My uncles went ahead while I dawdled, delaying entering the party.
“Come on. Your party waits,” Lorelei said smiling, motioning to the passageway into the main part of the house.
“Fine,” I said, walking forward holding Honua’s hand. “Hey Alika,” I said as I passed him, then I did an exaggerated wink at Mele.
“Shut up,” she said. “And happy freaking birthday, butthead.”
We entered a large event center, instead of balloons there were paper-lanterns, instead of streamers there were ribbons, instead of a cake there was a tower of buttercream. Dracons sat at round tables in two rows up to the end of the hall where at a long table my grandfather and my more important uncles sat, everyone was drinking and chatting.
No one noticed me and I hesitated walking forward.
Wyvern came up on my other side. My dress was backless and where his fingers brushed my skin I felt his fear leak through.
My guess was he was not happy about Honua’s impromptu debut into dracon society. Not surprising since he went to so much effort to conceal her.
“What do you want to do?” I asked Wyvern. To Honua I signed, ‘I am making your brother feel better, pretend with me.’
He looked at what I had signed to her. Then met my gaze with a, ‘really,’ look.
I just grinned.
“I can’t openly call her my sister,” he said, “If I did it could be published in the newspapers, if I suggested it, it could be in the gossip magazines.”
“Okay,” I said, “We’ll handle it.”
People might guess, but that’s all it would be. Honua wasn’t quite the fragile flower Wyvern had originally thought he was protecting. Also she had the full force of the Hells’ Hogs behind her which meant that even my grandfather would think ten times before trying to use her, there were just too many financial fallbacks.
That gave me an idea.
“Alika,” I said, “Where’s the rest of the Hells’ Hogs?”
I had seen maybe ten motorcycles.
“They weren’t invited,” he said, “I’m Mele’s plus one.”
“They’re invited now,” I said. “I think Honua needs an entourage.”
“That she does,” he said. “I’ll be two minutes.”
“We’ll wait,” I said.
When we walked into the reception center, everyone immediately fell silent. It might have had something to do with the fact that I walked into my birthday party with the Wyvern Rex on one side and a delicate looking human girl surrounded by ten three-hundred pound bikers on my other side.
Almost everyone there were people I had known from birth, aunts and uncles and cousins, their spouses and children. Everyone stood and bowed to us.
“Wowza,” I whispered.
“You’ll get used to it,” Wyvern said.
I glanced at him, supremely uncomfortable with that thought.
‘See you later,’ Honua signed, then she let go of my hand and stepped away. I really wanted to go with her for some reason.
Wyvern nodded to the crowd after they stood. Then as if he had rehearsed it, he led me through a space between the tables to where my grandfather was bowing. A few of my uncles also stood at their seats at that table, bowing each in turn. Glacier had arrived there before we did, but the seat Wyvern led me to was far from him.
Wyvern held out a chair for me beside my grandfather, and he took the seat on my other side.
When we sat, everyone sat.
Clara and Braiden were also seated down the way at our table next to Cordelia and Jezebel.
My mother and other sisters sat at the table nearest to ours. Obviously my mother had decided the seating arrangements because Lorien and Deagan sat to my mother’s right. She was positively glowing with happiness. I would have been happy about the seating arrangement too if my grandfather wasn’t giving me the silent treatment.
We were served an all meat dinner and even though Wyvern tried to engage me in conversation, I just could not ignore how not-right this party felt. By the time dessert was served, Lorien had moved tables and my uncle Bobby had taken his seat. My mother was falling out of her seat laughing at something my uncle Bobby had said and my younger sisters were laughing just as hard. At their table, only Deagan seemed to not be enjoying himself.
Down the hall Honua and the bikers were having a similarly great time, to the annoyance of some of my aunts, which I kind of loved.
“Hey,” Wyvern whispered, squeezing my leg with his hand. “Are you still here?” he asked.
“Yes but I may or may not be plotting my escape,” I whispered.
