Page 26 of Call of the Fathoms (Deep Waters #4)

Twenty-Six

Fortis

F ortis had known letting her go alone was foolish. She was an achromo, soft and easily hunted. Too many creatures under the sea knew an opportunity when they saw one, and she was certainly that. The shoal of squid had seen her weakness. They were hungry. He couldn’t blame them.

Her taste was delicious in the salty brine, and he wasn’t the only one who thought so. They had hunted her, bested her, by any right they deserved to get a bite out of her body. But he couldn’t let her die. Her own foolish choices were what brought her to this moment, but...

He’d seen her floating there, still struggling against the attack and fighting with every ounce of energy left in her form. Alexia never knew when to stop, and he’d found that remarkable about her from day one. Allowing her to leave him had never been an option.

Looking down at her limp form in his grasp, he had to admit that he felt something for Alexia. He didn’t want her to die. That was far more than he could say for a majority of people in his life.

As he darted through the water, holding her tight to his chest, he tried to ignore the scent of blood that coated his gills. She was going to be fine, he told himself. Yes, those wounds were ragged. He could see the vibrant flash of muscle and strangely yellow fat that lined her body in each wound. It was a gruesome sight, but she was stronger than most achromos. She would survive.

But when she said she had no oxygen, he’d nearly lost his nerve. After all that he had done to avoid the achromos, to prove that he did not wish to have them in his life, even as the others took them as their mates... he was now connected to one. He breathed for her, inhaled and exhaled even as she struggled to stay alive. He pushed air into her lungs over and over again, as though his body could tell hers that he would not let her go. No matter how hard she tried to escape him.

Light burst into the ocean as the sun came out. He was close to the surface now, and close to the small village they had built for the other achromos who were working with his people. But now he could see the extent of her injuries and it made him swim ever faster.

Her skin was paler than he’d ever seen it, nearly bone white. Her limbs were limp as he swam, dangling over his arms and fins as though he carried a dead body. She didn’t look at him, didn’t react to a word he said even when he repeated her name.

This wasn’t good, and the realization unsettled him. Fortis didn’t want to imagine what her stillness might mean. No, he needed her to be fixed. And immediately.

A movement in the distance to his right warned him that another was approaching. But he didn’t even need to guess who might hunt him down.

He and his son had not gone weeks without seeing each other since Aulax had been taken to Alpha. His son was always the first to track Fortis down, and always had been. But he rarely was gone this long.

He didn’t slow down, knowing that if anyone could keep up with him, that hunter would be his son.

Together, they blasted through the water as his boy joined him. “I see your hunt was successful,” Aulax called out.

“In a way.”

“Who is she?”

“A great power in Tau. She has battled me many times and has proven herself to be a warrior we can trust.” He didn’t want to say too much. She didn’t smell like him, at least. That was a small bit of luck, so he didn’t have to explain to his son why this warrior woman had been close enough to smell like Fortis.

But it was hard to hide. His fingers clenched her a little harder, dragging her closer to his chest as though his son were a threat. He didn’t recognize the response. He’d never cared if any of the other achromo mates were around his people. Why did this one illicit such a feeling?

He was struggling, and he wasn’t sure how to address it. Breathing hard, he looked over at his son, who had yet to take his eyes off Alexia.

“She’s going to die, father,” his son murmured. A flash of bright yellow trailed down Aulax’s spine, as though he was sad to say it. “Those wounds...”

“She was attacked by a shoal.” He needed his son to know that he had not done this. He needed someone to understand that he was not so lost in his hatred that he would harm a woman like this.

Damn it, she wasn’t a woman. She was an achromo. Why were his thoughts so jumbled?

He should give her over to his son. Aulax would take her to the others and ensure that she received the help she needed. But even the thought made him press her even tighter to his chest and his tail flick faster like he could out swim his boy. He didn’t want anyone to touch her but himself.

And yet, he knew he couldn’t save her himself. Not with wounds like these.

Fortis would have to hand her over, and that would be difficult for him. He wasn’t sure why. He trusted these people far more than he trusted her, and still he didn’t want to let her go. What if they tried to kill her because of where she had come from? What if they tried to enact some kind of revenge for everything Tau had done?

His mind raced even as the domes came into view. They had done even more work since he had left, and there were quite a few engineers and droids now. What had once been a single, centuries old abandoned dome had turned into a sprawling village of achromos mingled together with his people. The domes were now bubbles all linked through glass and metal tubes. One of the achromos had claimed it looked a bit like a hamster cage. He had no idea what a hamster was, and did not listen when the young man had tried to explain it.

The sunlight glinted off the glass, showing the moving bodies within. Achromos moved inside, some of them working on droids, others programming new schematics for expansion of their village, a few gardening. There were so many things to do within those bubbles that he could hardly imagine how they kept it all straight.

Outside of the walls were the droids. At least a dozen of them, all welding and fixing what needed to be fixed alongside two achromos who were nearly always in the water.

Mira was quick to be the first to jump in with her welder and start building. Arges floated beside her, a massive metal panel in his hands that he held as though it weighed nothing at all. To their people, the metal was surprisingly light. He held it in place for her as she sparked the welder in her hands and started in on the panel. Soon enough, that would be another outbuilding, or garden, or whatever it was that Mira got in her head. She’d been the spearhead of expanding the entire village and never seemed to stop.

The other achromo in the water, Ace, turned as soon as he arrived. That woman had eyes on the back of her head and always seemed to know when someone new was in the area. He didn’t see Maketes, but he was quite certain his yellow finned brother would show up soon enough. They all had to stare when a newcomer arrived, and he was certain he made quite the spectacle.

