Rising from the Ashes

Chapter 8

Fire.

It has always been a part of Elenora's life. It has always exploded within her. She just didn't know it at times. It explodes within her now. Fighting against her instead of with her. Just as well. Elenora had been fighting against it for as long as she has known it existed within her.

It explodes within her now. Spreads through her and flows out of her limbs, fighting to destroy something. It eats away at everything surrounding her. The forest. Alpha Bardrick. Or at least, it tries. Alpha Bardrick had always been a smart man, or at least what Elenora had read says he is smart. He seems to figure out almost immediately that the fire bursting out in random places at untimely moments was because of Elenora and her lack of control over this...this ability.

Alpha Bardrick must have decided the best way to help her after finding out her old time nightmare is still alive to haunt her was...well it was to dump her in the river because that's exactly what he did. It's beautiful. The way fire and water will fight against each other. There is something about it that makes Elenora want to stay beneath the water. Color surrounds her in orange and blue. It glows before her. Only when fire stops bursting from her fingertips in a fight to survive, only when Elenora can no longer stay under water without oxygen does she swim to the surface to face a very calm looking Alpha. "You threw me in a river!" Elenora tries to say this with as much venom, with as much anger as she possibly can.

"You might have burned me to death if I had not." Comes his cool, collected voice. Calm, unmoving and deep with something. Mistrust? Maybe. Or curiosity. Maybe. Possibly. No. It's anger. The Alpha would never be curious about somebody like her. A rogue. A monster. It's mistrust. Elenora's curse will not tell her either way because she can feel nothing but her very own emotions. Her own, terrible, excruciating emotions. This. This is pain in its truest form. The thought of Vermont being alive is enough to have the fear that lived in her for years to come back with a thriving vengeance. Elenora had thought she left fear behind her right alongside Vermont's thought to be dead body and her pack. The Stonebridge pack. What will they do when they find out Vermont is still alive?

The bitter part of her wants to let it go. Let them find out when Vermont brings forth an army of men to kill them off. Oh but he won't just kill them. That isn't Vermont's style. No he'll want to watch them suffer first. He'll torture them. Starting with the children. Ending with the Elder's of the pack. No. Ending with his Luna. Wrong again. Ending with Elenora herself maybe. "Do you want to talk about it?" Talk about what? Her ability to control fire? No. Not really. "About Vermont?" Vermont? Not her abilities? Elenora backs deeper into the cool water, deciding quickly she would much rather watch flames burst from her fingertips underneath the water than meet his dark eyes.

"Wouldn't you rather know how I can control fire?" Control is an overstatement. She cannot control the abilities she has. If Elenora was able to control it, Alpha Bardrick would not know anything of her power. Fire had burst from her limbs without her wanting it to and the Alpha had brought her here because of that.

"Perhaps another time." Alpha Bardrick is quick to say. "But it is best you talk about Vermont if he pains you enough to lose control of yourself. If not to me than to Alpha Scott or someone else you trust."

"There is none I trust." Elenora is quick to say, quickly facing him. She watches Alpha Bardrick tilt his head, lips pulled to a frown.

"Not even the rogue girl you travel with?" Mia. Yes she trust Mia and by trusting her one might assume Elenora cares for the blonde girl. This is not a time to care for anybody, or at least admit to caring for somebody. Vermont will kill anybody she cares for, anybody she loves. He had told her he would and Elenora believes it with every fiber of her being.