Below

by Kaitlyn O'Connor

  Raphael frowned thoughtfully, but finally shook is head. I think the threat’s here. And whatever it is it’s either more tenacious than anything we’ve ever encountered before, or it’s intelligent enough that it figured out a way in.

  Restraining a shiver with an effort, Victoria checked her watch. See how much ore you can pull today. Tomorrow, before you send them down, put them on moving the ore up for processing. I want to have a closer look at the shaft and see if we can come up with some clue of what we’re up against.

  They left the cavern then and headed back toward the habitat. Roach, Victoria saw with a good deal of irritation, was no where in sight. She frowned, looking around, more than half expecting to find him sitting somewhere, watching the miners work. She knew they hadn’t been down in the mine shaft long enough for him to have finished his tally. He was no where in sight, however, and her irritation increased as it occurred to her that he’d obviously thought up an excuse to return to the habitat. If he spent half as much time working as he did thinking up excuses to get out of work, he would’ve been a senior supervisor by now instead of just a foreman.

  Raphael stopped her as she reached the access pool. Remember to expel the water before you surface.

  She nodded, expelled the fluid and surfaced. The first breath of air she dragged into her lungs burned like fire however, and she still retained enough water to bring on a spasm of coughing. Brown helped her from the pool. “Where’s Roach?” she asked when she caught her breath at last.

  His brows rose. “I haven’t seen him since he went in with you.”

  Victoria’s annoyance vanished abruptly. “You’re sure he didn’t come back?”

  Brown shrugged. “I’ve been here ever since you left. I guess he might have come back without me noticing,” he said doubtfully.

  She turned to look at Raphael, who’d emerged directly behind her. “Check with the crew. See if anyone’s seen him.”

  Raphael nodded and dove once more. Victoria stood a little shakily and moved to the inner com unit. “Roach, come back.”

  She waited several minutes and tried the com unit again. “Roach, if you’re in the habitat, come back.”

  Raphael surfaced. “No sign of him. Taylor said the last he saw of him was when he left the area to relieve himself.”

  “That moron!” Victoria snapped furiously. “Find him, and when you do I want him in the brig for disobeying a direct order!”

  Victoria paced the floor while she waited for word, checking her watch every few minutes. A half hour passed, and then an hour and anger finally gave way to concern. It began to look as if Roach wasn’t shirking his duties this time.

  Chapter Ten

  It didn’t take long for word to spread that Roach was missing. It was obviously the topic of conversation in the dining hall for the moment Victoria and Raphael entered, conversation ceased immediately.

  “Any sign of Roach?” Brown asked Raphael.

  “No,” Victoria said, answering before Raphael could. “We’ll have a search party out again first thing in the morning.”

  “Looks to me like the humans here are rapidly becoming extinct,” he muttered, returning his attention to his plate.

  Victoria didn’t have to ask him what he was implying. “Roach, as usual, completely ignored a direct order not to go off alone ... for any reason. He’s no rookie. He knows damn well we know next to nothing about Kay and that there could be any number of dangers just waiting for the unwary. Don’t make more of this than there is,” she said, looking at Brown but speaking loudly enough that everyone nearby could hear her.

  “You think he’s dead?” Tuttle asked.

  Victoria shrugged. “He could be. He might also be injured. Might have fallen into a chasm ... might have run into some of the indigenous life. We won’t know until we find him.”

  “If we find him,” Brown muttered.

  Victoria gave him a look. “If,” she said flatly and went to collect a plate.

  Brown waited until they sat before pursuing the matter. “I’m thinking it’s a little strange, it being Roach.”

  Victoria eyed him for several moments. “Why?”

  “It ain’t no secret he was hot for you and the ... underwater foreman didn’t like it. Then, he goes down with you and Raphael, and you two come back, but he doesn’t.”

  “Don’t beat around the bush, Brown, just spit it out,” Victoria said tightly.

  “I didn’t stutter,” Brown snapped. “I’m saying maybe Roach had help disappearing ... like maybe Kichens had a little help over the railing.”

  Chairs clattered as Quinton leapt to his feet, his face dark red with fury. Brown was on his feet at almost the same instant. Before the two men could come to blows, they were seized by other crew members.

  Victoria glared at the two men. “Take both of them to the brig to cool down.” When the two men had been escorted out, Victoria turned to face the remaining crew members. “Let’s not make this any uglier than it has to be, people. We have two crew members missing. It’s a risk every one of us faces every time we take a mission onto an uncharted world. You all know this. We can’t afford to degenerate to name calling and in fighting. We’ve got a job to do here, and we’ve got enough to contend with without fighting among ourselves, or throwing around unfounded accusations.”

  She looked at them each in turn, waiting to see if anyone else had comments to make. When they remained silent, she sat down again and made an effort to eat, although her stomach was tied into knots. One by one the crew members finished their meals and left.

  “It was bound to happen,” Raphael said when they were alone.

  “What?” Victoria said irritably. “Being accused of doing away with a fellow crew member?”

  Raphael frowned. “We are not the same.”

  Victoria rolled her eyes. “Not you too.”

