I donned the scrubs and gloves that the sign instructed me to don. The thirty-something black nurse in pink floral scrubs checked me over then pushed the door open, watching me through the window in the door. I smiled at her until she turned away and headed back to the nurse’s station.
Dr. Gelman was a fragile waif in her hospital bed. Her black hair was shorter and patchier with more white streaks in it then the last time I’d seen her, while her olive leathery skin was red and angry like it was sunburned, making her look a decade older than her mid-sixties.
I dug my nails into my palms because tears were really a threat and she’d kill me. Adopting my snarkiest pose, I tsked her. “You don’t call. You don’t write. You neglect to give me the heads up about evil witches.”
“Snippy.” The oxygen mask over her mouth made her Israeli-accented voice harder to understand, though the face mask tied over my mouth muffled my words as well.
I sat down in the chair beside her bed, trying not to focus on the bank of monitors and medical equipment surrounding us. “You okay?”
“I’m still alive, so yes. Thanks so much for asking.” Her sarcasm was sharp enough to sting.
“You were the one that so thoughtlessly crashed her immune system and didn’t return my calls.”
Her laughter died, coughs racking her body. I poured her some water from the carafe on the table by her bed, and holding the plastic cup to her lips, kept one hand on her back to prop her up. She was light as a feather. This woman who had single-handedly teleported me into weird caves below Prague just for funsies. Who had the most knowledge of magic of anyone I’d met. Who, right now, was shaking in bed, coughing violently into her hand as the nurse glared daggers at me through the door window for possibly bringing in some unknown contagion.
Was it possible for this to get more shitty?
“Damn chemo,” Gelman said, another coughing spasm overtaking her.
“I can come back another time.”
She shook her head, pushing the cup away. She placed her hands on her chest like she was helping her ribcage expand. “What’s so urgent?” I hesitated and she snapped at me. “I’m not dead yet. Speak.”
I caught her up on everything about my witch and Brotherhood suspicions in a matter-of-fact voice. Hoping if I didn’t get emotional, I wouldn’t raise her blood pressure too badly. “Do you believe me?”
None of the monitors blared. Go me.
The door opened and the same disapproving nurse came in, now wearing a mask and gloves. She switched out Gelman’s empty IV bag for a full one. “Visiting hours are over.”
“This is Nava,” Gelman rasped.
“The one and only,” I added.
The nurse closed the curtains around the bed, even though there were no other patients in the room. “Good job getting Esther attacked by a demon.”
Gelman shot her an unimpressed look. “Play nice.”
“I never meant for that to happen,” I said.
“Uh-huh,” the nurse said. Gelman poked her. “Fine. I’m Sienna.” Another poke. “Old woman, you’re annoying me.” Sienna tugged her gloves off, loosening Gelman’s hospital gown so she could tug the front of it down. The skin on her chest was dry and flaky.
Sienna placed one hand on Gelman’s heart and the other on her back. “What do you want now, Rasha?”
“Perhaps as a witch,” I said, “you could be a bit more supportive of the first female hunter? Sisterhood and all that.”
Sienna threw me a mocking smile. “Aren’t you a special Snowflake?”
I swallowed my snarky retort. Choked on it, but swallowed it. I needed Dr. Gelman’s help and antagonizing her fellow witch wasn’t the way to do it.
“A witch is binding demons,” Dr. Gelman said.
Sienna whistled. “You sure?”
“We are.” Gelman’s tone left no room for doubt
Relief swam down to my toes. “Who has the ability to do that?” I said.
“No one now,” Gelman said.
“The witches who knew how to do that are long dead. Which you’d know if you had a clue about magic,” Sienna said.
“Even I only ever heard of one in my lifetime. Millicent Daniels. Died half-crazed with her obsession,” Gelman said.
“Did you know her?” Sienna asked.
Dr. Gelman shook her head. “I’d only heard stories.”
“Addictions never end well.” I watched Sienna because she didn’t seem to be doing anything except standing there touching Gelman, which was super creepy. “What are you doing? Because that was not on the sign’s allowed activities.”
“I’m trying to heal her.”
I nodded. “A nurse, healer magic. That makes sense.”
“You really know nothing.”
“About witches? Call me Jon Snow,” I said. Sienna frowned. “Game of Thrones? Seriously? How have you missed one of the hugest cultural phenomena in recent history?”
“Luck. All witches can heal.”
“Infusion and elimination,” Gelman said. Her eyes were closed but she breathed easier.
“Then why don’t you just cure her?”
Sienna slapped her forehead. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Our magic has grown weaker,” Gelman said. “Sienna can’t cure me but this helps.”
“You’re too stubborn to die,” Sienna replied in a fond voice. “They don’t even want you in isolation anymore.”
“Magic,” Gelman prompted.
“Witches’ magic is based on the premise of infusion and elimination.” Sienna removed her hands and shook them out. Gelman’s skin was a bit rosier. “That’s ‘adding to’ and ‘taking away from.’”
“Thanks,” I said. “I have a Word of the Day app.”
“With your generation, I assume nothing. When you kill a demon, you eliminate its life force. If I pin you in place?”
I jerked against the chair hard enough to snap my head back, an invisible band pushing against my chest like a vise.
“I eliminate your ability to move.” She released me, but only after much flailing of my hands and an order from Dr. Gelman.
I rubbed my chest, peeking down the front of my scrubs and T-shirt reading “All I care about is my coffee and like 3 people” to confirm that there was bruising. “So if you changed me into a frog, you would be infusing me with frog essence–Oh, come on!” My voice came out in a throaty croak. It went well with my bumpy green skin and the flipper protruding from my left arm pit.
Dr. Gelman laughed. If looking like Kermit was the price of hearing her laugh again, then I’d pay it.
“Infusing you with frog essence makes you a ridiculous looking human,” Sienna said, “not a frog.”
“Dr. Gelman,” I rumbled. Gelman waved a hand and undid the froggy damage. I patted myself down to make sure I was properly restored.
“You witches really did just give us Rasha a fraction of your power,” I said.
“Rasha were only given that one sliver of our elimination magic relevant to killing demons.” Sienna opened the curtains around the bed once more. “Even that was too much.”
“Our magic is pretty cool,” I retorted. “Electricity, human blades, super speed, poison skin, shadow manipulation.”
“Flashy super powers.” Sienna keyed in something on one of the monitors. “Rasha should never have been allowed to exist.”