Of Witches and Warlocks: The Complete Series

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"How're you feeling?" Hex asked with concern after a couple of minutes had passed.

"Normal, I guess," I answered, slightly nervous as I watched the constant drip of fluid going into my arm. "Is that good?"

"I think so," he replied, smiling encouragingly. "No reaction is better than a bad one, right?"

We were both tense, but it was understandable. A lot was riding on this experiment of ours. The contents of the bag were soon emptied, and Hex removed the I.V., and covered the site with a Band-Aid, telling me to hold some pressure on it.

"Okay, so we're going to sit on this overnight. You need to let me know if you notice anything strange or out of the ordinary. In the morning we'll see how things are. I'll do some labs then to check if the new cells are attaching to yours or just floating in your blood stream," he explained.

"What difference does that make?"

"If the cells bind with yours they can mutate together making these powers, if you get any, permanent. If they're only floating along it might generate powers that could eventually wear off after a while, flushing from your system. It would be bad if it were to happen during an attack of some sort, so it's crucial we have the results before we confront Vance."

"Yes, definitely a good thing to know," I replied, agreeing whole-heartedly.

Hex disposed of the items we'd used and we headed back out to the main living quarters.

"So how did you discover you had these powers?"

"It happened by accident, honestly," he began. "My mom had always filled my head with stories of me having jinn blood, but I never really believed her. I couldn't prove on any level the jinn actually existed. Everything written about them was handed down from myth or legend. My scientific mind refused to accept that. I still don't, really. I can't prove they exist, but I can prove I do have magic that resembles what they're supposed to have. That along with my mother's claims, I just sort of dubbed myself as jinn offspring."

"Does your mom know about your powers?"

"No, she'd passed away before I discovered them. I was already living here when I had my first experience with it. I'd been working out in the training room and thought of something I needed to do in the lab, and poof! I was instantly there." He laughed at the memory. "Of course I nearly scared myself to death! I couldn't figure out what happened. I tried to do it again and successfully rematerialized at my previous location.

"After that I began to experiment with distances and popping into other's minds. I discovered the speed just as a byproduct of the other experiments."

"What's the farthest distance you've ever skipped?" I asked, truly curious about his ability.

"Somewhere in the vicinity of thirty feet," he replied with a shrug. "Even though it isn't a great distance, one can cover a lot of ground at thirty feet per second. I evaporated myself all the way to town one day. It took me a fraction of the time." He laughed. "It was great!"

"What does it feel like?" I was in awe.

"For me, there's a brief sensation of being completely weightless for a moment and then I feel like myself again. My skin tingles a little after reforming, but it's not unpleasant, kind of like a cool breeze passing over."

"That's interesting," I replied, thinking a cool breeze would almost always be welcome in Louisiana.

Sitting on my soft cot, I swung my leg up and pull the light blanket higher. Hex went to his side of the room, flipping out the lights as he moved.