pigtails tied with blue ribbon; it was after Sunday school. Someone who made her smile was pushing her higher and higher. Gabrielle! Her mind screamed it in excitement, but in her strange dream, her mouth didn't move. Her sister was young again, and they were laughing. But then Gabrielle's eyes got sad as she touched her face.
"I have to go soon, Marjorie," Gabrielle said. "You be a good girl and run home and tell them adults everything, okay? Don't keep secrets."
Marjorie shook her head. She remembered the secrets of how Gabrielle was touched the way no one is supposed to touch a daughter. It was too terrible and she squeezed her eyes closed, her mind screaming: Don't leave me. You're my big sister and I love you!
"I love you, too," Gabrielle said, cradling her face. "Look at me - you must hurry," she said in an urgent tone that made the child within Marjorie open her eyes. "They made a spell. Dark covens. I could not hear it because of the barrier to darkness here in the Light. But tell the adults you live with that they must be careful. Tell them to get my ... to get Jasmine and Heather to touch the stones and to see if they can know what trouble is coming your way. I love you. I must go. Mommy and the rest of the family are here." Huge tears of disappointment filled Marjorie's eyes. Can I come, too?
"Not yet, little one," Gabrielle said.
But if Mommy's with you and all our sisters, where's Daddy? I don't want to be left with just Daddy all alone, Marjorie wailed inside her mind. Gabrielle kissed her on the center of her forehead. "Don't worry, sweet pea, he didn't make it up here. God bless him."
Marjorie Berkfield awakened with a gasp and a sob. The team stopped talking and planning to stare at her.
"I miss her so much," Marjorie sobbed, covering her face as Berkfield and Bobby raced to her side with Krissy. "Oh, God, she's gone!"
Berkfield pulled his wife into his arms. "It's all right, Marj, it'll be all right."
"No!" she shouted, twisting in his hold. "She said this time I have to tell the adults. They made a spell."
Not a sound beyond Marjorie's forlorn wails and the team's breathing could be heard in the room for several min utes. Then, one by one, people took their positions.
"Me, you, Tara," Heather said quietly. "To the beach near the stones." Dan shook his head. "Not in your condition... if there's a spiritual attachment or something, honey, please, no."
"I got your back," Juanita said, stepping in for Heather.
Damali stood. "My oracle's down, still grieving, but maybe if I get her some sea water and access Aset for a divination - hey." Without alarming the group or Carlos, she knew she had to break away to get to the Neteru Queens Council. She'd felt a power surge within her that made her fingertips arc with static. It was going down, and it was big. She knew it.
"I'm with it," Inez said. "If the bitches are spell-casting and working roots, oh then it's on. I got people in my family in Brazil and in Haiti on Grandma's side that don't play that. They won't start it but will finish the shit, guaranteed. You know, like they say, 'Don't start none, won't be none.'"
"Now they done jumped into my yard, hard - conjuring heifers ... a dark coven, is that what Gabby said, Marj?" Indignant, Marlene tilted her head with her hands on her hips.
"Your sister came in an astral visit and specifically said that? Now they're sending warlocks and witches, because we've slain all their vamps, huh - is that it?" Marjorie nodded and sniffed hard, calming as she wiped her face. "Yes. But now I also know for sure she made it. I had hoped, but didn't know." Marlene went to her and hugged her tightly as Berkfield eased back. "I felt like this with Christine ... it hurts, but there's peace in knowing."
Marjorie nodded sadly and pressed her face against Mar lene's shoulder as Marlene rubbed her back. "Thank you."
Krissy left J.L.'s hold and went to her mother to create a three-way female hug. "I'm going, too. We all loved her and what happened to her just wasn't right." Damali glimpsed Carlos, but could tell he had gone somewhere very remote within. It was in the way the muscle in his jaw pulsed as he stared out the window