Page 5 of Fathom

Finally, he ducked into the shadows of a narrow alley, the noise behind us swallowed by the dark.

He crouched down behind something that smelled foul, like a dumpster, balancing me on his thighs as he put one hand on the wall, trapping me in the curving half circle of his form, his upper body curling over me as he held me against his chest. We were hiding in an alley. I stayed still in his grip, my mind still filled with a quiet that was reserved for observing and evaluating. I was warm, I was hidden. I was... safe?

He was breathing hard.

He also wasn’t looking at me.

He was staring at his own hand on the wall, where his claws were now digging into the hard material of it, creating gouges. My mind made a note of that... claws strong enough to pierce concrete, and I let that note float by. It didn't matter. What mattered was that his eyes had a wild look in them, as if he wasn’t seeing anything, and they weren't fully green anymore. There was a red hue creeping in from the corners of his eyes, like blood vessels had burst and were spilling out onto the surface.

His other hand flexed against me, and I could feel thesharp prick of his claws against the jacket, but they didn’t pierce through it, and they didn't hurt.

His mouth was open as he breathed hard, his teeth bright and sharp in the dim light of the alleyway, like he was inhaling my scent.

Something was wrong.

That sense of safety fled, and I stared at those sharp teeth and saw only a predator.

I lifted the knife I still held in my hands to his throat and pressed the blade against his skin.

“Let me go,” I whispered.

TWO

EUN

The sharp bite of a knife at my throat brought me back to my senses.

I drew in a shaky breath, willing myself to come back, back to who I was supposed to be, who I wanted to be. Not the feral thing crouched over its prize, breath ragged, clutching her like a kill.

No. Not a kill. Not prey. Not dinner.

Person.

She was a person I had saved. Not a thing I had claimed.

My mind struggled with that, the heat of her scent enveloping me as something deep within me responded to it, ignited by it.

She was mine.

The word landed hard in my chest. I flinched as instinct surged again, snarling beneath my skin. I didn’t recognize her species, some kind of herbivore species, soft-eyed anddelicate, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was I had run from the law with her in my arms, and every part of me still screamed: mine, mine, mine.

No, I couldn't think that, couldn't feel that.

Those thoughts would lead to her death.

I unwrapped my arm from around her, releasing her.

She slid out of my lap, putting her bare feet on the filthy ground as she kept the knife pressed against my neck. One of my hair strands reached out on its own, sliding around her wrist. I could taste her through it, feel the salt of her skin under a strange chemical flavor and the racing beat of her fluttering heart. The sensation of her softness through that medium was different. She didn't have the fur that would normally separate my senses from the being that was underneath, and the sensation of the bare touch of her was pure pleasure. Her skin had small hairs on it, making it even softer, and for a moment, I was fixated on that small detail. Normally, when my hair brushed up against anything, it didn't feel right. There were textures it wanted to grab onto, to pull up against me, to shield me from accidentally touching the unpleasant rasp of fur or other beings. I'd let it grow too long since I moved out, and I had to tie it back to keep it from grabbing onto things it shouldn't.

But touching her skin felt wonderful, different.

I forced my hair to withdraw, releasing her wrist even as she still held the knife to my throat.

She stood between my crouched form and the wall, still caged in by my arm. I dropped it down to rest on my knee so that I was no longer caging her with my body. I'd frightened her.

Good, she should be frightened of me. She wasn't safe with me.

“I’m not going to hurt you right now,” I tried to reassure herwith the truth. I calmed down. I wasn't a threat to her in this moment.