Fortis didn’t stop. If they wanted to talk with him, they could do so later. He needed to get her to the infirmary and beg Anya to take care of her. They didn’t even have a healing pod like many of the major cities did.

“Father,” Aulax said as they sped through the village to the very back. “I think you should prepare yourself that she might not?—”

He leveled his son with a look. “We do not put thoughts like that out into the sea unless we wish for her to make them true.”

“It is not a thought, but a fact. She has lost too much blood, father. There is nothing you or I can do to change that.”

As they reached the infirmary, Fortis had to stop and wait for Aulax to open the moon pool door. And as he floated there, holding her in his arms, all he could think was that he couldn’t be too late. Not when he had just gotten her to agree that she would help them. Not when he had finally realized that she was more than just someone who hated his people.

Grinding his teeth, he held still as the doors opened above his head. Aulax reached forward and touched a lock of Alexia’s hair, twining it around his finger before letting it float away.

“She must have been a very impressive warrior for you to fight so hard for her,” Aulax muttered. “You are not like this with many achromo.”

So many words were hidden in what his son said. He stared at the man his boy had become, waiting for Aulax to break and say what he meant. The squeaking doors above them would only provide them a small amount of privacy for so long.

Finally, Aulax cleared his gills with a forceful thwack. “I have never seen you worried about their kind, and you reek of fear, Father. I just want to know what has led you to this point.”

“I...” He took a deep breath. “I am impressed by this one.”

“That doesn’t mean you react like this.”

He loosened his hold on her legs and reached forward to touch Aulax’s shoulder. Gripping it hard, he stared deep into his son’s eyes and prayed that if anyone would understand him, it would be the child who had come from his own body. “I do not have an answer for you. This one is not like the others. She is important and I must... We must keep her safe.”

The doors finished opening, and he gave his son a look that promised he would return soon enough. They would need to speak of this, eventually.

He busted through the rest of the moon pool door, scraping off a few scales in the process as he launched himself out of the water fast enough that he could sit on the edge without ever putting her down. Anya was waiting for him, a confused expression on her face, until she saw the woman in his arms.

She let out a gasp and pressed her fingers to her mouth. “Fortis, what is happening?”

Anya always said his name strangely. It was an odd name, and likely one she had never heard before she had lost her hearing. As such, the word was always slightly slurred as she said it.

He tilted Alexia in his arms. Her head lolled to the side, her hair shifting so Anya could see Alexia’s face. “She needs help.”

“She’s lost a lot of blood. I can make her comfortable, but?—”

Anya froze at the look on his face. He glared at her with every ounce of rage that made him shake. The look said he would need retribution if Alexia died, and that he would take that retribution out of Anya’s own hide if she failed in this.

The water stirred next to him, and he could hear the rumbling of voices in the water. Clearly, Aulax was having to argue with Daios. The male didn’t like Fortis much to begin with, and having Anya alone with him? This was likely eating Daios alive.

Good, let the red devil feel a little uncomfortable.

Anya shuddered before stepping closer. “Can I try something first?”

He nodded, though his gaze was narrowed, and he kept his gaze firmly on her. She reached for the breathing tube stuck in Alexia’s throat and gently removed it. There was the faintest sound of suction and then... silence.

Her chest didn’t rise. She didn’t breathe. Without the tube in her neck, she wasn’t doing anything on her own.

He couldn’t breathe either. Had this all been his fault? Had he somehow done this to her? She didn’t deserve to die like this, not when he had just found out what she looked like while she was so fucking beautiful and needy. She was too strong for this. He refused to believe she would die.

Hand shaking, he took the tube out of Anya’s hand and placed it back in Alexia’s neck. “Do what you can.”

“I can’t do anything, Fortis. She’s been dead for too long, her brain hasn’t had enough oxygen. It doesn’t work like a switch.”

Another achromo walked into the room, looking at a clipboard in his hand. “Hey, Anya? If Bitsy is on, do you mind explaining this request to me?”

But then he looked up and froze. His mouth dropped open, and Fortis could see recognition bloom in his eyes. It was almost like the man knew something that would help them.

With a flex of his tail, he slapped the man into the opposite wall and pinned him to the metal. “What do you know?”

The man wheezed out a long breath, slapping at the scales that held him trapped.

“Fortis!” Anya shouted.

The commotion was sure to bring more achromos. They all were so meddlesome. So he reached for the man quickly, dragging him close enough that he could smell the fear on the man’s breath.

“What do you know?” Fortis snarled.

“Nothing much! Just rumors. People in Alpha used to... talk.” He scrabbled at Fortis’s hands, trying desperately to get away from him. “Let me go.”

“Tell me more.”

“Genetic experiments. People who were larger, stronger, more capable of protecting important people. I used to work for a few doctors there and they all claimed that it was possible, and that they’d heard of other cities doing it.” Another long whimper followed the words. “Please let me go.”

Anya’s hand touched his forearm, but he knew there was importance in this whelp’s words. Doctor. Scientist. Whatever the creature called himself. Coiling his tail around the man, he wrapped the soft flesh in cold, wet scales and forced him closer to Alexia. “Can you save her?”

The man gulped. His eyes were too wide and his heartbeat thundered against Fortis’s tail, but there was only a short hesitation before he nodded. “If she’s one of them, then she should be able to survive a lot more than this. I can... I can try.”

It was good enough.