“I’m a what?” Jake asked shocked, Dang steps forward and after bumping his head on Greg’s leg gives a hurt look to Jake; “A witch. Ye Gods, I do hope my bond mate isn’t slow,” I chuckle and squat down to Greg’s level for a moment. “Hey sweety, why don’t you let Dang show you around. I bet he can find your bedroom, and you can show him your trick.” Dang looks over to the child as if shocked, “oh my the kitten has a trick I have to see this.” and after Greg turns into Zipper Dang starts talking to him in cat and leads him off.

I turn to Jake my ears hearing a car coming down my driveway, “it’s simple Jake. You were good with the animals on your dad’s farm right?” He nods his head I continue, “one of the things a witch is being able to take care of animals well. So well that some people that don’t know they are witches are often called ‘whisperers’.” Jake blinks and Simon’s car pulls into my yard with my father and Simon stepping out of it.

Simon walks up to us swiftly and turns Jake around giving him a once over, “he looks just like his grandfather.” Jake looks surprised, “um Sir? My grandfather died long before I was born.” Simon gets a momentarily dark look on his face, “is that what your father told you? You Jake Hedgeflower are the grandson of Peter Hedgeflower the number one heart doctor in the country. Your aunt Diane is the top keeper at the National zoo and was instrumental in getting the pair of pandas there to breed.” Jake shakes his head, “my last name is Hedge.”

Simon shakes his head a moment and waves to my father who opens the back of the car and two men step out, both are older versions of Jake. Jake looks surprised, “dad what is going on?” Jake’s father the younger of the two men looks angry, “so I had to have a child with the family curse did I? Well I disown you Jake, I can’t have one of my children be one of these freaks.” I see the older one reach out and grab Jake’s father, “Damien; stop this. Diane misses talking to her big brother.” Damien shakes his arm out of his father’s grasp, “I have no sister; my father is dead. I have no son, if you try to take me anywhere again I am filing kidnapping charges.” I see Simon shake his head and wave at my father who convinces Damien to get back into the car and leaves with him. Simon comments as they leave, “I do hope Maahes is careful with that company car.”

The older man comes up to Jake, and inclines his head. “Greetings Jake, I am your grandfather. I am sorry about your father, he has never been happy that he was never born with powers. He should have known however, that you were showing signs of your powers awakening. I could feel them, as with any witch in our family line would; once one of our lineage comes into their powers.” Jake looks stunned and hurt, and I put my arm around his shoulder and look over to Simon. “Maybe we should take this inside?” Simon nods his head and helps me lead the stunned young man into my house with his grandfather following behind us.

Simon sits Jake at the table and I rummage through my drink cabinet and pull out a bottle of honey whiskey and some cups and set them on the table and Simon pours Jake a reasonable amount and passes it to him. Jake picks it up looking it it, “but Sir I’m not old enough yet to drink.” Simon nudges the cup and says, “the age rules only apply to humans Jake; you are not human. You will discover that alcohol doesn’t hardly effect you, and if it did your grandfather could find a way to lower the effects.”

His grandfather notices the bandage on my shoulder and walks over to me reaching for my arm, “may I?” I nod my head and he unwraps it and looks it over, “I know Dr Wort can do better work than this Simon.” Simon chuckles, we don’t generally say the Dr’s name in public because children have a habit of calling him Dr Wart instead. Simon answers Dr. Peter, “how many ‘specials’ have you worked on Peter?” Dr Peter shakes his head, “none; but still. I bet this hurts young lady?” I nod my head, it did hurt; the Dr never said what kind of bullet it was.

Dr Peter rummages into a pocket and waves Jake over to him, “look here Jake see the tearing in those muscles? The used a special ammo that harms shifters worse than normal,” Dr Peter pulls out a magnifying glass that shouldn’t have fit into his pocket out of his pocket. Jake looks shocked, “but they said it was just regular bullets.” Dr Peter slowly turns his head to Jake, “were you helping those anti shifters?” Jake swallows as if trying to not feel ashamed, “yes Sir. I realized once they shot the little shifter’s parents that I was doing the wrong thing.” I try to help Jake’s explanation, “he even walked up to me with no fear when I was shifter protecting the boy; to even turning his back on me with no fear.” Dr Peter nods his head, ‘just like your aunt Diane would have; I’d say you defiantly have potential.”

Jake looks through the magnifying glass at my wound, “why does it look like there are little creatures attacking her muscles?” I shoot Simon a look and he slightly shakes his head so I don’t worry. Dr Peter looks, “very good Jake. That is an effect of the chemical mixture those animals use inside their ammo when attacking shifters, young lady why aren’t you drinking more?” Jake speaks, “but when we ate the guy in the restaurant had her drink almost a whole bottle of sake; that’s why I didn't let her drive.” Dr Peter laughs, “Jake with that wound a barrel of sake isn’t going to touch her ability to drive.” He then levers me a look and I take the cup Simon hands me, “shifters can’t use pain killers due to how their biology works. The best we can do is have them drink in massive quantities, hoping the alcohol will have a deadening effect on the damage they sustain. You will notice that most shifters have a cabinet of hard liquor even if they might drink wine of beer.” While Dr Peter is talking Jake starts poking at the wound on my arm making me wince, “why are the creatures vanishing?” He asks the Dr, who looks at my wound; “because Jake. You are using your ability to remove the ‘creatures’. They’re technically microbes that are formed when they mix the chemicals for the ammo. We do not know where they learned how to mix it though,” he grabs Jake’s hand, “that’s enough. I don’t know how much of your abilities you have used before and I wouldn’t want you passing out for over work.” The Dr then places his hand over the wound and it feels much better after a moment.

He then re wraps it, “Simon better give him a double; he’ll be feeling the pain in about a minute.” Jake suddenly grabs his own arm, the Dr just sits down and waves to Jake to do the same. “Your arm hurts because you took the injury into yourself Jake, that’s why I stopped you when I did. A shifter wound that is merely a scratch to them could kill a non shifter.” Jake nods his head slowly, and Dr Peter continues; “where is your familiar?” Just then Greg walks in with Dang behind him, who jumps onto the table. He walks over to Jake and after siting next to Jake I could see Jake relax as if the pain subsides.

The Dr nods his head, “if you didn’t notice; once he came close to you the pain went away.” Jake nods and his grandfather continues, “once you have a better grip on your powers you’ll make a charm that will permanently link the two of you so that he doesn’t need to be near you to help.” Dr Peter holds up a hand showing off a very intricate tattoo, “this would be considered a tattoo by most. But in fact it is a mark from my familiar sealing my bond to him,” the Dr says.

I look over to Dang, “so why did you live with me if you are Jake’s familiar?” Dr Peter looks surprised and Dang responds, “because his fool father set up a barrier against my kind; and I knew eventually he would show up here.” Dr Peter looks worried and excuses himself and steps outside as my father walks in, stopping the Dr and saying something so quiet I couldn’t hear it. The Dr then very quickly goes outside and my father sits in the chair that the Dr vacated. He turns his head to Simon and says, “there is a problem. Jake’s father has someone on his payroll who can set up barrier’s without approval.” That is a problem as magical barriers require government approval, so that anyone who isn’t allowed past it can be warned away. Magic barriers can cause damage if you don’t know they are there, that’s when I notice that my father’s skin is blistered; as if he got burned.