Ella Awakened (12 page)

Ella pulled
his face up and kissed him again.  She ran her tongue along his jaw line as she
pulled at his belt.  Frantic to be free of the only thing between them, Burke
took off what remained of his dripping cloths and threw them aside.  Ella
pushed him onto his back and let her fingers lightly dance over the velvet skin
of his shaft.  He was more than ready for her.  She straddled his thighs and
leaned forward to share with him the exquisite torture he had just put her
through.  Slowly, she ran her tongue from base to tip then took him into her
mouth as her fingers ran light circles on his still wet skin.  Ella reveled in
the knowledge of his enjoyment.  His soft moans joined the chorus of the
waterfall.  She paused and kissed the sensitive spot where his leg joined his
hip before climbing on top of him and taking him into her.  Slowly but
rhythmically moving her hips, she leaned down to kiss him again.  Burke could
wait no longer.  Holding her against him he rolled her over and thrust deeper,
needing to fill her up, wanting to claim every inch of her for himself.  She
rose up to meet each thrust until they crested together and collapsed holding
each other.  Ella’s body continued to shudder against Burke.  As she lay curled
against him with her head on his chest, it was hard to tell where she ended and
he began.

~~

Ella knew
without a doubt that her heart was lost to him.  She had never imagined that
she could feel this deeply for someone.  It was as if he had been in possession
of a part of her, something she hadn’t even known was missing, but now that
she’d discovered it she couldn’t live without it.

~~

Burke didn’t
want to let go of Ella,
not ever.
  He would happily spend the rest of
his life lying on this river bank holding her against him. 
This is it
,
he thought, this is what he had heard about growing up, and he had finally
found it.  She was his soul mate - his gift from the Mother of All.  He had
resigned himself to a life alone on this planet.  The realization that it
didn’t have to be that way was overwhelming.

He hated it
that this wonderful gift came at a time of such incredible danger.  There was
still so much she didn’t know about their world, their people, and what she
was.  He was trying so hard not to bombard her with too much information at
once.  He was torn.  Part of him wanted to lay it all out for her, to tell her
that he thought – no, he
knew
– that they shared two halves of one
heart.  He wanted to tell her that the Mother of All meant for them to always
be together.  Another part of him wanted to put her on a plane and send her as
far away as possible.  He wanted her to be safe.  He had no idea how they were
going to defeat the Demon and for him, the stakes had just gone up so much
higher.

Ella didn’t
want to move.  Even though they were lying naked on river rock, she was
surprisingly comfortable.  Her cell phone, however, seemed at odds with her
plans to stay put.  She gave a little huff as it started ringing for the second
time.

“How in the
world am I even getting a signal out here?” she groaned.

“It’s me,”
Burke lightly ran his fingers down her back.  “I’m like a walking cell phone
tower.  You’ll always get a signal with me around.  It has something to do with
the slight electrical charge that runs through a healer’s body.”

“Electrical
charge… glowing hands… that’s how you saved me the last day of my awakening,
isn’t it?” she lifted her head off his arm to look at him.

“Right, I’m
like your own personal AED,” Burke laughed.  “We can’t
throw
a charge or
anything; I had to be touching you.  It also helps if the healer is a little
worked up.  There’s a direct relationship between the amount of adrenaline and
the strength of the charge we’re capable of releasing.  Needless to say, I was
worked up when you started convulsing.”

“How about
just now, were you releasing a charge when we… you know?” Ella bit her lip; she
couldn’t help but tease him just a little bit.

“Made love? 
If it worked like that Ella, I would have electrocuted you – I was that worked
up.” He laughed, enjoying her flirting.

Ella’s cell
phone started ringing for a third time.

“Why don’t
you go ahead and answer that,” Burke said giving her a little pat on her
bottom.

He watched
as she stood up and saucily promenaded over to their discarded clothes. 
Settle
down,
he told himself.  He listened to her side of the conversation. 
Normally he would have been able to hear the person on the other end of the
line perfectly clear, but Ella had turned her volume down to a very low
setting, which was more comfortable for her since her awakening.  Ella didn’t
say much; whoever was on the other end of the line was doing most of the
talking.  He didn’t know what was going on, but whatever it was she wasn’t
happy about it.  He got up to get dressed himself as she started jerkily
pulling her clothes on.

“What’s
wrong?” he asked before pulling his shirt over his head.

“Remember
that little problem about where I was going to live while I worked as an
intern?”  Ella turned in a circle looking around.  “Where the heck’s my other shoe?”

“You mean
where you were going to tell your Aunt Rachel you were going to live?”  He
picked up his wet shorts and saw Ella’s – now soaked – shoe.  “Oops” he
muttered as he handed it to her.

“Yes.” She
took the shoe, grimaced, and then put it on.  “Well anyway, that problem has
been solved for me.”  Ella stomped off through the woods towards the house.

“Wait a
minute,” Burke called.  He hurriedly tied his boot and ran after her.  “What
are you talking about?” he asked when he caught up.

“My aunt was
concerned about where I was going to live while I worked at your office.  That
was her on the phone calling to tell me about her exciting solution.  My cousin
Jeremy went to school for a couple of years at the community college close to
our house.  His grades in high school weren’t that great and he needed to get
himself together.  Well, he just finished his associate’s degree and guess
what?  He’s been accepted to the university here.  Aunt Rachel and Uncle Ben
talked it over and decided it would be less expensive to rent a small two
bedroom apartment for Jeremy and me rather than pay for us to live on campus,
not to mention solve the summer housing dilemma.  Jeremy got a summer job here
in town so it’s all set.  He’s moving his things as we speak, and Aunt Rachel
has been looking for me all afternoon.”  Ella kicked a small pile of leaves.

