Water World Warrior: A SciFi Alien Mail Order Bride Romance (TerraMates Book 1) (12 page)

"Really?"

"Yes, that's why she had the bump beside her eyebrow. It's part of their enhanced brain. I wonder what she's doing here on Vandwa. You wouldn't believe what those people get paid."

He squeezed, looking down at our joined hands.

"It seemed silly at the time to buy rings with eternity on them for a mail-order bride," he said, his turquoise eyes gazing into mine. "But I wanted to please you. And it doesn't seem silly now."

I held my breath. What was he saying?

"I love it," I said. And I did. Celtic knots had always fascinated me. The fact that he had bought me a ring with a Celtic knot on it to please me was giving me a warm feeling. I knew I should guard against it. I knew I should try to stop myself.

I couldn't help it. I was falling in love with Nathaniel, whether I wanted to or not.

NATHANIEL

Ashlyn and I had gone to a dance club following our dinner at a fancy Vandwan restaurant. It had been hot and dark, and the music had been provocative. We had danced close, our bodies moving together and pressing tightly against each other, the way we longed to do in bed but couldn't let ourselves.

After a certain point we left, knowing it would be difficult to stop if we got ourselves too keyed up. Instead, I asked her to go down to the docks and look at the sailboats and ships. She was ready to get out of there too, and we strolled hand in hand down to the water.

"You know how to build boats?" she said as we got on to the boardwalk that ran out to the docks. It was big enough for a small road that allowed cars and bicycles. The road along this stretch was full of potholes and was extremely rough. There were caution signs saying that it was being repaired.

"Yes. I'm not sure I could build one on my own, but I know the theory and I certainly know how to fix them. I've done plenty of that."

"Didn't you want to build boats?"

"I was always interested in science."

"Me too," she said, swinging our hands between us.

"Be careful here, Ash. The rail's broken and I don't like how this sidewalk is so close to the road."

She stayed away from the edge and opened her mouth to ask me another question when suddenly a car hit one of the potholes and careened out of control heading right for us. Instinctively, I pushed Ashlyn out of the way. If she hadn't held on to my hand, I would have been killed.

When I shoved her, I expected her to let go, but she didn't, and her grip pulled me out of the way of the car. My relief was enormous until I realized we were falling into the water.

As we plunged beneath the surface, she let go of my hand, and we became separated. I bobbed up to the top for a moment and looked around for Ashlyn. Where was she?

I ducked under again, not bothering to take a breath. I opened my eyes and let the transparent inner lid drop down. The water was dark and murky, but that wouldn't be a problem. My eyes collected enough light for me to see clearly in the darkest water. I started to look around for her.

There she was.

She had fallen close to the piles and caught her dress on something. She was pulling at it frantically. Why was she panicking?

Her cheeks bulged out, and I realized that she couldn't breathe underwater.

I swam to her as quickly as I could, taking a deep breath through the gill-like membranes that ran along the sides of my ribs. I felt my lungs fill with oxygen. As soon as I got to her, I pressed my lips to hers and opened my mouth — she opened hers, understanding what I meant to do. I breathed out, giving her the oxygen she needed.

Then I did it again. Breathing in water through my ribs and filling my lungs with oxygen, I pressed my lips to hers and gave her another breath. She looked at me in shock. Since I was giving her nearly pure oxygen, it lasted longer than a breath of air and gave me time to see what was happening with her dress.

When I investigated, I saw that she had hit some rebar that was sticking out and it had cut her leg as well as caught her dress. I would have immediately cut the dress if I had been wearing my usual clothes with my pocket knife. But there weren't any pockets in traditional Vandwan dress pants. I gave Ashlyn another breath and tried to figure out a way to get her out of here.

Could I take the dress off? I pulled and yanked but the dress was tight and being wet, it hugged her curves. I tried to get the zipper down, but it was stuck from being in the water.

When I tried ripping it, I realized that the dress consisted of Vandwan fiber plant from the sea. The damn stuff was practically indestructible. Tearing it off of her wasn't going to work.

