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

  Slengral surged forward with a growl, but Kehtal shot out into his side, dropping him to the ground with the force of their colliding bodies, the smaller male’s wings snapping around them to pin him in place. His snarl of outrage mingled with the humans’ panicked screams, and loud blasts filled the air with streams of light, but it could not save them.

  “Stop,” Kehtal hissed, but he ignored him.

  Growling, he threw the smaller male from his back, his body twisting to free his tail. In the distance, shouts joined the screams as the pair of humans from the first team ran back and joined in the fight. When their screams joined the first, a very real fear for his mate gripped him him—of her being attacked and seized this brutally.

  Jerking free, he rose to his full height, his wings spread to lift into the sky, but froze when a hunting group of four dropped in from another direction. Several of the humans already lay dead, their bodies already being torn apart, harvested for meat, as the other males from the two groups fought over the females.

  Now helmetless, the females looked frightened as they were pulled between them as males made their rattling territorial calls. A male hissed and dragged away one female, his wings beating furiously to carry away his prize, leaving the larger group of males with the remaining two females. They hissed at the retreating males and barked, the angry vibrations bursting through the air, but they too retreated. With their females secured, and one male laden with bloody meat, they took to the air.

  Slengral stared after them, anger filling him. Anger that he immediately redirected at Kehtal. Jerking around, he leveled the male with a furious look.

  “Why?” he hissed. “Why did you interfere?”

  Rather than wilt under his anger, Kehtal met it with an icy fury of his own.

  “Because you could not save them,” he barked. “To even try would have left your mate without your protection. You may be foolish with your life, but I cannot watch you risk her.”

  Staring at the male, Slengral’s anger dropped away, leaving behind a cold ball of dread in the pit of his stomach. Kehtal was right.

  “It should not concern you,” he said half-heartedly.

  His friend laughed humorlessly. “You may think not, but it does. You are my friend, and your female…” he exhaled, his expression softening, “…she is unlike anything I could have ever imagined.”

  Jealousy washing over him, Slengral jerked up, his wings stretching menacingly.

  “She is my mate,” he hissed.

  Kehtal hummed in agreement, his gavo crests flicking. “She is.”

  That there was something left unsaid there, Slengral tried to ignore as he took to the air. Instead, he allowed himself to be calmed by the male’s assurance. As for the colony, he had seen all that he wanted to see for the night. He was eager to leave that place before he was spotted and return to his mate. The speed at which Kehtal shadowed him spoke volumes of the male’s own eagerness. That too he would ignore… for now.

  Chapter 25

  He had to be mad. That was the only reasoning that Daskh could come up with for his inexplicable behavior. Over the last few waking cycles, he could still not come up with a better excuse. The fact that he had not stopped calling Slengral’s female hithana just emphasized the point and made it dig deep into his scales.

  The source of the wonderful smell had been an alien female, one he was now sworn to protect for his friend. Slengral and Lori needed his help, but neither of them realized what they set loose in their nest. Nor could he feel sorry for it. A grim satisfaction rose that he had access to that which he wanted the most, and it was fueled by the desperate need to protect and please her.

  When Kehtal told him, he had not believed it. Not until he had arrived at the nest and drew in a deep breath of her tantalizing scent and met her pale, dull eyes. Her strangeness was exotic to him, appealing to that part of him that was always classified as strange among his own kind for his enormous size. She had been frightened of him… at first, anyway. And then throughout the first waking cycle, that fear had shifted into something companionable with her teasing words as all trace scent of her fear drained away.

  Now there was no fear, not of him. She was still afraid of the cave, and it broke his heart, so he encouraged her to play and to speak to distract her. He wanted her words. He could not get enough of them.

  If he were honest with himself—and he typically was—he could not get enough of her. He was pleased that he was the one caring for her in Slengral’s absence and wanted more of it.

  More of this.

  Curling his wings around the small female, he nuzzled his nose along the fur that grew from her head, drawing in her scent. A giggle escaped her, and her hand slapped out over his mouth and nose, blocking his investigation. The blow was so light that it made him smile and nuzzle her again just to provoke her into striking.

  A strange snorting sound erupted from her as she slammed her hand a bit harder against his face with a laugh. “Stop it! That tickles!”

  Drawing back, he grinned down at her, pleased that he was able to cheer her up over being left behind again and bring back her smile. She did not have the hard, elegant ridges and planes of a female of his kind, but the soft fullness of her face, especially the way her cheeks widened in a wide, brilliant smile that his species lacked the ability to imitate, was enchanting.

  “Daskh, what are you doing?” Kehtal quietly interrupted.

  Stiffening, Daskh had to remind himself to loosen his grip on the female so that he would not harm her as he cast a sharp look over at his friend.

  “She requires comforting in this place. She gets frightened,” he said, his voice hard so as to be clear that he did not welcome any opinions on the matter.

  Kehtal stared back at him without flinching, his gavo flaring at what he saw as inappropriate between Daskh and Lori. For all of his humor and wit, Kehtal watched him suspiciously at all times, prepared to defend Lori and Slengral’s mating that had not truly even happened yet. While there was a slight scent of her male on her, Lori’s perfume was wholly her own, unmingled with that of an intimate connection with a male.