Burke
grabbed her hand to stop her and spun her around.  “You can’t possibly be
serious?”

“Oh, I’m
serious.”

“So where
exactly are you going now?”

Ella turned
and started walking again.  “To meet my family at the apartment, get the key,
and make a show of unpacking my things.”

“Then what?”
he called, trotting to catch up with her.

“Then, I
guess I’ll be sneaking around Jeremy.  Luckily he’s awesome and more than a
little sneaky himself.  I just hope he doesn’t start any of his protective
bullshit.”

“Protective
bullshit?”

“You know,
big brother stuff – towards you.  How old do people think you are anyway? 
You’re a medical examiner.  Doesn’t that take at least twelve years of school? 
After your bachelor’s, there’s med school, then a four year residency program
in medical pathology.  Not to mention you’ve been with this department how many
years?”  Ella narrowed her eyes in thought as she talked.

“I know, I
know, don’t you think I have to take all of that into consideration with my
youthful good looks?” Burke laughed, trying to make Ella feel better.  “Here’s
the official story: I am a genius.  I graduated high school at sixteen with
over a year of dual credit classes and CLEPped out of the other gen-ed crap.  I
had my BS by eighteen, was done with med school by twenty-two, did a three year
residency instead of four, and I’ve been with this department for two and a
half years.  That would make me twenty-seven.  I actually work for Carl, though
you’d think it was the other way around.”

“People
actually buy that?”  She looked at him sideways.

“I told you
before, love, I have paperwork and references to support it.  We’ll see how
creative you are in about a hundred years when you look like you’re thirty.” 
He spun in front of her and gave a little bow.

“Hopefully
it won’t come up anytime soon,” she said, ignoring his last comment.  “But if
it does, I guess a seven year age difference isn’t that big a deal.  Especially
with you being so accomplished and all.” she smiled and then curtseyed – not
wanting to be a complete stick in the mud.

Burke pulled
Ella into his arms and held her close.  “Is it official then?  Are we
together?”

Ella was
taken aback for a second.  Then she gave him a quick kiss before shoving him
away.  “Don’t push your luck,” she laughed.

“No
seriously,” Burke pulled her to him again.  “With all of this ‘I’m at a little
bit of a disadvantage with you knowing so much about me and me knowing so
little about you’ stuff you mentioned yesterday.  I want you to know I am
neither seeing any one other than you nor attached in any way.”

Ella kissed
Burke’s neck.  “Thank you for telling me,” she whispered.

They started
walking again, only this time they were holding hands.

“Speaking of
telling me things - do I have a photographic memory?” Ella asked after they’d
walked a little ways in silence.

“I don’t
know, do you?”  He looked at her quizzically. 
Where’s she going with this?

“Well I
never did before, but since the awakening it seems like I can remember
everything with incredible detail.”  She told him about the things she had
remembered and experienced while she was tracking him, and about how she
discovered her mind could manipulate the images like with the rock and maple tree. 
She left out the fact that she’d gone a half mile out of her way.  “But it’s
only memories from
after
the awakening.  Since that hasn’t been very
long, I was wondering the extent of it.  You know, fifty years from now will I
be able to recall things from today with the same clarity?”

“I certainly
hope so,” Burke suggestively wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

“Can you be
serious for five seconds here?” Ella asked, teasingly shoving him.

“What you’re
describing to me isn’t something that all warriors can do.  Sometimes - though
it’s rare - a warrior or healer will awaken with an extra gift or talent.  Your
memory sounds fascinating and highly useful.  Only time will tell the extent of
it.”

“I guess
I’ll never lose my keys again,” Ella joked taking his hand again.  “I was
trying to focus in on the Demon’s face from the library, but like I said I
can’t remember things from before the awakening with that much clarity.”

“It wouldn’t
matter anyway.  I’ve seen him many times through other people’s eyes, remember? 
When he takes a victim he can use some of that energy to change his appearance
if he wants to.  He doesn’t always look the same, though so far he’s always
been male, about five foot ten inches tall, and I’d say a hundred and sixty
pounds.  It’s his face that changes.”

“My God,
Burke, you should have told me!  This makes everything even worse somehow. 
Crap!  What are we going to do?  How are we going to even find him, let alone
kill him?”

“We’ll
figure it out Ella.”  Burke let go of her hand and rubbed her neck.  “I don’t
think he goes around changing his appearance at will; it has to be right after
a killing.  You know, after he takes the energy into himself.  He’s going to
make a stupid mistake and then we’ll find him.  Once we do, I don’t care if we
have to cut him into tiny pieces and set fire to the lot.  Everything has a
weakness, everything dies, and everything can be killed.”

Ella’s cell
phone chimed, indicating she was receiving a text message.  “It’s from Sarah,”
she said.  “She wants me to come by the dorm room before meeting my family at
the apartment.  I guess I’d better get a move on.”

“Do you want
me to come with you?”

“No, let me
take care of this.  I don’t think these are the most appropriate circumstances
to introduce you to them.  Do you want to run back to the house with me
though?”

“Nope, if
it’s all the same to you I’ll just lag behind and enjoy the view as you leave.”
Burke smiled as he gave Ella’s derriere a squeeze.

~~

Thirty
minutes after Ella had showered and changed into yoga pants and a comfortable
t-shirt, she gave a friendly tap on Sarah’s dorm room door before proceeding to
barge in anyway.  Sarah had all of Ella’s things packed, organized, and waiting
for her on her bed.

“Geez,” Ella
said, “I feel like you’re throwing me out.”

“Nonsense, I
thought this would be faster” Sarah waved her hand in the air to erase Ella’s
negative comment.  “Now I figure I get at least twenty minutes of your
undivided attention.”

“Great, I sense
a round of fifty questions,” Ella mocked.