Tempest of Vengeance

by Tara Fox Hall

  “Wait,” she called. “You need to know something. Theo intends to go with Elle and T to your mother’s house for Christmas, tonight. And he’s asked me to go, too.” She forced a smile. “I’m sure you don’t want us to bump into each other.”

  Understatement of the year. “I’ll be there tomorrow, then. At night, so Devlin can come. So it doesn’t matter if you go with them tonight. Be prepared for a few comments from my mother though.”

  “Theo already warned me,” Jenny said, nodding. “I’m intending to be very, very quiet.”

  “Good,” I said curtly, and left.

  I returned home to Hayden, and went directly to Titus, who was waiting for me in his basement lab. He looked over the potion Terian had made, and determined that it was fine to use. I asked him point blank why it had taken Terian so long to make his, and Titus so little time, when they were for the same thing.

  “Because of his blood, and also that he can’t do dark magic as easily now,” Titus said patiently in his bass voice. “You come to me from now on, Sar, and I’ll make these for you. Terian is most likely going to be moving away from doing almost all magic for the next few years, if not forever. It’s good he has his job with Theo. His days of making most of the sought-after potions are over.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, feeling bad and not knowing why. It wasn’t my fault.

  Titus gave me a long odd look, as Terian had, then he hugged me gently. “Don’t be,” he said. “You’ve been a good friend to him. You did what he needed you to. Terian can let you go now, Sar.”

  I gave him an odd look. “Is there something going on here I should know about?”

  “He can be happy with Sundown. He’s finally realized you were never going to be with him, no matter what happened. And that’s good, that he’s moving on.”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  “Go now,” Titus said coolly. “Your evil snake is waiting for you. I’m sure he can’t wait to feel you in his coils.”

  Jerk. I left him without hugging him good-bye.

  * * * *

  By the time I got upstairs, showered, and conditioned my hair, it was noon. I also took time to call my mother to reschedule, notifying her of the impending “other woman” coming tonight to her door. My mom said everything was fine, though she hadn’t known Jenny was coming with Theo. The way she said it, I hoped she didn’t say something nasty to Jenny if she happened to catch her alone. She was clearly annoyed that her daughter had to come another night because of another woman that her daughter’s soon-to-be ex-husband was bringing on Christmas. I was just happy Jenny had said something, before we’d all shown up together tonight, and were forced to be nice to each other because of the kids.

  Devlin had already taken Venus to Titus’s house for the day, to give Lash and me some privacy for the “snake lovefest.” But he said he would be back in the early evening hours, about six or seven. “That should be enough time.”

  I’d rolled my eyes at his smirk, and told him to get going. Then I went into our bedroom, took off my clothes, and downed the potion. It was a little bitter, and kind of smoky tasting. Slipping out Devlin’s bedroom door, I shut it behind me and walked to Lash’s door, and knocked once. My legs went weak the very next moment, and then I was down on the floor, feeling so strange that I couldn’t move right because I suddenly had no arms and legs, much less hands or feet. By some desperate flailing, I managed to curl myself up in a haphazard pile, but going around over and over had made me a little dizzy. I hoped to God Lash was awake, and had heard me out here, or it was going to be a long three hours.

  A naked Lash opened his door, and looked down at me, his face in shadow. I tried to speak, but my tongue just came out and I hissed a little. Lash reached down to me, and picked me up, putting some of me over his shoulder, and around his neck. He closed the door, locked it, and carried me to the bed, where he put me down gently. He stood there for a long moment, just looking at me.

  Could he tell it was me? I tried to preen seductively, and leaned back on the bed. But I didn’t have any arms to steady myself, or balance with, and I ended up flipping myself over on my back. I righted myself with a twist of my body, glad I couldn’t blush in this form. I felt so annoyed with myself for making myself look like an idiot that I hid my head under my torso, feeling a little ashamed as well that I couldn’t control my altered body, and I probably wasn’t looking in the least attractive. At least he had to know who I was now. Fucking Lyssa probably knew just what to do.

