Blue Violet (11 page)

Part of Ellie
worried, hoping that he was okay. Another part was insecure, wondering what
she’d done to scare him off. And another part was just pissed that he’d drop
her like that, without any explanation. She had a strong suspicion he was
avoiding her, and she wondered why. But then the next moment, she’d convince
herself that she was being completely self-centered. Sure,
she
felt a
connection with him, but obviously that feeling was one-sided. What Alex
probably saw when he looked at her was a normal high school girl… too young…
too inexperienced… and not of his kind.

Ellie’d pretty
much convinced Griffin that the Jenners and Pierces weren’t a danger to them.
But both she and Griffin were still concerned that revealing themselves to the
Jenners and Pierces might put them all in a great deal of danger. Especially
given the wolf sighting not too long ago.

April had
given way to an unseasonably warm May. The snow was mostly gone, at least for
the moment. Ellie was standing outside in the parking lot, enjoying the lovely
weather and chatting with Adelaide, Lila, and Nate. She waved to Brian and
Juliette as they arrived, and hid a self-satisfied smile.

“You’re pretty
proud of yourself, aren’t you?” Adelaide teased, following her line of sight.

Ellie grinned.
“I just hope they remember me at their wedding.”

Adelaide
chuckled. She also thought that Brian and Juliette made a good couple, but her
reasons for feeling so were slightly different, and she kept them to herself.

The couple had
been inseparable since that movie night. They’d also become particularly good
friends of Ellie’s, often coming over to her house to study on nights when she
wasn’t at the library with Adelaide, Lila, and Nate. Sometimes they’d join the
little library group, and even Griffin liked them. He’d finally warmed up to
the idea of making friends… Or, at least he’d grudgingly accepted the concept.

Ellie glanced
up and froze, the blood draining from her face. Across the street, in the
shadows of a grove of trees, stood a giant black wolf, seemingly watching the
school. As Ellie watched, the wolf slowly backed up into the shadows and
disappeared.

“Ellie?”
Adelaide laid a concerned hand on her sleeve. “Are you okay? You look like
you’re about to pass out.”

Ellie pulled
herself out of her shocked state with difficulty. She slowly focused on
Adelaide’s worried face, and then shook her head a little, trying to clear it.
“Umm… yeah.”  She pinned what she hoped was a cheerful look on her face, hoping
the color was coming back into her blanched cheeks. A loud
trill
shook
her senses.

Saved by
the bell
, she thought with wry amusement. The irony of the situation was
not lost on her.

“Griffin
,”
Ellie called for her brother mentally as she followed her friends into the
school.

“Yeah?”

She mentally
showed him what she had just seen. Somehow, she also managed to communicate her
panic. “
It’s him. The black wolf.”

“I know
,”
was his grim response. “
I’m on it. You go to class. I’ll see if I can find
him. I’ll keep in touch.”

“Be
careful. Please.”

“Do you
really have to say that to me?”

“Probably
not
.”

Ellie didn’t
hear from Griffin again after that, and it made for an incredibly long day. She
must have acted pretty spacey, because her friends kept giving her odd looks.
Once school was finally over, she rushed out to the parking lot, her mind
focused on one thing and one thing only: to get home and see if she could find
Griffin.

Halfway across
the lot she stopped suddenly, shocked. Alex was leaning up against her car.
Given that six weeks had passed since she’d last seen him and he’d done little
more than nod at her in passing, his timing was suspicious.

“Hi, Alex,”
Ellie said as she approached him. Despite her state of panicked rush, and her
anger with him, she secretly felt thrilled. It just figured that he’d pick
today
of all days to finally talk to her. She unlocked the passenger-side door
and threw her backpack in the back seat. Alex still blocked the driver side.

 “Sorry, Alex,
but I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

He didn’t
move. “Oh? Where’re you off to in such a rush?”

“Just home.”

“Griffin
there?” he asked in a too-casual way, and Ellie’s eyebrows popped up.

“Yeah.”  She
drew out the word, implying by her tone that she thought that a bit of a silly
question.

