The Serpentine Bodyguard Pt. 04

It took her a second to realize it was coming from Clark's phone, and as she leaned over to pick it up, the viper realized the screen was alight with a new message. Her eyes squinted against the phone's bright light, then opened wide as they read what the message said:

Clark, we know we got off on the wrong foot last time. It was wrong for our representative to take that tone with you, and we deeply apologize for the discomfort it has caused you. Unfortunately, what he said was true; ADVENT has a habit of mind-wiping individuals who don't suit their needs. The meeting at 245 Bayshore Boulevard might be your only chance to escape that fate. If you're worried we'll hurt Hssara, don't be; having a live viper on our side would be a tremendous boon, and once we extract her implants, we'll have a way into the psionic network ADVENT uses. If you could convince the other viper to come along too, that would be ideal, but we understand you've only known her for an afternoon, and you shouldn't put your faith in her just yet. When our operatives extract you from the meeting point, they'll be as discreet as possible, and we won't harm the other viper if she doesn't wish to come with you. Feel free to discuss it with Hssara tonight, we've set her implants on a loop. This message is one-way and cannot be answered.

As she scanned over the message, Hssara couldn't help but clench her jaw. A multitude of emotions ran through her mind as she re-read the text in front of her, the most prominent among them curiosity and worry. On the one hand, the thought of breaking free of ADVENT once and for all sounded positively marvelous, but on the other, she couldn't help but ponder what living a life on the run would be like. She'd never been outside an ADVENT-controlled city, and the only things she heard about the outcasts in the rest of the world came from the chatter in raiding parties. It was hardly an easy choice, to either stay safe or reach for freedom... but it was hardly a choice she had to make alone.

Hssara gently shook Clark's leg with her tail, doing her best not to alert Nijia. The grey viper had the same super-powerful hearing that she did, but thankfully, her counterpart seemed to have fallen into a much deeper sleep... probably because this was her first all-night sex-fest. Hssara kept shaking Clark's leg until she saw the human's eyes open, and once they did, she leaned over with an upright finger pressed to her lips. Once his confusion turned to curiosity, she silently brought over his phone and showed him the message, taking care not to shine its light onto Nijia's snoozing features. The viper watched Clark's face run through the same gamut of emotions she'd gone through, and once he was finished reading, it was obvious he wanted to discuss it.

Doing her best not to jostle the bed, Hssara set down the phone and slid back into bed beside Clark, but this time with her lips right up against his ear. "So what do you think?" she whispered, hardly louder than a rustle of leaves. "Are they worth trusting?"

Clark briefly pondered trying to whisper back into her ear, but then he remembered the fact that Hssara had enhanced hearing. "I don't know," he whispered into the air, "How do we know we can trust them?"

"How can we know we can trust ADVENT? They tried to mind-wipe me, remember?"

"Of course I remember," Clark replied, reflexively thinking back to that fateful night. "I just don't know if this resistance will be any better. You've seen the news, the bombings, the shootings..."

"And I've also seen how ADVENT cracks down. For every justified raid, there's three more that come out of the blue."

She was right, of course; ADVENT's new policies more or less voided the bill of rights, and their authoritarian crackdowns both fueled and retaliated against the resistance's response. "Alright, say we get out, leave ADVENT in the dust. I don't think our meeting at the burger joint is going to be a nice sit-down chat, do you?"

This time it was Hssara's turn to concede the point, as from a tactical standpoint, the only way to get the two of them away from their blocky-armored shadows was to shoot said shadows in the head. "Things might get messy," she replied, "But you've got a bodyguard, remember?"

"I'm not worried about me, they need me alive. I'm worried about you... what if they wind up shooting you on accident? Or on purpose?"

"It's better that than getting silently wiped off the face of the earth." Hssara replied, "I don't know about you, but I still have nightmares about getting turned into some sort of mindless drone."

As much as he wished it wasn't true, Clark had had similar dreams, dreams of watching Hssara get dragged away by faceless goons. "I... alright, I'll go along. But what about her?" He briefly nodded to Nijia, who let out a tiny murmur as she stirred.

"Well... maybe she could come with us?"

Clark frowned. "We've barely known her for an afternoon, and the message specifically said not to put our faith in her. What if she's a sleeper agent?"

