Firesnake

by Cassandra Kane

  With Meri he knew he could face anything.

  Closing the door to the bedroom, he padded back to the living room and saw the light flashing on his answering machine. Frowning, he pressed the play button.

  “Jon, where are you?” Larry’s jovial voice flooded the room. “Sorry about walking in on you yesterday. All I can say is that I’m glad it wasn’t one of the secretaries or my ass would have been on the line.” He laughed. “Mum’s the word. Oh, and by the way, there’s a reporter from some magazine who’s been hanging around the lobby waiting for you all morning. Security had to get rid of him.” A pause. “Take the day off if you need it. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  No, he wouldn’t. By this time tomorrow he’d be well on his way back to Calanir.

  “Goodbye, Larry.” Ryen erased the message.

  * * *

  “Meri.” The low whisper danced inside her head. “Meri. Meridia.”

  Meri woke with a jolt, sitting up in bed gasping for air. For a moment she couldn’t tell where she was. The room was dark and hot. Her eyesight adjusted to the obscurity and she saw the shapes of the furniture in her room. In Ryen’s house.

  It’s time.

  “Ryen?” His voice had sounded so near. “Is that you?”

  Silence greeted her. She slid across the bed, feeling Ryen’s loss acutely. Disoriented in the dark, she was only aware of the tightness of her skin.

  Meri went to the bathroom to splash water on her face. And stopped in the threshold, looking at herself in the floor-length mirror on the wall opposite.

  “Oh God.” She ran her hands over her bare skin, across her chest, down over her belly to her thighs. Every inch of skin was covered in flame-like tattoos, swirling over her like charred remnants of a flash fire. Her face was covered in the intricate swirls.

  In horror, she scrubbed over the skin of her arms and felt a hard ridge beneath each marking. As though something beneath it were growing, trying to get out.

  “What am I?” she whispered, staring at her naked image.

  Something had happened to her during the night. And it had to do with being with Ryen, sleeping with Ryen. Having Ryen inside her.

  “Meri.”

  She swung around, saw only the darkness of the hallway. But she’d heard him as clearly as if he’d been standing beside her.

  “Ryen?”

  She went down the hall and into the darkened living room. The place felt eerily quiet, almost as if it had been abandoned. The only light came from outside. From the illuminated garden.

  She opened the French windows and stepped outside. The water of the pool was as still as a mirror. A faint breeze stirred her hair, cooling her heated skin. She went to the edge of the water and looked down at her reflection.

  At the freakiness that was Meridia Hancock.

  “You’re being cruel to yourself.”

  She looked up and saw someone standing on the other side of the pool, hidden in the shadows. “Ryen?”

  She gasped as he stepped into the light. He was naked, but it was hardly the Ryen she knew. He was taller, broader, his muscles thick over his shoulders and arms. His blue eyes had darkened so they seemed almost black. And his face, so perfect and serene before, now possessed a predatory beauty that left her breathless.

  Covering every inch of his skin were the same swirling flame-like patterns, ridging the curve of every muscle in his body.

  “There is no freakiness in our true nature,” Ryen said softly.

  She heard him say the words but couldn’t see his lips move.

  “What -- what are you? What’s happening to me? To us?”

  “Firesnake’s Mark.”

  He came around the side of the pool toward her, his movements strong and fluid. At his approach, she couldn’t help but take a step back. He seemed so powerful now, so different. So openly purposeful.

  Ryen stopped a few feet away from her on the pebbled edge of the pool. I see you still don’t trust me. Ryen’s voice came directly into her mind. His lips definitely weren’t moving.

  She clenched her fists, swallowed her fear. “How can I trust you when you won’t tell me the truth?”

  Ryen nodded. “All right. You deserve the truth. The Chan are descendants of Firesnake. Before Firesnake, it is believed we were human. After Firesnake, after generations upon generations, all the Chan now bear her mark.”

  “This?” Meri waved a hand over her skin. “Firesnake made you all like this?”

  “You made us all like this, Meridia. You are Firesnake.”

  Meri shook her head, unable to speak through the horror closing her throat. “I’m not -- I’m not --” Sobs choked her words, tears sliding over her cheeks, hot and salty. “I’m not Firesnake.”

