“You’re crazy.” Or I was.
“I thought the same.” Raye tilted her head as if listening. “Okay.” She crossed to the wolf.
“You probably shouldn’t—”
“You have magic too, Becca, and I can prove it to you.” She knelt next to Pru and beckoned. “Touch her wound.”
“It’s an open wound. Nothing and no one should touch it. Including her.”
“Afraid I’m right?”
“About what?”
“Your touch can heal.”
I had a sudden flash of what I’d thought I’d seen during the surgery—Pru’s wound seeming to mend faster than it possibly could have.
But that hadn’t been real. Had it?
“Why do you think your patients get better faster than any others?” Raye asked. “That you’ve never lost one yet?”
My gaze narrowed. “How long have you been in town?”
“Long enough to hear a reputation that’s nothing short of mythic.”
“I’m good at what I do.”
“You’re that good for a reason.”
“I am not magic.”
“Prove it.” Raye yanked the gauze off Pru’s flank. The wolf didn’t even snarl. Magic right there. “Touch her wound.”
“If I do and nothing happens, then what?”
“When you do and something happens, I’ll tell you.”
“Right.” I laid my palm over the raw, angry-looking injury. A spark jumped, heat pulsed. Had the infection spread?
Beneath my hand her flesh moved, and not because she had. The creepy-crawly feeling reminded me of worms or snakes, and I yanked back, expecting to see just that. Instead, the redness was gone. The raw edges had sealed together.
“You should probably take out those stitches,” Raye said.
“I just put them in.” Nevertheless, I went to the sink, washed my hands, and retrieved the instruments I needed.
The air around me seemed to whoosh with a sound like wind or rushing water. My hands shook a bit. My legs felt wobbly. My head spun, my thoughts too.
Was I dreaming? Maybe.
A suture needle floated up, hanging in the air right in front of me. “Stop that!”
“What?” Raye turned, frowned. “Henry!”
The needle dropped to the counter and lay still. I snatched it and poked my arm. I didn’t wake up, but I did bleed. I set my thumb atop the tiny wound and when I wiped off the drop of blood, it didn’t well again.
I gloved up, then returned to Pru’s side. Nothing had changed since I left it. I snipped the first stitch and waited for blood to well there as well. None did.
Pru shifted, huffed. Finish.
Snip. Clip. Snip. Only a fine, pink line remained. Curious, I set my hand on top of it—spark, heat, movement. When I lifted it again, the line had faded from pink to white.
“I—I’ve never done that before.” My head spun faster.
Yes, I was good at my job, but I didn’t heal animals on contact. “If it’s real and true, how could I not have noticed?”
Raye lifted one finger and listened to the corner. “Henry says that there’s power in three. Always has been.”
“Why?”
“Who knows? There’s a reason for the Trinity—Father, Son, Holy Ghost.”
“What does that have to do with this?”
“I’m just giving an example of a famous power of three.”
“Even if I did believe you were my sister—” She rolled her eyes. I couldn’t blame her. The visual evidence was pretty damning. “One and one does not make three.”
“We’re more powerful together than apart.” Raye stood, closed her eyes, set her hands to the side, and slowly her feet lifted from the ground. Pru yipped. I wanted to.
When Raye’s head brushed the ceiling, her eyes opened and met mine. “Couldn’t do that yesterday.”
She turned her hands palms down, then floated back to the floor. “Once we find our third we’ll be able to stop them.”
“Stop who? From doing what?”
“Stop the Venatores Mali from raising their leader.”
“Wait.” I glanced at Pru. “She told me to beware the Venatores Mali.”
“Hunters of evil.”
“But…” I was so confused. “The werewolf hunters are J?ger-Suchers.”
“Two different evils,” Raye said. “Evil werewolves and other assorted creepy-crawlies are hunted by Edward and clan. The Venatores Mali hunt witches.”
Several puzzle pieces came together in my head with a click so loud I started. “Let me guess, they wear rings with a snarling wolf on the face.”
“You met one of them already?”
“Henry tossed him or her into a wall.”
“I love it when that happens.”
I had too. “Why did this person come after me?”
Raye pointed at Pru’s now nonexistent wound. “People have noticed your talent.”
“Just because I’m good at my job doesn’t make me a witch. Especially around here.”
Had I accepted that I was? Not completely. But I couldn’t deny something weird was going on. Always had been.