Blue Violet - By Abigail Owen Page 0,48

pain if they didn’t have to.

Ellie and Griffin had been the only survivors. Ellie suspected two reasons behind their supposed luck. As adolescents their powers were still new and underdeveloped. So they would have been left for last, possibly even overlooked if they’d tried to hide. They hadn’t, though. They had done their best to try to help protect their family. But to no avail.

In the end they’d survived because of their combined powers. They had each discovered new powers that night, which is why Ellie suspected the wolves hadn’t been prepared for what happened.

Toward the end of the attack, after most everyone else was dead, Ellie and Griffin had been surrounded. Ellie had already discovered her ability to morph into her falcon form. But that night she’d discovered something new – usually, when she used other people’s abilities, the second she lost physical contact with them, she lost the access to that power. That night she learned that once she touched another metamorph she would always have access to that form, as if it were her own, even after the physical contact had been broken.

A huge black wolf had been circling them. As it lunged for Ellie, she’d held up her hands and touched it, immediately morphing into a wolf. The attacking creature had stumbled back in bewilderment. In the wolf form, Ellie had been able to hear all of the wolves, their thoughts, their memories. They truly were a pack, including their minds.

What she hadn’t realized was that the pull of that hive-like mind would immediately start to affect her. Metamorphs tended to take on some of the aspects of their morphic form. Consequently, some of the more predatory animals were harder to control as the metamorph battled between their humanity and their animalistic instincts. The wolf form, at least with the Vyusher, could start to completely take over. Ellie, still linked to the pack, had seen that some of the wolves hadn’t been in their human form in many, many years.

The large wolf had beckoned her to join them, and she’d started moving to comply. Griffin had saved her….and that moment was also when he learned he could project his defensive shield. He’d thrown it over both of them, keeping the wolves from getting anywhere near. Then he’d touched her, linking her to him, allowing her to use his power.

Ellie’s power manipulation at that time was so untutored that she couldn’t control it. The second she touched someone she was linked to them, tuned in to their power. Griffin had counted on that fact. She instantly started using his mind reading ability, and he had screamed her name. As if she was coming out of a fog, Ellie had pulled out of the wolf form.

In tandem, each reading the other’s minds, they’d both morphed into the falcon. Griffin kept the defensive shield around them as they escaped… flew as far away as they could before becoming physically exhausted. They’d been alone ever since.

Because of Ellie’s brief connection with the Vyusher community mind, she’d learned they only attacked large gatherings of people with powers. So she and Griffin had deliberately avoided others of their kind after that. As long as it was just the two of them, they wouldn’t be a target for the wolves. It’d stayed that way until Ellie had had her dream about the Jenners and Pierces.

Now she and Griffin were here with the people she’d seen in her dream. It seemed like forever ago. And the Vyusher were once again threatening their lives. If their incredibly powerful ancestors hadn’t been able to survive, how could just the two of them stand a chance of helping this family?

Feeling the mood shift uncomfortably around her, Ellie turned her focus away from her fears and to the last few months. Meeting the Jenners. Befriending them. Protecting them.

With a deep breath and mentally poking at Griffin to check that she hadn’t left out anything important, Ellie stopped projecting her thoughts into the other’s minds. She released Griffin’s hand before sinking into Alex’s arms. She shivered both from exertion and emotional upheaval.

No one spoke, trying to simply absorb and assimilate what Ellie had revealed.

“So let me get this straight…” Nate finally broke the silence. “You’re a gypsy princess?”

The incredulity in his expression made Ellie laugh and had everyone else chuckling with her as they all moved back to their original seats. Even Griffin. She suspected Nate had done it on purpose to lighten the mood, and it had worked.

“Out