Limitless Evolution As a Snake

Her breath catches, and I feel it more than hear it, her chest rising against mine.

”That’s not really a game if I lose either way.”

”Never said you’d lose.”

She swallows and looks me up and down nervously and doesn’t answer right away, which is an answer enough, so I lean down and press my mouth against the pulse point on her neck, slow, lingering, and at the same time I slide a thin tendril of smoke up the inside of her thigh, just enough pressure to make her hips twitch.

”First question,” I murmur against her skin. ”First time you saw me. The sewers, what’d you actually think?”

She goes still. ”Thought you were vermin,” she says. ”Tiny little red thing.”

Yeah, and look at the glow-up now from vermin to the only thing in her world. The thought is a satisfying warmth, better than any stolen mushroom.

”And then?”

Her breath catches. ”You just... climbed right up on me, when you thought I was passed out.”

”Mm, go on.”

”Didn’t even hesitate.” Her voice drops at the end, stripped of its irony, and what’s left is pure, unfiltered awe.

There it is. That little crack in her voice is better than any Indulgence Point notification. I reward her, kissing up along her jaw until I reach the shell of her ear and bite down just light enough to pull the same sound out of her as the first time. I work back along her cheek until she sinks into the mattress, like something she’d been braced against for years just quietly let go.

”Second question,” I say against her skin, letting my voice go low and lazy. ”Before the Undercity, where’d you actually grow up? What was your family like?”

She goes quiet for a second, and I feel her tense under me, old instincts flaring even now, guard trying to claw its way back up. So I don’t wait for her to build the wall. I kiss her mouth instead, slow and deep and drugging, until whatever she was about to say just dissolves into a soft noise against my scales.

When I finally pull back, she’s staring up at me with her eyes wide open and dark, breathing hard.

”There was a garden,” she says, quiet, husky, like she’s surprised the words are even coming out. ”Behind our house. Small. Nothing special, my mother used to grow these flowers that only bloomed at night, and I used to sneak out just to watch them open.” Her fingers dig into my scales, into the smoke curling off my midsection. ”Never told anyone that, not even the girls I worked with for six years.”

”Yeah?” I brush a smoke tendril along her cheekbone, watching her like she’s the only thing in the room worth looking at. Which, honestly, she is. ”What was it called, the place?”

Her mouth opens, closes. She’s fighting herself; I can see it, old habits screaming at her to shut it down, keep it locked, don’t hand anyone a single piece of yourself they could use against you later.

I wait, I’m not pushing that. Just keep my smoke hand warm against her jaw and let the silence stretch out soft instead of sharp.

”Ashvale,” she finally says, barely a whisper. ”Little nothing town. Doesn’t exist anymore, not really, not the way it did.”

There it is.

I kiss her again for that one, slower, longer, and she arches up into it like she’s been waiting her whole life for someone to actually want the answer instead of just wanting her body.

Third question, then. I move my mouth down along her jaw, down her throat, tracing slow heat all the way to her collarbone, and I let my smoke fingers slide up into her hair, gentle, just holding her steady while I ask it.

”Third question,” I say against her skin. ”Scariest moment of your life, before you met me.” She goes rigid under my smoke hands, and this time it’s not the good kind of tense.

”Matt—”

”I’m right here.” I press another kiss just above her heartbeat, feel it hammering under my lips like it’s trying to escape her ribs. ”Not going anywhere, just tell me.”

My smoke hands slide up under her shirt, spreading warmth across her waist, the tendrils working slow circles into skin that’s gone tight and cold despite how hot the room is. She gasps at the touch, back arching, and for a second I think she’s going to duck the question completely, ride the sensation instead of answering.

Then it comes out of her in a rush, like she’s been holding it behind her teeth for years and my hands just knocked the door down.

”There was a raid,” she says, voice gone flat in the way that means it costs her something to keep it steady. ”Six years back. My partner, not Fen, but before her. We’d worked together since I became a detective. I trusted him with everything. Trusted him with my back.”

I don’t say anything. Just keep my hands moving, keep her anchored, let her get there on her own time.

”He sold us out.” Her fingers dig into my ridge, into the smoke curling there, like she needs something solid to hold onto even though half of what she’s holding isn’t solid at all. ”Whole squad walked into an ambush because he took a payout from one of the lab operations we were supposed to shut down. Three girls died. I got out because I was slow that day, fell behind, and being slow saved my life while everyone in front of me got torn apart by something that came up out of the dark before we even knew it was there.”

Her breath shudders and I feel it against my ribs, feel the way her whole body remembers it even now.

”After that I swore I’d never let anyone close enough to do that to me again,” she says. ”Never trust anyone with anything that could get used against me. Never let anyone see me anything but in control.”