Hidden Moon (Nightcreature 7)
"Swell. "
"In my experience, normal people want to be cured. ASAP. "
"So what's wrong with Freestone?"
"Normal people don't heal traumatic throat wounds in less than twenty-four hours. "
I contemplated Grace's worried face. "What are you trying to say?"
"He might seem normal, but he isn't. "
"What is he?"
"That's what we have to find out. But I'm not going to have time to trace down similar instances of miraculous healing. I'm assigning that task to you. "
"Me?"
"You're research girl, right?" Grace didn't wait for me to answer. "And while you're boning up on miraculous healing, find out if there have been a lot of wolves appearing in places where there aren't supposed to be any. "
"Okay. "
"Anything turn up on this?" She wiggled the talisman.
I filled her in on the origin of the swastika.
"Protection and rebirth," she murmured. "Interesting. "
I hadn't found it that interesting, but whatever. "Did it belong to our missing hiker?"
Grace shook her head. "I had to call his family to tell them he was gone. His wife said she'd never known him to carry a charm, amulet, or talisman, and she doubted he'd carry anything with a swastika on it. "
"Because?"
"His mother's maiden name was Wasserstein. "
"Oh. "
"Yeah. "
"I don't like this one bit. "
"What 'this' are you talking about?" Grace asked. "The part where we have reports of a wolf where there hasn't been a wolf for a century? Or the part where t
he wolf that shouldn't be here mauls a tourist? Or maybe the part where the tourist miraculously heals, then disappears before he can be treated for a potential epidemic-producing disease?"
"I was talking about the part where we find a swastika where a person with a Jewish background was attacked in a part of the forest where Gypsies are camped. "
"Ah, hell. " Grace kicked the bed. "I hadn't thought of that. "
"What now?"
"I'm going to get a search party together to find this guy. "
"I'll help. "
Grace laughed. "Have you ever been in the mountains?"
"I live in the mountains, Grace, same as you. "