She’d expected a cave, a hole in the rock where a desperate male might shelter with his daughter, cold and damp and miserable. What she found instead was a home.
She passed a storage area with shelves carved into the rock that held supplies, tools, and a wide variety of provisions. A small alcove followed, with thick, beautifully tanned furs covering the floor and more caved shelves holding what looked like handmade toys. Another, larger alcove held a huge bed platform covered with more furs, and her pulse suddenly sped up before she hurried past it to what appeared to be the main chamber.
Rough-hewn walls curved upward into a natural dome, with small angled openings in the dome letting in the morning sunlight, and adding to the warm light from a central fire pit. A cooking area occupied one wall, complete with hanging pots and dried herbs. Woven curtains framed a smaller sleeping area close to the fire.
It was warm. It was dry. It smelled like smoke and earth and something wild—something that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand at attention.
Him,she realized.It smells like him.
“What are you doing here?”
He stepped out of the darkness next to the sleeping area, and her breath caught again
He was fully human now, tall and broad-shouldered, with a mane of dark hair that fell around a face that was all sharp angles and fierce planes.No, not human,she corrected herself a moment later. The lines of his face were too strong, the angles subtly wrong, his fangs obvious when he spoke.
He prowled towards her, huge and dangerous, golden eyes glowing. Her pulse beat a frantic rhythm but it wasn’t entirely from fear.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice came out steadier than she felt. “I was just—I wanted to make sure she was?—”
“She is none of your concern.”
“She almost drowned.”
“And you pulled her from the water. For which I—” He stopped. His jaw worked, like the words were fighting to stay inside. “For which I am… grateful. I am in your debt.”
Debt.Like she’d done it for payment. Like she’d saved a drowning child because she expected something in return.
A sudden bright anger flared through her, her bioluminescence flaring. “It wasn’t a transaction. I heard her. I went to help. That’s what people do.”
“No they don’t.” His lip curled, revealing more of his fangs. “Humans don’t help Vultor.”
He stopped a few feet from her, close enough that she could feel the heat radiating from his body, and catch the wild scent that clung to him like a second skin. Her bioluminescence suddenly dimmed to a soft, uncertain blue, but before she could respond to his accusations, a small, sleepy voice came from behind the curtain.
“Papa?”
His entire demeanor changed. The dangerous tension in his shoulders eased, and the fierce look in his eyes softened into something that made her chest ache as the little girl appeared.
“I’m here, little one. You’re safe. You’re home.”
“My head hurts.”
“I know. You hit it on the rocks. Do you remember what happened?”
The small face scrunched in concentration. Then her eyes went wide.
“The wave! Papa, the wave was so big, and I fell, and then—” Her gaze landed on Ariella, and whatever fear or confusion had been building in her expression vanished beneath a smile of pure, uncomplicated joy. “The star lady!”
Star lady?
Before she could process the name, the girl had scrambled to her feet—ignoring her father’s protests—and crossed the cave at a dead run. Tiny arms wrapped around Ariella’s waist, the small body warm and alive against her.
She froze, her hands hovering in the air, unsure where to land. No one had touched her like this since she was a child, before the modifications had set her apart.
“You saved me! I was drowning and you came and you glowed. Like the stars but underwater,” the girl said into the fabric of Ariella’s diving suit. “Are you a star? Papa, is she a star?”
He made a sound that might have been a growl or might have been a groan. “Lilani?—”
“She’s so pretty. And look at her fingers! They’re webbed, like a fish! Can you breathe underwater? I tried to breathe underwater once and Papa got very scared and I wasn’t allowed to swim by myself for a whole month.”
