Green - a werewolf story

23. Venom and Vice

For a moment she was convinced that she was soaring. Then she became aware of the hand holding on to her dress. The next moment she'd been hauled back onto the balcony. Behind her the snake woman hissed again, but there was nothing amiable about it this time.

"Don't be getting your fangs out with me, Moina. You know the rules," an unfamiliar voice was saying.

"They are stupid rules," Moina hissed back. "I was only playing. I meant no harm."

Strong arms pulled Vanessa against a hard chest. She breathed in deeply. She knew that scent.

"You might have been playing," the first voice was saying, "but it seems clear that you meant considerable harm."

"She is a werewolf, she would have survived the jump."

"Perhaps, but she would have been hurt and she would have hurt those dancing below her."

"They could have moved."

Vanessa noticed that the arms that held her were shaking slightly and she felt a face burrow into her hair, inhaling as if he'd missed her smell.

"Don't take that tone with me and put your forked tongue back in your mouth. I'm not interested in inhaling any of your poison."

"It's not poison, it's a gift," she hissed angrily. "In ancient days they called it gold dust or fairy dust."

"Because it made people see things and believe they could fly, I am familiar with the historical context," the voice said, sounding bored. "I don't care. Don't put it anywhere near me and not near anyone else who hasn't asked for it either."

"How do you know she didn't ask for it?"

"If she did, then you should have taken better care of her than letting her jump off a balcony. She's a guest and you know our policy with regards to our guests."

"Stupid policy," but the hiss was less vehement now. "She said she wanted to fly."

"She would say that, wouldn't she, after you spread your venom all over her? I'm giving you your second warning. We won't give you a third."

"A warning?" Green said, pulling his face out from Vanessa's hair. "She nearly killed someone and you're giving her a warning?"

While he was talking he turned around and Vanessa got her first look of what other creatures were there on the balcony with them. Two large shifters, she'd say they were some sort of felines from how they moved and the utter confidence with which they held themselves, held the golden snake woman in a strong grip. In front of them stood a short figure in a black suit. Vanessa couldn't determine if it was male or female, couldn't even determine what species it was. Its skin shifted in brown and green. Then it moved and Vanessa could have sworn that the skin was purple, no red, no gold. She shook her head, but it remained foggy.

"We appreciate the difficulty that comes with breaking millennia of... bad habits."

"Luring people to their death, that's a bad habit?"

"She wouldn't have died," the snake snarled. "And if she did, so what? Your life spans are so short. Fifty years more or less hardly matter."

"They matter to me! They matter to her," Green growled.

"I have been here since the beginning of time," she hissed, specks of gold flying from her mouth like saliva. "Fifty years are barely more than the blink of an eye."

"Then why don't you take yourself somewhere far away from other people and blink until..."

"That's enough," the creature in the suit said. Vanessa didn't think it raised its voice, but it was still clearly audible above the argument and the music filling the room. "Moina, please control your venom and your temper. Mr. Werewolf, I would appreciate it if you didn't antagonize her."