I needed something sharp, but what?

Even if I kept giving her breaths of air, she might pass out from blood loss. The cut was severe, and I could see red-brown liquid seeping out. If she passed out, she might try to breathe unconsciously. The thought of her trying to breathe the water and filling her lungs until she drowned gave me a desperate energy.

A shell would have to be good enough.

Any of the shelled creatures could be used to cut things when they discarded their shells or broke their protective outer layers. Craftsmen often made shells into knives both for their pretty coloring and their dangerous cutting edge.

I drew in another breath through the membranes on my sides and gave Ashlyn as much air as I could. I mimed sawing and dove down to the bottom. Her eyes were big and scared. Then she closed them, making me start to panic. I started counting. How long would she be able to survive without me underwater? A minute?

I needed to get her out of the water. If I didn't know she was an alien before, I would never forget it now. This world was not her element, and she might drown if I wasn't quick enough. She was bleeding, and she needed help right away. Ten seconds.

When I got to the bottom, I searched for a broken shell. Any other time when I've swum along the bottom, there would have been broken shells everywhere. You can't look two feet before you're seeing another one. Twenty seconds.

Of course, since I needed one desperately right this minute, I couldn't see any. I went down to the sand and began digging. Thirty seconds.

It was a dangerous thing to do because you never knew when you might disturb a stingray or another creature that would attack you first and ask questions later. But I didn't care. I needed to find a broken shell right away. Fifty seconds.

That's when I found one. It sliced through my finger, but I didn't drop it. I grabbed it, even though it was cutting me, and I swam upwards as quickly as I could. Sixty seconds.

When I got to her, her eyes were barely open, but she was still alive. I gave her three big breaths before I started working on the dress. As soon as I felt that she was alert enough, I dropped down. Using my left hand, I began to saw awkwardly at the fabric where Ash caught her dress.

Fiber plant comes from seaweed. Its primary protection against sea creatures that would eat it is its incredible toughness. Clothing made from it is beautiful, doesn't tear, and lasts forever. These attributes are great for clothes but bad when you are trying to free the woman you love from either drowning or bleeding to death.

Damn it.

I gave her another breath and went back to it. I tried to be calm, but it simply wasn't possible. I sawed at the dress as fast as I could while adrenaline rushed through me.

A feeling of unbearable urgency was driving me.

When I had given her the previous breath, I noticed that she looked exceptionally pale, and her eyes were closing and rolling back in her head. Like she was barely hanging on to consciousness.

No!

I swam back down and hacked away at the dress with the shell like a madman. There was one little piece left and when I looked up, I saw her eyes close, and her body go limp.

With a surge of power that I hadn't known I had, I slashed wildly at the dress, tearing the last piece of fabric. I grabbed Ashlyn and swam to the top.

As her head broke the surface, I watched her chest.

She wasn't breathing at all.

I towed her as fast as I could to the shore, using a double-leg kick that propelled me at a rapid speed. There was no possibility of climbing the boardwalk; it was at least fifteen feet above our heads.

The trip took longer than I had initially guessed because we had been quite far out. I soon tired from pulling her dead weight. I fought the current while Ashlyn's body pulled me down. I thought that I wouldn't make it multiple times - I thought that it was over for the both of us. When the pain became unbearable, and my body was exhausted, I looked at Ashlyn's face, and my strength renewed.

When I finally got to shore, I dragged her to the beach. Even though I thought I didn't have any strength left in me, I managed to lift her.

I saw a group of people, and I headed towards them, yelling for help as I went. Everything was a blur. Some doctors showed up and started emergency breathing procedures. Medical robots arrived a few minutes later and helped Ashlyn to breathe by herself again. Soon we were on the way to the hospital.

I felt weak with relief.

"Is she all right?" I asked. I rode in the back of the ambulance with people, and I didn't even know their names.

"She's breathing, and her heart is beating, but we won't be able to tell if there's brain damage until she wakes up."

