Rex (Dakota Kekoa Book 2)

by Rita Stradling

  “I told you that I’m done being apart from you, and I meant it. I’m not going to force you to kiss me, or sleep in the same room as me. I won’t force you to do anything.”

  “Except be with you?”

  He just smiled his answer.

  “You’ll let it be platonic, just friends?”

  “My feelings for you will never be platonic,” he said.

  “What if I let another vampire bite me?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. “Then will you consent to just being friends?”

  He glared at my neck. “It more bothers me that you’d put yourself in danger to rebel against me. Do not take a risk like that again.”

  Glaring at him, I whispered, “I will if I feel like it.”

  He exhaled an annoyed huff of air. “I also forgot how aggravating you could be.”

  Crossing my arms over my chest, I leaned away from him. This was going nowhere fast. Sighing, I dropped my arms and said, “I’ll make a deal with you.”

  His eyes widened, lighting up with interest. “What type of deal?”

  “I can do friendship,” I said.

  “Platonic, again?” he shook his head as if the idea was ridiculous.

  “That’s what I have to offer. I’ll be in your life. I’ll talk to you, and I won’t cut you out like I did last time. Publically, I’ll play the part too, if you want me to. Once we’re done saving my sister, grandfather and Bobby, I’ll be your date for all your parties. I’m only going to go for the parties, and I’m coming home when your brother’s wedding is over, but I’ll be your date whenever you need one until then.”

  “And in return?”

  “I need you to get me back on the Crimson Midnight,” I said. “I need you to plead Lorelei’s case to Regina Imogen’s family. Also, I need to find some way to convince them, or trick them, into giving me the Regina’s body.” I let that bomb drop and sat there waiting for his reaction.

  “There could be some serious repercussions.”

  He was quiet, watching me, thoughts heavy in his eyes.

  “I know what I’m asking, and I know that I’m a horrible person for asking it, but every minute Lorelei is on there is another minute that they could choose to kill her.”

  “I need to come on officially this time. You don’t even need to say anything; I could explain everything to them. I think I could convince them that there had to have been a third party attacking us both. Also I could reveal to them that I know how to save the Regina, all I need to do is get the Regina’s body to my grandfather. Her soul is still intact in my grandfather. If I was touching them both at the same time I could transfer it back to her.”

  “What makes you sure her brothers will want her soul restored? Many of them have been waiting a long time for this power vacuum. From what Sophie described, it sounded like there was betrayal from inside both your families.”

  Closing my eyes, I said, “You’re probably right.”

  “They’ll at least put on a show of wanting to heal her. They’ll definitely put on a show destroying the people who attacked her,” he said.

  “Lorelei,” I whispered, my voice thick and eyes once again growing hot.

  Wyvern touched my cheek. “Dakota, some of the Regina’s brothers are unquestionably loyal, at least three that I’m sure of.”

  “Could you get me in to see just them?” I asked.

  “No,” he said, “The new patriarch would suspect conspiracy if I asked only to speak to her devoutly loyal brothers. They’ll be closely watched. I can almost guarantee that he will not risk me meeting alone with any of them.”

  “Could we maybe sneak away with one of them in the crowd—”

  “They’ve stopped the dinner cruises, for now. There is—one of her brothers is a very good friend of mine, he is also one of the brothers with unquestionable loyalty to the Regina.”

  My stomach dropped. I wanted to ask him which brother his friend was, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. Not trusting myself to respond, I kept quiet.

  “I accept your deal,” he said, heavily. “I will request an audience to plead your family’s case to them. If we are accepted for an audience on the Crimson Midnight, I will go without guards. To them, it will look like I am making a statement that I trust that they are still my allies. I’ll find some excuse for you to leave my presence and ask that my friend guard you while we are separated. It will seem natural to his brothers, as he is the only one on the boat with my complete trust. When you are alone with him, you may be able to convince him. He’d listen to you.”

  Swallowing, I said, “I…I’m not sure… What if he recognizes me from when I was pretending to be a server?”

  “I’ll be upfront with them that you were among the servers, explain why you were there. I believe that I will be able to entice them into not furthering a conflict with your family.”

  The thought of facing Harrison again almost had me telling Wyvern that we needed to find another way.

  I was a coward.

  Freeing Lorelei and saving my grandfather was worth any price.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Oh shit, I forgot! I was supposed to pick up Mele for school today. And that was her apartment building right there.” I pointed behind us.

  Sophie and Wyvern both turned to the backseat and gave me a look. Wyvern’s look was definitely more a smirk and Sophie’s a scowl. When I had offered to take the back seat, I had not realized that Wyvern was going to insist on taking his Vevari. This morning I realized that the space I needed from Wyvern was going to need to be physical. I could not risk touching him, smelling him, or too much eye contact.

  Wyvern did not wait to get to the stoplight thirty feet ahead, he just made a u-turn across a double yellow line and three lanes of traffic. When we got to Mele’s apartment, he didn’t wait for a break in traffic either, just forced the other cars to slam on their breaks.

  “Over there,” I said, pointing to where Mele was standing by the parking lot.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me,” Mele said when Wyvern screeched to a halt in front of her.

