“It’s not fair. She’s missing her first days back after winter break. Clara’s gone, and Dakota’s leaving too.” Stacy glared sullenly at her plate.
Ignoring my little sister, I looked to the door. Aside from knowing that I had been on assignment last night, my mother and little sister had absolutely no idea of anything that had happened. I had arrived home from my grandfather’s house to find my family’s witch doctor, Sylvia, waiting for me in my driveway.
“Susan told me who did this. That asshole broke your cheekbone,” she’d said as her fingers moved over my nose and jaw while she stared angrily at my face.
I winced. “That’s what it felt like.” I let out a pained huff of air as she prodded around my cheek.
“I can heal it, but I’m not sure how I feel about doing that. On the one hand, I don’t want you to be in pain, on the other, I feel like I’d be helping him get away with what he did.” Sylvia was a fleshy woman with dark hair and a kind face. Well, it was usually kind; the look she was giving me now was full of fury.
She’d been caring for my family for as long as I could remember. This wasn’t the first broken bone of mine she’d healed, but it was definitely the first break she’d been asked to heal by the person who hurt me.
Looking into her eyes, I saw the question there: did I want her to refuse?
“Heal me,” I whispered, my face hurt so much I could barely move my jaw to speak. “I’ll need a working face to get my uncle out of power.”
Sylvia gave me a mirthless laugh. “That’s the fighter I know. All right, sweetheart, I’ll make you a brew. And I’ll make one for you too,” she said to Sophie.
Sophie’s face was also a mess of bruises. Her bruises spanned the entire side of her body. I should have warned her about Reeves’s aspects. It was so easy to underestimate him and write him off because of his sniveling personality.
“I’ll be fine. I just need to shift,” Sophie said. She’d shifted about the time I finished drinking Sylvia’s brew and my neck and cheek only were faintly bruised. I’d let her out my window, though her giant eagle body barely fit out of the window when it was fully opened. She’d been circling the house ever since, waiting for first sight of Glacier.
He had called me mid-morning. “I’ve been ordered not to see you. I’ll come as soon as I can.” Then the phone had disconnected. Three hours later, he still had not come.
“Are you even listening to me, Dakota?” my little sister called across the table at me.
With an effort, I focused on Stacy.
“Can I go with you to the mainland?” she said quietly.
“Oh sweetie, you need to let your sisters do their own thing. You’ll get your chance when you’re older.” My mother tried to set down her glass at an angle and toppled the whole thing over, sending alcoholic green goo everywhere.
Stacy and I jumped up from the table, but it was too late, we’d both gotten splattered.
“Oh my goodness,” my mother said. “Andrew!”
I ran for the bathroom, calling over my shoulder, “Mom, don’t call him, he’s not our maid.” Andrew didn’t even officially work for my mother, he worked for Wyvern. Wyvern had asked Andrew to stay on as our cook after he left and that was one thing I never even considered fighting Wyvern on. For the first time since my father died, we consistently had food on the table.
When I reentered the dining room with a towel, I saw our short warlock cook Andrew standing over the mess with his hands on his hips. He took two fingers, dipped them in the green mess then brought his fingers to his mouth.
My mother made a sound of protest, but it was too late. He turned a glare on her. “Stephanie!” he snapped, glaring up at her before he stormed out of the room.
My mother raised a hand to her chest, gasping. “Oh my goodness, that man. I’m thinking of letting him go, Dakota, I really am.”
I didn’t bother reminding her that she couldn’t let him go. It was a non-issue. I really doubted she’d even try to fire him. As I finished mopping the mess up with the bathroom towel, Andrew stormed back in.
He slammed down another green concoction on the table in front of my mother. “Drink it!” he shouted at her.
She stepped back, then straightened herself back to her full height. “I’m not thirsty.”
I had not really noticed, but my mother had lost some of the weight that had clung to her waist in the last couple months. Her skin and face looked a little healthier too.
Andrew pointed down at the drink. “You’ll drink it, Stephanie!”
“No, I won’t,” she sputtered indignantly.
Hearing the front door open, I dropped the dirty towel, sprinting to the door. My uncle Glacier walked toward me. He looked as haggard as I’d ever seen him. Though his hair and suit were, as always, perfectly in place, his face showed his exhaustion. And beyond that, his soul overflowed with emotion, too many strong emotions to sort from each other.
“Upstairs,” I whispered, “Lorelei’s room. Sophie is going to shift back then meet us in there.”
He nodded and we rushed up toward my younger sister’s room. Sophie, who must have flown back into my window the moment she saw Glacier’s van, was waiting for us at the top of my staircase.
“Glacier,” Sophie’s voice was stiff. A pulse of fierce anger shot across her soul.
Glacier simply nodded and walked past Sophie.
After taking my first step into Lorelei’s room, I halted. Lorelei’s smell met my nose—cinnamon and coconut, and something entirely her own. I had to force my eyes away from her music posters and the photos she’d tacked of our family, and her with her friends, all over her walls. Still, from the corner of my eyes, she smiled out at me from all sides of me.
As I listened to Sophie relay the story in excruciating detail once more, my heart raced.
