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They showered separately that morning, with Bellamy going first because she had to wash her hair. And although Marc had more than enjoyed their shower activities the day before, he could understand why she’d want to be alone to take care of her hair rather than have him all over her.

Anyway, he was feeling plenty satisfied right now, so he was okay with this morning being relaxed.

Or as relaxed as it could be, considering how he couldn’t figure out why the small vortex here at the ranch had activated more of Bellamy’s powers while it didn’t seem to have done a damn thing for him.

But after he’d showered as well, he came out to the main part of the house to find her sitting at the dining room table, laptop in front of her as she frowned at the screen.

“Everything okay?” he asked, going over so he could place a gentle kiss on the top of her hair. Her hair smelled sweet and was still slightly damp, although it looked as bright copper as ever.

“Sure,” she said, although her voice was almost absent, as if she was still more focused on what she was reading on her laptop than on him.

“Did you find something?” he asked, and she nodded.

“I thought I’d try to do a little more research on vortexes while you were in the shower. One thing I didn’t know is that there are different kinds. There are inflow vortexes, which are located in valleys and canyons, and upflow vortexes, which are on hillsides or mesas. I guess the inflow vortexes are more associated with feminine energy — Red Rock Crossing is one of those.”

None of this made a whole hell of a lot of sense to Marc, but since he’d barely known anything about Sedona’s vortexes before this except that they existed, he supposed he should cut himself some slack.

“So…what kind of vortex are we sitting on right now?”

“Everything I’ve found says that canyons and valleys are inflow, so I suppose that’s what we’re dealing with here.” She closed her laptop, her expression now almost speculative. “And I wonder if that’s why it didn’t have any effect on you.”

“Because inflow vortexes are all about female energy,” he responded, and she looked pleased.

“That’s what I was thinking. And I had another idea.”

“Which is?” He didn’t like to sound so wary, but since they still didn’t know exactly what they were dealing with, it just seemed smarter to be cautious.

Her mouth quirked, signaling that she’d correctly interpreted his tone and was more amused by it than anything else.

“How would you feel about having my cousin Bree stay over tonight to see if the energies here affect her powers?”

Bree McAllister, Marc recalled vaguely, was the blonde woman, maybe a year older than Bellamy…if even that…who’d been singing at the Tantrum tasting room in Cottonwood a few days ago. She was strikingly pretty and had a gorgeous voice to match, although even then he’d only had eyes for Bellamy and no one else.

“Is singing her talent?” he asked. “Because she’s already pretty good. Unless you want to see whether the vortex energies will turn her into an opera singer or something.”

Now Bellamy just grinned. She had a glass of ice water sitting on a coaster nearby, and she picked it up so she could take a sip.

“No, she comes by that voice without any magic,” she replied. “Bree’s talent is sort of hard to pin down because it’s kind of…everything at once.”

“You mean she controls all the various witch powers?” Marc had a hard time even conceiving of such a thing. Then again, Bree’s father was Levi McAllister. If anyone in the clan was going to have an unusual set of talents, you’d think it would be one of his children.

A pause as Bellamy considered the question, and then she said, “It’s not exactly like that. It’s more like…she can sort of call on the power she needs in any particular situation.”

“Like a Swiss Army knife kind of witch?” he responded, and she sent him another of those brilliant smiles, bright enough to outshine the hot summer sun outside.

God, she was beautiful.

“I suppose that’s one way you can put it,” she replied. “Except…none of those talents are very strong. Sure, she can help your tomatoes grow bigger, but she can’t coax a plant right out of the ground the way I’ve seen some people with green witch powers do. Or, she can fix a sprained ankle and maybe even a broken arm, but she can’t tackle any of the big healing stuff, like cancer or heart disease.” Bellamy set her glass of water back down before continuing. “She told me one time that she thinks none of her talents are super strong because they’re all spread so thin.”

That didn’t sound like quite so much fun. Even though his own gift had been a little too quiescent lately, when it decided to kick in, it was fairly strong. And the protection bubble was always there when he needed it. Sure, it didn’t cover quite as large an area as the ones his father could cast, but considering the only occasion he’d really needed it was one time when he was hiking and had blundered into a swarm of bees, he thought he was okay with that. It had done the job, and that was the important thing.

“So anyway,” Bellamy went on, “that’s why I thought it might be a good idea to see if the vortex here would work on Bree’s talent…or talents, depending on how you look at it. They’re not very strong to begin with, so she should be able to notice a change right away.”

Although Marc wasn’t sure he was overly thrilled about the lack of privacy that having Bree McAllister stay here for a night or two entailed, he had to admit Bellamy’s plan sounded pretty solid to him.