  Sophie climbed out of the passenger seat and pulled her seat forward.

  Mele leaned down to peer in the car and gaped at Wyvern. “Hello… Wyvern?” she said. It was definitely more of a question. “We’re actually showing up on our first day of public school in a Vevari?”

  “Unfortunately,” I said. “Glacier had to take off on a last minute assignment. And Wyvern’s here…”

  She curled her body into the miniscule backseat with me. “Yeah, I got that part. Where’s Lorelei?”

  I swallowed. “Also on an assignment.”

  “She’s going to miss her first day? That sucks.”

  I forced my expression into passivity. What good would it do if Mele knew? None. She’d just want to help, like last time. And we both knew how well that turned out for her.

  “It’s the job,” I shrugged.

  Wyvern insisted on driving us to the front entrance of the school, dropping us off with the other moms and busses. Instantly, we drew a crowd. Guys and girls clustered at the open entrance to the school, pointing out the flaming red, ridiculously expensive car.

  As Mele and I climbed out after Sophie, I whispered, “Don’t get out.”

  Wyvern grinned wickedly.

  I pointed into his face. “I’m not kidding, the people at this school are going to recognize you. Do you want to get mobbed?”

  As I got out of the car, I realized some people might have already recognized him. Some girls were jumping up and down, many people were leaning down to see into the Vevari’s windows. The crowd was also growing exponentially.

  Shrugging on my backpack, I stood next to Mele, facing our new school. “You ready for this?” I asked.

  “It wasn’t exactly the entrance I was planning on making.” She smirked. “But you know me, I was planning on ruling this place before the day was out anyhow.”

  We started walking toward what was now a solid wall of students, Soph
ie walking a few steps ahead of us.

  “So many of them are supernatural—”

  Strong arms grabbed my bare shoulders, sending tingles coursing down my arms.

  Idiot.

  Wyvern turned me around.

  “I could kill you,” I said, but the words were muffled as he hugged me to him.

  “Have a good day at school, baby,” he said.

  “Platonic,” I said into his chest. It was more a plea. I did not want to break away from his embrace.

  “Did I kiss you?” he whispered into my ear.

  I forced myself to break away from him. Taking a big step back, I looked up into his smiling face. “I’ll text you when I get the time and place to meet Ailani. Will you text when you get an answer from the Crimson Midnight?”

  “Yes, I will. But I think I changed my mind about the kiss,” he said.

  “Don’t you dare,” I growled.

  “Platonic kiss?”

  I turned away from him and called over my shoulder, “Goodbye Wyvern.” Stopping dead, I gaped at the scene before me. What must have been the entire student and faculty body was standing out in front of the school. People were jumping up and down. Down at one end, I saw a girl crumple forward to lay unconscious on the lawn. Squealing, clapping and shouts of “Over here!” came from the crowd. Teddy, Annie and the security guard I was introduced to this morning, Brian, stood in front of the crowd.

  I knew it was a mistake to let Wyvern drive me in his Vevari on the first day, but I had no idea what a colossal mistake it was.

  I glanced back to see Wyvern smiling and waving at the crowd as he climbed back into his car. His engine roared and he sped out of the parking lot, dodging more crowds of gaping students.

  My entire security team closed ranks around me, two closely in front of me and Mele, two directly behind.

  “I’m going to kill him,” I whispered as we continued walking forward.

  “Sorry, Dakota,” Sophie said dryly, “You can’t kill the Rex.”

  The crowd of students parted for us to pass, and I heard people openly speculating about who I was. Quite a few people asked, “Is that Lorelei?” I heard a couple people even yelling my name, but the crowd was too thick for me to recognize anyone in it.

  I had expected people to treat me differently at public school than they did at the human private school. My family was famous and feared among the supernatural communities. I knew that Lorelei and my cousins who attended the public school got a certain amount of deference and fear from students due to our family. I was prepared for that; I was not prepared for this reception.

  Unlike my old school, this campus was completely open to the elements. The school cut into the sloping base of the Mabi volcano and seemed to be built in tiers.

  “This place is entirely stairs,” Mele commented in annoyance. “This is going to suck.”

  “It’s good for you,” I said. “It’ll keep us in shape. What’s your first class?”

  “Math, you?”

  “Freshman dracon history,” I said, unhappily.

  “Lame. If it makes you feel any better, I have it later today too. Looks like we’re going to be splitting ways here, friend,” she said, giving me a hug. “I need to be stepping out of this human car, people,” she called to my security team.

  I couldn’t help but laugh as Mele stepped out of the group. She turned around and blew me a kiss. “You going to be okay on your own?” I called to her.

  She rolled her eyes at me. “It’s like you don’t even know me. Meet me over at that painting thingy at lunch if we don’t see each other first!” She spun, leaving me alone in my human car.

  “Break it up people! Get to class!” I heard a voice call from behind me.

  When I turned, I saw that the crowd we had walked through hadn’t dispersed, they’d just shifted their focus into the school and at us.

  A middle-aged woman and man were yelling out students’ names and gesturing for people to move along.

