Page 58 of The Blind Hordesman

Dad hits my chest.

Once, twice.

“Come on,” he shouts.

But I can’t.

Something’s freezing around my lungs, and it surges up my throat, and I inhale a breath and choke, wheeze, my mouth still gaping open. The freezing thing that I believe is the venom I bonded my Omega with travels into my brain, and my body shakes, my arms flailing every which way, my legs moving. The tremors make Dad stand up and back away.

“What is happing?” Dreikx asks.

“I don’t know,” Dad says. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

The seizures stop, but now my gums swell to bursting. I inhale a breath and rattle out a battle cry when venom shoots out of my teeth, and I roar from the pain, abruptly sitting up as if someone drew me up on strings. I touch my chest and come away with liquid. I sniff my fingers, the scent familiar. The liquid’s texture feels like blood, but smells like venom. I place my tongue over the tip of my canine, and sure enough, there’s a tiny hole dripping liquid into my mouth. I suck on my tooth, and venom gushes, spilling out the corners of my mouth, dripping down my chin. I swallow and feel the ice-cold poison travel down my throat and into my belly, relaxing my muscles until I can stand. I do. I stand and walk the few steps to my desk, then sit behind it and pat my sad hound on his head. “It’s going to be fine, boy.”

I look around the room as if I can see them. “How is the weather outside?” I ask.

“The weather?” Dreikx says, his voice rising. “The weather is horrible, just like everything else on this beach.”

“Did you bring me what I asked for?” I extend a hand, palm up. My wrists feel strange. There’s a weight pressing on them, and I roll one, then the other, and flex my fists. The pressure doesn’t let up, so I ignore it.

“Sotay brought the gate with the Horde. They’re hiding, and I’m blocking the hive’s sensors.”

“How many Horde males?”

“All of them.”

“The Stronghold is unprotected?”

“It is not a Stronghold without the gate.”

“But you left the Guardians there so the imposter doesn’t suspect anything?”

“Of course.”

“Describe the imposter’s hive to me.”

Dad answers, “It’s a large metal thing that comes out of the sea, then dives back under.”

“Weaknesses?”

“It’s operated on solar energy,” Dreikx says, “so it has to come up to the surface and refuel or lose the power.”

“Kind of like your ship?” Uncle Kinre asks.

“Yes,” Dreikx says.

“How many Telean males work for the imposter?” I ask, because Telean tech is their secret, and if they can do what Dreikx has done with his main ship, then that means the imposter employs Teleans.

Dreikx sighs. “With this kind of technology, I would estimate an entire team of either trained professionals or acquired-on-the job skilled professionals. And while we are on Teleans, I have access to one of them.”

“How?” my uncle Vemlox asks.

“I have ways.”

Dad groans, and, I believe, stretches out on Kiki’s nest. He sniffs. “Smells like grandkids to me.”

“What is wrong with you?” Uncle Kinre asks him.

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