Sixteen

Khush

Dustin and I were out on a shopping trip, but this time, I wasn't using the wheelchair.

No, this time Dustin had had the genius idea where I turned into my snake form and he wore me like a scarf.

People kept giving him strange looks, but did he care? Not at all. It was one of the many, many reasons why I adored the man.

The problem came when a coffee shop refused to allow Dustin inside because of me. I hadn't known Dustin could swear like that. He didn't curse at the employee—he knew the poor guy was probably underpaid and just following the owner's rules—but he still muttered all kinds of swears under his breath as he walked down the sidewalk.

In the end, he found a cute little bakery with outdoor seating, and that was where we settled. The server seemed a little wary of me, but they still took Dustin's order, even when he asked for a blueberry muffin "For Khush," and the server glanced around before realizing I was Khush.

"Okay, this is seriously fun," Dustin said, and I hissed softly at him.

Headmaster Morrigan, the wonderful sorcerer that he was, had given Dustin an amulet that allowed me to communicate with him. I could just think words 'at' him, and he'd hear them in his mind. It was pretty cool, and I wondered what supes without a sorcerer headmaster did.

"You enjoy scaring humans?" I asked, and he blew a raspberry.

"Not scaring them. Just weirding them out. Like look at that lady over there. She thinks I'm crazy because I'm talking to a snake. Imagine what she'd think if she knew I don't just talk to this snake," he said, sounding utterly delighted, and I realized my mate might be a tiny bit evil.

"You are a terrible, terrible man," I said, making him laugh.

The lady he'd mentioned shot him another look, then got up and walked into the bakery. Was she trying to get away from Dustin, or get one of the employees to kick us out? It could go either way, and I wouldn't be surprised.

The server brought us our sweets a few minutes later, so I assumed the woman hadn't complained after all. Dustin thanked them for the food, and once they'd left, held the muffin up to me.

I opened my mouth and gobbled it down in one bite, letting the sweet taste cover my tongue before swallowing it down. When in this form, I couldn't really chew, but my stomach was equipped to digest it like any other snake's.

"Wow, you eat fast in this form," Dustin commented as he took a bite of his pastry, and I hissed softly, embarrassed. Before I could defend myself, he added, "Oh, right. Snakes don't have to chew. I forgot about that. I wish I didn't have to."

If I was in my other form, I'd have laughed at the pitiful look on his face. Since I wasn't, I settled on saying, "I'd pay good money to see that."

Dustin rolled his eyes, then wrinkled his nose. "I guess I would look comical trying to swallow a cheeseburger or something."

"Yeah, you would."

"There are other things I could swallow, though." He waggled his brows at me, and I hissed, then bit his ear for good measure. I didn't bite hard enough to break skin, of course, just enough to shock him.

"Hey, now! I like biting just as much as any other guy, but there's a time and a place, don't you think?" he asked, his eyes twinkling with enjoyment, and I sighed, though it came out as just another hiss. If I didn't love him so fucking much...

Wait.

Did I just think love ?

I supposed it'd been inevitable since the moment I shook Dustin's hand, but I was somehow still surprised by it. I loved Dustin.

Dustin was bright, cheerful, sexy as fuck, and he'd filled my life with color since the moment he entered it. I'd felt nothing but extreme happiness since we got together, and I was excited to wake up every day with him.

"Why so quiet?" Dustin murmured after a while, and I shook my head, which I supposed would look strange on a snake.

"Just thinking. This is fun. I've never been outside in this form."

"Really? The others never thought to bring you?"

"Well, they're trying really hard to be unnoticeable, you know? Having a snake wrapped around you kinda defeats that purpose."

Dustin chuckled softly, running his fingers over my scales. It felt good to be caressed like that. I couldn't remember the last time someone had touched me with such care.

"I guess that makes sense. Oh, wait. The door at the Sanctuary can lead to many places, right? So can we go anywhere? Like what about London or Paris?"

"The door does open to London, but you have to be careful."

"Oh? Why?"

I wondered what the other patrons at the coffee shop thought about Dustin. He clearly didn't care, and neither did I, but it must be confusing to see someone having a full-blown conversation with a snake. Of course, they could only hear Dustin's words, so that made things more…interesting.

"Well, Touya loved London, so he'd visit often to shop and stuff. But he always visited the local stores, and his bank put alerts on his cards because they were being used in the US and England within days. Anyway, long story short, Touya was arrested in London for being there without a visa, and the headmaster had to portal him out of a holding cell to save him. Now there's a warrant out for his arrest in England, and he can never go back."

Dustin blinked as I stopped narrating the story, then shook his head. "To think only a few weeks ago the most exciting thing in my life was the new video game Quest had received."

"Do you prefer your life from before?"

He shot me a wide-eyed look. "Are you kidding me? No way. I love spending time with you, and discovering all these new things. I'm very, very happy with our life."

I pressed my head against his neck, licking at it a little in order to express myself. Dustin smelled like flowers and man, and he tasted like one too, sweet with just a hint of salt.

