To Wrangle A Witch (Southern Sanctuary Book 3) (23 page)

“
Silver
trumps vampire
.”  He gloated. “Bitch.”

Destiny
hissed back at him, her eyes no longer silver but the deepest vilest of oil
slick blacks.  If possible she’d turned even whiter.  And the veins
around the stab wound pulsed silver, as the poison slowly infiltrated her
body.  “Silver is just an old wives tale Suit, though it’s never burned
quite this badly before.”
 
The Queen
looked down with more interest than pain at her chest wound.
 
“Now you’ve just gone and pissed me
off.”  She erupted like a tornado, whirling around the room, picking up
Drum, massive, built like a battleship and probably weighed about as much,
sending the warrior crashing through the nearest wall into the next room. 

She
hurtled past Locke, who managed to duck her attack but couldn’t avoid the
fridge falling on him and trapping him in place.  Nate tackled Destiny,
the two of them flying across the room to land on top of one of the work
benches.  Nate had dropped one of his swords and was now clutching the
pen, the Queen’s hand wrapped tightly around his wrist, preventing him from
moving the pen any closer to her heart.  Nate’s remaining sword was held
several inches away from her neck, caught by the metal plate strapped to her
forearm, keeping the sword at bay.  Only inches separating them. 

The
Queen’s features were etched in pain but she still managed to laugh. “Oh Lover,
you only had to ask.”  She struck, mashing her lips hard against Nate’s,
one of her fangs ripping into his lower lip. 

Nate
reared back, spitting out blood, his eyes full of loathing and disgust.

Destiny
giggled a high pitched sound, part delight, part insanity.  Licking her
lips she made throaty happy sounds.  “Oh Lover… you taste of sunshine with
the merest hint of ripe berries and sinful dark chocolate.”  She gave
another throaty moan, her eyelids fluttering.  “It’s like discovering
vintage wine after a century of watered down cheap plonk.”

“Keep
your fangs to yourself bitch.”  Nate focussed all his strength on trying
to move the pen, but even weakened the Queen held his wrist steady. 
“That’s the first and last taste you’ll ever have of me.”

Destiny
opened her mouth to say something, paused and sniffed the air.  “Well,
well, what do we have here?”  Lightning fast the Queen bought her boots
up, placed then against Nate’s stomach and sent him flying back across the
room.  Reaching down the vamp Queen plucked a test tube up, running it
under her nose like a fine cigar.  “The witch’s blood.”  She tucked
the vial into her catsuit, pulling up the zipper slightly to keep it in
place.  “Well this changes everything Lover, no time left to flirt, have to
fulfil my contract, I was going to trail the witch and kill her for a bonus fee
but now… now I think I’ve got more important things to think about.”  She
licked at a stray drop of Nate’s blood resting on her upper lip. 
“Oohh.”  She shivered.  “Minions to lure, contracts to complete and a
tasty new playmate to seduce… be seeing you real soon Lover.”  She blurred
out of the room.

“Shit
she’s getting away.”  Locke gave the side of the refrigerator unit he’d
just managed to squirm out from under a frustrated kick.

Drum
shouldered some drywall aside and stepped back into the room, resting a hand on
Nate’s shoulder.  “Good work.”

Nate
grinned, wincing as he managed to haul himself to his feet.

“Good
work?  Seriously?  Vampire Queen has Serena’s blood, how is that by
anyone’s definition good work?”
 
Locke
kicked the refrigerator again.

Nate
leant heavily on the nearest bench, holding the bottom of his t-shirt up to his
torn lip giving a half nod for Drum to take the explanation.

“Well
first off, none of us are dead.  More importantly we just got a world of
Intel.  We know the vamps aren’t contracted to kill Serena and the
stripper Queen herself said pursuing a bonus fee is more trouble than it’s
worth.  So for the moment Serena is safe.”

“Sek
and Mot are still out there wanting vengeance for their brother’s death.
 
They find out Serena’s still alive they’ll
come looking for her.”  Locke absently brushed dirt off his wrinkled torn
jacket, more out of habit than real concern for its sad state, too focused on
Serena and her problems.