“You think she’ll go for it?” he asked then, and her shoulders lifted just a little.

“I’m hoping she will. Luckily, it’s the middle of the week, so it’s not as if she should have any gigs tonight. Mostly she works Friday through Sunday, although every once in a while she’s asked to play on a weeknight. Anyway, all I can do is ask.”

“Then I suppose you should text her,” Marc replied. It would be good to get to the bottom of this vortex thing, and if it turned out Bree’s powers really were enhanced by spending some time here, then at least it would prove that the ranch’s vortex did seem to affect only women.

So, did that mean he should try going to one of the outflow vortexes, the ones on the hilltops and mesas, to see if they did the same thing for him?

Maybe, although he wasn’t sure how he was going to manage sleeping there. As Bellamy had already pointed out, most of Sedona’s most powerful vortexes were located on Forest Service land, which meant you couldn’t just pitch a tent wherever you wanted.

When he mentioned that small complication to her, however, she only shook her head, still looking a bit amused.

“It’s actually not as big a deal as you think. Airport Mesa is one of the most powerful vortexes here, if this map Clint Greaves gave us is at all accurate, and there’s a hotel built right on top of it — Sky Ranch Lodge. We can stay there for a night or two and see what happens.”

He had to admit that sounded like a pretty decent plan as well. Sure, it meant he’d be paying for yet another place to stay, but he was okay with spending a couple of hundred extra bucks to find out if he was vortex-impervious or whether he just needed to experience the right kind to really supercharge his powers, so to speak.

Bellamy got out her phone, saying, “I’m going to text Bree now. Why don’t you see if Sky Ranch Lodge has any rooms available for tomorrow night?”

“Sure,” he replied, and also plucked his phone from his pocket. He figured he’d try one of the discount hotel apps first, and if they didn’t have anything, then he’d just call the place directly and hope for the best.

But it turned out Expedia had two rooms left for August thirteenth, so he went ahead and made the booking, securing a king room for two nights just in case it turned out that he needed a little more time to really determine whether the outflow energies of the Airport Mesa vortex had affected him at all.

Just as he was finishing with the reservations, Bellamy’s phone binged. She picked it up, looked down at the screen, and then settled against the back of her chair, looking relieved.

“That was Bree. She said she doesn’t have anything going on until Friday night, so she’s cool with participating in our little experiment. What time do you want her to come over?”

As late as possible, flashed through Marc’s mind, but he knew that wasn’t a very friendly response. Bree McAllister was helping them out, after all, so as much as he would have liked an intimate dinner with Bellamy tonight, he knew he should do what he could to make her cousin feel included.

“I don’t know…five-thirty or six? We can try some pizza from Pisa Lisa tonight.”

“No pineapple, I assume,” Bellamy replied, mouth quirking a little. “You wouldn’t want my whole clan to know your dirty little secret.”

He chuckled, thinking that if loving Hawaiian pizza was the biggest secret he needed to conceal, then he was probably doing okay. “I think I can live with pepperoni for one night.”

Smiling, she typed out a quick reply to her cousin, presumably letting Bree know the timing of her arrival. Another response came back lightning fast, telling Marc that she’d probably been camped on her phone, waiting to hear back regarding their plans.

“Well, that’s done,” Bellamy announced as she set down her phone, then pushed back her chair so she could stand up. She put her arms around him, squeezing just the smallest bit, and then murmured in his ear, “I know we won’t be able to do anything while Bree is staying here, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun before she arrives.”

A woman after his own heart. Not for the first time, Marc wondered what he’d done to deserve a woman like Bellamy McAllister. It wasn’t as if he was a bad person or anything like that, but he also didn’t think he’d been the sort of outstanding warlock that would attract a woman who was so amazing in every way.

However, he wasn’t going to argue. If the universe had decided to put them in each other’s paths, then he was more than happy to go along for the ride.

“That’s a great idea,” he said, and took her by the hand and led her down the hall to the bedroom.

Bellamy was pretty sure she’d gotten rid of all evidence of hers and Marc’s activities that afternoon — the bed in the master bedroom was neatly made, and she’d gone into the bathroom and carefully applied mascara and lip gloss…along with some concealer to cover the marks he’d left on her neck. They were still kind of there if you looked close enough, but her loose hair should serve to hide most of them.

At exactly five-thirty, her phone pinged again.

I’m at the gate. Can you buzz me in?

Sure. Just give me a sec.

