Though they’d stopped at Vasil’s house — he called it their den — before anywhere else, they’d spent the rest of the day in town, meeting people and looking around. The day had been capped by a late-afternoon meeting with the town council, at which at least a hundred people had been present.
She smirked. “Damn right I’m valuable.”
Vasil chuckled. “More so than you may ever understand, female.”
Ahead, a natural archway created by the trees marked a break in the jungle through which pure sunlight, tinged red-orange by the coming sunset, shone. Though the swim from the Facility had been a cakewalk compared to her other underwater travels, Theo was exhausted. She couldn’t wait to get back to the house — their house, Vasil had insisted — crawl into bed, and fall asleep in his arms.
“Their wonder at where you are from will pass,” Vasil said, “and be replaced by their wonder at your capabilities. This place will be better for having you. Just remember, human — I will not share.”
Theo grinned, glancing at Vasil from the corner of her eye. “I don’t expect you to.”
The work she’d take on in The Watch would be different from what she’d known. Based on what she’d seen today, there’d be a lot more engineering involved than repair — she doubted there were either the parts or the resources to make new ones for most of the old tech lying around, but with Kane’s extensive collection of plans, her know-how, and the parts hoarded at the Facility, she was sure she could build new things to help make everyone’s lives easier here.
That wasn’t even the biggest difference — building or repairing, it all brought her the same satisfaction. For the first time in eighteen years, she’d be spending her days somewhere besides the bowels of a ship. There was a town here, with open air and fields of crops, pastures with farm animals, a jungle, and beaches. She’d never realized how greatly the dark, often cramped environments she’d lived in for most of her life had affected her mood until she crashed on Halora.
They broke through the trees, emerging onto a grassy rise overlooking the sea. The path cut through the grass, leading to the row of houses built along the rise, each a little different than the others. She’d only been here for a few minutes after their arrival, but seeing this place now, bathed in the light of the setting sun, it felt like coming home.
Home.
Warmth filled her. She had a home. With Vasil.
A tentacle brushed against her leg. She turned her face toward Vasil.
He was looking at her, his eyes soft and loving. Taking her hand in his, he led her toward the houses through the grass.
Shrieks of laughter caught her attention. Two children barreled through the long grass — kraken children, but there was something different about them…
Theo halted abruptly. “They have hair.”
Vasil stopped beside her. “They are half-human, half-kraken. Thus far such younglings seem to favor their kraken parentage.”
Theo watched the children — a boy and a girl who seemed of similar age — as they played. In addition to the hair atop their heads, they had eyebrows and more prominent, human noses. Otherwise, they looked fully kraken.
“Sarina! Jace,” someone called.
The new voice caught Theo’s attention; she turned toward it to see another kraken — another female — emerge from one of the houses. The newcomer was taller than the children, though she didn’t appear full-grown; she was slim and feminine with refined features and hairless, light gray skin. She seemed like a girl on the verge of womanhood, and though that didn’t make sense given Melaina’s age — nine — Theo knew it was her.
“It’s time for dinner,” Melaina said.
The two children paused to look back. While the little girl was distracted, the boy turned toward her and pounced, tackling her to the ground.
“Jace!” the girl cried, her tentacles thrashing as she fought to dislodge the boy.
Theo glanced up at Vasil to find him looking at Melaina. His expression was too confused to be readable, but she could hear the whisper of his tentacles restlessly flicking over the grass.
“She looks like you,” Theo said.
“I…see more of her mother in her,” he replied softly.
Theo couldn’t help the stab of jealousy his words provoked. It was a reminder that he’d touched another woman, had made love to her. That he’d created a life, a child, with someone else. He’d told Theo it had been duty and not desire, but she still didn’t want to think of him being with anyone else.
She quickly pushed those thoughts aside. His relationship with Melaina’s mother was in the past, and that was where it belonged. Just like Theo’s time with other men was part of her past.
Melaina, though…she was here, part of Vasil’s present. Part of his future. And Theo would do everything she could to support him in that, to accept Melaina as part of her own little family.
They watched as Melaina approached the two younglings and, with some difficulty, broke them apart, before leading them back to the house from which she’d come. Once they were inside, Theo and Vasil continued along the path to their own dwelling.
Vasil entered ahead of Theo and moved aside to allow her through. As he closed the door behind her, she ran her gaze over the place again; it looked different with the evening light streaming in through the back windows than it had in the morning. The light made the place seem almost…magical.
Everything but the bathroom was contained in the single main room — a large bed rested in one corner, a table and chair stood in front of one of the sea-facing windows, and the cabinets, fireplace, and kitchen were in the corner to the immediate right of the entrance. An armoire and a storage chest rounded out the furniture.
It was small and simple.
It was perfect.
Everything was hand-made, displaying all the little faults that automated manufacturing had eliminated in the rest of the galaxy, and it granted the whole place an undeniable charm and character she’d loved from the first moment she’d stepped inside. Theo’s life had been filled with bland, machine-constructed components — precise angles and maximum practicality even when constructed of the cheapest possible materials. Even the apartment building she’d lived in as a child had possessed that cold, inhuman aesthetic.
