A Rose by Any Other Name

Chapter 23

I felt annoyed, "You know what?" My voice was shaking in anger and I pointed at him viciously, "You shouldn't be a Doctor. Not with that kind of attitude and no wonder I thought you were a home wrecker, you certainly have the attitude of one!" My skin felt tight as I yelled at him and there was a point where I felt something in me snap.

Ky was watching my chart and one of the tubes I was connected to was an IV bag that was draining my plasma. There was the distinct sound of something tearing and I turned to see my plasma sac split open along the seams and burst. Except it didn't fall onto the floor but what looked like liquid turned into a cloudy mist. The blue cloud thinned out and moved over to me, coming in through my nostrils and my open mouth.

I coughed, choking on the mist. "What the fuck?" I managed to get out.

Ky was watching me rapturously, taking notes with an interested expression on his face. "Just as I thought." he declared, "You're an emotionally motivated warlock. Very interesting."

I took out the needles from my arm and drew up the blankets on the hospital bed up and around my body. "I don't understand."

Ky sighed, "Magic is relatively new. You know this. It was only 80 years ago when the first witches and warlocks materialized. Scientists didn't understand at first, what was this new organ? This new appendage in the brain? And then it started making sense when people did spells. But there are different types of magics and we only realized what was happening because of warlocks like you, the emotionally driven ones. Your form of magic is very potent, you probably do spells without even realizing it. Like now."

"I didn't do anything just now."

He shook his head, "You're a sponge, Derrick. You absorb magic energy. When your iv bag burst the vapour should have dissipated, but instead you just absorbed it back into your body. You're body is in overdrive because unconsciously you're doing it every day and all the time. When you're with your boyfriend do you feel full?" I ignored the innuendo of that statement and thought about it seriously.

"Not as often." I admitted.

"Well, that makes sense because he has very little natural magic ability. You probably don't steal from him as much as you do others."

"Who could I possibly be stealing from?"

"People on the street, your colleagues, even objects with left over magic residue. It makes sense that you feel full all the time. Even now, you're taking magic energy from me."

"No way," I stated, "How can you tell?"

He snapped his fingers, "This is a little spell I devised. It helps you see magic threads."

I blinked a few times, "Holy. Shit." And I saw them; tiny threads, cords and ribbons of magic connecting me to Dr.Nguyen. There was a rhythm to it, too. I saw the threads moving towards me, attaching themselves to my tattoos almost like webs. They were blue and almost pulsating.

"You've probably always been able to do this but your accident put your body out of wack and you most likely forgot how to control it. It's marvellous, really. In all my research I've only encountered a few who can do what you do." Ky's eyes glowed in interest, and then they dulled for a moment. "Wait a moment." he stood up, brushing his hair behind his ear again. He looked me up and down on the bed, eyes creasing sadly.

I tightened the blankets over my body, wishing Mike was here.

Ky crossed his arms over his body, clasping his elbows. His voice was a strained whisper, "You were abused weren't you?"