“Ok… that doesn’t sound like much of a plan to me,” I said, frowning.
“Well, not yet, anyway. We need to sit tight for a bit longer… let things play out. Perhaps things already have. Either way, we have to wait and see.”
“Blake, you’ve totally lost me. What are we waiting for? Is Mack coming to get us out?”
“Yes. Once the Irukas are done.”
“Irukas? Aren’t they the ones who captured you in the first place?”
“I let them get me.”
“Okay, so you let them get you. Either way, aren’t they on Kory’s side?”
“Not all of them.”
I let out a whoosh of air, ready to explode if Blake didn’t stop giving me cryptic answers.
He must have sensed my frustration because he said, “Alright, let me start at the beginning. Get you up to speed.”
“Thank you. That would be nice,” I grumbled back at him.
“So like I said, I didn’t just sit on my thumbs after you made your grand exit with Kory. I followed your scent all the way to Tonbo’s Islands. I knew you didn’t stop there, but I decided I needed Mack. He’s an amazing tracker.”
“What about Jocelyn?” I asked, interrupting.
“That was my other reason for stopping. I figured leaving her with Tonbo might give her a fresh perspective on this whole thing.”
“Good idea. Okay, so you got with Mack and just followed me here?”
“Well, not right away. First, I wanted to know what Mack had gotten out of Jaxon while we’d been gone.”
“Oh,” I said, my stomach tightening with nerves. “Did he get anything?”
Blake exhaled. “Yes. Some we’d already guessed on our own. I guess the bug being so upset helped Jaxon remember more. Anyway, he told Mack that when he’d captured Sammy, she had dropped a bag, which he’d gone back to retrieve while Sammy was unconscious, like we’d thought. He said he found an unmarked vial of blood in it, which he’d then, like an idiot, straight up injected himself with when he’d got back to his cave. He didn’t run any tests on it, didn’t even know whose blood it was. Jaxon said the bug was obsessed with it, so there was no stopping him. He said nothing felt different from it. He didn’t notice any new or special abilities. So then, when you woke up, he decided to get blood directly from you. Which I’m sure you remember all too well.”
“So why did Jaxon ask me later what’d I done to him? He must have started feeling differently.”
“You’re right, he did. After he’d begun treatment at Tonbo’s facility, he started feeling this insane need to see you. And it wasn’t just because he craved you like before.” Blake’s tone dropped lower, and I knew this was hard for him to talk about. “He said it felt like…”
“Like what?”
“Like he had to protect you.”
“Protect me from what? Him? Maybe Jaxon’s winning after all.”
“I can only hope that’s what it means, but Jaxon says he feels the need the strongest when he’s the bug, not himself. I guess the bug in him is furious for sampling your blood in the first place. He’s convinced it’s changing him somehow, and the bug doesn’t want to be changed… not like that anyway.”
“If he’s so worried about changing, what’s he doing sampling my blood in the first place? Not just once, but twice!” I shook my head, even though Blake couldn’t see me. “Blake, I know you’re scared to have hope, but it sounds like Jaxon might be becoming more like the Defenders after all. He’s gaining more control over the bug in him.”
“Even if that’s true, why’s it not working the same? Do you think Kory and the ancients altered your DNA more after you’d given it to them?”
“Got me, but I do think the ancients are holding back on us. They know something, and they aren’t sharing it with Kory.”
“Which could be good news for us,” Blake confirmed.
“Yes, it is. So, tell me again how staying in these cages is all part of your plan?”
Blake chuckled. “Yeah, I guess I better get to the good stuff before things start happening. Before Mack and I took off to track you, we stopped by Tonbo’s and let him know what was happening. After he’d calmed down about me letting you go in the first place, he suggested we go ask the remaining Irukas for help. They weren’t real receptive at first, but with Tonbo and Aster’s convincing, we got a lot of them to agree. We’d need them to even get close to this island.”
“I don’t really understand. Aren’t all the Irukas in the water? Why couldn’t you just fly over them?”
Hearing Blake chuckle again, I wished the room wasn’t so black. Not only was it annoying to not be able to see his face, but I also didn’t like the fact I didn’t know what the rest of the bugs were doing. Why were they so silent?
“You’d be surprised the amount of mischief those fish people can cause. Remember the feeling you had when Aster sang?”
“Yeah? What was that?” I asked, and then I gasped, “Don’t tell me they can hypnotize people with their songs just like real sirens?”
“Not exactly, but close enough. The Irukas are part dolphin. Which, I don’t know if you know much about, they are excellent communicators. They’re able to make all kinds of different sounds, one of which is a frequency modulated whistle. For some reason when the two DNA’s mixed, the Irukas seductive song was the byproduct. It’s hard to ignore and can lead people to do unexpected things.”
