Ella Awakened Read online

  “I guess you’ve got a point, sorry. Anyway, I’m all right. I was just a little dizzy before.”

  Burke tossed the robe onto the bed and turned his back towards Ella. She pulled off her shirt and bra. Leaning back on the bed, she squirmed out of her jeans and panties. She put on his robe, then quickly folded her dirty clothes, tucking the bra and panties between her shirt and pants.

  “Okay,” Ella said. But before she could stand, he had turned and picked her up. Leaning into him, she gave in to the whole prince charming act. She couldn’t help but smile to herself as she noticed the rate of his heartbeat against her cheek.

  Once in the bathroom, he placed her gently on a small bench beside the bathtub. Ella gasped as she looked around. Fortunately he didn’t seem to notice. “I’ll give you a minute,” he said and left her sitting alone.

  The light was turned off, but the bathroom was lit by several candles of differing heights on a tray on the back of the toilet. The claw foot tub was filled almost to the top and colorful aromatic herbs were floating in the water. Ella had never smelled anything quite like it. It was breathtaking. This guy sure knew how to charm a girl. She let the robe fall from her shoulders and cautiously slid from the bench into the water. Reaching over, she pulled the shower curtain half way closed in case Burke came back to check on her.

  Ella closed her eyes and slid down, letting herself become completely submerged in the water. After a few seconds, she slid back up and just lay resting and enjoying the warmth and aromatherapy. Burke returned with a cup of tea. Without looking at her, he set it on the little bench beside the bathtub. Then he turned his back and sat on the floor next to the drawn curtain.

  “The tea will help with any nausea you have; it will ease your head too. It’s made from the same herbs that are floating in the bath water.”

  “I’ve never smelled anything like it,” Ella replied. “I could lie here forever just breathing it in.”

  “You’ve never smelled anything like it, Ella, because there is nothing like it. When your father and I came here, I had some seeds with me. I have a small greenhouse out back where I grow the herbs and some other plants from home.”

  “If these are plants from another world, or planet or whatever you’re saying; isn’t it a little risky for you to just be growing them in your backyard? Aren’t you afraid someone will find them?”

  “Well, they’re not just in the backyard. They’re in a greenhouse. The property here is pretty secluded; we’re in the middle of a seventeen acre wooded lot. To be honest, I don’t think anyone really cares whether or not I have a greenhouse, much less what’s in it.”

  Ella swirled her hands through the water catching little bits of herbs, studying them, and then releasing them back into the tub. “So you don’t ever have company out here?”

  “Have I ever had company out here? Some. Have I ever invited some kind of plant expert to check out the greenhouse? No.” Burke smiled a little as he teased her.

  “Okay, thanks smart guy.” In spite of her cautious reservations, Ella was starting to feel at ease with Burke, and she enjoyed talking to him. “Are you going to tell me what’s happening to me? Do I have some kind of alien flu?” She poured a little soap on a washcloth and ran it over her skin as she listened to Burke’s explanation.

  “Back home there are a few different kinds of people. Some, like your dad, are warriors. Some, like me, are healers. Others are what we call common folk. All of us grow up the same way, but just before our twentieth birthday some of us start to evolve. The common folk never go through a change. The process is physically a little harder for warriors. For them, there is a little more going on internally. You are becoming a warrior, Ella. When the change is complete, you’ll be very strong and very fast. Your senses will be beyond anyone of this world, even beyond mine. Your reflexes will be lightning fast, and fighting will be as natural for you as walking. There won’t be a person alive who’ll be able to take you down.”

  “What about you? Will you be able to take me down?” Ella teased.

  “No,” Burke was serious. “I’m not a warrior, Ella. I’m a healer. I’m a little stronger and faster than the common folk, but nothing like you. Healers have other gifts.”

  “Like…” Ella encouraged.

  “Like making the tea I just gave you. We just know what will help. We didn’t have chemical drugs back home like they do here. Everything was natural. There are other things, but we’ll talk about that later. How are you feeling?”

