His lids fluttered, and she was hit by an icy gaze of ocean blue.
“Help…” he moaned.
“Stay still,” she said sharply “Where do you hurt?”
He lifted his left hand and touched his right arm. Then besieged by the pain of his broken arm he let it drop back to his side and groaned as his head lolled from side to side, his teeth biting his lower lip and his eyes tightly shut.
“Ok. Listen. I can help you so stay still. But…it will hurt a little.” She whispered urgently.
“You are lying.” He whispered. She looked at him with impatience, then with puzzlement as she saw his sly smile.
“I know you can help and I will cooperate. But I know how it hurts when someone with the gift fixes your broken arm. You are lying about the just a little bit part. That’s not true.” He smiled up into her face despite his pain, and she had an overwhelming desire to stroke his dark brown hair.
“How do you know?” she asked skeptically. Sitting cross-legged beside him and gently taking his hand into her lap.
“Han told me about your gift. He has healed me a hundred times himself, so I know how it hurts.” He said as the pain in his arm started receding. He knew she was calling the pain into her. It must hurt her. He was making it harder for her by blocking some parts of him from her. Han had taught him how to shield himself from magic. One did not have to be a magician to do it.
He looked up at her closed eyes. Her face was serene, but he knew how much she must be enduring. He lay there quietly waiting for that last jolt of pain which he knew would come as she sent the final force of her power into him that would heal him. When it came, he cried out, hanging on the verge of insanity, then lay there gasping for breath.
Through his cry of blinding pain, he nearly missed her soft whimper. As soon as he had caught his breath and was sure about not falling back down he sat up. She now sat her legs folded under her. Her hands held in tight fists at the hem of her short flowy skirt, where it stopped just above her knee, exposing just a bit more of soft milky flesh.
A stab of lust tore through him before he saw the few drops of tears that spilled down her cheek as she opened her eyes slowly with a deep sigh.
“Why did you block me?” it was more of a plea than an accusation.
“Sorry…I hate myself for it…but believe me it was necessary.” He said looking her straight into her eye.
“You must be Eli. Han’s new tenant.”
“And you must be Rowena. The stunning redheaded witch.” He said a smile playing at the corners of his lips.
“I don’t like the way you describe me.” She said standing up.
“Hey, take it up with Han. He said that about you.” He said smiling more and getting up too. When she just stared back at him, his expression sobered. He took a step towards her, but she did not move. He was now standing so near, he could smell her perfume, wild lilies. No doubt she made it herself and used it always. It cleared the aura.
He put a hand on the side of his car to steady himself then said in a quiet tone.
“You are right Rowena. I should call you brave and generous. You were not obliged to help me after I blocked you. But you still did.” She jerked her shoulder then said nonchalantly
“I broke it. I fixed it.”
“Ro…”
“And now we are done. I need to get going. Say hi to Han when you call him.” She said then turned to go.
“What about the tour of the place? And the welcome basket?” he asked sulkily. She turned back and looked at him sternly.
“Han said …”
“I will get the basket to you later today. The tour you can take it yourself.” She snapped then turned and strode off to her car.
The stab of lust hit Eli once again. But he admonished himself over it. He could not get into anything like that now. He had work to take care of, a lot of messy work. The Blood Moon was coming.
Chapter Two
Rowena heard the familiar tinkling of the chimes as she pushed open the door of Gabe’s herbal pharmacy. She was still mad, but as the familiar smell and feel of the place washed over her like a wave, she started to relax.
“Ro” a short young man with a thatch of thick blond curls, baby blue eyes and a generous spreading of freckles around his nose came forward to greet her. His cherubic round face had bloomed into a moony smile. He was not stout, but nobody would call him lean either.
“Wess…” Rowena placed her box down on the floor and accepted the friendly hug with a genuine smile. “When did you get back?”
“Just this morning,” he said following her out to the car and helping her with the boxes.
“How was the trip to the Amazon?”
“Good. I got all the herbs that Gabe asked for.”
“Then why is he upset?” she asked on their second trip out.
“Who said he was upset?” his lopsided grin betrayed the truth.
“I called him this morning to tell him I was coming into town. He sounded sulky.”
“Yeah, I missed the wolfbane.” He admitted reluctantly as they put the last of the boxes on the floor.
“We get plenty of wolfbane in Carolina,” Ro said puzzled, leaning against the cash counter as Wess took his place behind it.
“Not the Darkbane. That you get only in the darkest corners of the Amazon.”
“What is Darkbane?” she asked perplexed.
The question went unanswered as the chimes on the door rang, and Gabe entered with Sherriff Brad Bosco. The two men were in the middle of a conversation but stopped when they saw Rowena.
“I am sorry Gabe I was late, but things just kept happening …” she said into the uncomfortable silence.
“What kinds of things?” The sheriff asked.
“Keep her out of this Brad,” Gabe growled in warning. “The goods are not important. Are you well Rowena?” he said tenderly turning to her. When she nodded quietly, not looking up, he said with suspicion.
