Chapter 18

She'd gotten used to their routines, although she still wasn't sure why she was here. Bitsy had pointed it out multiple times. He'd kidnapped her. Taken her away from the city for a reason, and she hadn't delved into the why.

But did it matter? She was out of Alpha. No one knew where she was yet, and she was able to work with Ace as often as she needed to figure out a new plan. Not that they were getting anywhere with that. Alpha was shut down after her disappearance, apparently, and no one was entering or exiting the city.

"Your father is in a rage," she read on the screen as Ace sent their newest message. "Tearing the whole city apart."

She braced her feet up on the consoles in front of her and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders a little tighter. "Good. He deserves to be a little scared after everything he's done."

"It's affecting our plan."

"What do you want me to do?" She dropped her feet onto the ground with a hard thud. "Do you want me to go back?"

There was a long pause before three little bubbles blinked in front of her eyes. Clearly, Ace was typing. And her little droid thought it was smart to let her know that Ace was typing, then deleting, then typing more, as her partner tried very hard to figure out what to say.

"What do you mean, go back?" Ace finally asked.

Shit. She hadn't told Ace she had left, had she? That was a problem. The lie she'd originally told her counterpart was that she was still in Alpha, but she was safe in a new place where her father couldn't find her. That was easy enough to pretend.

But she couldn't keep lying if they were going to make this work. "Bitsy," she said, pinching between her eyes. "Send Ace my location."

When she finally opened her eyes, there were words hovering in front of the consoles. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Someone needs to know where I am, just in case something goes wrong."

Bitsy played an animation of an envelope throwing itself into the wind. At least now she knew someone would come to recover her body if she froze to death here. Her gaze caught on movement in the murk beyond the facility. She really wished there was a light out there. Because it seemed like nothing came to this area of the ocean. She hadn't even seen a fish, but she was quite certain they were out there.

Frowning, she leaned forward to stare off into the distance. "Bitsy, do you see anything in the water?"

Her droid turned its attention to the glass even as Ace sent a message through. "What do you mean, you're in the middle of the ocean? Where the fuck are you?"

"An abandoned research facility, I think," she replied, leaning even closer to the glass. "It was one of my father's failed experiments, I guess."

"How the fuck has no one caught you yet?"

"I don't know. Bitsy is using minimal energy and redirected it all. Unless someone is actively looking at this space, I don't think they'll realize I'm here if the energy output is the same."

Of course, it would be nice if she had some heat. She was so tired of being cold all the time.

There was something in the murk, after all. She barely saw the tail that cut through the dust, but she recognized it. The paddle shaped fin with the sharp edges and faint hints of ragged holes could only be one kind of creature that she'd seen in this ocean. And then, as she suspected, she saw the faintest hint of a red flare.

Was he trying to sneak up on her? It seemed like it.

Leaning back, she pretended like she was relaxing again and started talking to Ace. "Listen, there's only so much time I have right now. I'm going to keep looking at the maps, but I still think sneaking into the city and connecting with the database is our best shot. If we can get every screen in the city to tell the story of how terrible my father is, then we've got a start."

"Bloodthirsty, I like it."

"It's revenge," Anya replied. And it was.

For all those years that he made her feel like she was nothing and no one. She would take her revenge on her father even if it made something inside her twinge. Like the undine had said, she mourned a mother she never had and a father who should have been better. The pain never really went away.

The dust outside the window swirled, and a sudden rush of darkness approached the window. At the same time, she stood abruptly and spread the blanket wide around her. Mirroring his movements, she ran for the window with a scowl on her face and the blanket billowing to make her look larger.

Daios paused outside the window, his lights flaring bright and his fins spreading in surprise at her reaction. Clearly, he had been trying to scare her.

Dropping the blanket, she gave him a bright grin and a little wave.

He spread his webbed fingers in a wave as well, frowning at her. He didn't even move until she pointed to the opening in the room that gave him access to her world.

Bitsy flared words in bright red. "Danger."

