A few minutes later, Dema heard the stairwell door open, and the lights outside the office were switched on. A few footsteps, and Naga appeared in the doorway. Dema stood up, and so did Kore.

"Mother, this is your daughter Kore."

Naga took one look at the pale skin and white hair. Then she stepped forward and embraced her. "Kore," she said.

"Mother." It was the first word Kore had spoken in over ten years.

Dema stepped forward and embraced them both. Tears of joy and relief were flooding down her cheeks. Still in the shaman dream, still in tune with Kore, she had felt her mother's deep, nearly infallible intuition engage, the full, instant recognition of mother for daughter, and the daughter's own powerful response. Close as she had been to her sister, Dema's bond to her was nothing like this. Dema knew she had done the right thing in bringing her sister here, and calling her mother. She knew that now, whatever happened, her sister would be safe.

After some moments, Naga raised her eyes and looked at Dema. Dema understood the unspoken question. In response, she stepped back behind Kore and went into the snake dream. The hospital robe dropped away as her long body uncoiled toward the ceiling. Watching her mother, Dema knew she had played it right. Naga was holding Kore, protecting her. She could not allow herself to indulge in too strong a reaction. Her eyes widened, but she gave no other outward display of her thoughts.

When Dema shifted back to normal and picked up the dressing gown, Naga gave her a slight nod of understanding. But then she gave Dema another questioning look. She wanted to hear the whole story.

So Dema told it. She told it with her mind open, the shaman dream at full power, so that Naga, and Kore too, might pick up the unspoken details.

"Mother, when you saw me at home last month, I was almost where Kore is now. I was hiding it, but I was not my normal self.

"I'd been shot, out in the middle of nowhere, and I was bleeding to death. I crawled into a cave to hide from the guys who were after me. It was a snake den, and the snakes helped me shift into the snake dream.

"It's the metabolism. Being in snake form, with reptilian metabolism, I was able to function in spite of the loss of blood.

"Something like that happened to Kore, all those years ago. She had angered some drug pushers, and to get rid of her they injected her with a massive overdose. It would have killed her human body, but her shaman heritage kicked in, just like mine did, and she shifted into snake form. She crawled down the nearest drain opening and went underground to recover.

"But with the drugs and the change her mind completely withdrew from human reality. She couldn't come out of the snake dream. She's been living down there as a snake all these years.

"My change was slower. I was more in control. I had the reptilian metabolism, just as Kore does now, but I didn't lose my human shape right away. I was able to drive home to see Grandma Sedna.

"Mother, I didn't understand what was happening to me. Already my hair was gone, my eyes wouldn't close, and I was becoming more and more covered in scales.

"But Sedna understood, and helped me through it. We hid it from you, because we were afraid you'd insist on trying to help, especially since I had been wounded. But it was a shaman thing I was going through. I didn't need medical help."

Once again, Naga understood, and nodded to Dema without a word.

Dema knew that Kore, too, was following her story. Maybe not consciously, but it was getting through to her at some level. What Kore was understanding, mainly, was that she was no longer alone. She was with people who loved her, and understood her. And she was one of them.

A big part of her mind still thought of herself as a snake, but she no longer thought she was just a snake. She knew she was part human, too. Dema's hope for her sister grew, and she continued her story.

"Mother, I have to tell you about the dreams. Again and again, while I was going through the changes, I dreamed I was back in some ancient cavern, living with snakes, becoming a snake myself. It was the story of the first Lamia, our ancestor, but I was reliving it in the dreams, like I was her.

"It was when the Lamia came up out of the cavern and took her revenge on the false priest who had killed her mother and sister that she fully regained her human form and metabolism.

"I knew I had to do the same. I was the Lamia. Before I could fully recover I had to avenge the blood of the innocent. Not just my own, but of others who had been hurt by the man who was responsible for my injury.

"So I tracked him down, and bled him, and drank his blood. And it worked. I was normal again.

"No, I didn't kill him. Didn't have to. It didn't take much blood to satisfy the Lamia in me. But I did destroy his drug operation, with the intimate knowledge I got from his mind while I was doing it.

"And then something I had done triggered a similar thing in Kore. She attacked a dealer and drank some of his blood, and started to change. Earlier I had tracked down the same dealer to get some information from him. I had appeared to him as the Lamia, and made him afraid. Kore sensed that, and it drew her to him.

"Then she did it again, and again. She was becoming more and more the vengeful Lamia. But then she got one who was on a drug high, and his tainted blood made her lose control. She started craving blood for the drugs in it. That was when I found out about her and tracked her down.

"So here we are. But Mother, she's still sick with the drugs. We have to get her home to Sedna, and get her clean again."

Naga said, "I can help with that. Even if she has the metabolism of a snake, she'll still need vitamins to ease her through the withdrawal. I'll make sure Sedna has what she needs. Now, follow me. I'll get you both home."