Henchgirl (Dakota Kekoa Book 1)

by Rita Stradling

  Mele was more out of breath than I was when she stopped beside me.

  Everyone started talking at once. Keanu was saying how happy he was I was here, Mele started going on about who she questioned about Honua’s disappearance, right as Auli shouted, “What is he doing here?”

  “Everyone shut up!” I said in a tone that made everyone do just that. They even kept quiet as I peered behind my shoulder to where Wyvern was, as he stood at the edge of the bridge just before the water ward. His white hair reflected the light as he stared directly at us.

  I turned back to the group, “That guy back there is Honua’s brother. He’s a half-dragon—”

  “You led him straight to us?” Auli said.

  “He kidnapped me,” I lied, “He took me here and said I had ten minutes to get Honua out. We need to get everyone out, then search the mansion in groups.”

  I started for the open doors of the mansion, but Auli jumped into my path.

  “We’ve searched everywhere,” she said. “She’s not anywhere. We’ve even combed the grounds, it’s been two hours. She probably just left when no one was looking. You should go—”

  “We need to do another search.”

  “She’s not here!” Auli screamed over my shoulder and toward the gate. “We have looked everywhere!” Then to me she yelled, “You need to get that dracon and get out of here!”

  “Shut up, Auli,” Mele said, grabbing Auli by the arm. It was good Mele grabbed her, because I really wanted to smack Auli.

  “If we tell him she’s not here, maybe he’ll go away,” Auli yelled.

  “Keanu, I need your help organizing the people inside,” I said.

  “Of course, anything,” Keanu said, his fingers brushed my lower back.

  I tried to walk around Auli but she held out her hand and pushed me. I let her push me, deciding this was the wrong time to break her arm.

  She yelled into my face, “You don’t get it-”

  “No you don’t get it!” I yelled at her. “That thing—” I pointed at Wyvern, “Thinks Keanu promised Honua his protection, and failed. Do you know what that means?” I leaned back into Keanu’s hand. “It means he’s going to kill Keanu.”

  Keanu’s hand stiffened on my back. He stepped up to look down at me, hitting me with a full blast of his beauty. His looks might be unearthly in his own way, but there was nothing cold or unreachable about him. Just looking at him, I felt calmer, which maybe was not a good thing.

  Auli grabbed my arm, yelling into my face while Mele yelled back at Auli.

  “We are wasting time,” I said.

  Keanu grabbed me and shouldered past his sister, pulling me into the house. Walking into a party through people talking, laughing and standing around, felt like the most surreal thing of the night.

  “Where have you been, bra?” Hunter said laughing, as he did something between a run and a stumble up to us as we descended from the foyer. He waved his casted arm around. “Oh, hey, Da-ko-ta. Welcome to the party, you look really dressed up,” Hunter said, then added, “But nice.”

  “Listen up!” Keanu yelled, calling the attention of the crowd.

  “Come do a keg stand, bra!” some jock called back at Keanu.

  “Not right now. The party is moving outside-”

  “To the basement,” I said in his ear. We did not have time for outside; we did not even have time to search.

  “Never mind. Everyone, head down to the keg in my basement!” Keanu said, getting one drunk guy to cheer. The crowd moved out.

  Keanu leaned down to my ear, “Would this be a bad time to tell you that you look so sexy in your dress?”

  Even with everything, my insides squirmed. “Yeah,” I responded, “But thanks.” I looked him over. Honestly, though I spent five years studying him, I barely knew him, even with the near constant flirting we had been doing while tutoring other people in the library. But it did not take time for me to know that Keanu was someone… I don’t know how to put it, someone I wanted to exist.

  “Come on,” Keanu said, his hand pushing against my lower back. “I’ll show you the bathroom where she disappeared.”

  “We’re out of time,” I said, because I knew we were. “Go with the others down to the basement.”

  “I should probably show you… and my sister,” he said, head turning back to the front.

  “Go get them,” I said. “Get them into the basement, I’ll meet you there. Just point the way to the bathroom.”