“I can’t breathe in here,” I whispered, covering my face with my hands and forcing my feet to walk me out of the room. I focused on breathing in and out.
The thought that Lorelei was missing, or dead, had been the trigger for my panic attacks ever since my father died. Now that Lorelei was missing, my ability to predict and navigate my episodes was slipping off a cliff. If I couldn’t save her, I had no doubt that my mind would soon follow off that cliff.
Sophie and Glacier entered my room, still talking in low voices.
“Are you the one assigned to retrieve Lorelei?” I asked Glacier as soon as they had entered my room.
“No. Reeves claims he needs me on Waibibi,” Glacier said.
“Of course he does. Do you think Reeves was the one who planned this?”
Glacier shut my door softly, his soul pulsing with anxiety. When he turned to me, his face kept its usual impassive expression. “He might have, but I could as easily believe he’s just being opportunistic.”
“He hit us, did Sophie tell you that? Broke my cheekbone because I pointed out how convenient it was for him that he was sending me away, sending away the only person who can fix Grandfather. Then he hit Sophie when she tried to defend me.”
As always, no expression showed on Glacier’s face, but a red surge of rage overran his soul. He stood perfectly still, his cloud of anger expanding by the second.
Staring, I said nothing, terrified that I would spark some action from him. In a battle between Glacier and Reeves, I knew who would win. Glacier could move faster than my eyes could see when he was fighting, but it was a well-known fact that my uncle Reeves was older, faster and had more aspects. Also, until we revived my grandfather, attacking Reeves would be tantamount to family treason.
After taking a deep breath, I changed the subject in a quiet voice, “Is there some sort of precedent for this type of situation? Uncle Reeves loves rules. If we could just give him some law that would tell Reeves that he had to let me revive Grandfather, he might listen.”
“Unfortunately, Dakota, the law is against your grandfather,” Sophie said. “By dracon law, if a patriarch is unable to lead his own, it is his secon
d’s duty to neutralize him. That is one of the cardinal laws given to all dracon rulers by the dragon High Rexes.”
My gaze snapped to Glacier. “Is he going to do that?”
“No,” Glacier said. “He’s too smart for that. Reeves still needs Father. There’s no guarantee that the partnerships and debts owed to Father would be honored if he died. Also, if it spread that Father was dead, only your contract with the Rex would be standing in the way of the Mabiian islands being attacked by another family. Reeves knows that the contract and alliance with the Rex is contingent on Mr. Manderson’s whim.”
“No wonder he’s trying everything in his power to throw me into Wyvern’s arms,” I said.
“Whoever set this up, risked way more than just Grandfather in this situation. If Bobby had not told me to abort, I’d be in there with Lorelei, or worse, I’d be dead. If it was Reeves’s plot to take over and he needed to keep my contract to make sure his takeover didn’t collapse, I’d think he would have planned that better.”
“The people who attacked Lorelei were organized. They called each other by name, and as far as I could tell, they were all human,” Sophie said. “What type of connections does Reeves have?”
I shook my head. I didn’t know.
“I don’t know of any human group associated with Reeves,” Glacier stated.
“I paid so little attention to them. I looked them over once to determine if they were human, then completely focused on the targets. I felt there was something wrong, even before we entered the VIP area, I felt there was something wrong...” I stared at Sophie. “Did the people who attacked Lorelei have tattoos on their backs?”
I immediately saw the confirmation in her expression. “I don’t know if all of them did, but I ripped the shirt of the man I fought in there, his entire back was covered in a tattoo.”
“Was it a swirling design?”
“Yes, it was an intricate swirling design and there was a line running through—”
Jumping up, I ran across my room to where my phone sat on my vanity. Pulling the picture of Mr. Kama’s tattoo up, I shoved it at Sophie.
She looked at the picture, then up at me, her eyelids open wide. “That’s it.”
“Mr. Kama had that exact same tattoo too, I thought it was weird. I’m not really sure why, but it stood out. When I showed it to Alika, he recognized it. He wouldn’t tell me what it was but he warned me that if I saw that tattoo on a person again, not to go in.”
Sophie stared intently at the design.
“Do you recognize it?”
“No,” she said.
“I showed it to Sarah while you were driving that day and she said she thought it was a tree.”
“Maybe… I don’t know what it is,” she whispered. When Glacier held out his hand, Sophie immediately passed it over.
He looked at my screen, staring for a minute. “I don’t recognize it either.”
“What do you think is better: intimidating Mr. Kama, or trying to get the information from the Hell’s Hogs?” I asked Glacier.
“Do not go back to that shop. You’ll need to set up a meeting, preferably with Ailani,” Glacier said.
“Who?” Sophie asked.
“Honua’s grandmother,” I said. “She’s the leader of the Hells’ Hogs.” She was also Wyvern’s grandmother, but no one but a handful of people knew that Wyvern, the Rex of New Anglo, descended from a clan of rowdy were-boar bikers who held dominion over the locals-only sides of the Mabiian island chain.
“Is she dangerous?” Sophie asked.
“She’s…fair,” I said.
