“That explains how so many disappeared so quickly,” I said, “They had a whole organization behind it. This is why no one reported it too; the parents of the missing girls on the west-side were in on it.”
“And this fate worse than death that they’re referring to…?”
I think I had an idea, but I did not really want to say it out loud.
Wyvern figured it out on his own, though. “That man you called Scruff said that the islanders on the east-side thought my father was out searching for island women,” he said. “They’re talking about my mother’s fate, having me.”
“I think so,” I said, “It makes so much sense. The girls started disappearing two days after you arrived. Maybe The Heritage Society found out how powerful you are, somehow, and figured out that it’s because of your Mabiian genetics. And now they’re hiding all the island girls from your father so he doesn’t…impregnate…any other Mabiian girls and make more extremely powerful dracons.”
“My father makes it very public how powerful I am,” Wyvern said, bitterly, “He never revealed why or how I’m this powerful, not even to me. Both he and your grandfather guarded that secret well.”
“That’s probably who my family was trying to conceal me from too,” I admitted, “Your father.”
He glanced over, a little smile on his face. “Not me?”
“Probably both,” I said.
“They failed,” he said.
Don’t I know it.
I said, “This gives us a lot of information about why but we still don’t know how Honua disappeared from a locked room or who exactly took her or why she was trashing Senator Hale’s office or what she took…”
“Or where she was taken,” Wyvern said.
“Basically, we still do not know most of the important stuff,” I said.
“I wonder if it was Ama or The Heritage Society that turned in Kamalei’s resignation letter.” Looking at the letter I said, “Ama committed suicide even though this letter assured her that she would be treated as a victim…”
“Guilt,” Wyvern said.
“That’s what I’m thinking too, guilt and grief.” I reread, “Our actions had an unforeseen victory, that of exposing and ridding us of the enemy that had infiltrated our communities and even the Mabi Heritage Society itself.”
“They killed the infected people by accident,” Wyvern said.
“Yeah,” I said. “It sounds like whatever way they kidnapped the girls ended up killing the ones who were actually infected and living disguised as humans. My guess is that Ama had The Heritage Society kidnap Kamalei to ‘protect her’ but whatever way they did it killed Kamalei. But how did The Heritage Society kidnap these girls?”
Why could I not figure this out, it was right here somewhere. Maybe Wyvern should have hired a real detective.
I said, “Another problem is there is a Heritage Society on every island with hundreds of members each; Honua could be in any of hundreds of locations and they’re going to keep her behind a water ward. Now that we can’t cross the water wards, it’s going to be almost impossible to get to any of the society’s members. If we actually manage to capture one of the society’s members, the other members could just move Honua to a different location.”
I pressed my palms to my forehead and magically an idea popped out. “We should give this letter to the Hells’ Hogs,” I said.
“You’re serious?” Wyvern asked.
“Completely,” I said, “Everyone in the Hells’ Hogs can cross the water wards. Also they are both looking into the kidnappings and trying to calm down all the east-siders who are blaming your father. If we give the Hog’s this information, they can then tell all the east-siders who is really responsible for stealing their daughters. They would summon up a shit storm the likes you have never seen.”
He smirked. “I guess you do have ideas that aren’t idiotic.”
“Shut up. When’s dinner with your father?”
“Six,” he said.
“Well, that sucks; it’s two and a half hours to the club. I guess we’ll have to miss dinner, this is just way more important,” I said.
He smiled widely at me, “No baby, we don’t have to miss anything.” Then his foot pressed down on the accelerator.
Chapter Twenty Three
“I told you I would get you here for dinner,” Wyvern whispered, his smile mischievous and his thumb caressing the back of my hand under the table.
I leaned toward him to whisper, “Please don’t remind me, I’m really trying to repress the last four hours of my life,”
We had made the two and a half hour drive in an hour and twenty minutes, to say Wyvern drove fast would be like saying my grandfather kind of liked money. Wyvern had thankfully slowed down when we arrived at the east side. The unofficial islander-reporting-system must have made the Hells’ Hogs aware of our approach; as by the time we had made it to the club, all the bikers were on the street, waiting for us.
“I thought I told you this is not a good place for you to be, cousin,” Scruff had said as he stood in front of the crowd of bikers.
“I have your birthday present, Scruff,” I had replied, leaning over Wyvern’s lap to talk through his window. I held the letter up out of the window.
We waited for Scruff to read it and then he turned it over to read the personal note on the back. Scruff nodded. “I owe you for this one, baby girl.”
“I’ll collect,” I said.
“Of course you will. You make your boy drive slow, ay? There’s keiki running around,” he said.
Wyvern had driven slowly, until the moment we drove out of the town, and then I felt like I had just been shot out of Contingency.
Wyvern had brought me home in time even to get ready.
I had been a little surprised to find Braiden McCormick there, picking up Clara.
Lorelei had been in my room, watching the camera footage from Senator Hale’s office. She glared at me when I walked in, “Absolutely nothing happened on Sunday. I think you just rotted my brain with boredom, permanent damage.”
“You brain couldn’t get that much worse, could it?” I had said, taking off my clothing and grabbing a dress out of my closet at random.