She went over to the security panel on the wall in the kitchen and pressed the button that operated the gate. Marc had been sitting in the living room, half-heartedly watching a Diamondbacks game, and she called out,

“Bree should be here in a couple of minutes. I just got the gate for her.”

At once, Marc picked up the remote so he could turn off the TV. As he stood, he said, “Have you thought about what you’re going to do about work?”

Oh, she’d thought a lot…well, when he hadn’t been sending her to another plane of existence as another orgasm shuddered its way through her.

“I guess I’ll just have to take the rest of the week off,” she told him. “I mean, all this is so up in the air that I just can’t see my way clear to spending all day at work.”

She tried to sound blithe about the whole thing, but she supposed her concern must have been mirrored in her face, because he immediately came over and took her hands in his.

“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 own en suite bath, 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.”

“But they did,” Bellamy said, doing what she could to sound level and matter-of-fact, even though she knew deep down that she was worried about the way the would-be thief had been able to succeed at such an incursion. “And Zoe de la Paz’s house, too, which means we’re not dealing with some sort of one-off situation here. It’s kind of scary.”

That was one word for it. However, even though Bellamy had found herself sort of creeped out here and there by what was going on, she was much more interested in unknotting the various mysteries she and Marc had encountered than letting herself get sucked into emotional reactions.

Except for the reaction she’d had to him, of course. She wasn’t about to step away from those emotions.

“But I also think they’re on top of it,” she continued briskly. “No one was expecting that kind of incursion. Now, though, we’ve all been tipped off and know to keep our guard up. It’s going to be okay.”

Bree didn’t respond for a moment, but then her mouth curved into a half-smile. “Especially if sleeping here for a night or two kicks my gifts into high gear. It would be nice to have something that wasn’t so…wimpy.”

It had been tough for her cousin to realize that her powers weren’t terribly strong despite having a father who was some sort of otherworldly being and who possessed magic that was stronger than that of anyone else in the clan except for Connor and Angela. Bree had soldiered along pretty well, but still, she continued to look at herself as a disappointment even if no one else thought of her that way.

Her brother Shane, who was almost two years older, had inherited a gift that Marc’s McAllister uncle also possessed, being an absolute whiz in the kitchen who could whip up just about anything and have it be Cordon Bleu level of quality. No, that sort of talent wasn’t going to change the world or anything, but it was very strong, powerful enough that Shane was already working as the head chef at The Asylum, the fancy restaurant in the Grand Hotel at the top of the hill in Jerome.

Because there wasn’t much point in saying that Bree’s grab bag of talents was still useful even if individually they weren’t all that powerful, Bellamy decided to let it go.

“Well, we should go out to the living room and talk about our plan of attack,” she said.

“‘Attack’?” Bree echoed. “I thought this was all about me just staying here and seeing if the vortex energy does anything to me.”

“It is,” Bellamy replied. “But we also need to know how best to test your gifts tomorrow to see if there’s been any changes. When it happened to me, I didn’t have any idea what was going on. Now I know it was the vortex, making it so I can’t just control the winds, but also hear the messages they have for me.”

“That seems like a pretty cool enhancement,” Bree said. “So I’ll cross my fingers that I get something similar.”

Bellamy didn’t know about “cool” — hearing voices was the sort of thing that could get you shipped off to the funny farm — but she let it go. Those whispers on the wind had been helpful in their own way, had provided information that she otherwise would have never been able to obtain. Just because they were disconcerting didn’t mean she could ignore them.

They went back out to the living room, where Marc was sitting on the couch. He was watching the game again, but with the sound muted, so it wasn’t too intrusive.

“All settled?” he asked, and Bree smiled.

“I am. This is an incredible house, so I don’t think I’m going to mind hanging out here for a bit.”

Hopefully, just for one night. Bellamy knew she couldn’t control that outcome, though, so instead they chatted a bit about Bree’s powers — they all agreed that testing her skill with growing things was probably the safest, and thought she could work with it tomorrow by making one of the cacti planted out in front of the house bloom again. That time had already come and gone, but if she could get that barrel cactus to burst forth with bright yellow flowers when it was completely out of season, then it would prove that even a single night’s exposure to the inflow vortex here had made a difference. And since they went outside just to make sure she couldn’t perform that feat right now — she concentrated with all her might on the cactus, but nothing happened — it seemed pretty clear that any changes in her powers would be due to the vortex located here and nothing else.

After that, they pulled up Pisa Lisa’s menu online and decided on dinner, going for a large pepperoni pizza and a side salad and some of the restaurant’s famous tiramisu for dessert. They all seemed pretty relaxed with each other, and Bellamy found some of her worries receding.

This was all going to work out just fine.