  Smiling faintly, Raphael caught her chin in his hand. “We were bred in tanks,” he reminded her. “We can’t ... interact with the others in the way they think of as ‘normal’. We make them nervous. They distrust us.”

  Victoria studied him a long moment and finally smiled faintly in return. “I couldn’t help but notice that I don’t seem to fall into either category.”

  “You don’t.”

  Victoria shook her head. “I’m like everyone else around here--scared. The only difference, if there is one, is that I’ve never seen that turning on everyone around me helps in any way.” She frowned. “You know, I wouldn’t put it past that asshole Roach to have gone off hoping it would cause problems.”

  “You’re going to feel remorseful for that remark if it turns out he really is injured.”

  “No, I won’t. It he’s hurt, or dead, it’s his own damned fault. He was told. The problem with Roach has always been that he’s one of those people that think rules were made for everybody else and don’t apply to him.”

  “What about you?”

  “What about me?” Victoria echoed.

  “Do you always follow the rules?”

  Victoria shrugged. “Not always ... mostly ... but if I choose to disregard them, I prepare myself for the possible consequences. I don’t expect exceptions to be made just for me ... hope for them, maybe, like anybody else that gets caught doing something they know they shouldn’t have. Roach not only disregards every rule and every order, he is outraged when he’s punished.

  “I think that’s the main thing that pissed me off about Brown’s suggestion ... He knows Roach, knows how he is and the truth is he detests Roach every bit as much as I do. If we were going just by dislike, practically everybody on the habitat would’ve had a motive to get rid of him.”

  Raphael shook his head. “No. The main reason you disliked the accusation was because it was pointed at me.”

  Victoria glanced at him sharply, then looked away. “That wasn’t it.”

  “As he said, he didn’t stutter. He was pretty pointed about accusing the merfolk of trying to do away with the humans. Quinton and Al
bert pitched Kichens over the side ... not sure what their motive was supposed to be, maybe just because she was an air breather. And I removed my rival.”

  “That’s absurd!” Victoria got up abruptly, cleared her place and strode across the room to drop her dishes in the tub provided for them. Raphael followed suit, but stopped her when she would have brushed past him.

  “It’s not true, but I’m not sure it’ll make a difference now that Brown stated it so baldly. It’s what all of them were thinking already—Tuttle, Brown, the kitchen crew. They’re surrounded, and outnumbered, by freaks they fear and distrust ... and it doesn’t help that the two that went missing were with my people when it happened.”

  Victoria punched him in the chest with her finger. “Don’t ever say that to me again. I don’t believe that. They don’t believe that ... not really. Do you think we’ve never been around genetically manipulated humans before? I’ve got news for you, if you think you’re freaky ... ‘your people’ as you call them, are beautiful. You should see some of the horrors the company has come up with in their efforts to design ‘humans’ for every little project. I’ve seen them with four arms, eight legs—no noses, or ears ... skin like frogs, or alligators—and most of them are doomed to live like that for the rest of their lives.

  “I know that none of you really had any life experience ... but maybe you should consider yourself lucky, after all. This is what we are ... distrustful, unforgiving of anyone that’s different. If you’d grown up like we did, you would’ve already had the luxury of fending off bullies and clawing your way up from lowest man on the totem pole to a position where only the biggest fish in the pond get a shot at you.

  “I’ve worked with most of these people before. As people go, they’re good people. When they’re scared, they get mean and nasty. If it wasn’t you and your crew, it would be somebody else, because they’re always going to find somebody to take out their fear and frustrations on.”

  She pushed past him then, strode from the dining hall, through the rec room and into her living quarters, slamming the door behind her. Raphael followed at a more leisurely pace, bolting the door behind him.

  Victoria turned to glare at him. “I’ve got work to do,” she said stiffly, moving toward her desk. He intercepted her, forestalling her intention.

  “Not tonight.”

  Some of the fight went out of her. “If I don’t do it tonight, there’ll only be more tomorrow.”

  He gave her a look and a reluctant smile tugged at her lips. “I know what you have in mind, but I’m too tense to have any interest in sex right now.”

  “I hadn’t thought of it, but now that you mention it....”

  “Right.”

  He cocked his head. “If it would help you to relax, I’d be glad to accommodate you.”

  Victoria laughed. Giving up the fight, she lifted her arms and draped them around his neck. “You are a selfless man.”

  His lips twitched. “I am,” he murmured just before he kissed her. Victoria melted against him, feeling tingles all the way to her toes as he filled her senses with his essence; the lazy caress of his tongue; the silkiness of his hair beneath her fingers; his scent; his taste; his warmth; and the power in the muscles holding her, pressed so tightly against her length she could feel every ripple of muscle, could feel the nudge of his erection at the apex of her thighs. Reaching down, she stroked the length of his cock through his breeches.

  When he broke the kiss at last, they undressed each other, caressing every inch of flesh they unveiled in the process with their hands, their mouths and tongues. Raphael lifted her up when they were both naked, guiding her legs around his waist and capturing the peak of one breast in his mouth. Victoria locked her ankles around him, moaning at the wonderful sensations that emanated from the suction of his mouth through her breast and down into her belly, making her sex pool with the moisture of anticipation. Tightening her arms around him, she moved restlessly against him as he fondled first one breast and then the other, the rough texture of his lower body sending sharp needles of pleasure through the damp petals of her sex as she undulated against him.