“Hadleigh
has a plan in place to fix that.”

Locke
studied the two, shaking his head.  “If you say so.  I still can’t
work out how letting Vampira live and get away with Serena’s blood is good.”

“Well…” 
Drum looked at Nate.

“When
she kissed me I slipped the tracker into her mouth.”  Nate spat again, no
blood this time but perhaps he was just trying to get rid of the taste of
vampire Queen lingering in his mouth.

“How
could you possibly have known she’d try to kiss you?”
 
Locke asked gob smacked.

Nate
shrugged, giving him a self-deprecating smile.

Drum
snorted.  “Because he’s a chick magnet.  Especially the psycho ones…
they meet Nate and they never know whether to kill him or fuck him.”

“It’s
a gift.”  Nate acknowledged, absently rubbing at his wrist where the vamp
Queen had practically ground his bones into dust.   “We’ve never gone
up against vamps before, we were hoping despite all Hadleigh’s warnings that we
would get all the info we needed during the first engagement at your house, why
else do you think we triple teamed her and didn’t scratch her up.  We had
hoped pandering to her ego might get her to spill her guts on the terms of her
contract, whether they were under a kill order or just needed Serena’s blood
and maybe where the Chaos duo were hiding out.  If the vamp Queen didn’t
spill we were considering torturing one of the blood sucker lackeys into
telling us what we needed to know.  But… who knew she’d be such an
uber-villainess floozy and her minions were obviously too much in her thrall to
do us any good.  So we switched to plan B, let her get her flirt on with
me with during some one on one fighting to get her blood up and weasel as much
information out of her as we could get.  Letting her go once we’ve tagged
her… it’s a risk we have to take if we want to get to Sek and Mot and find
Apep’s coffin.”

“But
all the damage upstairs… the injuries.”  Locke couldn’t believe what he
was hearing.

“The
chick is bat shit crazy, who knew she’d go berserker.”  Nate
shrugged.  “But she has Serena’s blood now, her contract is officially
fulfilled, there’s no reason for her to come back here.”

“Except
she’ll tell Sek and Mot that Serena is alive!”  Locke couldn’t understand
why the dynamic duo weren’t more concerned.

“We’re
tracking Queenie now, the plan is to follow her at a discreet distance back to
her clients, find out where they’ve stashed Daddy’s coffin and then take out
all three.
 
Trust us.  Sek and Mot
will be satisfied that they have Serena’s blood and once Hadleigh’s plan goes
into action they won’t be looking for Serena’s body.”

“Body?” 
Locke paled as all the blood drained from his face.

“Haven’t
you guessed dude, we’re going to fake Serena’s death.”  Nate grinned.

“Of
course you are.”  Locke looked at them dubiously.  “So you’re not
troubled by the fact that you’ve basically just handed over half of the
equation to wake the God of Chaos.  I know you said you destroyed Xander’s
blood but with Serena’s now in their possession all the rat bastards need to
find is another long lost descendant to drain dry.”

Drum
sent him a serial killer grin that Locke fought hard not to flinch away from,
when this dude was happy it was kind of scary.  “Don’t worry about
Serena’s blood, Nell always adds a coagulant to any blood tested here in the
hospital.  Something about ensuring ‘special’ blood can never be removed
to be used in any magic or rituals.  The test tube looks perfectly normal
until they try and use it.  Which will be never if we have anything to say
about it.  Come on, we’d better go check in with Marcus and make sure the
tracker is working.  Stripper Queen will hopefully lead us right to those
twin evil fuckers.”

Locke
followed them out, weary to the bone and sore from his eyelids down to his
toes.  His mind whirling as he tried to process everything he’d learnt in
the last few hours.  But essentially it boiled down to a few simple facts,
he’d lost a favourite pen, ruined another suit and when he got back to his
place Serena would be long gone. 