“So in other words, they can brainwash people with their singing?”
“Pretty much.”
“Okay. That’s totally freaky!”
“Yep. Then add to that the fact dolphins are extremely intelligent and protective, you can see why Kory was so keen on recruiting them.”
I nodded, even though Blake couldn’t see me. I remembered watching a program on dolphins once where a survivor of a shark attack said dolphins had come to his rescue, fighting off the shark and surrounding the man until he made it to safety.
“So what happened when you got here?” I asked.
“When we got close enough, I pretended to be Aster’s prisoner so Kory’s Irukas would buy Aster and the rest changing their minds. That’s why I keep telling you, I let them have me.”
“Why the bloodied face then?”
“It needed to be convincing so I let Mack punch me before we got here.”
“What?” I gasped.
“I wouldn’t have gone down without a fight. Besides, it’s not that bad.”
I could only stare at the space between us. “So where’s Aster and Mack now?”
“That’s the good part. Aster is still with the Irukas, waiting for the right time to make her move, pretending she’s on Kory’s side. For all I know, that moment might have already happened. Mack snuck on to the other side of the island. With the huge party down at the beach the other night, most of the island had been deserted. And with the excitement over my capture, no one should have noticed his arrival.”
“But you don’t know for sure?” I asked, dread filling me.
“Well, from the looks of it, if they had, they’d have thrown him in here with us, don’t you think?”
“I guess so, assuming Kory decides to keep him alive.” I frowned. “Blake, maybe we shouldn’t be talking about all this now. I mean, what if the other bugs hear us?” “There aren’t any other bugs in here with us.”
“What? How do you know? They were here all day yesterday.”
“Because when I first came to, I heard a lot of commotion. Sounded like cages being opened and people, or things, being rounded up. When the door opened briefly, I made out the silhouettes of all of them leaving, but I was still too groggy to put it all together until you told me what had been in here.”
“Oh. Wonder why I didn’t hear any of that.” I couldn’t imagine sleeping through the bugs leaving the room. They would have been more than a little noisy.
“You were asleep,” Blake said easily, as if that were even plausible. “Honestly, it’s so black in here that I didn’t even know you were next to me. You probably were sleeping pretty hard. It’s been an exhausting few days. Are we underground? I swear I feel like I’m in a cave right now. What I’d give for my cell phone or a flashlight.”
“No, I don’t think so. I never went down any stairs. This room just doesn’t have any windows, and I’m pretty sure it’s night again. Hey, if they took the others out of here, wonder why Kory’s just leaving us alone? Doesn’t it seem strange? Like he should have been torturing us or something?”
“Actually, them coming to grab those guys might be proof our plan is working,” Blake said.
“Really? You know you still haven’t told me what this great, big plan of yours is yet, Blake. Like what’s Mack doing?”
“Okay. I know. Let me explain something first. When we went to Aster, she told us something interesting. After we’d left her to go to see the ancients, she said all the talk over them disappearing got her thinking about some of the Irukas that had gone missing over the past year. Most of them were natural borns around our age. Because it was a group of guys and girls, most of the Irukas chalked it up to teens running away together.”
“But Aster doesn’t think so?”
“Not anymore. She’s convinced Kory took them, just like he’s taken everything.”
“But why only a few of them? It’s not like they could protect the island by themselves.”
“Exactly. When Kory came to recruit, he did it visibly. But Aster said if someone took the teens, it was done in secret.”
“Why would Kory?” “Aster thinks he is experimenting on them.”
“What? Why?”
“One of the biggest downfalls to the Dragon Fae world is the inability to have children. It’s the one thing that could threaten us with extinction. Our population grows only by injecting new victims. The dolphin and human DNA mix didn’t have the same side effect. Maybe because dolphins are mammals, the gene code is more compatible. Who knows? Either way, they can have children. They won’t die out.”
I knew my eyes were as big as saucers. I’d heard Blake mention the natural borns, and I’d been dying to ask him if it meant what I thought it did.
“So… you think Kory is experimenting on them so that… what?” My voice barely carried. I didn’t like where my mind was jumping to. “He can have a baby or something?”
“Aster is convinced of it. She said either Kory’s strung them up, taking their blood, or he’s tried even worse things. He’s done something to those Irukas he took. And Mack is on the island, trying to see if he can find out what. Once he has proof of what Kory’s done, he will return to Aster, who will then convince all of them to join us.”
I felt a strange feeling washing over me, starting at the top of my forehead and working its way down, leaving the hairs on the back of my neck standing on edge.
“Join us, to do what, exactly?” I asked, afraid I already knew the answer.
“Destroy Kory.” He hesitated a moment before adding, “And his bug army.”