"No. There was too much smoke and darkness; I couldn't see her, and I couldn't get into the circle to help her. And when it all cleared she was like this and a bird thing was crouching over her."

"Dallas, stop talkin' 'bout me like I'm not here! And he wasn't crouched over me. He was lyin' on the ground next to me."

Lenobia started to speak, but they'd reached the infirmary, and Sapphire, the tall, blond nurse who had been promoted to head of the hospital in the absence of a Healer, greeted them with her usual sour expression, which quickly changed to shock. "Put her in there!" she ordered briskly, pointing into a newly emptied hospital-style room.

They laid Stevie Rae on the bed, and Sapphire started to yank stuff out of one of the metal cabinets.

One of the things she grabbed was a baggie of blood she tossed to Lenobia. "Make her drink this immediately."

No one said anything for the few seconds it took for Lenobia to rip open the blood bag and help support Stevie Rae's shaking hands as she held it to her mouth and drank greedily.

"I'm gonna need some more of that," Stevie Rae said. "And, like I said before, a dang phone. Right away."

"I need to see what's sliced up your body like that, made you lose entirely too much blood, which you need to replace right away, and figure out why the blood that's still dripping out of your body smells completely wrong," said Sapphire.

"Raven Mocker! That's the name of that thing," Dallas said.

"A Raven Mocker attacked you?" Lenobia said.

"No. And that's what I've been tryin' to get through Dallas's thick skull. Darkness attacked me and a Raven Mocker."

"And like I said, you're not making no damn sense. I saw that bird thing. I saw your blood. These definitely look like slash wounds from that beak of his. I didn't see anything else!" Dallas practically shouted.

"You didn't see anything because Darkness was covering everything inside the circle, including me and the Raven Mocker while it attacked both of us !" Stevie Rae yelled her frustration at him.

"Why does it sound like you keep standing up for that thing?" Dallas said, throwing up his hands.

"You know what, Dallas, you can just kiss my butt! I'm not standing up for anyone except myself . It's not like you could manage to get inside the circle to help me out - I had to do it myself !"

There was a long silence while Dallas stared at her with hurt clearly visible in his eyes, and then Sapphire spoke in her sharp, shitty bedside voice, "Dallas, you need to leave. I'm going to cut what's left of these clothes off her, and it's not appropriate for you to be in here."

"But I - "

"You've brought your High Priestess home. You did well," Lenobia told him, touching his arm gently.

"Now let us care for her."

"Dallas, uh, why don't you go get somethin' to eat? I'll be fine," Stevie Rae said, already sorry she'd taken out on him the frustration fear and guilt were making her feel.

"Yeah, all right. I'm goin'."

"Hey, Lenobia's right," Stevie Rae called after him as he slouched from the room. "You did good bringin' me home."

He glanced over his shoulder at her just before he closed the door, and she thought she'd never seen his eyes look so sad. "Anything for you, girl."

The door had barely closed behind him when Lenobia's voice shot out. "Explain about the Raven Mocker."

"Yeah, I thought they was all gone," Kramisha said.

"The two of you may stay. Margareta has gone to replenish our supplies from St. John's Hospital, so I can use the extra hands, but you'll have to talk while you help me," Sapphire told them, handing Lenobia another baggie o' blood. "Open this for her. Kramisha, go over there, wash your hands, and then start handing me those alcohol-soaked cotton balls."

Kramisha shot Sapphire a raised-brow look, but she went to the sink. Lenobia ripped open the bag and gave it to Stevie Rae, who drank slowly, buying herself some time.

With a ripping sound that seemed too loud for the room, Sapphire cut away what remained of Stevie Rae's pants and her Don't hate the 918 T-shirt.

Stevie Rae felt everyone's eyes staring at her mostly bare body. She wished she'd worn a better bra, shifted nervously, and said, "Dang, I loved those Cowgirl U jeans. I hate to think about havin' to go back to Thirty-first and Memorial to Drysdales to get me another pair. The traffic always sucks in that part of town."