Blue Violet (15 page)

“All safe. You
just concentrate on not dying on me.”

*****

Realizing that
he could talk to her now without distracting her, Griffin pulled slightly out
of his dive and thought her name.

“I’m still
here, Griffin
,” she answered him silently.

“I’m coming
to you, Ellie
.”

“No
!”
she protested. “
Protect the family first. If you can get to her, tell
Charlotte to come to me
.” She knew that Griffin would understand exactly
why she was asking for Charlotte.

*****

Alex watched
as Ellie closed her eyes again. She looked so pale and so much blood was
seeping from her body. He raged inside at his utter helplessness. There had to
be something else he could do.

“Ellie?” He
tried to get her to talk, keep her with him until Hugh could get to her.

“Griffin…” she
murmured. “No,” she said, a little louder. “Protect the family first.” She
mumbled something else unintelligible. She wasn’t making any sense.

Alex’s anxiety
level ratcheted up another few notches. Clearly Ellie was delirious. She was
losing too much blood, and she needed Hugh
now.
Alex tried harder to
stop the blood coming out of the gash in her leg, terrified he’d stop the wrong
part of her body. Jaw clenched, sweat dripped down his face with the effort, he
held on, praying she wouldn’t die.

*****

Griffin landed
between Ellie and the wolf pack and morphed back to a human. Starting with
Ellie and Alex, he threw his defensive shield up around everyone but the
wolves. This included the house, as he wasn’t sure who was where. This took a
tremendous amount concentration and control, as he had to split his shield into
several areas without allowing the wolves in.

With the small
amount of concentration he could afford to devote elsewhere, he mentally called
for Charlotte. He knew she had heard him as soon as he saw a small figure
appear beside his sister’s prone form.

*****

A deafening
silence fell over everything. All Alex could hear was Ellie’s labored breathing—like
she was inhaling liquid—and the thunder of his own heartbeat. Beside him, the
sound of a
pop
announced Charlotte’s arrival.

“Can you get
us back to the house?” he asked without looking up from Ellie.

“I don’t think
I can,” Charlotte’s voice trembled.

Ellie
fluttered her eyes open. “I can. Take my hand, both of you,” she instructed, so
weak her voice was barely audible. “Griffin can’t hold this many shields for
much longer.”

Sensing the
urgency, Alex and Charlotte didn’t bother with questions and both took her
hand. With a
pop
they were suddenly next to Dexter, Nate, and Ramsey.
The three, who had been fighting off the wolves, were now standing and looking
bewildered that the wolves didn’t seem to be able to touch them, even though
nothing visible was preventing them from doing so.

“Tell them
to grab hold,”
Ellie’s voice sounded in Alex’s head.

Never taking
his eyes from her face, although Alex could see she was getting noticeably more
fragile every second, he shouted the instructions to the others. As soon as his
brothers touched her, another
pop
sounded, and they were all inside the
house with everyone else.

“Now,
Griffin!” Ellie yelled, before slumping into Alex’s arms, slipping into
unconsciousness.

A horrendous
sound broke over the house, like a clap of thunder when lightning struck close.

And then
silence.

Griffin had held
onto his shields with difficulty. By the time Charlotte had reached Ellie, he’d
been physically shaking with the effort. As soon as he’d seen Ellie and the two
people with her disappear, he had finally been able to drop the shield around
them. He’d kept track of Ellie mentally as she’d appeared next to the group of
three guys who’d been fighting the wolves. It had taken only a second for them
to touch Ellie and then she’d disappeared again, allowing Griffin to drop the
second shield. All of the remaining people in the field had been making their
way quickly to the house where Griffin could feel Ellie had transported
herself.

Griffin had
backed up as he followed them. As he moved, Griffin had gradually manipulated
his shield. While still keeping the wolves at bay, he had slid the shield,
paper thin, under their unsuspecting paws, even slightly under the ground they
were standing on just to avoid their suspecting his actions.

