Syn
Ihadn’t left my room for days…and it wasn’t because they hadn’t allowed me out. Something was wrong with me.
As soon as I’d found out why the gardener had been killed, I’d been pretty much fine with River killing him. The next day, I’d even gone and laid out by the pool with Caspian.
But I’d gone to bed that night…and hadn’t had any interest in going out.
The sky was its usual perfect blue color, but it might as well have been hurricane conditions. Everything around me felt tinted grey, like I’d put on dark sunglasses or something. The first day I’d been left alone, Caspian had stopped by to see what was wrong, and I’d sent him away, telling him I wasn’t feeling good. Eliza had stopped by with food trays and to try and hang out, but I’d just picked at the food and she’d eventually left. Hendrix had tried to stop by yesterday to order me out of my room, but he’d actually failed in forcing me to do something for once.
Since then, I’d been flipping through books listlessly and sleeping. I was so freaking tired.
There was a knock on the door, but I didn’t bother acknowledging it. Even when the door opened, I didn’t have the energy to look and see who it was.
What was wrong with me?
"Syn,” Caspian’s voice called.
It took all of my energy to turn my head away from the wall and look at him.
But when I did, it was like a shock of adrenaline passed through me. His voice was the same, but the person standing in the doorway approaching my bed was a hideous beast with two mouths filled with fangs that dripped green slime and vibrant red fur all over its body.
I scrambled to sit up, and I screamed, backing away against the headboard like somehow I could push myself through the wall and get away.
The creature held up its clawed hands. “Syn, what’s wrong? Calm down,” cried Caspian.
And just like that, the creature was gone and Caspian was standing there as if nothing had happened.
“You—” A sob wracked through my body as I stayed plastered against the headboard.
He took a step towards me and the creature was back. I screamed hysterically and he stopped moving.
And then Caspian was back.
In the back of my mind, I obviously knew that something was not right. Caspian’s wolf was definitely not a red-furred monster, and a shifter didn’t flicker in and out of focus like that.
But the rest of me couldn’t comprehend that what I was seeing wasn’t real.
Caspian slowly backed away and left the room, and I sat there trembling on my bed, a sweaty, disgusting mess.
A few hours later, Eliza came back with another tray. Her mother had made my favorite soup, chicken tortilla.
I took one look at it and threw up all over my comforter.
Something was definitely wrong.
Eliza ran out of the room, and I was faintly aware of her calling for help. I looked blankly at the pool of vomit in front of me and tried to get up to pull the comforter off my bed.
As soon as I stood, the world spun around me. I stumbled my way over to the bathroom and started vomiting again as soon as I got to the toilet. I heaved over it, feeling like I was throwing up vital organs.
Footsteps sounded behind me, and then a familiar pair of hands was grabbing my hair and pulling it back as my body continued to shake as I struggled to throw up. I’d thrown up so much, though, that there wasn’t even bile to get rid of, so my whole body just shook violently as I dry heaved.
“Get the healer,” Hendrix snapped, his voice sounding terrified.
I finally stopped throwing up and found myself leaning against the toilet bowl even as Hendrix tried to coax me to get up.
“I want a shower,” I whimpered, knowing that I smelled like vomit and sweat.
“I’ll help you, little wolf,” Hendrix said in the softest voice that I’d ever heard.
He scooped me up, and when I looked up at him to thank him for helping me, a hoarse scream burst out of me.
There was a terrifying beast with a scaly lizard head and yellow glowing eyes holding me. A forked tongue flicked out, almost touching the tip of my nose.
I began to hysterically struggle to get out of his arms as he tried to not drop me.
“Get away from me!” I yelled.
The monster set me down, and I scrambled like I was possessed across the cold tile floor to get away from him. The creature strode over to the shower and fiddled with something, and I watched in horror as his tongue flicked in and out. After a minute, he walked over to me.
“Please don’t hurt me,” I cried as the lizard creature scooped me up and walked me over to the shower. I was clawing at his skin, but it didn’t seem to phase him as he pushed me under the lukewarm water.
As soon as the droplets passed over my face, I was staring at Hendrix again, no sign of the snake spawn anywhere.
“It’s going to be alright, Syn,” Hendrix promised. I whimpered in response, not understanding what was happening. Was I going crazy? Was I hallucinating? I was fully dressed, and the water soaked through my clothes until I was a sodden mess.
Hendrix gently set me down under the spray that finally warmed up to a tolerable temperature, and then I watch in a daze as he pulled off his grey v-neck and slipped off his black joggers until he was standing there in nothing but a pair of black briefs that did nothing to hide the enormous package he was carrying.
If I hadn’t been losing my mind, I more than likely would have been turned on by the sight of his perfect body in practically nothing. But I was losing my mind, so I didn’t feel even a twinge of lust.
He stepped into the shower and scooped me off the ground before walking over to the shower bench and sitting down with me on his lap. I leaned against his shoulder tiredly, keeping my gaze averted from him just in case the lizard monster made an appearance.
I was so very tired.
“Your clothes are covered in vomit. I’m going to take them off,” he crooned softly, and I nodded against his skin, not even caring that he was talking about stripping me naked.
He pulled at the bottom of my sleep tank top, and I wearily held up my arms to help him get it off, leaving me in nothing but a thin silky bra that was soaking wet and left nothing to the imagination as far as my breasts went.
Hendrix pulled on my shorts next, which were also splattered with throw up, pulling me up with one arm as he slid the shorts off with the other so I had to do practically nothing at all to help him.
I could feel him growing hard against me, a natural byproduct of the fact that he had a practically naked woman sitting on top of him, but nothing about his movements was sexual. I kept my eyes closed as I soaked in the heat from his body and the water gently falling on my skin. He moved over, and I heard the snap of the shampoo bottle right before his hands reached my hair, gently massaging my scalp. I breathed in the scent of the mango and coconut shampoo, trying to calm down my still rapidly beating heart.
“When did you start to feel off, little wolf? Was it just three days ago?” Hendrix asked, his voice low and gravelly.
“Yes,” I murmured, my voice exhausted sounding.
He finished the shampoo and then shifted as he grabbed the removable nozzle off the wall. Hendrix used it to wash off the shampoo in my hair before hooking it back into his holder.
I sighed as he repeated the same process with the conditioner.