“Pressurization complete,” said a familiar feminine voice from overhead — the Computer. She sounded flat and dispassionate compared to Kane.
The door ahead of Vasil opened with a hiss. He moved through, entering a familiar corridor that was bathed in pure white light from overhead. Water dripped off his body and flowed through the grates on the floor beneath him. The place was cleaner than he remembered, undoubtedly a result of humans like Larkin and Aymee living here with their kraken mates for long periods of time. This main building had been used more in the four years since Jax had brought his human mate, Macy, to the Facility than it had in all Vasil’s life prior; the kraken used to keep to the flooded buildings unless they had reason to meet with one another and speak.
Oddly, the cleanliness instilled the Facility with a lived-in feeling. It was being treated as a home in a way the kraken had never dreamed, and that gladdened Vasil.
But coming back had only confirmed his suspicion — this was no longer his home.
Grunting, he cast those thoughts aside. Only Theo mattered. She was alone, awaiting his return, and he was eager to share the news with her. Though he wanted her to see the Facility, to see where his people had been created, this place was only important to him now because it could provide a diving suit — which she required to travel to The Watch. He didn’t trust the pod to endure another ocean journey.
Vasil moved down the corridor, using the various handles and recesses to pull himself along faster. He took the turns without thinking; well over a year had passed since he’d gone to live in The Watch permanently, but he knew this place as intimately as though he’d never left.
He encountered no one on his way to the Pool Room.
He entered the large chamber, which had been named because of the huge, rectangular, humanmade pool dominating it. Vasil glanced at the water as he hurried past it. Thousands of stones lay on the bottom, their colors and arrangement creating a series of intricate circular patterns. The effect was the illusion of motion, all of it leading to the center — a small, glowing shard of halorium.
Vasil halted and turned to frown down at the halorium. He wasn’t sure how wide an area that little piece could affect — the lights at the base of the pool all seemed functional, but it was possible they were somehow shielded from its effects.
When Vasil brought Theo to The Watch, they’d have to stop in this building; the Facility was on the way and would provide a safe place to eat and rest. Otherwise, they’d be swimming from sunrise to well after sunset. He doubted Theo could make such a journey in a single day, especially as she’d spent much of her life in some sort of machine that traveled between the stars. Even the diving suits, which eased human movement through the water, would not be enough to combat the inevitable exhaustion she’d suffer during such a trip.
She’d want to explore the Facility during their stay, and he’d be happy to show her around…
But this room would be off-limits.
Turning away from the pool, he continued to the lockers and containers arranged along the far wall. They’d served as storage for the diving suits since long before Vasil’s birth — all the way back to the time before the uprising, most likely. He searched them one-at-a-time, frown deepening with each locker searched; though he found several pieces of old human clothing in some, there were no diving suits or their accompanying masks. He growled as he closed the last locker. Theo needed one of those suits. Without it, her departure from that beach would be far more complicated and dangerous.
Sped on by necessity, he searched the other nearby containers. Most held equipment he could not identify — artifacts whose purposes had been lost to time. He doubted that even the humans in The Watch could have given names to all the varied and mysterious objects. His only guess was that most of them served some function under water.
There were no diving suits amidst the items.
Grasping the sides of the last container, he tensed, ready to hurl it into the pool. He was failing his mate during what should have been the moment of his success. Now that he knew the way, he should’ve been bringing her home. He should’ve been bringing her to his den, which he would ask her to share.
Vasil growled, tightening his hold on the container. It groaned under the pressure.
Rage will not help me. Will not help her.
He released a slow, heavy breath through his nostrils and returned the container to its place. He could not recall the last time he’d acted in anger. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d acted out of anything but a sense of duty and obligation to his people — at least before he’d seen a falling star, his falling star, streak across the night sky. Since that night, he’d been driven by many emotions — curiosity, lust, compassion, fear, and…love.
That word — love — seemed strange to him. He’d heard the kraken and human couples exchange it so many times that he’d been foolish enough to believe he understood what it meant. But he’d never truly known. Despite his keen eye, his perceptiveness, and his ability to understand why people behaved the way they did, he’d never truly deciphered love. He knew now that it could not be deciphered, that it eluded understanding. He knew because of Theo.
He knew…because he loved her.
Though he could not fathom everything that meant, it was indisputable.
Vasil was here for her, and he would tear apart every room in the Facility if that was what it took to locate a diving suit. If there were none to be found, he would not rest until he reached another solution. But ripping this place apart room-by-room was not a reasonable next step. Clear thinking would see him further than giving in to frustration and despair.
He exited the Pool Room and hurtled through the corridors, his frenzied pace setting his hearts to a rapid, thunderous rhythm. He darted past more than a dozen doors leading into side chambers for which the kraken had no use — chambers that had long rested in darkness. Though he’d wondered about some of those rooms for many years, he’d never explored them. The urge had never overcome his desire to be a dutiful kraken; searching rooms that were likely empty or functionless would have been of no benefit to his people. His time was better off spent in productive endeavors.