"Did she really seem like a sleeper agent when she was gargling your balls?"

"No, but that's what a sleeper agent is, they act normal until they're activated."

Hssara let out a small hum of concession. "Fair point... what if we ask some questions? We've still got a day until the meeting, why not probe around a bit, see if she seems suspicious."

"I guess that could work... it's better than doing nothing." Clark let out a short sigh, then double-checked to make sure Nijia was still asleep. "Either way, I say we get some rest... I get the feeling they won't have king-sized beds where the resistance hide."

"Mmmm." With that, Hssara cuddled back up against her human's side and did her best to get to sleep, holding onto Clark's warm body like a giant dreamcatcher. What they had in front of them seemed downright impossible, but it was either that or live under ADVENT's thumb forever. Both human and viper took a while to fully drift off, but once they did, their cozy comfort helped alleviate some of their worries.

When morning's light peeked through the windows, Clark was the first to wake, and as he stretched his arms above his head, Hssara and Nijia stirred on either side of him. Before long, the three of them were drowsy but conscious, and that was enough for them to notice the sticky feeling around each of their nethers. "Uhhh," Nijia began, "Maybe we should've washed up before... you know..."

"Nah, it's fine," Hssara replied, "We take showers now, then change the sheets later." With that, she gradually uncoiled herself from around her human bed-warmer, then slipped out from the bed to slither over to the master bathroom. "There's two other showers in the house, you lovebirds can get cleaned up whenever you want." With that, Hssara entered the bathroom and closed the door behind her, making sure not to catch her tail between it and the doorway.

With one viper gone, Clark turned to the other and found her looking just a tad concerned. "Should we, uh..."

"Yeah, probably, just gotta get my leg free." With a little bit of maneuvering, Clark slipped out of Nijia's tail and scooted over to the edge of the bed, once again stretching his arms and cracking his neck. "Don't worry about the mess," he added, "Hssara and I go through a set or two of sheets a day."

Now that she was alone in a sizable wet patch, Nijia decided to get up as well, slithering out to the carpeted floor before turning to glance at Clark.

The human figured he'd just go to the other bathroom and wash up, but as soon as he glanced at Nijia, he realized she might have the same difficulties Hssara did operating the human appliance. "Y'know, the knobs are kind of tricky," he offered, "And the shower down the hall is big enough for two..."

It took the grey viper a moment to understand what he meant, especially with how odd she felt completely naked. "Uh, sure," she replied, then followed Clark towards this second shower. It surprised her only a little that it was the same bathroom she'd hastily gotten herself off in, and as she looked at the electric toothbrush sitting candidly on its charger, Nijia couldn't help but feel a slight pang of shame.

Clark, meanwhile, began fiddling with the knobs and buttons in the shower, turning on the water to a pleasant temperature. Thanks to advanced technology incorporated in the plumbing, it only took a few seconds for the water to reach the proper warmth, and once it did so, Clark invited Nijia to slither in. "Ladies first," he quipped, broadly gesturing towards the shower's sliding door.

Nijia graced him with a quick smile before sliding inside, and as she came under the stream of water, she realized it was far warmer than the lukewarm hose-downs she was used to. It was almost hot enough to be uncomfortable, but not quite, and after letting the droplets spatter her face like rain for a moment, she quickly came to enjoy it. When Clark stepped in and she pulled in her tail, it was a little bit cramped, but they had just enough room to go about their separate cleaning rituals.

"So," Clark began, squirting a bit of soap into his palm and rubbing it on his groin, "How was last night?"

"It was... great," Nijia replied, going with the first word that came to mind. 'Great' was swiftly followed by 'magical,' 'amazing,' and 'everything I'd ever dreamed of,' but she only picked one from the bunch. "It was everything I'd ever dreamed of."

"That's great to hear. We didn't get too weird on you, did we?"

After a bit of fiddling, the viper realized that the showerhead came off on its own, allowing her to easily hose down her nethers. "No, it's..." She trailed off with a gasp as the blast of water landed square on her slit, and she had to take a moment to collect herself before replying. "It was just the right amount of weird." When Clark didn't push further, she decided to continue cleaning herself with the showerhead, but cleaning quickly devolved into erotic exploration. The pounding pressure just felt so good, and-

"Mind letting me have a turn with that?" Clark's voice shocked her out of her pleasured daze, and before she could turn around, he had slid right up behind her. With one hand, he gently took the showerhead from her, and with his other, he reached around to her front, running two fingers along her partially engorged slit.

