She stood in the darkness at the back of the cave, waiting for the man to reach her. No doubt he had practiced fighting blind to prepare for their confrontation, but her senses were no longer human, and she had skills of her own. Still, this sort of thing made her feel bad, even if he had only come to kill her.
“We don’t have to fight, you know,” she said.
He froze and cocked his head to the side, sword raised.
“You’re the third one this week,” she continued, stepping toward him. “I’m sure you saw the second one outside.”
She heard his breath quicken, tasted his sweat on the stale air. Her skin prickled.
“The first made it home, didn’t he? Only a few scrapes, maybe a bruise here and there from when he ran into… your predecessors.”
The sweat intensified and she licked her lips. Would he flee back into the night? She hoped not. It had been at least a month since she had, well–
“What do you want from me?” he asked.
She smiled. Getting him to talk was a good start. “Some sympathy, maybe,” she said. “I didn’t ask to be this way, you know. I was just a regular girl, even if now I’m–”
“You’re a monster.” His tone was harsh, but a trifle uncertain.
“Only some of me.” She inched closer to him, practically tasting each hard curve of his muscles. It was all she could do to keep her movements slow, restrained. “The rest of me is still the same as it was before I was changed. I have all the same feelings, the same… needs.”
Had that other boy talked, she wondered? She’d gotten so far with him, and then at the last minute he’d raced off. Mostly her little “heroes” seemed embarrassed, ashamed, even terrified at what they’d done after the fact. But they all enjoyed it, and sometimes they told others what had happened. Sometimes, more followed.
He lowered his sword. She was almost close enough to touch him.
“What can I do to harm you?” she murmured. “I’m unarmed. Powerless if you can’t see me.” She ran a hand down his arm and he flinched, but didn’t move. “Don’t you want to know what Poseidon himself found so irresistible?”
His breath caught in his throat as she pressed herself against his side.
“I want you,” he said. “To die.”
Before he could move, her snakes lashed out. He was dead when he hit the ground, sword clutched in poison-stiff fingers, his face and torso covered in vicious bites.
Such a shame. She shook her head, snake-hair hissing and writhing from the motion, their tongues flicking in and out to taste the last of this hero’s scent. Why did it have to end like this? Better than another macabre statue getting in her way, she supposed, but even so. If only these silly boys could understand that everyone looked the same in the dark.