  She became restless to feel him inside of her, to feel the slow glide of his hardened flesh against the quaking walls of her sex. Anticipation burgeoned inside of her as he moved to the bed at last, but, to her surprise, he settled her on the edge of the bed. When he knelt between her parted thighs, a rush of heat went through her. He spread her thighs wide, moved closer and pulled her to him for a deep kiss that left her weak and breathless before he moved down, suckling each tightened peak of her breast hard. Her heart accelerated as waves of pleasure washed through her, her breath catching in her chest until her lungs labored and her head spun.

  She leaned back, propping on her arms as he moved lower, his lips and tongue producing pleasurable quakes inside of her as he made his way down her stomach to her belly, sending flurries of goose bumps racing across her flesh. When he reached her sex at last, he paused, scooped an arm beneath each knee, lifting her thighs, spreading them wider still, studying her, his eyes darkening with desire. He lifted his gaze to hers, lowered his head slowly and ran his tongue along her heated sex.

  Victoria shuddered, her eyes sliding half closed as pleasure washed through her. She bit her lip to stifle a moan as his mouth opened over her heated flesh, but she couldn’t contain it as he lathed her with his tongue, nudging the center of her pleasure in a way that had her gasping for breath, moaning as the pleasure built to exquisite torture. The muscles inside of her palpitated as the pleasure built to a crescendo, exploded into a flood of fire.

  The strength went out of her arms as her climax hit her and she collapsed back against the bed, uttering sharp gasps that bordered on screams as he continued to lick and suckle, pushing her climax to the limits.

  She was barely conscious as he moved up and over her, pulled her tightly against him and kissed her. She kissed him back, tasting herself on his lips. It sent a heady rush through her, sent throbbing echoes of remembered passion through her belly, reminding her that she had received but had not given.

  She rolled on top of him. Breaking the kiss, she moved down over him in worshipful fashion, caressing his chest with her hands and her lips, tasting him with her tongue, nipping him playfully with her teeth as she worked her way over his body until she reached her goal. Taking his cock in her hand, she looked up at him as she ran her tongue up his cock from the root to the rounded head. He shuddered, gasped hoarsely with pleasure as she teased the ultra sensitive ridge around the head of his cock with her tongue and finally covered the head of his cock with her mouth, sucking.

  He clutched her hair, his fingers tightening reflexively as she slowly covered his erection, taking him as deeply into her mouth as she could, then slowly lifted her head once more, allowing him to slip almost free, until only the head remained in her mouth. She suckled him again, feeling her belly clench with pleasure as he groaned under her teasing caress, moving restlessly, clutching at the sheets.

  When she had teased him until she felt he was hovering on the verge of coming, she began to stroke him harder and faster with her mouth, pushing him toward climax. Finally, with a hoarse cry, he caught her, flipped her onto her back and moved over her, sinking his cock to the hilt in her flesh. Holding himself off of her with one arm, he slipped the other beneath her hips, pounding into her again and again. Victoria lifted her legs and wrapped them around him as she felt her own pleasure building again with each stroke of his flesh against the quaking walls of her sex.

  Gasping, she met each thrust with one of her own as her passion rose higher and higher, until she was hovering on the edge of fulfillment. When he cried out hoarsely as his climax took him over the edge, his cock jerking inside of her with his release, she fell over the edge herself, clinging to him as wave upon wave of pleasure rocked her to her core.

  They collapsed in a tangle of arms and legs, weak in the aftermath, shaking, struggling for breath. Finally, Raphael rolled off of her
, gathering her close. Victoria snuggled sleepily against him, drifting, wondering if she could find the energy to leave the bed and tackle the paperwork she’d neglected.

  Raphael sighed, stroking her. “The only time I have your full attention is when I’m making you moan with pleasure,” he said wryly.

  Victoria sent him a startled glance and then chuckled. “Serves you right. I told you to stay out of my head.”

  He stroked her cheek. “I’d rather have a morsel of your time than the undivided attention of a dozen others.”

  Intrigued, Victoria pushed herself up so that she could look down at him. “Really? Most men would far prefer the harem. Not that that archaic concept is allowed anywhere in the known universe.”

  Raphael grinned. “You are a harem all to yourself, shy one moment, aggressive the next. I never know which woman I’ll find in my bed.”

  “My bed,” Victoria corrected.

  “My arms?” he amended meekly.

  Victoria tweaked his nipple. She might have tugged a hair, except that his body was smooth and hairless, making it an impossibility. She skated a hand over his chest, enjoying the sleek feel of his flesh. “I hope you’re not suggesting I have schizophrenic tendencies.”

  He chuckled. “No. Only that you are always a ... delightful surprise.” His amusement vanished, and he studied her seriously. “Stay with me, Victoria.”

  Victoria found she couldn’t hold his gaze. She looked away, shrugged. “It’s not my choice. You know that.”

  He caught her cheek with his palm, made her look at him. “I want to know what you want.”