Page 9 of Dark Fey Captive

Infected can’t swim.

CHAPTER FOUR

NAV

Heart pounding, I swam to the surface with the female.

I had done it.

I had found a female.

A living female, who did not scream or run away.

She had been running, but from the infected, not from me. Once I’d jumped into the water, she hadn’t tried to swim away. Even now, as I broke the surface, she remained calm in my arms.

Carefully, I set her on the dock and sat back on my heels beside her to wait for her to open her eyes.

She didn’t move. She was probably tired from running and swimming.

Where had she come from? How had she survived? Were there more females like her and her companion? I did not want a second female—I liked this one—but many of my brothers did not yet have females of their own.

I studied her as I waited for her to recover. This one did not have anger lines between her pretty eyebrows, as so many females who were afraid of us did. It gave me hope. As did her hands. She didn’t wear a ring to signify she already had a partner.

My gaze returned to her face. She had brown hair and delicate features. I wondered what color her eyes would be. Blue like the sky? Brown like the earth? Both were good colors.

I frowned when I considered the color of her mouth.

Her lips were not pink like most humans’ were. Hers were bluish.

That was not good.

Concerned, I wiped the water from her face, feeling how cold she was. Too cold for a human. Even more so for a human female. They were fragile and did not recover quickly from injuries. They also did not self-heat well.

But more troubling than her temperature were her unmoving breasts. I stared at her chest, focusing on the faint beat of her heart, but not seeing or hearing her breath.

I tore her jacket off and rested my head on her chest. Her heart still beat strongly, but her breath was missing.

In the distance, an engine roared. I glanced up and saw the other female had reached the waiting vessel, where another helped her aboard. Although the distance was far by human standards and the sun was reflecting off the water, I saw two more people. Both had longer hair peeking out from under knit caps. Females, most likely. They favored longer hair while most human males preferred shorter hair.

Four females?

Together?

Where were their males?

My gaze returned to the female beside me, who was still not breathing.

I rubbed her cheek, trying to warm her. Her chest remained still.

“Breathe, female,” I said softly, willing her breasts to move. “Please breathe.”

But she did not.

Instead, her pulse started to slow.

I understood what that meant.

Death.