  “Not yet.”

  Ryen stepped closer to her, reaching out for her. She stepped back, watched as he let his hand fall helplessly to his side. “How can I convince you, Meri? How can I explain the wonder of you? How you changed a weak and enslaved people and made us free again, made us proud.”

  “I don’t care!” she shouted at him. “Look at me! I’m a freak. I’m not human. I’m not even one of you. Now you’re saying I’m responsible for making you all freaks like me. How do you expect me to live with that?”

  She sobbed openly now, shaking uncontrollably with fear. Heat choked her and blue flames suddenly burst from her center and cascaded over her body in a shimmering wave. She felt herself go dizzy, hardly able to breathe, felt the ground give way beneath her as her knees buckled. And slowly, she toppled and fell into darkness.

  Water enveloped her, cold and shocking as a slap in the face. She felt the hardness of the ground at her back and realized she was lying at the bottom of the pool, looking up at the diffused light above ground. And then the light smashed into a million pieces and someone was holding her by the arms and dragging her up, up, until they broke the surface.

  She gasped, dragging in lungfuls of air. Ryen pushed her up against the side of the pool, holding her steady as he carefully parted the mass of wet, dripping hair covering her face.

  Meri stared at him. The light behind him encased his face in shadows, revealing only the hard planes of his cheek, his mouth.

  “I understand why you’re afraid,” he said. Gently, he removed a strand of wet hair from her cheek as she trembled against him. “But you once asked me why I was afraid and I never told you. I’d like to tell you now.”

  He stopped. She could sense him trying to keep his emotions in check and felt an overwhelming tenderness for him. Something broke in her chest and her fear shattered into pieces of glass that crumbled into dust. Her heart, softening for him.

  His body was pressed hard against hers. She could feel the hardness of his cock against her thigh, bobbing in the water. She sighed as his hand trailed over her neck and shoulder to her breast, and with that sigh came acceptance. “Tell me.”

  Ryen’s palm cupped her breast, the thumb tracing the outline of her nipple. “It is known that Firesnake had a consort.” He stared at her mouth. “His name was Ryen’La.”

  Her heart began to beat hard. “You.”

  He nodded. “It’s why I was chosen to find you.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t understand. You say the Chan are descendants of Firesnake -- my descendants --” She stopped, breathed deeply.

  Christ, her descendants. She’d sired a whole race. With Ryen. And a thousand years later, their descendants had sired them both. Her thoughts spun, playing out a hundred scenarios, each making less sense than the one before.

  “It’s what they call a time paradox -- an incident caused by the attempt to fix the cause itself.” Ryen’s other hand cupped her free breast. His touch stilled her shivering. “We finally figured out that Firesnake had to be one of us. We think you’re the daughter to Roan’il and Marya of the Weonar, who were lost in a time experiment over a hundred years ago. Born here on Earth but still one of the Chan.”

  “I’m -- I’m really one of you?”

&nb
sp; “Yes.” His thumbs played over her nipples, making her dizzy with longing. “No one but another Chan can hear me mindspeak. Or can stand to touch me. Female Chan are hot, males cold. And when we were together last night, we began the imprinting.”

  Heat bubbled between her thighs as she felt his cock nudging at them.

  “What imprinting?” she whispered as his mouth lowered toward hers.

  “Firesnake’s Mark. The mark of our bond. Of our mating.” His fingers trailed across the whorls on her skin.

  She drew away from him. “But technically I’m still a virgin.”

  His breath fanned across her cheek. “But you were sexually awakened and it seems that was enough. In any case, there’s a remedy for virginity.”

  Ryen’s lips touched hers. She felt his tongue outline the shape of her lips, which she parted to accept his penetration. The kiss began slow and leisurely, but a fire quickly flamed in her core. She pressed herself against him, deepening the kiss as passion gripped them in its fist.

  They devoured each other, forgetting all restraint, hungry for the touch and taste of each other’s skin. Hands, mouths, tongues became a whirl of constant motion, of restless movement. His touch scorched her, incited her, emboldened her.

  She reached down between his legs and held his long, hard cock in her hands. “Now, Ryen. Now.”