“If it was up to me, I would have spent your birthday with just us two,” he said. “We’ll have our dinner to celebrate next week, I promise.”
For some reason, Wyvern saying that did not make me feel any better, worse actually, maybe because he just told me we were going to do it and did not ask me if I wanted to. I nodded anyway.
My grandfather stood abruptly and lifted his glass.
“I would like to make a toast to my granddaughter, Dakota, on her seventeenth birthday. Like her father before her, I love her dearly, and hold a special place in this old rotten heart for her.”
The crowd laughed.
He looked down at me. “I have always been very proud of you, my dearest.”
Then to the crowd, “To Dakota.”
“To Dakota,” the crowd repeated.
He leaned down and kissed my forehead. And I took that opportunity to bow my head forward and wipe a tear from my cheek.
My mother staggered unsteadily to her feet. “I also want to make a toast,” she said.
I expected the usual snickering, but none came.
“To my beautiful daughter Dakota and Wyvern Rex, who likes her so much,” my mother said, slurring her words.
“To Dakota and to Wyvern Rex,” The crowd repeated.
It was like no one told me and I was at my freaking wedding.
Wyvern must have sensed my unease because he stood next saying, “Thank you all for your kind words and your hospitality while my friends and I visited your beautiful island. Now if you will excuse me I will steal the birthday girl for a dance.”
The whole gathering stood and bowed again.
Jumping on the chance to escape, I let Wyvern lead me outside and down to an outside dance floor lit with a thousand tiny lights. A quartet played some sort of waltzing or other ballroom music but I did not care. I held on to Wyvern and just went wherever he led me.
This just did not feel right, like I had entered a parallel universe and it was my family and all the people I loved, yet somehow I was an outsider.
The only thing that felt real here was Wyvern but that was so upside down. Wyvern was just passing through my life and everyone else should have been permanent, but it felt the other way around.
Wyvern led me through a few dances. I was hyper aware of the way his arms felt on me, his hand on my back, his cheek on my cheek. Without meaning to, I was memorizing what it felt like to be in his arms.
One song turned into another and I did not want to stop dancing as if I was in a dream, and if I stepped away, I would have to wake up.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” my Uncle Reeve’s voice said when Wyvern and I had paused our dancing for a second. He bowed low, his long lanky body seeming to fold in half, and then he stood and said, “I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday niece.”
“Thanks Uncle Reeve,” I said, “How’s it going?”
“I am well,” he said, he turned to Wyvern. “How did you enjoy your vacation here on Mabi, Wyvern Rex?”
“I enjoyed many things,” Wyvern said, while his arm snaked around my back.
“Did you get to take in any of our Island’s fine shows?” he asked.
That’s about the time my mind wandered. I wondered where my sisters and friends had ended up, or my mother, or the uncles I actually liked. They were probably all together having a great time.
Finally my uncle Reeve stepped away, but as if
they had been waiting in line Glenda and Ashley came up right behind Uncle Reeve.
“We just wanted to wish Dakota a happy birthday,” Glenda said, smiling at me with actual warmth and approval.
Obviously I had done something very wrong with my life to deserve this.
“Thanks,” I said, not as graciously as I probably should have.
They turned to Wyvern and Glenda asked, “How are you, Mr. Manderson?”
“I am very well,” he said.
And it just kept going. My Aunts Carol, Milda and Agnes, my cousin Patrice, my Uncle Lorien who I just glared at, and then on and on, they would come up to ‘wish me a happy birthday,’ then immediately turn to Wyvern and try to engage him in some meaningless small talk.
Just last week I was a person.
Not all of my aunts, uncles and cousins liked or respected me, but those that did, did so because I deserved it. I deserved it from some of those that disliked and did not respect me as well. I had earned who I was; I had worked on being ‘me’ for seventeen years.
In just a week’s time, I had ceased to be a person to all of these people; I had become a blank space, an open door of access to the Wyvern Rex.
