Page 74 of Sapphire Nights
She froze to consider what she was doing. It was dark and getting cold. If she were a snake, she’d be slithering into a warm nest about now, except she had a vague recollection that rattlers hunted at night. She wore sturdy boots, but she had no idea how old the batteries werein her flashlight. A sensible person would go back andaskabout the graves—but if anyone knew, wouldn’t they have mentioned italready?
A sensible person wouldn’t be out here paying attention to the frantic tugs of a dead tree branch. She knew she was following this insanity out of fear. Valdis had been out in the heat and cold without water or food for twenty-four hours. How much longercould she last? What if she had a heart condition? What if she’d been bit bysnakes?
What if someone had tried to murder Valdis as they had killedJuan?
Instinct and emotion... or science andfact?
She’d spent her life with science, enough to know that book learning wouldn’t help her now. The time had come to extend her experience beyond the ivorytower.
She followedthe damned twitching stick. Walker would never speak to her again. She regretted that, but he’d never promised more than good sex. He would be going back to LA and his executive position, and she was pretty certain by now that she wouldn’t follow. Her hands belonged in dirt, not oncomputers.
It tore at her lonely heart to give him up, but maybe she’d find a home in Hillvale. She missedhaving family. She needed to figure out what kind of life she wanted to make for herself, and what people she wanted populating it. Even if she eventually had to leave to make a living, she would like to think she had a place to come back to, where people knewher.
The staff led her up a crude path through shrub untouched by the fire. She sensed she was heading in the same direction inwhich they’d found Daisy, but this was higher ground. Surely Valdis wouldn’t have buried her parents way up here?Why?
If she could see below, she was pretty certain she’d see the farm in the distance. This had to be the ridge high above the bluff that had protected Daisy’s little hideaway. She sensed the oddlybadenergy on this side of the vortex. If she was into woo-woo and spiritualismthe way the other Lucys were, she’d be concerned too. Instead, she wondered about polluted aquifers or an earthquake fault hidden beneath the pines andmanzanita.
Of course, if she could find those, she might be able to stop the development with science. Her other family would hateher.
An anguished banshee howl lifted the hairs on the back of herneck.
