Page 21 of The Delver (The Vrix #2)

Though Callie hadn’t been the one to climb across a ceiling over a bottomless pit, her legs were unsteady as she released Urkot and planted her feet on solid ground.

Heights had never bothered her much in the past. Hell, she lived in a tree house a couple hundred feet off the ground, and she walked across swaying rope bridges on the daily in Kaldarak.

But hanging over a dark chasm with nothing more than sticky rope holding you up was a whole new level of terrifying.

She trusted Urkot, and knew he was unimaginably strong, but she’d felt the strain in his body.

She’d felt the trembling in his limbs and the roughness in his breathing as he’d pushed his endurance to its limits and beyond.

That his body hadn’t given out before reaching the other side was nothing short of a miracle.

With fingers stiff from clutching onto Urkot, she untied the silk rope binding them together and let it fall to the ground. Shrugging off her pack, she opened it and withdrew the waterskin.

“Drink,” she said, holding it out to him. “I won’t take no for an answer.”

With a gentle chitter, he accepted the waterskin. “Bossy.”

“Damn right I’m being bossy right now. Drink.”

There was a gleam in his sapphire eyes before he tipped his head back and poured water into his mouth. After swallowing, he let out an appreciative sigh and offered the waterskin back to her. “Thank you.”

Callie closed it and returned it to her pack. As tempted as she was to drink, they needed to conserve their supply for now. There was no way to know when—or if—they’d find a safe water source to replenish it.

When she looked back at Urkot, she couldn’t stop a chuckle from escaping her.

The crystal was still stuck to his headcrest, lighting up his face quite dramatically.

She swung her backpack onto her shoulders, stepped close, and reached up to remove the silk from around the crystal, carefully prying the stone free.

“You know,” she said, staring down at the clump of sticky silk as she rolled it between her fingers, “back on Earth, I freaked out anytime I came in contact with spider webs.”

Urkot lifted a hand and peeled the remaining silk off his headcrest. “Because it meant there was a spider close?”

“Well, that too. But it was just a…gross feeling. Now I don’t find it gross at all.” She looked up at him and smiled. “Even if it comes from your butt.”

He huffed. “It does not come from my butt.”

“Whatever you say,” Callie laughed as she flicked the small wad of silk away. “Why did this silk come off so easily, but the stuff you used on the rock held our weight without coming loose?”

“Not the same sticky.” He shook his hand. The silk clung to his finger, refusing to come off until he finally wiped it away on the cave wall. “We can make it as needed. Thin or thick, much sticky or small sticky.”

“Wow. Your spider butt is pretty amazing.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, Urkot turned, giving her his back, and twisted to look down at his hindquarters, which he wiggled. “You want to spank it, do you not?”

A laugh escaped from Callie. “You’re serious?”

He tilted his chin down, his bright blue eyes boring into her in a way that promised wicked delights. “Give me a good spank, female.”

Holy fuck.

This was a side of Urkot she’d never witnessed. It was unexpected and had caught her completely off-guard, but at the same time, it was arousing and exciting as hell.

“Well,” she said, settling her hand upon his warm hindquarters, “I suppose you do deserve a reward for getting us across.”

Callie slowly ran her palm down his hide, curling her fingers to lightly scrape him with her nails. She felt a shiver course through him, and somehow, the blue of his eyes darkened.

Drawing her hand back, she gave that sexy spider butt a firm smack.

His hindquarters twitched, and a low sound emanated from his chest, half growl, half purr. It made her pussy clench and spread heat through her core.

“I…take it you liked it?” she asked.

Because she had sure as hell liked his reaction.

He faced forward and lifted his lower right hand, beckoning her with a curl of his fingers. “Come. We must stride.”

Callie blinked.

Huh?

Urkot started walking along the tunnel.

“Wait, what?” she asked, hurrying to catch up to his side. “I spank you and all you give me is We must stride? ”

“Yes.”

She frowned, all arousal and good humor washing away with her rising concern.

He’d been nearly crushed by rocks during the cave-in, had carried her hundreds and hundreds of feet along the stream, and had hauled both of them across a chasm.

She’d felt the strain in his body and could see the weariness in his eyes.

Bone-deep exhaustion weighed upon her, and all she’d done was hold on to him.