  After giving me directions, Keanu ran back up into the foyer, I could not help noticing that he did not look stupid when he ran, not at all.

  A blaring alarm rang throughout the house. The house filled with screams, so many screams. And a rush of people, people who I thought we had sent to safety, came running out of the basement.

  A girl called, “What’s going on?”

  Most of the screamers were running, fleeing in all directions, especially toward the front entrance.

  I allowed myself one second to hope that the alarm had sounded because Wyvern hit the wards and knocked himself out. I ran against the crowd, throwing open closet and bedroom doors trying to find the bathroom.

  “Dakota!” some girl called for me, but I ignored her.

  “Dakota!” Missy yelled now only feet from me. “Dakota! I just saw…that thing…it’s changing into…I don’t know!” Makeup streamed down her face as she sobbed.

  What was I doing? I wasn’t going to find Honua in the time I had; and I had completely failed at getting the humans to safety in the basement. This situation was about as out of control as a situation could get.

  “Okay,” I said, “Go in the basement, hide, I’ll get the others.”

  When I exited the Hale house, I found that Auli, Mele, Juliette and Keanu had not fled, they stood staring transfixed at the front gate.

  The palm-trees that glowed in a straight line up to the front created a strange tropical frame for the horrific transformation that was happening just beyond that gate. Where Wyvern had stood just minutes before, was a contorting, changing shape. He was gleaming white, and growing, bigger and bigger, reptilian skin stretching, claws emerging. It was foul in the way only dragon magic could be.

  No one moved or spoke, we all just watched as the creature grew and grew, towering over the palm trees, towering over everything. When its growth stopped it expanded, up and down, taking in labored breaths. Its head rose from the mess of limbs, it was impossibly big, bigger than my aunt Milda’s rental car. Its features were reptilian and such a luminescent white they could have been carved from opal.

  It was not possible… he had transformed into a full-dragon. But I knew for a fact Wyvern was only a half-dragon…

  Seeming to sort out its tangled body, the dragon stretched out one giant white bat-like wing. Fumbling to its feet, or talons, the dragon revealed another wing that had been crumpled beneath it. The dragon had no arms really, just wings with claws at their ends.

  “Oh my gods, he’s a full dragon,” Mele said under her breath, inches from me. I had no idea I was standing so close to her.

  “Mele,” I said, turning, “Get everyone you can and go to the basement.”

  “I’ll go if you do,” she said, not taking her eyes off the dragon.

  “It can’t come in here, it can’t hurt us,” Auli shouted.

  All the people who had not run, just stood there, watching and silent.

  I had a glimmer of hope that maybe my uncles had tracked me, but the hope died a quick death when I remembered that I was in a magical dead zone. If they had a witch tracking me, I would have gone off the radar a while ago. If they knew where I was, they would be at that gate already.

  I examined the group I stood with. Among the people who did not run was Ophelia, who was crying nearby as Juliette held her. Keanu stood a little way off with Auli and Hunter flanking him. Mele stood by my side, close enough for me to grab her hand. And I realized, all my friends were minutes from dying.

  Another thought flashed
across my mind, a selfish, cold fear, but it was mine all the same: if everyone that knew and cared about me as a human died, I would only be a dracon.

  I never thought about how important my pretense of humanity was to me before and I did not want to lose it.

  The dragon seemed to regain its strength, its breaths less visible in its heaving body, it raised up its wings and with one powerful thrust downward it took to the air. Its legs were shaped like something between an eagle’s talons and the hind legs of a crocodile. The talons from his three toes were longer than its scaly flesh covered legs. My guess would be that it wasn’t a good mover on the ground, not that it needed to be, but it was a possible exploitable weakness.

  The real danger was its tail, about the same length as its body and tipped with a harpoon like spike.

  The dragon screeched long and loud. My hands pressed over my ears, but the sound still slipped through my fingers; it was an ancient sound, a sound older and more primal than humanity remembered. A sound that made you want to curl up with a spear, hidden in a cave, hoping that the terrors of the night would not come in after you and would evaporate with the dawn.