When my half-brother walked up to us to do the ‘wish Dakota a happy birthday’ routine, he bowed once to Wyvern, then once to me.
“Why are you bowing to me Deagan? I’m your freaking sister,” I smacked him upside the head. For a second he gave me a glare and a glimpse of the jerk-wad I knew was down there somewhere.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Urgh!
“It’s cool, what do you want?” I said.
“To wish you a happy birthday,” he said.
Sure he did.
“I’m surprised you haven’t sent me any assignments,” I said, “Last time I talked to you, you were chomping at the bit.”
“I assumed you weren’t taking anymore assignments,” he said.
“You assumed wrong,” I said.
Wyvern paid me fifty thousand dollars for finding Honua, just as our deal had stipulated. He had been almost excited to do it but I had earned that money so I had no problem accepting it. Yes, I would have tried to find her no matter what but I had bills to pay and sisters and a mother to feed. I had actually spent most of it on back rent and paying for next month’s rent. Even though Wyvern had paid our electric bill there was a substantial water bill past-due and other necessities that had to be taken care of. For the first time in a while, we were ahead, but we wouldn’t stay that way if I did not get more work.
“I’ll check with grandfather,” Deagan said. “Wyvern Rex, how did you enjoy your vacation?”
I curled my hand into a fist.
“Can I borrow my granddaughter?”
I spun to find my grandfather standing behind me.
Wyvern gave me a grin. Then to my grandfather he said, “For a little while.”
Gratefully, I fled to my grandfather. It was amazing how little impact his soul now had on me, it was a blink or two, and then I was used to it.
“Tell me we’re going to go shoot something,” I said.
“I thought that was what I was preventing you from doing,” he said with a smile as he led me away from the crowd that had gathered around Wyvern.
I felt a little bit bad about leaving Wyvern to them but he seemed like he could handle it. I could not.
“They are all just such…”
“Sycophants?” he suggested.
“Ass-kissers,” I said, “No wonder Wyvern is such an egomaniac. He did not have a choice growing up with people begging to lick his shoes.”
My grandfather chuckled.
“Oh, Deagan says that he’s not going to give me any assignments; will you have Glacier talk to him?”
He did not say anything for a full minute while we climbed the stairs. Finally he said, “Dakota, what assignments do you think you’re going to be able to do?”
“I know that my cover is blown with Senator Hale but I still have reconnaissance work for Deagan, then in three months, back to work for Glacier,” I said.
We had made it up the stairs and now stood in front of the reception center, no one was around. His continued silence was making me nervous.
Terrified, I asked, “Are you extending my suspension?”
My grandfather furrowed his perfect brow. He said, “Dakota, you’re leaving Monday for New Anglo.”
“No I’m not,” I whispered.
“Wyvern told me that you were,” he said.
“He can’t just do that,” I said, “He can’t just say that I’m going to New Anglo and that means I am…”
The look that my grandfather gave me told me that yes, Wyvern could. “I wish I could change our world for you Dakota,” he said. He closed his eyes. “I tried.”
“I’ll fix this,” I told him in a whisper. “I’m not going to New Anglo, grandfather. I still have my job if I don’t go, right?”
“Dakota,” he said, in a tone that told me that he was sorry but no. “Your path has changed.”
“But if it hasn’t changed?” I whispered. “I want to support myself.”
“No matter what, you’ll always have a place of respect in this family,” he said. “And I will always hope to spend time with you. Now, it is your birthday, let us turn our talk to happier matters.”
We did not talk though, he led me back into the reception hall and directly to where I wanted to be; in the hearth room, my friends and all the family that I actually wanted to be around gathered around the room’s brazier.
My grandfather had known Scruff, calling him Kahula and asking after his grandmother. When my grandfather asked to be introduced to Honua, Scruff had told him that she was who the Hells’ Hogs had sent to protect me at Mabi Academy and that she was a member of the club.
