Unclaimed

Chapter Forty-Five - Sick in the Head

Judas walks me up to the room and sets me down on the edge of my bed, crossing his arms as he stands over me.

"What?" I ask after a long time of him just staring down at me.

"What did you see?"

"Nothing!"

"I know you saw something, Beau!" He shouts and I feel real anger seeping from my bond to him. He's angry at me for not sharing whatever it is I saw.

But I don't know if I want to. I don't know if I want anyone else intruding on my time with Thomas.

"What was it? Just tell me!" He presses on kneeling in front of me. "You don't know how you looked! Your eyes had rolled back into your head you were muttering, slumped up against a tree. You were completely gone Beau, I'd thought something terrible had happened!"

His worry, his anxiety choking me. He was pushing these feelings through, he knew what he was doing. He was trying to crack me. But the more I felt from him, the more I gave in. With a reluctant sigh I let my head fall forward.

"If I told you I was tripping on mushrooms and talking to Thomas's soul, would that be explanation enough?" I ask raising my head only slightly to meet his eyes.

He looks appalled for a second before I reach into my pocket pulling out the bundle of cloth that held the mushrooms I picked. Unwrapping it for him to see.

"So that wasn't just some joke back there, Cassie and you..." he trails off.

"Definitely. Would it surprise you to know we only ever got caught once?" I smirk holding up one thin mushroom out of the bundle, the cap of it a perfect little half moon shape, while the stem with thin like a pencil and slightly bent to one side.

"How long have you..."

"You're really going to ask that question to someone that grows and sells this shit?" I hold up the shroom.

"I thought it was just marijuana." I mutters looking at me like I'm a whole different creature he's never seen before.

"We're hippies, what I can I say? The only difference between these mushrooms and the regular ones that we sell, is that these are grown with magic. Surprisingly I didn't think the trip would last as long as it did." I say as I notice how dark it is outside. It was still early in the afternoon when I ate the mushroom.

"You saw Thomas, didn't you?" His voice was soft, the question wasn't accusing, but there was a sudden level of understanding written on his face. I'm silent and my hand drops into my lap, still holding the shroom.

"Why not talk about it?" He asks.

"Because it's personal and private, and I don't need to explain my time with Thomas to anyone." I say baring my teeth a little in aggravation.

"I'm not your parents, I'm not trying to take Thomas from you. But Beau you scared me today, I felt genuine fear seeing you like that." He says and I feel the truth in his words. I sigh placing a hand on his cheek, letting my thumb run over his cheek bone.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, Judas. That wasn't my intention." I shake my head.

"Then what we're you trying to do. Vadim and Mila warned you and you still did it. Why?"

"Because I'd done it before, I wanted to know if there would be a different reaction. Because apparently for years I've been drinking from the source of magic, so figured something would happen if I gave it a proper go." I say letting the frustration show as I rewrap the bundle and toss it onto the bed. "Instead I talked to Thomas who told me that Harald and him were never friends."