Page 70 of Snake-Eater
“Wore away?”
He shrugged.
Selena was starting to get a very bad feeling.Great. I will put that with all the other bad feelings.“Did you ... err ...?”
Snake-Eater bristled. Literally bristled. His hair lifted in a feathery crest and Selena fell back on her elbows. “She gave it freely,” he growled. “She should not have given so much strength away.Youwill not give yours away.”
“Uh . . .”
Snake-Eater reached for her again and she retreated.
“What is wrong?” he asked again.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t do this.”
Snake-Eater stared at her. A clicking noise started all around her, a sharp, thin sound like a snapping beak. It seemed to arise from the darkness and Selena dug her fingers into the blankets, wondering what was out there and if it was still Snake-Eater or more of Snake-Eater or whether this man was some kind of illusionary body overlaying something different and far more alien.
“But I love you now,” he said, as if that was the answer to any possible question.
“Yes, but I ...” The only thought in her head wascan’t fuck a bird, but she was pretty sure that would not go over well, so she settled on the script that had served her for the better part of a decade. “I’m sorry, you’re very attractive but I’m seeing someone.”
A membrane slid down over the moon-band eyes, a blink as slow and cold as a lizard’s. “What?”
“Engaged,” said Selena. “Um.” She twisted her engagement ring on her finger. She’d been thinking of getting rid of it, but now it might be what saved her. “Sorry.”
“But you accepted my courtship gifts.”
“What courtship g—you mean thedead rattlesnakes?”
“What else?”
“But that’s—”
The moon-white band suddenly thinned as Snake-Eater’s pupils dilated. Selena cut herself off in mid-word. “I didn’t realize that they were, um, courtship gifts. I thought it meant that you, uh, wanted to be friends.”
“Yes.” Snake-Eater swept a hand down in a gesture that took in her entire body. “That is theirpurpose.”
It occurred to Selena that maybe roadrunners didn’t have friends in the sense she understood.They don’t form flocks, I guess, so maybe they don’t have friends, just mates and children?“Oh. Um. I didn’t realize what you meant. Humans, uh, do it differently?”
“And you are already mated,” said Snake-Eater, in tones of deep disgust. The clicking sound started up again. “Where is he? I will kill him and it will no longer be a problem.”
Selena spent one glorious moment imagining unleashing a bird god on Walter, then brought herself back to earth. “I’m afraid he’s far away. You can’t kill him. You and I just, uh, can’t be friends. Not friend-friends. Not in the way you were with my aunt. Sorry.”
Snake-Eater rose to his feet in a single abrupt motion. The sight of his smoothly muscled, almost-human body in motion made Selena realize yet again why Aunt Amelia had been willing to overlook the bird bits.
But even if he wasn’t a roadrunner god, I’m still not sleeping with anyone who just decides he loves me. That seems like a recipe for nine kinds of disaster.
The look he turned on her no longer seemed loving. His pupils shrank until the white bands were full moons with a dark spot across them, and he flexed his hands back and forth. His nails were diamond shaped, like claws.
“You deceived me,” hissed Snake-Eater. The red light got redder and the white moons began to expand until they filled Selena’s field of vision, until it seemed as if they might engulf the world. “You lied to me.I no longer love you.”
Something shoved her, hard. Selena fell for an instant that felt eternal, Snake-Eater’s voice ringing in her ears, and jerked awake in bed, with the sun streaming through the window.
“What a dream,” muttered Selena, holding her head. Her temples throbbed. “Christ, I hope that was a dream.”
She had a horrible sinking feeling that it might not have been. She stumbled into the bathroom to splash water on her face.
Dreams aren’t real.
