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

  Hugging Daskh’s tail to her, she watched the entrance, waiting. The male holding her sighed, and the tip of his tail playfully flicked her cheek, surprising a snort of amusement from her. That amusement died, however, when she noticed that he had reached over and grabbed the long spear-like velkat and was firmly gripping it in his long fingers.

  She cleared her throat and looked pointedly at it. “I thought there was nothing to worry about.”

  His mouth widened in a broad, fanged grin. “And there will not be as long as I have this with me. Just in case it is needed.”

  “Not making me feel better here, big guy,” she observed dryly, a tiny shiver stealing over her. “Slengral has one of those with him, right? And Kehtal took his?”

  “Yes, they both have their velkats and are capable hunters who know how to use them. Do not worry, hithana.”

  Lori squinted up at him, her attention diverted. “You keep calling me that. What does hithana mean?”

  Obvious embarrassment swept over the male’s face. “It is an old word that I am certain not many know the meaning of anymore.”

  She poked his tail with her finger, her nose wrinkling. “Don’t give me that. Out with it. And it better not mean something unflattering.”

  Daskh looked away, his crests lifting and flattening. He was really embarrassed.

  “Please tell me it doesn’t mean ‘something the cave monsters shit out or vomited up,’” she added, her lips quirking. “I’ll find a way to get back at you if it means anything like that. I can be pretty inventive with pet names too, just so you know.”

  He glanced down at her again, his interest piqued and embarrassment already forgotten. “I would enjoy this thing you call a pet name if that is what is meant when referring to a special endearment.”

  “Well, they can be pretty special endearments,” she agreed. “But first, out with it. What exactly are you calling me?”

  “You must promise not to tell Slengral,” he said quickly. “I am certain he does not know its meaning since he has never shown any reaction to it. He would be displeased that I am calling his mate by such a name.”

  Lori wiggled forward in fascination. “Oh, this has to be good. Fine, I promise. Now spill.”

  Daskh sighed. “Very well, female. I will tell you, since I have your oath. I spoke the truth when I said that it is not remembered by most males. I do not think any male of my acquaintance is familiar with it. Not even Kehtal, for all his knowledge. It was a special word my mother called my father. They had a unique mating, before he died and my mother was forced to raise me alone in the shinara until I came of age and the other females drove me out,” he quietly shared.

  Her heart constricted. “Drove you out?”

  His crest flicked in affirmation. “When a male reaches his juvenile years at around twelve season cycles, he is no longer permitted to live in the shinara. No unmated male is when he comes into his hormones. Some younger if their mother dies when they are small, and they are forced to leave with their father, if their mother had mated the male who sired them.”

  Lori’s mouth dropped open, trying for the life of her to imagine a small child struggling to survive. He gently brushed the curled tip of his tail against the back of her neck.

  “Do not be sad, Lori. Our world is harsh, and the shinara does what they feel they must.”

  She drew in a sharp breath through her nose. “A harsh world is exactly why children should be raised until they’re adults and capable of surviving on their own, and even then still loved and cared for as adults.”

  “Our males can be brutal,” he reminded her softly. “The females protect themselves as they have for generations since they retreated into their solitary lives in the shinara.”

  “So they’ve sold you to keep you exactly where they want you. It sounds like the worst kind of mind games,” she snapped back.

  He regarded her steadily, his head tilting subtly. “Perhaps there is truth in what you say,” he murmured. “I did not tell you this, however, to upset you. I just wished to explain why it is important and so rare to hear. Hithana means ‘undying sweetness of my heart.’”

  Lori’s breath escaped her in a startled puff as she stared up at him. “Oh,” she whispered.

  What else was there to really say? If there was an appropriate response, then her mind failed to supply it as the big lout smiled down at her in the toothy manner of his species.

  Chapter 29

  Daskh curled his tail tighter around his—the female. Although the cave had fallen silent once more, and Kehtal’s explanation for the sounds was reasonable, he felt as if something was off. His claws clicked together in a restless habit as he peered into the tunnel from the nest. He knew that Kehtal would not have left if he had believed that there were any dangers that Daskh could not handle. Although the male looked disapprovingly at Daskh’s affections toward the little human, he knew that his friend was intrigued and mesmerized by Lori’s curious mind and her scent.

  He was drawn to it himself, but Daskh’s feelings were far more complicated. Unlike Slengral, who was considered an ideal male in his prime, or Kehtal, who most females found charming despite his size, Daskh was too large for most females to tempt. They regarded his meager offerings and daunting body warily, so much so that he knew relief must have been felt all over the shinara when he stopped visiting with his hunt. It had been just as well for him to his way of thinking because his large size made it challenging for him to hunt with the stealth other males possessed. Not impossible, just difficult.

  He was tolerated for his strength and size against an attack to the shinara, and nothing more. He was allowed to nest in the upper caves only because he served that purpose, even if it was largely unintentional. He was under no illusions about that. When he ceased visiting with his hunt, an older male, one of the mated allowed in the shinara, had come to him and deliver exactly that warning. Do his duty and he would be permitted to remain.

