After I flew to the spot he’d gone under, I glanced at Blake. I couldn’t understand why he just hovered there, grinning. Maybe I misread Blake’s feelings about Mack.
I flew down, prepared to dive in, when Blake intercepted me, grabbing my waist. “Whoa there, partner. Mack’s fine. You don’t have to swim in after him.”
I gaped at him, stuttering, “But someone’s got him under the water!”
“I know.” He chuckled. “Didn’t expect Aster to pull him under so fast. I wanted to introduce you to her.”
“Aster? Who’s Aster? Is Mack in danger?” I fired off questions, still trying to get my brain to understand what just happened. Was Aster a damsel? Who could hold her breath for a very long time under the water… like me?
Mack burst out of the water. Catching the grin on his lips, my shoulders relaxed a bit. Oh good, he’s all right. He shook his head back and forth, his hair flying everywhere, reminding me of a wet dog shaking his fur off.
“Darn, Aster, I’m drenched now,” he grumbled, still smiling.
“That’s what you get for making friends with them in the first place, Mack,” Blake said. “You know how they love to play.”
“They?” I asked. My eyes darting between the guys, I realized Aster had yet to appear. Glancing down at the water, I flew up a bit higher. With no land in sight, I could only wonder if Aster might be an Ancient.
“Oh sorry, Sam. Aster is part of the—” Blake began to explain, but his words were cut off by a loud splash from below.
I glanced down to see a beautiful, flawless face staring back up at me. I gaped at her eyes. And I thought Blake’s were aqua…
Expecting her to fly up from the water with a pair of wings like us, I was shocked to see only locks of long, auburn hair covering her back and cascading down her front, floating in the water. With several braids woven through, as well as bits of seaweed and seashells, her hair was full enough to cover what might very well have been a naked chest.
She glanced at the guys. Before anyone could say anything, she burst up out of the water several feet, her hair fanning out, her back rounding, and her body arching as she made a perfect nosedive back toward the water.
I sucked in air, practically choking on my own spit. A silver-gray dorsal fin protruded from her lower back and a long, steel-gray tail followed after her.
I knew my eyes were saucers. “No way! Did I just see a mermaid?” I asked after the tail fins had disappeared under the water’s surface.
Mack scratched his head. “Yep, and a crazy one at that.”
Blake pulled me closer. “She’s harmless, unless you’re a wuss like Mack. She’s part of the Irukas.”
“The Iru-what?” I was having a hard time getting enough air in. It was like the world had just been turned on its head again.
“It’s a group that was created a long time ago,” Blake answered.
“Tonbo created mermaids? It wasn’t enough he had flying people to worry about?” I asked, my eyes bulging. “What was he thinking?”
“Tonbo didn’t actually create them himself. Some of the other dragons were in on the development of the program. It all happened a long time ago, so I don’t know the details. They usually stay pretty close to the Outskirts, so they don’t usually cause problems,” Blake explained.
“Not unless we want to,” a female voice said.
I spun around to see that Aster had emerged. My face flushed, realizing she’d probably overheard me expressing my opinion on Tonbo creating them in the first place.
I glanced down, meeting her gaze. Her aqua eyes raked me up and down, a smile playing on her lips. She appeared to be around our age, but who knew with Irukas. If they were anything like damsels and dragons, she could be a lot older than she appeared to be.
With her chest just above the surface, I was relieved to see she did wear some kind of covering, even if it was barely adequate and showed far too much skin for me to be comfortable. The material was iridescent, blue-green in color, and clung to her breasts, leaving little to the imagination.
“So who is this, Mack?” Aster asked, gesturing to me with her chin.
“This is Samantha,” he answered, grinning in my direction. “You know, the human girl Blake pined over forever and never did a thing about.”
“Shut up,” Blake muttered, smiling.
I thought it strange Mack called me human, like the rest of them weren’t anymore.
Besides, I clearly had wings too.
Aster’s grin turned mischievous. “Ooh… Blake’s lover?”
I felt my face flush. I didn’t know why the word lover made me squeamish. “Nice to meet you, Aster,” I forced myself to say.
She giggled. “Pleasure’s all mine. Not often our kind gets to see Blake, let alone his mate.”
