The next day I felt human again, completely back to myself. It might have been partly illusory, but I cherished it. The way things were going, I expected I’d be injured more before this was over, perhaps quite a lot more. I knew this could end with my death.

For some reason, that didn’t scare me as much as it had. Except that I couldn’t save the world if I was dead.

So I had to stay alive. I spent some time training with Thea, glad of the physical activity, the practice. It seemed that more and more came back to me with each session.

As we finished up, my phone rang. It wasn’t somebody I expected.

“Prue?”

“Yeah. Have you seen Kanesha?”

“I’ve been busy. Haven’t really seen anyone in a couple of days.” Maybe I should change this number, except…

“She didn’t come home last night and, unlike you, that’s not in character.”

I ignored the jibe. “I haven’t seen her, I promise.” But now I was worried. I’d already had to rescue Barry. Kanesha, black belt or no black belt, was vulnerable to the same crap.

Maybe she could hold her own in a fistfight, but…well. Or maybe she was just out, ended up at some boyfriend’s house. Did she have a boyfriend? I wasn’t sure, but that was also something that changed with the tide at our age.

I didn’t have one and now didn’t want one…between what was going on and the confusion of my feelings for Thea, it was best to stay relentlessly single.

Come to think of it, Kanesha wasn’t so…concentrate! I had to find her. “I’ll check out some of her haunts, if you haven’t already?”

“I got some, but not all. I’ll…call if you find her, okay?”

“I will,” I promised, then turned and cast a worried gaze on Thea.

She nodded. “Let’s go.”

In some ways I didn’t want her with me. In others? I would have felt naked without her.