Page 23 of Demon Loved (The Witches of Mingus Mountain #5)

He realized he had made a huge mistake in not traveling to Sedona before this, even though he doubted he could have justified such an expedition to himself…let alone to the voice or whoever else might be watching his movements.

Sunset was still half an hour off or so, but the rocks that rose on either side of the town’s main thoroughfare blazed with their own reddish light nonetheless. There was power here, the power of the earth itself, concentrated in certain spots that seemed to glow like beacons on the landscape.

Could Brianna sense any of that? She certainly seemed matter-of-fact enough as she guided them through surprisingly heavy traffic and then turned off onto a winding road that led up to a spot called Airport Mesa, according to one of the signs they passed.

However, he guessed that just because she was a witch didn’t mean she was able to sense the energies that seemed to swirl all around them.

Those energies only grew in strength as the oversized vehicle climbed what felt like at least five hundred feet or maybe more. In fact, the pressure from those energy sinks was so overpowering, he had to force himself to take a breath.

“Are you all right?” she asked as she sent him a worried sideways glance.

He hadn’t said anything, but it seemed she’d been able to detect something of the way the landscape around them was acting upon him.

“I’m fine,” he managed. “This place is…breathtaking.”

In every possible sense of the word.

“It is,” she agreed. “Every time I come into Sedona, I ask myself why I don’t visit more. Then I get stuck in traffic and remember why it’s sometimes a good idea to stay away.”

He was able to chuckle. The pressure on his body was beginning to lessen, although he had a feeling that was more because he was becoming acclimated to those energy sinks than because the power they were emitting had diminished in any fashion.

“I think it’s worth the traffic.”

She smiled. “Maybe you’re right. Anyway, I took a gamble and figured it shouldn’t be so bad on a Sunday evening, especially since this isn’t a holiday weekend or anything.

” A tilt of her head toward the parking lot they were approaching, and she added, “There aren’t a ton of cars, so it looks like I was right. ”

An assertion that was proved correct in the next moment, since the hostess took them to a table right away rather than making them wait to be seated. It was placed up against the windows that created a wall of glass on one side of the restaurant, windows overlooking a small runway.

“Sedona Airport,” Brianna said in response to his questioning glance. “We might see a few planes coming in for a landing, but I doubt anyone will be taking off because we’re so close to sunset.”

“The airport isn’t open at night?”

Not that he had any great knowledge of such things, but some of the movies he’d watched with Elena had shown the characters coming and going from airports at what appeared to be all hours.

“No,” Brianna replied. “Too dangerous. The runway isn’t very long, and with the airport perched up here on the top of the mesa, there’s too much risk of something going wrong.

If you need to land at night, you’d need to go up to Flagstaff, or maybe over to Prescott.

I have to admit I don’t know too much about it — I’ve never flown. ”

This was possibly not that strange a comment coming from someone who didn’t seem to have ever left Arizona. Something about her words had sounded almost challenging, though, as if she wanted to underline that her experience of the world wasn’t very large.

Well, neither was his. He’d learned new things every day he was here, and yet he understood that this world held so many treasures, it would require lifetimes to explore them.

“You’re not missing much,” he said, remembering all the complaining the people in Elena’s movies and TV shows had done about the inconveniences of airports and the cramped conditions on the planes themselves.

Now Brianna smiled. “I suppose you might be right about that. Anyway, we should probably take a look at the menu so we’ll know what to order when our server comes over.”

True enough. Belshegar dutifully picked up his menu and studied its contents, deciding that he would like to try an enchilada.

He knew they were something of a specialty of Elena’s husband, who was an excellent cook, but he hadn’t ordered one since coming to Arizona in human disguise.

Might as well try something of the local cuisine while he was here.

The waiter must have noticed the way they set down their menus, because he approached their table and asked what they would like to order. A bottle of wine, of course, another white, since both he and Brianna were ordering lighter fare.

With that settled, Belshegar shifted so his back touched his chair and he could get a nearly unobstructed view of the red rocks to the east of town and the mesa beyond. The light had shifted enough that they were redder than ever, looking almost as if they were illuminated from within.