 “Now,
Griffin!” he’d heard Ellie scream from inside the house.
She must be too
weak to use her powers to tell me mentally,
he’d realized.

With an
incredible jerk, creating a sound like thunder, he’d slammed the shield up in
the air like a giant catapult. The wolves had gone flying. Griffin, satisfied
that the immediate threat was handled, had turned and ran into the house.

*****

 “Give me some
space to work,” Alex heard Hugh quietly tell the others. He still hadn’t lifted
his eyes from Ellie’s face. As Hugh knelt beside her, Alex held her limp hand
between his own.

Come on,
baby. You’ve got to keep fighting
, he thought, trying to will her some of
his own strength.
You’re safe now. Just keep fighting to stay alive
.

 He was
vaguely aware of someone taking her other hand. Glancing up, he saw it was
Griffin, who looked almost as pale as Ellie. A stab of confusion pulsed through
Alex, but he pushed it aside. Instead, he turned his attention back to the girl
who’d somehow come to mean more to him than he’d ever realized.

What a time
to figure out that you’re in love with the girl
, he thought with wry
desperation.

Hugh continued
to work beside him, his face set in determination. It usually only took a few
minutes at most for Hugh to heal anything. That was his power…his gift. 
Ellie’s injuries were extensive, so naturally it would take more time. Alex let
go of her hand for a moment to cover her with a blanket. Everyone watched in
total silence as Hugh poured his healing energy into Ellie’s still form.

*****

Though no one
else could see it, Hugh saw a golden glow coming from Ellie’s body. It shown
brightest where she was the most injured. He moved his hands over that
concentration of light and poured his power into that area until the light
turned white. Then he would move on to the next brightest spot. Over and over
and over he did this, healing Ellie’s injuries one agonizing place at a time.

 “Hugh?”
Alex’s voice broke through Hugh’s concentration

“There’s a lot
to fix, Alex. She’s still with us. Give me some time.”

*****

At Hugh’s
words Alex fell silent. The tension in his voice told Alex and the others what
they needed to know, that Ellie was in very bad shape. Helplessly he stared at
the precious girl whose hand he still held. Alex leaned forward to whisper in
her ear. He didn’t know half of what he said to her. He talked mostly about how
she needed to fight, that she couldn’t leave him. Not now.     

*****

Ellie
gradually regained consciousness. At first, all she was aware of was a warm,
tingling sensation coursing through her body. As the lovely heat seeped through
her, she heard Griffin’s voice calling her name. Softly at first, and then
louder and louder.

“Stop
screaming at me, Griffin
,” she finally thought. That was when she became
aware that Griffin was beside her, holding her hand. She felt a great tension
leave his body when he heard her voice in his head.

“Welcome
back
,” was his hushed response. For her reserved brother, the wealth of
feeling in his voice said it all. Ellie still remained trapped in the warm
darkness of semi-oblivion. She couldn’t open her eyes or talk. She frowned in
concentration. Clearly Griffin had been worried about something.

“What
happened? Why can’t I open my eyes?”

Griffin stayed
silent so long that Ellie started to worry. A slight frown marred her brow. “
Don’t
force me to open my eyes and look at you, Griff
,” she attempted to tease.

“I see your
sense of humor has survived intact,” Griffin responded to his sister’s thoughts
aloud this time. He was relieved to see the slight curve to her lips indicating
her amusement. After watching for the past hour as his usually vital, vibrant
sister looked like a corpse, Griffin could forgive her anything at this moment.
Beside them, Alex’s head jerked up.

At the sound
of Griffin’s voice, Ellie became aware that Alex was also there, holding her
other hand, and that he’d been talking to her. And then she realized that she’d
been listening to him talk for some time. Her frown deepened as she tried to
remember his words. She had a feeling they were important.

“What do you
mean?” Alex asked Griffin.

Ellie also
became aware of the other voices in the room. They’d been there all along, but
she only now realized that as they all went silent.

“I can hear
her thoughts,” Griffin explained softly.