Glacier nodded. “She’s very dangerous. But as Dakota said, she plays fair. She has been an ally of my father’s since she took over leadership of the club in her teen years; she’s never gone back on her word.”
I was almost excited to contact Honua, even though the circumstances were so awful. She was one of my favorite people, though we rarely saw each other lately.
Even after the Mabiian Heritage Society kidnapped and drugged her, she refused to quit going to school among their children. Wyvern constantly tries to stop her, or so she told me the last time we managed a meeting, but Honua was determined to spy on the Mabiian Heritage Society.
Honestly, I can’t say that I have discouraged her either. On the few times we had been able to meet with the utmost secrecy, Honua had given me the only updates I had on Senator Hale and his family in these past few months.
It was still incredible to me that the Hales had been continuing life as usual in their insular human community. I should not have been so surprised; Senator Hale had continued life as usual after he killed my father.
After I had failed my mission to bring Senator Hale down and blew my cover while trying to find Honua, someone else in my family had been assigned to infiltrate the senator’s life. I wasn’t even allowed to know who was assigned.
“We don’t have much time,” Sophie said, drawing my attention back to her. “The Rex sent over the new members of your security team this morning. They’ll be arriving in a couple hours.”
“You talked to Wyvern?” I asked Sophie.
“No, to his steward.” She glared at me. “From your home line.” She was right to be annoyed, I had thrown her phone battery in the ocean after all.
“Did you tell him what happened?”
“Not yet,” she said. “I’m giving you the chance to tell the Rex. Three new security members will be arriving today and when they do, I’ll have to inform them of what’s going on.”
“How good are they?”
“Why?” Her gaze narrowed at me.
“Because we’re going to have to go into hiding,” I said.
“No,” Sophie snapped.
“You can’t go into hiding,” Glacier agreed in a quiet voice.
“What other choice do we have?”
“You will talk to the Rex,” Sophie said, annunciating each word. “This has gone on long enough, Dakota. You not talking to him, it’s childish. And now you need his help, more than ever. He’d do anything for you, just ask him.”
“You mean, he’d take everything from me,” I said.
“No, I don’t. And if you don’t talk to him, you’ll be sent to him by your uncle anyway. Think about it. The only dracon who exceeds your uncle’s authority over you is the Rex.”
I looked to Glacier, knowing that he was by far the only unbiased person here. He gave one small nod of his head. “Talk to him.”
Chapter Ten
Sitting at my desk, I stared at my phone. It stared back, looking oh, so innocent. Touching the screen, I scrolled through my contacts to ‘Do Not Call!’
It wasn’t the first time I’d stared at his number, hence the name I’d reprogrammed him under. My finger hovered over the dial button.
I was alone in my room. Sophie had left to give me some privacy, and Glacier had left for Waibibi. He would show Reeves that he was following orders, then spend the rest of his time tracking down what had happened to Bobby. Knowing that Glacier was on the case to find Bobby, made focusing on freeing Lorelei and saving grandfather my top priority.
Looking down at my phone now, I wondered if Wyvern would even answer if I called. What if it just went to voicemail? Should I leave a voicemail?
I chickened out and turned on my laptop. When I opened my email, I found my inbox empty and no excuse to delay writing my message. I opened a new email, inhaled deeply and typed.
From: Dakota Kekoa
To: Wyvern Manderson
Message Folder: Drafts
Wyvern,
So, I’m finally thinking about actually pressing send on this email, but for all the wrong reasons.
Believe me, the last thing I want to do is ask you for help, especially after the way I ended things, and the way it’s been for the last three months. But my life has completely fallen apart in the last twenty-four hours and everything just seems to be getting worse. On top of that, it looks as if Reeves is going to send me away to you, and
I can’t go. If I go Lorelei, Bobby and my grandfather will probably die.
I paused writing the message, staring at it on my screen. Moving the cursor over the ‘delete draft’ option, I considered how to rephrase my email.
The ding of a message alert interrupted me deleting my email. I minimized the draft of the email and checked my inbox to see a new message from Wyvern. The message in his email simply said:
What happened?
I stared at his message, confused. Did I accidently press send while I was typing or scrolling down or something? I checked the draft of the email I had been writing, but at the bottom of the page it definitely said ‘draft’.
The email message alert went off again. When I checked there was a new email from Wyvern that said:
What happened? Are you in danger?
My jaw dropped and I stared with growing horror at my screen.
My phone rang from my desk, when I leaned over to look, ‘Do Not Call’ was flashing across my screen. I didn’t answer, instead letting the phone go to voicemail.
Another ding sounded, signifying yet another email from Wyvern. This message simply said:
Pick up your phone, Dakota.
And then my phone started ringing again.
Pressing the screen to answer the phone, I lifted it to my face.
“Are you in danger?” Wyvern’s voice was so strange to hear, and yet so disconcertingly familiar, I was struck dumb for a minute. Then the implications of what Wyvern just revealed to me stormed through my thoughts.
“You read all my draft emails?” I asked.
He growled. “Are you in danger?”
Rex (Dakota Kekoa Book 2) Page 9
