“You look fine,” I said, heading for the house and ignoring his low chuckle. I knocked on my front door because I had left my purse at my grandfather’s house in all the confusion of running away.
Immediately, my mother answered the door. My mother was wearing the slinkiest and most revealing evening gown that I had ever seen her wear and that was saying a lot for her.
“Welcome home, sweetheart,” my mother said, her slurring voice husky. “Oh,” she said then bowed low, exposing way more than I wanted to see. “Mr. Manderson, we weren’t expecting company. Welcome.”
I looked between Wyvern who looked like he was the best entertainment any bachelorette party had ever had and my mother, who just looked drunk and awkwardly inappropriate, and I burst out laughing.
“I’m sorry,” I said to my mother, through my laughter, “I just can’t…” I walked in past her and laughed all the way to my room.
In my room, I found Lorelei and Mele…who I had completely forgotten was here. The two were on my bed looking at clothing catalogues.
“Is Keanu here?” I asked.
“No,” Mele said, “He said that after he returned the computers he was going to my house so he could go wave riding in the morning before school.”
“Wave riding?” I asked, incredulously. I mean, I was glad he was not here, but did he really take this threat so lightly?
Mele shrugged. “That’s the way Hunter and Keanu are, Dakota. They would miss their own funerals if there was a ‘big swell coming in.’”
“Wyvern is here,” I said.
“We know,” Lorelei said, turning the page in her catalogue, “That’s why we’re not in the living room, Glacier called mom to say you and Wyvern were coming. We were kicked out and sent to your room.”
“He says he’s going to stick around me twenty-four, seven until I find his sister,” I said, for Mele’s benefit.
“That’ll be just great,” Mele said, looking up from the catalogue and sounding like it would be anything but. “And I’m stuck here too, sorry about that.”
“You can stay forever as far as we’re concerned,” Lorelei said, smiling at Mele. “You might not get any food, but you’re welcome to stay.”
“I’ll get you food, somehow. But yeah, Mele,” I said. “You should probably stay here with us. Unfortunately, Wyvern has decided he’s staying with us also, and I don’t have the ability to stop him. So it’ll be interesting…”
Mele let the pages of her catalogue flip closed and she sighed. “I’m a big girl, I can handle it.” The look she gave me told me that she was talking about more than the fact that the dragon that had attacked both of us last night was now going to have a slumber party with us. She asked, “It’s not going to wear off, is it?”
I did not know what to tell her, so I said nothing.
“I feel different,” she said.
“How?” I asked.
Mele said, “Like something is in my veins that should not be there. It doesn’t really hurt, it just doesn’t feel right…”
Lorelei stared straight at me, willing me with her eyes to help Mele, probably to tell her the truth about us.
I would if I could.
It’s not that I did not trust Mele; she was willing to fight a dragon with a kitchen knife for me. I just feared that if I told her that I had betrayed her by lying to her every day while we were friends for years, I would destroy our friendship. I was afraid that she would walk away, making it impossible to help her.
At the same time, if I helped her, it might damage my mission in so many ways. For example, if I found her a dampener, even if it did not look like mine, Mele would figure out I wore a dampener too soon enough. Mele was one smart cookie.
However, if she was infected, I needed to find her a dampener and quickly. Mele had already made a very public display that appeared as if she was infected to Senator Hale, my primary target. If I kept her at my house, Senator Hale might start to be suspicious about me and all the forward motion I had made toward infiltrating his family would quickly slam into reverse.
The other option, the option my grandfather would order me to do if he was here, would be to help her find a new life in the supernatural community and cut ties. The very idea made tears form in my eyes. I had to blink them back and admit to myself that I just did not have it in me. Mele had become a sister to me and at the very core of it all, it was my sisters that really mattered.
“If it doesn’t fade away, which it should…but I’m starting to get a little worried...well, if it doesn’t…” I blurted out the words in a rush, “I might be able to take you to a witch that can help you be able to cross water wards. I’ve heard that it can be done.”
“Are you serious?” Mele asked.
“I’m not saying that it’s going to work… but you were right, my family has gone to witches for different things, this is the same witch that made Clara so beautiful. I was going to go check out Honua’s house and talk to her mother. As both the witch and Honua’s mother live on the east side of the island, we can see both. We might even make it back to school in time for lunch—except,” I groaned, remembering, “I won’t be going to lunch because Wyvern has decided that I can’t leave his side which means he’s probably going to insist on going with us tomorrow—”
“He does,” said Wyvern’s voice from directly outside my room.
I turned on my heel and looked out of the door to where Wyvern was just standing there outside my open door, leaning against the wall.
“What are you doing?” I practically shouted.
“Giving you the illusion of privacy,” he said. “But I’m tired and I would like to change, so grab your computer and whatever you want to sleep in so we can head down to the guest room.”
“I’m not…I’m sleeping here,” I said.
He just looked at me, and then walked right past me.
“Good evening, ladies,” Wyvern said with a small smile as he passed the bed with Mele and Lorelei wide-eyed and speechless on it.
