Chapter 38

Thirty-Eight

Arges

Rage made his hands shake as he brushed her hair away from her face and swam as fast as he could away from her home. He’d known they were hurting her. Despite what that man had said, he could smell her blood for miles. He knew exactly what they were doing to her and how long she had suffered. But he hadn’t been able to help her.

There wasn’t any way for him to get into the city. He knew better than to rush any attack, even a rescue mission.

The moon pools were the best way for them to get into the city. He’d looked over the one in the dome he’d brought Mira to, and he was quite certain he knew how they worked. The humans hadn’t upgraded many of their cities in a very long time. The functionality should be the same.

He and Maketes had gone back to the dome before they had headed to the city. Between the two of them, they had almost completely ripped it apart and then rebuilt it. They needed the welders. Those were the most important part of getting these open and being able to attack the achromos.

Thankfully, they had more welders. They were the older versions, like he had brought Mira, but there were enough of them for them to swarm the moon pools and start taking them apart.

He just hoped she would forgive his people for attacking her home. He’d already made it very clear to his warriors. They were not wiping out the achromos. The city would not be ruined or sunk like the other. They already knew what happened when that occurred. the achromos just multiplied.

What they were doing was sending a message. They could destroy the city whenever they wished. They could tear it apart and murder everyone inside of it. Instead, they were going to take technology. They were going to steal more welders, some weapons, terrify the people inside. They would flood one or two wings, just to give the achromos something to do, steal a few droids, and then they would someday return with the ability to understand what the achromos were saying.

Mira was necessary for this, though. She had to be the one to translate for them. He needed her to make more chips, so her people could understand what his were saying.

It was a start. Mitéra had only agreed to the violence. She knew nothing else of what he had said and what he had ordered. Arges had a feeling he would pay for that, but right now, he didn’t care what happened to him.

He had Mira in his arms. Though her blood coated his scales and floated around her like a plume of bright color, she was still alive. He was certain they would save her. Even with the wound in her belly.

Brushing his claws over her face, he drew her closer to him and held her tightly against his hearts. “You’re going to live,” he breathed. “You’re going to live, Mira. I will not let you go.”

He was pleased that Byte had been correct. He breathed for both of them, and this was the first time in the water he’d seen her without a mask. Her face was so beautiful, so peaceful, as she looked up at him. She lifted a hand, gently running her fingers down his neck. “I love you,” she said, her voice so quiet he almost didn’t hear it. “I love you so much, Arges. I don’t want to die without you knowing that.”

The words were a punch in his gut. “You’re not going to die.”

“I might.” She lifted her hands from her belly, and the weak stream of blood frightened him. There should have been more. So much more.

Cursing, he changed where he was going. He couldn’t bring her to the dome himself, not yet. His people would lose their focus. Daios might even lead them into another attack where they would die. He couldn’t afford the risk when he had finally gotten them to a point where his people would listen.

But his mate was dying, and he did not know what to do.

The two sides of him screamed two very different things. His heart wanted him to go with her. To be there while the life faded from her eyes. He knew she would want him there with her if anything happened. So he could hold her hand through the pain.

But his mind had always been stronger than his heart. He knew he wasn’t the fastest swimmer here. And if they could get her back to the dome, then they could save her life. The medkit was something he’d already explained to many of his people. They would press it to her belly and it would heal her.

She had to heal.

No one would take her from him. Especially not some weak, scrawny achromo who thought he was strong because there was a wall of glass between him and one of the People of Water.

“You’re not going to die,” he snarled. “I forbid it.”

“You may have stolen me for the last time.” Water flowed over her mouth as she spoke, bubbles of air filtering off her tongue and jittering as they rose toward the surface. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“I should have fought harder.”

“Mira!” he shouted, his voice echoing as loud as a whale call. “You’re not going to die. Stop apologizing for something you did not do. I was the one who failed you.”

“You didn’t fail me.”

He did.

He had.

He probably would again.

But not this time. This time, he would save her. He would keep her alive and he wouldn’t make the choice that his heart wanted him to make. He had a mind, a quick-witted mind, and this was the best time for him to use it.