Did she just say brain damage?

"There probably isn't any, but we need to run tests. You said you were giving her oxygen the whole time she was under water?"

"Yes, she only lost consciousness at the very end. When we came to the surface, she wasn't breathing."

"She's a Nuldive?" the woman said, clearly curious. Nuldives are those who are born on Vandwa with Vandwan parents but who can't breath underwater. They are unusual, and it is rare to encounter one.

"No. She's human. From Earth."

"Ah," the woman nodded in understanding. "That is also unusual."

Once we got to the hospital, the staff took her away. They made me take a hot shower and gave me some dry clothes to put on. They bandaged my finger. By that time, I was itching to see Ashlyn and know that she was okay.

"Please, is she all right? Can I see her?"

"Her body will recover. We have bandaged the cut on her leg, but we are still waiting for her regain consciousness."

I looked crestfallen. The nurse's face was full of compassion. "Come on. You can see her," she said, leading me down the hall to another room.

I sat down in the chair beside her bed, holding her hand.

"Please, Ash. Please wake up."

She had to come back to me because at some point in the dark, cold water I had realized I couldn't live without her.

And I didn't want to.

Without me knowing how it was happening, I had fallen in love with Ashlyn.

I loved her.

The most important thing for me right now was to make sure she woke up. My world had narrowed to this room and this woman that I needed more than anything.

I watched her chest rise and fall and gave thanks that she was still breathing.

When her eyes fluttered open, and those crystal blue eyes, bloodshot from being open underwater, looked at me again, I finally let myself fall apart.

She studied me as the tears ran silently down my cheeks.
"Nathaniel?" she said, reaching her hand out to touch my face. Her hand came away wet.

At the sound of my name on her lips, I broke down and wept.

ASHLYN

Nathaniel was crying bitterly, sobbing as if his heart would break. I stared at him blankly, not understanding what was happening.

I looked around and saw the hospital room. I felt the pain in my leg and the weakness of my body. And I remembered.

He had pushed me out of the way of the car, and we had fallen in the water. It would have been fine except that my dress had got caught on something. I had panicked, but Nathaniel had been there right away.

He shared air with me so I wouldn't drown.

I froze as I remembered.

And he didn't need to surface to breathe.

"Nathaniel," I said, needing to know.

He looked up, his eyes full of pain.

"You didn't need air to take a breath," I said accusingly.

"No." He looked confused. His voice was rough from the sobbing. "Of course not."

"Why not?" I demanded.

He rubbed tears off of his cheeks.

"Because I can breathe under water, of course. I thought you said you did your homework."

I had been supposed to get a briefing on Vandwa as well as on Nathaniel; I remembered now. Mrs. Lynch told me that. But looking back on it, everything seemed like a whirlwind, and there were many things I may have forgotten. I had never got the briefing on Vandwa, or if I did, it was tossed in a pile back on Earth. Once I got here, I never thought about it again. Nathaniel gave me a personal summary about the Vandwan on our way home.

"Vandwans have physical characteristics that allow us to breathe under water," he said as we walked up the stairs to my room. "It surprised me to find out that humans don't. I did some research while you were unconscious. We can also swim faster and hold our breath longer than humans. I have a clear eyelid that protects my eyes under water."

The car stopped, and Nathaniel came around to help me out. I needed to lean on him. My calf was still pretty sore even though the painkillers were starting to take effect.

He helped me put on my nightgown, and there wasn't a trace of heat in his gaze. He was tender and gentle. Once I was in bed, he left and came back wearing his pajamas. He sat down on top of the covers.

"Nathaniel?" I said. "Can I see?"

"My breathing organs?"

I nodded, feeling silly.

He lifted his T-shirt and twisted his body to display his side. I reached out and gently touched him. He twitched. The skin was rough.

"It's sensitive," he said. "That's where the water goes in and out. When it gets inside my body, there's an organ that extracts the oxygen and then expels the excess."