  It was laughable to think that so many males believed that they ruled the upper caverns. They were all fools. Despite how deep the shinara was buried, the Aglatha belonged to it and the males a necessary presence for their needs until they were not.

  A problematic male or a male who was useless was dealt with by the mated males and the unmated males who were loyal favorites of the females. No male was exempt from that, and he had a feeling that, with the introduction of human mates into the caves, that those who were ignorant of the fact would be discovering the truth of the matter soon.

  He knew the risk all too well, and perhaps that made him an even bigger fool than all the others. By guarding Lori and keeping her presence secret, he was betraying the shinara and would be punished for it.

  Daskh growled quietly, the tip of his tail smoothing against Lori’s covered back. He felt her small hand close around the tip of his tail seconds before she yanked on it. His head snapped around, his eyes fastening on her. If it was done to get his attention, she now had it, though he worked to ignore the arousal it sent flaring down to his sant.

  She gave him a concerned look, her eyebrows—the thin strips of fur on her face—dipping. “Is everything all right?” she whispered.

  He glanced back toward the entrance. “I do not know,” he replied honestly. “It is quiet, but there is something wrong with it.”

  “There’s everything wrong with it.” Lori sighed, leaning into his coils. “I can’t get used to the silence and strange sounds of the cave system.” She gave him a speculative look. “It could be that it’s just nothing and we’re both being neurotic as hell.” Her nose wrinkled adorably. “Or it’s something out there waiting to eat us. I mean, I think we look like we would make a fine meal.”

  The corners of his mouth twitched, and he chuffed softly. His—the little female never failed to calm his mind and amuse him.

  “Perhaps,” he lied.

  His tail resumed its restless stroking against her back. It betrayed his anxiety, but he could not seem to still it. There was
something out there, of that he was certain. Kehtal may have dismissed it, but he could not. Not when he needed to make sure to guard his… to guard Lori.

  If it was one of his people hunting her… well, let them try! His loyalty now firmly belonged to her and her alone. Not even the bonds of his friendship with Slengral, such as Lori labeled it, superseded what he felt toward her.

  Being with Lori made him feel things he had never felt before. Even with her silently remaining without protest within his coils, as she was now—her body reclined against his tail trustingly—was a luxury that called to him as much as it had the first night.

  That first night, she became imprinted on his heart. It had happened so easily and so quickly that he did not even recognize it for what it was at first.

  Like Kehtal, he had been attracted to her scent, drinking it in with large gulps of air, tasting her sweetness on the roof of his mouth. He had wanted to lick her flesh, but such a thing was considered rude among his kind outside the fervor of breeding. But how he wanted to. More than that, as the waking period wore on, he had been amused by her chatter. He had thought his friend talked a lot, but it had seemed that Lori was incapable of running out of breath as she spoke of the lives of her species, the planet she was from, and her dream destination.

  A world devoted to pleasures was beyond his abilities to even imagine. He would have communicated that thought, and countless others, but, unlike his friend, he was not skilled at speaking to females and so sat quietly, enjoying the sound of her voice until his pleasure turned to dismay as her mind diverted to topics that distressed her.

  He had not known what possessed him to offer her comfort. It was possibly because he enjoyed her liveliness and the pure scent of her. It was not unusual for a male to make such an offer, although it rarely happened outside of mating or breeding. Still, he had not expected it to be accepted and had felt foolish for even making the suggestion moments after it was out of his mouth.

  He had sat there, waiting to be rejected, cringing with the unbearable weight of the knowledge that it was coming, when her soft voice had intruded and washed over him like a balm. She had accepted his comfort, and he had known the bliss of holding another close to him beneath his wings. And then she had melted into him, securing his heart for her own for the rest of his life.

  Lori’s small body shivered under the ceaseless slide of his tail, her pheromones deepening despite the layer of unease that covered it. She was not immune to him either. Knowing that sent a thrill through him that was almost enough to distract him, if not for his fear that something or someone might try to snatch her away from him.

  A muffled thump echoed from outside the tunnel loud enough that Lori jumped. He could feel her heart hammering against his tail where she leaned into him.

  Growling, Daskh unwound the end of his tail from around her and slid forward, his eyes narrowing on the entrance. “Stay here,” he murmured.

  “You got it,” Lori replied.

  Smart female. His heart swelled with pride that she trusted him with her safety.

  Daskh slipped through the entrance and began to slowly make his way through the tunnel. The muscles in his large body bulged with tension the closer he got to the end of the tunnel, his ear ridges fanned as he strained to listen. There was a scream that echoed, barely audible down the shaft from some distance away, and although it was blood-chilling, it was not what caught his attention. There, just outside the tunnel, a whisper of sound like the light flap of wings drifted toward him. He froze, drawing in a deep breath, scenting and tasting the air. A thick musk rolled over his receptors, and his growl deepened. It echoed through the tunnel, and the activity just outside it paused.

  His jaw rattled, a deep, long roaring vocalization recognized by his species as a protective call, his gavo snapping up and stiffening with hostility. He was not so deep in the tunnel now that a rival would see the colors of the gavo, and those of Daskh were larger and far more threatening in appearance with their high, sharp edges.

