by Abigail Owen
Alex gently nudged her and wrapped his hand around hers again. “You’re not embarrassed about me already?”
“No!” Ellie didn’t want him even thinking that, even as a joke. “I’m just new at this.”
“I’m so sorry!” Adelaide apologized, covering her mouth with her hands. “I assumed you knew. The relationship is so clear to me.”
Ellie shook her head. “Don’t worry, Adelaide. You’re not wrong. It’s just we haven’t had much time to talk about it yet.” She paused. “I’d love to see how you interpret what you see,” she added.
Adelaide grinned.
“Time to get going,” Nate reminded everyone, handing Adelaide’s bag to her.
With a quick hug for Griffin, Ellie grabbed her stuff and followed the others out the door. Alex walked with her to her car. Before she got in, he gave her a concerned look. “Please be very careful,” he implored. “I only just found you. I can’t lose you, not now.”
“That goes ditto for you, you know,” she replied.
He gave her a brief kiss, not caring that the others were standing right there. As he watched her drive away, a small smile played around his lips, despite the fact that he couldn’t quite breathe right when she was away from him.
Chapter 27
Ellie had a horrible time concentrating at school. How am I supposed to focus on mundane details like French verb conjugation when I have Alex at home waiting for me, friends to protect, and this horrible constant fear of losing my new family?
The hands of the clock seemed stuck in time. Lunch was especially difficult. All she wanted to do was talk with Adelaide, Lila, and Nate. But of course they had to act normal for their friends. So instead, Ellie sat next to Brian and Juliette.
“Hey, Jules, anything new at the theater?” Ellie asked. The two girls shared a mutual love of movies, and Juliette knew almost as many old films as Ellie did. Of course, Ellie never mentioned that she’d watched most of those old movies at the time they were first released.
Juliette grinned. “The latest Zach Efron movie is out now,” she said. “It’s great. Two thumbs up.” She mimicked her words by sticking her thumbs up into the air.
Ellie laughed. “Are you sure it’s that good?” she teased. “Or were you just busy watching a certain hunky actor?”
Juliette sighed in exaggerated appreciation. “He’s definitely yummy.”
“I’m sitting right here you know,” Brian grumbled good-naturedly.
Juliette and Ellie giggled. They spent the rest of the lunch period talking about the recent releases and debating the talent of the latest crop of teen actors.
As soon as the final bell for school rang, Ellie made her way outside and to her car. Lila, Adelaide, and Nate were not too far behind. Ellie hid her initial surprise at finding Alex waiting at Adelaide and Lila’s car. Still acting as normal as possible, Ellie sent him a friendly wave. She received a slow, sexy look in return, and her heart danced a little jig inside her chest.
Hopping in her car, she was aware of Alex and the others following behind her all the way home. Once they reached the house, she was headed inside when she felt Alex grab her hand.
She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck, receiving an achingly sweet kiss.
“I missed you,” Alex whispered. He buried his face in her hair, inhaling deeply.
“It was only a few hours,” she teased, snuggling deeper into his embrace.
“There’s a pack of murderous Vyusher wolves trying to kill all of us. Give me a bit of a break here. I don’t feel right with you out of my sight. Especially given your tendency to gravitate to near-death experiences.”
“I know the feeling,” she agreed, ignoring his last comment.
With a resigned sigh, they mutually pulled apart. “Better go in,” Alex said.
As they entered through the kitchen and then walked out into the living room, Ellie saw the whole family had gathered and stood waiting for her.
Hugh spoke first. “We’ve discussed everything you suggested and agree that your ideas seem to be our best option.”
Ellie glanced at Alex, who frowned. “You don’t agree?” she asked quietly.
He shook his head and pressed his lips together as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. “I know you’re amazing. But the only time I’ve witnessed your powers is when you were under a pack of wolves being torn to pieces. I just worry about your being at the center of the fight. That’s all.” He shrugged helplessly.
Nodding, Ellie turned back to the room.
“How do you want to start?” Hugh asked.
Ellie had thought about little else all day… just one of the reasons she’d had such a difficult time getting through her classes, and already she had a plan in mind.
“Well… I still don’t know all of your powers, so I’d like to start by finding that out. Then I’d like to spend a little time with each of you individually over the next few days so that I can learn your abilities and try them out a little bit. We’ll see where that gets us.”
“Whose powers don’t you know yet?” Lucy asked quietly.
Ellie took her time answering as she went into the dining room to retrieve a chair. “Here’s what I know,” she began as she sat down. “I know Adelaide sees relationships. Lila sees if people are being truthful. Lucy sees people’s intentions. And Hugh has the ability to heal. I’m guessing the girls got their powers from you, Lucy. Did they inherit anything from Hugh?”
She looked to everyone questioningly. Hugh smiled. Actually, all of them smiled, seeming amused. “We’re not sure yet,” Hugh answered. “Maybe you’ll be able to tell us.”
Ellie nodded. It took years to discover what powers could do, and sometimes centuries to master them.
“Charlotte is a teleporter. Nate is extremely strong…” she continued.