  She parted her legs, aimed him to her core. With a hard thrust he penetrated deep inside her, pinning them together. His hands cupped her face, held her still, his gaze searching hers. “There is a legend that Firesnake is more powerful than normal Chan. That it was losing her virginity that changed her.”

  “Is that why you’re afraid?” she whispered.

  “I’m not afraid.” He began to thrust, slow and hard, inside her. “With you, I can’t be afraid.”

  She cried out at the sudden pleasure swamping her body and bit down hard on his shoulder. He grasped a handful of her hair, pulled her head back, exposing her neck. His mouth scorched a hot trail from her chin to her collar bone, lingered over the hardening peaks of her breasts.

  Meri gasped with delight -- then suddenly stiffened.

  Ryen stopped, disconcerted. “What’s wrong?”

  Meri had seen a movement in the bushes. She saw the glint of cheap shoes in the lamplight before they quickly disappeared in the undergrowth. The bushes rustled faintly before they stilled.

  It was Heppeldigger.

  “What is it?” Ryen turned to follow her gaze.

  Meri held his jaw, keeping his gaze fixed on her, and kissed him to capture his attention. She could ignore Heppeldigger. Besides, she had a debt to pay. It wasn’t exactly the price they had agreed but it was close enough.

  “Nothing, my love,” she murmured against Ryen’s mouth. “There’s nothing but you in the whole world.”

  Her words triggered an onrush of feeling -- a mixture of tenderness and love and pride. He dealt with the unexpected emotion the only way he knew how -- he crushed her mouth beneath his and buried himself deep inside her. He took her with a savagery that shook him but that he was unable to stop. Hoisting her hips higher, he pushed her against the edge of the pool, waited until she had anchored her legs around his waist, her heels digging into the small of his back. She steadied herself by leaning back, her arms flung along the sides of the pool.

  Ryen savored the proffered peaks, rolling her long, hard nipples between tongue and teeth. He cupped her buttocks, pulling her close, positioning her to accept his deep penetration. She arched back, her breath quick and hard, almost sobbing as his cock discovered every untouched secret place and made it his.

  He knew the moment of her release by the sudden clenching of her slick muscles around his dick, and prepared himself. She cried out, arching against him, her hips pistoning. The effect spurred him to his own release, and he emptied himself inside her with a groan. He clenched the muscles in his buttocks, locking his knees to keep himself from falling on her in blessed relief. Instead, he held himself back, gripped tight to her hips, and watched.

  For Meri’s orgasm had gone from simply arching up to meet him to a wild, abandoned thrashing. Her head had fallen back against the ledge of the pool and it shook from side to side, her body juddering in a series of aftershocks. When the flames burst from her chest, red and hot, he knew it was time to withdraw. Slowly, he eased out, releasing her as the waves of fire washed over her body. A moment later she was a living fireball. She screamed, still thrashing wildly, lifting her head for an instant to stare at him with dark, panicked eyes.

  His breath rasped hard in his throat, but he stilled the urge to grab her and put out the flames. Instead he took a step back in the water, leaving her room. As if on cue, she closed her eyes and went utterly still. Her limp unconscious body slid down along the side of the pool and slipped gently into the water.

  Ryen edged back, turning to watch Meri’s body floating along the bottom of the pool. When the bubbling started, the water churning and steaming around her body like the pressure build-up before a geyser, he closed his eyes. He preferred not to watch this part. Instead, he concentrated on catching his breath, slowing the rapid beating of his heart rate, trying to retain some semblance of control.

  A hard stream of water hit his face a second before he heard the high-pitched animal scream. Ryen snapped open his eyes in time to see Meri shoot up from the bottom of the pool, wrapped in a column of water that rose into the air with her. The water poured down in a hard splatter around them, and Ryen closed his eyes against the pressure of it over his face.

  When he opened them, Meri stood waist-deep in the pool, breathing hard. But it was not the Meri he had known. The human skin had fallen away, crumbling like ash. Now soft red scales covered every inch of her, from belly to breasts to neck to face. Scales arranged in the patterns of the tattoos previously on her skin. Even her hair had burned away, leaving her scalp bare, exposing the beautiful pattern of scales covering the perfectly shaped oval of her skull.

