Page 33 of Something Handsome This Way Comes

He found he didn’t really mind.

Milo woke to the sensation of something heavy being dragged across his body. It slid smoothly over the blankets, as though it had no texture to catch on the fabric.

Then came the sound of something moving, no—gliding?—across the wooden floor.

“Nng?” Milo groaned, blinking awake and rubbing sleep from his eyes. He felt like he’d only slept for a couple of hours.

And Lanterns, his body knew it.

Every muscle felt heavy and thoroughly used, but the soreness between his thighs was considerably harder to ignore. Their last session had left him aching in places Milo didn’t know could ache. Apparently there were limits to what even an enthusiastic witch could withstand in one night, and Milo was beginning to suspect he’d found several of his.

Something moved across him again. Milo froze. That was not Grievance’s leg. It was too heavy. Too long. And it was still moving.

Slowly, Milo lowered his gaze.

The blankets rose over something enormous stretched across his lap. It shifted with a slow, heavy glide.

Like a snake.

But that was way too small a word for what this was. Like, not even close. A garter snake was a snake. A viper was a snake. This was the sort of thing ancient civilizations carved into temple walls as a warning to future generations.

And it was currently in his bed.

On his lap.

The enormous serpentine body glided effortlessly across his legs. Smooth, dark scales caught what little firelight remained in the hearth, flashing almost black before revealing warmer shades beneath—deep charcoal and smoky brown broken by strange patches of ivory and muted gold.

It kept going.

And going.

Milo stared as coil after muscular coil passed over him, the body gradually narrowing until it tapered into a long, pointed tail. The tip slipped silently over the edge of the mattress. A moment later, something heavy dragged across the floor.

Milo stopped breathing. His fingers tightened around the blanket, pulling it to his chest.

“G-Grievance?”

No answer.

The sliding continued. A slow, dry whisper against the floorboards. Milo hugged the blankets closer to himself, suddenly far too afraid to lean forward and look over the edge of the bed.

“Grievance?”

Still nothing. Then the mattress shifted. Something was rising on the other side. Milo scrambled backward until his shoulders struck the headboard.

A hand appeared first. Or something shaped vaguely enough like a hand that Milo’s frightened brain was willing to call it one.

Long, powerful fingers curled over the edge of the mattress. They were too large, the joints too pronounced, giving them an almost spidery appearance. Glossy scales covered every inch, and from the tip of each finger curved a wicked black claw.

“Oh shit,” Milo gasped.

Grievance rose. And kept rising.

And Milo finally had a name for the creature rising before him.

A Naga.

His upper body held the shape of a man, but that was where the resemblance ended. Broad shoulders flowed into a powerful chest and thick arms, every inch of him covered in the same beautiful scales as the serpent body below. They gleamed in the low light of the dying fire.