Chapter 13

Thirteen

Mira

This wasn’t working. She’d been able to get him to talk a little, but nothing like she needed him to speak. He came back once or twice a day; she thought. There was no way to tell time down here, but she could see how much water she was going through.

Mira had set up a freshwater contraption her father had taught her to make before. When she was a kid, it was like setting up a bubbling laboratory. But her dad had known that maybe someday she might need to use this. Large portions of the city often ended up stranded, isolated from the rest by flooding, and there was a lot of salt water but very little fresh water.

The bucket she’d set on a small bunsen burner that she’d found in the crates. It only worked for a little while before going out, so she’d taken it apart and placed the welder there instead. At least that used oxygen to keep the flame going and some new technology that didn’t require fuel. Thank goodness it was a model that had upgraded to that, or she would have no fresh water.

As it was, she could boil all the saltwater and catch the condensation above the bucket with a piece of metal she’d hammered into a ‘v’ shape. The condensation mostly gathered together, rolled into the channel of the v, and then into the other bucket she’d set up there.

It wasn’t a lot of water, but it would at least keep her alive.

Sighing, she stared up at the ceiling and let boredom overtake her mind. Sometimes, she just didn’t talk for an entire day. Byte did all the talking for her, if she wanted. But today she’d asked for silence.

She needed to think.

They weren’t getting enough conversation happening, and when the undine spoke, he mostly used the same words.

“Are you sure?” she asked for a hundredth time. “You’re sure that he’s just repeating words?”

“I have deciphered many different languages,” Byte grumbled. “I am certain he is repeating words. But he likely believes he is teaching you his language, so he is using the proper teaching techniques. Merely, the wrong techniques for our plan.”

“Damn it.”

“Indeed.”

This would take forever. Perhaps longer than she had time for, because she was going to dehydrate. Or maybe he’d get bored with her, and she would die here. Leaving poor Byte with her rotting corpse when she’d promised the little android that she would get it out of here.

No, they needed to figure this situation out. They needed to be able to converse with the undine and... and...

Mira slapped her forehead hard enough to leave a mark. “Damn panic and stupid, stupid nonsense of a brain. Byte!”

When she rolled to her feet, the little droid used its arms to push itself away from her. “Don’t like. Don’t like that expression.”

Grabbing it off the floor like a ball, she marched to the end of the cave and popped it back on top of the server. Leaning low so they were eye level, she asked, “You said you could make a translation chip. Right?”

“Right.” Its wires were shaking.

“Then make one for English. I’ll give him the chip.”

“Him?” The robot shook its binocular head. “No, that won’t work. You’d have to get close enough to put it behind his ear, and if you did that, then you’re close enough to kill. Translation chips hurt, Mira! Not enough to kill him, but absolutely enough to startle him. That will easily be enough reason for him to murder you.”

“It’s a risk we have to take.”

“I will not do it. There is no logic in your plan. He’ll kill you.”

She hadn’t wanted to do this, but... “Beta Iota Epsilon 427. I order you to make me an English translation chip.”

Though the droid grumbled, there was nothing it could do. The programming required it to do whatever it was ordered to do, and she hated using that against it.

Whirring, crackling, and a few sparks scattered out of the box, but then there it was. A translation chip that was smaller than the nail on her thumb, resting on a small platform that came out of the robot’s belly.

“Thank you,” she breathed, before taking the chip and holding it tightly in her palm. “I’ll be careful, you know.”

“Just don’t get killed.”

“That’s the plan.”

Now, all she had to do was wait. It took quite a while for her undine to show up, and then she reminded herself to call him Arges. He was an undine, but his name was Arges and that was going to work to her advantage.

She’d seen his expression when she’d said his name. And if that’s what he wanted from her, if he was even remotely curious about her, then it was time for her to try to flirt.

As if she’d ever been good at that.

Stomach churning with nerves, she sat on the edge of the stone with her feet in the water. This was different, and she hoped that would make him come a little closer. He was clearly curious about her and her body. Their species were similar, but not in every way. She’d seen him eyeing her feet before, although she was pretty certain he was looking at them in disgust. At least if they were in the water, they couldn’t distract him.