Whipping his fluke, he shot toward one of the larger females in his group. She had scars decorating her arms and dark splotches of deep purple that spread all along her tail and arms. She’d cut her hair very short, cropped close to her skull. The female was obviously surprised when he swam up to her and reached for a long tendril at the back of her skull.

“What are you doing, Arges?” she asked.

“You’re taking her to the dome.”

“I am here to fight.”

“You’re taking her to the dome and using the medkit like I taught you.” He looked down at Mira, at the pale flesh that had turned almost as gray as his own. “Mira, hold your breath.”

He couldn’t feel her breathing. He exhaled long and hard, feeling it go through the tube that came out of him and watching her own chest expand. Then he ripped the tendril out of her neck and quickly replaced it with the one that came out of the female of his own kind.

She hissed, the sound echoing through the water as the strange feeling overtook her. “What have you done to me, Arges?”

“Something that we are all capable of doing and none of us were aware of it until now.” He made sure the goo around her tendril was thick before handing Mira over to her. “You breathe for her now, Melete. I need you to bring her to the dome, heal her. Save her life.”

“The life of an achromo?” Melete winced, her lips drawing up over her teeth in disgust.

He swam closer, their faces almost touching as he loomed over the much larger female. “The life of my mate, Melete.”

That did it. She nodded, turning to leave and only stopping when he grabbed her arm so he could take one last look at the tiny achromo in her arms.

Mira looked even smaller when she was held by a female of his kind. She looked like a child, with her legs drawn up to her chest and tremors shaking her body as she endured the pain.

He leaned down and pressed their foreheads together. “You stay alive for me. Do you hear me, Mira? Fight. You have to fight like you’ve never fought before.”

She brushed her lips against his in a weak kiss. “I love you.”

Arges reached out his hand and laid it between her breasts. “You hold my soul, kairos. Keep it safe for me.”

With a quick nod to Melete, he let another one of his people take his heart through the sea. He couldn’t think of her just yet. He couldn’t let the worry and the fear swell over his head like a wave and break everything he had worked so hard to get.

Right now, he had to focus on leading his people and making the achromos pay for what they had done to the woman he loved. Right now, there was only one achromo he wanted to kill.

Cracking his neck, he turned his attention back to the city. Already his people were working on dismantling the moon pools. They would tear the metal apart once the bolts were melted, just like Mira had done to help him all those months ago. They would rip into the city and they would bring the achromos true nightmares to life.

Joining his pod, he turned his attention to them. “Find what we need. There should be plenty of weapons in the tubes I showed you before. I have seen them while I watched the achromos. It is the most important thing that we will find. Weapons will help us be able to stand a chance against these people.”

“People,” Daios repeated with a snort. “That’s what you are calling them now, brother?”

Turning with a snarl, he grabbed Daios by the neck and dragged his brother so close he could see the filaments of the gills on his neck flaring for breath. “Listen to me very closely. You will kill whoever you want. You will get your blood. But I am the one getting you into the city and I am the one who can understand them. Do not test me now, Daios.”

Another hand settled on his back, trying to stop the anger that surged in his veins. “We are with you, Arges. Despite what your brother says.”

“Watch him closely, Maketes.” Arges released his blood brother and turned his attention to the first open moon pool. “Whatever mess he causes is your responsibility as well.”

As for him, it was time to hunt. Arges would find that achromo who had laid his hands on Mira and he would destroy him.

As one, his pod turned toward the first open moon pool. He was the first to launch himself out of the water and drag himself into the home of the achromos. Even having been here before, it was difficult for him once inside. The colors were so bleak. White walls, lights that were far too bright, and two technicians who stared at him with wide, horrified eyes. Before they could reach for the weapons at their hips, he batted them aside.

One of the men hit their head against the edge of a console and blood splattered on the floor. The other tripped and fell into the water where Arges did not watch to see what happened. He did not say his people couldn’t kill, and they needed this. They deserved to have blood underneath their claws after all they had endured.