  The teeth the dragon flashed when it continued its low guttural screeching were each foot long spears.

  It was deadly from all ends.

  Swinging its giant white body in a half circle, the dragon spun to thwack toward the water ward with its tail. There was no flash of light, but halfway through the swing the scaly flesh met the invisible wall and the dragon shot back, spinning end over end, crashing to the ground.

  “See! He can’t get in!” Auli shouted, jumping up and down, “He can’t get in!”

  After a minute with the dragon just lying motionless on the ground, a couple other people started cheering, though I could hear Ophelia’s continued wails.

  The dragon sprang back into the air, and with one scaly claw peeled off of its stomach what looked like a giant crushed can, and from the metal’s cream color I realized it was the remains of my aunt Milda’s rental car. The talons came together; balling up the metallic remains of the car, the sound of the crushing metal was like a screeching countdown.

  “Everyone get inside!” I shouted, “Keanu! Mele! Get everyone to the basement, now!”

  Mele and the group started backing toward the open doors of the mansion; a few people turned and ran in.

  But Auli whirled on me. “He won’t throw it,” Auli shouted back, “he thinks his sister is inside the house.”

  I made my voice as calm as possible while still shouting, “Auli, if there is anything human in that thing left, it’s not in the driver seat. I know you hate me, but please get everyone—”

  Turned around as I was, I just saw the end of the metal ball’s flight, the boom it made as it crashed into the side of the building was louder than anything I had ever heard before. Debris rained down.

  The group around us broke up, half stayed, half ran in all directions. If the dragon was going to crush the house, maybe it was better if my friends weren’t stuck under it, but Wyvern had told me to get Honua into the basement so I had to think it was the best option. Hopefully for Missy it was.

  “Everyone!” Keanu shouted, “Head to the basement!”

  Listening to Keanu, all the people who remained with us, sprinted back to the house; I stayed where I was, visually planning out how I could reach the dragon without it having a clear shot at me.

  “Dakota, come on! We need to run…” Keanu said from behind me. Arms wrapped around me, and in a strange repeat of yesterday, I was scooped into Keanu’s arms and he started running.

  He ran into the house and did not listen when I yelled directly into his face to put me down.

  I heard another earsplitting boom, and a cloud of dust flew in from one side of the foyer. Thankfully, about half the party had stayed and was ahead running down the stairs to the basement.

  I grabbed Keanu’s shoulder and scrambled up until I could speak into his ear. “Honua told me how to calm him down,” I lied loud enough so he could hear me. “I’m the only one who can stop this!”

  His grip on me tightened, his cheek pressing to mine. “No way,” he said firmly. “I’m not letting you out of my sight. We’ll wait it out until help comes.” Then he kissed me, it was more like him smashing his mouth on mine, but my insides still felt a punch of adrenaline.

  He smiled, turning back to his route and said, “Just in case we die.”

  “Put me down you big oaf!” I yelled.

  He chuckled, still carrying me off to safety like a damsel in distress. Keanu did not know me at all. I considered kicking out of his grasp with my legs while punching him twice, once in the gut and once in the shoulder to make my escape, but stopped myself. However, the idea became more and more tempting as he neared the basement stairs.

  When I was about to enact the moves that would probably immediately drain any feelings Keanu had for me, Keanu set me down at the top of the stairs, saying, “Go on, I’m going to wait until all the girls get underground to meet you.”

  I looked down, seeing that at least Mele was halfway down the stairs with a crowd below her. I did not know where my other friends were, but it was probably the most I could ask for. The last of the crowd funneled into the stairs

  Another loud boom resounded. Keanu whirled around; looking for the source, but the crash site must have been outside.

  While Keanu was looking the other way, I jumped onto his back and grabbed on like a kid getting a piggyback ride as he bucked in surprise. I wrapped my right arm around his neck and grabbed my left bicep on the other side of his head as I snaked the back of my left hand behind his neck.

