She finally said, “There is something I was keeping from you.Not the stuff about my uncle eyeing your island, but about my brother.” She took a deep breath. Then another. “Luke is still alive.”
We stared at her, our shock mixed with disbelief. Me most of all because the lies and surprises from Hailey kept on coming, making me look even more like a complete idiot for trusting her. Luke had been the only one with Naira when their boat crashed. Hailey had pretended he was dead. She’d gone to the marina with me, and all this time he was alive? And what did that mean for Naira? Where was she while I was letting myself get played by Hailey?
“But he’s sick,” she said quickly. “And getting sicker.”
“You need to explain,” Lyle said sharply. “What kind of sick are you talking about?”
She wouldn’t look at any of us, especially not me. I was trying to hold it in, thinking of every single instance that I’d let my guard down with her only to have it thrown back in my face, made to feel like an idiot every time.
“How’s your brother sick? We don’t have time for this!” Sekou yelled.
“Sick!” she cried. She covered her face with shaking hands, burying all of it in her propped-up knees. “He’s sick like that thing out back, only not as sick. But almost like that.”
Silence followed her outburst. Hailey’s shoulders heaved as she cried with no sound coming out.
If Luke wasthat, then what was Naira?
Lyle stepped closer to her, pulling out a chair so he wouldn’t intimidate. He had to get her to trust him so she’d open up.
“Can you tell me what happened? How’d Luke get… sick?” he asked.
Hailey let out a sob. Then she hiccuped. She peeked up at Lyle, seeing him near her and at her level. She hesitated.
“I want to help you, but I can’t if I don’t know what I’m dealing with,” Lyle said.
“When Luke returned from boating that night, he was very ill. He couldn’t eat regular food. He’d just throw it up. He kept saying he was hungry, but nothing he ate stayed down. And then he started speaking less until it was nothing but sounds. And his movements became jumpy and jittery. Like he was losing control of his mobility. His eyes were reddening and he was becoming so animalistic. It was like there was only—”
“A shell of him,” Lyle finished.
Hailey shot up in her chair, throwing her feet down. “Yes!” she said, relieved. “A shell of his former self. That’s it. He was steadily losing himself.”
Lyle nodded. “I’ve seen it before.” He walked to one of his kitchen drawers and rustled about in it. He pulled out a yellow legal pad and a permanent marker. Then he sat back down across from Hailey and proceeded to draw something.
Trusting myself to speak, I said, “What did he say about the boat accident? What happened to Naira?”
“Not much.” Hailey had her head ducked down again. “He said the boat crashed but that some woman took them off first. A woman with red eyes and long teeth. And that”—Hailey’s voice began to rise—“that—that she bit him and there was only pain. It felt like acid in his veins.”
“And Naira?”
“He said the woman had taken her and left him.”
She’d known they were alive this whole time. The betrayal was crushing. “Why did you come to the Isle?” I demanded.
“Naira told Luke about you and your grandmother, and the restorative properties of your blood,” she stammered. “We had tried every possible treatment on Luke and nothing worked. I was tasked with procuring the blood in order to find a cure. Each day, Luke was getting worse.”
Hailey wiped at her eyes and looked at me. “I was only trying to help him. I was only trying to find whatever the doctor needed to make the cure to save my brother. Then I was going to tell the police about Naira and the woman. But I didn’t want the police to think Luke killed her or that he was on drugs, or worse, because of the way he was acting. You have to believe me, Ada.”
I didn’t have to believe anything, especially not from her.
“I didn’t want to keep this from you,” she said quietly.
I didn’t answer her.
“I was going to tell you everything tonight, afterward. I realized I couldn’t steal your blood. Not without your permission. Not even for Luke.”
“Was that the first time you tried to steal my blood? At the island?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No,” she whispered. “When you showed up at my house, it was the perfect opportunity. I thought I could do it that night or the next. But then we were attacked by those things. I was so scared Luke would become them that I went in where you were sleeping and…” She couldn’t finish.
