Page 10 of Call of the Fathoms (Deep Waters #4)

Ten

Fortis

H e followed the ship into the murk of the sea. Fortis had to admit, most of what he’d done had been enraged moments of mistakes. Her memories had given him only the slightest hint at who she was and what information he could use to his advantage. The largest problem arose with the realization that she could kick him out of her mind. No one had ever been able to do that before, certainly not an achromo.

He looked into people’s memories and into their future. Once they locked eyes with him, there was no changing that. He looked as much as he wanted, and even then, he would look more if he so desired. No one could stop him.

Until her.

Until she had realized he was there. Maybe that was his fault, he mused as he trailed the slowly declining ship with lights that blinked on and off. Maybe he shouldn’t have taunted her while he was in her mind.

That must be it. He would test it out with Maketes, who hated for Fortis to be in his mind. Perhaps if he was talking to any other of his kind, then they would be able to tell that Fortis was there. Although, perhaps he should wait and try it with his son at first. The depthstriders didn’t need other People of Water realizing they could kick them out of their heads. Such a risk was unnecessary, and rumors floated every which way when it came to his people.

Fins flaring, he slowed himself as he saw the ledge beneath the ship. It wasn’t as far as he wanted her to sink. The pressure of the depths were more likely to get her to cave to him faster, but if this was what the sea wanted, then he would make do. At least here he could safely get her out of the ship without her exploding into a thousand little dusty pieces of blood.

Not that she was likely to get out of the ship after that entire situation. Maybe he would need to hurry that situation along. At least if he could make her think that she had a chance, he could convince her to come back out.

Because those memories weren’t enough. The Originals were who he was after, and the sea had sent him to the perfect person after all. She not only knew about these abominations, but she worked for one directly. If there was anyone who could give him enough information about their kind to make a direct attack, it was her.

He’d been given a treasure trove of a woman and he needed to start treating her like that. He wasn’t sure he would get another chance to question someone like her.

The ship hit the ledge with an echoing crunch. He could feel it. The plumes of dust surrounded it as the hull gave a massive groan. He flicked his tail, lunging forward in case the entire thing cracked.

He’d seen that happen before. A ship had sunk from Beta and the moment it hit the sea floor, it cracked in half. The achromos had floated out of it for days, their bodies stinking up the seas for weeks afterwards.

But her ship held. Instead, all he heard was more cursing and clanking from within. A secondary voice, one that sounded suspiciously like a droid, was speaking with his warrior woman.

Virago . He floated closer, making sure all of his lights were out so that he was impossible to see unless he was pressed right up against the glass. He was a fool for giving her a name. Someone like her didn’t deserve one.

The lights attached to his fins flickered, as though his own body was calling him out on the lie. She deserved a name. She’d exited her safe ship and faced him with only a small amount of fear that he could taste in the water. Then, when she’d gotten away all on her own, she’d gotten back into her ship and fired at him.

A woman like that deserved a name more than just the one the achromos had given her.

Damn it, he wasn’t supposed to respect the woman. He needed to peel her apart, and that was the only option he had.

He swore the ghost of his dead wife would appear any moment to smack him over the back of the head. He did her a dishonor by even indulging himself with this achromo who should have been thrown back to her world above.

Shaking his head, he distracted himself from the complicated thoughts by looking at what was happening within the ship. She held a wrench in her hand and was fiddling with something. Soon enough, she’d gotten one of the panels open and was ripping something silver out of it.

Wait, he’d seen one of those before. That was an emergency blanket. Was it cold in there?

He looked over the lights that were all blinking rapidly outside and within the ship. Yes, it must be cold. She was going to freeze to death if she didn’t do something about it. The deep sea wasn’t warm enough for her kind.

Interesting.

He floated closer, letting his lights blink on one by one. He could hear her talking, likely to the droid that controlled the ship. She’d wrapped the silver blanket around her body and was muttering something that he couldn’t quite hear.

“Cold?” he asked.

Part of this worked into his plan. She deserved to see the wounds she had inflicted upon him. Perhaps that would make her believe that if she exited the ship again, she could continue to harm him. Over and over again, eventually she would wound him enough that he would die.

Or at least, that’s what he hoped she would assume. Already the sea was closing the stab wound, although the laser wound would take longer to heal.

She whipped around, her wet hair tangling in front of her eyes at the movement. “Fuck off, undine.”

“I don’t think I will.”

“You’ve trapped me down here. Come to gloat?”

“I’d rather make a deal.” He swam past the front window, making sure his injured tail slid against the glass so she could see what her work had done. It wasn’t much in the grand scheme of his body, but it was still an injury.

He heard her intake of breath at the sight. Good. Let her think she had bested him and that he was hurting. He barely even felt the tiny slit in his side.

Circling back around, he laid himself on top of the ship so she had to stare up at him. Only his torso and a small portion of his tail would be visible to her. Hopefully she would think he was less of a monster because of it. She couldn’t see all the massive length of his tail or the lights that were flickering back on, one by one.

“I don’t want to make a deal with you. Somehow, I have a feeling I would be on the losing end of that deal.” She wrapped the silver blanket around her a little tighter. “Computer, how are we doing on that battery?”

“I have turned off all portions of the ship that are unnecessary. You have two hours and sixteen minutes to remove any food from storage before it freezes.”

“Thank you,” she hissed before stomping toward the back of the ship, which had no windows.

But he wanted to see what she was doing. This woman was clearly very capable, and she had a plan for surviving this deep in the ocean. What would she do? The curiosity in his chest burned, and it hadn’t done that in a very long time. He couldn’t just look into her future, either. She wasn’t meeting his gaze any longer.