  “Dakota?” he asked, surprised and grabbed my arm; but I cut off his air and anything he might have said next. He flinched back and forth, not really fighting me, but obviously wanting me off.

  “I’m sorry Keanu,” I said. “I need to go face that dragon and I can’t have you following me. If you go out there, you’ll be his only target. I’m doing this to save your life; I hope you don’t hate me.” I added lamely, as his body collapsed forward. He fell to his knees first, arms on the ground. I counted the seconds only using the exact amount to knock a person out without causing brain damage, and then released him.

  If Keanu had tried to fight me off of him, he probably could have, he had over a hundred pounds on me. So when he collapsed to the ground, and passed out, I knew that in some way he had let me. I would cling to that thought like a branch as I dangled over this abyss, maybe just maybe Keanu would understand after this was all over that I attacked him to keep him safe.

  “Hunter! Someone!” I screamed as I climbed off Keanu’s back, “Help! Keanu collapsed!”

  And he wouldn’t be out for long…

  The moment I saw the faint outline of people ascending the stairs, from the basement back up to us, I turned on my heel and ran.

  At the front entrance of the mansion, I stared out of the open doors. The scene before me was so different than the one I had left only minutes before. The front gate of the entrance of the estate was missing, as was large sections of the tall black lava rock wall that ringed the property. There were large gouges in the wall, as if it took heavy cannon fire. All around debris littered the lawn, rocks and hunks of cars gouged craters on what had been a smooth well-tended lawn. Three palm trees had been knocked over, their lights sputtering as they swung like flashing pendulums.

  The dragon swung around twenty feet in the air and launched a palm tree, pulled up by its roots, flinging it like a spear into the lawn. It skewered a shed off to the side of the house like a shish-kabob; glass exploded out and rained down. I hoped none of the people that fled hid in there.

  The claws came down, grabbing chunks of the road, scooping up concrete pieces and flinging them out like a spray of head-sized bullets. There were still probably over a hundred high school students running around the lawn, if I did not stop this now, many, maybe all of them would die.

  Another spray of rocks f
lung from the dragon’s claws, some of them hitting the house around me. Paintballs, they’re just really big paintballs, I told myself. I could run half a mile without getting shot by my grandfather in our practice rounds, it was rare, but I managed it once or twice. Giant paintballs.

  I tore the already forming slit up my dress’ seam higher and sprang into a sprint. Trusting the remaining palm trees to catch some of the bigger debris, I zigzagged up the driveway, dodging to the right as a boulder crashed past my side and splintered a fallen trunk behind me. I was forced to run into the open by a fallen tree.

  A flash of movement came at me and then my shoulder went instantly numb. I knew I had been hit, but my shoulder did not hurt so much as feel nothing. I did not pause to examine the wound, just used my good arm to launch me over a pile of rocks, ignoring how the porous lava rocks cut into my palm. Little rocks bit into my face, arms and legs as I pushed on, the closer I was to the source, the more I was getting hit. Though I did not think the dragon had really focused on me yet, I kept my eyes on my immediate surroundings enough to make sure. If the dragon wanted to take me out specifically, it wasn’t aiming well.

  A rock missed my head by inches; I ducked as another larger one followed. Diving onto the rock strewn ground behind a fallen palm tree, I scraped every bit of skin that hit. Several rocks flew in my direction and when I peeked out from under the log, the dragon was hurling another palm tree as a spear and it came directly at my log.

  I dove, and rolled, barely making it out in time; the two trunks collided and exploded like they were rigged with dynamite. A downpour of palm branches slammed into me crushing me on the grass. People think palm branches are light, just big fans, they’re wrong; palm branches can be heavy enough to crush a full grown man. Thankfully, I was only knocked down and lashed across my back and neck with the leaves.

  Closing my eyes and inhaling slowly, I regained my calm and peeked out from under the palms.

  The dragon was only about a hundred yards ahead. All its focus was back on the house. If it had been aiming at me it probably assumed I was down. I still doubted the dragon had noticed me really, it seemed like it was just throwing things wildly.