Anita Blake Quotes Regarding Snakes

[Kuro]

Snake Hybrid Form

Narcissus in Chains
He wasn't a lion man, he was a snake man. His head was wider than my shoulders, covered in olive green scales with large black spots. One arm was bare, and it looked very human except for the scales and the hands that ended in twisted claws that would have made any predator proud. He turned his head to look at me with one large copper gold eye. A heavy black stripe stretched back from the corner of his eye to his temple. His movements were vaguely birdlike. Other black-cloaked figures stepped away from the walls, dropping hoods to show themselves scaled, with the same stripes near metallic eyes and hands with curling claws.
My people fanned out around me, two going to either side. "Who are you?"
"I am Coronus of the Black Water Clan, though I doubt that will mean anything to you."

---

Snake Lycanthropy

Narcissus in Chains
He nodded, winced as if it hurt. "The doctors seem to think that you've been infected with lycanthropy."
I shook my head. "Serpentine lycanthropy isn't really lycanthropy. It's not a
disease that I can catch. You either are cursed by a witch into snake form, or it's inherited like a swanmane." That made me think of the three women I'd last seen chained to a wall in the room of swords. "By the way, what happened to the swanmanes in the club?"

---

Lycanthropes smelling the lies of snakes

Narcissus in Chains
"You promise not to hurt Anita." It was Merle. I'd almost forgotten him standing to one side and behind us.
"We won't harm a hair on her head."
"We can smell that you're lying," Claudia said.
The snake head turned to one side, birdlike. "Most people can't smell changes in us, can't smell anything but the stink of snake."

---

Pregnancy

Narcissus in Chains
"My type of shapeshifting is inherited," Janet said. "It's not tied to the moon. I avoided shapeshifting until after Andy was born."
I looked at Nilisha. "I am a werecobra. I can choose to try and carry a baby like a mammal or like a snake."
"You laid eggs?" I made that one a big question.
She nodded. "I couldn't have carried them in my body. The change is too hard. But I had other options."

[Kuro]

In TGC we are going with both versions of snakes. Inherited and infected. There is also a single nest until such a time as there are enough snakes to fill more then one nest (IE someone can petition to be Kadra/Kashyapa of a specific group if there are enough of that group). The following is a bunch of quotes and thoughts regarding the snakes mentioned in the book Narcissus in Chains.

While an above excerpts are from the canon, they are from Anita's point of view regarding the snakes. There are a variety of different things that have resulted in the knowledge of the character being changed as the series progresses. The same book also references that she didn't know what half the snake creatures were.

We did have five bodies on the ground, three of which even in death hadn't changed back to human form. The three snake things had stayed snakey. Shapeshifters always change back to their original form in death. Always. Which raised the question, if they weren't shapeshifters, what the hell were they?

While she wasn't sure of what they were, they were still affected as normal lycanthropes/shapeshifters. Not immortals nor Naga.

He turned then, leaning his big body against the dresser, arms crossed. "I thought that shapeshifters changed back to human form when they died."
"They do," I said.
"The snake things didn't."
"No, they didn't."
We looked at each other. "You're saying they weren't shapeshifters?"
"No, I'm saying I don't know what the hell they are. There are snake men in a lot of different mythologies. Hindu, vaudun. They could be something that was never human to begin with."
"You mean like the naga you pulled out of the river two years ago?" he said.
"The naga was truly immortal. These things, whatever they are, couldn't stand up to silver bullets."

Anita is unsure of what those were and no mention is made to explain them. The conversation between Janet, Nilisha indicates that the two women have different forms of snake lycanthropy.

"I couldn't have carried them in my body. The change is too hard. But I had other options."

Nilisha wouldn't have had to use another option if she was not tied to the moon, so it's safe to assume that her lycanthropy is actually true lycanthropy. It is also later referenced that they were two different kinds of snakes.

We talked for a couple of hours but didn't come up with anything brilliant. The snakemen were behind it. But why? Why would any wereanimals give a shit about other wereanimals that weren't their kind? If it had just been the werecobras targeted, then maybe it could be a reptile turf war, though frankly, it was unusual to have a fight even between two different kinds of snakes.

Again, despite Anita's earlier statement that you do not catch snake lycanthropy; it's mentioned by Orlando King (Chimera) that he was infected by snakes when he sought out an entire tribe of weresnakes.

"But my change of heart, as you put it, came later. Wolf lycanthropy showed up in my bloodstream within forty-eight hours of my attack. I decided I would take out as many monsters as I could and let them take me out before the first full moon." He stared past me, eyes distant with remembering. "I took the most dangerous jobs I could find, until I ended up trying to kill an entire tribe of weresnakes in the depths of the Amazon basin." He looked at the small dark man still at his side. "I decided that dozens of any animal would surely kill me, and if not, then at the first full moon I would be in an area devoid of any
human except the people I'd come to kill."
"Logical, I guess," I said, because it seemed appropriate to say something.
His gaze flicked to me. "I had planned my death, Ms. Blake, but every animal I tried to kill just wasn't up to killing me. By the time I had my first full moon I'd been infected by a great many forms of predatory lycanthropy. And on that first moon, I changed into what Abuta and his people are, then a wolf, then a bear, then a leopard, then a lion, so forth, and so on." He was looking at Abuta, and his face held some of the religious fervor that the smaller man seemed to emanate. "They thought I was a god because I could take so many forms.
They worshipped me, and they sent half their tribe to accompany me back to civilization." He laughed then. It was abrupt and unpleasant. Something about that laugh raised the hairs on my arms.

There is also mention by Anita towards ruling more then one type of snake but it's not officially confirmed whether one could control multiple snakes or not.

"Why did you take all the alphas?" I asked. I was still going to try and keep him talking; it was all I had.
"So I could rule their groups." His words came out low and growling through clenched teeth.
"Your snakes are anacondas. The alpha you took was a cobra. You can't rule over a type of snake you're not."
"Why not?" he asked, and he started to stalk towards me, still in human form, but with that tense grace that is more animal than human.
I didn't have a good answer for that one.