Kept From the Deep: Venora Mates Book Two

by Octavia Kore

  Jun followed his lead, pressing her hand to the bark. “Have you been here before?”

  “Not here. Not that I remember, at least. These trees are hardy and can survive in many different environments. The Grutex and other species capable of space travel have planted them on many different worlds. I haven’t left the ship since my last lifetime, but these trees are something I remember vividly.”

  “You spent your entire life on that ship?” she asked as they began to walk again.

  “In this lifetime, yes. I was rebirthed on the Kaia’s ship, and because I was imperfect, that’s where I stayed for my training.”

  “Maybe it’s the language barrier causing things not to translate right, but I’m not understanding what you mean when you say you’re imperfect. I heard you mention it in the records room to Erusha, but it didn’t make sense to me.”

  Nuzal pointed to his violet eyes. “These disqualified me from becoming a warrior in this lifecycle. They are an imperfection, something undesirable, so I was selected for lab training instead.”

  “And that’s where you met Erusha?” She squinted at him before reaching up to touch the vine-like features around his face. “Real quick question: what are these called?”

  “They’re xines, and the answer to the first question is yes.” Nuzal was still unsure of how he felt about what the male had done, but he’d already decided to forgive him.

  Jun stepped over rocks and fallen tree branches, keeping her eyes on the ground as she went. “So you weren’t always a scientist?”

  Nuzal shook his head. “I’ve been a warrior as far back as I can remember.”

  “Did you like being a warrior?”

  “I enjoyed certain aspects of it,” he answered.

  “So you didn’t choose to be a scientist, but was it your choice to be a warrior?”

  “I suppose at some point, in some lifetime, it might have been, but as far back as I can remember it has been something that was chosen for me. I was selected for service and training.”

  “I don’t understand what your eye color has to do with you being a warrior or a scientist, but I like your eyes, all of them.”

  Nuzal didn’t realize he had stopped, his feet frozen to the ground, until Jun stopped to look back at him quizzically. No one had ever complimented his eyes before. When he was a warrior, his leaders had complimented his skills, his build, his strength, but his eyes? Never. This little human, who was so very different from him, looked at his features and found something to appreciate.

  What would it be like to close the space between them, to run his fingers through her hair the way he had wanted to the first time he saw her? He’d done it in recovery, untangling the strands, but it had been practical, not for pleasure, not the way he’d seen Brin do it in the cell back on the Kaia’s ship when he kissed Jun. How would it feel to be allowed to touch her in a way that brought her pleasure and joy, to know that it was his touch that brought that flush to her cheeks?

  His whole existence was centered around what he could do in service to the Kaia, to his species. Every single thing he had ever done had been to better them, and thinking back on it all, had it really been worth it? It had brought Jun and Brin into his life, but it had also caused him lifetimes of loneliness and, at some points, absolute misery. He’d been given many lives, but how many of those had he actually been allowed to live?

  Both his mate and bondmate had years of experience when it came to love and affection, but Nuzal had been a stranger to those until they came into the lab in their cryopods. Being near them now, working so close, and having the ability to speak to them freely was making him see just how much his cold, sterile upbringing may have damaged him.

  The Grutex were not solving their problems with rebirth; they were creating long-lasting problems. Even now, he couldn’t bring himself to touch his female, to open up to Jun and Brin in a way that would help them see Nuzal, and not a Grutex scientist.

  He’d tried his best to accept the likelihood that his mate and bondmate would never be able to overlook his past, and it might have worked for a short time, but now? Nuzal didn’t want to be alone anymore. The realization struck him like a punch in the gut, and he swayed on his feet as he struggled to focus his vision on Jun’s face.

  “Nuzal,” she moved closer, reaching out to touch his forearm, “are you okay?”

  An eerie growl echoed around them, bouncing off of the trees that surrounded them. The humans up ahead stopped, their faces paling as their eyes darted between the white trunks. Something was watching them.

  Clara turned, her features pinched in frustration as she looked back and forth between Nuzal and Jun. “What is it? I can feel the vibration, but I still can’t hear the way you all do.”

