Page 56 of Wind Called

“Is that going to cause a problem?”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “It’s asking a lot, especially since I only started there a month ago. But as Levi said, clan business comes first. So if I get fired, I get fired. I’ll find something else.”

Even though she didn’t want to find something else. Getting hired as assistant manager at Sedona Vines had been a big step for her, and even though there were plenty of jobs available at the various tasting rooms around the area, positions that put you on an actual career track were a lot fewer and farther between.

Well, she supposed there was always her old bedroom at her fathers’ apartment above the candy shop if everything fell apart, although going back home would feel like utter defeat.

Marc pressed his lips against her forehead, his touch very gentle, as if he knew he couldn’t initiate anything when Bree was about to ring the doorbell at any second. “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.” He stepped away so he could meet her gaze, his dark eyes full of understanding. “But if it does, we’ll figure it out together.”

Together. Crazy to think they actually had a “together” when she’d been so relentlessly single only a few days earlier.

But she was very glad she wasn’t having to navigate all these complications on her own.

The doorbell rang then, so the two of them went over to answer it. When Bellamy opened the door, Bree was standing outside, an overnight bag slung over one shoulder and a slightly mystified expression on her face.

“If this is a vortex, I can’t really feel anything,” she said as she stepped inside.

“I didn’t, either,” Bellamy replied. “It was only after I slept here that I noticed some…changes.”

Bree’s eyebrows lifted ever so slightly, but then she glanced over at Marc. “Hi,” she said. “I’m Bree McAllister. You were at Tantrum Wines the other day, right?”

“I was,” he said as he extended a hand. “I’m Marc Trujillo. Thanks for participating in our experiment.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Bree said with a grin, even as the three of them left the foyer and went farther into the house. She set her overnight bag down on the floor behind the couch and looked around, expression clearly impressed. “I figured this place would be pretty awesome, but this is amazing. What a great gig!”

“Yes, I sort of lucked into the whole thing,” Bellamy replied. “But let me show you where you’re going to be sleeping. Marc and I think you probably won’t need to stay here for more than one or two nights, depending on what happens.”

She hoped it wouldn’t take anything more than that, not when Marc had booked a two-night stay at Sky Ranch Lodge starting tomorrow. True, she could always have him head over there while she remained here with Bree, but she had to admit that didn’t seem like a great solution.

They might not have been together for very long, and yet she hated the idea of having to sleep apart from him.

He waited in the living room while she took Bree to the other side of the house where the secondary bedrooms and bathrooms were located. Each room had its ownen suitebath, which Bellamy had to admit was pretty convenient, and they were so big that in most houses, they would have been more than sufficient for the main suite.

This wasn’t most houses, though.

Bree looked approving, especially when she saw that the room where she’d be staying also opened onto a patio a little smaller than the main courtyard off the living spaces. “It’s definitely bigger than my bedroom at the apartment,” she remarked.

Since Bellamy had been there plenty of times, she knew her cousin was only telling the truth. About six months earlier, the apartment over the art gallery on Main Street had become available, and Bree had been able to snap it up. Part of her lease required that she had to keep an eye on the gallery if the owner needed to step away, but it didn’t sound as if her responsibilities were too onerous or interfered with her various singing gigs.

“The house is almost seven thousand square feet,” Bellamy said. “So there’s a lot of room to spread out.”

Her cousin Bree headed into the bathroom, which was also where the walk-in closet was located. After storing her overnight bag in there, she came back out and closed the door.

“So…is this thing with you and Marc serious?”

“We’ve only known each other a couple of days,” Bellamy protested, although she knew the words sounded weak even to her.

Bree pursed her mouth. She’d pulled her long blonde hair into a ponytail and was wearing a tank top and jeans and only a little bit of lip gloss, but she still looked like a princess who’d decided to go slumming.

“We’re witches, Bellamy,” she said. “The normal rules about relationships don’t apply to us. You know that.”

She supposed she did. Or rather, while she’d understood on an intellectual level that witches and warlocks often had attractions that developed quickly, that they generally had a unique ability to find their soul mate, she had begun to think it would never happen to her, that she’d settle for some decent guy — probably a civilian, since before Marc, she hadn’t met any warlocks who really got her motor running — and figure out what to do with the rest of her life going from there.

Clearly, that hadn’t happened.

“I like him a lot,” she replied. “And I know he likes me. We’re good together. But right now, I think we’re both just focusing on getting to the bottom of everything that’s been going on during the past few days. This vortex stuff. The Collector, whoever that is.”

Bree’s expression turned much more serious. “My father told me about that. I still find it hard to believe that anyone has the kind of magic that could get past the wards the elders and Connor and Angela placed on their house.”

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