by S. E. Duncan
“I wouldn’t have made it through without your help, thank you,” she said sincerely.
“I’m just glad it’s done. So tell me how you’re feeling now.”
“I never knew I could feel this way. It’s kind of hard to describe. It’s as if I’ve just come alive. Like before I was walking around in a daze, or a fog, or sleepwalking. My senses are all so different. It’s like I just got glasses and I was hearing from underwater before. Was it like this for you, your awakening?”
“Yes, though probably not as extreme a difference. I was never human. But even the change from common folk was incredible. You’re able to pick up on things and do things you may have only imagined in your dreams, but now you aren’t dreaming - you’re awake. That’s how it has been described for generations. I guess that’s why we call it an awakening.”
“Yes! That’s it exactly!” Ella agreed. “I think I’d like to go for a run. I feel like I need to stretch my legs after lying around for so long.”
“I would tag along, but you probably want to push yourself and I don’t want to slow you down. Anyway, I have a few things I need to take care of around here.”
“I won’t be long,” Ella told him.
“Please, just be careful,” Burke said. “The property borders a wildlife reservation along the back. If you head that way you can go for miles with virtually no risk of being seen. You’ll really be able to push yourself and get used to your speed. You may not get a signal anyway, but I’d feel better if you took your phone. And Ella,” Burke reached across the table and took her hand. “Happy Birthday. I have something for you, but it can wait until you get back.”
“Thanks,” Ella said and gave his hand a squeeze before getting up from the table to go change.
~~
Dressed in light blue calf-length running pants and a fitted white sports top, Ella headed towards the woods from the back of the house. Burke couldn’t help but watch her leave through the kitchen window. Dear Mother of All, he was happy she was headed out into a secluded area dressed like that and not into public. Very little of her toned curvaceous body was left up to the imagination. She had been an attractive young woman before the awakening, but the changes to her muscle tone sure weren’t hurting anything. She was firm, lean, and cut. Not to mention his best friend’s daughter. Not that he thought James would care. As a matter of fact, he would probably want Ella to be with someone he trusted. Hell, age had never meant on his world what it meant here. Technically he was only three or four years older than her. Ugh, what in the world was he going to do? Nothing stupid, that was for sure. He was absolutely not going to scare her off. He’d kissed her that morning. Man! He’d just been overwhelmed that she was… well alive, to be honest. Maybe she’d let that one go. Obviously they were important to each other. Look what they’d just been through together, for the love of God. Shit. He was going to have to practice a little more self-control.
~~
At first Ella took it easy, just enjoying the feeling of being on her feet again. After the first mile or so, she decided to see just exactly what her new body was capable of. Her excitement mounted as she ran faster and faster. She felt like her feet were barely touching the ground; she was almost gliding along. Maneuvering around trees and obstacles required very little thought; it was instinctual. After sprinting further than she probably realized, Ella slowed down a little so she could enjoy her surroundings. It was gorgeous country out here. Seemingly untouched by man, there were huge hardwood trees and flowering shrubs mixed in with the towering pines. She came to a deep ravine some fifty plus feet across. She hesitated, took a few steps back, then ran toward the ravine and jumped. Ella landed in a crouch on the other side. She turned, looked over her shoulder and smiled.
Ella walked and looked around; her eyesight picked up on the slightest movements. She found if she concentrated she could focus in on details with incredible clarity. She heard a woodpecker off to her right. Looking in the direction of his pecking, she caught sight of the movement of his head. Even though the bird was quite high up in the tree, when she focused she could make out the most intricate details of its feathers. This was almost unbelievable.
Ella ran on. She reveled in the way it felt to push herself. She came to a stream and ran along it opposite the way the water was moving. Soon, the water widened and she found herself standing at a pool that a picturesque waterfall poured into. Ella walked to the edge of a large rock that jetted out over the pool and sat down. The water was incredibly clear, and she could see small, fat fish jetting in and out from under the rock. She lay on her stomach, letting her hands hover over the surface of the water. Lightning fast, she grabbed a fish about as long as her palm. She laughed out loud, then put her hand back in the water and let it go. Ella felt like a child. Everything seemed like a new experience. She sat up, took her shoes off, and dangled her feet in the water. She couldn’t recall ever feeling this good - this alive.
She had always loved to run. She’d even lettered in track in high school but this, what she’d just experienced, was incredible. It was like nothing she had ever imagined. She wondered exactly how much her mother had known about her father. It would be some kind of hard not to share this with someone you loved. She searched her childhood memories, but couldn’t recall anything out of the ordinary. She’d had absolutely no idea that her dad had been different. There wasn’t even the slightest incident that a child’s imagination could have run with.
Ella’s thoughts turned to Burke and the things she had seen him do. She knew they were different. He’d told her there were warriors, healers, and common folk. She recalled him telling her that even the common folk from his world would have a considerable advantage over a human when it came to speed and strength. She knew he was strong and fast, but he had said not as strong or fast as she was now. Sometimes she thought he was selling himself a little short though, with all this talk of her being faster and stronger. She had started out half human; did that change anything?
