Sapphire Nights (Crystal Magic Book 1)(60)
Cass waved her hand in the air, and the light balls swirled around Dinah. Apparently taking that as permission, Dinah stood to speak. “I have nowhere else to go. My café is profitable here. Where else would I find better customers? But I rent from the same place everyone else does. If they don’t renew my lease, I have no choice but to pack up.”
One by one, the story was repeated—the Kennedy leasing company owned the land the town was built on. If they protested development—who knew what would happen?
A gray-bearded man in flannel shirt and overalls rose slowly when his turn came. “Listen to us! The vampire has sucked our souls, our ability to fight, and made us what we are today. We fought the Evil One once and won—at a cost. Where will we find the strength to do it again?”
“This sounds like something out of a fantasy novel,” Sam murmured in exasperation.
One of the older women she’d met at the séance patted her knee. “Exciting, isn’t it? The spirits have been demanding action for years now, and we’ve been too comfortable to listen. Finally, we can act.”
Sam wanted to suggest that a lawyer would make more sense than theatrics, but she had no cat in this fight. She’d be gone long before they settled anything. An argument broke out that had the lights circling madly, and she got antsy again. She glanced around and thought she saw Walker in his cowboy hat coming up the path they’d taken earlier in the week, when she’d told him about her memory problem. She longed to go to him, but it would be foolish to do so.
The weirdly liquid banshee wail was coalescing into words, and Sam grimaced, recognizing Valdis. Was this really her aunt—a melodramatic, mentally unhinged aunt?
“The Evil must be expunged from this plane,” Valdis cried in a voice that carried like an owl’s hoots in the night air. Standing on a rocky ledge above the others, she waved a long black cloak like batwings. “The Earth belongs to the Mother. She must take up the battle and lead the way.”
Oh yeah, right, auntie, so not happening, Sam thought grimly.
“She’s a Kennedy,” someone else shouted from the woods. “She’s probably spying on us right now. I say send her back where she came from. We were fine until she arrived.”
Oh well, thank you so much. “I don’t like this,” Sam whispered. She felt as if she were back in seventh grade with the mean girls writing Her parents are weird and she smells like goats. She couldn’t punch an entire town. “I don’t belong here.”
Amber hugged her. “Of course you do, poppet. Cass brought you here for just this reason. He’s right, the energy vampire has weakened us, but you will bring us life again, just the way you have nourished our planters.”
“Because plants and people are no different?” Sam asked with an edge of sarcasm. “I should dump manure on you?” But no one responded to her nervous anger. She didn’t have to stay.
She simply longed for the peaceful land she’d had before her parents died—one where she was normal and felt at home. . .
Heated mutters rose on the wind, disturbing the fantasy drama. The light balls flickered and started fading. Mariah and Cass shouted over the buzz of voices, but it was obvious old animosities had been stirred. Sam decided it was time to go. She stood up, and this time, Amber didn’t stop her.
“Go and keep on going,” a male voice shouted when she tried to find a path up the rocks. “We don’t need no Nulls here,” a second, female, voice cried. “She’s the reason Juan died!” another cried. “The Evil One spewed the skeleton because of her!”
Rattled, Sam fought her way through the bodies blocking her in. They shifted, parted, let her pass—until a large masculine frame blocked her way. She almost flung herself into Walker’s arms. “Get me out of here,” she whispered.
“Not like this. You have to play to the crowd.” He swung her around, forcing her to face the mob. He shouted to be heard. “Cass is a Kennedy. Do you call her a Null?”
Mariah echoed his cry. “Have you taken time to see what Samantha has done with our planters in town? Those weeds she planted in the alley—have you seen how they’re blooming already? And you call her a Null?”
Resentfully, Sam wanted to shake off the strong hands holding her pinned to the spot. But. . . People had noticed her planters? And thought them special? Why?
Below, Cass and Mariah were casting their magic again. The lights were back, and Valdis’s wail had ceased. That alone was sufficient to let the hair on the back of her neck rest.
“She knows how to use a staff,” Harvey called from the woods.
“I’ve been inside her head, dears,” Cass said, drawing the remaining balls around her. “Don’t be foolish. Sam is one of us.”
Cass’s admission that she’d been inside Sam’s head silenced even Sam. She’d hated being treated like an outsider. Now she wasn’t entirely certain she wanted to be an insider. One would have to be crazy to live like this.
“United we stand,” Mariah called. “Are we united in fighting development?”
Walker muttered an expletive as a shout rang around the clearing. “I think we’re done here. Coming with me?”
Wordlessly, Sam followed him out of the shouting crowd. She heard warm murmurs of farewell from the women surrounding her, but she still felt the hostility of strangers packing the arena. She’d thought she’d found a place of welcome. Maybe no such place existed.