"Nah." She waved a hand in the air and turned toward the opening to wait for him. "I don't think he's all that dangerous at all."

Her droid was definitely sulking as the undine surfaced. He was still looking at her with that curious expression on his face, one that she might have thought was pride if she didn't know him better.

Plopping down on her butt in front of him, she found she couldn't wipe the grin off her face. "Did I scare you?"

"Not at all."

"You looked a little scared."

Those fins lifted on the sides of his neck and then pressed flat with a hard snap. "I was not frightened."

She shrugged. "Sure looked at least surprised."

"You should not threaten creatures like that, especially when they are larger than you. They may consider such behavior a challenge."

Anya rolled her eyes. "I think nothing would find that to be a challenge. If they're hunting me and realize I'm much larger than they thought, their hesitation might work to my advantage."

A soft sound rumbled through his gills, but then he gave her a reluctant nod.

She shouldn't be quite so happy that she'd impressed him. Especially when he'd shown up empty-handed today. Usually he brought food or some kind of gift, and now he was looking at her with those deep black eyes, and she had a feeling he was going to tell her something she didn't like.

He opened his mouth, and she rushed ahead of him. Why? She wasn't certain. Only that she didn't want this to end and didn't want to know what was about to change.

"Can I touch you?" she asked, the words falling from her lips before she heard them herself.

"What?"

"Well, you've touched me." Her fingers brushed over the ends of her hair. "And I just... Well, I've never been this close to an undine before. And I don't think I ever will be again once all of this is over."

His brows furrowed a bit, a strangely human expression that made her hold her breath for a few seconds. "You aren't scared of me at all, are you?"

Anya had to bite her lips very hard not to grin. "Not really, no."

"Why is that?" He moved a little closer, enough that she could reach out and touch him if she wanted.

"Well. You've never given me any reason to be afraid of you." She scooted closer too until she could feel the slight chill radiating off his skin.

"I took you from your home."

"Because I told you to." She did grin when he rolled his eyes at that statement. "What? I did! Do you think you could have launched yourself out of the water, dragged me into the pool, and still gotten away with no one running in there with all the guns in the city at the ready?"

With one smooth flick of his tail, he loomed over her. He was suddenly closer, drops of water dripping off his shoulders and onto her chest, seeping into the fabric of the blanket. "Yes. I believe I could have done that."

Oh, she should be terrified. She should shrink into a tiny ball beneath him and pray that he didn't decide to try human flesh.

Instead, Anya found herself reaching up and feathering her fingers along the fins at the side of his face. "What are these?"

It didn't escape her notice that his eyes rolled back in his head. He liked the way her fingers felt on whatever these delicate membranes were. They were surprisingly soft underneath her fingers. And it felt rather natural to slide her pointer finger in front of one, and her middle finger behind it. With only the slightest pinch, she watched as the fins surrounding his face suddenly flared out and started to shake.

His face twisted, and when he spoke, she could feel his words rumbling through her ribs. "Those are my gills."

"Oh." She frowned, her eyes trailing down his muscular neck and impressively broad chest. Faint lines etched along his ribs with the faintest hint of delicate membranes hidden within. "I thought these were your gills."

She reached out to touch those too, only to pause when he grabbed her wrist. Eyes flicking up to his, she swore that hunger was back in his gaze. The webs of his fingers brushed against hers, just as soft as the gills she'd just touched.

"I have two of everything," he said, his voice so low she swore she could feel it deep inside her body.

"Two?" She frowned, looking back and forth between the two sets of gills. "Two lungs then? You're breathing air?"

"Yes."

"I have two lungs." Madness made her press her hands forward, flattening them against the strangely dark chest with stripes down the center from his collarbone all the way to meet his much darker tail.

And then she felt them. Against her palms was the rhythm of two hearts. Slightly off beat from each other. But both of them thundered against her skin, as though he were nervous.

"Two hearts," she whispered, feeling her voice vibrate in her throat.