She had yelled, “Do not tell me that you’re going out!” It had all gone downhill from there. Lorelei had rushed downstairs and received permission from both my mother and Wyvern to go with us before I could get dressed enough to run down there. Since Clara had offered to have Lorelei drive with her and Braiden, there was no way for me to prevent her from going, short of tying her up.
So now, two of my sisters were at Braiden McCormick’s summer house, sitting at the dinner table with a full-dragon high-king.
“I thought I brought you home in time to shower,” Wyvern whispered while lifting a strand of my hair to his nose.
“I smell fabulous all the time,” I whispered back, “it’s one of my aspects.”
“You wish,” Wyvern whispered.
“I think she smells very nice,” Wyvern’s father said.
My cheeks heated as I looked up to see the Dragon at the head of the table smiling at us.
Of course he could hear us, probably everyone at the table except my sisters could. No one in my family had more than natural hearing. I needed to start remembering things like that.
Everyone at the table was having their own conversations but more than one gaze was shooting over to Wyvern and me. It was funny; this group sat with less formality than my family did. I sat between Wyvern and his father, beside his father on the other side sat the Cordeliajezebels then Lorelei. Beside Wyvern sat Clara and Braiden. Besides the dragon-king being at the head of the table, everyone else just seemed to sit where they wanted.
“Is it coconut?” Wyvern Sr asked, still asking about my smell I guess.
I did not know what was more disconcerting about him, that he looked so like my Wyvern or that he looked younger than my Wyvern.
My Wyvern? I needed to cut that out.
; Wyvern Sr looked in many ways like he could pass as a teenager, immortally seventeen-looking. But he was also just so…other.
Strangely enough, when I first came in the house and saw him, his soul had only stunned me for a couple of minutes. It was such a dramatic change from the first time I saw the full-dragon that I thought having been around Wyvern day and night must have trained my senses.
“Yes. Coconut oil,” I said about my smell, because I’m pretty sure no matter how awkward, I had to answer a direct question from the Wyvern Rex.
Wyvern leaned down and sniffed again and I automatically swatted at him. He grabbed my hand before I could connect though and pulled me toward him with it, grinning. Great now he had both my hands.
“Stop smelling me,” I whispered. “Seriously we’re eating…and with your father.” My cheeks probably looked like red apples.
When I looked back up to his father, he was grinning at us. “Dakota, you are a singer right?” he asked. “That was what your Grandfather said your aspect was.”
Oh no.
“I’ve been hoping to hear her perform,” Wyvern Jr said.
I turned a look of death on him.
He raised his eyebrows and grinned wickedly.
Would the Wyvern Rex Sr execute me for throttling his son at the dinner table?
“You’ll sing for us after dinner,” Wyvern Sr ordered with an equally wicked smile on his face.
Oh, I was glad I could be so entertaining for them. Perhaps I should offer to do a little dance as well?
Lorelei, the little traitor, burst out laughing. “I want to hear this too,” she said.
“You know,” I said with a smile fixed at Lorelei, “My sister Lorelei and I do a lovely duet,” I turned to Wyvern Sr, “Would it be okay if she joined me?”
“That would be excellent.” He was still smiling while he took a sip of wine.
Lorelei’s wide eyes fixed on mine and she had a ‘say what?’ expression on her face.
I raised an eyebrow at her in challenge. At least I would have company in my humiliation.
We had gained the rest of the table’s attention by now, or more they had stopped pretending to pay attention to each other.
“Do you sing as well Clara?” Wyvern Sr. asked. “Will there be three singing sisters?”
“I am not so blessed,” Clara said. “But I look forward to the performance.” The smile she gave was so sweet that you wouldn’t ever suspect that she was laughing at our predicament. Great even my ‘nice’ sister was amused at my expense.
“As am I,” Wyvern Sr said.
Looking at him, it was so weird to think what lengths the humans were going to keep their daughters away from him.
Yes, he was intimidating, but he did not seem like the monster you guarded your children against at night. And some of them had even killed their children over it, their infected children but for some reason I don’t think Ama cared in the end that Kamalei was infected.
What a tragic mess.
As if my Wyvern could sense the dark path of my thoughts, he squeezed my hands.
I looked at him, our gazes connected for a long second. I realized he was still holding both of my hands, to break the tension I whispered from the side of my mouth, “How am I supposed to eat with you holding both my hands?”
“Your food is gone,” he said. It was true. “The only way you’re going to get any more is by licking your plate and you don’t need hands for that.”
“I ate so much because I almost died, my life flashed before my eyes today—”
“Let me guess, nothing, boring, nothing, and then me,” he whispered grinning.
“You wish,” I whispered. “More like nice, nice, nice, then you.”
He grinned wider. “Just like I said.”
“Shall we enjoy the fire together, friends?” Wyvern Sr said.
I looked around while the table cleared and was eye-murdered by one of the Cordeliajezebels. I blinked. I had completely forgotten about her being present as well as almost all of the rest of the table for a second.
Here I was dining with the Wyvern Rex of the Dragon Kingdoms and I was rudely ignoring everyone. I would never regret not attending my Aunt Glenda’s classes but maybe I am a bit…unsophisticated.