“You don’t look well.”
“Oh, that’s nothing. I healed some broken bones on my way here, took a chunk out of me.”
“What broken bones? Gabe, I have to talk to the two of you in detail.” The sheriff stepped in and said with warning in his voice. “And privately.” He said looking at Wess.
“Wess,” Gabe said with quiet authority “Make some tea for Rowena. Then come and join us” Saying that he strode into the direction of a quaint antique table near one of the shop windows. It gave a beautiful view of his herb garden on the side of the shop. He used it to talk to clients or serve them a sample of his tea or to just let them sit down for a bit.
“Gabe…” the Sheriff followed him impatiently.
“Brad, I will not let you hassle my cousin or my employee because of some far-fetched notions you might have.” He said as the sheriff took a chair still glowering at him. He was a long, lean, wiry man who wielded his power by his rank and command.
Gabe, on the other hand, was tall, handsome and naturally authoritative. Absently looking out of the window he held the chair for Rowena. Then lowered himself next to her. His dreamy eyes turned cold as he looked at Brad.
“Brad has come across some nasty killings in the woods. It was birds mostly. But from the way they had been cut and left out there he suspects we are behind this, that we are trying to do something strange as the blood moon comes.”
Rowena was shocked and looked at the sheriff as if he had slapped her. Brad Bosco had been in Rowena’s class all through school right from day one of kindergarten. She had written dozens of his assignments while Brad was busy winning football matches. Her deception was clear in her eyes.
“I didn’t say any such thing.” He said to her but kept looking at Gabe with loathing. Gabe looked on quietly.
“No, you didn’t. But you thought so.”
As Wess joined them at the table with tea for the three of them and coffee for Brad, Rowena told her story of being shouted at by Mrs. Norris, the theft of her supplies and her encounter w
ith Eli. She left out for reasons she could not explain, the part about Eli blocking her magic and how he had looked at her with pure lust.
“Ok let us get one thing straight, guys. I am not accusing you of anything. But what had been done to those birds made me stop eating chicken for a week. It was either done for magic or for some cultist ritual. You two have magic, and Wess knows a lot about it though he does not have any himself.
“So, you do suspect us!” Wess put in defensively.
“Guys, we all know Brad. Let the man do his job ok?” Rowena said as he gave her a look of gratitude.
“Well, I want you to look at the pictures of the crime scene and give me your input.” He said pulling out photos from an inside pocket of his jacket and passing them to Rowena who was nearest to him. She took the photos and passed them one by one to Gabe as he passed them to Wess.
There were three birds, a rooster, a raven and a dove. In the first three photos, the birds had been hanging from a low branch of a tree with their legs tied together with some kind of a vine, their wings limp and wilted, their necks twisted at a ghastly angle, their beaks tied up with the same vine used to hang them.
But the worst was the way their bellies had been cut, the insides spilling over what now seemed like an extinguished fire pit.
Ro and Gabe looked on blankly. It was clear they knew nothing. Wess, on the other hand, was clearly looking uncomfortable. Brad pulled out another set of photos from his pocket. These seemed old. He placed them on the table facing up like a game of cards. It was the exact same birds done in the exact same way.
“These I fished out from an old file. It was dated six weeks before the last blood Moon and the library fire seven years back.” He said referring to the fire in which Gabe and Ro’s mothers had been killed.
The two looked distressed, but they still did not recognize the ritual and said so. Wess who had nearly blanched now spoke up.
“It’s an ancient form of magic from the Amazon. A ritual to cleanse an area and satiate the evil spirits residing there before an important magical ritual is to be performed.” He said in a whisper as if someone might be listening in on them.
“The last time they filed it under random occurrences of disruption of peace.” The sheriff said to the group in general. Wess still looking as if someone had slapped him, said in a near whisper.
“Neither Gabe nor Ro could have done it, sheriff. To do this ritual, you need to know black magic.”
Chapter Three
Rowena plowed through the thick overgrowth of wild grass as she made her way to Han’s cottage with a basket full of herbal products from Gabriel’s Herbal Pharmacy in one hand and a grilled chicken, wrapped in a disposable tray and silver foil in the other.
Brad had been right. The photos of the killed birds had kept coming to mind as she had cleaned the chicken to ready it for her special grill stuffing.
As they had left Gabe’s shop together two days back, Brad had thanked her for taking his side. She had simply given him that cold look she had given him only once before when he had gotten her best friend Henrietta pregnant and had been unsure about marrying her.
“Do what you have to do Brad. But stay away from Gabe. He has suffered enough already. If your baseless suspicions scorch him any more than necessary, you will have me to deal with. And don’t you ever forget that I am a witch.”
She was so engrossed in the memory of Brad’s stunned surprise that she did not notice the tall, slightly stooped figure that stood leaning against a tree trunk until she had bumped straight into him.
“Going somewhere, witch?” Eli said steadying her. His hand lingered just a second longer on her bare shoulders before he folded them across his chest as if to keep them from mischief.
