Page 30 of Call of the Fathoms

He was forcibly flipped, the nail tearing at his fin enough that he bared his teeth at her in anger. “That hurts,” he snarled.

“Good.” She placed the tip of the rivet gun against his other hip fin and fired again. “It was supposed to.”

She straddled him now, and it was far too easy for him to grab onto her hips to hold her in place. This wasn’t what a depthstrider would feel like in the slightest. He was used to cool scales meeting his palms and the slick glide of his fingers making it hard to grasp a female.

But this woman was warm. Even in the frigid room and how cold she’d been for days, she was warmer than him. Her hips were so soft to grab, the muscles in them flexing with power as she held him still with just her thighs. Her pants were a strange texture, and easy for him to grab onto for leverage. His claws sank a little deeper, likely digging into the soft skin beneath her clothing.

It made her stay in place, though. And that was where he wanted her. He wanted to stare up into that angry gaze as she thought she had him pinned. Fortis wanted to revel in her anger, as this was a creature who had never felt it so powerfully before.

She lifted the rivet gun and pressed it to his forehead. “You said you would bring me food. You didn’t.”

“You haven’t given me a chance to hunt for you yet, virago.”

“I don’t want you to hunt for me. I want the food here, now. When you make a deal, it’s usually with something you alreadyhave.” She pressed the metal tip harder into his forehead. “I’m so fucking over being disappointed in you, undine.”

“Fortis,” he reminded her.

“I don’t give a shit what your name is right now. I’ve decided I’m not going to die down here. You’re going to bring me back to Tau, so I can get more of my medicine, and then everything will be put to rights.”

Fortis grinned at her. This wasn’t where he died. He already knew that. The metal beneath his back wasn’t the right temperature, and there weren’t any swinging white lights that made it hard to see her face. So he was certain she wouldn’t kill him.

He pressed harder against the tip of the rivet gun. “If you want to kill me, then kill me.”

She let out a shriek of rage that echoed in the room, but still pressed harder into his skin. Hard enough that he felt a little bead of dark blood drip down his forehead. “I can’t kill you without killing myself!”

His hands squeezed her thighs harder, his large fingers somehow touching the softness of the same ass he’d been staring at only a little while ago. That... did something to him. Something he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

She stared down at him with her features shaking in rage. But then she dropped the rivet gun onto the floor. It clanked next to his head, just missing the fins behind his jaw.

Rage shook through her. She lifted shaking hands and wrapped them around his throat, slowly. She gave him every opportunity in the world to fight back against her, but he didn’t. He just let those long fingers glide through the gills there, just as she had done while he was on the table in Tau.

“I hate you,” she said. “I hate what you have done to my life. What you have forced me to become.”

“Good. Hold on to that hate. It’ll keep you alive down here.”

But then they both... froze. Staring at each other with heat blooming between them. It wasn’t a heat he recognized. It seared through his scales, lifting them slightly like the bumps that rose on her arms.

Their eyes met. And he realized he didn’t want to use the power inside of him to see into her future or past. Not right now. He was far too interested in the striations of darkness that split through her irises. They weren’t entirely black, not like his eyes. Instead, she had fissures of deep, earthy brown and stunning gold that filtered throughout her vision.

He could stare at her eyes all day. What a strange thing to even think, but he did. There were secrets there he wanted to discover without the use of his power.

He wanted to hear her tell him all her secrets. And what a dangerous game that was to play.

Taking everything he could from her was the only choice he had. Yet, all he wanted to do was linger here with her legs spread over his scales and his hands on her ass. He envisioned rolling his tail up against her just to see what would happen. Perhaps she would gasp. Maybe she would put that rivet gun to his head again. Both reactions were just as good.

But then he realized what he was thinking, and the heat in those thoughts was wrong. So wrong. This woman hated him, and he hated her. Their kinds fought until their last breaths.

And she was going to kill him.

What was he doing? Fortis palmed her thighs and tossed her off of him. She launched into the air, flying through the door that had previously been closed, and landed on her back. He could hear the “oof” of breath that escaped her lungs. Perhaps he’d been too rough.

He didn’t have the time or patience to check on her. He ripped his fins free from the rivets, leaving the metal in the floor so they didn’t cause a leak, and then hissed out an angry breath.

“I will return with your feast, virago.” Sliding into the water, he waited until the last second to add, “But if you try that again, I will toss you out for the sharks.”

Thirteen

Alexia

---