He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. Smiling, Eva loosely draped her arms over his shoulders and returned the kiss, brushing her fingertips over his short blonde hair. Blake grinned against her mouth as he lowered his hands to the backs of her thighs and guided her legs around his hips. His palms slid along her skin, and he groaned as she locked her ankles, anchoring herself in place. He removed his hands only to continue treading water.
“I love your legs,” he said into her ear, voice low. His tongue flicked out to lick her lobe, sending a tingle of desire across her skin. “Especially when they’re wrapped around me.”
Eva tightened her legs, pressing her sex against the hardened length of his cock through their clothes. She drew her head back and arched a brow. “Here? Now?”
Blake’s grin widened. “Just looking at you. You’re perfect.”
“Don’t soil the good name of this town by being such a horny bastard, Blake.” Sam teased. He rose out of the water, dropped his hands on Blake’s shoulders, and shoved both Blake and Eva beneath the water.
She barely managed to snap her mouth shut before she went under. The sound of water — somehow quiet and deafening at once — filled her ears.
Eva released Blake and kicked to the surface. She shook her head and wiped her eyes, sputtering and spitting salty water. “Damn you, Sam!”
Blake resurfaced with a great splash and charged after Samuel, who swam away laughing.
“Such a hypocrite,” Addison chuckled.
“No kidding,” Eva said. “I can’t count how many times I’ve caught you and Sam during your breaks.”
“They get down and dirty in those fields,” Hailey said with a smirk, “and I don’t just mean their hands.”
Eva laughed along with her friends as Sam and Blake wrestled and splashed, but her laughter was cut short when something brushed against her leg. She started, reflexively pulling away, and immediately thought herself a fool; it was nothing but a fish.
Addison looked at Hailey. “When are you going to—”
She abruptly plunged under the surface.
“Oh, that was just mean guys,” Hailey said, turning toward the last place they’d seen Blake and Sam wrestling.
They were both still there, wearing confused expressions.
Eva’s eyes widened.
Bubbles floated to the surface over the spot Addison had vanished. Suddenly, the water was stained red with an ominous, slowly spreading crimson cloud.
“Addison!” Eva screamed. She spun about, scanning the water, but there was no sign of her friend. Fear slithered down her spine, sinking its icy claws deep to spread its chill through her entire body.
“Addy!” Samuel yelled, swimming toward Eva. “Where is she?”
“She disa—”
Hailey screamed as something bobbed to the surface of the crimson water. Eva’s stomach lurched. What she was seeing wasn’t real; it couldn’t be real. It just…couldn’t.
She’s not dead. She’s not dead. She’s not dead.
“Get to the beach!” Blake yelled from somewhere behind Eva; his voice sounded far off.
“No!” Samuel bellowed, reaching for Addison. She floated face down on the surface, her skin shredded and bloody.
A huge, dark shape rushed up from below to intercept him. Eva caught a glimpse of the monster as it crested the surface — a huge mouth with long, curving, pointed teeth; a powerful body covered in pale blue skin; dark spines protruding from the top of a thick head. Its mouth came down on Samuel, clamping over his shoulder, and man and beast disappeared amidst churning water.
Hailey screamed again. Eva turned her head to see Blake swimming, already more than halfway to shore. Somehow, that cut through the fog of terror gripping her mind, inflicting a deep sting; she shoved it aside. Panting and trembling in fear, Eva hurriedly swam to Hailey.
She caught hold of Hailey’s wrist. “W-We need to go.” Eva tugged until Hailey tore her gaze away from the bloody, frothing water.
A great commotion rose from the dock; boots pounding on its surface, shouted, panicked orders, and several splashes, but she couldn’t focus on any of it. She needed to get to land with Hailey. She kept her eyes on Blake as he dragged himself onto the beach.
Only twenty meters to go.
“We’ll make it, Hailey. Keep swimming,” Eva said, pushing her body harder than ever before, kicking and paddling with every ounce of strength she possessed.