But that would make Wyvern completely uncouth. He used the hands that he refused to let go of and pulled me up.
“Now if we walk like this we will just look too ridiculous,” I said when he still did not let go of my hands.
He contemplated the problem like it was serious. “We’ll just have to stay here,” he said.
“All night?” I asked.
“Well, we can’t walk around looking ridiculous, you have a reputation of being very serious and respectable to protect,” he said, sounding somber. “And I don’t particularly want to let go of either of your hands. And now we’re all alone here…” He leaned in toward me.
“Oh no, I don’t think so; I thought I was supposed to give some sort of singing performance,” I said, pulling him toward the exit to the dining room, backwards.
“Looking forward to that are you?” He smiled.
I just glared.
He pulled me back into him, and whispered, “I want to make you pee-in-your pants happy.”
I swallowed and then forced a teasing smile. “Really, do you really actually want that?”
“Yes,” he paused. “But in the meantime, I’ll let you have one of your hands back.”
We walked down a staircase to the basement hearth room holding hands. When we entered everyone looked up as they gathered around the fire. The room wasn’t as large as my grandfather’s hearth room, but it was by no means small. There were a number of chairs with small personal braziers as well.
“Ah, Wyvern,” said Wyvern Sr, “I was hoping you would come enjoy cigars with Braiden and me,” It was a request but a request in the way my grandfather made requests.
Wyvern squeezed my hand, then let go. “I would love one, father.”
“Dakota,” Wyvern Sr said nodding. He turned to my sisters and the Cordeliajezebels and said, “Ladies.”
They all bowed simultaneously to him and I did it too, somewhat clumsily.
I turned, walking to the fire. I knew that I should socialize with the Cordeliajezebels, or at the very least my sisters, as that was the polite thing to do; but what Wyvern said…it just, consumed my mind. It was silliness, I knew that. Yet when he said it, I felt this zing, not in my body but in my soul. And I knew that was just mushy bullshit and I felt stupid just for thinking it, but I swear I felt it.
“Dakota,” a voice woke me from my reverie. When I turned, I saw the Cordeliajezebel that did not try to stab me with her eyes. She was the one who had the pretty heart-shaped face and girly voice.
“Hi,” I said, not really wanting whatever she had come over to dish out.
“I owe you an apology,” she said. “I was rather offensive the last time I was at your grandfather’s house. I had misjudged the situation. I was judging what was happening between you and Wyvern on his past and not on observation.”
“It’s fine,” I said, really not wanting to have this conversation.
“You don’t think I like you, do you?” she asked.
“I don’t mean this rudely, but honestly, I don’t really care.” I gave her an apologetic smile.
“I care if you think I don’t like you,” she said. “I do like you quite a bit, or at least I like the idea of you.”
“Thank you, I think,” I said. “You know, no one ever introduced us; I’m still not sure if you are Cordelia or Jezebel.” Look at me, caring enough to ask.
“I am Jezebel,” she said. “I am sorry, I should have introduced myself; I approached this place like I do with society at home. I realize now that it is different here.”
“How did you approach it?”
“Like a battle,” she said.
“Not so different then,” I said.
She smiled, “You would make a very interesting
Wyvern Regina.”
I stared at her in confusion, my brow furrowing and lips falling open.
“Surely you’re not looking to be a second wife?” she asked.
I glared at her.
“The idea hasn’t even occurred to you, has it?” she asked, like she already knew the answer was no. “Has Wyvern talked to you about his title, about his life as the Rex?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think he has to.”
She sighed, looking a bit disappointed. “That’s what I thought,” she said, looking down. “What you have to understand is that I don’t think that Wyvern could even conceive of the idea of a girl wanting to be with him but at the same time wanting nothing to do with his title. His life just hasn’t worked that way. Every girl that has ever showed interest in him has at the same time been auditioning for Regina.”
“You’re saying that he just assumes I’m after being some kind of queen?” I said, a little offended.
“Not exactly, I’m saying that it would just never occur to him that you would not want to be the Regina, that you would like him completely separate from his life and title. That is the danger of being on vacation, he can be completely himself with you and you have no idea about his real life as the Rex.”
“What’s so bad about that?”
“Because he’s giving you his heart, and you have no interest in being part of his life,” she said.
Whoa, Nelly.
“I think you’re speaking a little fast,” I said.
“I don’t think so,” she responded.
“Really fast, we’ve only known each other a couple of days.” Talking about marriage and who was going to be queen after a couple days was like eight shades of crazy.
“I’ve known him his whole life, he’s never acted like this with a girl or with anyone,” she said.
“I don’t know what to say to that.” I said.
“Seeing the way he looks at you, I want to tell you that if you rip his heart out, I’ll rip out yours; but I’m not going to, I’m afraid it might already be inevitable and I don’t want to get my hands dirty.”
That painted a lovely image in my head. “Thanks?” I said, because really, what did you say to that? I put a hand out in a conciliatory gesture. “Look, I’m not trying to hurt him, or lead him on or anything if that’s what you’re saying.”
Henchgirl (Dakota Kekoa Book 1) Page 31
