Chatoyant College, Book 13: The Teeth

Chapter 46: Healing

"I think we're back to there being no connection," Dawn said, shaking her head. "These are just random murders, most likely."

"That's good, Troy," Edie said. "That means the faerie didn't attack Sean because of you. It was probably just looking for any victim that night, and when you turned out to be too difficult, it went after him."

Link shook his head, twisting his fork between his fingers. "I don't know about that. It seemed awfully determined."

"How could you tell?" Troy asked.

"It kept coming after you, even when I showed up, even when I started throwing sparks at it. It wasn't biting at me—just you."

Troy shook his head. "You're right. Even when you were closer, it didn't attack you."

"This doesn't make any sense," Corrie said. "But a lot of times faeries don't, I guess. I'd say we should ask some faeries, but we did. The magic professors don't seem to know anything more than we do."

"Can I look at your wound, Troy?" Dawn asked. "If the faerie left any trace, I might be able to see it with my Sight."

"Oh yeah, you might as well." Troy rolled up his sleeve and started tugging at the bandage. "It might look gross, I'm warning you, but it doesn't feel too bad anymore."

Link sighed and stood up. "Let me do that." He put his fork down on the pancake plate, then unrolled Troy's bandage with surprising tenderness, considering his apparent annoyance. Or maybe Dawn shouldn't have been surprised—it was Link's job to take care of Troy, after all.

When Link had finished with the bandage, he snagged another pancake and sat back down. Dawn turned to look at the injury.

She wrinkled her nose. It did look pretty gross—a pair of puncture wounds, deep and ragged, like they'd come from the world's biggest vampire. They were obviously healing, but that was making the skin around them wrinkle and fold, and it looked pale in odd places. "Are you sure this is healing well?" she asked uncertainly. "Shouldn't you at least go to the health clinic?"

"It's healing as well as it can," Link said. "He should be all right in a day or two. I know it looks strange, but we can't let a human doctor look at him."

Dawn grimaced. "I guess I'd better make sure we're both seeing the same thing." She began to describe the injury.

"That sounds about right," Troy said when she'd described the two puncture wounds.

"Can I look at it?" Edie said. "Troy, is that okay with you? My mom is a nurse, so I might have some idea what I'm looking at."

"Sure," Troy said with a half grin. "Might as well make it a party."

Edie got up and bent over Dawn, looking at Troy's arm. "Yeah, that looks like it's healing. It probably would have been better with stitches, but as long as you have mobility in your arm, you should be fine."

"I can move it, it just hurts to go in certain directions," Troy said.

"You see the redness here?" Dawn said, pointing to the edge of the bite mark. "And the skin is wrinkled here, and it looks kind of pale here and here."

Edie nodded. "I see all of that. I think it's normal, though. You're going to have some nasty scars, Troy. You can use those to impress the guys." Corrie was the only one who laughed at that.

"Maybe I should try touching it," Dawn said. "I won't stick my fingers in the bites or anything, but I might be able to feel anything with my two different arms." She still hated that the Sight was broken in her right arm, but as long as she had this problem, she should make use of it.

"Go for it," Troy said.

Dawn patted and poked gingerly at the arm, coming as close to the wound as she dared, but she didn't feel anything different with her two hands. To her Sight, it was just an ordinary injury. She sighed. "No. It feels normal."

"Are you done?" Link asked.

"Yeah." Dawn sat back, and Edie took her seat again.

Link got up and left the room. Dawn stared after him, confused, for a moment, but then he returned with a small bottle in one hand and a fresh bandage in the other. Troy held out his arm with a resigned grimace. Link poured several drops of water from the bottle onto Troy's wound, then quickly wrapped the bandage around it.

"It prevents infection," he explained.

"So, Link," Corrie said. "You talked to Roe last night, right? You told her what happened?"

"Most of it," he said. "I didn't say it was a faerie. But she understood when I explained that I was protecting Troy."

Corrie nodded. "The important question is, has she told you about her vision?"