  “My fingers look like raisins, so maybe I should get out.”

  “Give me just a minute and I’ll get you some clothes.” Burke left and returned a minute later with a pair of pajamas from Ella’s bag; it was a pair of shorts with a matching cami. He laid them on the toilet seat and put a large fluffy towel on the bench next to the tea. “I’ll be right outside if you need me,” he told her.

  Ella rinsed herself, got out of the tub, dried off, and dressed. She took her time; the last thing she wanted was to fall over naked only to have him run in to save her. It was weird enough having him go through her bag and bring her pajamas. She put her hand over her mouth to stifle a little hysterical giggle. Of everything she had been through in the past few days, what she thought was weird was Burke going through her clothes. If she came through this without losing her mind and needing some of those chemical drugs Burke had referred to, it’d be a miracle.

  There was a little knock on the door. “Are you all right?” Burke asked.

  Ella opened the door in response. They stood for a moment just looking at each other, and then Burke moved to pick her up. Ella took a step back. “I’m okay; you don’t have to go carrying me around.”

  “Sorry,” he said. “I’ve made you a tray. Why don’t you go back to the bedroom and I’ll bring it to you. You’ll probably want to sleep some more after you eat. The pain will continue to come and go, and it will be a little easier for you if you can sleep through as much of it as possible. I’ll sit with you. I’m sure you have questions for me.”

  Ella returned to the bedroom while Burke went to the kitchen to get the tray. He had changed the sheets and remade the bed. Her dirty clothes were gone, and he had moved her duffle bag. She was still standing and looking around when Burke returned with the tray.

  “Everything all right?” he asked her.

  “Fine, I just didn’t see my bag.” There was a slightly weird silence. “I just wanted an elastic to pull my hair back,” Ella added, to break it.

  Burke set the tray on the bedside table, walked over to the closet, and opened it. Her bag was right there on the closet floor. Ella felt silly; she didn’t know what she had been feeling. It was just strange having him baby her so much. She’d always been independent - almost to a fault. She didn’t want to feel like she needed anyone. On the other hand, she really didn’t want to hurt his feelings. There was something about Burke that comforted her whether she was quick to admit it to herself or not. She decided she needed to chill out. She didn’t argue as he motioned her toward the bed and got the hair band for her. After she put her hair up, she leaned back against the pillows and let him set the tray across her lap.

  He had made the same tea, but it was cold this time and served over ice. There was warm buttered bread and some kind of soup. Picking up the spoon, she tasted the soup. It was delectable. “Is this homemade?” she asked him.

  “Chicken soup is one of the greatest discoveries of mankind. I always go overboard when I make it, so I can freeze some. Don’t look so surprised; I like to cook. Most healers do. We enjoy combining herbs and spices.” Burke noticed the slight furrowing of Ella’s brow, and the paling of her skin. “There’s a pill there on the napkin. You’re being very brave Ella, but I can tell your headache is intensifying.”

  “What is it?” she asked, picking up the pill and turning it over in her palm.

  “Demerol. It’s the same thing I gave you last night. I don’t have everything here that I had back home, or you wouldn’t
need something like that. Combined with the tea, you’ll sleep well, the headache will be better, and you won’t feel nauseated.”

  Ella took the pill.

  “I know you must have a lot of questions. Go ahead,” Burke encouraged and he sat down at the foot of the bed.

  “Okay, first of all, in the picture you showed me you look exactly like you do now and not a day older. That picture is ten years old.”

  “We don’t age like humans, Ella. We live longer, and we don’t get sick as much. I’d never heard of cancer or many other diseases before coming here.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Forty-three, but by human standards I guess my body is in its early to mid-twenties.”

  “How long will you live?”

  “Our life expectancy is five to six times longer than that of a human. We age similarly through the first twenty years, but once we reach adulthood everything slows down. I say five to six times because the common folk don’t live quite as long as healers or warriors. Warriors have the strongest bodies and the longest life expectancy with healers coming in a close second.”