She couldn’t imagine how sore and tired he was.

After that climb, she’d expected him to take a break. Now, she worried he was going to push himself too far.

Callie caught his arm, giving it a gentle tug, which brought him to a halt and drew his attention to her. “Urkot, you should rest.”

“Soon.” Urkot covered Callie’s hand with his own. How could it be so big and rough, so callused, and yet so comforting and gentle? “We must go a little more. Will rest in a small time.”

“Promise?”

He nodded and touched his leg to hers. “Yes, Callie.”

They continued onward at a slow pace, constantly scanning their surroundings for potential hazards.

She couldn’t tell if he’d altered his speed for her sake or his own.

Either way, she was grateful for it. He’d taken another crystal out of his pouch so she could keep the first. She’d offered to take out her lantern for more light, but Urkot had shaken his head and told her to save it until they truly needed it.

For now, the crystals were the safer option, as their blue light was not out of place in these caves and would draw far less attention from any creatures lurking in the dark.

Callie requested a brief stop so she could relieve herself.

She’d excelled at mountain-womaning it in the jungle, so why not tick off another checkbox by peeing in a cave?

But the novelty didn’t make the experience any more pleasant.

She found a spot out of Urkot’s view, but there was no hiding the sound.

Her face was aflame when she finished and rejoined him. Thankfully, he made no comment, and they walked on.

For the most part, the winding tunnel was spacious, and the floor seemed to have been worn smooth by a no longer present water source.

But there were spots where Urkot had to squeeze his broad shoulders and large hindquarters through narrow gaps, and a few points where they had to climb a little higher, only for the tunnel to slope back down.

The temperature was noticeably lower than that of the crystal chamber.

Callie wondered how far beneath the surface they’d gone.

“Do you still have family in Takarahl?” she asked, needing to break the eerie, stifling silence.

“Yes,” he replied, his voice low, soft. “I was hatched in my mother’s fourth brood. Many brothers and sisters in Takarahl.”

“Fourth brood? How many broods did your mother have?”

“Six.”

Callie gaped at him. “ Six ?”

Urkot nodded with a chitter and held up two hands, three fingers raised on each and thumbs folded. “That is this many, yes?”

Snapping her mouth shut, Callie nodded.

He lowered his hands, though his mandibles rose in a smile. “The way you said it made me think I gave the wrong word.”

“Sorry. That’s just… That seems like a lot.”

His chitter was a little fuller this time, but he seemed to pull it back before it could get too loud. “Much broodlings.”

During her time in Kaldarak, Callie had learned a lot about the vrix.

They laid eggs, of course, and did so in batches they called broods.

A single egg was a rare thing from what she’d been told.

More common was three, four, or sometimes five eggs, though Rekosh had once said he’d heard of a female who’d laid eight eggs in a single brood.

That had been considered a fortuitous occurrence, given that the vrix held eight as a sacred number.

Urkot looked at her as they walked. “Do you have siblings?”

“I have two older brothers, Shaun and Xavier.”

After she spoke, she came to a painful realization.

Her brothers were no longer alive. They were not going about their lives on Earth while she was here. They’d died long ago, while she’d been asleep on the Somnium .

And she’d always known that was going to be the case.

She’d joined the Homeworld Initiative with full understanding that the journey to Xolea would take sixty years, that her parents would have passed by the time she arrived, that there’d been a good chance her siblings would’ve also been gone and their children would’ve had families of their own.

Being told that before boarding the ship was one thing, but it had only been words then. Not reality. It didn’t matter that one hundred and sixty-eight years had passed instead of sixty; the result was the same. Everyone she’d known on Earth was gone.

Rubbing her arm, Callie lowered her eyes to watch her footing, trying not to let her emotions get the better of her. “My parents didn’t want a big family. I…was what people would call an accident.”

“An accident?”

“An unwanted pregnancy.”

Urkot came to a sudden halt and turned toward her, his eyes narrowed. “They did not want you?”

Callie also came to a stop, nearly colliding with him.

She chuckled and gave his chest a pat. “It’s okay.

I was wanted after they found out. They were busy with work, and two kids were already a handful, so my dad had a vasectomy a couple years after Xavier was born.

Well, it apparently failed because”—she spread her arms to either side—“here I am!”