“I’m pretty much indestructible and frickin’ fast.” Nate flexed his bicep and gave it a kiss. Everyone laughed.
“So I guess the only people I don’t know are Alex, who I think can either freeze things or stop time. He refuses to tell me which…” She wrinkled her nose at him. “And Dexter and Ramsey.”
“I’m able to turn my body into metal,” Dexter explained. “Any kind of metal. And I’m developing the ability to turn things I touch into metal. But that’s still a work in progress.”
Ellie nodded, her mind already spinning with ideas for that skill. But she held back her multitude of detail-related questions until she could touch Dexter and find out for herself. She looked to Ramsey. So far, Ramsey was the quietest one of the bunch. The red-haired boy seemed to be extremely intense and generally unsmiling, although Ellie got the impression that he loved all of his family very much.
Ramsey suddenly grinned, transforming his face from good-looking to wickedly handsome. She saw everyone shift position. Ellie glanced toward Griffin.
“Smiles from Ramsey are rare,” he relayed to her telepathically.
Her attention returned to Ramsey as he snapped his fingers, and flames instantly appeared in the palm of his hand.
“Wow!” Griffin exclaimed, sitting forward. “Firestarters are supposed to be extremely rare. My great-grandfather told me about them once.”
“Did he tell you why they’re so rare?” Ramsey’s grin hid behind his intense expression again, as if the sun had disappeared behind the clouds.
Griffin grimaced. “I remember something about it being a dangerous ability that is extremely difficult to control. And it also goes along with volatile personalities, which doesn’t help the control part all that much.”
Ramsey gave a sharp nod. “Got it in one,” he said. A bleak expression momentarily flitted across his face.
“Actually, it’s dangerous for me to even be around my family.” Ramsey glanced around the room. “If I lose control, I could kill them. So I try to stay fairly separate from them and not use the fire. It’s why I’m not in school.”
Ramsey darted a look at Lila, who lowered her eyes and turned her hea
d away subtly. Ellie wasn’t sure if anyone else caught that interaction, but she suspected there was something going on there.
“He finds it easier to control it when he’s with us though,” Dexter added.
Ellie made a snap decision. “Let’s start with you then, Ramsey.”
“No!” Alex and Griffin both shouted.
Ellie frowned. “I have to start somewhere--”
“Then start with a less dangerous skill, Ellie,” Griffin interrupted. “You just finished healing from potentially life-ending injuries… today.”
The frustrated look he leveled on her couldn’t have been clearer. He thought her decision was rash. Then he heard what she was thinking, crossed his arms over his chest and grumbled, “Fine!”
“Nothing’s fine,” Alex said, glancing back and forth between the twins.
“You’ll soon learn that my sister has the ability to reason away every decision she makes,” Griffin said, and glared in Ellie’s direction. “And most of the time you can’t argue with her logic… It’s very exasperating.”
Ellie shot him a superior look. “How many good reasons do you need, exactly?” She then ticked off her reasons to the rest of the room, holding up a finger for each. “I’m done healing. We’re short on time. This skill would be extremely useful in a fight. If it’s hard to control, I’ll need to practice with him longer than anyone else. I might be able to help him learn to control it.” She paused and glanced around the room. “Any other arguments?” she asked sweetly.
“You’re right, Griffin.” Alex obviously felt unhappy about this decision but was just as obviously resigned to it. “That is very frustrating.” He softened the comment with a squeeze of her hand.
“Okay, for this one, I think we take the practice outside.” Ellie hopped up. “There’s a clearing about five miles from here that would be perfect.”
Chapter 28
Ellie turned to Charlotte. “Do you mind?” she asked, indicating the need to use her teleportation.
Charlotte shook her head, holding out her hand.
“I’d like to try something,” Ellie began. “I want to see if I can use my power, but not necessarily with you all touching me. I’m hoping it’ll work the same if we’re linked together just holding hands.”
Once Ellie saw everyone was connected, she closed her eyes, pulled Charlotte’s power into herself, and suddenly they were in the clearing. All of them.
“You really need to show me how to do that without noise,” Charlotte murmured, impressed.
“You got it,” Ellie assured her.
“That would be a very handy skill to use in the fight,” she heard Griffin think.
“Agreed,” she thought back. “Stay close while I’m working with Ramsey. If he or I get out of control, you’ll need to try to contain it.”
After receiving his nod of assent, to the others she said, “Griffin’s on standby in case I need help. You guys might want to hang back, though.”
Ellie led Ramsey to the middle of the clearing and then turned to face him. The solemn boy was nervous, although he hid it well. She gave him a reassuring smile. “This won’t hurt.”
She held out her hands. After a miniscule pause, he grasped her hands in his, and Ellie closed her eyes. The glow inside Ramsey appeared as a deep red light. She reached out with her mind and pulled it into herself.
With a gasp Ellie felt the power surge through her wildly. She and Ramsey both literally went up in flames. But they weren’t harmed by the fire.
Ellie felt Griffin tense to use his shield. “No,” she thought at him. “Give me a minute…”
He backed off.
