Ella Awakened Read Online Free PDF Page B

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