I was in love with Dustin, with this man with brightly colored nails, clothes with a hint of sparkle, and light blue eyes that seemed to always be brimming with joy. I didn't think I could've been any luckier.

Dustin

When we returned to the Sanctuary, we'd barely taken a few steps when Touya stuck his head out of the office.

Touya was a slim man with Japanese features, a voice that was soft but not weak, dark brown eyes, and brown hair with hints of gold in it that I was a little bit jealous of.

"Hey, Khush. Zephyr would like to see you for a moment."

Khush had shifted back the moment I closed the door behind us, and he raised a brow at Touya as he adjusted the tank top he'd just slid on.

"Am I in trouble?"

"Did you do something that would get you in trouble?" Touya shot back, and he grinned.

"Maybe. Maybe not." Turning to me, he asked, "Do you wanna come with? Or go on ahead?"

I raised my palms up, taking a step back. "I didn't do the crime, so no way am I taking the punishment. I'll see you back at the cabin."

"Okay," Khush said, then leaned down and kissed me. I hummed in surprise, then kissed him back, grabbing onto his hips to keep myself from tipping over. He tasted like blueberries and sugar, all sweet with a bit of tang, and I hummed into his mouth as our tongues tangled.

A throat cleared loudly behind us, and I paused. Khush reluctantly pulled away to find Touya watching us with a small smile.

"Not a word," Khush threatened, making him laugh.

"After all the shit you gave Silas and me? No way." Touya held the door open for Khush, smile still on his face, and my mate glanced back at me one more time before walking through it.

Instead of going straight back to the Forest, I made my way to the library Khush had shown me when he'd given me the tour of the place. I hadn't been there since, but I'd been meaning to check out the Sanctuary's collection.

While I preferred playing video games to reading—my mind rarely settled down enough for me to read without getting distracted—I still enjoyed doing it sometimes, and there were a few genres I couldn't get enough of.

The library seemed empty when I stepped through the doors, and I closed it quietly behind me, slowly making my way through the shelves as I read the spines of books that caught my interest. Most of the books were old, with worn spines, the air full of that old book smell. I was surprised to see more than a shelf full of books about mythologies from cultures all over the world, and wondered if these were the same books humans read or if these books contained the actual stories about various supes and how they came to be. Maybe I should check out one of them...

My eyes lit up when I found one about Indian myths, and I quickly pulled it off the shelf, paging through it until I found the index. Then, I flicked to the correct page, and there it was. The Naga .

The Naga is a member of a mythical species in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. Half-man and half-cobra, these beings are able to shift fully into either beings, or into any combination of the two, sometimes even sporting multiple heads. They live in an underground realm called the naga-loka, and it is said that the naga-loka is full of beautiful palaces, jewels, and all the riches of the world.

Nagas are usually associated with water, rivers, lakes, and seas, and their powers include being able to make a land fertile, as well as destructive powers like bringing about floods and other natural disasters.

There was a page stuck between this one and the next with handwritten text, and I read that too, fascinated by all these details.

The modern nagas are a species of snake shapeshifters descended from the mythological nagas of the Indian subcontinent. While they still live in underground societies, they're no longer powerful enough to bring about natural calamities, though with enough power they can still cause destruction up to a certain degree.

Nagas are still able to grant fertility, both to land and humans alike, though they rarely use this power outside of their own communities. While nagas continue living in their own underground cities, they now conduct business with the humans, acting as one of them.

Well, that was truly fascinating. I wondered if Khush used to live in an underground city like that. Was that why he was so claustrophobic now? Or was it because of something else?

The next page featured a different being, so I closed the book, and slid it back onto the shelf before walking over to the next aisle. I stopped short when I realized there was someone there, and I froze completely when pitch-black eyes met mine. I'd only met him once before, when Khush had first introduced us, and while I'd caught glimpses of him around the Forest and the dining area, we'd never actually had a conversation before.

"Uh, hey, Haruto," I said, and the joro—jorogumo? tilted his head before giving me a short nod.

"Dustin," he greeted, his voice whisper soft, and I realized he probably wasn't interested in talking to me. Khush had said he was a bit of a hermit, so maybe he'd just prefer me to leave him alone.

Before I could take my leave, though, he spoke again. "Did you find something to read?" His eyes were still on the books as he spoke, and I wondered if maybe it wasn't that he didn't want to talk to people but just that he had trouble communicating.

"Not really. I found a book about Indian mythology, but there was only one entry I was interested in, and it was pretty short."

"The Nagas, I presume?"

I laughed softly, and I was pretty sure I saw Haruto's lips curve upward. "Yep, exactly."

"I'm sure your mate would be happy to sate your curiosity."

"Yeah, I think he would," I murmured. I wanted to know everything there was to know about Khush, the good and the bad. Maybe later today, I'd ask him a little about his past, about what it'd been like to grow up as a naga.

Haruto opened his mouth, but I had no idea what he was about to say next, because in the next moment, the ground started shaking, and I grabbed the shelf nearest to me as the earth threatened to split apart right under me. What the fuck was happening?