by Abigail Owen
“See? That wasn’t so hard to share, now was it?” he teased.
She just looked at him with a bland expression, but he still caught the slight twitch to her lips and his smile widened. Ellie tried her darndest to ignore what that grin did to her equilibrium.
“Ready for pizza? They sent me to get you.”
The change in topic came so suddenly, it took her a moment to catch up. “Oh! Are the others ready to leave?” She peeked at her watch. Sure enough, it was well past the time they’d agreed to stop studying and head to dinner. She was a little shocked. The evenings and nights often dragged for her, but the time here with her friends had flown by. Maybe that’s what she’d been missing. Griffin was wonderful, and they were very close, but she needed more companionship than just him.
Alex nodded. “They’re waiting for you.”
“Are you joining us?” She gathered her research results holding it all against her chest in a defensive posture.
“If you don’t mind.”
Ellie just shrugged. “Why should I?”
“I’ve taken about as much legal research as I can for one night.” He rolled his shoulders, easing some tension out of the bunched muscles. Her hands itched to smooth the knots out for him. She clenched them around her books instead, irritated by her completely irrational responses to this boy. “And I’m driving everyone back after dinner, so it makes sense,” he continued, thankfully unaware of her internal struggles.
“If you don’t like legal research, why are you studying to be a lawyer?”
“Did I say I didn’t like it?” It was Alex’s turn to be evasive.
Ellie tilted her head. “You didn’t have to.”
They stood there staring at each other for what was probably seconds but felt like a long while to Ellie. She didn’t need Griffin’s mind reading ability to know that she and Alex were thinking the same thing… that they seemed to be very in tune with each other. Even from the small amount of interaction they’d had, it was clear that they just got one another, saw things about one another that other people seemed to miss.
Sensing a dangerous connection being made, Ellie forced herself to execute a little half-turn to head down the aisle. Glancing back at Alex, she gave her head a little jerk. “Come on,” she said, “Let’s go get some pizza.”
After taking a moment to gather all their school gear, all five of them headed across the street and towards the downtown area. The pizza place was situated along the river walk. The area was gorgeous. Lots of quaint little shops that edged a rushing river. The mountain directly across the water was protected land and untouched, and currently covered in snow. Ellie couldn’t wait for early summer when everything would be green again and the wildflowers would come out.
As they neared the restaurant, she suddenly heard Griffin in her head. “Ellie?”
“I’m with the Jenners right now, Griff, can’t talk,” she thought back.
“You need to find an excuse to get out of there.”
Ellie noticed Adelaide giving her another of her odd looks and immediately smoothed her frown.
“What’s up?” she thought at Griffin, as she attempted to keep her expression neutral and carefree.
“I saw a small pack of wolves… possibly Vyusher. Three at most. I think we should try to follow them.” The urgency of the situation came through loud and clear.
“We’re about to eat pizza, Griff. What on Earth should I say? Where are you anyway?”
“I’m just down the street. It seemed like a good idea for us to do this together.” That sounded like her prudent brother.
“Okay…” Ellie’s mind raced. “Stay out of sight until we’re in the pizza place. Then call my cell phone. Make it sound urgent. I’ll meet you outside.”
“Alright,” came his quiet reply. Just like Griffin to not make a fuss or ask questions.
They were just sitting down inside the restaurant when Ellie’s phone rang. She made a bit of a show about checking the caller ID, frowning a little, and then answering it like she wasn’t sure what he would want. “Hi, Griffin.” She put a questioning lilt in her voice.
“I’m waiting outside.”
“I’m at that little pizza place downtown. You know along the river…” She made a little show of acting like he’d cut her off and widened her eyes. “Oh!” she injected with surprise. “You are?” She turned to look out the window and saw him standing there. She waved.
In her mind she told him, “Turn around and pretend like you’re talking some more,” and watched as her twin did just that.
She pretended to listen carefully. “Okay. Hold on, I’ll come out. Just a sec.”
She turned her attention back to the table to encounter four pairs of very curious eyes. She scrunched her face apologetically. “Sorry. I’ll be right back.” Getting up to leave she added, “Order me a Coke, please?” With that she hurried outside to her brother.
“Okay, Griff, they’re watching. They have no idea who you are or what you want with me. I’ll go back in after we talk for a second and tell them that I have to go home. Hopefully I can move fast enough that they won’t have time to ask questions. So make it look urgent.”
Griffin gave her a pointed look.
“Well,” Ellie amended, “As urgent as it really is, I guess.”
“There’re three of them,” Griffin started. “They were within about five miles of the Jenner and Pierce houses but headed that direction, so I’m guessing they’re much closer by now. I think they’re just checking things out. It seemed like a good idea to follow them together in case something does happen and we need to intervene.”
Ellie nodded gravely. “Good thinking. Let me go get my things and make an excuse to them. I’ll be right back.”
Griffin waited outside while Ellie ran back in.
“I’m so sorry,” she began, avoiding Alex’s intense gaze. “I’ve got to go home.”
“Who’s that?” Adelaide asked staring out the window.