“We’re going to die,” Hailey cried, voice high and shaky.
Something shifted in the water behind Eva; she was pushed forward as though on a sudden wave. A second later, immense pain burst through her as huge teeth clamped down on her calf. She screamed. The last thing she heard before she was yanked beneath the surface was Blake’s voice distantly calling her name.
Water filled her ears, nose, and mouth, suffused with misty blood. She fought against the pull as she was dragged deeper, which only increased the agony ripping through her. The creature holding her was a dark blur amidst the bubbles and crimson fog. She kicked its face with her other foot, but it only tightened its jaws and shook her, its teeth shredding flesh and muscle and crunching bone.
Black spots dotted her vision, and her chest and throat burned as she clung to the last bit of air in her lungs. She needed desperately to take a breath, but the surface was so far away.
I’m going to die.
Tilting her head back, Eva looked up at the shafts of gold-tinged light shining down from above. Despite the crimson staining the water, there was an undeniable beauty to that light. It wasn’t a terrible last sight.
Another dark shape entered her vision, approaching with great speed. Just before she closed her eyes, the shape drew close enough for her to make out its color — an earthy orange that seemed entirely out of place here amidst the otherworldly light and wisps of blood.
Chapter 2
Kronus charged forward, driven by instinct — females were in danger, and it didn’t matter if they were human or kraken.
Without slowing, he slammed the point of his harpoon into the eye of the nearest of the two razorbacks — the one with its jaws closed around a female’s leg. The beast thrashed and rolled, releasing the female, but Kronus grabbed hold of it with hand and tentacles, anchoring himself in place. Crimson water churned around him. The surface and its sparkling light tumbled above and below with dizzying speed.
He squeezed the trigger.
The gun fired with a whump, and the harpoon burst through the other side of the razorback’s head. The creature’s struggles intensified, and fresh blood flowed into the water around it. The razorback bent its long body, gouging Kronus’s back with the spikes on its tail, but the pain was distant and unimportant.
Kronus held fast; the creature was at least five times his length, but he would not relent. He tugged his knife out of the sheath strapped to his left forearm and hammered it into the razorback’s head repeatedly. The rhythm of his frantic stabs nearly matched the speed of his racing hearts. He didn’t stop until its struggles ceased.
Finally releasing his grip, he swept his gaze over the scene. The second razorback was fleeing with two harpoon shafts jutting from its left flank. Chunks of flesh and gore floated in the bloody water, along with four of the five humans who’d been swimming.
Brexes and Charos moved to pursue the surviving razorback, but Vasil, who was just ahead of the pair, halted them with a flash of yellow across his skin. He moved his tentacles in a series of signs.
Tend the wounded.
Kronus looked upward. The female he’d freed from the razorback had kicked to the surface. Blood misted from her left leg, tracing a wavy path beneath her due to the gentle back-and-forth of the tide. He darted up, emerging in front of her.
She fought to keep her head above the water, drawing in quick, rasping breaths between sputtering coughs. Her eyes were wide and frantic.
“Hailey!” she called out weakly.
Kronus wrapped an arm around her waist from
behind and pulled her against his chest.
She struggled, swinging her hands wildly and kicking at him, her desperation lending her strength enough to nearly break his hold.
“I have you, female,” Kronus growled. “You are safe.”
She turned her head and met his gaze; this was the woman who’d stared at him, the one who’d seemed more curious than disgusted. Her eyes were a blue so bright they put the cloudless sky to shame, but her dilated pupils were almost large enough to swallow the blue completely. Her skin was pale — far paler than it had been only moments before.
The female twisted to face him, taking his cheeks in trembling hands. “M-My friends. Please! We n-need to save my friends!”
Kronus swam toward the beach. “The others will see to your friends.”
“But the beasts!” She strained against his hold, throwing her body weight against his forward momentum. “They’re still out there!”
