Page 5 of Call of the Fathoms (Deep Waters #4)

Five

Alexia

T hat bastard had just stolen her reborn.

She had no idea how he wasn’t passed out, but she’d had a bad feeling from the moment she’d walked into the room. The scientists were always overconfident in what their drugs could do. Look at her own situation. She was thinking and feeling for herself when that shouldn’t be possible. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that an undine would be able to do something similar.

His breathing had been too shallow. She’d seen people under anesthesia before, many times. The reborns were usually under some concoction of drugs to keep them calm and quiet while they were in their tubes. None of their breaths were so measured. It was like he had been counting between inhaling and exhaling. Too perfect. Too regular.

That was why she had stayed so close to the doctors. The last thing she needed on her record was the death of an entire room of people who were not as easily replaced.

But to lose a reborn? She’d never done anything worse than that. Reborns were worth more than the lives of every single person in that room.

So when she stared down into the black waters that still churned with the weight of him striking them, she knew there wasn’t another choice.

The doctor ran into the room behind her, his breath sawing through his lungs. “Did you catch it?”

“No,” she hissed. “It learned how to lock and unlock the door, likely by watching our own soldiers.”

“Impossible. They made sure it was drugged.”

“It wasn’t.”

Spinning, she hit the button on her wristband and started barking out orders. “The undine has escaped with one of Harlow’s reborns. Turn all exterior lights on in Sector 251. Every single one of them. I want to see where the bastard is going.”

There was a scratchy sound on the other end, but then she could hear the city coming to life. Tau wasn’t just a fortress that should have been difficult to break into. It was also a living machine that could do whatever it took to protect those within it. The arms extended outside, weapons engaging as powerful lights turned on that would turn the entire sea into a summer’s day.

Stalking to the back of the room, she slammed her hand down on one of the panels to open up a wall. Metal suits were lined on the other side. Suits that would withstand almost any pressure of the sea, just like her body could with all her genetic enhancements, and keep her alive even more than her own genetic enhancements could. The thin metal looked like ribs that would cover her own, stronger bones in the arms and legs that would prevent her own from being snapped if he caught her.

“What are you doing?” Doctor Barker asked, his voice shaking as he repeated himself. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m going after them.”

“You can’t go after them! You want to dive into open water with an undine? That’s suicide, Alexia.”

No, it wasn’t. Because she had her suit. Because they had spent countless years teaching her how to fight, how to tear apart the world with her fists, and how to learn from other people’s fighting tactics to see just how much she could push herself. She was one of the few people who could do this.

The red button on the wall opened the suit like a clam. She stepped into it, turning around so her back was pressed where it needed to be and then slotting her hands through the arms of the suit. Hissing sounds filled her ears as the suit reacted to her being inside of it, carefully closing and then sealing her within.

It wasn’t a suit that covered her entire body. More like an exoskeleton that would help her move faster and swim farther. The metal was light, barely adding over twenty-five pounds to her figure, but strong. Flexing her hands, she reached above her head and pulled down the face mask that would give her oxygen while she was down there.

“Is the reborn still alive?” she asked, shifting her feet in the boots.

“The temperature of the water... and we don’t even know why the undine grabbed her...”

“Doctor Barker!” Alexia shouted his name in his face, stepping out of the wall and advancing on him. “Is the reborn alive?”

He stammered, but finally answered her question. “It’s entirely possible, yes. The water is cold enough to perhaps put her back in stasis and as long as he did not remove her breathing tube, then yes. It is entirely possible that the reborn is alive.”

“Good enough.”

She hit the button to heat the suit up, enough that it would help her in the freezing cold temperatures of the depths. She’d trained in below freezing temperatures for hours. She knew what her body could take. The genetic enhancements were good for something, she supposed.

Alexia hit the water hard, sinking straight to the bottom of the plateau that surrounded Tau. Her boots hit the ground, silt and dust puffing up around her body as she shifted before hitting the button that would propel the boots. Suddenly, she was flying through the ocean.

Everything was illuminated, so it was easy for her to see where she was going. There wasn’t much of a hint of where he went, but she could follow the lights. The other guards were surely leading her toward the undine, so she didn’t go in the direction where there weren’t any lights. The speed with which she cut through the water was almost maddening.

