Page 19 of Black Mamba

Because he wants me?

“How do you know my name?” I ask with a hitch, my heart pounding, rooted to where I am under the rickety table. It gives me some shelter from him but not nearly enough. He’s big—long. He’s…

“I have been watching you since your arrival.”

Since the beginning? I think of the times Levy and Greg visited and swallow thickly. Oh god. Was he watching then? Has he been watching all this time…? My stomach goes taut with unease as my anxiety climbs.

The trees rustling…

I can’t believe this is happening. I press my back against the hide-covered wall and bring my limbs tighter around me, peering up at the frightening… naga. Because it’s human, but not quite. Aching from being wrenched over his shoulder, I ignore the pain as I stare at him, ready to fight him off if he tries to grab me again.

In the deep, nearly pitch black shadows of the cave, the lighter he holds doesn’t give off much light. But it’s enough to see his outline against the deeper shadows at his back, and it’s enough to set his face faintly aglow. His jaw is sharp, his lips arrow-tipped and parted. The whites of his eyes flicker around dark gray orbs. His hair is short, tousled around his ears and brow, midway down the back of his neck. It’s ebony like the shadows. The tips of his ears are pointed, sticking out of his hair. He twists his hand and the shadows shift around him as the flames move.

There’s a sweet, odorous scent that reminds me of Ilubriam chocolate—a favorite treat of mine since childhood. I inhale, taking some comfort in it. Why I smell it right now I have no idea, but I’m not questioning it.

I saw his tail when we were outside. I know he’s not a man.

My mind runs away with the idea of being in a naga’s grasp, refusing to solidify it as I quickly glance around the room only to land on his long, winding tail anyway. Following its outline, I discover it’s impossibly thick. It leads into his legs where he appears to be wearing a form-fitting skirt. No, not a skirt…

He doesn’t have legs.

As my panic resurges and flows, I try to recall everything that woman Shelby said about nagas over the radio, wishing I hadn’t been drunk at the time.

Thank god I’m not drunk right now. Wait…

He turns away from me and disappears into the passage behind him, taking the light with him and leaving me alone in the cold darkness once again.

Unable to see anything anymore, I remain frozen where I am, deciding I’m safer here under the table than attempting to follow him and his light source.

He can be reasoned with.

He knows the common tongue.

But he also said he wanted me and that I landed in his territory. I trespassed. Nagas are territorial. Recalling more of Shelby’s advice, I decide I’m going to try convincing him to let me go. If I can speak to him, I can convince him.

I hear him before I see him when he returns, bringing with him more light. He appears around a jagged bend and stops at the threshold of the larger cavern I’m in. Holding a lantern that brightens the space with white light, his gray eyes find me under the table. I’m immediately confused by their juxtaposition. Him, an alien, a humanoid male with a tail—because he’s definitely male—carrying a humanmade electric lantern in his hand.

He stares at me before setting the lantern on a bigger, wider wooden table on the opposite side of the room. While his back is turned, I take in the massive pile of pelts and hides bunched up in a large circular mound to my right. In velvety arrays of deep browns and blacks, the hides are a mess of rich colors. A bed, perhaps? The curved wall behind it is also covered in hides, their large shapes draping down from metal hooks screwed into the rock. Above those metal hooks and anchored by string are antlers. Dozens of alien Earth animal antlers of different sizes. Every wall is covered in both hides and antlers, making a space nearly as large as the front area of my ship seem smaller, more clustered and more intimate. Even the floor is covered in thick hides.

Besides the bed to my right, there are two other tables, the one I’m under and the one the lantern is on. The table opposite me has a bunch of stuff on top I can’t immediately name, except for the few books stacked in the back, but it’s noticeably bigger and wider than the table I’m under and it makes me wish I’d gone right instead of left along the wall.

“You can come out from under there.”

My eyes flick back to him staring at me. He’s still beside the table, across the cavern—at least his top half is. His incredibly long tail is draped in coils in the wide space between us.

He’s not colorful or intricately patterned like I imagined a naga would be. Instead, he’s the color of coal and iron, of the interior walls of The Dreadnaut. He transitions from the lightest of grays to a pale black. Gleaming scales cover his tail from the tip all the way up the sides of his hips and waist. As the white light halos him, bringing more definition to the details of his body, I realize he has some patterning along the sides of his body and arms. There are dark splotches over his shoulders and around the back of his neck, disappearing into his hair.

He’s not wearing a shirt. He’s got a lot of muscles… His abdominals are toned beyond belief.

My eyes drop to where his genitalia would be if he were a human and immediately regret it. There’s a distinct bulge at the front of his tail, a little below his hips.

He shifts toward me.

“Don’t come any closer!” I press my back harder against the wall.

He stops and slides his tail behind and under him. My eyes hover between his curious but desperate expression and his bulge. I swallow thickly.

“You—you can obviously understand me,” I stutter when he remains silent. “I mean, we can understand each other…” I lean forward and force my gaze back to his face, disliking his attractive features, his long, straight nose, and his thick brows. “I don’t know what I did—except land in your territory, and I am truly sorry for that—but I think this is a big misunderstanding. I want to go back to my ship,” I blurt out. “Let me go and I’ll leave and land somewhere else.” I’d use the last of my ship’s fuel if it means I’ll be free and safe inside my ship again. How do I convince a creature like him?