  I heard Lash dialing his phone, and speaking. His voice seemed very loud when he spoke, almost like a vibration inside my head. “Dev, did you know that Sar...”

  I peeked out to look at him, relieved he could recognize me.

  “I wanted you to know that once I’m with her this way, I will probably want her to do this again for me. And I imagine she may want to as well, after this time. This is another thing I will not give up, if she wants this from me, and I thought it right to let you know that.”

  His words were laced with strong desire. I stretched out my neck hesitantly, looking in Lash’s direction hopefully. Apparently, he wasn’t turned off by the fact I couldn’t move worth a damn.

  Lash hung up his phone with a sharp click, and put it aside. He came closer to me, drinking me in with his eyes. “You’re so beautiful, Sar,” he whispered, deep emotion in his voice. “So beautiful. Just like I knew you would be, if you were like this.”

  He shifted fast, and fell in coils to the floor. I saw him coming up the bed, sliding on the sheets in his hurry to reach me. Then he was coiling his much-longer body around mine, hissing softly. Soon he was wrapped all along the length of me, holding my body with his. He rubbed his head on mine gently, hissing, and then he laid his head over mine.

  I had expected something like this, but not to feel as I did. Frankly, I had volunteered to do this for him, because I knew he needed it, and I didn’t want him to go to someone else for it. I didn’t expect to particularly enjoy making love as a snake. But it seemed that I was utterly complete, that feeling him like this around me was the best thing ever. I moved slightly in his coils, and he hissed a little. I heard his excitement in his hiss, and moved my body more purposefully, rubbing on him. He began to contract his body around me, moving gently.

  I had never been held this completely. I gloried in feeling him everywhere about me, his muscles so strong, and yet so gentle. Then I felt him inserting part of himself into me. It was both familiar and not. It felt right, and yet strange. The feel of him gently moving, touching me everywhere...

  I shuddered in climax, feeling something so alien and yet so familiar in its power. This wasn’t like any orgasm I’d ever felt before, and it went on and on, as he kept moving gently around me. I let out a loud hiss of pleasure, and he hissed back at me, his sound almost strangely like encouragement. I hissed again as the climax ebbed, and again, he hissed back to me, though this time there seemed to be pleasure and contentment in the sibilant sound.

  In the next second, he was sliding the lower part of himself over mine fast, contracting in rhythm around me. His hissing was intense, his purpose single-minded in the urgent way he moved on me. He contracted hard around me suddenly, squeezing me tightly. I writhed frantically, scared he might crush me in his coils. In the next moment, he loosed his grip on me, and I relaxed in his embrace.

  He didn’t uncoil from me, or take himself out of me. He just rubbed his head on me as he did before. I felt him again contracting gently around me, and as before, the feeling felt wonderful and totally encompassing. With a passionate hiss, I gave myself up completely to ecstasy.

  This went on for the next two hours. Lash brought me to climax, again and again. Unlike human sex, each orgasm was as intense as the last one had been. I had never before made love so intensely, over and over with no rest for so long a time, and finally, my body just gave out. I passed out asleep in his coils after the twenty-seventh time, utterly exhausted.

  The metamorphosis back to huma
n awakened me, spurring Lash to change form as well. Slowly our arms and legs materialized, as we became human once more, our bodies still embracing. Spent, I looked up into the dark eyes of a very human Lash, and smiled weakly. He eased me up on the pillows beside him, and put his arms around me, spooning me. I lay in his arms for a while, just resting. I felt like I’d run a marathon, and I hadn’t done that much work. He must be exhausted, even being were.

  “You were right,” I sighed, stretching happily. “Coiling together did feel good. You felt so wonderful wrapped around me. God, you were so good, Lash. It felt so amazing—”

  Lash didn’t move, comment, or look at me. I froze, and looked away, filled by a terrible thought. Had I felt bad? Moved wrong? I cringed a little. I hadn’t known how to slither at all. Maybe I was supposed to coil around him, too? “Did I not do it right?” I whispered. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure how to move.”