"I'm sorry, I just-"

"No need to apologize," Clark replied, "I just need it for a bit." The human took a brief moment to wash the soapy lather from his groin, then took it back around to tease Nijia's nethers. "You know, you're not the only one who uses the shower faucet. Hssara's something of a master in the matter, especially after a night like last night."

"Well I-ooh!" When Clark spread her vulva wide with one hand and aimed the shower at her sweet spot with the other, the sensation jumped from interesting to downright blissful. "Oooooh," she murmured, "Right there..."

The human didn't say a word, instead focusing on getting Nijia off as swiftly as possible. She couldn't help but lean back against him as the pressure in her loins built, spurred by the warm pressure of the water right up against her most sensitive spot, gently gasping and moaning as Clark toyed with her. Before long, she could feel herself beginning to wind up like a spring, and a minute later, that pressure burst in a small but enjoyable orgasm. "Ahhhh!"

Clark kept the pressure going while pushing back against her, letting Nijia ride out the throes of her climax, and he only pulled back when her acute pleasure faded into a dull glow. "Mmmm, thank you," she murmured, "Do... do you..."

"Want to do it here?" Clark briefly looked down at his own erection, then decided against putting it to use. "Nah, let's not keep Hssara waiting."

Nijia couldn't help but feel a slight pang of disappointment, even though she'd worked out what arousal she'd accumulated. "Is it because Hssara's jealous?"

"What? I..." The human was caught at a loss for words, stuck between a comforting lie and a concrete truth. "It's complicated. I mean, yeah, she was a bit jealous at first, but... well, it's not like we were expecting a polyamorous relationship." When the viper didn't seem to understand, he decided to put it in simpler terms. "Usually, with humans, it's just a guy and a gal. Now that you're here, and now that we're kind of... tangled..." Nijia's face made it all too clear that she was even more confused. "Look, just don't worry about it. Hssara's not jealous anymore, and I... well, I just want some breakfast."

Despite her slightly muddled feelings on the matter, Nijia decided to leave it be. "Me too," she concurred, "Now how do we get dried off?"

Without a specifically-made scale-drier, it took quite a few towels to dry Nijia's entire length, but eventually, she got the water off her scales. Then, both human and viper headed back to the master bedroom for some clothes; Clark put on his t-shirt and sweatpants, while Nijia borrowed one of Hssara's sweaters. It felt odd, being clad in nothing more than a fuzzy tunic, but it was certainly easier to put on than her armor.

Once the two of them were reasonably dressed, they headed back out into the kitchen/dining area and found Hssara brewing up some coffee, clad in her plush blue bathrobe. She knew just what to put in her own mug and Clark's, but as Nijia examined the brown drink, Hssara wondered whether their guest even liked coffee. "It's a human drink," she explained before Nijia could ask, "It's pretty bitter on its own, but tastes great with cream and sugar. Wanna try some?"

As Hssara offered her own mug, Nijia decided to accept and took a small sip. That sip turned into a gulp as the warmth and sweet flavor washed over her mouth, and the grey viper had to stop herself from guzzling the whole thing. "Any chance you could make me some?" she murmured, handing the mug back to Hssara.

"Sure thing." It took all of sixty seconds to pour another mug for Nijia and add the necessary accessories, and once she handed it over, the other viper happily began sipping on it.

Hssara prepared to join Clark on the couch, but before she could make it halfway there, she heard another knock at the door. She already had a guess as to what it could be as she slithered over, but once she saw the package the ADVENT grunt was holding on the other side, her eyes lit up with excitement. The guard barely had time to say, "Package cleared and secure," before Hssara snatched it out of his hands, then closed the door in his emotionless face.

She immediately brought the box over to the kitchen bar, then tore it open, stoking the curiosity of both Clark and Nijia. "Whatcha got there?" the former asked, peeking over from the couch.

"You know those heated blankets you were talking about?" Hssara replied, "We just got one."

Clark's brow furrowed. "It came already?"