  Ella almost choked on a piece of bread. “Wait a minute, are you telling me I’ll live to be six hundred years old?”

  “Around six hundred, give or take, if you die of old age.”

  Ella sat in stunned silence. The implications were mind boggling. What could a person experience and witness in six hundred years? Not to mention lose. She would watch generations come and go. “And you, you’ll live that long too?”

  “Close. I’ve probably got a good five hundred or so years left in me. Five hundred and fifty if I lay off the red meat,” Burke smiled.

  “You say you were my father’s best friend. Why weren’t you a part of my life growing up?”

  “We’ve met before, but you probably don’t remember. After the accident I started traveling. You father was all I had from home. He and I were trapped here, and then he was gone. I just left. I’ve been all over this world. At first I clung to the idea that there had to be others like us. There aren’t. Your mother was human, Ella. I’ve always watched you, and I’ve always cared about you; but I wasn’t going to burden you with the truth about your dad if you never awakened. There’s never been anyone like you, Ella. Your dad and I were both surprised when your mother became pregnant. We didn’t know if you’d live a human life, the life of the common folk, or become a warrior like your father. Being a warrior or a healer is usually passed down from parent to child, but it isn’t always that way. Two common folk might parent a healer for example, although it doesn’t happen often.”

  “How did you and my father get here?”

  This was the question he’d known was coming. The question he’d been dreading. Everything hinged on how Ella took what he was about to tell her. He needed her to understand that although he needed her help, that wasn’t the only reason he’d brought her here to his house. He cared for her, and he would have helped her regardless of how they had met or who her father had been.

  “Where your father and I came from is very peaceful. The warriors have kept the peace for thousands of years. Anyone committing a crime would be swiftly brought to justice. It’s a good deterrent and it works. You can imagine the shock when one day while out hunting your dad and I came across a body. Someone had been murdered. I held their head in my hands and saw what had happened. That’s one of the gifts of a healer. I can relive someone’s last moments from a touch. Something we came to call the Demon had come to our world and was feeding on our people. We tracked it for several months. It took nine lives, including my little sister. She was only fifteen years old, not even to the age of awakening. We learned that the Demon was very old and killed in cycles. Approximately every ten years it would take ten lives. Then it would become dormant, or go into hiding, for about ten years before the cycle would start again. It became stronger with each kill. It killed swiftly and was good at covering its tracks. I knew I couldn’t kill the Demon, but I worked closely with the warriors. More than one warrior was injured, and I was able to be of some use. The warriors had trapped the Demon, but as I said, by that time it had already taken nine lives. It was very strong - strong enough to open some sort of portal. It was escaping. Your father followed it and before the portal closed I dove through. We were here, with no way to return home. We tracked the Demon for about a month. It must have taken its last victim and gone into hiding, because the trail just went cold. We never found the last victim, but with hospitals and the fragility of the people of this planet, it wasn’t surprising. We would have to wait ten years for our revenge. Your father met your mother and it was love at first sight. He used to say she was his soul mate, and he had been called from across the universe to be by her side. They were very happy together. They were even happier when The Mother of All smiled upon them with the gift of you. The Demon’s killing cycle had just started when your parents died in the car accident. I left hoping to lead him away from you. I was afraid his evil vengeful nature would draw him to you like a bee to honey. Even though to my healer’s senses you were at that time a human like any other, I couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t sense some kind of strength in you that humans lack. So I left, and I waited, and I watched. Because he draws his strength from those he kills, he chooses victims possessing health and strength. He won’t be as powerful now as he was after claiming victims from my home. The humans don’t have the same strength for the Demon to draw into himself. He will have become weakened over the last cycle.”

  Burke noticed Ella’s eyes becoming heavy. She’d been listening attentively to him, but the medicine had taken its effect and she would be asleep very soon. Burke stood and picked up the tray, he set it on the floor and knelt next to Ella. “There’s something else you need to know. Your awakening has coincided with the start of the Demon’s cycle, Ella. It has started again. Jill Stevens was his first victim.” Burke wasn’t sure whether or not she had heard his last words before she fell asleep.