In a way, they are, he thought. But with their own energies and nothing else.

If everything had been open between them, he might have asked Bree about the power he’d sensed in this place. Doing so, unfortunately, would signal to her that there was far more to him than met the eye, so instead he pretended that he was admiring the beauty of the scenery.

Which of course he was. It was only that he also knew those red rocks hid their own secrets.

After the waiter had brought their wine and poured each of them a glass, Brianna fiddled with the stem, her eyes studiously directed down at the tabletop. Belshegar could see the way she pulled in a breath, almost as if she was steeling herself for something.

Then she said, “So…is it back to L.A. after this?”

Ah, there was the source of her discomfort. He supposed he could see why it might have been difficult for her to push past her reticence and broach the subject.

“Not right away,” he said, and her slender form almost visibly relaxed.

Today she was much more casual, in a turquoise-hued sleeveless top and jeans rather than a sparkly skirt and silver sandals, but she was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

“Now I’m fairly certain I’ll be here through the end of the week, possibly more. ”

As long as it took to find the artifacts. All right, he hadn’t been looking very hard the past couple of days, although he excused this to himself by thinking there had always been the chance that Brianna might let something slip about her prima and where she lived.

Well, that was the excuse he’d planned to use if he was questioned about why it was taking so long to find the artifacts. He’d been in Jerome for five days now, and he thought that even a being without much concept of time might start to become frustrated at his utter lack of progress.

At once, her eyes lit up, although Belshegar had the impression that she was trying her best not to seem too encouraged by this development.

“You’ve really found that much to do in Jerome?” she asked, her tone almost teasing.

“I have,” he said steadily, meeting her gaze.

This time, she didn’t look away. “I’m glad to hear that,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of fun these past few days.”

So had he. That might not have been his original intention when he came here, but he couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed himself so much, or had the hours pass so quickly.

Perhaps at Elena’s wedding, and yet when he’d attended that event, his happiness had arisen mostly from seeing her so utterly content and so free at the same time, like a butterfly that had finally escaped its cocoon and was now beginning to experience all the joys and experiences it had missed.

For himself, he knew he’d been self-conscious, doing his utter best to make sure nothing he said or anything in how he acted might give away the truth of his being, that he was certainly not human.

Perhaps he had felt that way when he first arrived in Jerome, but as the days had passed and no one seemed to notice anything exceptional about him, he’d allowed himself to relax somewhat.

Or possibly more than merely “somewhat.” Otherwise, he wouldn’t have allowed himself to even entertain the idea of something romantic happening between him and Brianna.

He’d held himself back, of course. He’d told himself such a thing was impossible.

And yet…and yet he couldn’t prevent himself from wondering what it would be like to feel the silky strands of her hair running across his fingers…to imagine how sweet her lips must taste.

So many things that he knew must be utterly forbidden to him.

“Me, too,” he replied. “So I changed my plane ticket to a week from tomorrow.”

Perhaps he shouldn’t have said anything, because he noticed at once how her expression darkened slightly. It seemed she wasn’t too happy to hear that he’d put an end cap on his stay in Jerome, even if it was still a week off.

But she forced her lips into a smile and said, “Well, if you’re going to be here that long, then maybe we can figure out some other things for you to do.

If you have the time, of course,” she added hastily, as if she’d realized that inserting herself in his plans in such a way might have been a little too presumptuous.

“I do,” he said at once. Although he knew he needed to be more dedicated in his search for the artifacts, he also realized such a pursuit couldn’t take up every hour of every day. “Which days do you have free?”

“Tomorrow,” she said promptly. “No winery gigs — a lot of them are closed on Mondays — and no music lessons, either.”

That sounded good to him…until he reminded himself that he really should dedicate a portion of his day to his search, even if that resulted in him doing nothing more than sitting in his hotel room and racking his brain in a vain attempt to discover the artifacts’ hiding place.

“In the afternoon?” he returned. “I have something I need to do in the morning.”