  He held a finger to his mouth, not daring to speak even through his mind to her in case the animal was sensitive to it. With a crook of his finger, Nuzal beckoned for them to move closer. Xavier and Roman were the farthest away, with Clara and Layla a short distance behind.

  A thick mist he hadn’t noticed before crept toward them from the direction they had come. The edges of it curled over stones and roots like smokey talons clawing their way across the forest floor.

  “I can smell the stream,” he told the group. “We stay close to each other. Do not walk off.”

  “I don’t like this, Nuzal,” Jun said, watching the trees as they continued on.

  Neither did he. The swinging branches of the icia trees made it hard to tell if there was any movement in the distance. This wasn’t the situation he wanted to be stuck in with a group of humans. The fact that one of them was his mate made it all the more stressful.

  Roman and Xavier kept their weapons up, ready to fire, but when they reached the stream without incident, the males lowered the guns, rushing forward, twisting the caps from their packs as they stepped into the water.

  “Wait!” Nuzal growled. “You have no idea if this is safe. Keep watch while I scan it, and don’t let the females out of your sight.”

  “Something is watching us, Nuzal,” Clara spoke. “I feel it out there, just outside my reach.”

  Nuzal crouched, dipping his fingers into the water, as tiny chunks of ice floated downstream, breaking apart against the smooth rocks that jutted out from the shore. He shook off his fingers before turning his arm over, allowing his comm to scan the surface of the stream. It took only a moment for it to finish, but Xavier was already becoming restless.

  “Is it safe?” he asked impatiently.

  The scanner icon flashed green before a chemical listing appeared, stating the water was safe for consumption.

  “Yes.” He uncapped his first pack, holding it beneath the surface so that the water flowed inside. “Fill your packs with as much as you’re able to carry.”

  The air around them, much like the water in the stream, was frigid. The humans dipped their packs in, shivering as the water rushed over their skin. Jun took a second pack from Nuzal, and despite the fact that his instincts urged him to pluck them from her hands and shoulder the burden, pride welled up inside of him at the sight of her. He was becoming oddly sentimental on this trip.

  Clara and Layla finished up their work, securing the caps so that none of the water leaked out. The pebbles shifted beneath Jun’s feet as she joined their group, giving him an encouraging smile.

  “Now what?” Layla asked as the others looked to Nuzal for direction.

  In the past, Nuzal led battalions of warriors into battle, and even in the lab he was second only to Erusha, so why was the idea of leading this group so daunting?

  “Now we look for something to eat.”

  Layla slung both packs over her shoulder and sighed as her eyes roamed over the rocks and loose soil beneath their feet. “Think they have pizza on this planet?”

  Laughter spilled from his mate’s lips as she started up the small incline, her packs swaying from side to side as she steadied herself. “God, I could go for some rice and shrimp. I’d settle for an entire plate
of bacon.”

  Clara moaned, her hand moving to her stomach as she hunched over, falling dramatically against the trunk of the nearest tree. “Where are all the space food trucks?”

  “Zero out of ten, would not recommend this uninhabited planet to friends.” Roman’s tone was serious, but the way the females laughed told him this must be part of the joke.

  Nuzal pulled the tool bags from his pouch before distributing them. “Try not to touch anything you find with your bare hands. If you see something that looks edible, let me know so it can be scanned. Let’s be sure to stay together so no one gets lost.”

  He extended the last one to Xavier as the others began to inspect the plant life in their immediate vicinity. “You think this makes what you did okay?” the male asked, his gills flaring and his voice low as if he didn’t want the rest to hear what he had to say. “I’ve seen what you monsters do, so don’t think I’m not watching you out here.”

  Nuzal’s xines writhed around his shoulders, his eyes following the male as he trailed after Roman. Xavier, like Esme, seemed to hold much more animosity toward him than any of the others, and while he didn’t expect them to forget everything that had gone on in the lab, Nuzal couldn’t help the frustration he felt.

  What could he do to prove to them he was trying his best to unlearn everything he’d been taught over his lifetimes? Trust takes time, Nuzal reminded himself.

