“I apologize for causing you to faint.” Mateo backed away as I tried to sit up. 

He reached out to help, and I instinctively took his hand, which gave me a jolt of lifeforce heavy with a heady mix of anguish and pain. Helmin hissed and writhed as it gorged. I gasped and let go of Mateo’s hand. 

His soft laughter floated around my head. “I barely touched you, and yet you are aroused again. Though you say it’s not attraction, I believe your body says otherwise, my friend.”

My face heated with embarrassment, which was at least my own. My body shaded yellow to match. “I’ll explain. Please understand. It means you no harm, and in fact, I believe it is rather fond of you.”

“It?” Mateo was clearly confused. 

I removed my shirt slowly. The worm became visible as the charms in the shirt no longer touched my flesh. Helmin squirmed in delight along my torso, flexing and writhing with its desire for attention. If it had a face, it would have preened. “Mateo, this is Helmin.”

Mateo stared at me for a long time. “Helmin. As in Helminth?” When his gaze returned to mine, he grinned. “The name also has Egyptian origins, meaning gentle.”

I nodded. “When it started to speak with me, I gave it a name. I remember being delirious at the time. The irony is not lost on me.”

“How long have you lived with Helmin?”

“A little over four decades.”

“And you say it’s the cause of your attraction?” I nodded again.

“Of all our clients, Helmin expresses itself more when we are around you. It even gave you a nickname.” My skin was a light yellow, now, but to describe Helmin’s thoughts threatened to shade it darker. 

“Some things make more sense now.” Mateo sat back from us, and Helmin sent a shiver of worry through me. I held my breath. I did not know what would happen if Helmin was rejected. The worm’s emotions never seemed that complicated before tonight. “The voice I heard during our sessions, it wasn’t actually yours.”

“Voice?” It was my turn to be confused. “What did the voice say?”

“That I was a treasure, and I could let go of my anger and frustration. To breathe deep and exhale, then relax.” The fading yellow of my skin burst bright and seemed to glow in the room’s darkness. “I had thought it was you and that you had some affection for me, but then I thought maybe I read too much into our sessions.”

“No, well, at least one of us tried to maintain our professionalism.” 

“Helmin regrets misleading you. We have lived with our secret for a long time. You are the first outside of my family that know of Helmin’s existence.”

Mateo nodded, still interested. It had to be the scholar in him driving his curiosity. He remained calm, even after he discovered our deception. “If you are comfortable, I would very much like to understand how you and Helmin became conjoined.”

I gripped the shirt in my lap. My arousal subsided, thankfully, and so had my embarrassment. “I’ll explain if you can give me a promise.” It was no small thing to ask for a promise, especially for me. Most individuals knew not to make promises with the fae. They were binding in ways that were often not predictable.

His face contorted for a moment; the weight of what I asked was evident in his eyes. “For allowing me to feed from you, I will give you your request. What would you have me promise?”

“Promise that what I tell you about Helmin stays between us unless I say otherwise.” Mateo nodded and repeated my words. After which, I held up my arm. “Would you like more?”

He took it in his hands, then paused. “Will you faint again?”

“No, not from your feeding. It was because of Helmin. Since the airflow was adjusted, the worm and I should be safe enough.”

Mateo held my arm and caressed it. “Safe? Maybe you should explain more before I drink again.”

“Very well.” I explained Helmin’s effect and how the pheromone worked. The more lifeforce laced with turbulent emotions I absorbed, the more calming pheromone the worm produced.

“That’s very interesting. I assume this was part of its original function, which then became modified after coming in contact with you.”

“Correct.” I nodded. “Fae travel via pathways. They shorten distances and the time it takes to move between one place and another. Tunnel worms, much smaller than Helmin, can attack travelers. When this happens, the traveler is usually doomed. First, they are calmed into a coma through its paralytic venom, then the worm eats its way through a body, lays eggs, produces more, and continues the cycle.

“I was attacked by this one near an exit. My regenerative abilities kept it from calming me into a coma. However, it did not keep it from burrowing into my spine. There was no way to remove it without killing me. Over time, I learned to live and even adapt with Helmin. It sipped from my lifeforce, and in return, I could produce calming pheromones.

