"Again!" Ellie called to her sister who was trying to produce her fire.
"I can't!" Evie frowned, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "I'm exhausted, Ellie. Just let me take a break."
"You won't get a break when vampires are trying to end your life," Ellie growled, throwing her sister back ten feet with her mind. "You've got to try harder. This tribe's life is in your hands. Your pack's life is in your hands. Don't fail them, Evelyn. Don't fail them like David was failed."
Ellie had been training her for days, and every day had been the same. Evie hadn't been able to even produce a tiny flame, and Ellie bringing David into the conversation wasn't helping.
Evie could feel the blood beginning to boil within her body. Gritting her teeth together, she said, "I'm not the one who failed him. You did!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, Evie threw her hand forward and a large blast of fire shot toward Ellie who merely blinked and found herself behind her twin. Evie stood staring at the spot her sister had been standing in only milliseconds before. She was upset and proud at the same time. She could have just killed her sister, but she just produced a flame.
"Ellie?" she questioned, hoping her sister was okay.
"Evie," Ellie said, a smile graced her lips, and she threw her arms around her twin. "You did it!"
"And you've apparently gotten faster at teleporting," Evie said, her eyes still wide. "That should've burnt you to a crisp."
"Well, I couldn't let you kill me just yet," Ellie shrugged, pulling away from Evie. "You still have a lot to learn."
Ellie walked forward and took a place in front of her sister. She pursed her lips and furrowed her brow before saying, "Do you think you could do it again?"
Evie was silent for a moment, thinking of whether she had enough energy to form another flame before she nodded and said, "I can try."
Ellie smiled and braced herself, "Good. Now, remember that feeling. Remember how your body reacted. Now that we know your emotions trigger the flame, this should be easier for you. You're just going to have to find your anger and push it out."
"Well, I've been experiencing plenty of that lately," she said, before closing her eyes. She thought of everything that had gone wrong her life recently. From David dying to getting this stupid mark burned onto her body to having to meet the people that she was supposed to protect, she was angry, angrier than she had ever been. She felt her body beginning to burn and instinctively lifted her hand where the energy that she could feel burning within her core began to centralize. Opening her eyes, she allowed a smile to flit across her lips as her eyes took in the flame flickering in her palm.
Ellie couldn't help the large toothy grin that pulled at her lips as she saw the flames dancing in her sister's hand. She had finally done it. She had faced her fears and finally just let the fire within her rise.
"Well done!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "Now throw it."
"What?" Evie asked, almost letting the flame in her hand extinguish. She couldn't believe the words she was hearing. Her sister wanted her to throw the flame in her hand?
"You heard me," Ellie said, a familiar glint in her eye. "Throw it. Just not at my house."
Evie raised her eyebrows before shrugging and throwing the fireball just to the left of her sister who watched the flame dissipate as it hit the ground with a satisfied look on her face.
"Good work," Ellie said, placing her hands on her hips. "I'd say you've earned a break."
"I'll say," Evie said, wiping the sweat from her brow.
"It will get easier the more you do it," Ellie said as the duo began to make their way inside. "You just have to keep practicing. Now that we've got you started, you'll gain some control. In the meantime, I want you meditating every day. Not only will it help you with controlling your fire, but it will help you figure out how to deal with everything your mind is now capable of. You can do this, Eve. I know you can."
"I'm starting to see that," Evie said, throwing herself onto the couch and allowing her body to become one with the cushions. "I'm also starting to see that this couch was made just for me."
Ellie rolled her eyes before chuckling, "In your dreams."
"Oh, my dreams are definitely made of this couch," she sighed, pressing herself further into the sofa.
"I know you just got comfortable, but you should really go shower, Eve," Ellie said, eliciting a groan from her twin. "Not only will it relax your muscles, but we still have a few things to do."
Evie's groan grew louder as she sat up, "What more could we have to do, El?"
"I want to introduce you to someone," she said, before pulling her sister off the couch and shooing her up the stairs.
Ellie hoped beyond hope that this would work. She stood with her twin at the door of the house she had been to hundreds of times. Knocking thrice, she only hoped Charlie would be okay with her unannounced arrival.
The door opened revealing the police chief to the emissaries. Stepping out onto the front steps, the dark haired man stared at the two sisters who were nearly identical, but both holding different expressions. The one he recognized most was offering him a small, tired smile, evidence of the heartbreak she was trying to push through. Charlie had to admit she was holding together much better than his own daughter. The other girl was staring at him as if he had two heads. Were there really two of them?
Charlie had to blink for a moment to make sure that he was actually seeing the two people in front of him. The last he could recall Ellie was only one person, and the girl beside of her looked only minutely different. Glancing back and forth between them, he said, "There are two of you."
Ellie chuckled at the man and his observation skills. "Hi, Charlie. I'd like to introduce you to my twin, Evelyn O'Connell. Evie, this is Charlie Swan, the chief of police of Forks."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir," Evie said, getting over her stupor and wondering what in the world her sister had planned for the two.
