Elementalist

11

Stephanie brings her suitcase down the stairs and Ethan takes it from her. "This is all you are going to take with you?" 

"It's all I have, really. I didn't have anything before you all took me in and this is basically all you've bought me since I came to live with you." Stephanie gives him a small smile.

"I'm sorry," Ethan tells her softly.

"Nothing really to be sorry about." Stephanie tells him as she follows him through the door.

Ethan takes her bag to the vehicle and stows it away.

"Before we drop you off to the train station or bus station we'll get you breakfast." Talon tells her gently pushing her hair behind her ear.

Stephanie fights her tears, she doesn't want to let them out. "Okay, thank you."

"We'll be going to the city apartment building next. You will always be welcome to visit us, Stephanie."

Stephanie looks at him shocked. She never thought they would tell her before they left where they would be going. She helped them with hiding their tracks better electronically and so knows the location of the city apartment building. "It's ready for tenants?"

Talon nods, "Yeah, we already have a few. Most of them are actually supernaturals that are in hiding. You are more than welcome to come as well."

"Perhaps I will, I never wanted to leave you all." Stephanie says looking down.

"You know us better than any one else other than us." With Talon's words she looks up once more. "We will miss you terribly. Are you ready?"

"Yes, I guess," Stephanie says softly and with regret. She really doesn't want to leave and so takes her time in getting into the SUV.

"I know that I have no clue what your lives were like before you met me. I have no idea what the pain of betrayal is, after all my family never loved me enough for me to be betrayed by them. I have no idea what it's like to lose someone I loved. What I do know, you need to hear what she has to say before you kill her if you ever run across her again. Hear her side of the story, I have no idea if the hunters were telling you the truth or just saying that to cause you more pain. After you listen to her side of the story, then you can decide what to do. I can't tell you to forgive her, only you can decide that. What I can do is tell you, that if you don't, it won't be her that is punished, but yourselves.

"Hate is a heavy load, hard to bare, it's corrosive and damaging to the one that carries it." Stephanie wipes her tears away. She had tried so hard to keep from crying and is frustrated that they are falling any way. "You three are the only ones to ever give a shit about me. You three are the only ones that I've ever cared for. I know she hurt you. I know the loss of your friend is a void that can't be filled, but hating her won't make things any better either. All it does is change who you are inside. As much as I want to be with you three, I can't stay when you will be changing from the ones that have been so caring towards me to something dark and hateful."

"Oh, please, like you are any better with what you did to your parents, siblings and those at your school." Ethan says unable to hold back.

Stephanie flinches back like she had been slapped. The other two look at Ethan, who is driving, incredulously.

"Of you all, you were the last one I expected to verbally attack me." Stephanie says more than a little shocked at his words. "I made sure that the law was alerted and gave them the proof of the illegal activities that were going on. I'm not perfect, I can feel the bitterness inside me still. Forgiving is far easier said than done and even more easier said to someone else than to do it yourself. I get that. I'm still working on it myself. What I have to forgive is nothing like you all have to forgive, and it hasn't been festering inside me for nearly the length of time it has inside you three. Hell, I have no idea just how long ago this betrayal took place."

"It took place one hundred and fifty years ago, well almost." Talon says in the now quiet of the vehicle.

"Just how fucking old are you three any way? How do you stay so freaking young?" None of the three look older than mid twenties.

Jet responds this time. "Age isn't something we give out. Some of the supernatural creatures can use it against you. As for how we don't age, well that happens once your power manifests and you hit adult age. You will slow down just like the other supernatural creatures. We aren't immortal or damn near it like the vampires, but we do live extraordinarily long lives, unless we are killed. We are rarely bothered by normal human ailments, but there are a few that affect us as well."

"Wow, thanks for telling me this sooner guys." Stephanie says as she shakes her head. She sits back in her seat and just looks out the window.

She watches the storm some time before what she is seeing registers in her mind.

"I think that we should skip breakfast and you three should just leave. They have no idea about me, so I won't be in danger."

Talon looks at her in irritation. "Why?"

"Jet, take a look out the back window and tell me what you see?"

Jet turns around and shortly after watching the scenery his eyes go wide. "Fuck."

"Could you take it away?" Stephanie isn't sure just how strong Jet is since he always refuses to use full strength when teaching her.

Jet studies the storm a bit before replying, "Yeah, whoever is controlling it is fairly strong, but not as strong as I am and nowhere near you in strength."

"Who do you think it is?" Talon demands of Jet after turning around and looking out the window himself.

Jet gives a bitter laugh and Talon gives him a sheepish look. "Sorry, I forgot that she was a wind rider like you."

"She wasn't this strong when she left us." Jet says thoughtfully still studying the storm.

"There's no thunder or lightning." Stephanie says studying the storm, gauging it, searching it.

"No, she's not a storm rider like you, Stephanie. She's a wind rider with a touch of water. Hell, no one is quite like you. You might be weak in some elements, but at your weakest, you make many of the elementalists in that element look like babies learning to walk." Talon says it absently as he continues to study the incoming storm.

After a bit of time, and shortly before they enter the town he turns to Stephanie. "Not that I don't trust you, Steph, but what do you have planned for the house?"

Stephanie shrugs, "I just set a timer on my electrical discharge. It will act like a mini bomb in the electrical wiring and flames will shoot up all over the house. Hopefully I set it well enough the neither the fire department nor that storm will stop the house from being totally burned."

Stephanie has never taken her eyes off the storm as she continues, "I think that the winds from that storm will actually encourage the flames to burn hotter." She smiles. She doesn't want the ones hunting them to find any clues about any of them and the fire will conceal their tracks quite nicely.

"It won't take much for the city to make that land usable. The might even be able to salvage the swimming pool."

Jet and Talon are staring at her and Ethan flicks glances back using the rear view mirror.

"Only you would think of something like that while we are wondering if we will even get out of here alive." Talon says with more than a little amusement.

Stephanie shrugs as she steps out of the car when Ethan pulls to a stop at the train station.

"You told me last night that you are giving me the house," Stephanie goes to the back of the vehicle and waits for Ethan to pop the trunk.

Before she can lift out her suitcase the sheriff comes over and stands next to her.