A low rumble started in his chest. He wanted to keep this woman far more than what was healthy. He hadn't hoarded things since he was very young. Proteus had learned a long time ago that keeping living things was only disappointing. He didn't die. They did. He was the one who was left behind, wishing that he had never given them a piece of himself.
And yet... This woman made it impossible not to want to keep her. She looked at him with those wide, bright eyes, and he would do anything for her. To prove that he was worthy of even an ounce of her attention.
Breathing out, he shook his head and looked back at the water where the others had disappeared. "How long do you think it will take before they come back?"
"Long enough."
He looked back at her to see the heat in her eyes. The same heat that mimicked the lust that burned deep inside his body. He froze where he was, watching as she cupped his jaw and drew his face closer to hers.
A kiss, Proteus realized. It was still a strange choice for someone like him. His lips were far too wide, and he could have bitten her face clean off if he had wanted to. But she was gentle as she pressed her little mouth against his.
She was warm and soft. Every part of her kiss was everything that he was not. Kind, sweet, tasting like virtue and something broken that was his fault. The shattering of innocence, he thought. The corruption of a virginal spirit tasted sweeter than wine.
When she drew back, they were both breathing hard. He wasn't sure what to say after a gift like that. She didn't have to touch him. She didn't have to give up her fear of him, either. He knew what he was. A monster. A being who was made as a weapon to carve out the end of the world and rebuild it in theimage of the ancients. But she saw him as so much more than that.
Like she could read his mind, Ellie traced her fingers along the lines of his cheeks and said, "You’re not all bad, Proteus. Not all good either. But neither makes me think less of you."
He shook his head. "Ah, little human. You never cease to amaze me."
He brought her back to the room where they had worked on the holograms. He set her down in there with Pilot, ignoring the droid who had gone against all his programming when he allowed her to change what he'd been ordered to do. And then they waited.
Ellie busied herself looking through another binder she had found hidden underneath the bed with the body still on it. Proteus remained where he had been before. With his gaze trained on the water, waiting for any hint that the others were returning.
Because he needed them. They had impressed him when he had peered through Fortis's memories. These were the kind of heroes who could continue his work without Proteus having to force them to do so. They were so similar to the scientists who had once worked here, but with purer hearts and minds.
Their intent was to help. Always. It wasn't to push themselves toward greatness or to make a name for themselves in the history books. In fact, likely no one would remember the small team of people who considered themselves a family, but who had saved the entire world.
Finally, the water rippled again.
"Ellie?" he called out. "They return."
He could hear her sprinting through the room and following him into the atrium as the first male's head crested the surface. Proteus had been surprised to find that the largest male wasn'tthe one who controlled them. Fortis should have been the leader, or perhaps the massive red one. But no, it was the blue undine.
This time, it was just the blue male and the redhead. She crawled out of the water the moment her mate released her, pulling at the contraption on her face and immediately yanking the hood down. She'd clearly done this a few times.
"So," the woman said. "I might as well tell you my name is Mira. This binder has a lot of interesting things in it."
"Yes, it does."
"So you believe these scientists were onto something? You think that the Above is not only inhabitable, but could be saved so that these facilities aren't the only place where we can survive?" Mira's expression twisted. "I have to admit, it's hard for any of us to believe. We've all been under the sea for such a long time, but those of us with mates have seen the surface. We know how dangerous it is and what the storms are like. Not to mention the lack of water."
"I have seen it for myself," he replied.
"Have you? Have you seen the ice storms that can flay your skin right off because the shards are so sharp? Have you seen the hurricanes that reshape the coastline every single month? Have you seen the flooding, the dangers to people like us? I don't mean to be rude, but I need you to understand that this is not a planet that has had humans on the surface in over two hundred years. The world has not healed itself."
"Because no one was helping it heal." Proteus slithered down from the podium, landing on the ground and ignoring the warning hiss of her mate in the water. He loomed over the woman, waiting for her to cower in fear but ridiculously pleased when she did not. "What do I look like to you?"
"You aren't one of the People of Water, that's for damn sure. You don't even call them by their preferred name." She looked him over, her eyes seeing all the details of his body, right downto the tentacles at his hips. "You're an amalgamation of all the creatures in the sea and yet not at the same time. I have never seen anything like you before."
"No. I imagine you wouldn't have. The ancients were the ones who created me, many years ago."
That was when the male in the water spoke. "I have heard the ancient stories of a son, but we always thought they were false."
"They were not false. They were of me." He was pleased that some of the stories had survived all these years. "But it seems your people have forgotten my ways."
"That son was imprisoned by my people."
A twinge of anger burst in his chest. Proteus had thought he would be more understanding about this, but come to find out, two hundred years of imprisonment had given him a bit of a chip on his shoulder. "Your people imprisoned me because they did not like the idea of working with the humans. When it was discovered that I, their god, had been conspiring with mortal scientists to help save this planet, your people overreacted. They threw me into that coffin and sank me to the bottom of the sea. Forever awake. Forever alive. Trapped while knowing that I could only inhale and exhale but move no more than that."