"I didn't know you had a twin," he said, eyeing Evie carefully. "Why am I just now meeting her?"
"Her parents are in the process of moving to the area, and she came early to spend some quality one-on-one time with me," Ellie explained, offering a half shrug to the man.
"Well, make sure she gets enrolled in school," he said before shifting his gaze back to Ellie. "Are you here to see Bella?"
"Yes," Ellie said, catching the tiniest glimmer of hope in his eyes. "I wanted to see if we could get her to open up a little, at least get her to look at anything but that window."
Charlie nodded before raking his hand over his face. "Thank you, Ellie. You don't know what this means to me."
Ellie reached a hand out and placed it on his shoulder. "It's no trouble at all, Charlie. I've never had a lot of my own family. I consider Bella as close as it gets... other than Evie, of course."
Evie rolled her eyes before bumping her sister's shoulder and smiling. "We'll take good care of her, Mr. Swan." She may not know the two, but if they were kind to her sister, then they had to be nice people.
"Thanks, girls," he said, letting them in the mildly cluttered house. "I've got to get to the station, but, uh, if you could get her to eat something, it would be appreciated."
"As long as you've got food in your pantry, we can do that," Evie said, sticking close to her twin.
"We'll force feed her if we have to, Charlie," Ellie said, stepping away from the busy man.
Charlie nodded his thanks. "Also, please, lock my door when you leave. There's been so many deaths lately... I just don't want to chance anything worse happening to Bells."
"Roger that, Charlie," Ellie said, shifting on her feet. "You don't have to worry for right now. We've got her."
Charlie thanked them again before leaving the girls in the silence of his home to contemplate how to accomplish anything the man had asked of them.
"You got any ideas on how to get this chick to get out of her head?" Evie asked, looking to her sister. She had brought her here. She should have some kind of action plan in mind.
"I'm going to introduce the two of you, and then we'll get to work," Ellie said, looking around the room. "You can cook, and I can straighten the place up for him. Then we can both try to force some food down her throat and pull her away from that window."
"Sounds like a plan," Evie said, slightly distracted. "Say, El... You get glimpses of people's lives, right? Their pasts?"
"Yeah," Ellie answered, turning to her sister questioningly, thinking of the strange look she had on her face when meeting Charlie. "Are you getting visions, Eve?"
"No, no. Just... Seeing things I suppose," she said, fighting the idea of anything being wrong.
Ellie raised an eyebrow, "You're lying to me. What'd you see?"
Evie released a sigh, knowing her sister would catch her lie. "I saw colors."
"Colors?" she asked, taking a step forward.
"Colors," Evie said, pulling her lip between her teeth. "When I saw Charlie, I saw colors... like a halo above his head."
"What color?" Ellie asked, pushing for information. She had heard of emissaries seeing auras, but she was curious as to what Evie was seeing.
"It was gray lined with gold," she answered, pinching the bridge of her nose, "and you have a bright white lined in gold."
"Hmmm..." Ellie sounded, thinking on the subject. "It sounds like you're seeing the auras of people, but the mixed colors make it questionable. I'll make some calls and see what I can find out about it for you, though. I wouldn't worry. We all get a different mechanism to decipher the good and the bad coming our way."
"Thanks, El," Evie breathed before gathering her senses and offering a tiny smile to her twin. "Let's go meet your friend now."
Trekking up the stairs, the twins found their way to the small purple room where Bella was still sitting facing her window as if they were just going to reappear at any moment. She was wrapped in a blanket and looked gaunt in Ellie's opinion.
Ellie made her way in front of the brunette and bent to her level. "Hey, Bells. Are you feeling any better today?"
Silence filled the room. Bella didn't even spare a glance at her friend. She just couldn't bring herself to meet her eyes. They couldn't compare to the gold she longed to see.
Ellie sighed before pulling Evie next to her, "I wanted to bring my sister to meet you. Bella, this is Evie. Evie, this is Bella Swan. She's one of my dearest friends."
"Hi, Bella," Evie said, pitying the poor girl. "It's nice to meet you. I've heard so much about you."
The silence continued.
"Can we get you something to eat, Bells?" Ellie asked, hoping she would say yes. Her friend looked like she hadn't had a decent meal since the incident, but still the silence resumed.
"Alright," Ellie said, backing up and taking her sister's arm. "We'll leave you be for a bit, but don't think we're leaving. This is far from over, Bells."
At that, she pulled her twin out the door and to the stairs where she was met with a look from her twin.
"She is not taking this well is she?" Evie asked rhetorically, putting a hand on her hip.
Ellie shook her head and walked down the stairs, not wanting to think of the reason her friend was a mess. It just made her angry that those stupid bloodsuckers were the reason they both felt like dying. If they were just going to leave them behind, they should have never gotten involved with them at all, but from Ellie's point of view, she could only think that maybe love was never really supposed to last.
And that thought scared her more than she was willing to admit.