When they touch me (Shelagh Milano)



Artemisia

"Missy," Cassy breathes out, the tone of her voice sounding awfully strange.Belongs © to NôvelDrama.Org.

"Missy," she repeats as if she couldn't say anything else.

I'd like to answer her, but my throat is too hoarse to speak, my body paralysed by the sight before me.

“What the fuck was that?" Fynn shouts, making Corvina and I look at him.

But she just giggles, and Fynn suddenly halts, his expression morphing as he turns to look at me wide-eyed.

"What the..." he whispers, and I hear Drake purr in the back of my mind.

Suddenly, Cayden and Logan stare at me incredibly too while Matthew buries his face into his hands.

"Oh, my Goddess," Logan says, his expression becoming void while Cayden starts smiling brightly.

My gaze snaps back to Corvina who is already back smiling at me with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I guess your wolf is talking to theirs."

We start to laugh in unison as we see my mates enjoying my wolf reaching out to them dumbfounded. It is so cute how over-challenged they are that I even forget that there is a witch standing in my bedroom who is covered in stinky, black slime after impaling a horrendous creature that just came out of me.

I shudder, and Corvina pulls up my blanket to wrap it around me.

"Sorry," she says gently. "I forgot how strenuous that magic is for a nearly wolfless body like yours."

"What is this?" I ask, my heart squeezing painfully in my chest.

“Anima comedentis vermis in lupis," she says nonchalantly, making my face fall.

"Huh?"

"Soul-eating worms," she says with sparkling eyes. "They love to drain wolves' energies. It takes a lot before a wolf is extinguished as they have a lot of energy. So, they can feed off a host for decades until they leave their host to die. To not be discovered, they have an interesting tactic."

I jerk back lightly, feeling as if the whole world just came crashing down around me while Corvina looks like a preschooler who is showing me her favourite insect.

"Mimicry," Cayden says, making Corvina nod.

"They need just a handful of days of observation before they can take over fully, mimic the wolf's voice and behaviour to their host. Naturally, there is no chance they can shift or let the human part still take advantage of the inhumane senses. That's the main reason why they get their cover blown but also the one reason why they never get discovered. At least not until it's already too late," Corvina explains further, making me shudder again.

"But how did it get into her?" Matthew asks.

"And it is huge! How long has it been in her?" Logan adds with a sorrowful expression.

I pull the blanket closer, scooting back further as I'm still not convinced if I want to know more about this thing or just make them shut up.

"As it seems, it has been feeding off her wolf for about five or six years," Corvina inspects the worm, making us gasp in unison. "Missy, you said your wolf started acting strangely just after your rejection. Would that fit the picture?" Cayden asks and I nod. “Yeah, but how did it get into me? I mean..." I take a break, shuddering. "Such things don't just happen, right?" Corvina looks at me sadly as she shakes her head, "No, this is extremely strong black magic..."

She observes me for a second, before she asks, “Was your ex-mate unfaithful?"

“Just bluntly straight to the point," Fynn chuckles, but I'm still too confused.

“Erm... Yes, he rejected me to take a chosen mate. But how would you know?"

She shrugs, cleaning her knife with the skirt of her gown. "Those creatures can be bought at a special market that we call the Netherworld, you know, because we are quirky. Assholes often buy these for their mates because it suppresses any cheating pain completely. So, these are often given to their wives for them to play around."

I jerk as the bed dips and Matthew crawls to hug me under the blanket. Only now do I realise how shocked I must have looked. "Everything is going to be alright. Don't worry. Wait, I'll warm you up a little.”

My racing heart calms down as he pulls me to his frame, my cold skin warming up comfortably.

"Thank you," I breathe out, leaning back against his frame.

Looking at Corvina, I sigh deeply, "So, he was ready to sacrifice my life to have some fun."

"What a bloody asshole," Logan cusses while Fynn has a deadly expression on his face.

"I'll report this," Cayden says angrily. "The fucking audacity!"

"We don't have any proof, but this is not the only problem we have at hand," Corvina says, lifting the worm up in the air.

I feel bile rising in my throat and I fear that I will have a bad trauma to overcome in the next few years because of that little ugly thing.

"The worm is huge, well nourished..." Corvina points out, turning the worm in every direction. "That means that he was given certain... extra food, to make sure he stays alive."

"What?" I breathe out, my head spinning again.

"The worm was implanted into you years ago, but someone was still feeding it till this day. Someone close to you, Missy."

"The supplements!" Fynn says through clenched teeth, turning to Cayden.

"I told you to fucking be careful!" he shouts at him. "I told you she was being harmed by the shit they gave her."

"I've never heard of such a thing!

Don't you think that I would have acted sooner if I knew about this?" Cayden growls back, keeping his angry voice in check. "Why should anyone of the pack try to do such a thing?"

"This shit is psycho!" Fynn lifts his hands. "Do you fucking think someone scheming something like this would be sane enough to have a fucking motive?"

"Please, stop fighting!" I plead, getting them to look at me. "That's the last thing I need right now."

"Sorry," they murmur in unison just before Corvina goes back to business.

"Your meals were prepared in the kitchen?"

I nod, and she hums, "Was there a

person who was adamant about having you eat certain foods or gave you something special to eat? Finnegan mentioned supplements. Did Someone get you to take them regularly?"

"Yes, Daisy,” I say, turning around to take the coloured pills out of the drawer to give them to Corvina.

She is already inspecting it as I clear my throat, getting her to look at me. “Maybe there is also something else..."

"What is it?" she asks.

I gulp as my eyes fall on Logan. "Lisa. She always made me a special tea."

"A special tea?" she inquires further, her brows furrowing.

"Yeah,” I answer, caressing my arm. “She made me tea with a special ingredient. A blend of spices."

"Do you have this here as well?"

I nod, gesturing to the kitchen, "In the kitchen."

Logan walks into the kitchen and resurfaces right away, carrying all my spice containers to Corvina. “Are these all?”

"Looks like it," I answer with a shy shrug as Corvina starts opening one by one, sniffing at them.

We look at her spellbound as she goes through all the containers, sometimes just smelling the contents, other times even taking the spices out to rub them between her fingers.

She goes through all of them calmly, taking her time, making it seem like it was something mundane.

And not absolutely insane.

As she has finished inspecting all the spices, she takes out a small plate made out of clay out of her bag.

Slowly she gets on her knees,

putting the plate on my bed. She opens the capsules of my so-called supplements carefully, emptying the white powder spiked with green and black points onto the plate

It must be my wolf returning to me, but as soon as that powder hits the plate, a foul stench reaches my nose and I sense Matthew scrunching up his

nose.

Corvina lifts the plate to her nose, and looks up, meeting my terrified gaze. "This is it. These are the herbs that the soul eater needs to get stronger."

I look at Cayden, Matthew tightening his hold as if he could feel me fall physically.

Cayden looks back at me, and I don't even need to mind link him to have him feel my whirl of emotions that stream to him through the mate bond. "Fetch Daisy," he growls threateningly, making Fynn and Logan practically vanish in thin air.