Page 62 of Doctor Wolf's Human Nurse

Abby fell onto the bed and curled up into a ball, moaning. Savvy and Taryn put their hands on her and spoke the same spell they had over the shifters. The world started spinning around in circles and Abby was very dizzy. Everything was blurry.

The next day, she was in no condition to get up. She felt as though someone had punched her in the stomach while someone else was ripping out her spine. Her head hurt like someone had slammed a sledgehammer into it and then put a hatchet right between her eyes.

Abby moaned when she was alone, but tried hard not to make any sounds when the witches were around. She knew they were worried about her and this was her own choice. They had warned her about the potential risks, but she chose to drink the potion, anyway.

She spent the entire day in and out of consciousness. A few times, she was aware of Beth or Taryn putting a straw into her mouth, urging her to drink water so she wouldn’t be dehydrated.

Beth called Sawyer on the third day. “Abby’s not going to make it into work today. She’s not been feeling well.”

“Is she okay? I can come.” The worry in his voice came through clearly on the phone.

“No. She’ll be okay. She’s asleep most of the time. You know that Taryn and I are taking good care of her.”

“Please call me and let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

“I will – promise.”

Beth hung up the phone and muttered, “I just hope she will be okay,” as she left the room.

Her body felt so heavy that sometimes, she had to crawl to the bathroom. Her body felt like her bones were disconnecting and reconnecting in a hundred different ways. Her tendons stretched and tore. Fire raced back and forth inside Abby’s veins. Sweat poured off of her so much that Beth changed the sheets on the bed a couple times a day.

What did I do? I wanted to be a shifter so badly. I’m going to die and miss out on a lifetime with Sawyer. This is going to tear him apart.

Finally, that night, the pain eased up a little. She felt like she could breathe without daggers stabbing her lungs. Abby was able to walk by herself to the bathroom and sat up in bed, gratefully eating the soup Beth brought her.

“How do you feel?” Beth asked.

“Better. Different.”

Beth crossed her fingers. “Hopefully, it worked. Rest tonight and then if you’re feeling up to it tomorrow, you can try shifting.”

“What animal do you think I will turn into? I didn’t think of that. What if I shift and I’m a frog or a cockroach?”

“Then I would advise you to not shift. My guess is, though, that your soul, your energy, dictated what your animal form will be.”

Abby fell asleep early, enjoying the first night’s sleep she’d had in a couple days that didn’t involve excruciating pain. It was interrupted, though, by disturbing dreams. Every time she shifted, it was into something different – and none of the forms were good. She saw herself shifting into a mosquito, roach, toad, slug, and tick. During one of the dreams, Abby shifted and couldn’t metamorphosize back into her human form.

She woke up terrified. “Those are just my fears. Dreams manifest what we are thinking and feeling. I’m not going to be a mosquito or a tick.”

Abby wiped her face. She could still taste the tinny flavor of blood.

Beth knocked on the door and brought in a tray of scrambled eggs and toast. “I thought this would be easy enough on your tum-tum for your first day back on food.”

“Thank you. I can’t thank you enough for how well you’ve taken care of me. You, Taryn, and Savvy have practically waited on me hand and foot.”

“It’s our pleasure. We are curious to see whether the potion will work on full-blood humans.”

Abby laughed. “Oh, I get it. I’m just a science experiment.”

“Something along those lines.

“Eat your breakfast, and we’ll be back up in a little bit to see if it worked.”

Abby crossed her fingers. “Here’s hoping.”

A half-hour later, three witches crowded into the bedroom.

Abby carefully stood up, terrified and excited at the same time. “How does this work?”

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