  Daskh was not really doing anything wrong, nor did he have any intention of betraying Slengral’s friendship. He could not really explain exactly what he wanted, but the one thing he did know was that he coveted the time that he had with her, however he could get it.

  Lori laughed and shoved at him. It was not anywhere near hard enough to be able to break his grip, but the signal was clear, and his expression softened into a smile as he gently set her back on her feet.

  “Don’t be an ass,” she chided affectionately. “I wasn’t scared. Nor did I need comforting, strictly speaking. I was pissed off to be left here yet again while those two flew off, and you decided to take it upon yourself to distract me.”

  He lifted his wings, nonchalant. “Soothe, distract… it is all very similar.”

  “Oh, it is not, you enormous beast,” she shot back around her laughter.

  Kehtal’s eyes darted back and forth between then, his muscles and the tip of his tail stiff as if uncertain whether or not he should interfere and put a stop to their play. Daskh wanted to sigh. It was clear that his friend was on the verge of expiring from anxiety. He shifted his bulk so that the remaining length of his tail was not on the other bench as well, and gestured to it.

  “Join us,” he invited.

  The male hesitated, uncertainty on his face.

  “Sit down, kapan,” he tried again, with a cranky snap of his jaw.

  That won a smile as Kehtal sank onto the other bench. “What are we doing?” he asked, his eyes scanning over the table where Lori had separated out bright rocks into two different color groups.

  Lori’s expression brightened. “It was something I was working on to play with Slengral, but we can give it a test run. One second. Let me get the board I made.”

  Kehtal looked over again at Daskh. He did not know any more than Kehtal did about what Lori had created since h
e had spent the previous cycle enjoying her cheerfulness as she worked on her activity rather than pepper her with questions over it.

  “If it is something you made for Slengral, perhaps it should wait,” Kehtal suggested in a low voice, making his unwillingness to enjoy anything done for Lori’s mate abundantly clear.

  Daskh narrowed his eyes in annoyance at the male.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s a game even children can play. I can teach you and enjoy playing this with you just as easily as with him.” Her lips pursed as she set a small slab of stone in the middle of the table. “It’s only a two-player game, but we can take turns,” she assured. “Just a little something to have fun passing time,” she teased, glancing over at Kehtal, whose tail twisted as if he were uncertain of whether to enjoy it or leave.

  Daskh slapped him with his tail, making the decision for him. Kehtal relaxed, his eyes watching with increasingly avid interest when Lori began to line up the small stones, each still separated into their own color grouping.

  The stone “board,” as she called it, was curiously marked with falka, a soft white marking mineral that Seshanamitesh employed mostly for plotting out areas to carve out within their nests, or to leave messages for each other—those who knew how to read and write. Since males were exiled to the upper tunnels, far from the shinara, not every mother considered it important. There were exceptions like Daskh’s mother, but it seemed that every new generation of young males sent out from the shinara that there were fewer who knew how.

  Daskh had once considered teaching them, but interacting with other males was not the way of hunters. Offering them support would have weakened them in the eyes of the other males. They would have been bullied and chased out to the deep caves. Daskh did not have the heart to do anything that would jeopardize their ability to survive, so he turned the young males away from his nest just as he did the adult males who thought to challenge him for his nest.

  This, however, was new. He had not seen falka utilized in such a way. The marked out blank and filled-in boxes running across the slab had his full attention.

  She glanced up them in amusement as she set the last stone down. “Funny enough, the rocks here provide just the right colors for game pieces to play checkers.”

  “Checkers,” Kehtal murmured.

  Daskh grinned and leaned in, eager to learn. He would play with the little female in any way that she liked. This was far more innocent than any games that would have sprung to mind, but for keeping his honor and friendship intact, this was by far the best one.

  Lori, amid much laughing, spent two rounds teaching them each how to play. The rules were not complicated to remember, but it was amusing just how easily they could run afoul of rules. It was definitely a game of strategy rather than might. It did not matter who was at the table. All that mattered was the quickness of the mind.

  Daskh liked that. Males were taught young to hunt and fight. Daskh wondered if young females in the shinara played strategy games such as this. As much as he enjoyed it, he was amused even more by the cunning look on Kehtal’s face when he took his turn bent over the board.

  Round after round, trading turns as the winner was challenged by the next person waiting. There was a spirit of competition to it that especially appealed to both of them, but he was delighted to find that Lori was just as vicious in her strategy. She made a triumphant sound from her belly when after much back and forth she beat Kehtal, who in turn stared at the board in shock, unable to believe he had lost.

  Daskh laughed and took his turn, also losing spectacularly, but he did not mind so much. He enjoyed just watching her. He was also sure that she cheated, but he had not determined how yet, and that was even more interesting.

  Despite how enamored with the game that they were, they all looked up from the game when Slengral entered. Daskh felt a pit of disappointment forming in his belly at the sight of the male, certain that he would send them all on their way as he had done before.