Once again Rowena felt that strong sense of something dark. She realized he had been standing there watching her, blocking his aura from her, so she could not sense him. He was good at this. If she had not made sure on the day of the accident that he had no traces of the gift, she would have wondered.
“I am on my property.” She said continuing onward.
“You own the woods?” he asked falling in stride alongside her.
“With Han and Gabe.”
“How many cottages are there in it?”
“Three. I live in mine. Han rents his out to tourists. Gabe rents his out to the Norris’. He lives in the apartment above the pharmacy.”
“You two together?”
“All the time since we were kids.” She said giving him a smile of mock innocence, deliberately mistaking his meaning.
He nodded like a foe who knew he had been outdone but who promises to come back.
“You have pretty hair, Rowena.” He said half a mile later as they turned into Han’s courtyard.
“And a black belt in karate.” She said as she turned to open the kitchen door. She had laid down the basket and the dish next to the door.
She didn’t know where the blow came from, but the next thing she knew she was on the ground, flat on her back with Eli Patterson stretched alongside her holding both her hands in his fists on the ground at her sides, his icy blue gaze fixed on her. Something akin to rage burned in his cold stare.
“Looks like you are out of practice.” He growled.
She had not seen him move; she had not even felt the fall or been hurt, she had just been standing one moment then laying on the ground the next as if she had been laid there by magic. She was pressed down on the soft grass of Han’s backyard, looking up at the tall spruces, Eli’s strong lean body pressed against her on one side.
At that moment, she realized he was not a man who took a challenge lightly.
Slowly he sat up straight but still held her hands to her sides. The folds of her short summer dress were lying around her waist. He looked down at her then carefully let go of one of her hands and straightened her dress. Her flesh seared where his fingers brushed against her thighs. And she refused to believe that it had left him untouched in any way.
He offered her his hand and helped her to her feet as he got up himself.
“Sorry I did not mean to hurt you.” He said turning to the kitchen door leaving her to follow.
“You did not. So how did you do it?” she was more curious than angry
“Practice! Master Han does not suffer fools.” He said as they entered the kitchen from the backyard.
Before she could say anything, a man walked into the kitchen from inside the house. It was Dom Norris, her neighbor. There was blood on his hands, and he was cleaning them on the sides of his work pants casually as he said
“I am done. Put them in the freezer for you.” Then without saying another word, he was gone.
“What was he talking about?” She asked placing the chicken and the basket on the small table in the kitchen.
“He cleaned some fish for me,” Eli said obviously not liking the question
“What fish did you catch?” she pressed on
“Trout, in the lake behind the cottage. He lent me the rods and the bait and offered to clean it for me.” He said rolling his eyes but still answering the question.
“It must have been a giant trout for him to have had that much blood on his hands.”
“There were two.” He hissed.
“Still, how come he had so much blood on his hands?”
“Didn’t you notice? He had cut his hand.” He said impatiently wishing she would stop.
But Rowena would not. She had sensed in him something dark, something evil, the other day and then again earlier in the woods when she had bumped into him. The bird killings and his being in the area was too much of a coincidence. She had to look into his freezer somehow. Make sure for herself.
“I have had a tiring walk all the way here. Do you have something cool to drink?” she said casually moving into the next room where Han kept the giant fridge.
“Stay here, I will get it for you.” He said curtly.
“It’s ok, I will get it myself.” She said trying to
be off-hand about it. As she passed him in the doorway, he caught her upper arm and swung her towards himself.
“I said stay here I will get it.” He said from between gritted teeth giving her a stern look. As Rowena stood glued to her placed stunned by his strange behavior, he crossed the room to the fridge in two long strides and pulled open the fridge door. He bent down for something then quickly closed the fridge door not trusting her to stay in her place for long.
He came back with two cans of chilled coke and put them in both her hands.
“This is all I have. You can sip them on your way back.” He said as he once again closed his fingers around her shoulder and pushed her towards the back door. Once she was out, he put a hand behind and retrieved the chicken from the table. And take this back with you. I don’t eat chicken.
Chapter Four
As Rowena opened her gate and walked into her back yard, a furious looking Mrs. Norris rushed at her. The woman was in a state of disarray, her hair all frizzled and her face contorted in an ugly rage.
“You lowly scum, where is my cat? Where is my Millicent?”
Before Rowena could stop her, the woman was upon her holding her by the collar of her sundress and shaking her so heard, Rowena’s head spun. Then she started hitting and slapping her on her shoulders and across her chest all the while spewing venom.
“You little scheming witch, I want my cat back. Where is she? If I don’t get my Millicent back, I will kill you with my bare hands.” She raved.
Deep down somewhere Rowena sympathized with the woman. She could feel her aura and knew how much she hurt. The cat was the only thing this woman really loved. There was nothing else worth giving affection to in her life. Everyone knew Dom Norris did not love her. They stayed together only because there was nowhere else to go for either of them, but their marriage was over a long time back.
The Campus Jock: A College Bad Boy Romance Page 26