Now I knew my face was scarlet. I could feel the heat radiating off my cheeks. “Not often I get to see an,” I stopped myself from saying mermaid, “Iruka.” I hoped I said it right.
She laughed. “True.” She winked, and I honestly wasn’t sure who it was for. Her flirtatiousness made me uncomfortable.
“So,” she drawled, pushing her long hair back behind her shoulders. With how the sun shone directly on her flimsy covering, I wished she hadn’t. “Where are you off to today?”
“We’re going to see the ancients,” Blake answered. “Just learned some of them have gone missing. You Irukas wouldn’t have anything to do with that, would you?”
Aster wrinkled her nose at him, frowning.
Mack jumped in. “What we mean is—do you know anything about it? Perhaps seen something? Or noticed unusual visitors lurking around the Outskirts?”
Aster’s frown melted into a grin as her gaze shifted to Mack, and she literally batted her lashes at him. “Nope. I only come up to play with fun dragons like you.”
For some reason, her flirting infuriated me. Mack’s flushing irritated me even more.
“How about Kory?” Blake asked. “You think he’s fun still?”
Aster snorted, glancing back at Blake. “Kory is anything but. If I ever get my hands on him again, I’ll pull him down deep, wrap him up in seaweed, and laugh at his water-bloated body.” We all gaped at her as Mack responded, “Wow. Okay. What happened to thinking he could walk on water?”
She scowled. “Last time I saw that piece of scum, he wooed half of the Irukas to follow after him. Said he had a higher calling for them.”
“Say what?” Blake asked.
She nodded back at him. “He sounded like a wanna-be prophet. The freaky thing is some of my closest friends actually bought it. He asked me to go too, but I told him where to shove it. I’m not joining his cult.”
The guys chuckled as I asked, “So you don’t know where they went?”
She glanced at me and shrugged. “Nope. Nor do I care. Kory’s off his rocker if you ask me.”
“What exactly was he promising them?” Blake asked.
“He said a war was coming. We just don’t know it yet,” she said. “According to him, everyone, Irukas and ancients included, will have to choose a side.”
Mack ran his hands through his hair, muttering, “That crazy son-of-a-monkey’s uncle.”
“Guess we know Kory is looking for a fight,” Blake said, frowning. “Only problem is, he’s psycho enough to start one himself, just to justify what he’s already done.”
Aster cocked her head. “What do you mean? What did he do?”
Blake and Mack took turns filling Aster in. How Kory extracted DNA from the last bug killed, then experimented on Jaxon, and finally created a bug army.
“Which,” Mack added, “is probably what he’s going to use to start this war.”
“You’re convinced he’s the one who will start it?” Aster asked. “That this army he’s making is really not just for defending our kind?”
Blake sighed. “We don’t know for sure, but I’ve known Kory a long time. And so have you, Aster. You can’t tell me he hasn’t ever been devious… slightly manipulative? After what he did to Jaxon…” Blake paused. “I don’t rule anything out anymore.”
Aster nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Kory always had a bit of chip on his shoulder when it came to you, Blake. And even you, Mack.”
“Me?” Mack said, grinning. “Naw. I’m a nobody.”
“Not to me,” Aster murmured as she openly blushed.
I could only gawk as Mack seemed to return that blush with his own nervous cough. Does Aster like Mack? And more importantly, does Mack like her? How the heck did I not even know about her until today? And, I thought with guilt, why am I so bothered by it?
“How many left with him?” Blake asked, cutting through my own thoughts.
“A lot.” She frowned. “But not everyone. Most of us told him he was crazy and to leave us alone.”
“Sad truth is,” Mack said, “being left alone might not be an option for anyone if Kory has his way.”
“No joke,” I said, feeling the need to be part of the conversation. “So Kory never mentioned the bug army to the Irukas?” I asked Aster directly.
She glanced over at me, considering my question. “No, not exactly. He said he wanted to be ready for the coming war. Be prepared. He wanted our help because of what we can do.”
Blake and Mack exchanged glances. “Crap,” Blake said.
I wanted to ask what they were talking about, but Aster said, “So you’re off to see what happened to the ancients, then? You think Kory recruited them too?”
