Chapter 11

The deep is eternity.

—Iosef Luna

KAIA HAD RECEIVED a notification the instant Bowen Knight opened his door. With Atalina currently asleep on strict orders from Ryūjin’s resident healer, Kaia was on watch for experiments who got up and began walking around. Attie did have an assistant, but George preferred the clean edges of data and had gone a “bilious green” when Attie suggested he might want to interact with their subject.

Entering the communal living area of the atrium, she found the disturbingly attractive security chief of the Human Alliance in front of the seaward wall, his eyes trained on the deep. She understood his fascination—every single room in the habitat except for those in the central core had access to a seaward view. The latter were for non-BlackSea contractors uncomfortable with being reminded they stood countless fathoms deep.

Kaia empathized with their fear as most of her clan couldn’t. Terror and hunger entwined in her heart each time she looked out at the deep. She craved the cold slide of it as much as she feared the dangers of leaving safe waters. Monsters existed beyond BlackSea’s guarded territorial borders, and the worst of it was that they didn’t look like monsters at all.

Her pulse thudded, her breath threatening to turn shallow.

Bowen Knight’s face held not even a whisper of the fear that had dug its roots into Kaia’s soul, only a shocked wonder that made him appear suddenly young. The way his overlong hair fell across his forehead and kissed the top of his collar just added to that impression.

As she watched, Filipe did another sweep only inches from the edge of the habitat before swimming away and probably up to get air into his lungs. Ryūjin Station’s semi-retired handyman found it boundlessly funny to startle unsuspecting clanmates by appearing outside the seaward wall when they were just going about their business—or taking a sip of a well-deserved coffee.

You’d think a whale his age would be more mature, but no.

Hex poked his head out of her pocket at the same instant that Alden caught her eye. His jaw worked as he nudged it toward Bowen’s form. Frowning, Kaia shook her head before she began to cross the distance to him.

A close friend of Hugo’s, Alden knew the same horrific details as Kaia did. The difference was that Alden was six feet five inches tall and two hundred seventy pounds. If he decided to get violent, Bowen was in no condition to take him on. Unfortunately, Alden was a walrus with a serious problem controlling his temper.

So Kaia played dirty. “Do you want Atalina to go into premature labor?” she hissed at him when their paths crossed.

The big man’s shoulders hunched forward in the same curve as his thick handlebar mustache. “He hurt Hugo.”

Patting Alden’s shoulder, Kaia whispered, “We’ll find Hugo.” It was a wish as much as a promise. “But you can’t harm Bowen Knight—Attie’s entire experiment would fail and you know how she is.” Kaia’s cousin put her soul into her work, would be heartbroken at the loss. “We have to be careful with her feelings—especially now. Go on.”

Alden shot Bowen Knight another dark glance before accepting her instruction to leave. Kaia made a mental note to have a quiet word with his supervisor—a good friend of hers—suggesting that Alden should be kept busy for the foreseeable future; as an engineer, he was a godsend and, when in a good mood, a total teddy bear.

It just so happened that he’d been in a bad mood for the past six months. Walruses. It was like they turned thirty and lost their minds if they hadn’t yet found a mate. After that, it was sulking, temper, and general snarkiness. Hugo’s disappearance had just exacerbated Alden’s already black temperament.

He could kill Bowen with a single unthinking blow.

Skin suddenly chilled, Kaia took the final steps to Bowen’s side. The scanner was already in her hand. That hand happened to be covered in flour—she’d been mixing dough when this dangerous man had decided to mess with her schedule.

“What are you doing out of bed?” She synced the scanner with the fine “smart-mesh” that lay against his scalp, hidden by the soft ebony waves of his hair.

His readings were exceptionally good for a man who’d suffered such a grievous insult to his body. According to Attie, it helped that he’d been in prime physical condition prior to taking a bullet to save his sister’s life.

“I think I’m hallucinating,” he said, his eyes trained on the water. “I could swear that whale was laughing as he swam by.”

“Filipe has a strange sense of humor.”

Bowen Knight angled his head to search her face, as if he wasn’t sure if she was serious or not. But when he spoke, it was about another thing entirely. “I could’ve taken the big guy with the mustache.”

The hairs rose on the back of Kaia’s neck; she’d been sure he was utterly absorbed in the deep while she chewed out Alden. Hugo had been right to warn his friends to not let down their guard around Bowen Knight should they ever end up in his presence. “Fine. I’ll let Alden pound you into paste next time,” she said, forcing an ice into her voice that didn’t come naturally. “Try to do it away from here. Blood is hell to clean out of carpet.”

Bowen smiled. It lit up his whole face, the dark, dark eyes suddenly warm and the creases in his cheeks devastatingly attractive. “Thank you, Kaia Luna,” he said in a solemn tone. “I appreciate being protected.”

The other part of her poked up its head at the possibility of a playmate. Kaia sternly told it to stay underwater. According to Hugo, Bowen Knight was the kind of playmate who’d leave them both broken. “Are you hungry?” she asked curtly. “Attie won’t thank me if you faint because you’re starving.”

“I’ve never fainted in my life.” The affront in his expression reminded her so strongly of her male cousins that Kaia’s defenses nearly cracked.

Careful, Kaia. He’s a master at manipulation.

He was also putting out “bad boy” pheromones that spoke to her crazy—and to the wild, playful, and curious core of her nature. But Kaia had seen the photograph Hugo had found, and no charm onslaught was going to make her forget the carnage.

