The twins had dragged me down for yet another ability training session. Aro was of course very eager to see how much progress my gift would make, but honestly so was I.
Santiago sat on the bench on the side with Renata on his lap. They'd come public about their little relationship in the last few days, so now I understood why he found me with the kings so annoying. The pair of them were virtually inseparable at this point, doing every little task together.
Jane darted into the corner with the large speaker and plugged in her iPod. Obviously, my iPod was fancier and more expensive than everyone else's considering who paid for it, but apparently the guard made quite a decent salary so they often had plenty to spend on whatever they pleased.
'Supermassive Black Hole' began blaring out of the speakers. We'd discovered earlier that my gift seemed to work better when I had music playing since it helped me get into the zone.
I stood in the middle and pulled my hands apart as usual to reveal the swirling spherical mass of dust hovering between my palms. Now that I'd practised it a few more times, not only could I hold it there for much longer, but the sphere itself was much denser and spun faster.
Alec set up a target and stepped to the side next to Jane to give me space. "Remember to throw it with enough force."
Nodding my head in understanding, I kicked my leg in the air and pitched it similarly to how I'd seen Alice do in baseball. The dust ball flew out of my hand and across the room too quickly for even an immortal to avoid if they were in its path.
It collided with the wooden target and scattered in all directions, each of the particles dimming back out again into the air. The target shook slightly but was otherwise unaffected, which confirmed our suspicions that my gift only worked on immortals.
Santiago raised an eyebrow. "Do you really need to pitch it like that, dude?"
"It's fun, getting that lil' leg kick action," I grinned and kicked my leg again for effect. "What else did you expect? We've already established that I'm an extra bitch."
He shrugged. "Fair enough."
"I have a question," Renata began, "whose gift is stronger out of Alec's and Eli's? Because they're both relatively similar so surely we could test it."
Alec and I exchanged a curious look and I cocked my head to the side in thought. On the one hand, mine was much deadlier, but Alec's, however, had been trained for centuries longer than mine.
"I have an idea. Eli, stand on the opposite side of the room," Alec commanded.
I did as he said and stood with my feet shoulder-width apart a few metres away from him. He took his gloves off and tossed them to the side to join my own gloves. What did reassure me was how certain of himself he seemed, because I sure as hell was nervous that I'd accidentally destroy him.
He grinned excitedly. "I will push out my gift as intensely as possible, and you will do exactly the same. The two will meet in the middle and we'll see what happens."
I panicked a little. "B-but what if mine gets past yours and to you?"
"Then I'll duck," he shrugged nonchalantly.
The song had now changed to 'Say It Right' by Nelly Furtado, but Jane had turned it down so we could concentrate on, you know, not killing each other.
Jane decided to count down. "3…2…1…begin."
I concentrated on the force of my ability more than anything, drowning out all other thoughts in my head. The blinding white dust suddenly came surging out of my extended palms at a phenomenal speed and strength I never even knew it had. My breath hitched as I felt my dust hitting an end, which was how I knew I'd either hit Alec's ability or Alec himself.
But to my surprise, I could feel the force being expelled back in my direction, to the point where I felt my feet sliding backwards on the floor beneath me and my entire face was tense in focus. At that point, I was glad that the far wall served as a giant mirror.
In the reflection, I saw my searing bright dust colliding forcefully with Alec's dark, spiralling mist, lightening up the entire room spectacularly. At contact, my dust seemed to scatter away in all directions and his mist dissipated into nothing, so all my fears of accidentally harming him were useless. We made eye contact in our reflections and both grinned proudly at each other.
Out of curiosity, I decided to push much harder than before, feeling the familiar burning sensation enveloping my hands. This increased force pushed Alec's mist back a few inches, but he was able to similarly fight back, which left us pretty evenly matched.
We both nodded and lowered our gifts at the same time. My dust crashed to the floor and the light faded out again, while Alec's mist receded back into his palms. Jane, Santiago, and Renata were still in shock from that crazy light show they'd just witnessed.
"Wow," Renata murmured after a moment.
"That was fun, we should do that again sometime," I joked.
"So, let me get this straight; my brother has been training his ability for centuries now, yet you suddenly have all of this strength and control after just a few weeks?" Jane clarified.
I shrugged. "Apparently."
Surprisingly, Alec didn't seem all that bothered by it. "Shall we continue with your target practise?"
I stomped my foot childishly. "Oh, but that's so boring. Can we do something else?"
"Eli, there is not much else to do," he reminded me exasperatedly.
I suddenly had an idea. "Well, there is something I've always wanted to try for some reason, since I know my gift can also stem from my surroundings as well as my body."
Alec tilted his head in question and I demonstrated in response. Extending one hand out in front of me and aiming it at the ground, I was able to cause a swirling cascade of dust to spiral out from the ground like a vine.
"And you didn't mention this earlier because…?" he asked, staring intently at where I was focused.
"Eh, didn't seem that important," I responded simply, allowing the dust to drop back down again.
"So you thought it important to tell me about the 'wonders of meditation', but you didn't think it important to mention the fact that you can make rather lethal dust come out of literally nowhere?"
"What can I say? I like to meditate."
Alec sighed. "What else can it do?"
"That's exactly what I wanted to try. I need y'all weirdos to stand way back before I accidentally disintegrate you." I motioned pushing them back and they all moved so that they had their backs against the wall.
