Serpents of the Abyss (The Darvel Exploratory Systems #2)

by S. J. Sanders

  He was more curious about the scent he caught on the male when he passed close. Not the scent of prey or anything familiar, but sweet and addictive. It clung to Slengral as if he brushed against a patch of blooming flowers during the wet season. That was not for a few more moon turnings, though. And unlike that fragrance, which was merely pleasant, this dug down deep into him, heating his blood.

  The thickening of his sant still alarmed him though it had begun to recede. What was even more worrisome, however, was the need that filled him to find the source and claim it for his own. A hum rumbled through him as his coils flexed and shifted with longing beneath him.

  That scent was a mystery that he was far more interested in solving should he get close to it again.

  Chapter 14

  She was bored. Lori knew that Slengral hadn’t been gone for long, but the quiet of the cave unsettled her. Even the colony had sounds at night from the systems running and patrols moving on watch. If she listened hard enough, she could even catch the sound of people talking to each other. She had considered that quiet enough given that she was accustomed to the busy night sounds of a city. But this? This was torture.

  All the more reason to get away from the male when she had the opportunity. She couldn’t stay isolated in a cave, all alone for hours every day. She would go mad.

  That and she swore that being alone in the silence was making her hear things. Air moving when no one was there. A pebble falling randomly. She kept expecting something to come into the cave after her, and so her nerves were in a state of continuous stress. She was certain that at any moment they would simply fray and snap.

  Her head jerked up. She heard that—for real this time. The clatter of rocks shifting was subtle but audible enough to assure her that it was very real. Tucking her heels under her ass, she crouched, leveraging herself up into a slow rise so that she could take off running.

  The sound came closer, just outside of the entrance of the main room of the cave. Her finger slid over the floor, looking for any kind of stone that she could use for a weapon. Finding none, she backed to the low table nearby and curled her fingers around a stone bowl that still had a bit of fruit juice clinging to it from her morning meal. Something thumped against the cavern wall, and she lifted it over her head, prepared to chuck it at the head of anything that entered.

  Another slide and red eyes glowed. Slengral slipped through the low overhang of the entrance, his eyes narrowing on her before focusing on her upraised hand. The corner of his mouth up ticked very slightly.

  “What were you considering doing with that, ashlava?” he queried, his brow rising.

  A relieved laugh burst from her as she allowed her arm to drop to her side, her fingers barely still clinging to the lip of the bowl. She brushed her free hand through her hair, trying to ignore the way it still shook from stress.

  “Bashing the brains in of anyone who tried to get in here,” she admitted a little breathlessly.

  Now that it was over, she could feel the crash coming from the anxiety that had been building, riding her every moment that she was alone. She returned the bowl to the table as Slengral’s raspy laugh washed over her.

  “You would not get very far with a bowl, ashlava,” he murmured, his eyes shining down at her.

  “Yeah, my aim is terrible anyway,” she agreed. She brushed aside the hair sticking to her face. “But it just felt better than rolling over without any kind of fight.”

  The male’s brow slammed down, the two flatted horn pieces rising with his agitation. He hissed loudly from his angular, thin-lipped mouth. “If a male comes upon you, do not fight. Make noise to discourage him, but do not risk harming yourself.”

  Lori stared back at him aghast, almost wishing she had the bowl still in her hand so she could brain him with it.

  “Excuse me? I know you aren’t suggesting that I not defend myself when you’ve got males out there killing and eating people,” she protested, her words getting incrementally louder and higher.

  His jaw hardened until it appeared like the sharp edges of cut stone, the line of his lips disappearing as they thinned. “It is better than all chances of being dead,” he replied, his voice dipping to a growl. “If you fight, you risk inciting bloodlust within your opponent. It can happen accidentally among us far too easily, especially among the younger males who have yet to discipline themselves against its fierce pull.”

  “I refuse to just allow myself to be a victim,” she said.

  “And I refuse to provide final ceremonies for my dead mate,” Slengral snarled. His tail coiled and snapped with anger, and a tremor swept over him. His eyes slid shut in a clear attempt to regain control. When he opened them again, his gaze was piercing and uncompromising. “You cannot control everything, ashlava. We are bigger and stronger, and you have no effective weapons against us that you could adequately use with your strength.”

  Lori snorted. The laugh she let out was bitter, even to her ears. “So what then? Am I supposed to just trust that I won’t be murdered and wait to be saved? I’m not helpless, and I refuse to be made to feel like I am.”

  Slengral’s head tilted as he regarded her. “It is not about weak or not. It is about staying alive. I will find you… always. There is no shame in leaning on me to do this.”

  She shook her head. “You are asking me to put that kind of faith in you when I don’t even know you.”

  He flicked the double horn-like crests on his head. “Then we get to know each other better. And then you will trust. Come now. I brought food.”

  He lifted a strap that ran diagonally across his chest from his shoulder and loosened the attached bag to show her the contents. Inside were two animals, each about the size of a cat with very short fur, blunt, round tails less than half the length of their bodies, and four saucer-like ears. Long narrow paws, each toe tipped with a thick, curved claw. Narrow muzzles extended from rounded heads like a fox. They were cute even with three sets of closed eyes… and very dead.