But this place felt alive.
Theo walked across the room, turned, and fell backward onto the bed. She sank into the soft covers and mattress with a groan. Though she was eager to take off the diving suit she’d been wearing all day, all she needed right now was to lie there unmoving — to enjoy some blessed stillness.
“Are you hungry?” Vasil asked.
“I’m practically withering away. My stomach is eating itself right now.” Though Theo didn’t lift her head to look at Vasil, she sensed his frown from across the room.
“Should I send for Aymee or her father to examine you? Or…is that another human expression?”
Theo chuckled. “An expression. Yes, I’m starving.”
She turned her head to watch him as he moved into the kitchen. She smiled, letting her gaze roam over his broad shoulders, trek down his strong, muscled back, and settle on the curve of his spine, where his upper body met his faintly-darker lower half. The play of his muscles as he moved was exquisite. When she looked up at his face again, her smile faded.
His eyes were focused, but he appeared…distracted. There was a furrow in his brow, and the corners of his lips were downturned. Though he appeared calm, his tentacles curled and slid restlessly across the floor.
Theo pushed herself up on her elbows. “Vasil? What’s wrong?”
He stilled his hand, in which he held a piece of winefruit. Frown deepening, he set the fruit down on the tray of feed he’d been preparing and turned his face toward Theo. “What if she does not want me in her life?”
Melaina.
Theo’s heart hurt for him. It wasn’t like Vasil to doubt — the kraken she’d come to know always charged ahead with purpose, with confidence. This wa
s a side of him she’d not really seen before now, and she could relate to it.
She slid off the bed and walked across the room, stopping in front of him to cup his face between her palms. “Why wouldn’t she?”
Vasil’s hands settled on her hips; his fingers were firm and strong, even if the uncertainty in his expression remained.
“Before me, I see a worthy male,” Theo said, staring up at him with love and pride in her eyes. “I see a man who wants nothing more than to connect with a daughter he’s never known. A man who is wonderful and kind, strong and protective. A man who would go to the ends of this world to fight for those he cares for.” She stood on her toes, tugged his face down, and kissed him. “She will love you, Vasil.”
He pressed his forehead to hers and closed his eyes as he pulled her close. Theo slipped her arms around his neck.
“We had all gathered on the beach the night Randall told me I was Melaina’s sire,” he said. “Everyone else went home, one by one, until only I remained. I wrestled with my thoughts deep into the night. I did not know what to do. And then a star streaked overhead…and I gave chase.
“When I jumped into the sea to follow your pod, not knowing what I would find, if I would find anything…that was the first time I can remember acting at my own whim. Doing something because I wanted to, without considering everyone else. It was for me. I have learned that it is all right to take for myself sometimes. To take risks. Because it was a risk that gave me you.”
Tears stung Theo’s eyes as she drew back to look at him. He curled a finger beneath her chin and brushed his lips against hers. She returned the kiss.
“For all the dangers I have faced,” he said when he finally broke the kiss, “I have been afraid of telling that girl who I am more than anything. At least until I had to face the thought of losing you.”
Theo smiled and shifted one of her arms to cradle his jaw in her palm. “Meet with her tonight.”
“I must speak with Randall and Rhea, first. They will want to be involved, as is their right.” He smoothed back her hair and stared into her eyes. “But I will do so tonight. After we eat and you are comfortable.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine, and I will be waiting for you. Right here.” She grinned. “In our home.”
He returned the grin, flashing his sharp teeth; they’d gone from frightening to tantalizing to downright sexy.
“Ours,” he agreed. “But I am not leaving until I have eaten. I am withering away.”
Theo laughed and lowered her hand to the tray beside them, plucking up a piece of smoked fish. She brought it to his lips. “Then let your mate take care of your needs. All your needs.”
Vasil’s eyes heated with a different sort of hunger.
The sky was dark by the time Vasil made his way along the path toward Randall and Rhea’s dwelling, with only the faintest sliver of orange blazing on the horizon beneath dusk-blackened clouds. He twisted briefly to glance behind. Soft light shone in the windows of his den, and it lent him more strength to push on. Theo would be waiting when this was done, no matter how it went.
He reminded himself that it would go well as he neared Randall’s door. His nervousness and unease were holdouts from a bygone time, a time now lost to history, and all he needed to do was embrace the new world to move on from them.
Lamplight glowed in the dwelling’s windows, spilling onto the ground outside to highlight the grass’ gentle swaying in the ocean-kissed breeze. This place smelled of land and sea together; Vasil liked the mingled scents even more now that he had Theo.
Allowing himself no hesitation, he lifted a hand and knocked on the door.
Something large thumped inside, the sound followed by a soft chirruping. A moment later, there was a scratch at the inside of the door.
“Relax,” Randall said from within, voice muffled.
The door swung open. Vasil’s eyes widened, and he shifted aside as Ikaros, Randall’s pet prixxir, bounded through the doorway. The creature was at least as long as Randall was tall, powerfully built, with sleek scales and a spiny fin along its back.
Ikaros darted into the long grass and out of sight.