  “You were perfect,” Lash whispered, running his hand down my side, and hugging me close. “You felt wonderful. You did just what a female snake should, which is mostly just hold still, but then fight just a little, near the end.”

  It was in his voice how relaxed he was now. I hadn’t ever heard him this relaxed in all the time we’d been together, in almost all the time I’d known him. He’d needed badly to get release as an animal. I opened my mouth to ask him why he hadn’t just asked me to do this for him, and I realized he had, when he’d told me about Theo. It hadn’t all been him being a good friend. He’d hoped someday for me to do this for him, even back then. That was what Devlin had meant by his comment, and I understood why. That he’d needed me to come to him like this, willingly without him asking, maybe to know that I’d meant what I said. That I really loved him.

  Lash sighed heavily. “Why did you do this?” he said finally, sounding irritated. “I was going to stay away from you, not be your lover anymore like you asked me to.”

  “I knew how much you wanted it,” I whispered. “I wanted to be with you that way, to see what it would feel like. You always talked about it with such desire.”

  “Was that the real reason?” Lash interrupted, stroking my face. “Wasn’t it just that you couldn’t have me? That I’d said we were done that made you come to me as a snake? You know me, Sar, know how much I wanted that. You knew I wouldn’t be able to resist having you, when I saw you as a snake. That I needed it so bad I wouldn’t be able to say no, even if I wanted to.”

  It was in his words that he didn’t remember last night at Davy’s at all. But I did, and that made his sarcastic words a little easier to take. “The real reason was I’m in love with you,” I said. “And I wanted to be with you like that, to know what it felt like, why you liked it so much. And I ordered the potion after that first night we were together, because I knew you were going to need this from me.”

  “I did need it,” Lash groaned, stretching, and caressing my hip, his fingers rubbing the bear tattoo that snarled there. “I hadn’t been with another snake since Cin. It wasn’t even an issue for me anymore back then, when I was so much older. But ever since we made love in September, I’ve been fighting the urge to have sex as a snake. The acupuncture held it at bay, like my desire for human sex. When we began to be lovers a week ago, the urge came back stronger than ever. Once I had you in my bed, I couldn’t get to you fast enough, Sar. But I couldn’t stop looking at you either. I’d waited so long to see you that way, wanted it so much, imagined it since that first time with you, dreamed about it for months.”

  He reached over and turned my face back to him so he could kiss me, and then he was molding my body to his, holding me. “I didn’t think you’d be snake for me,” he admitted softly. “Not when it came down to it. I thought you staged that fight so I’d stay away from you, because you knew I wanted you to do it, and it was easier than telling me you couldn’t bring yourself to do it, that to let me have you in my other form was too much to ask.”

  “It was so good with you,” I said, kissing him, then drawing back to look at him. “You felt amazing. It is true, I was a little afraid to let you coil with me. I didn’t know if I could do it, but I had to do it. I didn’t want to lose you over it. And I just couldn’t stand the thought of you being with someone else, especially that fucking Lyssa.”

  “I sure as shit can tell how much like Devlin you are becoming, even without his blood,” Lash said with a smile. “Living with him has changed you, that you would admit that to me.” He stroked me softly. “Terian made it for you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will you come to me again like this? I’ll pay for the potions, if you’ll agree to be snake with me, let me coil with you. Titus has agreed to make them for me, for us. The money’s nothing to me.”

  I looked at him, uneasy. What if Devlin got jealous, once he heard how much I liked it? He expected me to tell him later tonight, I knew. Worse, what if he asked to join us like this, to be a snake, too, with me?

  “Devlin said he didn’t mind,” Lash said softly, both understanding and not understanding. “Titus can make them for us, Sar. No one else needs to know that we are lovers in this way. I won’t tell anyone, if you want this to be a secret.”

  I kissed him softly. Screw it, it doesn’t matter. He matters. “You can tell anyone you like, Lash. And I will do this for you again, if you’ll agree to kiss me here and now,” I said, my eyes warm with affection.

  Lash grinned and kissed me. “I’d love you,” he said.

