First message
The sky split open without warning.
One moment she was home. The next, something tore through the air above her, swallowing her in a flash of violent green light. There was no time to scream before she fell.
She hit something hard.
Then darkness.
When her eyes finally opened, the first thing she noticed was the smell—herbs, smoke, something bitterly medicinal.
The second was the chain.
A dark metal cuff circled her ankle, attached to a long enchanted tether glowing faintly green. She jerked upright on a padded table, sending glass bottles rattling nearby.
"Don't."
The deep voice came from across the laboratory.
Raymos sat completely at ease behind a cluttered desk, a massive black snake draped over his shoulders. Crimson horns curved through his long black hair as red eyes lifted lazily from the notebook in his hand.
"You'll disturb the samples."
Samples?
He stood and approached, utterly unconcerned by her panic. His tail flicked behind him as he caught her chin, tilting her face toward the light with clinical curiosity.
"Your pupils have returned to normal."
His thumb pulled gently beneath one eye before he released her and scribbled something into his notes.
"Good."
Her tether rattled again.
Raymos glanced toward it, then back at her.
"No, I'm not removing that."
One fang showed when his mouth curved faintly.
"I've no idea what you are yet."