The
team had survived the vampire attack, confirmed there was no ongoing threat
against Serena by the vamp Queen and the Chippendales had a lead on Sek and Mot
and a plan in place to make them think Serena was dead.  So… yay
team?  Sort of a victory he supposed.  Why then did he feel so
ultimately hollow?  Goddess, face the hard truth man… Serena was gone.

Chapter
Twenty-Five

She
should go.  No, she should stay.
 
Make sure Locke really was okay, say goodbye and formally thank him for
his hospitality.  For what felt like the hundredth time Serena got to her
feet and bent over to pick up her small suitcase, she really should go. 
Urgh, she was driving herself nuts.  And the courtyard garden was not
helping, soft alluring beckoning whispers gently tugging at her senses. 

Turning
her head she glared outside.  “I was tricked, provoked… it doesn’t
count!”
 
It so didn’t count.  Maat
had played her. 

Earth,
she was forgetting something wasn’t she?  But what?  When Locke and
the others had chased off after the vampire Queen she’d immediately organised
the remaining warriors into a clean-up detail… well, once they’d dusted the
last two vampire lackeys. 

With
six of them working diligently it didn’t take long to restore some sort of
semblance of order to the courtyard.  Another couple of days for the grass
and crushed foliage to heal and once the broken shower alcove was fixed you’d
never know a smack down between Maat’s warriors and a kiss of vampire assassins
had ever taken place out there.  Earth, come on, what was she forgetting? 

Serena
glared down at her bare feet, well yes, besides her missing shoes, what was she
forgetting?  It wasn’t like she’d arrived with any worldly goods in the
first place… oh jeez, that just goes to show how distracted she’d been by this
whole mess of leaving.  Stalking through the house she breezed into
Locke’s bedroom, tamping down hard on all the hot sweaty memories that assailed
her, she scooped up the african violet pot plant sitting on the side
table. 

She
paused for a moment in shock.  “Oh Sweetie… what have you done to
yourself?”

She
was in awe of the bounty of bright red flowers the african violet was now
covered with.  Red!  The exact same colour as the red Locke had
chosen to accent his bedroom with.

“Changing
for a man?”  She sighed.  “I understand the motivation, I honestly do
but it’s a hard truth all women eventually have to face, if he doesn’t love you
exactly as you are… then it’s not really love.  And trying to change to
please him, that will just leave you unhappy.”

A
velvety soft leaf reached over, caressing the back of her hand.

“We
can’t stay, you know we can’t.”  Turning she marched out the room hugging
the pot plant to her side.  Ignoring the soft weeping it was making that
only she could hear.
“Honestly.” 
She rolled her eyes.  “I know you like him… I lo.. like him too, but we
can’t stay.  We agreed on temporary and besides there’s the new Mrs Locke
Valhalla to consider… trust me, you do not want me leaving you to her not so
tender ministrations.”

Once
more she thought about leaving, she really should go.  Locke was safe,
Hadleigh had informed her of that fact just before she and the other warriors
had raced off to chase down the electronically chipped vampire Queen. 
Seriously the vamp Queen’s name was Destiny?  It was just so tramp-stamp
wannabe exotic dancer.

Without
conscious thought Serena found herself wandering towards the open glass doorway
leading outside to the courtyard.  Moon and the Stars, this pull the
garden now had over her, how could she have been so stupid?  She didn’t settle
down.  She was like her father, a traveller, a rolling stone.  She
didn’t get trapped in one place like her Grandmother and Mother and their
gardens, she was a free Earth spirit.  And yet even as she had that
thought she had to resist hard the temptation to step outside, to answer the
lure of the garden.  “Shut up…”  She hissed under her breath. 
“Maat tricked me into saying it… I am not staying, you know I can’t.”

She
really should go.  All she had to do was pick up her suitcase, walk to the
linen closet door, place her hand on it and picture the place she wanted to be,
just like Hadleigh had shown her.  Yeah, she really should go, the thought
flittering across her mind once more, even as she took a seat on the sofa to
wait.

*
                                    
*
                                 
*

Locke
staggered out of his linen closet smelling of smoke, a thin layer of soot and
dirt over every inch of bare skin, his entire body aching.
 