They eyed each
other for several moments. With an impatient gesture, she finally snapped, “Do
you mind?” and tried to shoo him away from her car. From the corner of her eye
she saw Adelaide, Lila, and Nate approaching them.

“Who exactly
is
Griffin, anyway?” he asked her.

Ellie hid her
surprise. Adelaide knew Griffin was her brother.
Guess she didn’t pass that
on to Alex,
Ellie thought. Her stubborn streak kicked in.
Well, after
the silent treatment the last few weeks, I’m not in the mood to enlighten him.

“I really am
in a hurry, Alex,” Ellie answered brusquely. Why on Earth did he decide that
the one moment he wanted to talk to her was the one moment she couldn’t?  And
why talk to her about
this
? She risked touching him, pushing against him
to try to move him out of the way. She was tempted to let her hand linger on
his arm. It felt warm and rock hard. And touching him at all just seemed so
intimate, so right. A strange yearning settled somewhere in her heart.

Alex stared
into her eyes so intently, Ellie felt almost trapped. She couldn’t turn away
even if she’d wanted to. Her breathing accelerated along with her heart rate.
It was the kind of look a man gave a woman he wanted.
Knowing. Sensual
.
Slowly, he obligingly scooted aside. Still caught in his gaze, Ellie just
managed to yank open her car door in an awkward motion and flop in. Turning the
key, she revved the engine. Alex signaled her to roll down the window, and she
took a deep breath and complied.

He leaned down
as if to speak with her, but then he suddenly popped his head through the
window and placed a light kiss on her unsuspecting lips. Ellie gave a little
squeak of surprise and stared at him with wide, astonished eyes.

With a sexy
grin he said, “Just giving you one more thing to think about.”  And with that
mystifying comment, he turned and walked over to where his siblings were
waiting.

Ellie sat for
a moment, gathering her chaotic thoughts and emotions.
Holy crap, he just
kissed me
! Quickly followed by,
Who the hell does he think he is?
Sheesh! The guy completely ignores me for six weeks, and then
wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am
!

Finally it
registered that maybe Alex Jenner wasn’t indifferent to her after all, and a
bubbling excitement fizzed through her entire system, threatening to explode.

But Ellie
squashed her growing excitement. One kiss didn’t make him any less of a jerk.
And as much as her body wanted to focus on that amazing moment, Ellie had more
pressing matters to deal with at the moment. She put her car in gear, and with
a slightly dazed wave in the general direction of her friends, she headed home.

*****

Alex watched
Ellie as she drove away. He didn’t even hide it now. Adelaide, Lila, and Nate
had all seen him kiss their friend. Adelaide smiled serenely, while Nate and
Lila gave him incredulous looks.

“What the heck
was that all about?” Nate demanded.

Alex just
shrugged. Mentally, he swung back and forth between a crazy satisfaction at
that kiss, and feeling like a complete fool. He’d been thinking about her
almost non-stop for weeks. He’d blown off their runs, and then stopped contacting
her completely. He’d thought he was doing the right thing. Saving her from…
from a lot of things, not the least of which was the possible danger they were
in. He didn’t blame her for being mad at him at all. But then she’d basically
given him the cold shoulder, her mind obviously elsewhere. And he’d thought,
I’ll
give her something to think about
, and something had snapped. He’d wanted
her focus solely on him, and he’d kissed her.

Jeez, Alex,
you’re such a jerk
, he mentally berated himself. But as he thought more
about it, something in his head clicked. It’d been brief, but he
had
felt her respond, had seen something spark in her eyes, confirming his hope
that she wasn’t as indifferent to him as she seemed. He didn’t think he could
ever forget the look she’d given him afterward. Part fury, part stunned
surprise, part sparkling need. He’d seen the mutual desire in her eyes.

He didn’t know
what he was going to do about it. But he’d decided to do
something
. It
wouldn’t be long until she went to college…a few months. He could wait for her
until then. And hopefully by then he could figure out exactly what he wanted.
Alex just prayed that he hadn’t already blown his chances.

Griffin
arrived just as Ellie pulled into the driveway. She saw him fly inside and
quickly followed.

“Well?” she demanded,
hands on her hips.