“Is she okay?”
Adelaide asked.

Ellie waited
impatiently for Griffin’s response, as curious as the rest of the room.

“Answer the girl,
Griff,” Ellie finally prodded him. Not wanting to be rude to the others in the
room, she managed to say her question aloud this time. She heard someone choke
back a laugh.

“I guess that
answers that,” Griffin murmured, amused, giving her hand a squeeze.

“Well, I’m
glad you’re satisfied, but I still don’t know what’s going on. And my eyes
still don’t want to open,” Ellie replied in a sleepy huff. Her speech was
slightly slurred and it felt like cotton wool was stuffed in her mouth.

“Feisty little
thing, isn’t she?” another voice in the room commented.

Just then,
Ellie became aware that she could control the warmth flowing through her body.
Concentrating on it, she forced it to become more intense. And then she felt
the hands on either side of her face jerk and realized someone other than
Griffin and Alex was touching her.

“What the heck
was that?” asked a voice above her head. It was calm and the speaker didn’t
take his hands away, but it was evident that he was slightly apprehensive.

“What?” Alex
and Griffin asked in unison.

“A tingly
feeling, similar to an electric shock, but sort of being pulled out of me,”
answered the detached voice.

“Ah,” Griffin
relaxed beside her. “She’s definitely healing if you’re feeling that,” he said
to Hugh. “One of Ellie’s gifts is the ability to use other people’s powers when
she’s touching them,” Griffin explained. “That tingly feeling is her accessing
your powers.”

“Just helping
you along a little,” Ellie piped up.

Ellie guessed
the unfamiliar voice must belong to Hugh, Lila and Adelaide’s father. Based on
the little she knew of him, and given the current situation, she had an idea
that his power was the ability to heal. She really was feeling so much better.
Her thoughts were getting much clearer as that warm, tingly feeling continued
to move and flow through her body. She now became fully aware of all the people
in the room. Tapping into Griffin’s power to read minds, she discovered that
the whole family was there.

“Just a few
more minutes,” Hugh murmured.

The room fell
silent for those few remaining moments it took the two of them to work in
tandem, healing the last of the wounds she’d sustained in her fight with the
wolf pack.

Wolf pack?
Ellie thought.
Why does that sound like something important…?

And in an
instant, everything came rushing back to her.

A small gasp
escaped her lips, and she struggled to open her eyes until she heard Griffin
reassure her, “It’s alright. Everyone is safe and the Vyusher are gone, Ellie.”

“What’s
wrong?” she heard Alex ask. 

“She just
remembered everything that happened.” Griffin’s calm explanation soothed the
room in general. To Ellie, he added, “We’ll go over everything once Hugh is
done fixing you.”

“That just
about does it,” Hugh finally pronounced, satisfied though weary. The room
stayed silent, and Ellie guessed they were all waiting for her to react in some
way. But she preferred to just lie here and not have to face everything. She
didn’t want to relive the fight. Nor did she particularly want to discuss with
these people who she and Griffin were, as well as the reason for the wolves’
attack.

“Come on,
lazy bones
,” Griffin gave her a mental prod, clearly amused at her thought
process.

“Get out of
my head, Griff
,” she responded.

With a
resigned sigh, Ellie opened her eyes and sat up gingerly. The first person she
looked at was Griffin, and the nightmare of what she’d just been through rushed
over her in waves. Griffin obviously followed her thoughts because she found
herself suddenly engulfed in a bear hug. “Don’t you ever do anything like that
again,” he ordered gruffly. “
I almost lost you there,”
he added
silently.

She hugged him
back.
“Love you, too.”

*****

Alex was
unsure what to make of the scene unfolding before him. Clearly Ellie and
Griffin had a close relationship, though just what the relationship was
remained unclear. Alex felt conflicted – on one hand, he was relieved Ellie was
better. But on the other, she was in the arms of another guy.

Who is this
guy
? Alex thought, as he realized that Ellie was still holding his own hand
tightly.
What is going on here?