“Son of a bitch,” Randall muttered. “Sorry, Vasil. He’ll uh…guess he’ll come back when he’s ready.”
Vasil turned back to Randall, who was rubbing the back of his head. “It is all right. No harm done.”
“Good.” Randall nodded, eyes flicking up and down Vasil’s body. “Good. Hey, I just wanted to say I’m glad you’re back safe. We searched for you for days, but I guess from what I’ve heard you were carried out a lot farther than we realized was possible.”
“Yes. A full day’s swim from the Facility.”
“Damn. We were worried that a razorback or something made a meal out of you. Wasn’t long ago there were a bunch of them up and down the coast.”
“I know.” Vasil smiled despite his lingering anxiousness. “The only things that tried to eat me were certainly not razorbacks. I would say the change was a welcome one, but… I suppose I would choose the known over the unknown.”
Randall chuckled. “I hear you. You’ll have to tell me about it. I caught up with my sister earlier, and she mentioned some kind of monster you guys killed at the bottom of a trench. Scary shit.”
“It was. Especially with my mate being in danger.”
“That’s right! She mentioned you have a woman.” Randall slapped a hand onto Vasil’s shoulder and leaned forward, peering out into the night. “Congratulations, man. You didn’t bring her? We’d love to meet her.”
Vasil’s gaze flicked back toward his dwelling for an instant. “Not tonight. There is something we must address first.”
Randall drew back and regarded Vasil with an arched brow. A few moments later, his eyes rounded, and his grip on Vasil’s shoulder tightened. “Oh. Oh! You’re ready? Right now?”
Vasil nodded. “I do not wish to waste any more time.”
A bright, joyous grin spread across Randall’s face — the sort of genuine display of happiness that Vasil might never have experienced had humans and kraken never reconnected in peace.
“Rhea and Melaina are over at Macy’s. They ate dinner there, since I was out late. You want to wait here while I go get them?” Randall released his hold on Vasil and stepped back, moving aside. “I’m sure you don’t want an audience or anything.”
Despite all the time he’d spent with humans, despite the many occasions upon which he’d visited them within their dwellings, the experience of being invited into someone’s den remained strange to Vasil. Of all the old kraken ways, that had seemed the most unshakeable; a kraken’s den was a sanctuary, a private place, shared only with a mate — if at all. As usual, he shrugged off those feelings and moved inside.
Randall and Rhea’s dwelling was larger than Vasil’s, with two rooms — both intended solely for sleeping — built off the main chamber, not including the bathroom.
“Make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right back.” Randall stepped outside, closing the door quietly behind him.
Vasil crossed the main room and stopped at one of the wide, sturdy chairs. Arranging his tentacles, he eased himself onto the seat in the closest posture he could accomplish to sitting. Several other chairs stood nearby, some designed like this one — larger and more solidly built than their counterparts to accommodate kraken size and weight.
Settling his elbows on the armrests, he allowed his gaze to wander as he waited. All the dwellings that housed humans seemed to have something in common — decoration. No two dwellings were decorated in quite the same fashion, but he’d noticed that humans tended to adorn their dwellings with various trinkets and baubles which seemed to hold little purpose other than being pleasing to look upon. A few kraken had taken to doing the same.
The collection of items here was eclectic — much of it seemed to relate to Randall’s hunting, but there were also interesting rocks, shells, dried plants and flowers, scraps of cloth in nearly every color Vasil c
ould imagine, and dozens of other objects.
Would Theo do the same to their den? The corners of his lips rose at the thought. He couldn’t guess how she’d decorate, but his imagination produced images of machine components and metal scraps on display throughout their home, so scattered and chaotic that guests would never know for certain if the items had been placed there as adornment or were parts for Theo’s active projects.
Voices from outside called his attention to the door, which opened only a few moments later. Randall muttered something and stumbled through the doorway as Ikaros shoved past him. The prixxir came to Vasil immediately, sniffed at him with twitching whiskers, and lay down atop his tentacles.
“No, Ikaros, that’s fine,” Randall said, “just do whatever the hell you want.”
The prixxir lifted its head briefly to make a snorting sound before settling back down.
“You spoiled him, human,” Rhea said, entering behind Randall.
Vasil’s gaze dropped to Rhea’s middle — her rounded middle. It had been some time since he last saw her, and there’d been no visible proof of the life growing inside her then.
Melaina followed immediately after her mother, closing the door once she was inside. She looked at Ikaros with a grin before her eyes shifted to Vasil. Her grin widened. “You’re back! Where did you go?”
Vasil’s hearts leapt at the excitement in her voice and expression. He’d thought he was just another adult to her, no one of consequence or importance. “I was carried off to a distant beach during a storm.”
She moved closer and lowered herself down to the floor in front of Ikaros, absently brushing the prixxir’s belly with a tentacle. “What did you see? What was it like? Did the beach look the same as it does here? What—”
“Melaina,” Rhea said in a warning tone.
Randall chuckled and eased himself into one of the human chairs. “Let’s give Vasil a chance to answer your first twenty questions before you ask twenty more, okay?”
Fallen from the Stars Page 27
