Blood Witch by Ellie Potts Page A

could pinpoint mint,
     eucalyptus and some others.
    She finally opened her eyes and chanced the light. Slowly, they adjusted but it still
     seemed brighter than normal, just like the air tasted sharper with the mint. Even
     the whispering sounded louder.
    “Hey, look who’s alive?” Collin said.
    “Ha-ha,” she said scooting herself up to sit. But stopped. “Ow. Can I get some Tylenol
     or something?”
    “I can’t give you anymore,” Doctor Zed said. Zed was a werecoyote. Short and sleek,
     with short light brown grayish hair, and dark brown grayish tips all natural. His
     eyes were a shade darker then his honey colored skin. “I gave you a lot already. It
     seems your metabolism is almost working like a wereanimal, most unusual.”
    “Maybe that is why I am so hungry,” she pushed herself into a sitting position and
     this time it worked. “What happened?”
    “We found you on the ground unconscious.”
    “You took a nice smack to the head,” Doctor Zed said.
    “Patrick is with Nathan right now,” Collin said watching her.
    She remembered him crying out. “Is he okay?”
    “A big thump on the noggin like you, although to take him down he had to have been
     hit way harder,” Collin said.
    The headache finally lessened. But the bright lights, the overpowering smells, and
     the sharp tastes in the air still were overbearing. She blinked her eyes rapidly,
     hopefully trying to get them to adjust.
    “Leslie is something wrong?” Zed asked. He had kind helpful eyes. She liked him just
     for that, and that he catered to Opposites, being the main medical doctor in the clinic.
     He had help, but he liked to be one on one with as many patients as he could.
    “Everything seems off,” she said looking around.
    “Off how?” He said sitting down beside her bed.
    “Light is brighter than normal, the smells are stronger, and the noises are louder.”
    He pulled his penlight out of his pocket and shined it in her left eye. “Okay, follow
     it without moving your head.” He moved on to the other. He clicked it off and placed
     it back into his coat pocket.
    “Just a small concussion; it’ll pass. Now that you’re awake I have some others to
     attend to. Last night got rather wild.” Her left them alone.
    “Wild bad?” she asked Collin.
    “Na, just the normal stuff. I got you and Nathan here with the help of some of the
     other Supers. Mark wants a report, he told me he’s thinking of calling in some help
     from the San Francisco branch.” That meant trouble. Big trouble. It could give off
     that Merced was weak, too weak to take care of themselves, and if that got out it
     could get pretty ugly pretty fast.
    Collin got her home and into bed. She didn’t even get a chance to check on Nathan.
     He had a bunch of bears surrounding him making sure their king was okay. Sleep came
     quick, although she slept pretty badly. Dark dreams and shadows kept haunting her,
     and then the smell of breakfast woke her up. She wasn’t surprised that instead of
     feeling hungry, she felt nauseated and unrested.
    She made her way to the kitchen. Collin was at the computer why Patrick finished cooking.
     She sat herself heavily down on a kitchen chair and poured herself some orange juice.
     Patrick dropped some food on a plate in front of her. She looked at it for a minute,
     before running to the bathroom to get sick.
    She lay her throbbing head down against the cool tiles. She knew Collin and Patrick
     were talking to her, but she heard only white noise, finally she knew she was moving,
     but she had passed out. She woke again in the same clinic room.
    “Well, look she’s alive,” Collin said.
    The light seemed almost too bright, almost hurting her eyes. She could smell the sweat
     on Patrick and Collin; she could even smell the shampoo they used. At least her stomach
     didn’t react. Her head still throbbed, but she thought it was the light.
    “You missed the doctor. He had the nurse give you a shot, and said