First from the uber smack-down battle with
the vamps.
 
Then from helping out at the
hospital, he’d pitched in where he could, mostly moving patients, first to
safety, then when the all clear was given helping to move everyone back
inside.  It had been an exhausted Nell who’d finally insisted upon him
going home.  Thanks to her and the other doctors on call everyone who had
been injured by the mad bitch Queen’s tear through the hospital was on the
mend, including Morty and Mal, the security guards.

Not
bothering to turn on the lights in the house he walked through the dark rooms
on leaden feet.  Intending to head straight for his bedroom, strip and
fall face first on his bed and sleep for a week.  It wasn’t like there was
anything else to do… she was gone. Except as he walked down the corridor he
caught a whiff of Serena’s perfume, damn he was going to have to sanitize his
entire house or that lingering smell would slowly, irrevocably drive him
insane.

“Oh
Earth, Locke!”

He
blinked, then reached up to rub tired grit filled eyes.  This was a very
vivid hallucination.  Serena was standing in the middle of his living
room.
 
He blinked hard again, but she
remained.  Okay not a hallucination. He should do something, shouldn’t
he?  Say something?  He must look ridiculous just standing there,
filthy from head to toe, dirt and ash encrusted into his skin, his suit ripped
and ruined, dumb surprise written all over his face.

“Oh
Locke.”  She thumped the african violet pot plant down hard on a side
table.  “Sorry.”  She glanced down guiltily before dashing to his
side, to grip his arm, her face full of concern.

Yeah
this is definitely the moment to pull something suave and meaningful out of the
hat Valhalla.  The woman you love is standing in front of you man, you
have a second chance here.  Say something, anything Valhalla, tell her you
love her, beg her to stay.
 
“Did you just
apologise to a plant?”

“Of
course.”  Serena reached up to brush back his hair, wincing for him as
ash, dirt and tiny flakes of broken glass drifted down to the stained, torn and
mud encrusted shoulders of his jacket.  “Plants have feelings too.” 
The poor man looked like he’d gone ten rounds with a weed whacker, despite that
he still looked gorgeous to her eyes.  She pushed the jacket off his
shoulders, pulling it down over his arms and dropping it to the floor.

 “Umm,
what are you doing?”  Locke looked down, confused for a moment. 

She
brushed aside his hands as she began to undo his tie.  “Undressing
you.”  She glanced at him to test his reaction; he still looked kind of
dazed.  She supposed facing off against a vamp, chasing down a mad assassin
Queen and ruining another suit may well have sent Locke into overload.

“Um…
okay, carry on.”  It was a good sign right?  That she was undressing
him?  He bit back a moan as he flexed his arms to help her divest him of
his shirt.  Ouch, he’d forgotten about his bruises, blisters, torn muscles
and aches and pains for just a moment. 

“Sorry.” 
She manoeuvred him carefully out through the open glass doors, across the
shaded veranda and backwards through the garden, unbuckling his belt as they
went, sliding it carefully out of the loops.  Under her feet the grass
emitted a soft satisfied sigh as she stepped on it… she ignored it, all her
focus on Locke.

Determinedly
she nudged a stumbling, fatigued Locke past the stack of broken wood that had
been the shower alcove before Dash had crashed into it.  At their final
destination she bought him to an abrupt halt, bending to help him slip off his
shoes and socks before straightening to face him, her pansy eyes glowing softly
in the moonlight as her nimble fingers unbuttoned his trousers.

Locke
couldn’t believe his luck.  Serena was here.  She was undressing him
and it very much looked like he was about to get lucky.  Which considering
how sore he felt right now might well prove a challenge, but who was he to deny
the wicked wanton witch her heartfelt desires.   And it seemed she
wanted him.  On auto-pilot he kicked away his trousers.

“And
the rest.”  She throatily commanded, leaning towards him.

Oh
Goddess.  He followed her instructions, divesting himself of his boxers
fast… wait, she was leaning past him to… Shit, he flinched as the lukewarm
spray from the shower head sent a deluge down over his head.  He
spluttered and glared at her through the falling water.

