4. Drazhan and Dalibor

4

DRAZHAN AND DALIBOR

W e were one. We had always been one. We had one mind, split into two bodies. Never whole, and always apart.

House Lada was famous for having twins, but usually a male and a queen. However, even our ancient line failed to produce a queen the last time our ailing mother had managed to conceive.

A sure sign to any Aima who knew the ancient houses that our time on this earth was nearly over. Perhaps that was why we were formed more like split personalities than two separate siblings. We only ever fed from each other, trying to build that bond deeper in an effort to bridge our halves into one whole. But we were still two separate entities.

No queen wanted a broken pair of Blood who couldn't seem to communicate with anyone but themselves. We had no need for words between us, because our thoughts were shared. But that shared consciousness couldn't figure out how to make words come out of one body or the other. The words were trapped inside us.

We wanted to say, "Goddess, we live to serve."

We wanted to beg her to take us as she'd taken her alpha. Hopefully in her infinite wisdom and power, she'd understand our unspoken desire to give her anything that she wished. Even if it destroyed us. Because we couldn't bear the thought of her feeding on only one of us.

We did everything together. We had to. We weren't meant to be separate entities. Something rolled and shredded inside us, tearing its way through our bodies. Desperate to be whole and connected, but terribly afraid to die incomplete.

"I understand." Her voice rolled over us, a soothing balm that stilled the rolling, struggling beast. "Come to me, and I will make you whole."

We didn't question how. She was Goddess, one step removed from the Mother. If anyone could bring us together, it would be her.

Eyes fiercely squeezed shut, we knelt before her and bared our throats, heads close together, silently trying to tell her what we needed. Please, Goddess. Take us. Feed on us. But only together.

She leaned closer, her breath a soft torture on our throats. "I am made of venomous creatures. This may look like a normal body, but only my will keeps my form together. Look upon your goddess, Twins of Lada."

Our eyes opened at once, even though we feared being struck down as soon as she saw the truth of our weakness in our eyes.

Her head was high enough above ours that we had to tip our heads back. If she didn't have a normal body as she claimed, it was impossible to tell just by looking at her. Her skin seemed hard, yes, but smooth and shiny. As we looked, her skin began to change color, darkening from a pale moonlight to gray and then blackest night. An illusion? Or was the illusion being pulled away? We couldn't tell.

"Look closer."

We did as she asked, though it felt incredibly rude to stare at a goddess's nude body so boldly. Something moved on her throat, drawing our attention. A scorpion tail unfurled from her neck. A black scorpion shook itself, loosening from its position. Its plated exterior was the same black shiny color as her skin.

No wonder her alpha had shifted to a scorpion. But what of us?

The thing inside us surged and twisted a sinuous dance. Not a scorpion. It had to be some kind of snake, like the thick serpents lining the tunnel to her innermost cavern.

She lifted her arms, twisting her wrists out in an elegant glide. Her fingers long and lovely. Delicate. Hissing…

We blinked and shook our heads slightly. Not in refusal. Just trying to understand. How something so lovely and feminine could actually be tiny snakes. But at the end of her fingers, where her nails should be, small heads lifted, looking at each other and then us.

"Is this an acceptable way for me to feed on you and claim you as my very own?"

The ten small snakes opened their mouths, baring surprisingly effective fangs. Relief surged inside us, and we nodded eagerly. Yes. Without question.

She moved her hands closer to our throats. As one, the ten snakes struck. Bliss. Pierced as one. The snakes locked into our flesh, feeding on our blood. Draining us.

Together. At last. Together.

HEKATE

I tried to be gentle. But it had been too long, and they tasted too good to control myself. Hunger raged through my new body. Every drop of hot Aima blood made my venom pulse inside me. But more, their overwhelming sense of awe and relief that I was willing to take them at all made me draw them closer. Determined to make sure they never felt incomplete or defective again.

I drank until they were limp and dazed, weak as newborn kittens. Though that didn't stop them from sealing their mouths over the poison that I offered them.

Magic welled inside me, flowing like a vast, bottomless ocean. I basked in the rising power as it flowed through me. The air heated, the thick scent of musk filling my nostrils rather than the smell of earth, rock, and serpent. So many sensations flooded me. Body heat against my flesh. Soft lips. The pant of their breaths. Even the low, throaty groans of pain as my venom killed them.

They didn't hesitate, even knowing the cost.

I spilled some of that magic into them and waited for the Mother's gifts to be revealed.

Scales rippled across their skin as their bodies swelled and lengthened into huge muscular serpents. The high crown of gleaming crystal spines and rows of vicious crocodile-like teeth marked them both as basilisks. Their eyes shone like iridescent rainbows across obsidian glass—with the power to kill.

They twined around me and each other, until their bodies even started to merge. As my snakes and scorpions had united to form my body, so theirs also started to blend into a single thick, powerful basilisk—that just happened to have two glorious heads. Tears of blood dripped from my eyes. Thank you, Mother, for allowing me to make them whole at last.

I stroked the nearest head, but I looked at my scorpion, the first man who'd made his way to me. As soon as he felt my attention, he shifted back to his human form.

I loved all things monstrous. The uglier—and deadlier—the better. He was far from ugly, even by human standards. Tall and proud, with wide shoulders and thick, tree-trunk thighs, he could have served in any queen's court. After lying in sleep so long, I had no sense of time, but I sensed weight to his presence. As if he was quite old, even for Aima. Certainly nowhere near as old as me, but he had seen plenty of centuries in his lifetime.

Yet he had never served a queen's line before. With my venom burning in his veins, he had no secrets from me, even if he'd deliberately tried to hide. Though he was much too proud and honorable to even think of holding anything back from me. No queen of his own. Endless despair. Even among his kind, he had always been alone.

An island, lost in a dark ocean far from shore. Like the twins, he had given up all hope of ever serving as Blood. Of ever truly belonging anywhere other than the battlefield. He'd served in every major conflict on this earth since the Fall of Rome. Centuries of battle. Not surprising, given his line. I tasted the blood of Bellona, the goddess of war, in his veins.

"I'm no ordinary queen," I whispered softly, watching his face and listening to his innermost thoughts.

"I'm unworthy to serve, Great One."

I laughed, shaking my head. "Isis, She Who Is and Was and Always Will Be, is my sister in service to Gaia. Have you forgotten Hekate after so long?"

"Never. Forgive me, Mother of Venom, but I didn't know goddesses were still walking the earth in flesh. I thought we had lost all the Daughters of Gaia ages ago."

"You may call me Hekate. I've never cared for rigid rituals and formalities wrapped up in titles and pomp." I couldn't help but laugh again at the look of abject horror on his face at the thought of calling me by name. "Come now, Quintus. Surely you don't expect to call me Goddess, Daughter of Gaia, Mother of Venom, while you're inside me?"