To my horror, Wyvern walked over to my drawers and started going through my clothes. I was so offended by the situation that my brain froze and I just stood there, watching him do it. He grabbed some clothes, and then walked to my desk to grab my laptop.
“Am I going to have to carry you down, too?” he said to me, a smile of challenge on his face.
“Yes,” Lorelei said, “Carry her.”
“No…don’t carry me... Lorelei!” I said. “I’m going to walk down there with you right now, but I’m not going to sleep down there, understand?”
He just smirked and gestured for me to walk ahead of him.
I did, but not because it was a fight that I thought I could not win, but rather more a fight that I just did not have the energy to fight.
Trudging down the stairs, I found my mother just waiting in the living room, holding a glass of what looked like ice water but I knew it was not.
“Are you sure I can’t get you anything?” she asked Wyvern.
“I have what I need, thank you,” he said, “Dakota and I will be staying in your guest room for at least tonight, perhaps longer.”
She gave him a flirtatious smile which was fully creepy. “Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer taking my room? It’s larger. I could stay in… the guest room, if you’d like.” She did not even pretend to object to the fact that Wyvern had decided that he would be staying in a room with her teenage daughter. Not that it would make any difference, but a stern word or two might have made me feel a little better.
It did not matter, there was no chance that I was sleeping in there with him; I would sleep on the floor if he insisted we share a room.
“The guest room will be fine,” Wyvern said politely, smiling and putting his free arm around my waist.
“I can take you,” she said, smiling while batting her eyelashes.
“I can show him,” I said quickly, because if I had to watch my mom drunkenly-flirt with Wyvern for another second, I would scream.
It was almost worse that he wasn’t treating her with the contempt that I had come to expect men to treat her with, even though he was about twenty years too young for her and a million times out of her league. I was pissed off and I wanted to be pissed off at him.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” he said, gently pushing me forward.
When we entered the guest room, Wyvern immediately closed the door, locked it and put my clothes and computer on the bed. He checked out the guest room and then the bathroom, which had no windows or escape.
“You want to take the first shower?” he asked.
“Go for it,” I said, sitting down on the bed.
A knock came on the door and before I could even stand up, Wyvern was across the room, unlocking and opening the door.
“Hello,” Clara said, politely.
I was momentarily scared that Wyvern would be rude or cruel to my sister for aiding in my escape, but he surprised me.
He smiled wide, like she was his friend, “Clara, nice to see you,” he said.
“Nice to see you, too. I just knocked so I could return Dakota’s purse,” she said.
“What did Braiden say to you when you got back?”
“He seemed to find it very funny that I tricked him,” she said with a smile.
“I had underestimated you quite a bit. I’ll be sure not to make that mistake twice,” he said good-naturedly, as though she had pulled a friendly prank on him.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said, equally good-naturedly, handing over the purse, “Goodnight Wyvern, goodnight Dakota.”
It struck me, this contract thing was a game to all of them, it was a serious game, but it was a game all the same. Maybe Wyvern was right, maybe I did not know nearly enough about my own culture.
“Goodnight,” I called from where I had not moved from the bed.
Wyvern locked the door again and handed me my purse.
“I’m going to shower,” he said, “Stay in this room, or I’ll come out of the shower and get you, as is.”
I had to swallow before I could nod. “I’m happy right here,” I said.
He grabbed his duffel bag and walked into the bathroom but left the door a crack open.
Sitting against the headboard of the bed, I turned my phone on and scrolled through the messages Bobby wrote me.
He left four, the first one, ‘Your boyfriend was jumpy when we saw that the files were encrypted. Said he did not want his dad to know he was going through the security files. I said I would cover-up what we had already done and let him take the computers. Handled it.’ Then, ‘Carol is sending the files back now.’ ‘Going through files now.’ Then the last text, ‘It might take a while.’
I texted, ‘I’m back home. Ready for files.’
He texted back, almost immediately, ‘Outside on my bike. Hear the water pipes going in the guest room. I’ll take you to the files?’
‘Teleport me?’ I texted back.
‘Against the contract’s rules’ he texted.
‘Don’t think I’ll make it walking,’ I sent.
‘I’ll bet you five bucks you can sneak out without him catching you,’ he sent.
‘Make it five pizzas and I’ll try,’ I sent.
‘Five pizzas.’
Unclasping my heels, I left them on the bed and stepped onto the floor with my bare feet. Stepping lightly is a skill I have worked on for years and I put all my effort into being silent as I crossed the floor to the door. At the door, I turned the lock to the room slowly, as to lessen the sound it made when it unlocked. I cringed as the lock made its very quiet snick.
“If you want me to come out and get you, I will,” Wyvern said over the sound of the shower.
I locked the door. “Changing,” I called, “You don’t need to come out.”
“Then change,” he called.
I walked back to the bed, picked up my phone and texted Bobby, ‘Make at least one of them pepperoni.’
‘Will do,’ he sent, ‘Will call Carol. Expect files on your family account.’
