To Wrangle A Witch (Southern Sanctuary Book 3) (12 page)

Chapter
Fifteen

Locke
was outside of all places, and even more incredibly he was barefoot. 

Serena
looked down with worry at her own sneaker clad feet, even with the thin layer
of rubber between her and the sandstone she didn’t want to be outside. 
Which was ironic given she’d spent every day since her arrival wishing Locke
would join her in the garden, and now that they were outside together she
wanted to be anywhere else in the world. 

Nausea
roiled in her gut while her skin crawled as if bugs sharpened their pincers
against the inside of her flesh. She and Locke’s courtyard garden had formed a
symbiosis, it happened sometimes with Earth Witches when they found a home or
needed a temporary safe haven to heal or reconnect with the Earth Mother. 

Currently
the heels of her tennis shoes were digging into the sandstone at the edge of the
shaded veranda area preventing Locke from dragging her any further. 
Instinctively she’d also wrapped an arm around the nearest stone column. Locke
might be currently physically weak but he still had a height and weight
advantage, plus a basket full of tricks up his expensive Armani sweatshirt
sleeve.  Seriously, who owned Armani sweats? 

Locke
turned and studied the mulish expression on Serena’s face. 

“I’m
sorry, I really can’t do this.”  Serena tightened her one armed hold on
the column. Her gaze though travelled past his shoulder with longing.  The
little garden of Eden she’d created looked spectacular in the early afternoon
sunshine.  A riot of light and dark greens combined with dramatic splashes
of colour as bees buzzed lazily by and butterflies dipped and played on the
breeze.  Her garden… what was she saying? Locke’s garden, had never looked
better, a beckoning oasis of Mother Nature’s bounty. 

Yet
despite what she could see all Serena could focus on was what she felt.  A
black wave of claustrophobia threatened to engulf her as the earth and the
plants fairly screamed their agony and terror in her head.  So much pain…
their fear was practically drowning her.
 
She squeezed her eyes shut trying to block it all out.

“Hey,
calm down.”  Locke his tone low and soothing stepped back towards her,
bringing an arm around her waist, providing support and comfort.

Serena
sagged against him, the heat of his body driving away the cold chills that were
skating along her bones. 

Gently
Locke placed a finger under her chin, tilting her face upwards.  “Serena…”

She
heard the gentle amusement in his voice, he thought this was funny? 

“Serena…”

Her
eyes snapped open.  “This isn’t funny Locke.”  Tears shimmered in
those blue-purple depths.

“Hey
Darling, no one is laughing here.”

“I
can’t go out there… so much pain… the screaming… in my head.”

Locke
squeezed her a little bit tighter.  “What if I told you I could make it
right?”

She
shook her head.

A
determined light entered Locke’s eyes.  No one hurt Serena.  No one
got to take from her something she loved and cherished without
repercussions.  “
I promise I can
Witch.
  I just need a little bit of help from you.  I can feel it
too… the wrongness, but I need your help to pinpoint it exactly.”

“I
can’t…”  She shook her head again.  “I want to but…”  The pain
it was so overwhelming.

“What
you need to do is focus on something other than the garden, something nice.”

“This
is not a Sound of Music moment.  I’m not going to be thinking about
kittens and raindrops and shit when all I can feel is the garden crying out in
pain and agony.”
 
She grit the words out
between clenched teeth so she wouldn’t burst into tears of frustration.

“I
could distract you.”
 
Locke offered with
a wicked quick arch of his right eyebrow.

Serena
rolled her eyes, pressing her lips together tightly.  “Nothing could
distract me at this moment Locke.  Please… please let me go.”

“Serena,
it’s okay I’ve got you.”  Locke moved his hand, settling it very
deliberately on her hip where her top had pulled away from the waistband of her
jeans. 

She
jumped as his thumb began to gently caress back and forth over the hyper aware
bare flesh of her stomach “Umm…”  What had she been saying?

“You
know I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear this many clothes before.”

“What?” 
She blinked.

“I
kind of like it but I miss seeing your toes.”

“My
toes?”  She repeated, bemused.

“Yeah,
you have really cute toes.”

Serena
blinked slowly, the man just kept on surprising her.  “You’ve seen me
naked…”

“Skyclad
I believe is the correct terminology and yes numerous times now.”  He
acknowledged with a dip of his head, bringing his warm lips to rest against the
tender skin of her throat, just below the ear.

“A
few times.”   She corrected.  “You’ve only seen me skyclad a few
times.”
 
She leaned into him letting him
nuzzle and nip at her throat.  “And… and the one part of my body you miss
seeing is my toes?”

“All
ten adorable digits, yes.”  He murmured, his warm breath causing shivers
to run down her spine.

“Seriously.” 
She leant into him even further, the tightness in her chest easing the closer
she was to him.  Reaching up she wrapped a languid arm around his neck,
staring into his beautiful midnight eyes.  “Do you have a foot fetish?”

“Generally
no, specifically yes.”  Then he kissed her.  How could he not. 
Those bee stung lips of hers only inches away from his, too tempting to
resist. 

He
immediately understood why all the butterflies flocked to her.  She was
pure heat, honey and the most decadent of spices.  Goddess she was a
perfect fit for him as she plastered herself against him, making the most
delightful husky yearning sounds in the back of her throat.  Goddess he
could only pray she wouldn’t hate him for this when it was all said and
done. 

Serena’s
whole body throbbed in time with the fast beat that had settled between her
legs.  Earth and the Tides, Locke Valhalla was potent to her senses. 
All she could think… feel, was his heated amazingly soft lips on hers and that
large solid hand pushing up her top and caressing the bare flesh of her
ribcage.  She ached for him to explore further, rip off her clothes, take
her down to the soft green grass at her feet and make hot sweaty love to her
under the noon day sun.  Wait… what!  Green grass at her feet! 
Sunshine on her skin!