  My eyes went wide. His eyes went wide with shock a second later, when he realized what he’d said, and then he was speaking fast, trying to cover it. “I meant, I’d love to, Sar. I always like kissing you—”

  “Lash, I know what you meant, and it wasn’t that,” I said.

  Lash looked away from me, and said nothing.

  “You can say it,” I said softly. “It’s okay, if you do. I—”

  “I’m not going to say it!” Lash said loudly, his voice a hiss through his forming snake fangs. “Not now, not ever!”

  I said nothing, too taken aback to utter a sound.

  “You have enough men that love you,” Lash snarled. “Devlin’s in love with you. He’s practically obsessed with you. I’ve seen how you treat him! I’m not going to be like him, hanging on your every word, hoping you’ll let me touch you when you have a few spare hours, grateful for the crumbs you throw my way!”

  I got up from the bed before he could finish. Grabbing an extra shirt of his from the floor, I put it around myself. Bastard! I’d done so much to be with him, to make him happy, and this was how he felt? I’d given him everything he’d needed and nothing had changed. I had been stupid to think that coming to him like this would change anything, that it would get him to love me, when everything else I’d done for him hadn’t been able to win his heart. Hadn’t I learned anything, from our fight yesterday? Who cared what had happened last night? If Lash had to be drunk to tell me how he really felt, whatever love he felt for me wasn’t worth it. He wasn’t worth it.

  Lash looked up at me defiantly, his eyes flat, and his fangs bared.

  “I love you, Lash,” I said quietly as I buttoned the shirt, not looking at him. “I did this for you because of that, because I can’t really be weresnake for you, and I knew how much you wanted it. But you are right. I should have respected your wishes and left well enough alone. I should have let Devlin call Lyssa, and you could have woken up with her, instead of me.”

  Lash said nothing.

  “I won’t bother you again, or touch you in any way beyond friendly,” I said bitterly. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. When I Oath to Devlin tomorrow, I’ll tell him that you and I aren’t part of the Oath. That you don’t want to be part of it, because you don’t want to be with me.”

  I went to leave, before the strong charade I was trying so hard to maintain crumbled under the weight of my sadness. I got three steps and felt him spin me around to pull me into his arms to hold me tightly, almost squeezing the life out of me. “Don’t leave. Stay with me
, please,” he hissed softly. “I care for you, Sar. I want to be with you, to be part of your Oath, if you want me to be. I’m sorry for what I said yesterday. I know I hurt you and I’m sorry.”

  I stayed silent.

  “I’m very glad I woke up to you. I wouldn’t have wanted to wake up to find I’d given in and been with someone else. Not Lyssa, not anyone else! I’m glad I finally got to share my animal side with you, that you enjoyed being with me. It was better than I imagined it would be, and that’s saying something—”

  “But you don’t love me.”

  “You can’t want me to lie to you. So what do you want me to say?”

  “Tell me you could come to love me, in time.”

  “I don’t know,” Lash said finally. “The truth is, I don’t know. I don’t know much about love, Sar, even though I’ve lived so long.” He paused. “I know it’s not what you want to hear. I’m sorry for that, that I can’t just tell you the words. I want you, and I need you. I like you. And I’ll be faithful to you, Sar. I won’t be with anyone else, ever, if you’re willing to come to me like this. Can that be enough for you, at least for now? Can you give me time?”

  I said nothing, just hugged him back. Maybe. I’d have to think about it.

  “Will you come to me as a snake?” Lash said hesitantly. “And let me be with you again, like we were today?”

  “How often?” I said, sliding my hands up into his hair.

  “I’ll ask Titus. There may be a limit of how often it is safe for you to become a snake. I don’t want you to do anything risky. Say once a week?”

  “Yes, I will,” I replied, “If you’ll agree to join us tomorrow, to witness the Oath, and to take a promise from me, when I give one to Devlin. I don’t want to be without you ever again. I’m going to promise myself to you, like I’m doing for him, that we’ll always be lovers. Both as snake and as human. If that is part of the Oath, he won’t be able to separate us again, ever. If fact, he’s agreed to do everything in his power to see we are never separated again.”