“Whew.” 
She was standing several feet away from him, waving a hand in front of her
face, a pleased smile on her gorgeous face.  “There is no gentle way to
tell someone they reek is there?”

He
reeked?  He!  Locke Valhalla reeked!  He didn’t even exercise
unless it was in air-conditioned comfort and the
Earth Witch
, with a big
emphasis on the word ‘earth’, was accusing him of being overly ripe? 

Whew
if that wasn’t the big clod of dirt accusing the - he took a deep breath as the
first layers of encrusted gunk sloughed off his skin and almost gagged – oh Goddess
he smelt like a smouldering dung heap.  Abruptly he turned into the stream
of water and raised his face, running his fingers through his crusty hair, oh
Goddess.  His foot nudged aside a stray bit of broken wood and underneath
it he spied treasure, shampoo.  Grabbing the bottle he dumped half the
contents on his head and the other half over his chest and arms.  Working
his fingers deeply into his scalp he sighed.  Oh, already he felt a
hundred times better than he had when he’d arrived home.  His brain had
finally begun ticking over as one question zinged around his head like a
perpetual bouncing ball.  Why was Serena still here?  

He
could have stood under the shower for an hour or more but when the lukewarm
waterfall began to turn icy cold he reluctantly turned off the stream. 
Turning he found Serena nearby holding out a towel.  Grabbing it he rubbed
his face hard and then stared at her.  He opened his mouth to ask… then
rethought his actions and abruptly shut it.  Not here Valhalla.  Not
when you’re dressed in nothing but a towel of all things.  “I’ll be back,
we need to talk. 
Don’t go anywhere
.”

Serena
watched Locke, frowning at his abrupt departure.  ‘Don’t go anywhere’ she
mimicked to herself… looking down at the grass gently caressing her toes. 
“Don’t get any ideas, I’m not staying.”

It
had been hard watching him shower, not just because Locke had a spectacular
body but seeing all those contusions, bruises, cuts and scrapes he’d
suffered.  All because of her and her problems that she’d bought to his
door.  Around her the garden whispered its gleeful joy that she was here;
its happiness beating at her like hammers.  She needed to stay
strong.  She’d chat with Locke for a few minutes, they’d say their
goodbyes and she’d be out of here in no time.  What could go wrong with a
sound plan like that?  Earth what she needed was alcohol she decided, lots
and lots of alcohol.

*
                                    
*
                                 
*

Locke
adjusted his tie for the fourth time with nervous fingers as he stepped out
through the open glass door directly from his bedroom into the courtyard and
came to an abrupt halt.  Serena was sitting at a small wrought iron table
she’d set up on one of the sections of grass.  There was a bottle of wine,
a glass and a seat waiting for him.  Good, she’d taken him seriously when
he’d said they needed to talk. 

He
noted for the first time she was wearing a dress, a dark raspberry coloured one
that complimented her velvet skin and cascade of white blonde hair.  Wow,
he must have really been out of it not to have noticed that earlier, just goes
to prove what he’d always known to be the truth, dirt… well no good could ever
come from dirt.
 
Well, except perhaps
when a little blonde wanton witch was rolling around in it.

“Here.” 
She pushed over a glass in his direction as he took a seat across from
her.  “Nice suit.”  And it was, the all black three piece number
accentuated everything about his body that she loved, his long legs, broad
shoulders, the colour even made the red glints in his hair stand out and his
eyes seem like bottomless dark blue pools.  “Feeling better?”

“Much
better, thanks.”  He drank some of his wine.  “And you?  You’re
okay?”

Okay
this was going both better and worse than she’d imagined.  Nodding she gave
him a small smile and reached for her own glass, more alcohol was going to be
needed.  “I’m good.  It seems like the vampire threat has been dealt
with.  The warriors have a possible lead on Sek and Mot’s location… except
for the smashed shower alcove, well you’d hardly know a warrior vampire battle
of epic proportions had occurred here at all.”  She forced a small tense
laugh.