Page 16 of Guarded By the Vodnik

“Awesome,” I whispered.

Vodyan glanced at me, the corner of his mouth briefly pulling up. “This is the MSA’s safehouse.”

I nodded and slowly walked toward him, clenching my jaw when it proved more difficult than I expected. It was just a few steps, but the water resistance slowed me down, and yet I didn’t dare exert too much force. I felt weightless, as if I would float away if I moved too abruptly.

When I glanced at Vodyan, I just caught the way he pursed his lips, watching me with his arms folded on his chest. He tapped his fingers against his bulging bicep with clear impatience.

“Bet I could outrun you on dry land,” I muttered under my breath, defensive in the face of his judgment.

He didn’t reply, but when I finally reached the open trap door, his face was schooled into a more neutral expression.

“That was a joke,” I clarified, a part of me itching to get a reaction out of him. He was too much of an enigma for my comfort. “I know you’d be as fast as a gazelle if we raced. You’d leave me in the dust.”

He blinked, looking confused, and then pointed at the large, circular hole the trap door revealed. His mouth didn’t even twitch with a smile.

Maybe vodniks were incapable of smiling. Somehow, that thought made my overstimulated heart squeeze with pity, which was so out of place.

God, I was so hungry.

“We should go in together,” he said curtly.

I waited a beat for an explanation, and when it didn’t come, I shrugged and nodded. After all, he was in charge here.

“Okay.”

His voice sack glowed with a low hum before he leaned in and picked me up until I was pressed to his torso. I wrapped my arms instinctively around his neck, just in time to feel a faint tremor running up his spine.

“Is this uncomfortable for you?” I asked before I thought better of it. “Because I can…”

“Hold on tight.”

I clamped my mouth shut when we gently floated into the dark hole, Vodyan’s tentacles shooting up to clamp the trapdoor shut and turn the wheel. There was a clang of a mechanism locking in place, and then a few more reverberating sounds as he secured other locks.

In a moment, a faint blue light flooded the space, revealing bare cement walls of the cylindrical space. A mechanical rumble came from below, followed by rhythmic whirring. The water around us moved, whirling faster and faster as the pump worked, and I dug my fingers into Vodyan’s nape, feeling a little claustrophobic even though the lock was a large space—large enough to fit a vodnik with all those robust tentacles.

I pressed instinctively closer. He shivered, and I relaxed my grip with a frustrated sigh.

All this physicality got to me. After the ordeal of today, my inhibitions were gone, and I shamelessly sought comfort through touch. It had to stop.

The pump was powerful, and soon, all water was gone from the lock. Ahead of us was a door with a glowing control panel. Vodyan reached out with a tentacle and punched in a long code. Something clanged and whirred, and the door swung open.

He gently put me down on the floor, and I realized he’d held me even though he didn’t have to. He could have put me down as soon as the water level lowered enough for me to stand, but he didn’t.

My stomach rumbled and I abandoned that train of thought, not even knowing where I wanted to go with it.

“Wait here,” Vodyan said, his voice low and hoarse. I did a double take but he was already through the door, moving just as fast as he did in the water. I realized he must have spoken using his above-surface organs.

I stood in the lock, growing colder by the second. No longer submerged, my suit lost power, and soon, I shook and hugged myself as water pooled at my feet. I longed to take off my mask, which pressed uncomfortably into my skin, but waited for the green light from Vodyan. For all I knew, the life support system had to be turned on manually or something.

Soon, light flooded the space beyond the door and the vodnik came out a moment later.

“All clear. You can breathe here.”

I tried to nod, but I wasn’t sure he caught it, I was shaking so hard. I lowered the part covering the lower half of my face with trembling fingers and took a wheezing breath through my mouth.

Vodyan gave me a long look and turned away. “Follow me.”

For a moment, I had the stupid urge to ask him to carry me, but he already moved down a narrow corridor, so I hurried after him as best I could on my freezing legs. He went through another door into a well-lit room, and I followed. My jaw dropped when I stepped inside.

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