Page 53 of Wind Called

He nodded, expression thoughtful. “It’ll be interesting to find out. If it kicks my visions into overdrive, that can only be a good thing. They’ve been pretty quiet ever since those dreams I had down in Tucson.”

Come to think of it, he was right. Bellamy had to believe that if Marc had had any prophetic dreams since coming to the Verde Valley, he would have told her about them, but that didn’t seem to have happened.

Too bad, because a dream that showed what the Collector looked like and exactly where they could find him would have been pretty helpful.

True, she knew visions didn’t always work that way, but a girl could hope.

“I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see,” she said.

“I suppose so,” he echoed, then reached over to pick up his glass of zinfandel. It worked great with the burgers, and even though they were drinking the only bottle they’d bought, it wasn’t as if they’d have to drive too far to go back to Javelina Leap and buy another one.

Or two…or three….

After dinner, they headed into the living room to watch a movie on the enormous TV mounted on one wall, bigger than anything she’d ever seen before. With a television like that, who needed to go to the movies?

So they snuggled on the couch and watched some silly action film, the sort of thing she wouldn’t have chosen for herself but was entertaining enough. And afterward, they went to bed, falling into each other’s arms and making slow, languorous love until they both basically passed out while still clinging together.

The next morning, Bellamy didn’t think she felt any different — well, except for enjoying the afterglow of being spectacularly laid several times the day before — but this experiment wasn’t really about her, not when she already knew the vortex here at the ranch had woken up corners of her magical gift she hadn’t even known existed.

No, this was all about Marc.

He roused next to her, eyes opening as he stared up at the tongue-and-groove detailing on the ceiling.

“Well?” she said.

A blink, and then he gave a lift of his shoulders, just heavy enough with muscle to make him appear damn good either in or out of a shirt, but not so much that he looked like one of those guys who spent every spare moment in the gym.

“No dreams,” he replied, and a wave of disappointment went through her, even though she’d tried to prepare herself, knowing that everything they were doing right now was pretty much a shot in the dark.

“Nothing at all?”

He pushed himself up to a sitting position and pulled in a breath, almost as if he was centering himself to assess his current physical and mental condition.

“Nothing that I remember,” he said. “I mean, I slept great, but I know that’s not the outcome we were hoping for.”

At once, she leaned over and pressed a kiss against his cheek. “It’s okay. We’re all flying blind here. And a decent night’s sleep is always a good thing, especially since we don’t know what we’ll be facing today.”

If it was even anything at all. Neither of them had heard through their various clan networks that any other incursions had occurred, so maybe the Collector’s would-be thieves had already exhausted their bag of tricks.

Or maybe they’d only retreated so they could regroup and figure out a new plan of attack.

Marc still looked troubled. “I was really hoping being here at the vortex would get my visions going again. But so far…nada.”

“Well,” Bellamy said, doing her best to sound much more upbeat than she felt, “it’s not as if we knew for sure what was going to happen. I think the best thing we can do now is get some coffee in us and have breakfast.”

“You’ve got supplies for that?” he asked, looking a little surprised.

Not that she could blame him. They’d been going out or bringing home takeout this whole time, with not a single mention of putting something together here at the house. He probably thought there wasn’t a single speck of real food at the ranch, except maybe those Kind bars they’d taken with them to Devil’s Bridge the other day.

“A few things,” she said. “I mean, don’t expect pancakes or waffles or anything. But I can make eggs and toast and bacon, if you’re cool with that.”

She figured he probably would be — so far, she hadn’t seen a single hint of dietary restrictions about him — so when he nodded, she wasn’t surprised.

“Okay, then,” she went on. “Let’s have breakfast, and then we can figure out what our day is supposed to look like.”

And hope it would be as blissfully quiet as their morning had been so far.

15

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