“As we grew more integrated, I eventually developed the ability to draw lifeforce to feed it what it specifically needed. I pulled small amounts from those that were anxious, fearful, depressed, or unsettled. These fed Helmin, and in turn, its calming pheromones allowed me to help those that fed it.”

Mateo smiled. “We are alike, Helmin and I. Feeding from others and providing our unique abilities in return.” 

“How do you know that touching him won’t kill us? We collapsed from a single exchange.” My attempts to talk some sense into Helmin were not working. 

I swallowed. “I am at a loss as to how to explain what Helmin desires.”

“Explain it plainly.” Mateo grinned. I wondered if he had a sense of what the worm wanted already. “No need to choose the right words.”

“Helmin desires a pleasurable interaction. Which may or may not involve intercourse.”

“I see. And how do you feel about it?”

I cleared my throat, “I am not opposed to the idea. However, if it feeds from your lifeforce, the amount of pheromone we’ll produce could kill Helmin and me in a confined space.”

“Do my wounds run so deep?”

“Our abilities can only do so much. We are not unlike an adhesive plaster. We can lessen your suffering buffer you from your emotions for a time, but we can not mend what was broken. That’s a different journey.”

Mateo was quiet for a time. “You have given me more peace over the years than any other single person, including my companions. You and Helmin.” He glanced over his shoulder at the view. “Come, I have an idea.”

He did not reach for us as he stood. But he looked over his shoulder to make sure we followed. Once he reached the corner of the suite, he pressed a button, and the UV glass slid open to reveal a balcony. There was a cabana to one side and a hot tub in a dormant state. We followed him and watched as he raised the privacy curtains. 

“I’ll admit, it’s a poor choice for our first encounter, but I’m more concerned with keeping you both alive than having a better setting.” He grinned. “At least until Helmin is fed.”

“How did you know that he could be sated?” I hadn’t mentioned it. Helmin seemed sure that there was an end to its hunger, but I’d never experienced it in the time we’d been connected.

“As Helmin pointed out, we are the same. There is sustaining one’s self, and there is fullness. However, I will need more sustenance myself to help Helmin. Do you trust me?”

“It’s not a matter of trust. I regenerate. It is my gift. You can not kill me no matter how much you take. Though I have never tested that theory.”

“Have you already recovered from earlier?”

“Yes.” I held up my arm. “Even your wound is nearly gone.” 

Mateo came over to inspect my arm. “Most interesting. Though if I’d been more clear-headed, I would not have fed from you at all. You being fae could have had disastrous consequences.”

“Helmin makes me something more than fae. I believe that’s why my blood does not pose a real threat to you.”

His hand slid along my skin, and Helmin shook across my abs. As our fingers laced together as he gently pulled me toward the cabana. While we stood there, Mateo stripped out of his shirt and pants as I watched. I realized rather suddenly that I had not been intimate with anyone for quite some time.

“Would you like me to help?” His question shook me out of my reprieve. 

“No. I can manage.” I toed out of my shoes as Mateo crawled into the cabana. I watched as my brain processed the muscles and sinew that moved with a monstrous grace. Maybe it was not only Helmin that was interested. I removed my pants, folded them, and laid them atop my shoes before I went to the side of the cabana. I moved to lay down next to Mateo and waited. 

He reached out first and brushed my shoulder-length hair away from my face. The two-fold anticipation I felt sent shivers down my spine. Helmin was almost too quiet.

A simple kiss, the second one of the night, tipped the balance. What was a mere touch of our lips blossomed into more as I opened my mouth to his. The exchange of lifeforce began immediately. 

We tussled on the bedding and touched each other’s faces. When Mateo touched where Helmin was connected to my spine, I twitched as if he’d touched me internally. Helmin gurgled. Mateo must have noticed something because he caressed Helmin while he kissed me. I was so distracted I did not feel his fangs sink into my neck. I grabbed Mateo’s head and held fast as he drank and Helmin ate. 

Amid two like-minded beings, I became their vessel. I might have screamed in pleasure except for Helmin’s paralytic. Instead, I slipped from consciousness at the height of the pleasure we’d created. 

When I woke, it was midday. I laid in bed with Mateo’s arm over my side, his hand trapped between the first loop of Helmin’s segments and my stomach. I carefully slipped his hand out and rolled Mateo to his back. He was dead to the world and would be for at least another eight hours. I envied his rest.