Page 50 of Song of the Abyss

“I took you from your home.”

“Because I told you to.” She did grin when he rolled his eyes at that statement. “What? I did! Do you think you could have launched yourself out of the water, dragged me into the pool, and still gotten away with no one running in there with all the guns in the city at the ready?”

With one smooth flick of his tail, he loomed over her. He was suddenly closer, drops of water dripping off his shoulders and onto her chest, seeping into the fabric of the blanket. “Yes. I believe I could have done that.”

Oh, she should be terrified. She should shrink into a tiny ball beneath him and pray that he didn’t decide to try human flesh.

Instead, Anya found herself reaching up and feathering her fingers along the fins at the side of his face. “What are these?”

It didn’t escape her notice that his eyes rolled back in his head. He liked the way her fingers felt on whatever these delicate membranes were. They were surprisingly soft underneath her fingers. And it felt rather natural to slide her pointer finger in front of one, and her middle finger behind it. With only the slightest pinch, she watched as the fins surrounding his face suddenly flared out and started to shake.

His face twisted, and when he spoke, she could feel his words rumbling through her ribs. “Those are my gills.”

“Oh.” She frowned, her eyes trailing down his muscular neck and impressively broad chest. Faint lines etched along his ribs with the faintest hint of delicate membranes hidden within. “I thought these were your gills.”

She reached out to touch those too, only to pause when he grabbed her wrist. Eyes flicking up to his, she swore that hunger was back in his gaze. The webs of his fingers brushed against hers, just as soft as the gills she’d just touched.

“I have two of everything,” he said, his voice so low she swore she could feel it deep inside her body.

“Two?” She frowned, looking back and forth between the two sets of gills. “Two lungs then? You’re breathing air?”

“Yes.”

“I have two lungs.” Madness made her press her hands forward, flattening them against the strangely dark chest with stripes down the center from his collarbone all the way to meet his much darker tail.

And then she felt them. Against her palms was the rhythm of two hearts. Slightly off beat from each other. But both of them thundered against her skin, as though he were nervous.

“Two hearts,” she whispered, feeling her voice vibrate in her throat.

“Yes.” His hand came up to cover hers, pressing her a little tighter against his chest.

She felt like she was missing something, but it was hard for her to think of anything other than the fact that she could feel two heartbeats pressing against her hands right now. He was a medical anomaly. She could only imagine that there were hundreds of scientists who would love to get their hands on him.

How did they swim like they did? How did they withstand the cold and the pressures of the ocean? Did he have air bladders like a fish?

Questions rioted through her mind, but then she looked up at him and her mouth went dry. He was staring at her hands on his chest and she swore that look said he wished she would move her palms. He wanted her to touch him, to know what it felt like, and suddenly, all thoughts of science went out the window.

Sliding her hands up his chest, she watched his reaction. He went so still, seemingly not breathing other than those flared fins that continued to gently shake. She wondered if they made a sound.

Slowly, she reached her arms around him. He stayed right where he was, letting her hug him even as her hands played over his back.

“Careful.” Bitsy had to put the words in that garish pink, so Anya knew Daios was speaking. “There are spines on my back.”

“What do you mean?”

She’d seen his back, hadn’t she? There wasn’t anything unusual... But then he turned in her grip, putting a small amount of space between them.

There were spines on his back. They were nearly clear and so easy to miss. But as she ran her finger over one, they popped up at her touch.

There was a membrane attached to those as well. Almost like a dorsal fin that he could flatten at will. She ran her fingers along that deadly fin, trying to not be quite so pleased when Bitsy sent a warning flaring across the lens that he had hissed.

She could see how it affected him. The gentle touches seemed to be his downfall, and she enjoyed touching him like this so much.

With one hand flat against his hip to hold him still, she continued her exploration. Running her fingers all around those deadly spikes, she touched every membrane under each one as she counted them. Twelve deadly spikes. Twelve sharp weapons that ran down the length of his spine.

It took until spine number six for his resolve to crack. He shivered underneath her touch, his muscles twitching and his breath becoming ragged. She could see the way he sucked his breath in through those gills that grasped at nothing because they weren’t underwater. His ribs expanded underneath her palm, so quickly it was as if he had just finished swimming the length of the ocean.

She’d had to shift onto her knees, trying to ignore the slick feeling between her thighs and control her own breathing. She hadn’t thought she would enjoy this as much as she did. But having him at her mercy? Knowing that he was only holding himself together because he had to?

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