  “Nuzal?”

  Clara’s lilting words brushed against his mind, and he turned, his eyes scanning the group until he found her attempting to climb up a small tree with gray bark. Hanging from some of the highest branches were large, pink fruits, their skin covered in smooth bumps.

  “I can’t reach them.” Clara huffed as she stretched up onto the very tips of her toes.

  Leaves and branches crunched and snapped beneath his feet as he stepped up to the tree, reaching his arm out to allow his comm to scan the outside. His comm flashed green a moment later and Clara clapped in celebration. Nuzal plucked the only one he could reach, handing it off to Clara.

  “Just the one?” Jun asked, leaning in to inspect the fruit in Clara’s hands.

  “I’d have to climb the tree in order to get the others, but I’m not sure it would be able to bear my weight. We can look for other trees––” Nuzal’s words died on his tongue when Jun began scurrying up the side of the tree. She was nearly over his head by the time his body reacted. “What are you doing?” Nuzal reached out, wrapping his hand around her slender ankle.

  “I’m climbing the tree,” Jun said, her eyes dancing with humor as she glanced down at him. “You’re going to make me slip if you keep pulling on me.”

  “It’s dangerous,” he grumbled, reluctantly releasing her so she could climb higher.

  “I’ve been climbing trees since I was a little girl. In fact…” She grunted, her arms straining as she pulled herself up before swinging her leg over so that she straddled one of the thicker branches. “My lola’s cooking was so good that when I took it to school for lunch, I’d have to eat it in a tree just to avoid being bothered by the other kids. This little guy,” she said, patting the tree, “is nothing compared to the ones back home.”

  Nuzal’s jaw clenched and his tail flicked from side to side as he positioned himself beneath her, prepared to catch her in the event she lost her balance, but Jun moved with ease, pulling the fruit from the highest branches and dropping them into his hands.

  “That’s enough,” Nuzal called up to her when they had filled his and Clara’s pouches. “Let’s see what else we find.”

  He shifted nervously as he watched her descend, clenching his hands to keep himself from reaching out and plucking her from the tree. She landed with a quiet thump on the soft ground, clutching at Nuzal’s arm, causing light to flare beneath it as she steadied herself.

  The group made their way back toward the ship, stopping to scan anything they thought might be edible, making sure to keep their guard up. Both Roman and Layla found root vegetables growing beneath the long branches of the icia trees, so they stopped to investigate further.

  “They look like potatoes,” Roman commented.

  Judging by the excitement on the faces of the others, Nuzal assumed this was some sort of Earth delicacy. Whatever it was, he was looking forward to eating something that hadn’t come from the replicator. It had been lifetimes since he last had that luxury.

  Jun and Clara filled two of the pouches he’d brought, wiping their dirty hands on the pants they wore as Nuzal cinched the ties. Up ahead, Xavier spoke hurriedly to Roman, his face pinched in frustration as the larger male attempted to shake him off.

  “He doesn’t like you,” Clara spoke. “Xavier thinks that all Grutex are bad, that there’s no redemption, but he isn’t able to see what I see. Roman, though, I think he’ll come around.”

  The sharp snap of twigs or branches behind them put Nuzal on high alert. Small rocks crunched beneath his feet as he moved closer to Jun, pulling her into his side as he scanned the trees. He motioned for Clara to join them, but her face drew down into a frown as she stared at the spot the females had dug up.

  “Where’s Layla?” his mate asked, pushing against his hip as she struggled in his grasp. “Nuzal––”

  “She probably wandered off,” Xavier grumbled as he plucked a dark leaf from one of the icia branches, completely oblivious to the dread he and the females seemed to be feeling. “Her damn head is always in the clouds.”

  “Don’t be such an ass,” Clara narrowed her eyes on the male.

  The rustling of branches overhead was the only warning they were given before a creature dropped from the tree above Clara, pinning her beneath its massive black body. Her surprised scream was cut off as its jaws closed around her throat, its long, sharp teeth sinking into the soft flesh. The shock of seeing the little female die, of watching her blood spray through the air as her eyes locked on his, rooted Nuzal to the ground. His pulse hammered in his ears, drowning out all the commotion around him.