“You’d better come into my kitchen so I can get on with work while babysitting you.” She put away the scanner, then turned and walked toward the back end of the atrium without waiting for his response. The kitchen area was located behind a partial wall that protected it from the atrium foot traffic but left it accessible to the clan.

Once in her domain, she moved past the large table on which her kitchen hands regularly put out fruit, cookies, sandwiches, and other “in-between” snacks. In a station this big, someone was always hungry.

She ruffled the messy golden brown curls of a ten-year-old trying to sneak a cookie out of the jar and put an apple in his hand instead. “You’ve already had three.”

Bodie gave her a long-suffering look out of big hazel eyes. “You got the cookie jar under surveillance, right?”

“I’ll never tell.”

Sighing, the ten-year-old trudged off . . . but she heard him bite into the apple before he disappeared from view, her hearing plenty sharp enough to catch the sound even in the midst of the other noises in the air. Of Bowen Knight, there was no sign.

Kaia frowned, nearly took a step back out before shaking her head and striding onward to the currently empty working heart of the kitchen. As she’d reminded herself only minutes earlier, the security chief of the Human Alliance was far from helpless. He might even be the deadliest person on Ryūjin.

Washing, then drying her hands, she returned to the counter where she’d been working on the dough. And ignored the jerk in her pulse when he finally came into view. His progress was slow but he didn’t appear to be leaning on the cane. And when he pulled himself up onto a stool on the other side of her work counter, she noticed that while his skin was flushed, he wasn’t sweating.

Rather than tired, he looked vividly, potently alive.

“So,” he said, his gaze watchful in a way that wasn’t a threat but that made her skin prickle and his voice full of complex layers that sank deep into her with unsettling ease, “do I have to worry about poison?”

Kaia would never use food to hurt anyone—for her, food was warmth, was how she showed her love even when the scars inside her stole her voice. “I wouldn’t ruin Atalina’s experiment.” Firmly ignoring the electric sensations crackling across her skin, she dished him up a plate, then poured him a glass of water. “Eat slowly unless you trust me to save you if you choke.”

He forked up a bite, his eyes closing as he savored the taste.

And Kaia’s toes curled into the rug she kept below her workbench. Wearing shoes had never come easy to her, and she still tended to kick them off as soon as she could.

Exhaling gustily, Bowen lifted his lashes. “Damn, you could bring me to my knees with food alone.”

Heat bloomed in her core, her gaze locked to his. She had to fight to shape a response that didn’t betray her visceral and unwanted reaction to his presence, his voice, him. “Charm and flattery don’t work on me,” she said in her most cutting tone. “Eat, then leave so I can work in peace.”

Kaia had scared off more than one would-be suitor with that tone, but Bowen Knight didn’t even blink. “Any particular reason why you think I’m the spawn of Satan?”

The blunt question hit her hard in the center—and she responded without thought, her heart thundering and her cheeks hot. “You’re the security chief of the Human Alliance, and humans are heartless, cruel creatures who love pretending to be the underdog. Like a wolf putting on a sheep’s fleece.”

Silence hung in the air, a sword about to fall.

Not about to back down from the ugly truth, Kaia sealed and set aside this lot of dough to rest, and opened up a batch that was ready to use. She got busy rolling out the circles for the dumplings she intended to make as part of dinner. Her kitchen hands would be arriving in thirty minutes and she’d put them to work prepping other items, but these dumplings needed a more expert touch.

She tore off small hunks of dough, rolled them into patties, then picked up the rolling pin and got to work. Circle after perfect circle, her body moving automatically even as a storm churned inside her, the being who swam under her skin as agitated as the human heart of her.

“What did humans do to you?” Bowen Knight’s voice continued to please her ear on the innermost level, the deep tones of it flawlessly balanced.

Angrily rolling out another circle, she said, “Do you know that before water changelings banded together to become BlackSea, become strong, humans caught and ate us?” No one ever talked about that particular piece of gruesome history, but that didn’t erase it.

“Changelings can shift very quickly.” A steady voice, unflinching attention.

Kaia slammed the rolling pin down on the counter. “I don’t have to lie when the truth is so awful.”

Wrenching off another ball of dough, she began to shape it into a patty. “A harpoon through the heart does a fantastic job of ending any chance of a shift.” Kaia had seen the pictures, read the heartrending memorials. “A water changeling killed in its animal form will remain in that form.”

Putting down his fork, Bowen stared at her. “Tell me it doesn’t happen anymore.” The words came out harsh, raw.

“Only because BlackSea controls its borders with deadly force—and even then, humans creep at the edges with their illegal nets and rusting ships.” Kaia’s skin crawled with the remembered terror of the child she’d once been. How the hard plas fibers of the net had cut into her delicate skin, how her cries had been unheard . . . and how she’d nearly drowned after panicking and shifting back into the form of a human child.

Bowen’s eyes didn’t leave her face, and she knew he saw too much, this man who was far too intelligent to trust. “I’m sorry for the crimes of other humans. There is no excuse for what was done to your people—but I swear to you, I’ve never knowingly taken part in any such evil.”

It was a pretty thing to say, but Kaia had seen Hugo’s proof, knew that at least two of their vanished would never again be coming home. The tears she’d shed that night had scraped her down to the bone. Even now, each time she closed her eyes, she saw their bruised and mutilated bodies, and she heard Hugo’s voice telling her how the Alliance was playing a horrific game with BlackSea’s most vulnerable as chess pieces.