  She swallowed and stepped back, her head shaking. “I can’t eat that. Meat where I come from is mostly synthetic. Only the wealthy eat the real stuff. I’ve never…” She swallowed again as bile tried to work its way up her throat. “Maybe just the fruit…”

  Slengral sighed, a tiny hiss escaping. “We have fruit,” he agreed, “but it will not be enough. We are permitted only an allotment of the monthly harvest. There are not enough nutrients, and there is little plant life that can sustain anything other than the hardiest of foragers. You will hunger and sicken. You must allow me to care for you… you must eat.”

  Lori swore she felt a little lightheaded when he removed one of the creatures and carried it over to the table. Setting it down on the surface, he slid his claw beneath the hide. She turned away, her stomach churning as she heard the fur rip away from the flesh.

  “Maybe… I can just not watch,” she said. “If I don’t see it, then maybe I can eat it.” Wishful thinking. “Or I can wait in another room,” she added as she started to turn toward the entrance to the bedroom.

  His tail uncoiled in her path, and although she wasn’t looking at him, she heard his hesitation.

  “This time you may,” he finally agreed. “But you will remain here. And then next time you watch some. And more the time after that. And eventually you will help me in this task.”

  She licked her lips. “What about getting out… to the colony on the surface?”

  If she could get there, she could escape the whole primitive living setup he had going for him there. And not eat cute little animals.

  He grunted. “The way is blocked. I had some difficulties getting through by myself. Enough that I would only risk it to hunt. It would not be safe to carry you through. Rock may still fall yet,” he murmured, the telltale anxious rattle falling behind his words. Whether it was from his wings, tail, or the frills along his spine, she had no idea. He made another rattling sound, this time one low in his throat. “A few days and then it should be clear enough to safe
ly pass without any risk of injury to you.”

  There was a wet plop of something being dropped on the table, and then moments later more tearing sounds as he began to skin the second animal.

  Her heart sank. “And the mine?”

  He hummed quietly to himself for a moment. “There is nothing but wreckage in the upper shaft and in the mouth of Aglatha. Twisted metal, broken stone, and many things crushed or tossed away. Your people will not be able to begin work again for some time until all is hauled out and replaced.”

  Terri groaned. That meant the lift was gone. There was no one coming for her.

  That was if anyone even believed that she was still alive. No one should have been able to survive that drop. She knew without a doubt that she would be presumed dead.

  Slengral moved across the room, and she turned her head just enough to watch him out of the corner of her eye. There was a snap of something being struck, and then warm heat bloomed in a vented alcove. The fire danced invitingly.

  Lori moved to its side and crouched near the warmth. Although the cave was warm enough, news of the cave system above them drove a chill into her bones. She needed the comfort of those flames to drive out the cold weight settling within her. She was still staring at the flames when Slengral appeared moments later, two bare carcasses impaled on long metal skewers. Mercifully, he didn’t speak or try to fill the silence in any way like humans tended to do. Instead, he hummed softly, the vibrations burrowing through her. Bit by bit, the tension within her muscles seemed to ease as if he were rubbing them without even touching her or even so much as looking her way.

  Bending low on his coiled tail, he placed the skewers over the fire, the ends fitting neatly in deep grooves carved into the sides of the alcove. Within minutes, the flames began to hiss and pop with the fat and grease dripping from the cooking meat, and the entire room filled with its delicious smell. Synth-meats tasted and smelled good enough, but nothing compared to the meat crisping over the fire.

  Her mouth watered, her stomach grumbling in accompaniment. At the sound, Slengral’s head jerked up, his ears tipping toward her. Lori wrapped arms around firmly around her belly, her cheeks warming. To her embarrassment, her stomach gurgled again. His head tilted curiously.

  “It’s just my stomach,” she said.

  “Your stomach speaks to you?”

  Her lips quirked at the disbelieving tone in his voice. “Not so much as in words, but it makes noises when I’m hungry.”

  “Strange,” he murmured. “My kind do not make noises from their stomachs when we hunger. Hunger for us is a terrible silence that eats us from within. It is insidious because you might not even notice the lack at first until it comes and is unbearable. No other would notice either to care for you. Any one of us can appear perfectly normal in all ways until we are not. We drop, falling from the air, falling to our cave floors.” He glanced over at her. “It is good that I will be alerted to when my female requires sustenance.”

  The heat in her face spread, deepening. “Don’t worry. I’m hardly starving or anything. I won’t just drop dead on you. I just haven’t eaten since yesterday, and humans tend to need to eat several times a day.”

  His glowing plates snapped lightly, and he made a light rattling noise in the back of his throat. It was strange to see his throat swell, tighten and vibrate with the sound. The small bio-luminescent citrine specks scattered on his neck seemed to glow brighter. The sound went silent, though, and when it did the splash of color on him dulled once more.

