Page 20 of Serpents of the Night

Lori’s eyes slid shut. Oh fuck. Grasping the hem of her collar, she dragged the material back and looked down her shirt and bit back a groan. The powder had even somehow gotten inside her clothes. The rest of her was just as green from what she could tell. Damn powder.

“How much?”

“You are very green,” Daskh reluctantly replied. “I do not see more than a hint of yellow in your hair and not a trace of your normal hues.”

She sighed heavily. “I guess I’m going to have to spend some time soaking it off.”

“It is not that easy,” Nashee began, an apologetic note lingering in her voice as she hurried over to another bin and tossed aside her smaller bag for a much bigger one. She promptly began to fill it with the berries from the bin as she explained in a quivering voice. “Even as a powder, it is still a live organism and will adapt itself to your biology. Females have used it in the past if they wished to paint their scales, but I do not know what it will do to your skin. It could fade in time if the fungus breaks up as you shed—I’m assuming you release damaged skin like we release ours. Or not.”

“You are saying that I may be stuck green?” Lori stared at her in horror.

“Maybe... but if so, you will certainly be envied by many of the females in the shinara,” the Uralial replied, her gavo flattening guiltily even as she tried to put a positive spin on things.

Lori appreciated the effort, but she just couldn’t get over the fact that she was now green. And being envied by females in the shinara who already hated her didn’t sound like fun either. “Wonderful—another thing for them to hate me for.” She sighed in discouragement.

“The color is attractive on you,” Kehtal chimed in hesitantly with a small smile. “I know it is not preferred but as there is nothing that we can do about it immediately, perhaps come with us to the bathing herbs and see if there is anything you like. If you plan on trying to see if you can wash any of it off, you might as well get a scent that you like.”

Lori nodded absently as she followed him. “I don’t get it—you guys drink and rub lapet into your scales... and yet you aren’t stained, not even around the mouth from continuously drinking it even though it is also used as a stain. How is that possible?”

“Shehwa,” Daskh replied as he glided up to her side. “It is another plant but of a different sort. It breaks down the fungus so that we can consume it and use it medicinally. It is always mixed with the cooling herbs together in one pouch just to prevent any accidents. As you can see why,” he added, glancing down at her. “Try not to worry about it too much, hithana. We will have Nashee pack some extra shehwa. Maybe applying it by itself every night will help draw the color out. But if it does not, I will simply have to be more vigilant in defending you from crazy males who would try to poach what is ours,” he rumbled so seriously that it drew an amused smile from her as she glanced down at her hand again.

Perhaps it wasn’t too terrible to deal with if her mates were not bothered by it. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about it, but she supposed that there could be worse colors she could be. She at least liked green. She could have turned out an unappealing shade of yellow.

Bringing her hand up to her face, she sniffed it and smiled. She even had a slightly minty scent to her skin like that carried by the lapet. If she had to be green for a while, that wasn’t a bad trade-off at all. Not that she wasn’t going to stew and scrub her body raw with the shehwa Daskh mentioned, but it was at least a little more bearable.

“All right,” she said at length. “Let’s see those bath herbs. Something floral would be nice.”

Chapter 16

Lori moaned softly as three sets of hands slid over her skin, spreading the cooling liquid over her. It was no wonder that Hashal had been practically limp with bliss after Kehtal had thoroughly slathered him in the concoction before sending him off to bed. She had never felt anything of the like! Although she had a small number of lotions and ointments at the colony, most of which were tipping dangerously close to empty, nothing quite compared to the mixture being generously applied by her mates.

The tight, achy, itchy feeling that came with the inability to maintain a proper level of moisture was a consistent problem she’d been battling since her arrival at the mining colony. She had enjoyed some relief from the cooling herbs that Slengral had used to care for her in his nest, though she hadn’t been aware of what the herbs did at the time. But even that hadn’t compared to the magic of the waga berry juice. It was like being plunged into the relief of a cool, refreshing pool and yet somehow more. It was as if there was an icy waterfall rushing through her veins that followed each application of juice.

