Page 9 of Wind Called

“She is?” Marc replied, a little startled. Despite growing up in de la Paz territory, he knew that Sedona had always been a kind of neutral ground in between the McAllister and Wilcox lands.

“Yes,” his grandmother said, and helped herself to a spoonful of corn chowder. “Not permanently,” she added, as though she needed to clarify the situation so he wouldn’t think they were being utterly reckless. “But some rich man who owns a ranch in West Sedona wanted someone to live there while he was trying to sell the place, and Bellamy agreed to be his caretaker. I assume she’ll be back in Jerome once the ranch is sold — or maybe Cottonwood or Clarkdale. Housing in Jerome is always at a premium.”

Marc could see that. The tiny former mining town had fewer than five hundred full-time residents, and that meant competition was fierce whenever a house or flat became available. Nothing he would ever have to worry about, of course, not when the de la Paz clan had all of southern Arizona to choose from when it came to living spaces, but he supposed he could see why Bellamy might have wanted to have something of an adventure and camp out in Sedona for a while.

If nothing else, it would seriously reduce her commute.

“Well, I guess it wasn’t anything important,” he said, then reached for the butter so he could cut off another chunk and put it on his plate.

“Probably not,” his grandmother agreed.

A warm wind — one Bellamy hadn’t summoned — caught at her loose hair as she stood under a waxing moon. It was nearly one o’clock in the morning, and she knew she should go to bed, even if she had the day off tomorrow…well, today, since it was now technically Sunday.

But an odd restlessness had caught hold of her after she pulled into the huge four-bay garage and entered the ranch house, one she didn’t think would be assuaged by making herself a cup of chamomile tea and watching a few YouTube videos until she’d finally convinced herself it was time to go to bed.

That was why she’d poured some water and gone out into the courtyard so she could stand there and look at the stars. The ranch sat on more than five acres of extremely valuable land — part of the reason why it was listed for a little over seven million dollars — but the courtyard offered a much more intimate space, with an outdoor kitchen off to one side of the covered patio and a modern fountain of granite and brazed bronze in the center. A series of metal wind sculptures ornamented the flowerbeds, and they now moved lazily in the night breeze, never going completely still.

Even though Sedona Vines had been jumping this Saturday night — a tour bus with a bridal party had pulled up only a few minutes after the band got started — Bellamy hadn’t been quite able to put Marc Trujillo out of her mind. She tried to tell herself that of course she would be on edge after a man who claimed to be a seer told her she’d been the central element in a foreboding dream, but she guessed it was something a little more than that.

He was way too attractive for his own good.

Well, for her good, anyway. Unlike a lot of handsome men she’d met, he didn’t seem to have much of an opinion regarding his appearance. In fact, he’d seemed almost diffident when speaking to her, as if he didn’t quite know how she was going to react to what he was saying.

That made some sense, she supposed. No one liked to hear they’d been part of someone’s dark vision, even if the person having the dream in question looked like a male model.

But no…that wasn’t quite right. Marc Trujillo was definitely gorgeous, but he didn’t give off that aura of being way too full of himself like the few models she’d run across while working the wine tasting rooms.

Not that it mattered if he was the handsomest guy in the world, as well as the most self-effacing. He’d come here to see if his dream had any merit, and she’d pretty much shot him down. Maybe he’d hang around for a few days so he could spend some time with his McAllister relations, but there wasn’t any reason why he should seek her out again.

Unless he had another dream, of course.

Bellamy frowned and glanced up at the moon. It continued to sail serenely overhead, just a day or two past the halfway mark, and she guessed it wasn’t going to give her any answers.

Almost without thinking, she raised a hand, and immediately the warm, gentle breeze that had been playing with the loose ends of her hair strengthened, turning into a real wind, one that wanted to whip those strands into her face. Across the courtyard, the spinning of the metal sculptures increased, one of them creaking just the slightest bit with the movement.

She’d need to hit that with some graphite lubricant tomorrow. It wouldn’t do to have those things squeaking all over the place during the home’s next showing…whenever that was. So far, the realtor representing the listing hadn’t reached out to tell her that anyone wanted to look at the place.

Then again, Bellamy had only gotten here yesterday afternoon, and although the property was divine, buyers who qualified for that kind of mortgage…or had that kind of cash just lying around…weren’t exactly thick on the ground. It could take months to get the place sold, which was why Ike Davidson had wanted her living here in the interim. Yes, the house had an elaborate security system, but she could see why he’d needed to make sure the property wouldn’t stand empty all those months.

As quickly as it had come, the wind she’d summoned died down, and she shook her head. She’d had to consciously call the breeze, which meant she wasn’t quite sure what had happened at Sedona Vines when she was talking to Marc Trujillo. Even when she was a ten-year-old kid with her powers just waking up, she’d never made the wind come without thinking about it first, so she didn’t quite know what to make of that odd little display at the wine bar.

Maybe it hadn’t been her powers at all. A coincidence, nothing more.

That would be the easiest thing, wouldn’t it?

Well, she’d figure it out in the morning…or wouldn’t, depending on whether she achieved some sort of illumination overnight. At least it would be a quiet day, one in which she didn’t plan to do anything more momentous than the laundry and maybe a quick trip into town to hit the Safeway and Whole Foods. Once upon a time, she wouldn’t have dreamed of shopping at what her friends called “Whole Paycheck” unless she knew she couldn’t find what she was looking for anywhere else, but now that she was pulling in an assistant manager’s salary in addition to getting paid an extra two grand a month to babysit the ranch, she figured a little splurge wouldn’t hurt anything.

Maybe she would dream about Marc Trujillo.

4

He dreamed again that night.

This time, Bellamy stood outside under a black sky studded with stars, her warm-toned hair bleached pale by the gibbous moon that floated overhead. She didn’t seem to be in any particular distress, and yet the scene still felt vaguely menacing, as if some threat lurked in the shadows at the edges of his vision, something he thought he should be able to recognize but which remained tantalizingly obscure.

For one moment, her eyes met his, and then she shook her head.

Warning him off?

---