Page 14 of Magic and Medicine

‘What can you tell me about our new patient?’ I asked instead.

Despite her injuries, the woman in the examination cubicle was breathtakingly beautiful, also very young, with her hair styled and coloured in the manner typical of students wishing to express their personalities. The moment she noticed my presence, her head snapped round before, equally fast, it dropped into a pose of fearful submission.

‘Wait outside.’ I told my colleague, who frowned at my wilful dismissal of chaperone protocol but kept his silence and left. I sat down, waiting for the click of the door, quietly assessing the young lady’s body language and visible injuries.

The bruise under the left eye, more covering her neck in the telltale shape of a hand, and swollen, split lip left little to the imagination. The fearful, hesitant flinching told me there would be more injuries, her attitude one of long-term abuse.

Giving her a moment to get used to my presence before introducing myself, I used the time to control my breathing and purge my anger, knowing how little use it would be in this situation.

‘Hi, I’m Sara. I will be your doctor, and who you might be?’

‘My name is Ilona. I… can you help me? I need to work, but no one will look at me like this,’ she said, and I gasped at the entrancing undertone in her voice. The timbre was deeper than expected, but even those few simple sentences carried a quality that spoke straight to my soul, almost compelling me to do her bidding.

‘I will try my best, Ilona, but I need to know what happened to you before I can help you. I can see you were beaten, and it was likely not the first time?’ I watched the girl’s eyes fill with tears and knew my answer. ‘Let me examine you and ensure none of the injuries are dangerous. Everything I see or find will remain confidential unless you want me to alert the police.’

As usual, I couldn’t do anything unless my patient wanted to cooperate with the authorities, but when she pulled her jumper up, I wished I could lay my hands on whoever hurt her. The black, green and yellow bruises all over her torso fanning the flames of my fury.

‘Can you tell me who did this, Ilona? If you can, I promise to make sure this never happens again, and there won’t be any mention of your name.’ Fuck, I did it again! I thought, chastising myself. I knew better than to make such a promise, but my instincts were screaming at me that this was the right thing to say, and for once, I didn’t want to ignore them.

Gently touching her rib cage to assess if there were any fractures, my eyesight blurred, and something inside flared to life, showing me the image of a figure from legends that looked remarkably like the girl before me.

‘You are a siren. Is this related to Leszek and his men?’

Ilona flinched, trying to avoid my hands before hastily straightening her clothes. ‘He would never….You are insane. There are no such things as sirens. Nobody hurt me; I simply fell. Get another doctor.’ The panic in her voice made Ilona difficult to understand, but I caught her outrage at my accusing Leszek and knew he needed to know what happened here, his instruction to call if I saw anything unusual finally proving useful to me.

‘You are not the first non-human that I’ve treated. I know things… I know…’ fuck, what did vampire boy call him. ‘I know the Lord of the Forest.’ I said, desperately trying to reassure the woman, urging her to trust me. I knew if she left this room, I would never see her again, and it wouldn’t be long before my paramedic friends would be gossiping about another woman’s corpse pulled from the Motlawa River.

Ilona gasped, grabbed my hand, and looked me in the eye for the first time.

‘That man, I can’t… Stay away from this for your own sake. Even the Forest Lord can’t help, but please tell him we don’t want a war, that my sister is sorry for killing the vampire.’ I couldn’t help my dumbfounded expression. Her sister… vampire… fuck, does she mean Adam? I was still trying to make sense of her words when the doors burst in and a burly man entered. He gave Ilona one look, and the woman’s posture crumpled, the colour draining from her face.

‘We are going back, the boss called, and he is unhappy with you.’ His voice and slightly crooked nose told me he had seen a fight or two. I didn’t recognise him, which was a surprise as I’d stitched up almost every local troublemaker at one time or another.

Something made me step between the injured girl and the stranger, his reaching hand knocked aside by my raised arm. I could easily see my younger self in her. A uni student, a strange bird in the flock of hens with no one to turn to. Her abuse hit me hard, even harder, because she was one of them, and just like that wolf kid, she was injured by the brutal world. I needed to protect her. Common sense be dammed. I couldn’t unsee it. I couldn’t close my eyes, pretending she was just another patient because now I knew things were not always as they seemed. I wished I had met someone in the past who would step in to protect me.

‘Your boss can wait. I haven’t finished the examination, which means my patient is going nowhere,’ I said, pushing every ounce of my authority and anger into the statement. The door was open now, and anyone in the corridor, as well as the security cameras, could see if he threatened me or, even better, attempted an attack. I could feel myself begging for him to get violent, knowing that if he laid a finger on me, I could retaliate, and he would be locked away, and I would have the chance to ask more questions.

For a moment, it looked as if it would work as he assessed the situation with a hostile glare, and I saw his jaw muscles pulsing when he clenched his teeth, but Ilona slipped past me and nodded to him meekly.

‘It’s Okay; I’m finished here. Please give me a moment to collect my things.’ She moved back toward me, reaching for the bag still on the chair, and as she picked it up, I heard a soft whisper.

‘I will be in the Anchor tonight, where he makes us work. Tell the Leshy he is in danger.’

Ilona left, and it took all my energy not to scream my frustration at the world. I knew the place she was talking about; the Anchor was the most infamous nightclub in Gdansk, known for a willingness to host every vice money could buy. Their customers often frequented our department on Saturday nights, telling stories of overpriced drinks containing more drugs than alcohol and how they woke up in a ditch with empty pockets and painful heads. It took great strength of will not to congratulate them for still having their kidneys, the lucky bastards. On the other hand, those who frequented that establishment were unlikely to have healthy organs to harvest. Still, my frustration aside, who was this Leshy that was in danger? It couldn’t be Leszek, could it? Had the girl misspoken in her haste to escape?

For a moment, I thought of asking my uniformed friends for help. The police often raided the place, finding nothing, almost as if the owner knew they were coming, so it would be best not to leave it in the hands of the law. Ilona was a siren, or at least I suspected she was because she never confirmed it, but that gave me leverage. Leszek wanted a mob doctor, so if I kept to the original agreement, he would need to persuade me in other ways, like helping me save an abused girl and her sister and a little assistance with the damn shadows.

I pulled out my phone, searching for his business card simultaneously. Maybe I was making a mistake, but the desperation in Ilona’s voice told me I had little time. I needed to find her before whatever war she mentioned left the hospital full of innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.

My hands were shaking as I typed a brief message.

‘We need to talk. Meet me at the Anchor at eight pm. It’surgent.Sara.’

Chapter nine

Veronica Sandow, the current Mistress of the Gdansk Coven, barged in without knocking, though thankfully, I heard the witch’s angry footsteps long before she reached my study and opened the protective wards, avoiding the unpleasant mess her body would have made on the carpet.

‘What is the meaning of this? I’m not some errand girl to be called in the middle of the night by your assistant, no less, and summoned to your office without explanation, Leshy.’ Her raised voice annoyed me immensely, but I held back the cutting remark that came to my lips and gestured to the comfortable chair by the fireplace.

---