“This must feel good. I have never seen that look on your face before,” Kehtal teased, his voice almost a whisper as he leaned in close beside her. “No,” he murmured after a moment’s pause. “I am wrong. This look is very familiar but less impatient than when I am pleasuring you with my tongues.”

Lori gasped softly, a tingle rushing to her belly.

“You are right,” Daskh agreed. His head bent as she felt the damp rasp of his tongues flicker on a particularly sensitive spot just below her ear before dragging down her neck even as his slicked hand stroked downward over her breast, his fingertips massaging and teasing. His breath suddenly fanned against her skin as he withdrew his tongues, his tail rolling gently beneath her. “She is pleasingly relaxed. Not tightening up with her need for release and pleasure.”

“Both looks are pleasing,” Slengral’s hands slid down her belly, rubbing in slow motions over the rounded spot where their son rested. “I cannot decide which I like best.”

She bit her lip as he nuzzled her lower belly, her breath catching. All the while they continued to stroke her, the long strokes of their hands soothing and yet also simultaneously erotic everywhere they touched her. His red eyes never glanced away as if he found her every response a subject of incredible fascination.

Gods, if they kept it up, there were likely going to get an opportunity to see both expressions occur simultaneously in some sort of mortifying, spastic collision of expressions.

She hissed between her teeth as another soft moan rose from within her. Although Seshanamitesh didn’t have lips in quite the same fashion as humans, the erotic glide of their tongues and the loving brush of the cheeks and jaws against her in place of delicate kisses was certainly doing its job. It was the perfect counterpoint to the graceful glide of their hands and the delicate brush of their clawed fingers as they petted her and teased her most sensitive spots. The different sensations of pleasure were mingling within her, building off of each other with every stroke of their hands. Her head fell back against Daskh’s shoulder, a shiver running through her“I will see both,” Slengral rasped, his tongues swiping over her inner thigh, dangerously close to the intimate flesh between her legs.

Lori shivered harder, her breath panting out of her as their tails brushed along her sides and legs. Daskh’s tail beneath her shifted more subtly, but everything together created a subtle, longing pulsing deep within her. Slengral’s tail shifted away from her side, and she heard the pot rattle for a second before she felt the tapered tip of his tail press against her ass. She felt the cold liquid that covered it. Was that even safe to take internally? She opened her mouth to ask but only a moan came out as he pushed within her, the sudden erotic stretch of his invasion mingling with the sudden burst of euphoria that descended through her like an icy breeze.

“What?” she gasped, the word choked off by a soft cry of pleasure breaking from her.

The raspy rumble of her mates’ laughter filled the room in response but quickly turned to content hums as Slengral’s tail began to work in and out of her, deliberately spreading the juice with each plunge. The sound splashed over her, fueling her pleasure even more as it teased her ears even as Daskh and Kehtal continued to play with her, their fingers gliding over her rapturously.

“Do not worry, hithana,” Daskh whispered in her ear, the tips of his tongues faintly stroking against her earlobe. “It is a good medicine for you. The Uralial had scented our hatchling within you and had drawn Slengral aside while you were occupied with selecting the herbs you desired for bathing. It is good for the mother and hatchling both what he does—the female vents need to be cooled. Enjoy it, hithana.”

Well, that explained what the Uralial had meant about the berries being important for a gestating female. That was another point in favor of getting the berries to the colony as the miners started looking toward settling down with their own families within the colony.

Lori gasped again, all thoughts flying from her head as her belly quivered when her mate’s tail slid from her ass. There was another rattling from the bowl and Daskh adjusted her legs wider, providing easier access as Slengral’s tail slid home again. She squealed with shock at the fresh cooling blast, her nipples peaking as her sex clenched uselessly around its emptiness. Her legs trembled as her mate’s tail moved inside of her, sliding back and forth, the cooling balm flooding through her limbs, easing aches she didn’t even know she had even when drawing her need up like an inferno within her. Ice and heat warred within her.

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