* * *
it had taken almost a full hour to get all the rooms properly prayer-barrier readied, and
even longer for every body to settle in, check their weapons, and come to a con sensus about what to eat. Marjorie gave up refereeing and curled into a ball on the sofa while everyone finally decided to order in for the meeting.
In the remotest part of her mind she heard them talking. Yes, she agreed, it made sense to get something here, now, and then venture out a little later more rested. A lot had tran
spired. Rabbi was coming in tomorrow. Dan and Heather and Carlos would meet the Weinsteins. Shame they couldn't meet the whole team, she dreamily thought as consciousness ebbed. It was good for parents to know where their children were and who their friends were ...
She was back home at her parents' house. The swing set she remembered was brand-new. She had on Mary Jane shoes and had long blond 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 in profile. But that was only right, given how Gabrielle had been tied to his best friend Yonnie ... a vampire still MIA and behind en emy lines. Now she thoroughly understood why Carlos had freaked. The man hadn't overreacted at all.
The Honeymoon Is Over
CHAPTER SEVEN
Trying to take everyone to the beach didn't make sense, but that was just what looked like would happen. She needed to get Carlos alone for a generals' powwow, and she could tell by the way he bristled that he was uncomfortable with the team's swift-moving tidal wave of emotion. They both turned and looked at each other at the same time.
"Hold it!" they said in unison, making the group go still. Carlos crossed the room and folded his arms over his chest, blocking the hotel suite's exit. Damali came to stand beside him. He gave her the nod, silently yielding the floor.
"Look, the first Armageddon seal has been opened, and all of our nerves are raw. So, before we do anything that could put anybody on this team at risk, we need intelligence."
"D's right. If the dark covens opened up like Marj got from a spirit dream warning, then before any of the group touches some polluted stones, picks up an attachment, or anything whack that could go down, me and Damali need to find out just what's up."