CHAPTER 96: 96-WAKING UP THE MONSTER

Iris:

"What is this?" Colin asked as he sat beside me on the couch.

My mother sat across the table in the living room, and Kash stood on Colin’s right.

Amy had been put to bed while Colin stayed awake because I wanted him to.

Kash held the glass in his hand. The liquid had turned blue after he mixed the herb powder into it.

He had crushed the herbs and prepared the mixture so Colin could drink it easily.

"It’s a medicine," I replied.

My heart beat faster, my body shaking as I kept looking toward my mother, who kept eyeing me, urging me not to give it to him.

"But medicine for what? I’m fine," Colin stated.

"Son, you know sometimes you have these fevers. It is for that," I told him.

Kash leaned over, kissed Colin’s head, then reached for the glass.

As he did, his fingers brushed mine.

I was not sure if it was intentional, but it gave me goosebumps.

I pulled my hands back and adjusted my posture.

"Now, will you drink it for your father?" he asked Colin, who stared at the mixture.

After a moment, Colin took the glass.

"Maybe he is nervous because everyone is watching him," I remarked, repeating what my mother had told me earlier.

"It’s alright. He can drink it. Right, Colin?" Kash asked, and Colin nodded with a smile.

At this point, it felt as if I was the one more afraid than Colin.

If I kept asking Kash to let him drink alone, it would only show how anxious I was.

"How about we let him drink in front of Iris only?" my mother suggested sharply from across the table.

"Why? I mean, I don’t mind you both sitting here, and Colin doesn’t either. Besides, we need to be here just in case," Kash replied, and I frowned.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"There are sometimes side effects, like with any medicine. We don’t know what this herb can do. All I know is that it has healing abilities," Kash explained.

I quickly looked toward my mother, silently asking her to stop and not argue anymore.

"Come on, Colin. Drink it," Kash told him.

I pressed my hands to my ears, watching Colin with my shoulders raised.

The idea of side effects frightened me for him. Colin lifted the glass to his mouth and took a sip.

"It doesn’t taste very good," Colin complained.

"It’s alright. It’s medicine, so it won’t taste like candy," Kash replied.

At this point, he was the only one speaking because I was too scared to think about what might happen.

I wanted my son to heal, but I knew this would not help him.

He took a few more sips. My mother leaned back, folded her arms over her chest, and began shaking her leg.

Her posture told me I had failed a mission.

Once Colin finished the entire glass, Kash handed him water to wash down the taste, and he drank it.

"Now can I go to sleep?" Colin asked as he stepped away from the couch, looking completely fine.

"How about you take a walk with me? Just ten minutes," Kash requested, and Colin, tired like an old man, gave him a shrug.

"Fine, but after that I am going to bed," he replied.

The way he said it made me smile through my tears.

Even Kash admired Colin and the mature way he spoke, which still made him sound like a little kid.

Kash lifted Colin up, helped him into his small jacket and shoes, and then stepped outside with him.

I wandered anxiously toward the door to watch them.

"You didn’t do a great job," my mother remarked from behind me.

I turned to her, looking straight at her with judgment in my eyes.

"I tried. Did you not see it?" I questioned her, reacting almost too defensively.

"Well, it is not going to work," my mother replied, her arms still folded over her chest.

"How do you know that?" I asked, because she had been speaking without any proof until now.

It was strange how she refused to explain why she linked my son, why she could not send her own people, her own fighters, to get the water.

Lycans were powerful too.

"Well, because I know it. Your son is not sick. It is only the sickness reflecting on him. How many times do I have to tell you that?" my mother spoke softly.

"Well, as a mother, I think he will be fine," I replied.

I took deep breaths, placing a hand on my chest.

"As for your son, I will get the cure for him too," I reassured her.

I was not going to feed my son only one dose.

I would ask Kash for more because he had told me Colin would need several.

And if Kash was not available, I wanted to be able to give the doses myself.

"And what did he say?" my mother wondered.

"He said he will give me a dose for him," I answered.

"And so while you take the dose for my brother, for your son, I will let him know that Colin took it," I explained, sharing my plan with her.

"Really," my mother replied with a nod. "But you said that. How will we know if I was right or not?"

As soon as she said that, I stared hard at her, unable to understand what she was trying to imply.

"I mean, you just said your motherly instincts tell you the cure will work when I told you it will not. Now, if I did not wake up my son and Colin did not have another fit, you would think your instincts were right and that your mother was wrong," she spoke in one breath.

Every word felt like a blade to my chest. Cold shivers moved across my spine as I realized the disturbing tendencies in her behavior.

"What are you thinking?" I asked her.

The way she ran her hand through her hair in a careful and deliberate motion, something she never did, made my head snap toward my child and toward Kash.

And before I knew it, Colin dropped flat on the road, having another fit.

My mother had signaled her people to wake Wilson.