  To his surprise, Slengral looked tiredly over the game and grunted as he scooped his mate up into his arms. Daskh felt the loss immediately, missing the heat of her body pressed up against his. He sighed and began to shift off the bench.

  “Stay,” Slengral murmured, nuzzling his cheek affectionately against his mate’s head. “Show me how this is played. I watched a little, but now I would like to learn.”

  “You want to play… together?” Kehtal questioned hesitantly.

  Daskh did not blame him for the disbelief. He was also having a difficult time seeing this as the same male who drove them both from his nest the moment he returned.

  Annoyance flashed across the male’s face and then disappeared.

  “I said as much. We will play.” He met his mate’s glare and sighed. “Please. I would enjoy playing this game with you, my friends.”

  “That’s better,” Lori praised, her arms banding around Slengral in a way that Daskh envied.

  As they played well into the sleeping cycle, the nest coming alive with shared words and laughter, Daskh wondered how he would go back to his old life once everything was finally settled. He hated to even think of it.

  Chapter 26

  Kehtal grinned at the human pacing back and forth in the main room. He never thought he would enjoy another being so much. He had found a sort of companionship with Daskh and Slengral over the passing of many seasons due to the close proximity of their nests, but this level of fascination and delight in another’s existence was new. Even Daskh was being affected by it.

  Although the male had harrumphed when he arrived, Daskh was incredibly gentle and patient when it came to the little female. In all the seasons he had known Daskh, he had never seen him be anything other than surly. In the waking cycles since they returned from the colony, Daskh had not complained once about returning a cycle after to Slengral’s nest. What was supposed to be only two cycles turned into five, and then seven, and with them the sounds of human activity returned to the Aglatha. In that time, he had not even once so much as growled at the human. Lori seemed to bring out the best in the sour male, even drawing out smiles and an occasional rumbling chuckle.

  Who knew that Daskh could smile? Or laugh?

  The male in question, who was watching the pacing female with a fond quirk of his mouth, glanced over at Kehtal, his brows drawing down. With a shift of his tail, he slid closer so they could speak without being overheard.

  That he was scowling was of little surprise. Daskh had not been happy when he heard of their plans, but regardless of how poorly the idea of deceiving Lori sat with him, even he had been noticeably relieved with the decision. The male fussed over the female and was showing inappropriate protectiveness for a male who was not her mate, even peeling fruit for her so she did not risk damaging her soft claws.

  It was bound to cause trouble with Slengral eventually. The male was too occupied with spying on the humans, watching the activity at the colony, and listening to Kehtal’s gathered information to notice. But he would not continue to be ignorant for long.

  “Any new information?” Daskh hissed.

  Kehtal slanted a hard look at him and flicked his crests, trying not to betray the weight of unease that he bore much of the cycle. Watching the human, breathing in her perfect, right scent helped. “When Slengral arrives.”

  The male swallowed a growl but flicked his own gavo crests in response before turning to continue observing the pacing female.

  Yes, there was definitely going to be a problem.

  Following Daskh’s gaze, Kehtal frowned. Lori was more unsettled than usual.

  “Has she been like this all cycle?” he murmured.

  Daskh grunted. “She is anxious. She does not like the caves, and she worries about what is happening on the surface. This cannot continue.”

  “Do not worry. It will not,” Kehtal sighed.

  Slengral was growing increasingly hostile with his mate’s mounting distress, especially as the signs of a trespassing male were stronger and more
frequent. Before long the entire Aglatha would know that she was there. They needed to move her, and soon.

  If the male had not forbidden any more delays, Kehtal would have voluntarily insisted that they stop out of a sense of responsibility to his friend. Fortunately, after cycles of not being able to discover anything regarding the shinara—their mysterious silence disturbing him more than what he communicated to Slengral—he had finally heard something. And it did not bode well for the future.

  Listening intently for any sound of Slengral’s arrival, his ear ridges twitched at a gentle vibration. He tilted his head. What was that? It sounded so sweet and light—familiar even—but the pitch was too soft for him to identify it. Perhaps an animal? There were several species that communicated with sonic vibrational song not unlike the Seshanamitesh. Usually, the nesting creatures did not make it so far down into the shaft, but it would not be the first time.

  Daskh growled, his rising gavo stiffening down the length of his spine as he backed closer to Lori, his tail sweeping her carefully behind him.

  “Something is in the tunnels.”

  “Animals,” Kehtal suggested, his voice uncertain.

  The vibration immediately stopped, and they both froze, their breaths the only sound in the nest. Their ear ridges completely fanned out to best capture even the smallest noise, their gavo opened and their muscles tensed, drawing them up higher on their coils—threateningly—readying for attack.

  When no further sounds came, Kehtal released the breath in his lungs and lowered himself back down, his gavo retracting. It had to have been an animal just as he suspected.

  Gavo slowly retreating once more, Daskh rubbed at the edge of one of his crests, his mouth tightening.

  “That was no animal,” he muttered to himself, followed by another angry rumble. “Where is Slengral? He should be here by now.”