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.”

OceanofPDF.com

Fourteen

Arges

The pain was blinding. He writhed, his hands pressed against his head as a shrieking sound enveloped every part of his mind. Arges couldn’t tell if it was his own shrieking, the screaming of the depths, or the very mother of the ocean coming to claim her dues.

He was cursed. The witch had cursed him, and he hadn’t known such pain could be inflicted by a creature so small.

Surely the achromo had done something. Had she ripped his gills off? He was a fool for letting her touch him. Trusting a achromo was only for the young and the stupid. Her kind always betrayed his. They were meant to fight just as the sea was meant to be cold. He rolled, scales scraping against the sharp stones outside of the cave.

If he could get to Mitéra, then perhaps she could piece him together. She could rip this curse out of his body and then fling it back upon the achromos. He would tear his achromo’s hair from her head. He would bite off her fingers, one by one, for doing whatever this was. This Mira would know pain unlike anything she had ever felt⁠—

And then it stopped.

All the pain, all the torment, all the bone deep ache, disappeared as quickly as it had come.

Breathing heavily, gills flared wide around his ribs as he sucked in as much water as he could, he floated against the ocean floor. His body pressed against the stones, the soft glow from the cave still merrily beaming out into the ocean. He didn’t know what to do with himself now that there was the sudden lack of pain.

His mind fractured. Part of him wanted to return to the cave and destroy her. Rip her limb from limb for the pain she had caused, and the other half... The other half wanted to continue what they had started. He wanted her to stroke his gills again with those talented fingers. No webs between her digits, and that meant she could reach so much farther while touching both sides.

It had been… exquisite. The pleasure before the pain. He’d arched into her touch, wanting more, needing more, and the heat of her body had called to him worse than any siren song his kind had released into the sea.

She was every temptation he’d ever had, all wrapped up in a body he should hate and a mind that was far too devious. Mira was dangerous, he knew that. And yet, some part of him still wanted to keep her as his own.

Punish her? Absolutely. He would punish her for what she had done, but even as he uncoiled his knotted tail and started back toward the cavern, those dark thoughts turned into something far more pleasurable.

She would know what it felt like for his kind to dominate hers. He would make them fit together, if that’s what it took. Because he had seen the heat in her eyes, and he had seen the way her soft lips parted when she looked at him writhing in her grip. She’d wanted him, just as much as he’d wanted her.

For now, that was enough.

Even the glowing plants in the cave leaned away from him, sensing the anger that burned inside his chest. He was dangerous. He was terrifying. The creature who came out of the depths was not Arges, but a beast made of rage and ruin.

He slowly crested the water, his eyes already narrowed and his gills sealed shut. If she tried to attack him again, he was ready for it.

She stood near the back of the cave, hands gesturing wildly as she chattered with the demon he’d unearthed and something snapped inside him. She didn’t look ashamed or upset at all. Perhaps this had been her plan all along. Maybe she didn’t care if she died in this cavern as long as she took him out with her.

He would show her that it was worthwhile to fear his kind. That she should never have been so foolish as to tempt a creature like him.

It took so little to dive back underneath the water and to the bottom of the small cave. Even less effort to propel himself through the water with a speed so fast that he ripped a few petals off the plants. He launched himself free from the safe grip of the ocean and out into the cave.

He had the distinct pleasure of watching her eyes widen in shock, then fear as he reached his claws out for her. And he knew his sharp teeth were on full display. All the colors in his body rioting as he lunged for her. To her credit and proof of her bravery, she didn’t flinch or try to run away from him. She just stood there, watching with wide eyes and locked muscles as he grabbed her.

Rolling her underneath him, he pressed all his weight down to keep her from struggling. He would tear out her throat with his teeth, if that’s what it took.

But the moment his lips touched her shoulder, she shouted, “Wait! Hold on!”

And he... Understood her?

Arges froze, certain that he’d heard wrong. Certainly, she had not just spoken his language. The creature before him did not know how to speak the language of whales or the tongue of the sea.

His brief moment of hesitation gave her a chance to purge the words from her lungs just as he did water.

“I’m so sorry. I wish I could have told you that it was going to hurt, but how the fuck was I supposed to mime that to you? You’d never let me put any of our devices on you, anyway, so I just had to take the chance.”

Another odd chirping filled the room, this one with metallic clunks. “I told you he’d kill you for this!”

“Shut up, Byte!” she hissed.

And the room fell silent as he drew his face away from her neck and stared down into those wide, strange eyes.

“Again,” he said, gruffly.

“I still don’t know what that word means, but I assume you want me to repeat myself?”

He’d never been so close to her eyes. The strange orbs that looked like the shimmering kelp on a rare day of sunlight. White surrounded the color, and strangely, it made him uncomfortable to meet her gaze. He could so easily track where she was looking. The dark spots in the centers of her eyes contracted, growing smaller, perhaps with fear when he did not move off of her.