“That’s what we’re hoping to find out,” Mack answered. I was glad he didn’t go into details about the other reason—my other half’s possible involvement.
“Mind if I swim with you for a bit? Be nice to have some company. With Kory swiping so many, it’s gotten a bit lonely down here,” she said, her eyes fastened on Mack.
“Of course not,” Mack said, grinning. “That is… if you can keep up.”
“Ha. Just watch me, bird boy,” she said, grinning.
“Whatever, fish tail,” Mack crowed as he took off flying.
Aster immediately dove in, only to return moments later, soaring through the air like a dolphin. I was in awe of how fast she could weave in and out of the water. Blake and I followed them, not pushing to fly that fast, since it became obvious we’d pass Aster within seconds at top speed. Not saying she wasn’t moving. It was insane how she seemed to skate across the water.
It was with mixed feelings that I watched Mack dip down into the water a few times, just as Aster would soar up and over him. Seeing how they never collided, only fell into an easy rhythm with one another’s movements, I realized they’d done this before. Maybe lots of times before.
“So how come I never knew about Aster?” I asked Blake. “Clearly, you all go way back.”
Blake glanced over at me. “Aster and Mack were best friends when Mack lived with Tonbo. Back when he was too young and had to stay at the islands until he could control his dragon. Remember?”
I nodded.
“They got pretty close. She was always coming to see him, so I got to know her too. When Mack moved away, Aster… well, she never got over him leaving her. She couldn’t understand why he wanted to live on the mainland so badly. It took a while for her to forgive him.”
“But,” Blake said, glancing at Mack and Aster, who were now literally dunking each other in the water, laughing their heads off like a pair of kids. “Looks like it’s all water under the bridge now.”
“Oh. I feel terrible now.”
“Why?”
“Because when Mack came back to Colorado, he watched over me. In the end, he fell in love with Sammy. He forgot all about Aster.”
“Don’t feel bad, Sam. It’s not your fault. It’s not as if Aster and Mack were in love. They were just good friends.”
Watching how Aster kept wrapping her arms around Mack every chance she could get, I disagreed with Blake’s opinion.
“Besides, even if they had been,” Blake added, “it would have never worked between them.”
“Because they’re so different physically, you mean?” I offered.
“Yeah. She can’t live on the land, and he can’t live under the water. It’s the classic Little Mermaid dilemma all over again.”
I shook my head. “Just when I think I know which end is up.”
Blake chuckled.
“So if Aster and Mack played as kids, that means she’s our age too?”
“Yep. Aster is one of the—” Blake began, but the sound of singing stopped him. We both glanced down to see that Mack had lifted Aster out of the water, flying her up into the air as she sang to him.
The melody and tone of her voice sent goose bumps shooting down my arms and legs. It was beautiful, soothing… and slightly hypnotic. She clung to him, her tail wrapping itself around his torso. I swallowed, too shocked to be embarrassed by my own staring.
Blake squeezed my hand. “We’re here,” he said.
“We are?” I asked, barely registering what he said. I felt like I couldn’t break my gaze, like my eyes had to see where that voice was coming from.
Somewhere in my mind, I heard Blake laughing at me. “You’ll get used to it.”
“Use to what?” I asked numbly, still gawking at Mack and Aster. That was until Aster’s lips landed across Mack’s mouth.
I snapped back around to see Blake’s amused expression.
“Irukas’ singing,” Blake said, answering my earlier question. One I’d forgotten I’d even formed.
I shook my head, realizing the strange pull was gone. It’d disappeared the moment Aster had stopped to kiss Mack.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Just one of the many ways the Irukas can be very dangerous,” Blake quietly said. “If they choose to be.”
I stared at him, realizing there might be more to these fish people than I’d thought. A loud splash caught my attention, and I glanced down to see Aster was once again in the water.
“Good luck!” she called out, giving us a wave. She dove under before any of us could respond back.
Mack caught up to us, his cheeks reddened, his hair all askew. He gave me a sheepish look, and I tried to shake off the feeling he’d just betrayed me somehow. Mack should be free to kiss whomever he chose. Why should I feel weird about it?
“Better be careful with that one,” Blake said. Like a second thought, he slugged Mack’s shoulder. “But it’s about time you got some action.”