Arges appeared at the mouth of the cave, a dark shadow that swayed through the depths like a shark. Or perhaps like an eel. She knew it was him, though. Because the moment he looked up, all that blue bioluminescence burst to life. It rioted the moment he realized she was looking at him, and maybe this would be easier than she thought.

He silently broke the surface of the water, black eyes already watching her.

“I thought we could talk again today,” she said, her words echoing a bit. She spoke a little slower for him, although she still didn’t know if he was trying to learn her language. He listened to her, but still conversed with hand signals.

This time, she touched her fingers to her lips, and then mimed speaking with her fingers.

A soft expression crossed his face. Almost like a smile, but his lips didn’t even remotely twitch. Maybe this would be easier than she thought.

All she needed was for him to get close enough for her to put the translator on the back of his ear. It would do the rest. The neural link might not work with him. She had no idea what their anatomy even was, but she hoped that it would work. They were close enough to each other in species that it would make sense. At least, from the top up.

“I thought we could learn more words today,” she said, watching as he came even closer. It was so effortless for him to move in the lapping eddies of the pool. She could see his tail moving beneath him, guiding his body until he was almost right in front of her.

Her cheeks burned, as they always did. Though he was still a strange, mottled gray, and dark lines were painted onto his muscular body from shoulder to navel, there was still something about him that was... alluring.

It made her uncomfortable, and she didn’t know why.

“A little closer,” she said, frowning when he stopped an arm’s length away. This wouldn’t do.

She had to trick him, apparently. And there was only one way she could think of to do that.

He clearly wanted to learn her language, and she was going to give him that. If he would just swim a little closer. Mira pointed to her bicep, flexing it a little to get his attention on the limb. “Arm.”

Arges narrowed his eyes at her.

Right, so back to the original tactic. She flattened her hand against her chest and said, “Mira.” Then pointed to her arm again, flexing the muscle, and then saying, “Arm.”

He narrowed his eyes and moved maybe an inch closer. Curiosity always did kill the cat, so the saying went.

She moved throughout most of her features like he was a toddler. She pointed to her eyes, making them big and wide. Then pointed to her nose, flaring her nostrils in a way that made him rear back before chuckling. Ears, mouth, brows. But she didn’t mistake the flaring of his gills around his neck when she pointed to her mouth again and said, “Lips.”

She parted them, and he swam even closer. Just enough for her to finally get a good reach. She could lunge forward, but that wouldn’t work either. She was trying to get him to not kill her and lunging at him would certainly ruin that chance.

What she needed was for him to be lulled into submission. If the heat burning in his eyes was any indicator, she had to keep playing this game.

Which, surprisingly... she didn’t mind at all.

Mira licked her lips, watching that heat flare even hotter in his gaze. “You like that,” she whispered. It wasn’t a question, because she knew.

This could get out of hand if she let it. Although she had her doubts about how far it could even go between them. Still, maybe keeping his mind off those thoughts would be best.

She lifted her hand and exhaled on her palm. “Breath.”

That made him straighten.

She did it again, repeating the word and then freezing when he reached for her hand. Wet hands caught her own, but he was surprisingly warm. Those webs brushed against her fingers as he turned her hand over and made her spread them wide.

“No webs,” she said quietly, watching the top of his bent head as he turned her hand this way and that. “Just fingers.”

She spread them even wider, laughing quietly at his soft sound of amazement. He had seen her hands before! Many times, in fact. And yet this time, he seemed infinitely more interested in them.

Or perhaps, what they could do.

Biting her lip, she wondered what he thought of her body. In her opinion, he was still... passable. Strange to look at, but not so unusual that she couldn’t see past their differences. The sculpted planes of his face were infinitely beautiful, not to mention the muscles that ran throughout his entire torso. If he had been a human, she’d want to lick every drop of water out of those deep hollows.

No, she couldn’t let her mind drift down that lane of thinking. She was here to make him understand her, so she could tell him that she needed to get back home.

So she curled her fingers around his, lifting his hand to her mouth and exhaling on his palm. “Breath.”