“You
bastard!”  She hissed, ripping her mouth from his, whirling about,
determined to make a run for the safety of the house but Locke grabbed her by
the hand, imprisoning her in place.  Serena was past upset and fast
speeding up on seething anger though she was unsure if it was because of
Locke’s underhanded trick or because she was now standing at the epicentre of
the garden’s pain and misery. 

Unthinkingly
Serena swung back around and slugged her fist as hard as she could into Locke’s
gut.  He dropped like a stone to the grass, taking her with him refusing
to give up his hold on her hand.
 

“Oh
Earth.  Locke… Locke, I’m so sorry.”
 
She crouched next to him, horrified at what she’d done to him.

Locke
clutched his bandaged gut tightly with his other hand.  Trying to catch
his breath as he willed away the red hot pain that danced over every nerve
ending he had.  “Goddess woman.”  He blinked away tears… not of pain
he assured himself but from the glare of the overhead sun. 

“Are
you bleeding?  Did anything tear open?”  Serena pushed his hand away
lifting his top, causing another jolt of pain to lance through him.

“Gently…
please.”

“Sorry.” 
Her big pansy eyes stared at him with remorse, her cheeks pale.

“I’m
fine.  I don’t think we’ve made anything worse, just give me a minute
would you.”
 
He breathed through the
pain, praying he’d make it out the other side.

Serena
sat back on her heels.  “Is there anything I can do?”  She asked in a
small voice.

“Just
don’t leave me okay?”  He requested, dropping his hold on her, continuing
to breathe slowly and carefully as he contemplated the insane idea of
straightening up.
 
It was going to hurt,
there were no two ways about it, but for Serena… well he really only ever had
one option didn’t he.

“I’m
so sorry Locke, I completely forgot about your injury.”

He
waved a hand dismissively.  “I’m fine.”  To prove it he managed to
straighten his shoulders and sat back.  Breathing deeply several more
times he finally let his shoulders drop and relax.  Okay so nothing was
going to burst out of his stomach and there didn’t appear to be any fresh blood
soaking through his bandages.  As they said, no good deed goes
unpunished.   “So.”  He looked around.  “This is your
garden… nice.”

Serena
laughed reluctantly, rocking in place, her arms clutched tightly about her body
as if she were in pain.  “You hate it.”

“I
don’t hate it.” Locke attempted to get to his feet, grateful when Serena popped
up beside him, lending a hand.  Suppressing a groan he waited a breath and
then two before attempting to straighten all the way up… ouch and double
fucking ouch.  “So where does it hurt?”

Serena
looked at him, frowning in confusion.

“The
garden?”  Locke looked around them.  “Where specifically does it
hurt?”

Serena
looked longingly towards the living room door before returning her gaze to
Locke’s shaky stance and pale drawn face.  She’d almost killed the poor
man and he was still worried about her garden.  “Umm, well over there
somewhere.”  She pointed towards the garden bed on the other side of the
fountain.

“Okay,
let’s go.”  Locke groaned softly, grateful when Serena shifted to place a
gentle arm of support around his waist.

“Er…
let’s go where?” 

Locke
was pulling her along beside him, at first small shuffling steps before
shifting to an easier smoother stride headed towards the garden bed she’d
pointed out.

“Ummm.” 
Serena desperately wanted to dig her heels in or better yet run away.  But
Locke needed her so she stuck tenaciously if not all too reluctantly by his
side as he closed in on the swirling epicentre of pain and blackness that
plagued the garden.

“So?” 
Locke stared disdainfully at the stretch of dirt. He could sense the overall taint
and that yes it was stronger over here but he still couldn’t pinpoint the exact
location.  He rarely had much to do with dirt, and one pile of dirt pretty
much looked like every other pile of dirt to his horrified gaze.

“There.” 
Serena raised a shaky finger and pointed to the exact spot.  “Right there…
it’s monstrous.”
 
So much pain she could
barely breathe, her chest too tight.

“Okay,
stand back a little.”  Locke pushed Serena back out of the way before
moving forward to where she’d indicated, yanking up a long wooden garden stake
holding up a drooping salvia as he went past.  At the last moment he
hesitated, then taking a deep breath he stepped barefoot onto the dirt. 
Goddess he doubted his heroic deeds would ever make it into song but if anyone
deserved accolades it was him as the dirt pushed up between his toes…
yuk. 

Opening
his senses wide to the truth, he knew instinctively when he was over the
blight, the wrongness that should not be near his house, in his garden. 
Raising the stake high he took one deep breath and then punched the stake down
hard through the earth, pain roaring up through his gut as he used muscles that
would have preferred bed rest and another shot of whiskey rather than all these
demands he was making. 

The
stake slid through the dirt like a needle and with a quick sudden thump a man
sized, or should he say, vampire sized, depression formed in the dirt as it
collapsed down into the space where the vampire had thought it could find
sanctuary during daylight hours. 

Behind
him he heard Serena release a long drawn out relieved sigh. 

“Earth…
you did it Locke.”  She jumped up behind him wrapping her arms tightly
around him, causing him to groan.  “Oh the Stars, Locke, I’m so
sorry.” 

The
world spun and Locke wondered whether there were clouds passing overhead or
whether he was on the point of blacking out.   His next thought was
about heaven and angels.  He found himself lying on the softest of pillows
and an angel with white gold hair was massaging his temples and saying his name
ever so softly.

“What
happened?”

“I
think you might have over exerted yourself killing that vampire.”

“Where
am I?”  He looked around and then groaned.

“Are
you in pain?”  Serena’s worried pansy coloured eyes stared down at him in
frantic concern.