He gripped my elbow gently. “So you’ve met Lena. Good.” After exchanging smiles with the beautiful blonde, he gestured at the tall man beside him. “Sam, this is Wes. Wes—”

“I’m glad to see that this one has some cushion, as opposed to your past consorts,” laughed Wes as he assessed me in my lavender sleeveless dress.

Cushion? I wasn’t sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult wrapped in charm. I didn’t particularly like that he had spoken of me in the same context as a consort. As the female that Jared intended to Bind with, I was a hell of a lot more than that. Jared, however, didn’t look like he thought it was anything I should be offended by. On the contrary, he was laughing along with Wes. Maybe, then, I was being a little sensitive.

“Nice to meet you,” I said as we shook hands, making sure my handshake was firm.

“Likewise. Antonio has told me much about you. From the way he spoke of you and your presence, I imagined you to be much taller. Just how small – sorry, tall – are you?”

Ah, I was dealing with a master of backhanded compliments. I didn’t think I was particularly small at all, but naturally I looked that way when stood next to this lanky bugger. “I see myself as the right height for kicking overgrown plonkers in some seriously interesting places.” I said all this with the friendliest smile. Again, Jared hadn’t seemed to notice the insults beneath Wes’ words, or mine for that matter.

Wes’ smile faltered only slightly. With a slight tip of his head toward the grey snake that was staring right at me, he said, “This is Toto.”

Toto? He had to be kidding. He’d called a slithering killer Toto?

“Would you like to hold him?”

Of course I wouldn’t like to hold him. What, did he think I was stupid? Hey, I had nothing against snakes. In fact, as someone who had been brought up by their snake-obsessed father to admire and respect them, I was able to appreciate each and every species. However, appreciating them when there was a glass wall between you and the snake was one thing. Holding an eight-foot long f**ker was another thing altogether.

I was ready to tell Wes no; that he had succeeded in freaking me out like he’d obviously been aiming to do. But then I saw something in his expression that made me pause. Instinct told me that he wasn’t trying to freak me out at all. This was some sort of test. Yes, yes, I knew he, like everyone else, would want to know that I was strong enough to one day rule and that I was good enough for Jared, blah, blah, blah. But how the act of holding a snake would answer either of those questions for him, I wasn’t sure.

What I was certain of was that I had no intention of failing any test.

Pasting a fake smile on my face, I nodded. “Why not.” I felt Jared stiffen slightly, and Wes clearly noticed because he gave him a reassuring smile. Remaining still, I allowed him to drape the grey snake over my shoulders. A pair of black eyes met mine, and then the snake stuck its forked tongue out at me, lightly flicking my cheek. ‘Tasting’ me, smelling me, I knew.

It was then that I noticed the inky-black colouration on the inside of his mouth. My eyes widened. “A black mamba. I’m holding a black mamba?” Oh shit.

“Did Antonio tell you about my gift?”

“No.”

Very proudly, he explained, “My gift is to make pictures that I have drawn come to life. Amazingly, this can even apply to tattoos. Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated with snakes. My four favourite breeds have always been spitting cobras, rattlesnakes, garter snakes, and black mambas. So…I decided to create a breed that blended the four together by tattooing an image of this snake on my chest.”

Interesting and impressive, but also freaky.

“Toto has the narrow, elongated head typical of a black mamba, as well as the black colouration you see inside his mouth. He also has the tail of a rattlesnake, the ability to spit venom like a spitting cobra, and he can secrete a rather foul-smelling fluid from his post anal glands much like a garter snake.”

Well that was just fantastic. He was going to fart on me, wasn’t he? That was if he didn’t spit at me…or maybe sink those lethal fangs into me. Yeah, it was probably a little hypocritical for a vampire to talk about fangs like that, but in my defence, Sventés didn’t have fangs like Kejas did.

My nervousness increased when he suddenly began slinking down my body. And then something occurred to me. “He isn’t poisonous, right?” I kind of got the feeling that Wes didn’t like me, so it wouldn’t have been surprising to find that he was hoping his pet would bite and kill me.

Wes’ devious smile didn’t put me at ease whatsoever.

“Is that thing going to hurt her?” Jared demanded.

With a ‘pfft’, Wes waved a hand. “It is merely a serpent, Jared.”

That wasn’t exactly an answer, was it? And I didn’t trust this vampire as far as I could throw him. My nervousness rocketed to extreme levels when Toto’s colour abruptly changed from grey to a brilliant blue that was typical of a blue racer snake. “What the—”

“He appears to like you.” Wes sounded surprised, but pleasantly surprised.

“I’m flattered.” If the hissing bastard went under my dress, I’d kill him.

“Something very fascinating about this breed I have created is that their colour changes with their moods – even while in tattoo form.”

“Tattoo form?”

“Oh yes, I can turn him back to a tattoo whenever I wish to, just as I can summon him to appear in this form whenever I wish to. I find that when Toto is grey or black, he is alert and wary. I also find that when he is the blue shade that you see now, he is relaxed and content. I am indeed surprised as he is generally antisocial toward anyone other than myself.”

“And yet you put him on me?” I said through my teeth. Wes merely smiled, but it was a genuine smile this time, and I realised that I had passed the test. That was great and all, but there was an antisocial, poisonous killer wrapped around my body. “Look, not to offend Toto or anything, but could you take him back? He’s getting a little too close to my crotch than I’m comfortable with.”

Wes’ mouth twitched in a way that indicated he was holding back a laugh as he returned the snake to his shoulders. “I think I shall greet Antonio and Bran. It has been some time since we were all together.” With that, he turned and walked away with Lena.

“I think that’s everyone,” I said to Jared, sighing in relief that I was alive and un-bit. “Can we go sit down now?”