“Perhaps she was cut by a laser?” Laszlo leaned over for a closer look. “It is odd.” He glanced up at Connor. “Are you sure this was an attack of violence?”

“Of course it was violent. She was bloody well wounded.”

Laszlo frowned as he fiddled with a button on his lab coat. “The two wounds are perfectly symmetrical. I would wager the lengths are exactly the same down to the millimeter. This sort of precision would not occur in a normal fight.”

“Laszlo makes a good point.” Roman selected two forceps off the surgical tray and gently examined one of the wounds.

“What are ye doing?” Connor asked. “Ye should be closing the wounds, no’ opening them.”

Roman drew in a sharp breath. “Laszlo, look at this.”

Laszlo nudged Connor aside so he could get closer. “What is that? Some sort of bone or cartilage?”

“Yes,” Roman whispered. “And it’s been severed.”

Laszlo straightened with a jerk and grabbed a button on his lab coat. “I’ve never seen anything like that on a human.” He turned to Connor, his eyes wide. “What have you brought here?”

Connor swallowed hard. She wasn’t human? He touched a lock of her hair. She felt so human.

“Is there anything else you know about her?” Roman asked. “Did you hear anything—”

“They were arguing.” Connor closed his eyes briefly, struggling to remember everything that had happened before he’d been blasted into a tree and had the sense knocked out of his head. “The man, Zack, was yelling at her. She had disobeyed three times. She was being banished.” He opened his eyes and gazed down on her beautiful face. “He called her Marielle.”

Roman’s eyes widened, then his gaze dropped to her wounds. “God’s blood,” he whispered. “Surely it can’t be.”