Ellie glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, that’s just Griffin,” she dismissed airily, pretending not to see the confusion on Alex’s face. She hadn’t mentioned Griffin to him yet. Glancing around at her friends, something about the look on Adelaide’s face made Ellie debate whether or not the other girl could see the real relationship between Ellie and her brother. But she couldn’t deal with that right at the moment.
“Is anything wrong?” Lila asked, concerned.
“Umm… I don’t think so,” Ellie said, “Just a bit of a minor emergency it sounds like.” She swung her backpack onto her shoulder and grabbed her purse off the back of her chair.
She circled the table and gave Adelaide and Lila both hugs. “I had a lot of fun tonight, even if it was just homework…” She grinned. “We definitely have to do this again. Maybe next time I’ll actually get to eat.”
As she started to move away, Alex stood and caught her elbow. Bending down he murmured in her ear, “You’re being vague again, Elle. Everything really okay?”
Ellie could see true concern in his silvery eyes, and her heart warmed a little bit more toward him. “Everything’s fine,” she lied. “Still on for our run in the morning?” The worry didn’t ease from his eyes, but he let go and nodded.
“See you at school tomorrow,” she said to the rest of her friends, giving them a little wave. And then she headed for the door.
*****
“Do you know that guy?” Alex asked after Ellie left. He felt irritated with himself for the absurd twinge of jealousy he’d felt watching her talk to the golden-haired boy outside. Sheesh. He’d only just been dealing with those same feelings with the boy at the library. Twice in one night was borderline ridiculous. He couldn’t seriously act this way with every boy that talked to Ellie. He wouldn’t allow himself to be that insecure.
“Alex? What the heck? You run with her?” Nate’s voice broke into his thoughts. He’d forgotten for a second that his family didn’t know about his daily jogs with Ellie.
A
lex sighed and then proceeded to bring them up to speed.
“You know you can’t keep seeing her, Alex,” Lila said.
He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I know,” he agreed quietly. He’d known all along that pursuing that relationship would be a colossal mistake.
Adelaide was still looking at where Griffin and Ellie had been talking. She had a slightly perplexed expression on her face.
“What did you see?” Alex prompted.
She turned a reproachful look on her brother. “You know I’m not going to tell you. But it’s nothing dangerous, just… interesting.”
Alex shrugged and gave up. Adelaide was his sweet, quiet sister, but she could be darn stubborn when she wanted to be.
*****
Adelaide contemplated what she’d just experienced. She had the ability to see relationships between people… past, present, and future. She saw them as various colored bands of energy connecting individuals. Different colors and thicknesses meant different things.
And she was very confused by what she’d seen between Ellie and Griffin. She wondered why Ellie appeared to be lying to them.
Chapter 14
Now that Adelaide thought about it, Ellie didn’t really talk about her family, and any references she’d made to them were pretty ambiguous. She realized Ellie was elusive when it came to saying anything about herself. This fact didn’t really worry Adelaide, because of the developing strand of relationship she saw between Ellie and various people in Adelaide’s own family. But what did confuse her was Griffin. He and Ellie appeared to have the same relationship as she and Lila did. Relatives, definitely. Siblings, also definite. Twins, most likely. But if that was the case, Adelaide had a ton of questions. Like why wouldn’t Ellie have told them about him? Why was she being so secretive about something that should be so innocuous? And why wasn’t he in school?
Adelaide decided she’d talk with Lila about it later and see if she’d picked up on anything odd. Lila’s gift was the ability to see if people were being truthful or not, and they would often compare their combined observances. She and Lila had no secrets from each other. Based on the future relationships she could see between Ellie and Griffin and herself, as well as with the other members of her family, Adelaide knew she’d find out in time. For now, she’d give Ellie the benefit of the doubt that she had a good reason for not saying anything. And while she waited on Ellie, maybe she and Lila would be able to figure it out and help move things along.
*****
Ellie only breathed a sigh of relief when she and Griffin made it all the way back to the library without incident. They hopped in her car and drove it home, just in case they were being watched. It would be pretty awkward if one of the Jenners or Pierces saw her car still parked there later.
Once they were safely at the house, Ellie and Griffin rushed inside and opened the window in her bedroom. It provided the most privacy and would allow them to enter and exit relatively undetected – hopefully. Griffin tapped into Ellie’s power and together brother and sister each morphed into the peregrine falcon form, one inky black and one golden. Then they took flight.
The falcons made a striking pair as they wheeled in unison and headed to where Griffin had spotted the wolves. They scouted from the air, flying in ever-widening circles, and still had no visual sighting of the pack.
“Let’s try their tracks,” Griffin’s voice sounded in Ellie’s mind.
Together they swooped into a great dive, flaring their wings at the last second and shimmering back into human form as they landed. They immediately found the tracks. Ellie quickly morphed into the form of a great, midnight black jaguar.
As a jaguar, she used her hunting instincts to try to find the wolves. But the ominous clouds that had been circling above now rolled in over the mountains. A light snow began to fall, making tracking extremely difficult. Finally, the scent and the lead abruptly ended. As if they’d disappeared midstride.
