Page 54 of Wind Called

They showered separately that morning,with Bellamy going first because she had to wash her hair. And although Marc had more than enjoyed their shower activities the day before, he could understand why she’d want to be alone to take care of her hair rather than have him all over her.

Anyway, he was feeling plenty satisfied right now, so he was okay with this morning being relaxed.

Or as relaxed as it could be, considering how he couldn’t figure out why the small vortex here at the ranch had activated more of Bellamy’s powers while it didn’t seem to have done a damn thing for him.

But after he’d showered as well, he came out to the main part of the house to find her sitting at the dining room table, laptop in front of her as she frowned at the screen.

“Everything okay?” he asked, going over so he could place a gentle kiss on the top of her hair. Her hair smelled sweet and was still slightly damp, although it looked as bright copper as ever.

“Sure,” she said, although her voice was almost absent, as if she was still more focused on what she was reading on her laptop than on him.

“Did you find something?” he asked, and she nodded.

“I thought I’d try to do a little more research on vortexes while you were in the shower. One thing I didn’t know is that there are different kinds. There are inflow vortexes, which are located in valleys and canyons, and upflow vortexes, which are on hillsides or mesas. I guess the inflow vortexes are more associated with feminine energy — Red Rock Crossing is one of those.”

None of this made a whole hell of a lot of sense to Marc, but since he’d barely known anything about Sedona’s vortexes before this except that they existed, he supposed he should cut himself some slack.

“So…what kind of vortex are we sitting on right now?”

“Everything I’ve found says that canyons and valleys are inflow, so I suppose that’s what we’re dealing with here.” She closed her laptop, her expression now almost speculative. “And I wonder if that’s why it didn’t have any effect on you.”

“Because inflow vortexes are all about female energy,” he responded, and she looked pleased.

“That’s what I was thinking. And I had another idea.”

“Which is?” He didn’t like to sound so wary, but since they still didn’t know exactly what they were dealing with, it just seemed smarter to be cautious.

Her mouth quirked, signaling that she’d correctly interpreted his tone and was more amused by it than anything else.

“How would you feel about having my cousin Bree stay over tonight to see if the energies here affect her powers?”

Bree McAllister, Marc recalled vaguely, was the blonde woman, maybe a year older than Bellamy…if even that…who’d been singing at the Tantrum tasting room in Cottonwood a few days ago. She was strikingly pretty and had a gorgeous voice to match, although even then he’d only had eyes for Bellamy and no one else.

“Is singing her talent?” he asked. “Because she’s already pretty good. Unless you want to see whether the vortex energies will turn her into an opera singer or something.”

Now Bellamy just grinned. She had a glass of ice water sitting on a coaster nearby, and she picked it up so she could take a sip.

“No, she comes by that voice without any magic,” she replied. “Bree’s talent is sort of hard to pin down because it’s kind of…everything at once.”

“You mean she controls all the various witch powers?” Marc had a hard time even conceiving of such a thing. Then again, Bree’s father was Levi McAllister. If anyone in the clan was going to have an unusual set of talents, you’d think it would be one of his children.

A pause as Bellamy considered the question, and then she said, “It’s not exactly like that. It’s more like…she can sort of call on the power she needs in any particular situation.”

“Like a Swiss Army knife kind of witch?” he responded, and she sent him another of those brilliant smiles, bright enough to outshine the hot summer sun outside.

God, she was beautiful.

“I suppose that’s one way you can put it,” she replied. “Except…none of those talents are very strong. Sure, she can help your tomatoes grow bigger, but she can’t coax a plant right out of the ground the way I’ve seen some people with green witch powers do. Or, she can fix a sprained ankle and maybe even a broken arm, but she can’t tackle any of the big healing stuff, like cancer or heart disease.” Bellamy set her glass of water back down before continuing. “She told me one time that she thinks none of her talents are super strong because they’re all spread so thin.”

That didn’t sound like quite so much fun. Even though his own gift had been a little too quiescent lately, when it decided to kick in, it was fairly strong. And the protection bubble was always there when he needed it. Sure, it didn’t cover quite as large an area as the ones his father could cast, but considering the only occasion he’d really needed it was one time when he was hiking and had blundered into a swarm of bees, he thought he was okay with that. It had done the job, and that was the important thing.

“So anyway,” Bellamy went on, “that’s why I thought it might be a good idea to see if the vortex here would work on Bree’s talent…or talents, depending on how you look at it. They’re not very strong to begin with, so she should be able to notice a change right away.”

Although Marc wasn’t sure he was overly thrilled about the lack of privacy that having Bree McAllister stay here for a night or two entailed, he had to admit Bellamy’s plan sounded pretty solid to him.

“You think she’ll go for it?” he asked then, and her shoulders lifted just a little.

“I’m hoping she will. Luckily, it’s the middle of the week, so it’s not as if she should have any gigs tonight. Mostly she works Friday through Sunday, although every once in a while she’s asked to play on a weeknight. Anyway, all I can do is ask.”

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