"Yes." His hand came up to cover hers, pressing her a little tighter against his chest.

She felt like she was missing something, but it was hard for her to think of anything other than the fact that she could feel two heartbeats pressing against her hands right now. He was a medical anomaly. She could only imagine that there were hundreds of scientists who would love to get their hands on him.

How did they swim like they did? How did they withstand the cold and the pressures of the ocean? Did he have air bladders like a fish?

Questions rioted through her mind, but then she looked up at him and her mouth went dry. He was staring at her hands on his chest and she swore that look said he wished she would move her palms. He wanted her to touch him, to know what it felt like, and suddenly, all thoughts of science went out the window.

Sliding her hands up his chest, she watched his reaction. He went so still, seemingly not breathing other than those flared fins that continued to gently shake. She wondered if they made a sound.

Slowly, she reached her arms around him. He stayed right where he was, letting her hug him even as her hands played over his back.

"Careful." Bitsy had to put the words in that garish pink, so Anya knew Daios was speaking. "There are spines on my back."

"What do you mean?"

She'd seen his back, hadn't she? There wasn't anything unusual... But then he turned in her grip, putting a small amount of space between them.

There were spines on his back. They were nearly clear and so easy to miss. But as she ran her finger over one, they popped up at her touch.

There was a membrane attached to those as well. Almost like a dorsal fin that he could flatten at will. She ran her fingers along that deadly fin, trying to not be quite so pleased when Bitsy sent a warning flaring across the lens that he had hissed.

She could see how it affected him. The gentle touches seemed to be his downfall, and she enjoyed touching him like this so much.

With one hand flat against his hip to hold him still, she continued her exploration. Running her fingers all around those deadly spikes, she touched every membrane under each one as she counted them. Twelve deadly spikes. Twelve sharp weapons that ran down the length of his spine.

It took until spine number six for his resolve to crack. He shivered underneath her touch, his muscles twitching and his breath becoming ragged. She could see the way he sucked his breath in through those gills that grasped at nothing because they weren't underwater. His ribs expanded underneath her palm, so quickly it was as if he had just finished swimming the length of the ocean.

She'd had to shift onto her knees, trying to ignore the slick feeling between her thighs and control her own breathing. She hadn't thought she would enjoy this as much as she did. But having him at her mercy? Knowing that he was only holding himself together because he had to?

It did things to her that no man had ever inspired. She was so wet between her legs it was almost embarrassing, and still, her breath caught in her throat as she finished with the last spine at the small of his back.

"So dangerous," she said, hoping that she was even saying the words right.

He turned at the last second, and the smallest spine at the base of his back caught her finger. With a sharp hiss, she drew back in shock.

Bright blood welled on the tip of her finger. It was a small scratch. She doubted it would need anything other than a few moments of firm pressure and it would seal back up on its own.

But he groaned, the sound long and low and delicious as it coiled low in her belly. She hadn't realized how thrilling it was to hear her partner while he took his pleasure. Then all her thoughts scattered as he grabbed onto her wrist and drew it to him.

That long, black tongue came out of his mouth. And she was right. It was ridged. There were bumps all up and down it, little bumps that moved on their own as he wrapped that tongue around her bloodied finger.

"Fuck," she whispered.

That shouldn't be as hot as it was. She shouldn't tremble with need at the sound of his voice and the way that his eyes had rolled closed in pleasure as he sucked the blood from her skin.

This was wrong. She shouldn't enjoy this so much, and neither should he. They shouldn't be entertaining this heat between them, but they were. And she didn't want him to stop.

His eyes slowly opened, meeting hers with her finger still in his mouth. One more warm, wet swipe and he released her.

"I'll return with food for you," he said, that rumbling voice doing all sorts of things to her that it shouldn't.

"You just got back."

"I forgot to bring you something to eat, kalon."

She watched him sink into the water and thought maybe she had imagined it all. Or maybe, just maybe, they'd both lost their minds for a few moments.

And she'd liked it.