  Reaching to a shelf nearest to him, he pulled down a large stone platter and rolled the meat forward onto it with the tips of his claws. His tail rolling beneath him, Slengral shifted directions, his humanoid torso moving effortlessly along with it as he turned and took the platter from the table. Following after him, Lori dropped eagerly onto the cushion behind the table, her eyes fastened on the meat as he carefully shredded it from the hot skewers with his claws and pushed the meat toward the nearest edge of the platter.

  He then proceeded to set two stone cups on the table and filled a pitcher with water from another sealed jug in a dark crevice on the opposite side of the room. When the pitcher joined the cups on the table, Slengral grabbed a bowl from the shelf and returned to the alcove to roll a few thick roots out from a square side compartment she hadn’t seen. He must have put the roots in there when he was building the fire to prepare them for their meal. A dark purplish-grey, they didn’t look the least bit appealing when he set the bowl beside the platter.

  Food in front of them, he lowered onto the cushion beside her, his enormous tail taking much of the available space left around her. Lori stared at the table at a loss as to what to do. Although they each had their own cup, into which Slengral poured a generous amount of water, there were no individual plates or bowls. Her eyes turned toward her dinner companion, watching him as he reached forward and picked some of the shredded meat. Popping it into his mouth, he watched in turn as he reached for one of the roots.

  He nodded toward the food.

  “Eat, ashlava.”

  Lori licked her lips and nodded. Reaching for one of the unappealing roots, she hissed in pain, dropping the root back into the bowl when the heat singed her fingers. Slengral’s brow lowered, and he issued another rattle, this one less pleasant. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be aimed at her. He took her hand in his, turning it over so he could inspect her fingers. His fingertips stroked over the slightly reddened skin.

  “Soft,” he murmured to himself.

  She stared at the glide of his dark claws over her palm. They could easily tear the skin apart but stroked with infinite gentleness. She breathed in, filling a flicker of something stir within her. She didn’t have a chance to explore it. Showing just as much care, he lightly dropped her hand and moved back over to his shelves and containers before returning to her with a small two-pronged skewer. He set it on the table in front of her before rejoining her on the cushion. He nodded toward it.

  “Use this. I use it for cooking hikath, the tenderest bits of meats that need to be plunged deep into the flame to be safely eaten. Use it to spear the food to spare your delicate hands.” His tail twitched against her leg. “But take care to let the food cool. No doubt your tongue is just as soft.”

  At that he opened his own mouth, revealing his textured tongues seconds before his mouth closed around one of the hot roots. He ate in two quick bites, reaching for yet more meat the moment the last bite went into his mouth.

  Lori licked her lips, her stomach protesting its emptiness and picked up the skewer. Bigger than a fork, it still fit neatly into her palm. Using the edge like she would a fork, she cut the end off one root and speared the smaller piece before bringing it to her mouth. Blowing on it, she was able to carefully eat it before spearing some of the cooling meat.

  Flavors filled her mouth. The root had a nutty taste with a potato-like texture but sweeter, almost like a sweet potato despite the flavor being different. Paired with the crisped and fatty meat, Lori groaned with pleasure.

  Slengral’s eyes snapped to her, his own eating slowing to a halt as he watched her dig in. It was disconcerting at first to be watched as she ate, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. She felt like she hadn’t truly eaten since leaving Earth, and she couldn’t get enough to fill her. She wasn’t beyond noticing the way the hard corners of his mouth lifted, his fangs unconcealed. She ignored that especially, and before long they were eating companionably as she refrained from thinking about exactly what the meat had come from.

  She felt guilty enjoying it, knowing that there was a good chance that many had died in the cave-ins who would never eat another meal. During the night, she had dreamed of the screams of the men and women who had been crushed beneath the falling rock. Did anyone else fall down the shaft? It was impossible to know. What she did know was that she felt guilty surviving what ought to have been certain death. Did she, of all those who likely perished, deserved to be the one to survive? Albeit with a prop
rietary alien hovering about now, but she knew that there were many who would have accepted that trade happily.

  For that reason, above all, she decided she wouldn’t complain. She sat silently, eating the food in front of her, grateful for it. Grateful to be alive and actually having someone willing to take care of her and feed her while the shaft was cleared.

  For now, that would be enough.

  Chapter 15

  The second day Slengral left Lori to hunt, she was even less enthusiastic about it than the first. After the first day she had decided that, unlike the colony where she valued and enjoyed her alone time, she didn’t like being alone in the caves. No matter how comfortable Slengral’s home was, she couldn’t get over the fact that it was miles underground with gods knew what living down there with them. Just thinking of it made her break out in a cold sweat.

  The worse was the thoughts that would come to her when there was no company but the silence and the random, strange sounds outside of their tunnel. Times where she wondered if Slengral was even telling the truth about the condition of the cave. It would be easy to lie to her, after all. Especially since he obviously wanted to keep her there.

  That was the last thing she wanted.

  Licking her lips, she eyed the narrow opening that separated the tunnel from the nest. She had already explored all the rooms of this part of the cave and came to the conclusion that this was the only entrance and exit. It was also dark, the few galthie growing there giving off only a dim glow compared to the rest of the cave. The tunnel was just barely navigable with its light. Without her helmet, that was going to be an issue. One that wasn’t going to resolve itself once she left the tunnel either.