Page 63 of Whispers of the Deep

But then she tilted her head to the side, baring more of that lovely neck until he reached the prominent muscles of her shoulders. And still, his fingers caught on the blanket and he thought, “I could tear this off her.”

He would then finally see what an achromo looked like underneath all those layers that they hid beneath. Even more than that, he could see what she looked like.

His skin still tingled as he remembered their moments near the hot springs. He could still feel the sensation of her skin against the back of his hands, dragging as she shifted and moved. It was... More than he’d expected. Even now, the thoughts were tempting.

Hissing in a long, deep breath, he told himself that there was no place for thoughts like this. She was pinned beneath him, likely terrified, and yet he pressed himself harder against her. The strong muscles of her legs surrounded his hips, and he’d thought this would disgust him, but instead it... intrigued him.

Those delicate arms lifted above her head, and those big eyes that stared at him with so much determination. How was he supposed to function normally when all he wanted was to press their lips together? To do what he had seen achromos do a hundred times, but his people had no reference for it?

“Why do your kind touch mouths?” he asked, knowing that she had no idea what he was talking about. “I always saw it through the glass and wondered why you were doing it. Was it to pass food between the two of you? It disgusted me. But now I find myself looking at you, and I am curious what your people were doing.”

She almost... reacted to his words? He couldn’t really tell. Her pupils dilated until he stared into a black-eyed gaze, and he thought she shifted a little closer to him. It was a strange reaction from a woman who could not understand him.

Did it matter, though? He was already so deep into this that he couldn’t remember what he had planned before. He didn’t even notice that he’d rocked against her, pressing them a little closer as he got dangerously close to showing her everything that his people hid underneath their scales. Already he could feel his cock pressing against the backs of the armored plates, wanting to release and take her.

He hadn’t taken a woman in ages. He hadn’t felt the bite of their claws or the gnashing of their teeth. Mating for his people was not a kind event. The male frequently left the interaction with scars that he’d carry with him for the rest of his life.

Still, he had to wonder if the experience would be similar with an achromo. She was too delicate to damage his hardened scales, and his tail was so far out of her reach that she wouldn’t be able to lock him in place. Those tiny nails on her hands would impede her and barely break through his skin on his back. And she had no fangs or sharpened teeth in the slightest.

He wondered how they protected themselves. But he would not complain about needing to protect her, because for some strange reason, it made him feel rather powerful.

Arges tightened his grip on her blanket as he stared into her eyes. He swore there was acceptance in that gaze, maybe even need. She wanted him to tug it down a little farther. She wanted him to see her, and perhaps find himself captivated even more by what he found there. Was she this pale all over her body? Were there really no scales to protect her?

But then a loud clunking noise made him freeze, and her stupid little robot dragged itself closer to them.

“Mira?” it asked, those strange metallic eyes blinking. “Are you well?”

She turned her head toward the robot, and he swore she was a little breathless. “I’m fine, Byte. He’s not going to hurt me.”

Or maybe he would. Their bodies were clearly not compatible, and he was considering doing the impossible. Fitting them together might hurt her more than she thought.

The little robot clunked again, clicking a few times like a dolphin before it muttered, “Should scan. Something is wrong.”

He returned his attention to the woman beneath him. Something was wrong with her? Perhaps her cheeks were a little pale, but that wasn’t surprising, considering he had her pinned to the ground underneath him. She wasn’t shaking or vomiting or spewing anything out of her orifices, so surely she was all right?

But then she made a slight coughing noise, almost clearing her throat, but he heard the rattle in it. Perhaps that was what the robot had heard as well. The rattle, the strange sound that erupted from her lungs when she spoke. He only sounded like that when he was trying to clear the fluid out of his second set of lungs so he could breathe on land.

Mira didn’t have another set of lungs for underneath the water. He should have known something would go wrong after he’d kept her underneath the surface for such a long time.

Sliding his hands down her arms, webs trailing across the delicate skin underneath her wrists, he moved his body off of her. She almost protested. He watched her eyes flash in disappointment before she drew her hands back down to catch the blanket that slid. He caught the slightest glimpse of endless pale skin before she hid herself yet again from his gaze.

“Scan her,” he grumbled to the box. “If there is something wrong with her, I wish to know.”

Why? He had no idea. He should be happy if she was getting ill. That was the purpose of his mission, after all. Learn what he could when she was this weak and then learn how to fix what her people had broken. That information would be significantly easier to get from her if she were weakened.

Still, he didn’t want to see her harmed. If only because he so admired her bravery and ability to survive despite everything that he’d thrown at her.

Byte dragged itself a little closer to her with those short arms. The metal clunked again, clicking and whirling as a new tool he hadn’t seen erupted from behind its head. He hissed and sank deeper into the water as a new light emitted from the strange device. Green and slicing, it broke through the air and traveled up and down Mira’s body.

“As I suspected,” Byte muttered. “You’ve been hiding your health from us.”

Hiding what? Mira looked fine. Maybe a little rattling in the lungs, but that must be something fairly easy for achromos to fix. It was easy for him to address.

“You would have visible injuries if you were mortally wounded, would you not?” he asked, hating that he couldn’t actually converse with her. “Surely it would be easy to see.”

But it wasn’t, apparently. Byte chittered a few times before whirring again, that light running over her body again. And Mira? She wouldn’t even look at him.

“Severe vitamin d deficiency,” Byte said. “Significant vitamin depletions in multiple other forms. Significant fiber loss and blood pressure is far too low. You’ve been sick for a while, Mira. Why haven’t you told us that?”

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