Frowning, he crawled over the top of her ship, dragging himself along it. Claws clinking as he moved, he waited until he could hear the faintest banging beneath him, and then started tapping back.

“What are you doing, virago?”

“Go away!” she shouted, but there was a slight strain to her voice.

No, that wouldn’t do. He needed her alive and well, not possibly hurting herself. He had yet to see into her future because he’d been the fool so interested in her past. Grinding his teeth, he spat out, “Come where I can see you.”

“You sank my ship into the bottom of the ocean. You don’t get to tell me what to do.” Another grunt, and this time he could hear her moving again.

Crawling the opposite direction, he moved back to the glass to see her place down a crate that was so massive, he was shocked she could pick it up. And then she disappeared back in the other direction.

It wasn’t that big of a ship. He could stay where he was if she was going to keep coming back. And she did. Crate after crate, she placed on the main section of the ship and then tapped the side of it.

“Computer, close off the living quarters.”

“Affirmative.”

The living quarters? The ship was hardly large enough for that. But then she stepped out of the way and a massive wall sank down from the ceiling. It closed off the rest of the ship, leaving her with enough space to maybe walk five or six steps. And considering she’d filled the space with crates, she could barely move as it was.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“I made it so that I can survive a few more days,” she muttered. He watched her take a deep breath before rummaging through the crate on top of the pile. “Leave.”

“I have no plans to do that.”

“Why are you hanging around?”

“I’m curious to see what you will do now. I want to know if you’ll let yourself starve.” She’d have to, after all. It wasn’t like she could hunt fish from where she was in this tiny contraption.

“I’m changing. Unless you want to be disgusted by my human body, you should leave.”

He was certain it would be disgusting. He’d seen bodies like hers before. Their two boney tails were the most disturbing things he’d seen. But of course, there was also the opportunity to enrage her. If only he could get her mad enough, she might look at him and allow him to peer into her future this time.

Baring his teeth, he took the opportunity that was presented. “I am certain you are ridiculously ugly. Just look at you now. I’ve never seen an achromo who looks like you before, and certainly that was by design. They did not care to make you pretty and functional.”

“It was entirely by design.” She carefully folded and placed the silver blanket in the pilot’s seat at the front of the ship. And then she peeled that wetsuit off her arms. Though her back was to him, he could already see there was much he could talk about.

Not a single scale on her body protected her from the elements, and she was far too muscular. The shoulders she revealed were rounded, far too large to be attractive to her kind. After all, they were such foolhardy people that they liked their women to be smaller than they were. Ridiculous.

“My kind seek out larger woman than they are,” he informed her. “We desire a woman with bite. A woman who can protect herself, with claws and sharp teeth, who would make even the greatest of sharks flee from them.”

But then that wetsuit slipped down the impressive muscles of her back and he forgot what he was saying. By all the gods in the sea, this woman was strong. He could see all that power in the way her back moved as she shifted the material away from her skin. The hollow of her spine trailed down to a trim waist, even though her shoulders were broad and strong.

Dotted all along her back were scars. He could tell they were old, as many of them were pale. So many of them. Some in long lines, some deeper and ropey textured, suggesting that they were mortal wounds. Some of them were little, though. Tiny pinpricks that looked almost like lines of stitches, the same as his people would do. Hundreds of them, scattered all along her skin and circling to her ribs.

She didn’t seem to care that he was looking. Instead, she just peeled the wetsuit off her body. Now she was nude. Standing there in the middle of the room with her back to him as she pulled dry clothing out of that top crate, completely unaware that she had rendered him mute.

He hated their legs. Always had. Achromo had two tails that were both useless at swimming, when they should have had at least one working tail. But this woman’s legs were powerful. Thick thighs with defined muscles that flexed with every movement. Her glutes were...

Why was he staring so hard at her ass? There was no reason for it. He had never been someone who cared what an achromo’s ass looked like. His people barely had them. Their muscular tails were clearly powerful, but glutes were something that just developed. And they certainly didn’t look like that .

Was he calling it an ass even in his head? He’d been around their kind too long. He didn’t need to know the nicknames for their anatomy. They were her gluteus maximus, they were…

The globes moved as she did, and then his eyes widened as she bent down to slide pants over her legs. Goddess, how was it even better when she bent down like that? The view was stunning, remarkable, and he was staring at an achromo like he’d never seen one before.

Growling, he forced himself backward over the ship so he wasn’t looking at her anymore. At least the lack of sight would stop him from thinking all these terrible things.

Stupid depthstrider. He knew better than to get interested in a person. Already he could feel himself desiring more and more to look into her future, and it wasn’t because he wanted to find out anything about the Originals. He wanted to find out more about her .

What made her the way she was? She was massive compared to the others of her kind, and he had seen that she was made, not born. But how? Why had that they done that? The achromos were a confusing lot at the best of times, so why had she served those who created her?

Perhaps he didn’t need to look into her future. Perhaps he could get her to talk to him. All he had to do was steal that medicine, which clearly controlled her.

Peering back over the edge of the glass, he frowned as she sat down in the pilot’s chair and opened a small box. Within it were a myriad of needles. She took one of them and then stuck it into a bottle full of some kind of fluid.

Was she going to give herself the drugs? It appeared she was, because she very quickly filled the needle in her hand and then plunged it into her arm. No reaction. Not a single one. She just stared into the darkness of the abyss as she did so, and then placed the needle back in the box once she was done.

That was what he needed to get, then. Whatever medicine she was giving herself, that was the barrier he had to tear down.