  A furious hiss met his display, wings flapping and claws scraping against rock as the male no doubt scrabbled along the stones just outside the tunnel. Whipping forward, with no patience for such foolery and a coldness sweeping through him in defense of the vulnerable female within the nest behind him, Daskh charged the entrance with a violent hissing snarl.

  Color exploded at the tunnel entrance as the male shot away, his wings flapping and his own gavo raised. The male twisted in midair, yellow eyes glaring as he hissed back. Daskh’s tail tightened, his massive wings expanding around him, preparing to chase the male off as he let out another rattling call.

  It was the last warning that the male would get.

  Turning about in the air once more, the male snapped forward and Daskh bellowed, preparing to attack when a female launched herself with a dreadful shriek from one of the opposite tunnels than hung just above them. Daskh’s tail whipped out, his gavo gouging into the cave walls, his claws scraping the edges of the entrance, digging gouges with the effort of stopping his forward momentum.

  His breath heaving out of him, he stared wide-eyed from just barely within the tunnel as the female’s body collided with the male, her tail wrapping around his as she anchored herself to his back. Claws digging deep, blood ran freely from where she gripped him, filling the air with its metallic scent, her teeth snapping into the flesh of his neck when he tried to twist away. They hit the rock wall of the cavern, the velkat spinning free of the male’s hands, leaving him completely unarmed. Together the pair dropped like a stone, the female’s wings flapping wildly, just barely slowing their fall until the male finally obliged and opened his own wings so that they eased into a glide, descending out of sight.

  “What the hell was that!?” Lori shouted unexpectedly from behind him.

  Whirling around, his nostrils flared with his sharp exhale as he saw her standing just a short distance behind him in the tunnel, her strange glowing helmet nearly engulfing her head. She had not listened after all. She could have been killed! His wings trembled with barely leashed anger as his eyes narrowed on her rounded smooth face. Taking in the way she stared at the now empty shaft, her face nearly colorless with shock, his anger leeched out of him. He drew in another breath and then released it with a sigh.

  “I told you to stay in the nest,” he rebuked gently as he slipped over the stones back to her and gathered her into his arms.

  “I did—until I heard you make that frightening noise you guys do. It scared the piss out of me. I wasn’t planning on getting close or anything. I just wanted to know what was going on,” she whispered, her voice muffled against his chest.

  Humming soothingly, he carried the small female back to the nest, enjoying the way her arms and legs wrapped around him as if she were hugging him with her entire body like any Seshanamitesh. It felt so right, despite the shaking of her small frame against him, that he did not set her down on the bench inside the main room. The violence, even if only captured partially from a distance, was enough that he sought the deeper areas of the nest forbidden to him.

  He wanted her to feel safer than what she would likely feel in the main room so near the tunnel.

  Slipping through a tunnel at the back, Daskh made his way through the nest, ignoring the various branches leading off to different rooms until he arrived at the inner cell. Large enough to just fit a sunken bed carved into the center of the floor, the room was small enough to feel comfortable and secure even if the bed was big enough to fit at least four adult Seshanamitesh.

  His brow raised at the opulence of space. His own bed he carved out to be just big enough to wedge himself into without suffering any discomfort. Nor did he have the sort of thick furs that filled Slengral’s sleeping area. Although he was surprised at the effort put into his cell, he did not begrudge the luxuries. In fact, he was pleased that Lori had them and that she was clearly well cared for, even if he longed to have such duties himself.

  Carefully dropping down into the bed, he curl
ed up, his tail wrapping firmly around them as he cradled her in his arms. He removed her helmet and set it close enough to the edge of the bed where its glow could still comfort her and settled deeper into the bedding. Daskh drew up one larger pelt with one hand to tuck it around her limbs that were still chilled with shock. Not once did he drop his humming, and the corners of his mouth pulled up as he felt her wiggle closer against him, her breath sighing against his skin.

  “Thank you,” she mumbled. Her blue eyes blinked up at him, appearing luminous in the light of the helmet. “So what happens now?” she asked quietly. “Do you think they’ll come back?”

  He considered her question. “I do not know,” he rumbled honestly, his voice vibrating with his hum layered beneath it. “The male, maybe. He has been lurking around the nest too much for me to believe that he will give up, though he might withdraw for a time after the female finishes with him. The female, however, I think she was just a chance encounter.”

  Lori grimaced. “I take it the female was the scary one on top ripping into the male beneath her?” At the flick of his crests, her expression soured. “Fantastic. And these are the ones we have to talk peace with. I thought your females were peaceful.”

  He rubbed his cheek against the top of her head, enjoying the way her soft hair tickled his scales. “Not necessarily, but they live in an organized way that does not include the territorial aggression of our males. They would rather leave the unpleasantness to males and pretend they are above us. They can be just as violent and cruel as any male.” He blew out a breath, admiring the way her fur stirred and danced within it. “Still, I have never seen such behavior from a female. They rarely leave the shinara and avoid males while traveling through the cave system. They only interact with males on the occasion that a male they find suitable arrives with an offering of the hunt while they are in their breeding period. I am sure there is nothing to fear.”