Ella Awakened (22 page)

“Then I’ll
show him.  He won’t be able to argue with my new abilities.”

Burke turned
to face Ella.  What could he say to make her understand that sharing this kind
of secret with one person was one person too many?  He walked back over to her
and knelt in front of her again.  “What if Jeremy slips and tells someone else? 
Where is this going to stop?  Will you want to tell your aunt and uncle about
all of this, not to mention Sarah?  You never know how someone’s going to take
that kind of information or what they’ll do with it.”

“I
completely trust him Burke, and no I’m not going to tell anyone else.  I’m not
worried about Aunt Rachel and Uncle Ben right now.  They won’t be home from
Alaska for over two weeks and hopefully by then it won’t be an issue anyway. 
Jeremy has the right to know his life is in danger, and he’ll be better able to
protect Sarah if he knows.  Besides, they’re all gonna figure out eventually
that something’s going on when I don’t age like everyone around me.”

“Okay, let’s
say you do tell him.  Then what?  It’s not really going to make him any less
vulnerable is it?”

Ella finally
let go of the chair arms.  She studied her hands in her lap for a moment before
reaching up with one of them and touching Burke’s face.  “I don’t know.  I’m
still working on it; I was hoping we could figure the rest out together.  Burke,
he’s more than my cousin.  He’s my brother.  We were raised together.  I can’t
let anything happen to him.  I love him as much as you loved Willow.  You can’t
tell me that you wouldn’t have done
anything
to keep her safe.”

Burke took
her hand from his cheek and kissed it.  “We’ll tell him, Hutsool.  But we’ll
tell him together, and if he freaks out he’s not leaving this house until I
figure out what to do about it.  Now come inside and eat something.  Jeremy and
Sarah will be back tomorrow, and we need to decide how we’re going to go about
this.”