  Before he knew what he was doing, Nuzal was in motion, charging the beast as it tried to escape into the trees with Clara’s limp body. From the corner of his eye, Nuzal caught the dark flash of another creature, but he wasn’t fast enough to dodge the attack.

  They went down with a thud, limbs tangling as they rolled across the uneven ground, both of them attempting to gain the upper hand. How Nuzal ended up on his back with the creature’s jaws snapping shut a mere breath away from his face, he didn’t know, and he wasn’t going to stay there long.

  With a grunt, Nuzal threw his legs up and around the large body, trying his best to flip the beast, but he was far heavier than expected. Jun shouted his name from somewhere in the distance, and the terror in her voice spurred him on. With one hand on the beast’s throat to keep him from tearing his face off, Nuzal slammed his other fist into its face, trying his best to aim for the two sets of eyes.

  There was a terrible shriek a moment before a massive, club-like tail buried itself into the soft ground to the left of his head. When it was pulled back, Nuzal got a good look at the deadly, dripping stinger that tipped it. This thing was armed to the teeth, but Nuzal wasn’t some soft-skinned human; he was Grutex, and he wasn’t going to go down so easily.

  With his teeth bared in a snarl, Nuzal swung his arm once more, this time using his claws instead of his fist to stab at the eyes and the sensitive flesh surrounding them. Hot, acrid liquid dripped onto his face and neck as the creature twisted away. He gasped for breath, clawing at the large paw that pressed down on his chest as the predator struggled. The loud crack and the pain in his chest that followed told Nuzal that his exoskeleton wasn’t going to hold to that weight much longer.

  Bright blue light, originating from somewhere to the right, flashed a second before the beast jerked violently, its eyes going wide just as two more pulses of light flew over them. With an ear-piercing shriek, the wounded creature bolted, kicking up soil and pebbles in its haste.

  Jun stood am
ong the trees, her arms held out in front of her with one of the plasma guns clutched in her hands. She stared wide-eyed at the retreating form, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she began to tremble.

  “Layla!” one of the males was shouting. “Layla!”

  With all of the strength he could muster, Nuzal pushed himself onto his hands and knees, crawling over the exposed roots and rocks toward his mate. A low rattle worked its way through his chest as he reached up to pry the weapon from her hands before pulling her against his body and wrapping her tightly in his arms.

  Almost as soon as the attack had begun, it was over. The fact that he couldn’t see Clara’s body anywhere in the immediate area told Nuzal that the first creature had likely made off with her. Not far from where the first one had appeared, Roman stood, gun raised as he frantically swept the trees.

  Thick black lifeblood, the same that was splattered across his face and neck, dripped from leaves and branches, looking to Nuzal like liquid adamantine as it glistened in the fading sunlight. The forest around them had gone silent, as if even the trees and wildlife were holding their breath, hoping not to draw the creatures back.

  Nuzal pulled back, cradling Jun’s face in his hands as he leaned down to press his forehead against hers. She’s alive. She’s still here, he told himself, breathing past the pain that radiated through his chest. His xines reached out, tracing her features and tangling in her hair as they sat in silence.

  “They’re gone,” Xavier whispered. “That thing… it fucking killed her.”

  “Where’s Layla?” Jun’s voice shook as she turned her face away to glance around. “I thought I heard her… I thought she screamed.”

  Nuzal closed his eyes, and the image of Clara’s shocked face surfaced in his mind.

  “Clara?” he tried tentatively. “Are you out there?” No answer.

  “What the hell?” Roman breathed. “You all saw it, right? You saw the blood?”

  The dark red lifeblood that had been splattered across the white bark of the trees and pooled on the forest floor was gone, and no sign of Clara’s mangled body existed. Her footprints in the soft soil near the exposed roots were the only indication that she had even been there with them. Where there was once carnage, there was now only the rocks, soil, and blue-green grass dancing in the breeze.