But rage made her not think straight. This undine had taken something from her. It had made her look a fool, and even then, no one was allowed to come into Tau and take a single thing from the city that was meant to be impenetrable.

Lifting her wrist, she hit the button to speak. “The men that brought the undine into the city? Kill them.”

“Should we confirm with Original Harlow first?”

“Inform Harlow that they are the reason her reborn is currently in the depths of the sea, and then kill them. I don’t care. Mistakes like that will not be tolerated.”

And then she caught sight of him. The undine. The bastard who had stolen her greatest honor and made her seem incompetent. The flicker of a tail as the lights followed him through the depths of the sea that he called home. Hitting the buttons on the thumbs of the suit to go even faster, she pursued.

At first, it didn’t seem like he knew where he was going. Tau was a labyrinth. The entirety of the city wrapped around itself, like some kind of churning whirlpool of a building. It was easy to get lost. If he went straight up, which she almost hoped that he would, then he would run into the most powerful of all of their weapons. The lasers were very accurate. They would target only him, and not the reborn.

But the creature did not go straight up. Instead, he continued winding through the tunnels and through the difficult areas of Tau where he might accidentally get caught.

Was he trying to lose her? She knew the layout of this place far better than he could ever hope to. Surely he had to know that he would not escape her.

But he was heading toward an area that would make it more difficult for her to follow him. There was an abyss at the edge of Tau, mostly where they dropped all of their garbage and the bodies that they needed to get rid of. That would disappear into the depths of the sea and she definitely would have a hard time keeping up with them then.

If he made it through the shield. If he struck that with the reborn in his arms, they would both die. And she would still be at fault for the death of a reborn.

Lifting her arm, she shouted, “Drop the shield in Sector 254.”

“What?”

“Drop it now!”

She watched a shimmer of light ripple in front of them and swore the undine looked back and grinned at her. As though he knew she would drop the shield.

The lights of Tau only stretched so far. Of course, he went right over the edge of the cliff and down she followed him. Faster and faster, until she swore there were eyes on her from above, from the sides, from everywhere.

Alexia had learned to listen to her own intuition. Even when she was doing all of her basic training as a kid, she knew when someone else was going to hit her. She’d learned to read other people’s bodies, knew that when her gut said something was going to happen, that she had to listen to it or something terrible would happen to her. Right now was one of those moments. She knew, without a doubt, that the undine wasn’t below her anymore. He was somewhere in this water with her.

So she turned the suit and stopped. Clicking on the light at her shoulder, she peered through the darkness that was only pierced by tiny filaments of white dust. The small jets on the bottom of her boots kept her in place, making sure she didn’t move when she wanted to remain still. She needed to listen. To look through the water when she knew he was hunting her now.

But there was nothing to even see in the water like this. Just the darkness that surrounded her. Breathing slowly, she connected with that part of herself that could sense when someone was looking at her.

Unfortunately, she was too late.

He barreled out of nowhere, just barely catching in the light attached to the suit before she felt the first slice of his claw. He dragged the long tip of it down her arm, and blood bloomed in the water as he disappeared. She had no idea where he had gone, but he wasn’t with her any longer.

Then again, he came, suddenly, and out of nowhere. Alexia reacted better this time. She reached for the knife at her side and lashed out at him. She swore she caught onto something, but he didn’t react like he’d been struck. Instead, that massive bulk slid along her side and a knife punctured through her torso.

Letting out a low groan, she turned with him. But that only made things worse. Not a knife after all. They were serrated spines and part of him, she realized. He had spines all down the backs of his arms, down his back and his tail. All of those spines were the sharpness that had scraped along her, tearing open her side and ripping through her flesh with so much ease.

She’d never fought against something like this. Never in her life.

Alexia should have been better at fighting him. She should have been more prepared after all of her training, but right now, she realized she was very much the weakest one in this battle. She was in his domain, and she should have respected that.

But she would not give up. Not when there was still a chance that she could win her honor back.

Hitting buttons on the suit, she turned on the rest of the few meager lights she had and then called out, “I know you can understand me! You’re the first of your kind that I’ve seen with a translation device.”

