Free Snake Charmer by Zenina Masters

Chapter One
     
     
    Yvena woke up with a jerk; sweat covered her body. She looked around, and the small room was the same as it had been when she went to sleep.
    She got up, slipped a robe over her pyjamas and went for a walk.
    The recovery facility was in a cold part of the country. Snow was two feet thick outside the windows of the common room. She sat in one of the huge plush chairs and curled up, staring at the moon.
    Six months of recovery and she still wasn’t quite right. Yvena still had nightmares, and she hadn’t had a full night’s sleep since the lions had grabbed her with her hood pierced, unable to shift from snake back to human.
    King cobra venom was good for vengeance spells, or so they had told her when they milked her teeth, leaving them trashed, her mouth savaged and her psyche battered.
    “Can’t sleep again?”
    Her one friend in the facility appeared at her side with a glass of warm milk.
    Yvena took the milk and smiled when she tasted the honey in it. “Thank you, Liander.”
    He sat next to her in one of the huge chairs. He had been more than a friend when she had first arrived; he had been her restraint system. She had never dealt directly with a mongoose until he had pinned her down without fear of her venom. He had picked her up carefully and delivered her to the healers. The healing had been its own kind of agony, and he had been there with her the entire time.
    The first shift to human had been torture, but he had been with her all the way, holding her as she shifted from scale to skin for the first time in two months.
    “I have some news, Yvena. You are going to be released this week. We can’t do anything for you that you can’t do yourself. Even your PTSD can be handled outside this facility.” Liander’s features were stuck in professional encouragement.
    “Fine. I am going to need contact with a transporter.” She was grim. Her life had been shattered and she wanted a new start.
    “Why?” He seemed surprised and that was an expression she had never seen on his face before.
    “I am going to the Crossroads. If I have to start over, I don’t have to do it alone. Time to start a new life and look to the future.”
    Shock replaced Liander’s expression. “Are you sure?”
    “Positive. Old life is broken and dead. New life looms ahead. I am choosing life and possibly love.”
    He nodded and straightened in the chair. “Right. A transporter. I will have the administrator arrange it in the morning.”
    Yvena reached over and put her hand on his arm. “Thank you. You cannot know how much your help has meant to me over these last few months. Seriously. Thank you.”
    His dark grey eyes were calm under the swath of dark brown hair that always slipped out of his control. It was the only part of him that was ever out of control.
    He put his hand over hers, and she felt the warmth that always sparked between them. If he hadn’t been bound by his position as a caregiver, she would have pursued something with him; however, every overture she had ever engaged in had run into the solid wall of professionalism.
    With no hope with the man she wanted, it was time to look elsewhere for the one who might just be good enough.
    After two months thinking that she was going to die every day, she now had a fixation on the future. Today might be emotionally uncomfortable but tomorrow was the chance for something new, something better with someone else.
    Liander nodded and got to his feet. “Good night. Get some rest, Yvena.”
    She lifted her cup of hot milk. “Thank you, Liander. Good night.”
    He left her alone, and she stared out the window at the snow and moon. It was so different from her home that it was almost like being on holiday. Almost.
    The shifter recovery home that she was in had a room for her species with a hot rock and bright light. She hadn’t bothered with it until her therapists had forced her to shift to check her healing. She had been sealed in the room for four hours, and