He grunted and pushed ahead faster. Several humans had already gathered on the sand — including the male who’d kissed this female — and more were scrambling along the dock, their panicked shouts carrying over the water. The light brown-haired female had gone limp and quiet, though his sensitive skin could feel the tremors coursing through her body along with her frantic pulse.
Once the water was shallow enough, Kronus swung his tentacles beneath his torso and rose, slipping an arm beneath the female’s knees to scoop her up. It was only then that he noticed the damage done to her leg. Beginning less than a hand’s width beneath her knee, her flesh and muscle were mangled, pieces hanging from shattered bone by thin tendons and strips of shredded skin. Blood poured from the wound.
Humans rushed toward him, but he paid them little mind. He was familiar enough with their kind by now to know that such a wound was potentially fatal. She needed immediate attention.
Stop the bleeding.
He raised a front tentacle and wrapped it around her left thigh just above the knee, coiling it tight. She clung to him, but little strength remained in her fingers. He met her gaze.
The woman’s eyes were glossy, and her breath was even shallower than before. “My friends. Please,” she whispered.
“They will get your friends,” Kronus responded.
She drew herself forward, entire body shaking, as though she meant to dive back into the water. “We have to go to them. Have to-to help them…”
“We have to help you. You are wounded, female. Be still.”
She fell back against his arm, and her eyelids fluttered closed. Her hands fell away. Panic sped Kronus’s hearts. Her blood trickled over his tentacles, its metallic taste distinguishing it from the sea salt coating his skin.
“Eva!” a male human shouted.
Kronus lifted his gaze to see Eva’s male standing before him, eyes wide and face pale.
“Eva,” the human repeated, reaching forward. He paused when his gaze fell on her leg. Somehow, his face paled further. He turned away abruptly and heaved, doubling over as he emptied his stomach onto the sand. Still retching, he flicked his gaze toward the female’s face only for it to dip back to her mangled leg. He shook his head and stumbled back, looking away from her.
He shoved his fingers into his hair, grasping the short strands. “Fuck! I can’t. I can’t look. Fuck, Eva. Fuck!”
Kronus scowled at the male. By their earlier interaction, this weak human and the female in Kronus’s arms were mates, and the male had failed to protect her in any capacity. Eva was a female, a precious being, to be protected at all costs. Though Kronus knew humans didn’t necessarily view it the same way — their kind had ample women, while kraken females were quite rare — this male’s behavior struck him as cowardly.
He placed a hand on Eva’s neck. Her pulse was rapid and weak beneath her cool skin.
When he looked up, he realized he was surrounded by humans, all of them speaking hurriedly to one another and to him. He clenched his jaw, and it took a great deal of willpower to keep himself from tightening his grip on Eva. The sea was at his back, but the humans were so close, and there were so many of them. His lungs burned, and his throat was constricting. Fury ignited in his gut; he’d fight his way through them if they didn’t back away and give her room to breathe.
Breckett forced his way to the front of the crowd, his mouth lost within his bushy beard, eyebrows low.
“Set her down, Kronus,” Breckett said. “Doc’s on his way, and you’ve got a good hold on her, but we need to get a tourniquet on her leg before she loses any more blood.”
Kronus still tasted her blood on his suction cups, still felt its fading warmth on his skin. He found himself suddenly reluctant to relinquish his hold on her. He was stronger than all of them; he could protect her.
She is wounded, and there is nothing I can do about it.
The thought was a sobering one. With a wary glance at the other humans, Kronus lowered himself and gently laid Eva on the sand.
“Keep that tentacle in place,” Breckett said as he reached down and unclasped his belt.
Eva caught Kronus’s wrist with one of her hands, squeezing weakly. She opened her mouth and spoke, but her words were too soft, her voice too broken, for him to understand. Her eyes shone with a desperate gleam.
Kronus held her gaze. He doubted the fear on her face was caused by concern for her own safety now anymore than it had been in the water. Despite suffering a grievous injury, she was worried about her friends foremost. That was something to be admired amidst this carnage.