The waters seemed to still. No, not still. He was circling her. Like a shark. Twisting and winding around her, but slowly now as he stalked her.

“Give me the reborn,” she said, knowing her voice was carrying through the water to his ears. “And I will let you go.”

A long, low chuckle echoed in the water. She had no idea what direction it was coming from. Instead, the sound seemed to surround her. Wrapping her body up in that deep, achingly powerful voice. Since when had she ever thought a voice was interesting like that? But she wanted to listen to him talk about anything.

As if that wasn’t an insane thought when she was currently bleeding out in the water.

Then he spoke, not just a chuckle, but words. “You will die here, achromo.”

“I’m not going to die unless I take you with me,” she replied.

There was a long pause. She had to imagine she had surprised him. After all, he clearly thought that he was getting away with whatever he wanted, considering her people weren’t supposed to know that his could even speak.

“Allow me to trade you information. I can understand you,” she said. “Tau deciphered your language a long time ago, the first year we all moved down here. The Originals knew you existed and that your people would meddle if humans were to bring an entire city down here. It was one of the first things they did. Learn your language, so just in case, they would know what was being said if your kind continued to hunt ours down.”

And she’d known he had spoken to her when he’d taken the reborn. But she also knew that his people were bloodthirsty and battle hardened. She knew how to deal with people like him, because she was the same way. She wanted to fight, to prove herself, and more than that, to reach some kind of glory in her life.

All she had to do was bait him. Just get him a little closer and then she might level the playing field.

That low voice rumbled again. “I knew you could understand me. That is not something I expected from your people.”

“No, I’m sure you didn’t.” She turned, trying to figure out where he was in the water. “Why don’t you show yourself, undine? Fighting from the shadows doesn’t seem very honorable, and your people do so love their honor.”

“You know nothing about my people.”

“Not really. I can’t imagine it would be difficult to discover, though. Fish are easy to understand when you just watch them. I imagine it is the same for undines.”

A quick movement from the shadows, a slight flash of yellow light. “Fish? I shouldn’t be surprised that’s all you think of my people.”

With a quick movement, she reached for the gun that was always attached to the suits and whipped it up. A single laser, just enough to figure out where he really was, blasted toward where she had seen the movement. And there he was. It illuminated just to the right of him, and the pale figure of the reborn still clutched limp in his grasp.

She kept firing. Over and over again, lasers that would have seared him if she hit him, but she chose not to. Not once. Instead, she kept the scatter shots all around him, over and over until the gun was so hot in her hands she nearly dropped it.

Only then did she give them both a breather, where he clearly understood she could find him even in the darkness. “Give me the reborn,” she said again. “Give her to me and you can leave. No one needs to know that you failed.”

“I didn’t fail,” he replied. Something in his tones made all the hairs on her arms stand on end. “But if you want your... reborn back, then you can take her.”

This felt too easy. He wasn’t just going to give the woman over to her, no matter how easy that would be for the two of them. He could hand the body over, and Alexia would honor their deal. She would bring the reborn back to the city far faster than she would fight with him again. But she could tell that wasn’t how this was going to go.

And then suddenly, the entire sea lit up. His body had lights, she realized. Individual, yellow flickering lights that glowed from deep within his skin. Hundreds of them, all leading to the larger globes that were attached to the tips of his fins.

It was... strangely beautiful. Haunting in the darkness to see all that bright yellow light lingering on the edges of the limp, nude woman in his grasp and the nightmarish form that surrounded her. He was a creature that most would only ever see in their nightmares. A deep sea monster with sharp teeth and long claws that had already damaged the reborn. Fine ribbons of blood covered her sides where he had held onto her body.

“If you want her,” the undine said with his sharp teeth bared in a grin, “Catch her.”

And then he dropped the reborn.

The heavy weight of the breathing apparatus dragged the reborn down into the abyss. It was swift and fast and almost impossible to stop. She had to make a split second decision. Fight the undine before her, or plunge into the darkness.

It wasn’t a choice.

Cursing, she hit the buttons on her suit and sent herself careening down into the abyss after the one thing that might allow her to live when she returned to Tau.