  She was Firesnake, and her eyes burned him like hot coals.

  Meri opened her mouth to speak, but only a croak emerged. A look of distress crossed her face.

  Ryen held out his hand. “Don’t worry, my love. I’m here. It’ll be all right.”

  She placed her small hot hand in his and he felt the slow simmering burn of her body against his skin. Drawing her close, Ryen wrapped his arms around Meri, pressing her to him.

  As he rested his hands over the curve of her buttocks, Meri sighed and nestled her head in the crook of his shoulder. After a moment she turned and he felt her warm breath against his ear. “And you?” she whispered, her voice a soft rasp.

  “Soon, my love. Soon.” He could already feel the heat of her body triggering his own transformation -- a slower and less dramatic change than her own. So was the way of the Chan.

  Ryen pressed her close until it felt as though they were one. The water boiled and bubbled around them where it made contact with her burning body. The constant frothing and fizzing drove the ashy residue of her discarded skin to the sides of the pool.

  In that moment of peace, he listened to the soft sounds of the night -- the murmur of a breeze through the trees, the distant cry of a coyote out sighting his prey, the water lapping up against the edges of the pool. And a strange noise, almost a squeak, behind the bushes surrounding the edge of the garden.

  Then there was a low hum, vibrating through the air, softly at first before growing steadily louder. The treetops swayed, then shook and rattled as though shaken by an angry giant. There was a great whoosh that sucked the air from their lungs as the humming filled the silent night.

  Ryen and Meri looked up at the great expanse of metal that filled the sky, its edges rimmed in pale blinking lights.

  “What -- what is it?” Meri’s fingers dug fearfully into his waist.

  “The Chan.” Ryen smiled, rubbed her shoulder soothingly. “A couple of hours early.”

  Meri stared in wonder at the bottom of the spacecraft. Ryen’s
gaze sought out the dark aperture dead in the centre of the curved polished surface. And then they were covered in light, caught in the beam shooting from the aperture. The particles of light danced around them, encasing them in a warm cocoon, shutting out the rest of the world.

  Ryen looked down at Meri. Her face was bathed in the light’s pinkish glow. Beautiful.

  “We’re going home, my love,” he said softly. “Brace yourself for the experience of your life.” Gently he traced a finger over her cheek and leaned down to kiss her.

  Meri held on to him tight, lips pressed against his, breathing only him. She knew she was already home in Ryen’s arms.

  The light sucked them up into the bowels of the spacecraft. The water sloshed to fill the void left in the centre of the pool, sending waves lapping hard against the sides. The night was suddenly very quiet, waiting and watching.

  Then there was another great whoosh and the craft streaked across the sky like a shooting star, taking them to a new beginning.

  Epilogue

  Heppeldigger would forever curse the fact that he’d left his camera in the car.

  Stranger Than Fiction had published the article, Lizard Men From Outer Space!, as a matter of course. The series of articles that followed were syndicated and even the National Enquirer had picked them up and run with them for a while.

  When Heppeldigger insisted the story was based on fact, his editor only raised an eyebrow. He could deal with the occasional crazy on the job -- they provided the best stories -- but it was difficult seeing one of his most hard-nosed reporters starting to believe his own hype. Stress, he decided, and let the matter pass.

  But Heppeldigger persisted. When Larry Drake filed a missing person report on Dr. Jon Anderson, Heppeldigger was quick to contact him and reveal, in detail, what he had seen at Anderson’s home. Larry listened politely, nodding his head, a smile fixed to his face. Later he called the police and said he suspected Jon Anderson had run off with Meridia Hancock. The missing person case was never filed.

  For a while Heppeldigger continued to make waves, unwilling to be swayed by colleagues’ admonishing pleas to be reasonable. He stuck to his guns, and had them circling fingers around their ears and mouthing “Nuts!” every time he turned his back. He contacted a number of UFO associations, and was soon inundated by calls from alien abductees. They wanted to know what the aliens had done to him in their spaceship and were eager to share their own genital torture stories. Eventually, Heppeldigger had to change his number to discourage the most persistent callers. Even that did not discourage an elderly matron called Lily who stalked him for over a year, convinced she needed to have his mutant baby.