Anatomy and medicine came naturally to him, especially herbal medicine. He’d probably make one heck of a doctor or even surgeon. Although he had to be careful with displaying his abilities, just as she would now too, she supposed. He could tell how someone died by touching them. She wasn’t really sure how that worked. Did he actually see what happened or just know somehow? He said he had touched Jill and known how she had died. Didn’t he mention at some point that he could actually relive someone’s last moments from a touch? What in the world was that all about? Maybe she heard him wrong or misunderstood; she had been pretty out of it during some of their first conversations. She still had a lot of questions. Yesterday she had been in so much pain she was becoming delirious then he had laid his hands on her. Glowing hands. She’d been close to death, at least she thought so, and he had brought her back.
Some questions she knew she would probably never ask. Like how he felt about her. What exactly was she to him? He had kissed her this morning. What did that mean? Was it an OMG you’re alive, now we can save the world together kiss? Or was it an OMG I was so worried I was going to lose you, and I think I’m falling for you kiss? She still needed to sort out for herself exactly what she felt for him. She knew one thing though, for her that kiss had been both surprising and wonderful. She closed her eyes and remembered how his lips had felt on hers. Incredibly soft, warm, and tender. His lips had been only slightly parted, full and moist. He’d caught her off guard pressing them to her mouth, and then ever so slightly pulling at her lower lip. It had been the perfect first kiss between them. First kiss between them? Did that mean she wanted more? Okay - dash it all- she wanted more. I mean just look at him. He was incredibly gorgeous and sexy, not to mention the fact that he had just spent the last few days devoting his undivided attention towards making sure she was all right.
Surely all of that attention wasn’t solely so she could help him with the Demon, or worse yet, because she was the only one of his kind on this planet. It was obviously possible fo
r someone like him to fall in love and be perfectly happy with a human. After all, her father had done just that. For all she knew, he did have someone else in his life. I mean let’s face it, she had known him for less than a week and she only knew what he had told her. Hell, she didn’t even know his last name! She was allowing herself to get upset and frustrated. Really, she thought shaking her head, are you going to get this worked up over some guy you’ve known less than a week? It appeared that she was.
Ella stood up, took off her shirt and pants, and dove into the chilly water wearing only her bra and panties. It was exhilarating. She swam over to where the water was crashing down and let it beat on her neck and shoulders. After a few minutes she returned to the rock and lifted herself out to lie in the sun. She was startled out of a rather juicy Burke daydream when her phone unexpectantly rang. “I can’t believe I’m getting a signal out here,” she said aloud. She rooted around in her pants pocket for her phone.
“Hello?” she answered.
“It’s me,” Burke said. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine. I was just thinking about heading back.”
“Do you have any idea where you are or how for you ran?” he asked.
Ella sat up and looked around. “Well right now I’m sitting on a rock that jets out over a pool by a waterfall.”
“Really? If you’re where I think you are, that’s about fourteen miles from here! That’s excellent Ella; you’ve only been gone a little over an hour.”
“I’ll check the GPS on my phone.”
“So I’ll see you in an hour or so?”
“Sure, I’ll see you soon,” Ella was about to hang up then - “Wait! Burke are you still there?”
“Yes, I’m still here.”
“I was just wondering what your last name is.”
“It’s Gellar.”
“Gellar. I’d just realized that you never mentioned it. I’ll see you soon, Burke Gellar.” Ella hung up her phone. Well, she thought, that’s one mystery solved and only about a hundred left to go.
She checked the GPS on her phone. He was right; she had come just over fourteen miles. She wasn’t even tired. She was mostly dry, so she put on her clothes and started heading back. It was intriguing that she just knew the way. Her uncanny sense of direction must be another perk.
~~
When Ella returned from her run, she entered the house through the back door. There sat Burke, waiting for her with a cake and two wrapped packages on the kitchen table.
“Happy Birthday, Ella!” he exclaimed.
“Wow,” Ella couldn’t seem to get this ridiculously huge grin off her face. “Did you bake me a cake?” she asked incredulously.
“I told you I had a few things to do, and this was one of them.”
There was a single candle on top of the cake. Burke motioned for Ella to have a seat at the table then lit a match and held it to the candle. “In honor of your first day as a warrior,” he said.
He broke out into an adorable, if off key, chorus of “Happy Birthday To You”. Ella giggled, and after the torture to her new acute sense of hearing was over, she blew out the candle.
“Cake first or presents?” Burke asked. He tossed the used match into the sink and opened a cabinet to get out two plates.
“Hold on a second,” Ella said. “Please don’t take this the wrong way at all, but it’s almost noon now and I really need to get home soon. It’s family tradition that we go out to dinner for birthdays, and Aunt Rachel has made plans for us today. I’ve sent her a couple of elusive texts over the past few days, but if I miss tonight I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do. Very difficult explaining, if you know what I mean. This,” Ella gestured towards the cake and gifts, “is wonderful, but we need to decide what we’re going to do now.”
Burke set the plates on the counter then leaned against it. “It’s okay, I completely understand. We can continue this tonight when you get back.”