Breckett leaned over Eva and wrapped his belt around her thigh above Kronus’s tentacle. He slipped the end through the buckle and wrenched it as tight as he could, well past the last notch.
“Can you make a hole here?” he asked, easing the belt slightly and indicating a spot with one of his blunt fingers.
Kronus nodded. Eva’s grip remained loose on his wrist as he moved his hands to the belt and punched a hole in the leather with a thumb claw. Breckett hurriedly slipped the metal prong through the new hole and secured the belt.
A pair of humans worked their way through the crowd and laid something on the ground beside Eva — two long, thick poles with some sort of cloth between them.
“Help me get her up,” Breckett mumbled, carefully slipping his arms under Eva’s armpits.
Kronus took hold of her right leg behind the knee and grasped the outside of her left thigh. Together, he and Breckett lifted Eva from the sand and settled her onto the cloth. Kronus forced himself to release his hold on her quickly for fear he wouldn’t be able to let go otherwise. She needed aid he could not give.
The humans who’d brought the device each took an end, using the poles as handles, and carried Eva away.
Rising, Kronus looked over the gathered crowd; Eva’s male was nowhere to be seen, and none of the humans were staring at him any longer. Their stunned faces were directed at something behind him.
Kronus turned to see Vasil, Brexes, and Charos wading to shore, each carrying a limp human.
The crowd eased back, allowing the kraken to lay their burdens on the sand. Two of the humans were dead — a male and a female, the former with one arm torn off at the shoulder and the latter with a massive chunk of her torso missing. The third, the one Eva had been pulling toward land, was still alive, sucking in rapid, shallow breaths.
She hadn’t suffered bites like the others; the puncture wounds on her chest, which oozed dark blood, had undoubtedly been caused by the hard spines that earned razorbacks their name. Her body convulsed when she coughed, forcing fresh spurts of blood from her wounds and her mouth. A wet, gurgling sound rose from her chest as she breathed.
Several humans hurried forward. Vasil backed away, granting them space to drop to their knees around the injured woman. The four kraken eased into a small group and watched as the humans struggled to staunch the woman’s bleeding.
Moments later, a final, labored exhalation escaped her.
“Razorbacks should not be so close to shore,” Charos
said softly.
“Nor should they be in pairs,” added Brexes.
“A mated pair, perhaps,” said Vasil, staring at the dead woman with a sorrowful light in his eyes. “Drawn to shallow water by the migration.”
Kronus lifted his gaze. Beyond the crowd, the two men were carrying Eva up the ramp leading from the dock into town. Would she survive her wound, or had he reached her too late? If he’d acted faster, perhaps these people wouldn’t be dead. Perhaps…
Two years ago, he wouldn’t have cared. Dead humans were of no consequence so long as the kraken were safe and prosperous. He lowered his gaze to the bodies laid atop the bloody sand.
Wasn’t this what he’d advocated? Wouldn’t this have been the result of what he’d wanted when Macy, the first human to have entered the home of the kraken people in hundreds of years, had been brought into the Facility? Dead humans. Even if he hadn’t intended direct violence, he’d argued to have her exiled, to leave her at the mercy of the sea — as good as death, for a lone human. And all that he’d done afterward — all the words he’d spoken, the hatred he’d spewed — had inspired a group of his people to act upon his implied threats. To call for the deaths of innocent females and younglings.
But after everything that had happened, after the bloody battle in the Facility...
“We need to get back into the water,” Kronus said, turning to face the other kraken.
“That was all of them,” said Brexes. “All that remains out there are pieces.”
“And a dead razorback,” Vasil replied.
Kronus nodded. “We need to get it out of the water before anything else gets to it. We cannot allow that much meat to go to waste.”
Chapter 3
A heavy sensation pressed upon Eva when she woke, weighing down her body. She felt strange, groggy, disconnected, as though she were floating on the border between dreams and reality. It was an unpleasant sensation that left her confused and anxious. Voices came and went, voices she didn’t recognize, all muffled and far-off like she was hearing them underwater.
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