Heir the Serpent incomplete dialogue excerpt

The steam rises from the massive renovated roman-style bath in the heart of the snake’s home, your lavish prison. Hathi pushes you forward gently through the entryway then locks the door behind both of you. Your legal wife waits for you inside, polished black-banded tail draped on the steps of the heated pool, naked stone-gray skin shining with sweat, twin jade jewels shining coldly in her statuesque face. There’s familiar cruelty there…and hurt, but they’re not frozen solid like they once were.

Hathi’s nimble purple fingers make quick work of the buttons on your ratty clothes, stripping you down to bare flesh.

The violet cobra slinks into a shadowy corner and coils up to watch the pair of you silently, judging with those nightmarish succubus-esqe eyes.

June beckons you closer. You stand there on exhausted shaking legs, just to spite her. The tip of a purple tail jabs you in the back making you stumble a few steps forward to regain your balance. “Do you like water?” The viper asks halfway to herself. “I love the water.” “You know I learned to swim here, when I was still small enough for Papa to carry me.”

 “I didn’t understand what was with you at first June. All this hate and pain, over something both of us barely remember. But then I got to thinking. Reptiles aren’t like horses. They seek pleasure, avoid pain, and get stressed beyond belief when things change.” “You big fat worm. You want me to hold you, call you wife. You think it’s your right. But I won’t give, and you won’t give. We’re a little too much alike, aren’t we?

“It is my right. I AM YOUR WIFE!” The massive viper snarls. “Your life will get a lot better when you accept that truth…everyone’s lives will get better. We can be happy. I believe that. We both just have to compromise a bit. I refuse to let my daughters grow up without both a loving father and mother. Hate me. Hate me with every atom your being if you want. But you WILL love them. That’s why I could never break you into a mindless drone. I can’t take that from them. Remember your own father, what happened to him. Would you do that to your own children?

And be like yours instead, the mopey drunk who wishes he didn’t even have a daughter?

June puffs up like an adder and raises her giant black gauntlet of claws for an open-palmed slap. You brace for the hit, waiting for a blow that doesn’t come. The viper’s talons tremble, then slowly clench into a fist as she brings them back down to her side. “There’s no real point in fighting me anymore, you know? I’m stronger, and I’ve already won. It isn’t you vs. me. There’s just one side. There’s only us.”

“Hathi, please clean him up for me. I’m…I’m not in the mood anymore.”

“Of course, Mrs. Piscivora.” The middle-aged Gypt lamia bows respectfully. The cobra turns to you once the moccasin slithers out of the bathroom and the lock clicks shut once again. “You shouldn’t have done that. You really hurt her.”

“Fuck her.”

“Doing that with some enthusiasm would solve a lot of problems in your marriage. Your wife reaches out over and over, and you slap her hand away every time. Can you even imagine what that’s like? You think she would go through all this trouble if she didn’t really want you? It would be so easy to drug you up, keep you chained to the bed for the first year or two until your mind withers. She wouldn’t need the others and me if she would be happy with that.”