I did change my clothes, but I did it because I was tired of wearing my cocktail dress and not because Wyvern had told me to. I realized that Wyvern had grabbed both a sports-bra and underwear, which was just all kinds of not cool.
Booting up my computer I entered my family’s secure web-space. I had to get through three levels of security to get to my personal drop box, but the file was already waiting. Unfortunately, the compressed file was humongous and even though my laptop was usually fast, it estimated it would take twenty minutes to download. I made sure the laptop was plugged in then laid down on the bed to wait.
I closed my eyes and fell asleep in seconds.
What seemed like moments later, my eyes opened blearily. Wyvern’s face came into focus on the pillow beside mine; his hair fell messily around his face. His arm reached across the space that separated us, his fingers were wrapped in mine and under my cheek. I must have pulled his hand under my face.
Faintly, I was aware that I was sleeping next to a very dangerous dracon who I had only known for a couple of days. The last thing I should have felt was safe, but I did.
From where his hand touched my cheek, incredible warmth spread throughout me; the warmth overwhelmed the part of me that told me I should not feel as safe as I felt. I closed my eyes and fell back asleep.
When I woke again, Wyvern was no longer lying beside me. Rubbing my eyes, I sat up and looked around. Wyvern sat at the end of the bed, my laptop in his lap.
“You’re on my computer?” I asked croakily.
“Good morning, Dakota,” he said.
“How did you log in without my password?” I asked.
“I downloaded a program last night before I went to bed so that I can override your passwords,” he said it without any shame.
“You could have just asked me for my password,” I said, too groggy to be as pissed as I knew I should be.
“Passwords can be changed,” he said. “Unfortunately, the security on the file you just downloaded is too complicated for my program to override.”
Go Aunt Carol. That meant that he probably could not get into any of my work files either, so the only thing he could really get into was my school emails and social networking websites.
“So what are you looking through?”
“I just checked some emails,” he said. He fiddled with the laptop for another second, then turned it around handing it to me.
On the screen was a prompt box with the question: ‘What is your sister Clara’s favorite ice cream?’
It made me smile that Wyvern’s program was stumped by the word: ‘Strawberry.’
“The question changes every five seconds,” Wyvern said.
And the question did change to: ‘What is Your Uncle Robert’s favorite word?’
I typed: ‘Shit’ and pressed enter.
The file opened. Inside there were hundreds of files labeled by date and by room. Scrolling down through months, I found the correct date’s file and clicked on the ‘office’ file. In that file, there were files for camera one, camera two and camera three per hour for twenty four hours labeled in military time.”
“Look at nine o’clock first,” Wyvern said.
“I should probably check my call log and—”
“I already did,” he said.
I looked to where he was now sitting directly next to me on the bed. “You went through my call log?”
“And your text messages,” he said.
“Is there anything personal of mine, you haven’t gone through yet?” I grumbled at him.
“Your room,” he answered, “And your mind.”
“Good luck with that one,” I said as I opened the ‘Camera One, Hour Twenty-One’ file.
“It only seems fair,” he said, leaning over me to get closer to the computer, “You’ve gone through mine.”
“I barely touched the surface of your soul, not your mind,” I said, “I don’t hear your thoughts or anything.”
The video was of a room filled with boxes, there were windows that had obviously been boarded up in the background. The camera caught a floor to ceiling view, but there were no doors.
I paused the feed and opened the ‘Camera Two’ file of the same hour. That one had a door. This camera covered a desk, a couple boxes, some books, and the door. The room had had some light in it though it was dim. I set the playback to double speed watching for any subtle differences in the scene.
“How old are you?” I asked Wyvern, though I was looking at the video.
“One hundred and fifty,” he said.
I looked up at him, shocked.
He smiled, “I have a human mother, remember? I’m nineteen.”
Obviously. I must not be entirely awake.
“You’re still too old for me,” I said, returning my eyes to the screen, “I’m only fourteen.”
“You’ll be seventeen next Saturday,” he said, sounding bored.
“Who told you that?” I asked, annoyed.
“Your birth certificate,” he said. “I researched you before I offered to hire you.”
“So I’m your employee?” For some reason, I did not like the sound of that, even though it was technically true.
“Not any more than I am yours,” he said. “I knew that I could not trust anything your family said about you. I’ve met your great-grandfather.”
I paused the recording to stare at him. “You’ve been to the Dragon Kingdoms?”
“My father started taking me there the first time I changed into a dragon,” he said.
“How old were you? Wasn’t that a huge risk?” I asked.
“It was a risk he was willing to take. I was eleven that first time.” When I continued to watch him, he said, “My father is very proud of what I am.”
I could not help but notice that he said ‘what,’ not ‘who.’
Wyvern leaned over me and pressed play on the recording. I turned my attention to the screen and forced myself to pay attention.
After a few more minutes I said, “The door just moved.” I paused the recording and rewound the video a few seconds, then pressed play. I paused it again. “There, you see the door knob turned,” I played it again, “Door knob turns but the door doesn’t open. But if you look there, the angle at the top of the door shifted just a little.”
Henchgirl (Dakota Kekoa Book 1) Page 24