Gnomes of Suburbia by Viola Grace

like it or not. Now move!” The barricade of tiny bodies blocked the door. As one, they stubbornly refused to move. They were stacked in a pyramid and were looking at her with a sense of urgency. She contemplated leeching some of her power from them, but they were her babies and she didn't want to hurt them. Aside from their odd behaviour, the only thing wrong was that they weren't all there. One of them was not in the throng.
    The only gnome missing was Bitsy. His conspicuous absence was answered by a knock on the door behind her wall of gnomes.
    There was only one person it could be. “Come on in, Xander. If you can.” With the grace of tumbling leaves, the pyramid of gnomes dissolved to allow him in. They formed a column of honour and watched the magus enter with hope and relief in their tiny eyes.
    "What's wrong, Abby? Bitsy grabbed me out of the shower.” Xander was only wearing a set of jeans, and by the way they clung to him, he hadn't had a chance to dry off. Bitsy must have seen him naked. Lucky little bugger.
    The surge of power that rippled through her house made her aware of the effect his half-naked presence was having on her. With reluctance, she fought the arousal away, feeling the power subside with it. So it only took one half-naked man to make her lose her control. How embarrassing.
    "I have no idea what got into them. Their vocabulary isn't developed enough for what they want to tell me. I think Harby just ate my car keys so it must have something to do with my car.” She turned from introspective to hopeful. “Maybe my battery is dead?” The only other possibility was that her creatures were holding her prisoner and were keeping her under house arrest. Nah, that was too ridiculous. A tug on the leg of her jeans made her look down.
    Bitsy spread his arms wide. “Boom."
    She blinked in surprise and then looked up as Xander started to move to the door.
    "Let me check out your car, all right?"
    As soon as she nodded, he was out the door and she felt something around her vehicle. Sheer nausea followed at his announcement.
    "It's a bomb. Under the driver's seat."
    The floor rushed up to meet her ass as her knees gave way again. “Are you sure?” Of course he was sure. He was a whiz of a wizard.
    "Of course I am sure.” He looked indignant and delectable at the same time. “Would you like me to remove it?” He crossed his legs at the ankle as he leaned against her ready-to-explode station wagon.
    "Yes, please.” It never hurt to be polite. She made the most of her manners. “That would be most kind of you. Thank you."
    All of her blood was pounding through her head as she watched him gesture and mutter. With her eyes open, she triggered her second sight and watched his magic ebb and flow. The colors were wild, blue, brown and a shimmering black. A lovely display of phantom colors as the explosive device was levitated out from under her car to hover in front of it. The instant that it hit the daylight, it began to explode. Xander couldn't contain it.
    The bomb was small but deadly as a dome of power encapsulated it. The only problem for her was that it wasn't Xander's power that had wrapped around it. It was hers. A bright sphere of blue, purple and gold. Iridescent and beautiful, they swirled around the explosion and held it in physical and temporal stasis.
    Her day was looking up.
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Chapter Twenty
    "Are you doing that? Holding the explosion?” Xander looked exhausted and relieved. He was lying on the grass where the first shockwave had knocked him when the bomb began its explosion. The multi-coloured bubble was still hovering in mid-air, pulsing gently as it froze the bomb in time and space. The time thing was surprising. Abby didn't even know that it was possible, but there it was, frozen at the moment of explosion, still blowing apart, but wrapped with energy. Freaky.
    "I guess I am.” She slowly lowered the bubble to the ground and then blinked in astonishment as