His eyes were black, so she had no idea how they darkened even further, but she could almost taste his arousal in the air. They were locked together, trapped in each other’s gazes as she breathed against his palm. The webs between his fingers shook, vibrating with some emotion she was terrified to name.

But then he rotated his wrist, trapping her hand in his. Carefully, he drew her hand down his torso.

Heat made her cheeks burn and the tips of her ears ache. Was he... No, certainly not.

Was she going to let him?

Arges stopped her hands right below his ribs, and she ripped her gaze away from his when she felt air moving over her palms. Not just air, but it felt like someone was blowing on her fingers.

“Breath,” he repeated, the word drawn out and so guttural she almost didn’t make it out.

He was breathing out of his gills, she realized. An exhale through his ribcage that feathered over her fingers and turned them icy hot. Not warm breath, not like her own. But cold as the ocean. It made goosebumps pop all down her arms, or maybe that was the strong grip that slowly hovered her hand over his ribs, his chest, his collarbone.

He stopped her fingers at his throat, and again murmured, “Breath.”

She felt it again. Another long exhale that whispered over her fingers, but warm this time. So he had gills on his neck as well, and that’s what the frills were that slowly lifted.

They were so pretty. Compared to the diamond shape of his tail, or the razor edged spines that dotted down his back, these were almost delicate. They looked like silk in the water, but even in the air, there were very specific parts that made it flare around him.

Water dripped down one, beads of it trickling into his gills and then leaking out to drip down his muscular shoulders and collarbone. She couldn’t stop herself. Maybe it was the innate curiosity of her own species. Maybe she had just lost her mind entirely.

Mira ghosted her fingers over the gills at his neck. Gently, of course. She could only guess how sensitive they were. But the moment her fingers touched those soft gills, she was struck by how much they felt like velvet.

The longer frills seemed to reach back, curving around her fingers and sliding through them. He arched into her touch, that strong thick neck bowing as though he couldn’t quite handle the touch. She thought maybe she’d hurt him, and then she heard him groan.

And oh, that sound, so filled with raw need and desperation. It made every nerve ending in her body fire hot and wild. She’d never thought it was possible to want something that wasn’t even remotely human, and yet, here she was. Breathless at the sight of this massive undine, his tail lashing in the water as she stroked her fingers through his gills.

He was magnificent. All those muscles drawn up tight, his hand wrapped around her wrist, holding her in place even as she caught the edge of one of those frills and gently pinched it between two fingers, sliding her hand down them like she would a bolt of silk.

Another groan, this time from deep inside the hollow of his belly. She looked down and saw even the gills near his ribs were fluttering. And below them, another strange-looking gap in his scales that looked... looked...

It all came crashing down on her head. She was stroking a damn undine near to completion like a complete mad woman. She’d gotten so wrapped up in the moment, so full of wonder at the sights and the sounds of all this muscle and handsome man in front of her, that she had forgotten the reason she was doing all this.

The translation chip. Put the fucking translation chip on his fucking ear and stop touching him like you’re trying to jerk him off!

Berating herself for forgetting, even for a moment, she took the chip out of her pocket with her free hand and then reached for the other side of his head.

His eyes opened then, and he looked at her with a wild expression. Almost as if he was afraid of her, or what she would do to him next. But there was desperation in that gaze as well, a need that he hoped she would satisfy.

And oh, if they were in another time. Another place. Maybe she would have indulged the darker curiosities in her mind.

“Sorry,” she whispered, her voice a little raspy with her own need. “I hope you can forgive me for this.”

Hitting the on button with her thumb, she stuck the translation chip behind his gills. She knew the moment the pain hit him. His tail flipped out of the water, catching her with the sharp spines on the arm before he suddenly turned into churning waves. There was an undine in that foamy, white water, but she couldn’t pinpoint where he was. He lashed and rolled, then one more flick of his tail, and he was gone. At least, she thought. The surface of the water was so covered in sea foam that she couldn’t guess where he was.

Mira quickly yanked her feet out of the water, just in case he tried to drag her into it and drown her.

She might even deserve it. That chip could kill him if he reacted too poorly to it.

“You’re bleeding,” Byte said, rather matter-of-factly.

“I know,” she said, cupping the injury with one hand. “I think I kind of deserve it, though.”