Griffin paced
back and forth. “Nothing.” If possible, he looked even grimmer than before.

“What do you
mean ‘nothing’?”

“I mean
nothing
.
I couldn’t find a single thing. Not a track, not a scent, no trace. Are you
sure…?” He turned to face her, trailing off as Ellie was already shaking her
head.

“I know what I
saw.”  Ellie blew out a heavy breath. She’d been so sure that something was
coming today. She’d been a crazy nut, focused only on her worry.

 “The Jenners
and Pierces suspect something’s up with you, by the way,” Griffin said, as he
pulled his sweatshirt over his head and tossed it on the back of a chair.

“Oh?” Ellie
eyed her brother through narrowed eyes and sat on the couch.

“It’s partly
why Alex tried to talk you.”

Ellie’s
suspicious look turned furious. She glared at her brother as she tried to
decide which made her angrier… the fact that Griffin listened to the Jenners
and Pierces or that the kiss Alex gave her apparently was just some kind of ploy
or ruse.

 “Sorry about
listening in on them. But I was concerned about you, and the Jenners and
Pierces happen to think of you more than any others at the school.” He jumped
up, headed into the kitchen and started pulling out stuff to make dinner.

“Why not just
ask me directly?” she asked through gritted teeth as she followed him.

“You were a
bit… spacey all day. It seemed like a good idea to see how others were seeing
you.”

Ellie grimaced
and shrugged. She supposed she could understand that.

 “Look on it
as good news that none of them seemed to notice my poking around in their
heads,” he added, opening the refrigerator.

Ellie made a
face. “I guess.”

“And I don’t
think he kissed you to use or delay you.”

”Thanks for
the insight, but it’s none of your business.” Ellie knew Griffin wouldn’t
approve of her feelings for Alex and she wasn’t in the mood for an argument
right now.

He looked over
his shoulder at her. “From what I could tell, he was worried about you.”

“Worried?”
Ellie’s eyebrows knitted together. “About what?”

“A couple of
things. He seems to think he put you in danger. And he’s worried about me.”

“Why would he
worry about you?”

“He doesn’t
know I’m your brother.” He reached for a green pepper, washed it, and started chopping.

Ellie picked
up a strip and munched on it. “Yeah. But why would that worry him?”

“He thinks I’m
some sort of boyfriend or something.”

“Oh.”  Ellie
frowned. Sure they’d kept Griffin hidden initially. And he still didn’t spend
much time with any of her friends except Brian and Juliette. Adelaide and Nate
knew her relationship to Griffin by now; she’d just figured Alex would, too.
And it hadn’t occurred to her to say anything to him on their runs.

A delighted
smile spread across her face. “So he’s
jealous
? That’s so…great!”

Griffin
groaned. “I don’t pretend to understand you, Ellie. How about we get back to
the bigger problem?”

“Oh yeah!”
Ellie pulled her thoughts back to the more immediate issue. “I’ll take watch
tonight. You just spent all day out tracking.”

“Alright,”
Griffin agreed, tossing the chopped veggies into a sizzling pan. “I’m pretty
beat. It takes a lot of concentration to use your power continuously like
that.”

Ellie walked
over and wrapped her arms around her brother giving him a big bear hug. “Thank
you. I know you didn’t want to get involved originally. And I haven’t really
thanked you yet... So thank you.”

In typical
Griffin fashion, he gave her a brief hug back. “No problem,” he whispered.

As she started
her watch that evening in her falcon form, Ellie’s concern for the Jenners and
Pierces had her heading directly over to their property. She spent about an
hour circling the area looking for any sign of the wolves. Seeing nothing, she
decided to see if she could track them from the ground. She started with the
last place she and Griffin had spotted them.

As soon as she
arrived at the right spot, she blurred and shimmered, morphing from falcon to
jaguar. Once she settled into the shape of the massive black cat, she sniffed
the air…nothing. She sniffed again…still nothing. She shifted back into her
human form and continued to look around, oblivious to her close proximity to
the houses. She was crouched directly across a large field from the back of one
of the homes, when she looked up and saw Alex. He stood by a window, looking
her way.