In To Speak of Things Unseen, Mitch finds out that witches can be handy-- at least the kind who use their powers to help the world.
><><><
Watching
Mitch be thrown, Elke suppressed her scream. She jumped off her mare, dropped
the reins to keep her where she was, and went to where he was levering himself
up. “Are you hurt?” Adolph loped to his side and nuzzled him for reassurance.
He snorted.
“My pride… and my wrist. Might be a little karma.” His laugh was swallowed by a
reluctant groan.
She saw then
how he was holding it. “Let me see what I can do,” she said. Healing had been
one of her skills, but she’d never tried it on a broken arm. She pushed him
flat.
“What are
you doing?” he asked, sucking in a breath. “Damn.”
“Let’s see.”
She put one hand on his wrist, feeling for the energy of the break. Luckily, it
wasn’t compound. The other hand she held over where she felt the heat of
injury. She let the energy of the universe flow through her. The heat grew as
waves of it traveled from her, through the air, to his wrist. She moved to hold
her other hand over his arm but not touching his skin now. The healing wasn’t
her. It was the earth, the elementals, the land that he loved now returning the
favor.
She didn’t
know how long she continued, but eventually she felt a cooling of the skin and
the energy changed. “How does it feel?” she asked as she met his gaze for the
first time.
“Better.” He
reached up with his other hand to her neck. He pulled her toward him, not
applying enough pressure that she could not have broken away. She didn’t want
to break way. His lips parted, and she knew hers had too. She wanted the kiss.
The sound of
pounding hooves caused him to release her and lever himself up onto his elbow.
“What the
hell happened, boss?” the cowboy yelled as he pulled his horse to a plunging
stop. He was riding bareback and clearly was at least part Native American.
“I got
careless,” Mitch said. He rose to his feet and felt of his wrist. “No real
damage done though.” He looked back at Elke. “Elke, this is Joe Kuruk, my
cousin or second cousin or… What the hell relation are we, Joe?” he asked with
a laugh.
“Damned if I
know.”
“Well, the
gist of it is when I’m not here, he runs the ranch—the part that Jacques
doesn’t run at least. Joe, this is Elke Hemstreet.”
“Howdy,
pretty lady,” Joe said. His smile flashed white teeth. He was a handsome man,
looked to be tall.
“Pretty and
handy to have around too,” Mitch said. “Mind if I ride behind you?” he asked as
he lifted Elke into her saddle.
“Pepper
should be fine with the extra weight since it’s not far.” She leaned forward as
he made a leap onto the back of the mare.
“I take it
Ranger was fine,” Mitch said as they rode down the trail, Adolph running ahead
and checking out scents.
“Jittery
like before. That horse may not be good for here.”
“We’ll see.”
“Can I try
with him?” she asked.
He put his
arm around her waist and leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “After you
healing my wrist, how could I say no?”
She smiled
and leaned against him. “Maybe it wasn’t that badly injured.”
“You and I
both know it was broken. You healed it. Part of the gift of witches?”
“Or
shamans.” She liked the feel of Mitch’s hard body against her. She was
beginning to feel urges where it came to him that were new to her. She’d only
been with one man sexually and that was in college when it was a wham bam thank you ma’am, and she’d
decided experimenting with sex wasn’t for her. After that, she’d had a few
boyfriends but none that lasted long enough for her to consider going beyond
brief, goodnight kisses—probably why they hadn’t lasted.
