“Fuck.” I eye the water. “What do you think we have to do? You’re the expert. God, I wish I had a weapon, I hate this.”

“I am your weapon,” Kanuz tells me earnestly, and my heart does that little squeeze.

“I appreciate that,” I say, because I do, “but I would feel better if I had my gun. Or an energy weapon. Whatever it is you Suevans like.”

He holds up his talons.

“Right.”

“We use energy weapons as well,” Kanuz says with a hint of a laugh. “I will find one for you as soon as we are able to.” He tugs me closer to him, and for a moment, I simply breathe him in, letting his now-familiar masculine, earthy smell wash over me.

It calms me, my heart slowing. It’s probably just because I’m breathing slowly… but he does smell nice.

More bubbles appear.

“What would make those?” I ask conversationally, eyeing a skull-sized rock. Swimming with a rock is probably not my brightest idea.

“Probably a zeloth. They are very cute when they are small.”

“Oh.” Relief washes over me. “That’s good to hear.”

“They are deadly when they are full-grown, and I imagine the one that might make its home here is ancient.”

“Oh.” I swallow hard. “So… we’re in trouble.”

“It could be the rocks shifting, as you hypothesized.” He shrugs, and pain flickers over his face.

“Why don’t you let me look at where you’re hurt?”

“Because there is nothing to do about it.”

“Sure there is—"

“Our best bet is to keep moving, as you remind me every time you become aroused. If you did not keep telling me you are uninterested in exploring my sexual prowess, I would think you were in a hurry to bed me, Gen.”

I huff an indignant breath.

Water surges upward, and my jaw drops as a wave drenches me.

“Oh, shit.”

The thing that surfaces is, like everything on Sueva, huge. Tentacles flail, and as one slams into the rocky ground beside me, I note that the suckers are lined with what looks like tiny teeth. It’s near translucent, blue veins and muscle visible underneath the clear skin. One giant eye protrudes from the sharp tip of a bulbous squid-like head.

“Lovely,” I mutter.

“A zeloth,” Kanuz proclaims, laughing a little as he shoves me behind him.

“Is it an ancient one?” I ask, suddenly yelling over the splashing of water and the strange squelching and clicking noises the creature’s making. “It’s pretty big!”

“No, my sweet golden flower, this is a medium-sized one.” And with that, Kanuz laughs again, then swan dives into the black pool of water, disappearing under the thrashing tentacles.

Perfectly rational behavior.

When confronted with a big ole alien tentacle monster, laugh and dive in the water and take a nice swim with it.

Why not?

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

OceanofPDF.com

KANUZ

This is less than ideal. My tail propels me through the water, toward where the zeloth’s most sensitive. The water is dark, yes, but not too dark to see. For my sweet wife, though, it must be terrifying. I set my jaw. There is nothing to do but move on and escape this place. I slice through the water, dodging to avoid a flailing arm of the great water beast.

Still, I cannot help but echo my mate’s thoughts.

I wish I had a better weapon.

Sure, the zeloth is not as huge as I feared, but it is still a formidable opponent. To take it down, I will have one opportunity to strike its delicate underbelly. They cannot live out of the water, but I would not risk my Gen to lure it out onto dry land. I have to do this right.

If I miss, it will latch on to me and feast on my blood.

Even my hide is no match for its many knife-sharp teeth.

I hate to think of what the zeloth will do to my prickly but delicate mate. The thought spurs me forward, bubbles leaking from my nostrils as I careen towards my target.

There.

The soft, pale blue underbelly. I stretch my hand out, preparing to rake my talons across it, eviscerating it in one blow. I kick, closing in. One inch. A half inch.

Something wraps around my ankle, and I yell, the water swallowing the sound. As the creature tows me under, all I can think of is my sweet mate, and how I have failed her.

Gen

I pace the shoreline, the zeloth or tentacle monster or whatever preoccupied with Kanuz’s ill-advised swimming lesson. Tentacles smash across the surface, and I don’t bother dodging. I’m drenched. In fact, the displaced water laps at my ankles.

My eyes widen, and I look down.

Oh, fuck me. My heartbeat speeds up, and I can feel the adrenaline kicking into overdrive, sending tingles down my fingertips.

It’s not displaced water.

The water is fucking rising. As I watch, open-mouthed, it surges past the tops of my boots.

“Fuck me.”

A hoarse swear interrupts my reverie at this new shit-stain of a situation, and when I look up, the goddamn monster’s holding Kanuz up by an ankle, blood leaking into the frothy water.

“The water’s rising,” I yell at him.

“Go for its underbelly,” Kanuz shouts back, his eyes wild.

“Oh, so now you want to include me in your death-defying behavior?” I mutter, looking around for something, anything, I can use as a weapon. It better be death-defying. I don’t want anything to happen to Kanuz. I don’t want to do this alone.

I need him to be okay.

“Hang in there,” I yell, ransacking my mind for a solution. The water continues to rise, way too fast. Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck.

“What else would I do?” Kanuz responds, growling as he slashes at the tentacle holding him aloft. For a moment, I stand stock-still, unable to do anything but watch as he severs the tentacle. When he crashes into the water, my body unlocks, and I splash around like a chicken with its head cut off before settling on a sharp-edged rock.

Better than nothing.

My boots slosh as I move, the water nearly to my knees. They’re going to weigh me down. Fuck. I put the rock down, unlacing my waterlogged boots as fast as I can. They float where I abandon them, and I work at the wet button to my pants, losing those too. I need to move as quickly as I can if I have a snowball’s chance in hell of finding the tentacle monster’s underbelly.

I didn’t even know tentacle monsters had bellies, but here I am, in alien hell, learning all kinds of new, fucked-up shit!

Clad in my underwear, I shiver as the water hits my thighs, grabbing the sharp rock from where I’ve left it. The current of the rushing water tugs at my legs, pulling me backward, but I grit my teeth and push through to where Kanuz disappeared into the dark depths.

“Fuck the Federation,” I grit out, furious and pumped up with adrenaline. “Fuck them for doing this to us.” The alien monster makes a strange wet-sounding scream, and I glare at it. “And fuck you, too!”

I take another step forward, and my bare foot lands on nothing.

I’m in too deep now. I snort, then fill my lungs with air, and plunge into the abyss.

Cold water rushes all around me, and I open my eyes, trying to get my bearings. It’s pitch black at first. But as I swim deeper, narrowly avoiding the tentacles, which seem occupied with Kanuz, definitely the bigger threat of the two of us, something blinks brightly deep, deep down.

A tentacle lashes at me, and bubbles burst from my mouth as it tears at my leg. I don’t bother looking back, pushing deeper and away from the pain, away from the thrashing water above. The little lights below beckon, and I swim faster, my ears popping and lungs starting to burn.

Fish. It’s little white fish, all glowing, as they flit around a circular object… bubbles stream from my mouth, and I try to make out the sculpture carved underground.