Snake Keeper by Alexandra Norton

CHAPTER TWELVE

ONE MORNING SOMEnights later, I was feeling good. But when I padded, barefoot as usual, into the dining hall, I encountered an irritated Xioumar talking in low hisses with a familiar Keeper’s servant. Two other males had been setting bowls piled full of meat, mostly raw, on the long table. I hadn’t gotten close with any of them except for Zeetha. Most of them were entirely uninterested in my presence, and some seemed nearly hostile. But Zeetha wasn’t around, so I put a hand on one of their shoulders as they passed.

“Ashaki,” I apologized in no doubt butchered Xiornian. “What’s going on?”

“Xioumar’s brother is visiting,” the agitated alien answered and quickly went back to his work.

I tip-toed up to the Keeper as quietly as I could, doing my best sneak as I crept up and slid an arm around his waist, rubbing my side against his in a now customary greeting. My skin welcomed the familiar buzz of current.

My sneaking always failed, of course. The man had eyes and ears in the back of his head. He sent the servant away. His eyes softened when he turned to face me.

“Is this your actual brother or a ‘the Father’ kind of brother?” I craned my neck to look up at him.

“Xainer is my actual brother,” he smiled wryly. “And he can be… difficult.”

“How?”

“He’s boisterous and overly excitable, somewhat flamboyant; an unconventional example of our species.”

“You mean he doesn’t move like a viper waiting to strike?” I raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like my kind of guy.”

Xioumar frowned. I punched his chest lightly: “I’m joking. Is he nice, or will he ignore me like the rest of the planetoid, except for you and Zeetha?”

“Actually,” Xioumar rubbed his temple, “I’m afraid he’ll take a special interest in you. If you need rescuing from a conversation, do that thing you do with your mouth and I’ll come.”

“That thing?” I narrowed my eyes.

“You chew your lip when you don’t like something. Or when you’re thinking.”

I gaped. I do not!

Damn. I do.

“Fine,” I crossed my arms on my chest. “But it sounds like I might just enjoy this brother’s company.”

***

I DID ENJOYthe brother’s company. He looked very much like Xioumar: same build, same face.

“Xioumar didn’t tell me you were twins!” I exclaimed as we grasped elbows. No electric buzz moved under my skin as we touched. All I felt was the “normal” heat of the aliens’ skin.

“Twins?” The brothers looked confused.

“When two humans are born at the same time, we call them twins,” I offered a simplified explanation.

“But that is just all siblings, isn’t it?” Xainer laughed as we took our seats on the cushions at the table, him next to me, me in my spot in front of Xioumar.

I frowned, getting confused myself. “No. Siblings can be any brother or sister from the same parents. This is siblings who are born at the same time.”

The brothers gave each other a look. “Humans can breed more than once?”

“What? Yes, of course, can’t you?” I sucked bulb fruit juice from my thumb as I pierced its skin and held it to Xioumar’s lips. He drank from it in my hand for a few moments before his fingers brushed my own and he took over the fruit.

“No Federation species can, my dear, male or female.” Xainer accepted a slice of meat passed to him by a female sitting across from him and chewed it slowly.

“So all siblings within the Federation are twins.” It clicked.

My Keeper nodded, holding a chunk of nicely roasted meat out to me. I opened my mouth, allowing him to place it on my tongue.

No wonder the Xiorn were monogamous and put so much emphasis on fit in their pair bonds. Once they produced offspring, they could never have more. There was no biological drive to spread their seed… or eggs… or anything… after their first and only children were born.

“In a way,” I thought, “It could be a blessing. They can enjoy each other to their heart’s content after that first and only breeding without worrying about an ‘accident’.”

When the dance started, I did not try to escape. I let Xioumar’s firm hand guide me from the table. Others joined us, but we didn’t see them. I only saw my Keeper leading me expertly in our movements, reflecting each other’s dips, turns, and gyrations. His crimson eyes weren’t scary anymore for when he looked at me, they smiled. We drew arcs of electric current on each other’s skin with our fingertips, writhing to the evolving, chiming music all around us. For the first time in our few dances, I let my body sustain that flow instead of fighting it and retreating to my shell - the flow of unabashed, intuitive connection with another creature. He shifted against me in slow, slithering movements, eyes and hands roaming my body.

I felt a deep, warm intoxication, as though I’d drunk more than a few glasses of wine. As Xioumar took a step back, leading me forward, my eyes fell to his lips. I turned to press my back and hips against him. My head tilting sightly, my arms slithered to wrap around the back of his neck and bring head down to my throat. I gasped; a sharp jolt of current ran through my flesh when his breath washed over the nape of my neck. We tilted to the music, my back to his chest, his hardness firm against me. He raked his hands up the sides of my body, tracing electric energy on my skin. I ground myself into him, smirking with satisfaction when a groan escaped his lips.

I twisted around in the towering alien’s arms and stood on my toes to close my teeth around his earlobe. Gently, gently, then harder. He grabbed my rear with his hands and pushed me up. My legs wrapped around his muscled waist, our silkskin and our flesh molding, rubbing, grasping for each other.

We were at the center of a throng of writhing alien bodies. I saw them through blurry eyes, intoxicated by the current snaking between us.

“Let’s go to the nest, or I’ll have you right here,” his voice was hoarse in my ear, hot breath washing down my neck. I shuddered and nodded.

He led, and I followed. We slid through the crowd. I lost sight of him, but I knew my way. I would meet him at the nest.

As I padded toward the door, a hand caught my arm. Xioumar? No, Xainer, with a wicked smile on his face and a gyrating female Xiorn pressed against him.

“It makes me happy to see my brother fitting so well with his Kept,” Xainer yelled over the escalating music. “I admire your bravery and your willingness to become a melting pot for our genes.”

I shook my head a little to clear it, certain I heard wrong, or interpreted wrong, in my lustful intoxication: “What do you mean?”

Xainer seemed to be quite out of it himself, his gaze glued to his companion’s ample bosom as he spoke: “He didn’t tell you? The reason the Federation needs to continue going to other planets is to find new species to mix with. That variety of genes is what allows each member species to thrive. Humans are good breeding candidates.”

“Wait, what? You want us to produce children?” I was confused.

“Of course, my dear, that is the point! If the human representatives prove fertile and worthy for this purpose, they will be invited to join us. And to think, you can produce offspring multiple times! What a rarity! What a find! Enjoy him, human, and may you have many Xiorn-Human offspring.”

With those words, he blended back into the crowd, dragged backwards into the dance by his companion.

A knife had been stabbed through my chest. That was what this felt like. I clutched my hands to my breast, digging at my skin. I couldn’t breathe.

That’s what it’s been about this entire time. This is why I’m here. They want to make me breed with him, to impregnate me.

Of course… they had picked easily the most imposing, healthy, physically fit, and likely fertile male to be the Keeper. It made sense. A specimen of his kind to continue their species and produce mutant babies for the Federation. I was just a host. A womb. A shell. A nothing.

My eyes darted around the room: all I saw were Snakes, some naked, some in the process of becoming so. Xioumar wasn’t there - probably waiting for me at the nest. I peered out into the hallway. Empty. The nest was to the right. I glanced behind me and turned left.