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“Oh my gosh. You’re ancient!”

That gives a whole new meaning to the term cradle snatcher,she thought, rubbing her hand over the top of her head in disbelief.

“Have... have you been alone this entire time?” she asked, her voice breaking an octave. Just the idea of Nathair being all by himself for so long was deeply saddening.

He sighed and plonked his head back, tilting his skull to the ceiling. He wouldn’t answer – or couldn’t.

At least he didn’t say yes. She held onto that.

She ran her fingertips over her lips in thought.If not no, then...

“Does that mean you kept other captive women here?” she teased. She wiggled her eyebrows up and down, while being completely uncertain of what answer would actually please her.

Once more, he let out a delicious growl – one that was utterly meaningless as her protector. She gave him a coy grin when he faced her and shook his head. Then, as if he was upset she’d insinuated otherwise, he curled his arm around her midsection and yanked her until she was seated on his pelvis.

She had a funny feeling that if she tried to get off him, he’d get annoyed. She assessed whether she was uncomfortable or not, especially since it probably meant something to him. Since his penis was hidden away, and the area was flat, she found she didn’t mind. They’d already rested together, and had hugged far closer than this.

Okay. No other women... So that means I’m the first?She wanted to be giddy over that, but it just brought on more questions.

Does that mean he’s never been... touched before?Or did he have his own kind to mess with?He figured out what happened to me. He seems to be very knowledgeable about the world.

Linh knew under all that silence he was a very intelligent person. He had to be. He reacted with calculated thought. He was hesitant when he needed to be, forceful when required, and had already shown he knew two languages – English to understand her, and sign language to speak. He could count, write, could hunt, prepare food, and already knew when to give her privacy and space.

Sure, there were times he acted a little more... animalistic, but she figured that was because he was a Duskwalker.

Maybe it’s from all the human memories he has?The voices of different people were a dead giveaway.

Linh was smart, or at least tried to be. She didn’t have many survival skills, but she had a keen eye and usually thought logically when she wasn’t too busy screaming.

She had observed the dangerous being before her with an analytical eye because learning about him made her safer. She just... chose to disregard the constant danger she was in; she’d discovered there were worse things thandying.

Before she could open her mouth to ask another question, she paused when she noticed his orbs were white. Her companion had turned to stone, as if all his muscles had locked up.

He’d slipped into a trance.

“Ugh,rude,” she playfully blurted out. “We were talking.”

She knew it wasn’t his fault and didn’t blame him for spacing out. She also doubted he heard her or would remember it – she hoped.

She considered sliding off now, but decided against it. She was comfortable, and she didn’t think he’d mind, considering he put her here in the first place.

I feel so bad for him,she thought, turning so her left leg was bent on top of him. She stared at the Duskwalker before her.I can tell he hates this.

Sometimes he reacted to the trances. He’d whimper or violently twitch. He hadn’t reacted so violently again after the day on the beach where he’d lost his ever-loving shit, but he sometimes scratched at himself. Most of the time, though, he just froze up.

Sometimes he’d be out of it for a few minutes, other times for hours. It was always random, and she didn’t know if anything in particular set him off. There were even times she’d seen his orbs be white, but he acted like normal except for breathing heavily – like he was still aware while the memories bothered him.

I wish I could help.

She drew her gaze away from his white skull until it landed on his gills. She wanted to touch them and find out if they were as soft as they appeared, or if his chest muscles were as firm as they looked. When they cuddled, she occasionally felt the dense plane of his stomach, and the way his tail muscles clenched in waves to help him move around.

His black scales looked like segments of glossy ink in muted light, dancing across his chest, his arms, and almost every inch of his body except around his navel. The scales around it were smaller, and more like a dark grey. That same grey matched the underside of his soft but thick hands, and his gills.

The white of his ribs was pronounced, and they looked unusually clean. They weren’t entirely porous, like real bone, which made them only appear stronger and unbreakable. She eyed the light-grey fin frills going down his sides. Linh knewthe location of his pelvis due to the half-sunken hip bones protruding out of his flesh.

She nibbled her lip, since she was sitting between both of them.

He really is spectacular.Hard and soft all over. Each scale was smooth on its own, the quantity of them making him bumpy, but he was rough due to his external bones. A mixture of different black, grey, and white tones, only to sometimes be dazzlingly splashed with rainbows.