"Yep, got express shipping at ADVENT's expense." The yellow viper finished tearing open the box, then pulled out a plush blue blanket that matched her own robe to a tee. She couldn't help but rub it up against her cheek, but once she noticed Nijia's slightly confused expression, she decided to explain a bit. "It's a blanket that's got an electric heater built in, it'll be like the heat lamps back in boot camp."

"Boot camp?"

"You know, where they trained us. C'mon, I wanna try this thing out." With that, she hastily slithered over and plugged the blanket's wire into the power outlet, then cranked up the heat to the first setting.

Still confused but certainly intrigued, Nijia headed over and joined Clark on the couch, coiling herself up on her own cushion so as not to impose. Once she was in position, Hssara sat down on the human's other side, draping her coils over his lap before throwing the heated blanket over all three of them. It had already begun to warm up by the time it landed, and as it reached its full cozy potential, it turned the morning's slightly nippy cold into blissful warmth.

"Mmmm," Hssara murmured, leaning affectionately on Clark's shoulder. "It's perfect."

Nijia too was beginning to take in the plushy heat, and after a moment of thought, she decided to join Hssara in nestling up against the human. "Yeah, it's pretty good," she concurred, pulling the edge up her shoulder just a bit. "Do you want to watch something?"

"Crimson Cove?" Hssara offered.

"Sounds good," Clark replied. After a bit of fishing around between the cushions, Hssara found the remote and turned on the TV, then found her way to the recently watched section. It was all too easy to pick up where they'd left off, and after a moment, the trio settled in with their coffee for some mindless teenage drama.

Nijia, however, couldn't help but ponder as they sat there, especially since the coffee seemed to be stirring her ideas more and more. When two characters would discuss first-time jitters or who was more of a slut, the grey viper turned inward to peek at her own emotions, and she couldn't help but notice the conflict she'd been feeling. The more she thought about it, the more she realized she had two good sources of information sitting across from her, and without really thinking, she asked, "Do you have second thoughts sometimes?"

Her question immediately drew Clark and Hssara's attention, and the latter quickly paused the show. "What do you mean? Having second thoughts about what?"

"I don't know, this. This whole human and alien thing."

"I never looked back," Hssara replied, "I figured 'if no one's going to stop us, what the hell?' Are you having second thoughts?" The idea seemed weird to her, but she could see someone meeker struggling to embrace her human-loving nature.

"No... well, I... it's complicated." As the attention zeroed in on her and the atmosphere turned serious, Nijia couldn't help but curl up a bit into the couch's corner, but she still pressed on. "I remember I was once disgusted by humans, but in the last month or so... I dunno. It's like someone flipped a switch in my brain."

At the mention of a switch, Clark and Hssara couldn't help but exchange a glance, both of them thinking back to the threats ADVENT had made. The human's clenched jaw spoke volumes on not wanting to disturb the poor girl, but Hssara knew from experience it was better to know about the axe hanging over your head. "Maybe someone did throw a switch," she candidly replied.

It took a few seconds for the other viper to understand. "What do you mean?"

"Well, ADVENT's got tech that'll turn your brain to putty," Hssara explained, "They've already got implants in our heads to see and hear everything we do, and I almost got turned into a blank slate after rebels tried to capture Clark. It makes sense that they'd make another one like me, all they'd have to do is... boop." She flicked her finger against the side of her head to demonstrate.

"Hssara," Clark began, "Maybe we should take it easy..."

"They didn't take it easy when they threatened to wipe my brain," she replied with an aggressive shrug, "I don't see why our new roommate shouldn't know the dangers."

Nijia shook her head. "No... no, ADVENT couldn't do something like that," she muttered, already beginning to believe the contrary. "Mind wiping, that's... fantasy."

"And we're aliens from outer space," Hssara replied, "Right now, I think we're living in a world of fantasy, and not in a good way."

Clark thought about trying to comfort Nijia or dull the hard truth, but he realized deep down that Hssara was right. "Right now, we're ADVENT's puppet show for alien-human relations," he instead said, "Help give the public idea that they're not an occupying force."

Nijia hesitated before saying what was on her mind. "But they are, aren't they?"

Hssara nodded but didn't say anything more.

"So... do you think they'll come after us?"