  Officially, I’d been enrolled in this school for months, but as I’d been expelled from my old school halfway through the Fall semester, I’d elected to finish that semester at home online. At the beginning of the public’s school’s winter break, I’d come in for a campus tour. My mother, who had been the one to officially register me, had almost fallen down one of the many staircases. The tour had been a good opportunity for us to memorize the campus layout, escape routes and roof accesses.

  We walked to the building where I knew my first class was in, to find the doorway blocked by three girls and a guy gawking—at me of course. They rushed out of the way as soon as we came within three feet of the door. My security team lost their formation, spreading out into more of a loose line.

  Thankfully, the classroom was mostly empty as we’d arrived a little on the early side.

  “Hello, you must be all of my new students. I’ve met you two, but had not had the pleasure with you three. Which of you is which?” A middle-aged Mabiian woman asked Sophie while she stood behind a desk. Her somewhat dense, wispy soul had vivid strains of blue; she was a witch.

  Sophie said our names, pointing to each of us in turn.

  “I’m the teacher of this class, Ms. Akamu.”

  “Thank you, Ms. Akamu. I know that we originally discussed that Dakota’s security team would impersonate students. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, we need to make public that we are her security officers. We’re also going to need the back three seats on those rows against the inside wall, and this seat by the door.” She pointed to the seats she needed.

  “That’s not a problem,” Ms. Akamu said, smiling warmly. “Keala, David and Lea, could you find a new seat…how about these three over here?”

  “So Wyvern just blew all your plans out of the water because he wanted to get out of the car to give me a hug, huh?” I asked Teddy, who was standing beside me.

  Teddy gave me a wide smile, though I could tell he was still keeping a good eye on his surroundings. “No worries, Dakota, it’s all part of the job.”

  “You’re way more laid back than me,” I grumbled, eliciting a chuckle from him.

  We took our seats in the back of the classroom; I was next to the wall, Sophie behind me, Teddy in front and Annie beside me, the other security guard, Brian, took the seat beside the door to the classroom. A bell rang, and the rest of the seats around us filled with students.

  There was an interesting mix in the crowd. About a third were human, the rest were mostly the common kinds of supernatural types: were-animals and witches, but there were also a couple troll boys, which was much rarer. I knew that most nocturnal types of supernatural beings chose to attend the vampire schools, so I was not surprised that the were-animals were werewolves and there were very few big cats.

  “Dakota!” a delighted voice said from the front of the room. Turning, I saw my cousin Avery entering the classroom. His soul was noticeably the densest in the classroom, as he was the only dracon aside from me. Poor boy. Like me, Avery’s development was behind because he inherited his aspect at twelve and his aging had slowed. Avery had always been my uncle Reeves’s pride as he was his strongest son yet, inheriting both lightning fast speed and strength.

  Since at least fifteen of my cousins attended this school, I had expected to run into some of my cousins. Unfortunately, it had to be one of his children. Not that I didn’t like Avery—we weren’t close, but I knew he and Lorelei were friends.

  “You’re in my class? That is so cool!” Avery pumped his fist in the air. “I saw you getting out of the Rex’s car! Wicked!” He walked down the aisle, when Annie raised a hand.

  “Sorry, that’s close enough,” Annie said with a friendly smile.

  “Dude, that’s my cousin,” Avery said.

  Annie looked over, and I nodded. She gestured to one of the seats that they had insisted on keeping open around me. This caused a new bout of whispering around the classroom.

  It was more than obvious that everyone was already
more than aware of us. Not only had we made that ridiculous entrance into the school, most of my group looked about four to five years older than every other student in there.

  “All right class,” Ms. Akamu said, “I know it’s the first day back and it’s very exciting to be back with all of your friends, but I have something equally exciting, syllabi! Please pass them around.”

  There were a couple of chuckles and some low groans at her words.

  “Dakota,” Avery whispered as he passed a syllabus back to me, “Why are you in a freshman class?”

  “Because the gods hate me,” I whispered back.

  “Yeah, sure,” he said rolling his eyes, obviously not believing that I was that pitiable of a person.

  When Ms. Akamu started discussing the syllabus, I realized not only was I in a freshman class, I was completely unprepared for it. I had been top of my class at human history, but dracon history didn’t seem to have much overlap. Even the textbook I received was intimidating; I was lost just reading the introduction.

  Near the end of the class period, a student raised her hand across the classroom. “Aren’t you going to introduce the new student, Ms. Akamu?” she asked when called on. It wasn’t that surprising; I had been pointedly ignoring the other students’ stares all period.

  “Ms. Kekoa, would you like to introduce yourself?” Ms. Akamu said, totally putting me on the spot.

  “Yeah, okay,” I said, “I’m—”

  “Could you stand, please?”

  I did. “Hello, my name is Dakota. So… I’m actually a junior, but I’ve never taken this class before, so I’m in here with you guys.”

  I started to sit down when some werewolf across the room shouted out, “Yeah, but who are you?”

  “I’m ah—” not really sure what they were after I said, “I’m Avery’s cousin, my sister and a couple other cousins go here too.”

  “How do you know the Rex?” that same werewolf boy shouted.

  For a couple long seconds, I stood there, completely unsure how to answer.