Ashes (Of the Earth Series)

Chapter 19.2

David stopped his pacing abruptly and turned to look at me, a glimmer of excitement in his eyes that I hadn't seen before. For a moment, I could imagine him as he must have been at some point in his life: eager and excited, a shaper of young minds latching onto a new concept that fascinated him.

As he leaned closer, his eagerness was palpable. I paused, considering his question carefully before responding with a small smile. "Well, a little," I admitted, my eyes scanning his face for any sign of judgment or disbelief. "Like I said..."

"Jesus Christ, you had cancer, right? Cancer?" His words came out in rapid succession as if trying to keep up with the thoughts running through his mind.

I didn't see what that had to do with anything. Confusion furrowed my brow and I tilted my head in question.

He noticed my quizzical look and exclaimed, "Come on, man! Weren't you studying bio and premed stuff too?" His excitement was almost contagious, but I couldn't shake off the feeling that he was barking up the wrong tree.

"Well, yeah, but I..." I trailed off, unsure how to explain it to him.

"Cancer cells have a lot in common with stomatic stem cells! They can differentiate into pretty much any other kind of cell." He spoke with such conviction that I couldn't help but be intrigued.

"Somatic," I corrected him automatically. "And yeah, right, but that..."

"Meaning that when you're in... that... body, you have hyper-differentiating cells," he continued, barely able to contain his enthusiasm. "What uh... What do you weigh?"

I could kind of see what he was getting at but wasn't entirely convinced that he was on the right track. Plenty of people with cancer had become Turned – but I had never seen any other shifters besides myself. Still, I decided to key in on his question rather than debate with him. "I have no idea. A lot."

He looked me up and down, sizing me up. "Can't be more than two ten. You're dense, but not that dense."

I couldn't help but chuckle at his comment. "Quite a bit more than that, I think. Push me. C'mon, pull the chair," I urged, gesturing to the chair I was sitting in. "Two ten, you're a big guy, you should be able to drag the chair with me in it, right?" With a sly grin, I scooted the chair backward and pointed at the deep grooves in the concrete floor left behind.

He came and stood behind me, setting his hands on the metal frame and tugging with all his might. But I didn't budge an inch. He frowned, and I turned sideways in the chair so I could look at him. "Not grounding myself, look." I stretched my legs out and set them on the ground heel first, my toes pointed at the ceiling.

Undeterred, he gave it another go – this time with renewed effort. But still, the chair didn't move. With each tug, he leaned towards the opposite wall, straining with all his might. As a bead of sweat popped out of his brow, I felt the chair begin to tilt forward. "Whoa," I exclaimed, catching my balance just in time. The chair tipped forward again and slammed into the ground with a resounding bang. David stumbled back and clutched one of his hands, the chair ripping out of his grasp.

Circling around me, he sat on the bed and rubbed his palm while staring at me in awe. "Okay, so probably closer to four hundred pounds," he muttered under his breath. "Any idea why?"

"A few," I replied. "One," I held up a finger and drew my nail across the back of my other hand, drawing a thin line of blue blood. David gasped as it healed almost instantaneously, stitching itself up with no trace of its existence except for the line of indigo fluid.

"I'm almost certain that my blood, like the Turned, is a combination of both hemoglobin and hemocyanin – using copper to carry oxygen – along with various perfluorocarbons," I explained. "This is why it has a slight shimmer to it."

His face contorted in confusion. "What's that thing called again? Perflawhats?"

"Perfluorocarbons are synthetic blood components made from fluorine. They can hold ten times more oxygen than regular hemoglobin. When I first turned, all I wanted was tap water. It was like my body craved the fluorine. You can imagine how hard it was to find working faucets."

"So, how does that make you heavy?"

"Well, hemocyanin cells are about twelve times heavier than hemoglobin cells. But they interact better with PFCs than our own blood does, and PFCs are even heavier when loaded with oxygen."

"So basically, you're like a giant horseshoe crab?"

"At least my face doesn't look like it got hit a few times with one." Echo muttered, clearly annoyed. I couldn't help but grin at her irritation.

"Not exactly, but if that helps you understand it better, then sure. Another reason for my weight is that my muscles are more like bone than actual muscle. If someone were to try and stab me right now, the blade would break."

Dave shook his head in disbelief. "No way. I put my blade through you multiple times on the field."

I laughed and threw my head back. "Yeah, you did. But remember, this is only when I'm human. In my hybrid form, I'm about the same as any other Turned. In terms of flesh, at least, bones are a different story."

Dave leaned forward and playfully poked me, wincing as his finger bent backward on my collarbone. "Christ. Any idea why?"

"When I'm in hybrid form, I'm about nine feet tall, right?" I asked, raising a hand and holding it flat above my head.

Dave snickered. "More like twelve."

"Well, the horns definitely add to the height," I joked. "But really, I think all that extra mass just shrinks back down when I'm human and expands when I'm Turned. And have you noticed how most Turned have green bones? You've probably seen it before when dissecting one."

"Unfortunately, yes. But I never thought much of it, just figured blue blood, green bones...why not?"

"There's copper in those bones, too," I added.

"Why not iron? Or titanium? Maybe even adamantium? Might as well be Wolverine." Dave snorted.

"I wish," I chuckled. "I don't have an explanation for it, but overall it just adds to my weight. If you were to put me on a scale in human or Turned form, there wouldn't be any difference."

He buried his head in his hands, messing up his hair in frustration. After a moment of silence, he spoke again. "You're such a pain in the ass, man."

"Why you say that?"

"Because in five minutes or an hour, whenever you get bored, you're gonna walk outta here and leave me with an absolute fuck ton of questions and no answers."

"Welcome to my life."