Page 48 of Countdown to Murder
He pulled me into his lap, sitting on his legs, facing him, and he cradled my cheek in his hand. “Your legs, while you orgasmed at the end. Two giant snakes wrapped around me and held me in while I came.”
I pulled his hand off my cheek, kissed his palm, put his hand on my thigh, and shook my head. “Mordecaithought I’d be able to, but I couldn’t.” I wiggled my toes and remembered I’d done so while he was inside me, because I thought my feet wanted to be snake heads.
I kissed the tip of his nose, since he seems to enjoy doing that to me so much, and I stood and walked to the other side of the room. I suddenly knew how to do it. I looked at my left arm, wiggled my fingers, and then flung my hand out and imagined it turning to a snake from shoulder to fingertips, and it did.
“This snake isn’t me,” I told Panda. “I’m not completely in control of it, and yet...” I imagined it turning and sticking its tongue out to check Panda out, and my brain received the information the snake got. Not as if from my eyes or my Jacobson’s organ, and yet, I still knew.
I imagined wiggling my fingers again, and my arm was an arm again. My hand a hand.
“That’s going to take some getting used to,” I told him.
He grinned. “You think?”
“Do you know how to get in touch with Mordecai?”
He walked to the bedroom and returned with the phone held to his ear.
“We have... not so much a situation, but close to it. Any chance you can send Mordecai our way?”
Nathan’s voice came from the phone. “You’re in luck. I happen to be with him. Do you need me too?”
“I don’t think so.”
Mordecai was suddenly in the room, larger than life, his feet spread, his arms crossed over his massive chest.
“No need to tell me. I see it.” He was ten feet from me and didn’t look like he intended to come closer.
“Just for the hell of it, try to be Medusa for a few seconds.”
I imagined my hair turning into snakes, and felt three of them form, slithering and moving. I had one of them look at Mordecai and flare its hood, and he smiled.
“Excellent. You already have control of them. Back to hair again, please.”
I did so, and he looked to Panda. “You have some mighty brass balls, Barbary Lion.”
Panda shrugged. “I assumed she was in control of them, or that since she liked me, they would, too.”
“Not entirely true, but king cobras aren’t especially aggressive unless they’re defending eggs. Otherwise, they’ll bite if threatened, but they prefer to slink off and be alone.”
Mordecai looked to me. “Anything else you want to show him?”
I looked at Mordecai and back to Panda. “There’s also this. I guess it’s my warrior form.”
I did the mermaid thing, so my lower torso was snake, curled on the floor under me and my upper torso was arms, breasts, and head. I moved around a little to be certain of my balance. “I’m me like this. I can also hinge my jaw andbring in my fangs. I’m pretty sure I can make my arms into snakes now, too. Probably my hair as well.” I shifted my lower torso back to legs. “The thing is, I don’t really want to. Since I can, it’s probably important I learn to control myself that way and try to figure out if I can use that form in battle better than I can this one, but I’ve spent decades learning how to be lethal in this form. I’m not certain I want to give the snake parts of me that much time or energy.”
“Then don’t,” Mordecai said. “Give it enough time so you can function if you need to, but no more. The next question is what all of this shapeshifting has done to your hunger, because you look visibly thinner.”
“I’m ravenous, but I’m not in danger of trying to eat either of you. It isn’t like the snake is going to force achangeand take over.”
“Good, but let’s feed you anyway,” Mordecai said.
* * * *
Panda
Mordecai took us to his home on Olympus to feed us, but I figured he didn’t want the slayers to hear his advice to Mira.
In a nutshell, he said she needed to stay human as much as possible. If she shifted by accident, I should bring it to her attention, even in the midst of a soul-shatteringorgasm. There would be time for her to explore her capabilities after the slayers tested her, but she’d have the best chance of passing if she was in the mindset to stay completely human, or turn into her normal-sized snake, and not to do anything in between.