But he would explore them soon — with Theo. He would find a way to bring her here, and they would discover those secrets together. Even if the Facility was somehow similar to the ships she’d lived on for so long, it would be new to her; maybe he’d see it with fresh wonder through her eyes.
He turned another corner and entered the corridor bridging the main building to the Cabins, where the kraken and human couples denned. Broad windows ran the length of the passage, offering a view into the world outside — the gray exterior walls of the buildings, cast in white light, and the ocean beyond darkening from deep blue to impenetrable black. He wasted no time taking in the sight; without slowing, he passed through the corridor and entered the Cabins building.
It was only as he turned into the hallway along which the human-kraken mates kept their dens that his momentum faltered. This section of the Facility had rarely been visited before humans came here again; in many ways, it had come to signify hope, change, and growth. But the last time he’d been in this hallway, it had been in the wake of tragedy.
Neo had led a group of exiled kraken into this hall meaning to slaughter all the humans who’d dwelled here and the kraken who loved them. The traitorous kraken and all his followers had been killed, several by Vasil’s hand. Blood had bathed this corridor.
Now, it looked as it had before that night — clean, empty, unremarkable, and yet somehow warm.
Shrugging off those looming memories, he continued forward. He would not allow the ghosts of kraken who’d sought to harm females and younglings to weigh upon him.
The door of Dracchus’s den was open. Vasil moved into the doorway. Dracchus — easily the largest of their kind in length and breadth — leaned over the table within, working with something on its surface.
Vasil knocked on the doorframe, produc
ing a quick series of metallic clanks.
Dracchus paused his work and turned his head to Vasil. His eyes widened in a rare display of shock, and he turned his entire body toward the doorway. “You are here.”
Frowning, Vasil glanced down at himself as though it would grant insight into Dracchus’s odd greeting. He found no answers there, nor when he returned his gaze to the other kraken. “I am.”
After days of searching.
Dropping the corners of his mouth into a frown that made Vasil’s look like a smile, Dracchus twisted his torso toward the table and carefully placed the objects in his hands atop it — scissors and an oddly-shaped, folded paper. Once they were down, he approached Vasil, stopping only an arm’s length away. His skin remained its normal black; with any other kraken, the lack of color change would indicate a lack of strong emotion, but Dracchus, like Vasil, rarely betrayed his thoughts through such outward signs.
For the space of many heartbeats, silence stretched between the two kraken. Vasil stared up at the larger male, uncertain of what to anticipate.
Dracchus’s amber eyes revealed nothing as they moved over Vasil, studying him from head to tentacle.
“You are well?” Dracchus finally asked.
“Yes.” Vasil’s weariness was not worth mention.
“You have been gone for two weeks.”
“And a day.”
Impossibly, Dracchus’s frown deepened. “What happened?”
For a moment, Vasil’s instinct was to withhold his answer. Some part of him — recently awoken and as-yet unfamiliar — was unwilling to reveal anything about Theo to another male. She was Vasil’s, and no one else deserved to even know her name. No one would take her from him.
He cast that instinct aside; Dracchus had a mate to whom he was fiercely loyal. He would not betray Larkin. And Dracchus was a kraken of honor, regardless, who would not willingly seek to disrupt the bond between a mated couple. Most important of all was that Theo needed help to get here — to get to safety.
“Something fell from the sky the night I left. I chased it to sea,” Vasil said.
“We were woken by its sound. The humans said it was a meteor. A rock fallen from beyond the sky.”
Vasil shook his head, holding Dracchus’s gaze. “It was an IDC pod. Humanmade, from space.”
Dracchus’s brows lowered; it was his only response.
Drawing in a deep breath, Vasil continued. “I discovered it floating on open water just as a storm struck. We were caught adrift and carried to an unfamiliar beach. Only today did I finally discover signs to lead me back here.”
“We?” Dracchus asked.
“There was a female in the pod. A human.”
Clenching his jaw, Dracchus dropped his gaze. “She is IDC, then?”
“She was. I need a diving suit for her.”
Dracchus met Vasil’s gaze again. “Where will you take her?”
“The Watch. But we will have to stop here on the way.”
“No.”
A fire sparked in Vasil’s gut. He gritted his teeth, forcing the flames down. “Explain.”
“You know the history, Vasil.”
“She is stranded, Dracchus,” Vasil said through his teeth, struggling to maintain an even tone. “She cannot contact the IDC, and they do not know where she is.”
“And if they come in search?”
“They will not.”
Dracchus shook his head slowly. “No. We cannot risk our people.”
“She has a computer inside her, Dracchus, and it does not know our world. They have forgotten this place. Forgotten our people.”
“And we should not remind them.” Dracchus’s firm tone offered no space for argument, but that wasn’t what fanned the flames inside Vasil.
It was the coldness, the detachment, of Dracchus’s expression that ignited Vasil’s rage. The unwillingness to consider a change of position. The sense that he didn’t care what Vasil had to say, that he was an unmovable object set in place against the entire universe.
