Blue Violet - By Abigail Owen Page 0,16

ridiculous to feel this way…she’d barely spoken two words to him. But still, the tightening of her chest was hard to ignore.

She faked a smile and waved bye to Adelaide. Although the temptation to ask Adelaide about her brother poked at Ellie, she forced herself to remain quiet. She headed to her car, jumped in, and drove quickly down the road. She didn’t head straight home, taking some time first to get some errands done.

When Ellie got home and tromped up the stairs from the garage in the basement, she found Griffin in the kitchen making dinner. She dropped her backpack on the floor by the stools. “Hey, Griff, what’re we having?”

“Pork chops,” he replied.

“Mmmm… with your cherry sauce? My favorite! You trying to butter me up for something?”

Griffin gave her one of his rare grins. “Nope, just had all the ingredients on hand.”

Ellie went to stick her finger in the sauce for a taste, but got her hand playfully slapped as punishment.

“Were you listening in today?” she asked him, sneaking a taste anyway.

“A little,” he grunted. “Adelaide sure gets props for being able to get people to do exactly what she wants without their knowing.”

Ellie laughed. “Seriously… I am now officially part of her circle of friends without having to lift a finger or read a single mind.”

“I don’t think you have to worry that they suspect anything,” Griffin said. He turned back to the pork chops in the frying pan.

“Well, that’s something. Did you listen to any of the rest of their family today?”

Griffin shook his head. “No. I spent most of the day moving in and listening to you at school.”

Ellie hid her impatience. She wanted to know more about the others. Especially Alex. What was he like? What could he do? What had he thought about their encounter that morning? …Although she’d rather find that last bit out for herself.

Ellie started to set the table when her cell phone beeped, signaling a text message. With a small frown, she picked it up, and then almost dropped the phone. A text message from Alex blinked at her.

“Hi,” the message said.

“Hi, yourself. Chickening out on our run?” she messaged back.

“Lol. No. Still on for that.”

“Okay… what’s up?”

There was a pause long enough for Ellie to get nervous.

“Just wondering how your day was,” he eventually answered.

Ellie blinked. And a small ray of hope lit up inside her chest.

“Typical day in the life of a high school student. You? “

“Typical day in the life of a law office intern.” Another pause and then, “I’ll see you tomorrow at the crack of dawn.”

Ellie sent back a smiley face. “See you tomorrow.”

Chapter 10

Dinner was fairly quiet, with both Ellie and Griffin preoccupied with their own private thoughts. When she was done eating, Ellie gathered up the dishes and took them to the kitchen.

“Hey,” she called to Griffin, who merely grunted. “I’ve got to get out of the house. I’m going to go fly for a bit. Okay?”

Her favorite and strongest morph was that of a Peregrine Falcon, inherited through her grandfather. It wasn’t unusual for Ellie to spend some time each night in this form, she so loved the feeling of freedom and the power of soaring through the open sky.

Usually when she went flying, Griffin couldn’t care less. This time, however, he looked up at her with slightly narrowed eyes.

“You’re not going to go watch them, are you?” he demanded, moving around the bar and into the kitchen.

“As a matter of fact, I’m not.” Tempting as it was, she had no intention of going anywhere near the Jenners and Pierces tonight.

“…Because we agreed that I would do most of the watching right now since they don’t know anything about me, remember?” Griffin continued.

“I remember what we agreed to,” Ellie put her hands on her hips, her voice ringing with irritation. It drove her nuts when Griffin got on his superior soap box—like he was so much older than her, when really he was younger by ten whole minutes.

“Okay,” he finally relented. “Just so you keep to the plan.”

Ellie didn’t bother to reply. She headed out of the back of the house and trudged up the snow-covered hill and into the woods. As soon as she was camouflaged by the thick trees, she transitioned into her falcon form.

To any onlooker she would’ve appeared to blur before their eyes, shimmering like a mirage in a desert. There was no sound to accompany her transformation, and in mere moments a falcon appeared where Ellie