She morphed back into a human. Having followed her thoughts, Griffin did the same.
“Well, either someone in their group is a teleporter who is strong enough to transport others with them, or they can all morph like you do and they took flight,” Griffin said.
Ellie shook her head, grim. “We’ve never known of anyone else with multiple forms. We’re only about a mile from the Jenner and Pierce houses. They’re getting awfully close.” She wrapped her arms around her body in a feeble attempt to ward off the biting cold.
Griffin furrowed his brow. Leaning down he traced one paw print with the tip of his finger. “You think they’re testing the situation? Seeing how close they can get with no one noticing?”
Ellie bit her lip and nodded. “That’s what it seems like. But if the wolves you saw are Vyusher, wouldn’t they already know everyone’s powers in those houses? Why would they need to test anything?”
“I’m not sure,” he replied, standing back up. “When I saw them earlier, I tried to listen in…but as wolves, the pack mind really takes over. I had difficulty making sense of any of it. That’s the closest I could come to any kind of explanation. It was…” Griffin searched for a word. “Recon… of some sort.”
Ellie shivered and Griffin added, “They’re long gone now. It’s freezing out here. Let’s go home.”
When Ellie got back to her bedroom, she saw she had a text message from Alex:
“Can’t make it in the morning. Sorry to flake. See you later.”
Ellie shook off a feeling of disappointment. If Alex couldn’t make it, he’d have a good reason.
After school Friday, Ellie headed home to get ready for her night out with her friends. It was only the movies, but still, she could sometimes be a girly-girl and wanted to look nice. The theater was situated in the shopping center just below the Stanley Hotel. Ellie adored the old hotel that had been built by the maker of the Stanley steam engine many years before. It was also the hotel the novel The Shining had been based on.
The setting was idyllic. Mountains rose up behind the gleaming white buildings with their red tile roofs, and she could easily imagine holding a beautiful wedding there. Suddenly, an image of Alex popped in her head…his charming but slightly goofy smile, strong arms, eyes that crinkled around the corners when he laughed. The way he listened to her with total focus, like she was the most interesting person on the planet. The way his laugh made chills run up her spine. She’d missed his company on her run the last few mornings. More than she wanted to admit.
Brian had caught her coming out of calculus earlier that day and offered her a ride to the movies. Since they both lived in Carriage Hills, Ellie accepted. She knew he was going to ask her on a date, just the two of them this time. But this worked out anyway. It would give her the chance to establish their boundaries as just friends.
“Explain to me why you’re going out with these high school kids again,” Griffin said. He was leaning in the doorway of her bathroom watching as she primped.
“I do happen to be in high school, Griffin,” she said. She put down the curling iron and fluffed out her hair.
“But you’ve never done this before,” he complained, gesturing to the abundance of grooming paraphernalia scattered around the bathroom. Ellie grinned as she got up and grabbed her jacket and purse.
“I’ve never had to before, and it always seemed safer to stay in the background. But I have to admit it’s kind of nice to spend time with people other than my brother.” She poked her index finger in the center of his chest.
“Hey!”
Laughing, she hugged him to take the sting out of her words. “You know I love you. But it’s been just us for such a long time. Do you remember when we had family? A whole clan of people around us? It’s just nice to have something a little bit like that again. That’s all.”
“Yeah,” he grumbled. “I guess I get it.”
“Tell you what,” she cajoled. “At our next place, you can go to college and you get to have the friends.”
“I’ll hold you t
o that,” he said, finally smiling back.
Brian knocked on their front door right on time.
Chapter 15
Griffin deliberately made himself scarce, heading back to his own bedroom before she opened the door. It was just easier not to have to try to defend their relationship until they had to, despite having had years to rehearse the plausible story they used when questioned.
“I’d invite you in,” Ellie greeted Brian, “but no one else is home, and I’m not allowed to have friends here on my own.”
Brian smiled and held out a hand. “That’s okay,” he said, taking her arm. “We need to get going anyway.”
He acted the perfect gentleman, escorting her to the car and opening the door for her. Ellie hadn’t been on many dates, but knew that she did like old-fashioned manners, and appreciated Brian’s attempts at chivalry.
Almost as soon as they started driving, he turned to Ellie and said, “Maybe sometime, just the two of us? Like a date?”
“Wow, Brian,” she stammered, trying to sound both surprised and sincere. “That’s so nice of you to ask me. I’m really flattered. Really.”
“I hear a ‘but’…” He sounded resigned but somewhat amused. Ellie felt relieved. Brian seemed to be a very confident guy. Her rejection was not likely to do much damage to his ego or his feelings.
“Well, there’s someone else…” she trailed off suggestively. As she said it, an image of Alex worked its way into her mind. She mentally shooed it away.
“In Texas?” Brian asked, hitting his turn signal as they came up to a stop sign.
“Mmmm…” He could take that as confirmation if he wanted to. She wouldn’t correct him.
“He’s a lucky guy,” Brian finally muttered after a long moment of silence.
Ellie gave a little laugh. “Well it’s nice of you to say so.” She gave him a sideways look. “Friends?”