Ellie relaxed into the power. She could immediately feel why firestarters had such a hard time. Volatile emotions of hate, anger, fury, and rage threatened to consume her wholly, and Ellie concentrated on controlling her newly wild and foreign feelings. She felt her control slipping further and further away, and her fear deepened as her emotions grew more intense.
Suddenly, an overwhelming sense of serenity pulsed through her. It felt almost like being washed in cool water on a scorching hot day… exhilarating and peaceful all at the same time. And exactly what she needed.
“Do you feel that?” she asked Ramsey.
“Yeah,” he breathed. “Are you doing that?”
Ellie shook her head. “It’s not me.”
A suspicion formed in Ellie’s mind about where that feeling of peace had come from, but she’d have to deal with that later. Right now she needed to focus on mastering this power.
“Okay, Ramsey. I think I’ve got control at least,” she finally murmured. “Give me a little time to see what you can do.”
To the others who were watching from afar, she appeared to simply stand, unmoving, eyes closed, and engulfed in flames. After about twenty minutes of working through things, Ellie smiled and opened her eyes. She also felt Ramsey starting to shake as his control threatened to slip out of his grasp.
“Okay, Ramsey, I’m going to take over completely now. You ready?”
At his nod she pulled the glow completely into herself. The flames moved off Ramsey and solely onto her. Not even the hands still linked with hers were touched by the fire.
As soon as she had full control, Ellie started playing. First she extinguished the fire completely. She heard Ramsey’s small intake of breath and felt him relax for the first time since they’d begun the exercise.
“Don’t worry,” she assured him as her face took on a mischievous look. “I’ll show you how after I’m done.”
“Oh, jeez,” Griffin muttered. Then he added louder, “Watch out. She’s about to get feisty with it.”
Ellie gave the onlookers a sassy wink. “You ready for this?” she asked Ramsey.
“I guess,” was his less-than-enthusiastic response. Ellie grinned at his doubtful expression.
“Here we go!” Still holding one of Ramsey’s hands, Ellie let go with the other and extended her palm up, where a small flame appeared. “Eventually, as you master the skill, you’ll have very specific control.” She shrunk it to a small ember. She then grew it so that it danced about six inches above her hand.
“You can pick what you are burning quite precisely.” She changed the color of the fire to green, then purple, then white, as she forced it to burn minute amounts of copper, potassium, and then magnesium from the air.
“I guess you actually paid attention in chemistry!” Griffin called across the field. She stuck her tongue out at her brother and then continued unfazed.
“You’re also pretty unlimited in the size you can expand the fire to.” It shot up into the air about a hundred feet in a long skinny column of dancing color. “I’d go higher, but I’m afraid it would be seen.”
She brought the flame back down. “And you can control the shape and placement of it.” She shot the fire out to circle the clearing several times until it spiraled around them. Then she pulled the spiral in so that it crackled within inches of the two of them.
She doused it.
“You can control it away from your body.”
A small tree about 30 feet away burst into flame, popping and crackling. Then, just as suddenly, the blaze was gone.
Ellie looked at Ramsey. “You’ll be able to do that for anything, any size, in about a hundred mile radius eventually.”
Ramsey’s face broke into a huge grin. “That is awesome! Can you teach me all of that?”
Ellie shook her head. “Not all of it immediately. You’ll still have to learn things at your own pace, but I can help you along. What I can teach you right now is how to control it so that it can’t overwhelm you or hurt anyone.”
“Show me,” Ramsey breathed, his wide eyes impressed.
“You bet.” She glanced at Griffin, sending him a telepathic request. He sent her a surprised look, but immediately turned and talked quietly with the family watching from their distant spot across the clearing.
“We’ll need Lila,” Ellie said.
Chap
ter 29
Ramsey cocked his head. “Why is that exactly?”
“I’m pretty sure she’s the reason you’ve been able to hang on to your control as well and as long as you have, especially around your family.”
Ramsey shook his head vehemently. “I don’t want her anywhere near me!”
Lila, crossing over to them, heard his statement. A devastated look passed over the poor girl’s face before she managed to control it.
“Too late,” Ellie murmured to Ramsey. He turned and saw Lila right behind him. Silently, he returned his attention to Ellie, his expression grim.
Lila took a deep breath, trying to collect herself. “You wanted me to come over?” she asked Ellie, refusing to even look at Ramsey.
“Lila, I think you may have an untapped power,” Ellie stated.
Lila looked mildly surprised, but nodded. “Does it have something to do with my Dad’s healing ability?”
“Good guess. I think you have the ability to heal people’s emotions.”
Ellie felt Ramsey stiffen at this announcement. Softly, just to Ellie, he asked, “Do you think that’s why I have better control around them than by myself?”
“Yes. I think once Lila masters her skill, she can help you learn to master your emotions. Eventually, you won’t need her help. But to start with, she can at least unconsciously help you until she can deliberately control her powers.”
She looked directly at Lila. “I’d like to try something just with you for a second, and if my guess is right, then we can work with Ramsey together.”
“Sure.” Lila immediately held out her hand to Ellie.
“Don’t go away,” Ellie directed Ramsey, and then let go of his hands to take Lila’s.