“I’m not sure I’ll be able to come back tonight. I mean, what am I going to tell them? They know I took the summer off. Up to this point they think I’ve been hanging out with friends and crashing in the room with Sarah, but the plan was for me to come home for the summer. Aunt Rachel owns a little gift shop and I was supposed to work there some. She and Uncle Ben trust me and all, but I’m going to have to give them some explanation if I’m changing plans. It’ll need to be good too. They’ve never had reason to doubt my word, and I’d rather not give them cause to now. I get it that I probably shouldn’t tell them what’s happened, at least not right now anyway, but I’m not sure what exactly I should say.”
Burke knew the - you’re twenty now, you’re an adult - argument wasn’t going to work here. Ella was very close to her family. She and Rachel had more than an aunt/niece, or even mother/daughter relationship. Sure, legally she could hit the road, but that just wasn’t going to happen. There wasn’t a whole lot about Ella that Burke didn’t know. He knew there had been a sizable settlement from her parent’s accident, not to mention the fact that their estate had been worth a nice amount on top of that. He also knew that Rachel and Ben were doing more than fine financially, and that Ella’s inheritance hadn’t been touched. They had always taken care of Ella and treated her like she was their own daughter. They were paying for her college, and he figured that gave them some right to a reasonable, if not exactly truthful, explanation.
“There’s no way they can know about the awakening,” he finally said. “Right now that would just put your whole family in danger. What would they do with the knowledge that you now have superhuman powers, and you and some guy you just met are going to kill a Demon from another world?”
“Well, when you say it like that it just sounds nuts,” Ella smiled.
“Right. Best case scenario they have you committed; worst case scenario they still have you committed.” Burke returned her grin. “How about this: you applied for a couple of summer internships a few months ago, but nothing really panned out. You’re a science major; tell them an internship came available at the Office of the Medical Examiners. Just say the person who had originally gotten the spot backed out for some reason. Tell them you need to get back here tonight because you start tomorrow.”
“How did you know I had applied for internships?” Ella asked.
“Come on now Ella, I told you I’ve been keeping an eye on you for the past ten years. Does it really blow your mind that I knew about the internships?” Burke asked.
“Not really, I guess,” Ella replied. “I just feel a little bit at a disadvantage. I know so little about you.”
“I’m sorry it had to be that way. It doesn’t have to be that way now, though.”
Again with the cryptic, Ella thought. She wished she could get a better read on what exactly he meant when he said things like that. There was no way she was willing to make an idiot out of herself by jumping to conclusions. “I guess that’ll work, but what if they want to know where I’m staying?”
“Tell them you just got offered the internship, and you figured you’d hang out with Sarah for a few days. Tell them you plan on seeing if any of your friends who live off campus need a roommate for the summer. Maybe we can tell them I’m renting you a room.”
“I don’t think Aunt Rachel would be too thrilled about me renting a room from you.”
“Why not?” Burke asked.
Ella just stared at him and raised her eyebrows.
“Oh,” Burke said.
“Yeah, oh,” Ella repeated.
“Just stick with the internship story to buy us some time; we’ll work the rest out later. It’s like you said, they trust you and you’re an adult. Do you really think they’ll look hard into what you tell them?” Burke asked.
“Not really,” Ella replied. “The internship is a good idea; will we actually be able to back it up if we need to?”
“Don’t worry about that, I’ll take care of it.”
“Great, we have a story. I’m going to
hop in the shower and head home. I’ll be back tonight, but I’m not sure exactly what time it’ll be. I’ll call you when I’m on my way. I’m sure you know the drive takes just over an hour.” She couldn’t help but tease a little.
“Terrific, then it’ll be cake and presents tonight. I’ll let you get going.” Burke busied himself in the kitchen, and Ella headed to the bathroom to get cleaned up.
After she was showered and dressed, Burke took Ella to campus to get her car. Once she was on her way, he headed home himself. He wasn’t exactly thrilled she was leaving, but he knew she needed to take care of family things. He hadn’t told her about the second victim yet. She was probably safer than anyone else on the planet right now with her strength. Even if she wasn’t comfortable enough to attack, she should have no problem defending herself. Warriors were always at their most powerful just after their awakening. The Demon probably wouldn’t hunt again for at least a few days. Then again, Burke had been surprised at the short time between Jill and the second victim. Besides, he just wasn’t willing to take any chances with Ella’s safety. He had lost too much in his life already. He turned his truck around to follow her.
Ella hadn’t gotten much of a head start, but Burke was still pleasantly surprised when he saw her car up ahead a short time later. He eased off the accelerator and stayed several cars behind so as not to draw attention to himself. He wasn’t sure how she’d feel about him following her, and in truth it made him feel a little guilty. He had already concluded without a doubt that Ella was independent. He didn’t want his concern for her to be perceived as him considering her weak. It was just that she hadn’t seen or experienced the things he had, and until the Demon was defeated it was better to be overly cautious. He thought of his little sister and squeezed the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.
~~
Willow had been Burke’s only sibling; she’d been six years younger than him. Burke had awakened only a year before the Demon attacks had begun. Burke’s mother, Zera, had been a healer, as had both of her parents. His father, Reid, had been one of the common folk. His dad was the most sought after carpenter in the village.