Chapter 2

Two

Flicking his tail, Imber darted through the waves and crested the surface. Flinging himself into the warm air, he rotated mid leap before splashing back into the waves again. There was much to celebrate today. Namely, his sister was to become a mother. Already, the entire pod was waiting with her. They gathered around the beauty of her extended belly and sang the songs of the ancients.

She would continue their bloodline with her birth. A miraculous thing, considering she was the only sister he had. Imber had come from a smaller family. His mother had difficulty with each pregnancy, and she'd only had the two of them survive. So to see his line continue in his sister's name? Ah, it made his entire body feel light.

Males were not allowed to attend the ceremony, of course. This was women's work, and the matriarch would allow them to see the babe when she was ready. And when his sister was ready too, of course.

He just... He couldn't wait to see the new life. It had been a long time since his pod had a child to dote on, and now they would all have a new baby to spoil rotten.

Perhaps he would bring the child a seashell from the far off hunting grounds. If his lovely sister had a daughter, then they would need abalone to create the perfect comb for her hair.

But, as was often these days, any time his mind went to adventure, it also went to the new creature he had discovered only a week ago.

A woman, he reminded himself. It had spoken.

They'd seen her kind before. The achromos, they called them. Because all the creatures that came into their sea were so... colorless as she had been. Pale skin, pale eyes, pale hair. There was nothing on her body that even suggested she had color at all. Just like the inside of a clam. Disgusting, really, but he had found this one rather... pretty.

In her own way, of course. She wasn't the beauty like the large females of their pod. He was supposed to be attracted to creatures that were infinitely larger than him. Massive females that would coil with him when they wanted a child. Someday, he would do the same thing that his sister's mate had done. Although, he hoped he survived the mating, unlike his sister's chosen.

There was something rather magical about seeing a female that was smaller than him. First, he had thought it was a child. Surely something so small would not be full grown.

But then he'd realized there was no one else in the strange circular shell. It was just her, and another voice that seemed to come out of the walls of the strange contraption. Which meant she couldn't be a child. No one would send a child on a mission out into the ocean alone, not even her kind.

So he'd gone a little closer, wrapped his tail around it to keep the small shell in place while he watched her movements. She'd even spoken to him a few times, at least attempting to converse, and he didn't... well. He wasn't sure what to do with that.

Imber hadn't told any of his pod what he'd found. How could he? They would want to hunt her down, to see what this strange creature was who had captivated him. And though he was more than happy to help his pod in any way that he needed to, he didn't want to share this new secret just yet.

Which was why he had gone back to the kelp grove for multiple days in a row. And why he found himself in the same place, just like every other day. What if she came back? What if he got the chance to speak with her again?

He wasn't even sure what he would say. Should he tell her what he was? That he was one of the People of Water, and that there were many just like him? What if she wanted to discover his world?

Excitement zinged down his spine as he moved some of the kelp out of his way. The green bioluminescence of his body lit up like a beacon, casting a green glow upon the surrounding kelp. Somehow, he knew today was the day that he would see her again. There were too many good omens for her to not be here.

To his utter delight, the first thing he saw when he pushed aside the kelp was that strange shell that she rode in. It was lying against the sand again, although the dust had long since settled and there were more creatures swimming around it. Even the fish wanted to know what it was that had entered their home.

Gliding through the water, he approached the glass front. Peering into the shadows, he realized she wasn't inside of it. How? He had no idea. Surely it wasn't possible for her to leave the shell? Was it?

Arcing up over the top, he realized there was a way into the pod. Although it was currently filled with water and then sealed again, it appeared there was a way for her to exit without flooding the entire space. And a small tube came out of the top, trailing out with plenty of slack.

"A tube?" he muttered, picking it up in his hands and giving it a small squeeze. "Flexible, but... for what reason?"

Was this how she ate? Was the shell itself actually the creature she served, and she was just the bait to draw things back into the shell for food?

Horrified at the mere thought, he told himself to get a grip. She was not some mythical creature who served a giant metal god. He had seen her kind many times before, and they were individual creatures that were intelligent enough to create something like this shell. Not the other way around.

Still, he hesitantly trailed the strange tube through the kelp forest. The last thing he needed was to die on the day his sister gave birth. They'd call his spirit to them just so they could yell at him for being such an idiot on a special day.

Frowning, he picked up the tube again in his hand and felt it loosely drawing through his fingers. Surely she was close... ah. There. He brushed the kelp aside to see her floating above a large rocky outcropping, staring down into the sheer drop off that continued on for hundreds and hundreds of meters. That was the very bottom of the ocean down that drop off, although he doubted she had any way of knowing that.

Carefully, so he didn't surprise her, he tugged on the tube. It was connected to something she wore around her face, and he had no idea how it was helping her. The achromos that he'd seen before couldn't breathe underwater.

Without looking behind her, she tugged back.

Again, he tugged. Insistent that she look at him so he didn't have to swim right up to her and scare her into the abyss. "Achromo," he said quietly, although he knew his voice could be booming in the water. "What are you doing?"

She let out a shriek that would rival the killer whales that ruled this area of the ocean. The sound made his ears hurt so badly that he lifted his hands to cover them, but that also meant he tugged harder on the tube. She shrieked again, this time dragged closer by his movements as she desperately hung onto the thing attached to her head.

Why did that matter?

She was screaming so loud he was going to lose his ability to hear, and all she could do was hang onto that stupid tube going to her...