Now that I had the floor to myself, I placed my hands down by my sides with my palms facing the ground. I squeezed my eyes shut and concentrated on bringing the dust up from the ground in volume. Subconsciously, I found myself crossing my arms so that my hands were in fists by my shoulders and, once I opened my eyes, I could no longer see or hear a thing.
The glowing white dust spiralled around me magnificently like a tornado with me at the eye of the storm. The corners of my lips turned up into a smile and I laughed in amazement as I admired the brilliant scene in front of me. Still, I couldn't hear anything around me since the whooshing sound of the dust flying past my ears drowned out any other noise in the vicinity.
With my arms still crossed over my torso, I decided to try expanding the eye out so that I had a little more space to stand since the individual particles were spiralling around me very closely. No, I wasn't claustrophobic, but just imagine being in the middle of a giant glowing tornado.
Somehow, I was able to move the border out a few inches and increase it at will. Now that the tiredness was beginning to hit me and the burning was no longer concentrated in my palms but instead in my chest, I allowed the dust to crash to the ground once more.
The room was silent. After a few seconds, Santiago spoke.
"Holy crap, that's cool."
Renata and Jane were only just recovering from the shock of that sight, but Alec for some reason was nowhere to be seen.
"Where'd misty-boy go?" I asked no one in particular as I scoured the room for him.
"Oh, he-"
"Il mio amore!" I heard Aro's voice after he'd thrown his arms around me as he held me to him closely. So that's where Alec had gone; to scare my mates shitless.
Quickly, all three of them were surrounding me, checking me for injuries. I managed to peek out from under Marcus' arm and give Alec a scowl, but he just silently laughed at me.
"Guys, I'm fine, really." I managed to shake them off and they stepped back rather reluctantly, but Caius of course still had his arms around my shoulders with his face nuzzled into my neck.
Marcus cupped my jaw with his hand and tilted my head up to face his. "What happened, tesoro?"
I grinned. "Stand back and I'll show you."
The music was still playing in the background, but the song had changed to 'Hello' by Martin Solveig. When everyone was stood well back a safe distance, I repeated the same actions again and felt my arms involuntarily moving to cross over my shoulders in fists.
This time, it was much easier to send the bright particles swirling around me and I found that I had much more control over them. I reached out and allowed my fingertips to brush along the flow of particles and they barely flinched at all, simply pushing past like liquid.
As soon as I dropped the dust again, Marcus ran to me and pulled me to him with his cheek pressed against the top of my head. He gripped me tightly, almost too tightly, which just made me question what he saw.
"Marcus, what's the matter?" I murmured softly.
He took a deep breath and kissed the top of my head. "When you did that with your gift, it caused the bonds to shake rapidly. They do not usually move like that unless the person is…"
Now I understood why he was so shaken up. Honestly, I would've been too. I wrapped my arms around his torso and rested the side of my face against his chest while I purred softly into his shirt. A moment later, he was completely fine again though he still held my small hand in his tightly.
"Oh, and one more thing I have to show you." I dragged Caius by the arm to the middle of the floor and subtly gestured for everyone else to stay back.
"Is this such a good idea, Eliana?" he questioned warily.
"Relax, babe. I promise, I will never knowingly put you in harm's way," I assured. "Now, I need you to stand directly behind me so we're back to back. Whatever you do, don't you even dare move an inch. Got it?"
"I do not like where this is going."
"I. Will. Not. Hurt. You," I repeated word by word.
Without any further warning, I allowed the dust to spiral out from the ground and around the both of us. The reassurance of Caius' physical contact with me did ease my mind, which allowed me to focus more on making the dust swirl around us quickly.
I turned my head around briefly and saw that Caius looked absolutely terrified out of his skin. I laughed at him softly.
"Concentrate on the murder dust!" he yelled worriedly over the whooshing sound which filled my ears.
"I'm concentrating just fine, blondie!" I snarked.
Seeing as this was panicking him so much, I let the dust drop again with a giggle. He quickly stumbled slightly disorientatedly away from where he'd been standing.
I scoffed teasingly. "Drama queen."
Aro still seemed too surprised to talk. "Did you just-"
"Stand in the eye of a dust tornado with Caius? Yes, yes I did," I nodded.
"If it is not too much to ask," he began cautiously, "would you be able to do the same with me?"
I giggled. "Aro, this isn't some fairground ride. Well, it kind of is, but that's not the point."
"Please?" he pouted and gazed at me with puppy dog eyes.
"You know what? Sure. But remember, no touching it," I agreed.
I took his hand in mine and led him to where I'd been standing with Caius before. He knew what to do after listening to my explanation with Caius and stood with his back to mine.
"Ready?" I asked.
He hummed in confirmation, but there was a slightly enthusiastic air to it. Aro's complete fascination with gifted vampires never failed to make me laugh.
This time, it seemed to come almost as second nature to me. With minimal effort, the miniscule particles rose from the ground to spin in fast loops around us. Unlike Caius who stood there frozen in fear, Aro seemed absolutely fascinated. I heard him gasp excitedly which made my unbeating heart swoop.
"Magnifico, cara mia. You are incredible."
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: A little progression in her ability. It's actually crucial that she's able to do this as you'll see it coming to use soon hehe.
Anyway, not much to say to be honest, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love to hear your thoughts, stay safe, and ily lots!