I knew that my grandfather had figured out who she was as he had immediately said, “Honua,” in that tone of his when he met her. Wyvern had been the one to tell him her name when he had taken me to Mabi Volcano.
I received hugs and love all around from my Uncle Bobby, sisters and friends. And when Wyvern had come and joined us by the fire, I had held onto him so tightly that I was afraid I would hurt him yet he held onto me just as tightly.
When we left the party, I grabbed Wyvern’s hand while he drove. I savored every second of the feeling of his hand in mine. I was acting crazy, feeling this way about him after a week.
It could not be real; it had to be because of what I had done. And just like every dream, I had to wake up from this one before it consumed my life. I had worked so hard for so long on so many things. If I walked away now, from my sisters, from my mother, from my mission to bring down Senator Hale, I would have worked all this time for nothing.
If I had ceased to be a unique person with my very own family, what would happen with people who did not know me and did not care about me? I would be less than a door to get to Wyvern through for them; I would be a mere stepping stone.
As Wyvern parked at my house, I decided that I had to do it now, I would tell him what I had done and I would tell him I wanted to break the contract. If we went into my house we would start kissing and then I would change my mind.
His fingers brushed my cheek. “Hey,” he whispered.
I swallowed. “Wyvern, did you tell my grandfather that I’m going to New Anglo with you on Monday?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“But you did not say anything, you did not ask me,” I responded.
“I told you at the dinner at Braiden’s house, a couple of days ago,” he said.
“Yes and I said I wasn’t going,” I said.
“Look, if you don’t want to be gone from home long, we’ll just go for a month or so and then we can come back here to visit. There’s something very important I need to take care of in person at home next week. We’ll come back to Mabi often, once a month if you want to.”
“I’m not going,” I said. “I can’t.”
He stayed silen
t for a second and then sighed. “Alright. We can perhaps delay leaving for—”
“No you don’t get it,” I said. “You’re leaving and I’m staying, Wyvern. I’m not going to deny that there’s something between us, there is. But what’s between us isn’t real, what we have had was a break from reality. A vacation. Going with you to your life would make this something it’s not; going with you would make me into someone I don’t want to be. We had a crazy, intense and at times amazing week together but that’s all it’s ever going to be, a week, there’s no ‘long-term’ for us.”
“There is,” he said.
“No, there isn’t, this isn’t real,” I said.
“You’re saying that I’m not living in reality? That I don’t know what I feel? That I’m deluded?” he said, his eyes narrowing in anger.
“Yes, but it’s not your fault,” I said.
“You are a coward,” he said. “If you are so scared that you want to deny what you feel, fine. But don’t tell me that I’m suffering from some delusion.”
“But you are.” I said with my voice quavering, but I pushed on determined to tell him the truth. “That first time you were a dragon…your head was getting free, I could not paralyze you; I thought you were going to kill me. I coiled a part of your soul into me…usually that would work to paralyze you but it did not. You had too much soul. So I pushed a piece of my soul into you. I had never done that before so I did not know what would happen. But as a consequence a piece of your soul sunk into mine, as mine did into yours…We each have a piece of each other’s soul…”
He stared at me with an expression of utter shock on his face.
“I did it because I thought you were going to kill me,” I repeated.
He stayed silent. The tension felt like water filling up the car and we were just sitting there waiting to drown.
“You did that to me? And now you just want to walk away from me?” he said, sounding so betrayed.
I raised our still joined hands. “Maybe…” I cleared my throat hoping to also clear my voice of emotion, “Maybe I can fix it.”
“Don’t you dare.” He yanked his hand from mine.
I leaned away, startled by the cold fury in his voice.
“You’re not fixing me,” he leaned across the space between us and said in a cold voice, “You gave me that piece of your soul; you’re never going to cut it out of me.”
Henchgirl (Dakota Kekoa Book 1) Page 35
