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A man floated outside of her sub.
No, not a man.
Something else entirely.
His long, dark hair hovered around his head, graceful and delicate in comparison to the hard swath of muscles that tapered down from his broad shoulders to a very narrow waist. But that was all that looked human. She could see the delicate webs between his fingers that ended in deadly black claws. The gills that fluttered on the side of his neck and the bright green scales that created a tiger stripe pattern all down his body. It was...
What was he?
“Beta,” she whispered. “Have we documented any creatures such as this?”
“No.”
So she was the first.
His eyes followed her movement as she approached the glass. Startlingly, they were entirely black. Not a single hint of white or color at all. Just pitch black, demon eyes. But she couldn’t find it in herself to be frightened of this creature on the other side of her submarine. Even though she knew the structural integrity was compromised.
She’d seen nothing like him before, and that made her heart thunder in her chest. She wanted to touch him. To talk to him. To do anything that would make him seem more real.
“My father used to tell me stories about the people who lived in the sea,” she whispered, drawing ever closer to the glass. “He said the women were so beautiful it made your eyes hurt to look at them. I didn’t realize it would extend to the men as well.”
“Creatures?” Beta asked, flicking a few more of the exterior lights on. “What kind of creatures?”
“Undines,” she replied. “At least, that’s what the myths called them. They were men and women who lived under the water, stealing sailors away from their family to lock them away in underwater cities.”
“Please tell me you’re not entertaining that thought,” Beta grumbled.
She was.
Oh, she absolutely was.
Finally, she was right in front of the glass. Leaning over the console so she was just a thick layer of protection away from him. If he came any closer, she’d been able to count the scales that dotted down his sides and lingered around his ribs. She might even be able to see how many layers of gills fluttered down his neck and connected to his ears.
He floated closer, flicking a massive tail that she realized actually went around her ship. A faint tapping from above had her turning her gaze up to see the faint outline of his tail that draped over the top of her submarine.
“Wow,” she whispered. “You’re massive, aren’t you?”
The diamond shaped tail tapped again, and she reached out her hand to touch the glass underneath it. Though it flinched the moment she reached for it, eventually the tail laid flat. She couldn’t touch it, or feel it, but she could see the powerful muscles and the delicate veins that spider-webbed through it.
The undine, as she was calling it, had used this opportunity to come ever closer to her. By the time she turned her attention back to him, she realized he was right there. So close she could have touched him if there wasn’t glass between them.
Her lips parted on a gasp as she stared into those black eyes. He didn’t seem to want to hurt her. In fact, she would hazard a guess that he was just as interested in her as she was him.
Carefully, slowly, the creature lifted his hand and pressed it against the glass of the submarine. His hand was as large as her head, huge and foreboding, with those giant claws at the end of it. If he wanted to rip into her, he easily could. He could tear her into little pieces and then leave her to bleed out in the ocean.
But she didn’t think he would. It was a deep, gut feeling that he didn’t want to harm her. He just wanted to know what she was.
Reaching out, she mirrored his movement and laid her hand against his palm. Though the glass was cool, she could almost imagine the texture of his skin and the smoothness of those webs. He was... Everything. Beautiful. Strange. Unusual.
A creature no one in her world had ever seen before.
“Who are you?” she whispered, freezing when his gaze locked on her lips. “Do you speak?”
He opened his mouth and let out a sound like the song of a whale. Long and low, it vibrated through the very glass and settled deep into her stomach. This strange creature was more attractive than any man she’d ever met.
Maybe it was because he was new. Maybe it was because she’d never thought to see a creature appear out of a fairytale. Or maybe it was simply the deep hollows between his abs and the strong shoulders that flexed underneath her gaze. She didn’t know.
What Alys did know was that she wanted this creature. More than she’d ever wanted any other man.
