around the room at the faces she loved so much. “It’s different this time. Almost like I’m getting two separate signals.”
“Are they centered on a specific person?” Hugh prodded.
“No, I…” Lucy shook her head, visibly frustrated. “Part is good.” She looked up at Alex. “Like what I picked up on just before we found you. And that part seems to be very strong. But even stronger is this sense of dread. Something bad is coming. I feel like we’re all in danger. That’s why I asked you to come home, Alex. I think we need to protect ourselves, and the best way I can think of to do that is by being together.”
The room fell silent.
“Do you think you should meet Ellie right away?” Alex asked his adoptive mother. He shifted to prop his ankle on his knee.
Lucy shook her head. “No. I think if she was like us, it would’ve been pretty obvious to you guys. Or she might have said something. There’re not many of us around. I think she’d be too surprised to find three together— let alone nine —not to say anything.” She turned to her daughter. “Delia? Did you see anything?”
Adelaide shrugged. “I saw some relationships between her and a few of us, but nothing I’m worried about.” She didn’t like to share what she saw about developing or future relationships. She tended to get a little apprehensive that she would influence the people involved and affect what could have been.
The others all nodded. Alex quietly blew out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and squashed that small kernel of hope that had irrationally popped up. He thought, Dang. If she had powers then maybe… But Lucy was right. If she was of their kind, she’d have come forward.
Hugh leaned forward, absently tapping his glass. “I think our only option at this point is to stick together and keep our eyes open. Alex, we’ll need you to stay home for a while.”
Alex nodded his agreement and saw Ramsey do the same across the room. In truth, he often felt a little homesick while he was away at college. He’d become used to having a family around him, despite the years he’d spent alone. After his grandfather had passed away in 1917, leaving Alex without any remaining living relatives, he’d wandered for years. So now secretly, he was pleased with this chance to be home.
Alex and the rest of the family failed to see the large, oddly colored golden falcon perched high in the trees just outside the house.
Chapter 7
Ellie took a break from her homework and went downstairs, only to find the house empty. Griffin had apparently gone out. She’d been so distracted with thoughts of Alex Jenner, a Vyusher could have walked directly in front of her, in full wolf form, and she wouldn’t have noticed.
Huh. Now that I think about it, Griffin’s tapping into my morphing ability. That’s a little strange, she thought. Ellie was a metamorph, with the ability to shift into specific animal forms. One being a falcon, inherited from her father. Griffin hated to fly, but the only one of her morphs he’d been able to master was her strongest form—the falcon.
He must be out doing some scouting of the area, Ellie decided, not bothering to tap into his mind reading ability to find out what was going on. He’d come home eventually and probably tell her about it. She went to make some homemade hot chocolate to pass the time while she waited. She didn’t know if Griffin would be home any time soon, but decided to make enough for him, too. She was just mixing in the milk when the phone rang.
“Hello?” She picked it up without bothering to check the ID. Very few people had the number.
“Hi, Ellie, it’s Adelaide.”
“Oh, hi!” Ellie grimaced. I wonder what this is about.
“I’m so sorry to do this, but we need to cancel our study session this week,” Adelaide said, her voice ripe with contrition.
Ellie frowned. “Oh! Why?” She was proud of how she pulled off the right mix of surprise and casual interest despite her thumping heart.
“With Alex home from college, we’ll be doing family stuff most of the week…sorry we have to flake.”
“Oh, no prob. We’ll do it some other time.” Ellie hoped the relief she felt wasn’t obvious as she spoke.
“Thanks, Ellie! Gotta go.”
“Okay, bye!” Ellie put the phone back on the receiver.
Phew! There’s one complication avoided… at least for now.
She fleetingly wondered why Alex had suddenly come home, but assumed nothing serious had motivated the decision. He’d looked perfectly relaxed at the school that afternoon. Ellie’s mind drifted to that moment. The first moment she’d seen him… and then when their gazes had locked. She’d never experienced anything like it.
I wonder if he’d felt anything too, or if I just looked like any other high school girl to him? Other than her eyes, she knew she really wasn’t a stand-out beauty. Alex, on the other hand, was gorgeous. Dark, brooding, yummy. Why would someone like him be remotely interested in someone like her?
Ellie gave herself a mental shake. Not gonna happen, Ellie... Let it go. With that, she deliberately put all thoughts of Alex from her mind and finished making her hot chocolate. She then settled down on the couch in the living room to work on her math homework. She’d finished several problems when she heard Griffin making his way into the house.
“Hey, Griff,” she called.
She didn’t look up when he walked into the room, until she realized that he stood directly in front of her, patiently waiting for her attention. Slowly, she raised her head and then her eyebrows.
“Do you want something?”
“I just spent the last few hours listening to the Jenners… You were right about Adelaide’s ability,” Griffin said. He leaned against a chair crossing one ankle over the other.
Ellie bit her lip. “She thought about today?”
“Yeah. She sees relationships between people. She saw strong relationships between herself and you, as well as between Alex and you. But she didn’t think about the specifics. They did seem to be positive relationships in her mind, though.”
“That’s a relief.” Ellie smiled, and then gave her brother a very direct look. “Why did you listen in on the entire family tonight?”
“Because when I felt that shock earlier today, I als
o managed to hear a little of Adelaide’s thoughts when you touched her. And what I heard made me think that she was beginning to wonder about you.” He dropped into the chair he was leaning against and propped his feet up on the coffee table, looking deceptively relaxed.
“Oh.” Ellie cringed.
“Exactly.” He gave her that utterly Griffin look that she hated…a look that stated quite clearly here you go again, Ellie.
“…So I figured a little reconnaissance wouldn’t hurt.”
Ellie waited a second for him to continue. “And...?” she prompted when he remained silent.
“Well, the mother’s name is Lucy. She and her husband Hugh are te’sorthene”
Ellie’s eyes lit up at this bit of information. Her mind reeling. Ellie remembered her mother telling her about te’sorthene as a child. The word literally meant a friend bonded by heart or sprit. But the Svatura used the term to refer to what equated to soul mates. Rare, because of how few Svatura existed, but more common in their large clan due to sheer numbers. Te’sorthene was supposed to be a pre-destined bond between two people that was elemental, almost physical. Most of the mated couples in their tribe were te’sorthene.
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.”
