Page 64 of Wind Called

“The vision came toyou,didn’t it?” she said simply, and he gave a reluctant nod.

“I guess it did.”

“We can do this,” she went on. She couldn’t say for sure whether the confidence building inside was false bravado, or whether some deeper, subtler instincts were at work.

Maybe the voices still whispered on the wind, only this time so softly that she heard them with her soul and not her ears.

“Who else?” she said, when it seemed Marc was all right with merely sitting there and listening to her argument rather than trying to comment. “I suppose Levi wouldn’t have a problem hiking out there, and maybe Connor and Angela wouldn’t, either. Sure, they can teleport, but not when they don’t know exactly where they’re going. No offense, but I don’t think your grandmother could manage a hike like that, and I know Allegra Moss sure as hell couldn’t.”

Definitely not Allegra, who some days seemed as though she could barely get up the stairs of her front porch. More than once, people had tried to convince her that she should sell the house to someone else in the clan and move down the hill to a more manageable home in the 55+ community in Clarkdale, but she always adamantly refused. She’d lived in that house for more than fifty years, raised her children there…sat at her husband’s side as he moved beyond the veil and on into the next life…and she wasn’t leaving until they carried her out on a stretcher.

Her prerogative of course, but she also was not a candidate for hiking around in some of the roughest terrain Sedona had to offer.

And Tricia seemed to be in decent enough shape, but she was also getting up there and probably shouldn’t be put in a position where she might fall and break a hip, or worse.

No, it definitely seemed as if Bellamy and Marc should be the ones to handle this.

“If we go out there and don’t find anything,” she continued, “then sure, we’ll pass along everything we know and see if Levi or Angela or Connor can figure out how to track down this person. But it just seems to me that if you had the vision now, then we should act as well.”

For the first time, Marc smiled, teeth flashing in the darkness.

“Do you think we could get a couple more hours of sleep first?”

Bellamy couldn’t help smiling in return, and leaned over so she could give him a kiss. Not the kind of deep embrace that would signal she was open to other activities, but one that, she hoped, would tell Marc she loved him and would always be there for him.

And that she would also listen to him when he was intimating that they didn’t need to go running off half-cocked. Yes, the sun rose early at this time of year, but she knew if they woke up around six-thirty and got ready quickly, then they could still be out in the Secret Canyon wilderness less than an hour later.

After that?

Well, she supposed they’d just have to see.

They went to sleep again, although Bellamy had reached for her phone and set an alarm. If they were going to go traipsing around the back of beyond, they needed to be up early enough that they could beat most of the heat.

It started beeping away at six-thirty, and she sort of reached over to swat the thing, almost knocking it to the floor.

“I’ll get in the shower,” she said, leaning over to kiss Marc before she pushed herself out of bed.

A quick one, since she was out of the bathroom ten minutes later, already dressed, her coppery hair pulled back into a ponytail. “It’s all yours,” she announced as she started rummaging through her overnight bag.

“On it,” Marc replied, and swung his legs over the side of the bed so he could get up. The vinyl plank floor was cool against his feet, and he hurried over to the bathroom, which was still warm and steamy from Bellamy’s brief shower.

He did his best to be as quick as she had been, and decided he didn’t need to worry about shaving today. Most of the time, he’d let a few days pass before he broke out the razor again, since he preferred to be a little scruffy, but he should have tackled the task today.

Oh, well. Hopefully, Bellamy wouldn’t mind the way the scruff was about to become a beard if he let it go much longer.

A comb through his damp hair and that was it. She hadn’t washed her hair, either, because time was of the essence this morning. Marc had to hope their quarry would have no idea they were coming and would stay hunkered down in the cave he’d seen in his vision, but if he — or she — didn’t, then better to go chasing after them before temperatures climbed out of the eighties.

However, even though he hadn’t seen the unknown thief’s face, he’d gotten the impression it was a man. Maybe that supposition would turn out to be totally wrong, since there were plenty of tall, broad-shouldered women out there, but the feelings he got from his visions were usually correct.

Bellamy was already dressed in shorts and a tank top and hiking boots, and was rubbing sunblock on her arms when he emerged from the bathroom. “Almost ready?” she asked, and he nodded.

“Just about,” he replied. “Let me get some clothes on, and then I’ll probably want some of that sunblock, too.”

He moved fast, however, and they were both out the door just a little after seven, well ahead of schedule. The little breakfast area adjacent to the reception desk had coffee and Danish out, though, so they paused just long enough to pour themselves some go-cups and pick up a couple of pastries before heading over to his truck. A bit of dew sparkled on the roof, telling him that humidity levels had come up a bit. The sky was clear, but he still wondered if they might be in for some storms later today.

An inquiring glance at Bellamy, and she tilted her head up at the pale morning heavens above.

“The wind is from the east,” she said. “So yeah, we might get some more monsoon action.”

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