Suddenly the achromo catapulted toward him. He hadn't realized she could move quite so fast, or he would have put more distance between the two of them. He braced himself, flaring his fins wide to prepare for her attack. Imber was much larger than her, and he would hurt her if he had to. Didn't she see his claws? Hadn't she seen his fangs when he'd bared them in surprise after her shell suddenly came to life?

She hit him hard. Harder than he'd expected for someone so small. And in that moment, he realized two very startling things. First, she had two tails. Two bony, horrible feeling tails that wrapped around him like a crab grabbing onto its prey. The second was that she was so very soft.

He planted his hand against her back, his claws ready to rend her flesh from her bone and leave her bleeding out on the ground. But he hesitated when she did nothing other than cling to him, her form so warm against his usually cool skin. Those tails held him in place as she reached for his wrists.

He thought perhaps she wished to speak with him, but that wasn't what she was doing. Instead, she drew the tube out of his hand and let it drift in the water beside them.

She was so close. Closer than he'd ever anticipated getting to one of her kind. White surrounded the pale blue of her eyes. All those golden curls billowed around her head, creating a terrible tangle of curls and coils that would be nearly impossible to brush out. But his gaze caught on the soft swells of her cheeks, the paleness of her lips that he remembered being much darker. And the wide eyes that stared directly into his own, as though she were overwhelmed with what she saw.

Garbled sounds came out of her mouth, and though he had no idea what she was saying, he could guess.

"I'm sorry to have startled you." And because he couldn't not touch her—what man had such inner strength?—he lifted his hand to brush a strand of her hair aside. "I was trying not to."

She seemed to freeze in his arms as he touched her. Growing bolder now, he let the back of his nail drag down the plushness of her cheek. She shivered, and he couldn't tell if that was from fear or something else entirely.

Some small whisper in his mind hoped it was something else. He hoped she didn't see him as some monstrous creature who had risen out of the depths to tear her away from life itself. He wanted to... He wasn't sure what he wanted, really. Anything dancing through his mind right now must be an abomination and he should never be thinking it.

He just wanted. Her attention, her gaze, her.

Everything always seemed to boil down to this magical creature who shouldn't be here and yet, here she was.

"Where did you come from?" he whispered, trying to keep his voice as quiet as possible. "You seem to have appeared out of thin air, achromo."

Curious little thing. Though her strange tails still gripped him around the waist with surprising strength, she used her web free hands to touch him. First she hovered just over his forehead, watching his movements with wide eyes, as though she was afraid he would tell her no.

He didn't. How could he? The first moment those warm fingertips trailed twin lines down his forehead, to his temples, and then just barely over his gills, he knew he was a goner.

No one touched him so gently. Not even his mother. He was a creature made to hunt and kill, that was all. Their kind were brutal to live in the waters that tried to kill them. Gentleness wasn't in their nature.

Perhaps, if he was lucky, he would find himself a mate who knew how to control herself during a mating. She might not kill him, and then he could be gentle with his own child.

Imber had never hoped to feel a female touch him like this. He hadn't even known it existed.

Groaning, he tilted his head back and let her bury her fingers in his hair. She seemed particularly interested in the gills at his neck and also the texture of the long strands of his hair.

Surely she didn't know the intimacy with which she touched him. How would she know that every stroke along his body was telling him that he should prepare himself for mating? That she wanted him. Needed him. Desired him.

Another low groan echoed through his entire chest, and he felt the gills along his ribs begin to flutter. The choked sound that came out of her at the movement was intriguing. Cracking open an eye, he drew in a deep breath of a scent that fascinated him. It was coming from her.

Maybe she really was touching him to prepare him to mate with her.

Suddenly, the pale one untangled herself from his body. She lunged away from him, moving those short, useless tails until there was space between them. Space for both of them to breathe, which he realized he desperately needed to do.

His scales had clasped onto her scent, he realized with horror. His body wanted to keep her on him so that all others would know that he was entertaining a female.

The pod would know.

His family would know that he'd seen a female and covered himself in her scent. What a fool he was! He couldn't afford this, not when he was already struggling to find a mate of his own. He didn't...

By all the gods of the sea, she was pretty.

With her hair all spiraled around her head like that, he could easily see how red her cheeks had become. She turned different shades of lovely mottled red, and he had never thought her kind could do that.

"If you're interested in me," he started, trying hard to clear his throat and not sound too eager, "We may perhaps speak of this, achromo. I do not know your kind, nor have I ever considered trying to see what is possible between our species. But I am willing to try if you are."

She had no way of understanding him, but he thought perhaps he had startled her. She said nothing in return, not that he could understand her either. But as she swam by him, making sure he didn't move as she passed by, she reached out and trailed her fingers along his shoulder. He reached for her, spinning only his torso as she let her fingers glide along the entire length of his arm.

And oh, her scent hadn't changed. That musky, delicious scent made his mouth water as she gathered up the tube in her arms and swam away from him. It was slow going, and she used her hands to pull herself faster.

A mate like her would be difficult to keep safe. She was so small, and clearly couldn't fight for herself. She wasn't cut out to live in the ocean either, although he knew that was a silly thing to even consider.

But as he swam behind her, keeping out of her line of sight so she thought she was fleeing from him, he could still smell her need. Her desire. And he knew without a doubt she would be back.

This time, he would be ready for her.