  Chapter 3: Complications

  Ella sat up with a start. She looked at the clock; it was almost 5:00 AM. Everything Burke had told her came crashing back. Was he trying to tell her he wanted her to kill this Demon? WTF! He was delusional. She was going to throw up. When she tried to stand, she fell to the floor. She began to crawl towards the bathroom. Burke had been asleep on the couch. She must have woken him, because as usual, he came running. He was always coming to help her. It was a trait she had thought endearing at first, but now she was starting to sense it was all so she’d be well enough to throw at the Demon. Gee, Thanks. He bent down next to her to try to help her up.

  Ella felt crushed beneath the weight of the physical and emotional stress of the past few days. “Leave me alone! I don’t need your help!” She shoved him away more violently than she had intended. He hit the wall hard. Ella crumbled, covering her mouth with her hands. She didn’t think she was going to make it to the bathroom. Burke was right back next to her. He was pretty fast himself and stronger than he let on. He picked her up and carried her to the bathroom. He knelt next to her holding her hair and rubbing her back as she threw up. She felt like she was falling apart.

  Burke got a cup of water for her to rinse her mouth and washed her face with a wet cloth. Picking her up again, he carried her back to the bedroom. “I’ll go get you something for the pain,” he told her.

  “I don’t want you to get me anything! I want you to take me home,” she retorted.

  “Ella, I can’t take you home. They won’t know what to do for you. They’ll probably take you to the hospital, and who knows what’ll happen then. You could wind up some government guinea pig.”

  “What’s the difference; government guinea pig or your sacrificial lamb?” She leaned forward, refusing to settle back against the pillows.

  “What’s gotten into you? What are you talking about?”

  “The Demon - you want me to kill the Demon. You’re helping me because you need me.”

  Burke frustrating
ly raked his hands through his hair. He wanted to take her hand, touch her, sooth her – something. “Ella, you’ve got it all wrong. I’ve been completely straight with you. Yes, I need your help, but never for a second will I leave your side. I’m strong, but you have no idea of the strength you’ll have. We have the advantage.”

  “You said nine lives were taken on your world, and that warriors – plural – were injured.”

  “I also said the Demon draws its strength from those it kills. It’s nowhere near as strong now as it was then. It has been feeding on humans, and humans are nothing like us Ella. They’re weak, fragile and slow. Granted I’m not a warrior, but I could still toss a human around like a ragdoll. The strongest and fastest on this planet would be no match even for the common folk from my world. It will be dangerous, but we will be cautious. We each have gifts that the other doesn’t. We complement each other Ella. Yes, I need you, and I’d like to think you need me too. It’s you and I; there are no others. Are we to let this monster live, ravaging the innocents of this world who have no defense against it? It took Jill Stevens easily enough. The authorities think she drowned. Hell, I did the autopsy myself. The Demon leaves no trace.”

  “What? You did the autopsy yourself?” Ella huffed and pressed her fingers to her temples.

  “I’m one of the city’s medical examiners.”

  “Oh wow,” Ella said sarcastically. “This just keeps getting better and better. How the heck is some alien voodoo guy qualified to be a medical examiner? Who interviewed you – Santa Clause? Did he check your credentials?”

  “Go ahead; be a smart aleck. It’s not hard to buy paperwork. Degrees, references, proof of experience, credentials – they can all be bought for the right price. That black diamond around your neck is worth several hundred thousand. I sold my father’s ring for just under a million, made some investments, and did what I needed to do. I needed to be in a position to know when things went south. As far as how good I really am at my job, how many people do you know who can determine cause of death with a touch of their hands? It absolutely looked like a drowning. Anyone would have said so, cut and dry. But when I laid my hands on her I knew. I saw what happened. Of course, I can’t report anything that can’t be shown factual by Earth’s standards. Now if you’re finished insulting my dedication and methods, I’m heading out to the greenhouse to gather some herbs. I don’t know how you’re feeling, but I’m getting a splitting headache!”