Vasil drew in another breath, seeking balance and calmness to counter his roiling agitation. “I trust her, Dracchus.”
“We cannot risk our people,” the big kraken repeated.
The fires in Vasil’s belly flared, blazing across his chest, up into his throat, and out to the tips of his fingers and tentacles. “And what did you do by bringing two hunters to this place?” he growled as crimson spread over his skin. “Your mate was one of those who captured us!”
“And the one who freed us,” Dracchus roared, skin turning red as he advanced. “She saved us.”
Vasil gave no ground. He raised himself higher and held Dracchus’s gaze. “And I did not question your choices then. I trusted your judgment.”
“You saw her,” Dracchus said, “her kindness.”
“And I see Theodora. So do not tell me you act for the good of our people now unless you are willing to say you acted against us when you brought Randall and Larkin here.”
Dracchus clenched and relaxed his jaw. “I could not allow them back to their people, or we would have been further exposed. The IDC has capabilities the hunters did not. Bringing the female here will lead them directly to us.”
“If they were to look, Dracchus, they would find us whether she is here or not. They are more advanced now than we can imagine.”
“That is only more reason not to—”
“Would you leave your Larkin?” Vasil demanded, moving closer to Dracchus. Tension crackled in the air between them, but he barely noticed; his entire body thrummed with anger, passion, and desperation. He would not settle for defeat, not when it came to Theo.
Dracchus pressed his lips into a tight line.
“I have ever followed,” Vasil said. “I have always done my duty. And what have I ever asked of you, Dracchus? Even when things were at their worst, I trusted your leadership. I have trusted you for as long as I can remember, and that trust has never felt misplaced. Now you must trust me. I do not ask you to endanger the lives of our people. Only to help protect hers.”
Vasil forced his skin back to its normal gray and released a heavy breath through his nostrils. “She is mine, Dracchus. My mate. Help me keep her safe, or I will find a way to do so without you.”
The crimson slowly faded from Dracchus’s skin, but his expression remained tight.
“I need a suit,” Vasil continued. “If I must challenge you for it, I will. If I must search every room in the Facility, I will. If I must go to The Watch to obtain one, I will. But she is alone in a dangerous place, and I do not want to be away any longer than necessary. So help me, fight me, or stay out of my way, for I will not be stopped.”
Dracchus made a sound that was at once a grunt and a groan and turned to move away from Vasil again. “Everyone comes to me for help.”
“Because you are good. You have given everything for our people, and only with Larkin have you taken for your own happiness. Now it is time for me to take what is mine. Tell me where the spare diving suits are, and I will ask no more of you. I will go.”
“They are in a room down the hall. We moved them so they can be easily accessed by our mates.” Stopping beside the table, Dracchus rested a hand on its surface, keeping his gaze downcast. “I will go with you, and we will escort her here together.”
Some of the flames within Vasil snuffed out, leaving an odd, hollow sensation behind. “You do not need to come. The journey is mine to make.”
“She is your mate, Vasil.” Dracchus met Vasil’s gaze. “That means she is one of us. We will be better able to protect her if there are two of us, should the need arise.”
Vasil moved into the room, halting within arm’s length of Dracchus. He extended his hand like he’d seen so many humans do. Like Theo had done.
Dracchus turned to face him slowly, glancing down. He took Vasil’s hand, clasping firmly.
“Allow me a few moments to clean the mess,” Dracchus said, gesturing to the table. Scraps of paper littered the table t
op, along with a few larger pieces cut into kraken-like shapes. Dracchus released Vasil’s hand. “Aymee taught me to make chains of paper dolls in different shapes. The younglings always seem to enjoy them.”
Despite everything — or perhaps because of everything — Vasil smiled. “I will help you clean, but then we must go.”
Dracchus nodded. “I will tell Larkin before we leave. I am glad you are safe, Vasil.”
“And I will be glad once Theo is safe, too.”
Chapter 12
Sitting in the damp sand, Theo nibbled on the corner of a ration bar and watched the endless advance and retreat of the waves. The food was tasteless and dry, nothing like the fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat she’d been eating lately, but she barely paid attention to it. The brisk morning wind swept around her, tossing her hair about her shoulders, flowing into the gaps of her modified jumpsuit to chill her skin.
“He’ll come back,” Kane said in her mind.
“He didn’t come back last night.” Theo ran her gaze over the surf. “What if he was attacked by one of those creatures again?”
“He’ll come back, Theodora.”
“But what if he doesn’t?” she asked, unable to keep her fear from slipping into her words. She’d hardly slept the night before, kept awake by worry after he hadn’t returned with the setting sun, and her worry was only stronger now that he’d remained absent all night. She didn’t want to lose him. Couldn’t lose him.
“Then you will carry on. You’ll survive. But he will come back.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because dealing with your human irrationality for so long has damaged my capacity for logical thought.” Somehow, Kane’s tone deflated any insult his words might have held. “He is a hunter, a survivor. And…he is very fond of you. That seems to be a driving force for which any calculations I might perform cannot accurately account.”
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