Dragging himself out of the door, pushing it open with his shoulders and barely fitting through it, he expelled all the water from his gills and started forward. The halls were still tight. He couldn’t quite touch either side with outstretched arms, but it was close.

Achromos scattered. Screams filled the hall, and he knew soon enough there would be soldiers with powerful weapons. His pod would never see the soldiers, because he was the bait.

His warriors turned a corner behind him, and then another. They all slithered down the halls, dragging themselves on their bellies and ignoring everything but what they sought. Soon they would have weapons. They would be able to fight back.

Arges was focused only on one achromo. And that man had been deeper in the city.

He crawled quickly, his tail lashing out behind him and catching any achromos stupid enough to get close. They fired their weapons at him, the sound of them pinging against his scales and digging into his flesh. He didn’t stop. Not even when his black blood left streaks behind him.

Because he had seen the man. He watched as the achromo ran from him, but there was no terror in the man’s eyes. Only a realization that he was being hunted. And perhaps a thrill in that.

He tracked him through the city. Past massive rooms with glass ceilings, beyond rooms that were filled with so much shit, he couldn’t guess what it all was. Deeper and deeper into the heart of the city. Perhaps this was a trap, but he highly doubted it.

Then he saw the plan. He realized the man had gone to another room with a moon pool they hadn’t seen before. He was already opening the door, standing above a ship with a glass top that he sank into. The man didn’t even look at him as he fired all the sides of the ship and dropped it into the water.

“No you don’t,” he snarled, launching himself into the sea with the ship.

He had seen this in his future, he realized. The achromos fleeing their cities in these small glass bubbles that would take them deeper into the sea. They were fast, but he was faster.

He surged after the ship, following as the man dodged around rock pillars and deeper into the depths. He thought he could get away from Arges. This man thought he was a better swimmer than someone who had been born in the sea.

It took him a while, but eventually he caught up with the man. He grabbed onto the back of the ship and swung. It careened off course, spinning wildly in the dark with its lights flickering on and off as the entire ship struggled to maintain its direction. Arges attached himself to the front of it, ripping pieces off and flinging them into the depths. He didn’t care what pieces he tore off. One of them had to be important.

And then, finally, there was nothing but silence.

He stared into the light at the center of the ship, glaring down at the man inside who must think he was staring at a monster. Perhaps he was. Arges bared his teeth, snapping them in the man’s direction.

But he could see the achromo had a weapon in his hand, and it was pointed right at Arges. “Do it,” the achromo snarled. “I’ll kill you, just like I killed your little whore. A soldier of Tau never stops, no matter how long it takes for us to win.”

“That’s the difference between my kind and yours,” Arges replied, even though he knew the man couldn’t understand. the achromo’s eyes widened, though, and he wondered if it was the first time this soldier had realized the People of Water could speak. “You never know when to stop, and we always have to be the ones to end things.”

He dug his claws into the edges of glass and ripped the shield off of his ship.

Water rushed in long before the man could fire his weapon. Arges was faster than him, anyway. He batted the hand that held the weapon and watched as it joined the sinking ship. But the man he held onto. the achromo dangled in his grip, so small that it was hard to imagine they were so deadly. The man was already drowning, sucking water in like air with his mouth gaping open. He was trying to live, but he hadn’t realized he was already dead.

Arges squeezed his throat a little harder. “You touched her, and that will never happen again. I wish I could rip you apart, limb by limb, and that you would be awake for all that pain. But you will not, because you are weak.” He grabbed one of the man’s arms, then the other. And he knew the moment the achromo realized what he was going to do. “So I will end this quickly, not because you deserve it, but because she needs me more than I need my vengeance.”

Arges ripped.

Both of the arms came off far too easily, and he let the man and his parts return to the sea. Some crab or other creature would snap up the rest of him. Blood filled the water, and he dragged it into his gills so he could taste the metal on his tongue.

Then he turned in the direction of the dome and returned to his mate. The woman who needed him.

The woman he could only hope was still alive.