Page 8 of Whispers of the Deep
His tongue swept out, licking at her lips and she was so shocked that she opened them without thinking. Maybe he was giving her some kind of mercy before she died?
His clawed hand came up and pinched her jaw, forcing her to open wider, and then he breathed into her. Her lungs sucked up the air, and she scrabbled at his arms, his shoulders, anything she could hold onto to suck in that air she desperately needed. Again he exhaled, and she inhaled even more before wrenching away from him, coughing into the water as her lungs tried to remember what to do with air.
She was drowning. Oh, she was drowning.
But the undine drew her face back to his and breathed again into her mouth. Mira had the delayed thought that she was pinned to the opposite panel, glass at her back, icy water surrounding her, making out with an undine who had just tried to kill her.
Inhaling again, she held her breath this time as he slowly drew away.
She could only barely see his face now that all the halogen lights had blinked out of existence. There were only the lights outside the tunnel illuminating his unimpressed expression.
Then he gathered her up against his chest and swam out of the hallway with her. Into the wild ocean.
The cold started settling into her fingers and feet. She couldn’t move them. Couldn’t even hold onto him as he swam toward the glass elevator she’d indicated.
And somehow, even though she was almost blacking out, she saw the depths flash before her eyes. So vast and dark. Never ending space that was both overwhelming and so freeing.
She’d spent her entire life trapped inside Beta. She knew every hallway that she was allowed to go in, every room where engineers were allowed to walk. But this? Oh, this was so much bigger.
The undine wrenched the elevator door open and threw her inside so quickly that water only filled it about halfway before the door slammed shut.
Mira took a few seconds to blink at the horrific amount of strength that took before she lunged toward the controls.
“Push... buttons...” she chattered through her shuddering teeth and managed to push one. She didn’t care which one, just any level.
The glass box heaved, clanking and shuddering, but it moved. She dropped onto her knees, freezing in the icy water as the box moved up.
Through the glass that fogged with her breath, she saw the undine watching her. He hovered in the water, his brows drawn down in confusion or anger as he watched her go up and up outside of the city. His long hair floated around him, all those electric blue flashes glowing up and down his beautiful body. And then, with a flick of a tail, he was gone.
Just in time for the door to open behind her and spill her out onto a very expensive floor.
Four
Arges
His mind was all frayed after the interaction with the achromo. She was not at all what he had come to expect from their kind.
Her plan was solid, although told to him through confusing hand gestures and words that made his head ache. She was like listening to a chirping child, constantly prattling on about things he didn’t care about.
The achromo was rather clever, though. If only she were stronger, she might have finished her plan impressively fast. Apparently, air was more important to them than it was his own people. She’d nearly passed out, and he was still holding his breath comfortably.
He’d seen her drowning, watched as the ocean had her way with the limp body and he just... hadn’t been able to let her die. It was stupid. He’d taken a risk in letting her live now that she’d seen him.
But the moment his lips had touched hers, as he’d breathed air into her lungs, he’d known it was the right choice. Deep in his bones, he felt the rightness. As though the ancients of the ocean had touched his heart and told him that she needed to live. The lights along his tail lit up when her tiny hand had rested on his shoulder, and then the other, frantically sucking up any air that he could spare for her. And his gills had fluttered along his ribs, even the ones that usually laid flat along his jaw burst out.
He’d never fluttered in his life. Arges had always known his gills to remain flat and unaffected, no matter what female was around him. And yet, this one made him shake like a child. Like he’d never had a woman touch him before.
As he watched the strange contraption take her up and away from him, he found the sight didn’t settle well, either. It wasn’t that he wanted to follow her. He couldn’t go into her realm any more than she could exist in the sea.
But the muscles of his tail bunched, regardless. He wanted to touch her again. He wanted to feel the powerful heat of her body, even underneath the cold press of the waves.
How strange it was to watch her leave him. To know that he’d likely never see her again, and if he did, then it would be her floating body. They were going to conquer the beast that was the achromos. They were going to wipe them out of the sea, and he would not rest until they all floated up to the surface or were food for the sharks.
His gills fluttered again. This time, even his tail shook. More of the lights flickered through his body, lighting up like he was a beacon for her attention.
Damn it. What was happening to him?
Running a hand down his scales, he slapped at his tail a few times before forcing himself to turn away from the city under the water. Arges needed to find his pod and his brother. Surely they had succeeded as well, and if the achromos were stuck in the center building, then it was time to figure out how to attack the monolith.
