Henchgirl (Dakota Kekoa Book 1) (26 page)

Chapter Fifteen

“I wish you would have let me at least dry your hair,” Clara said as she leaned back from the front seat of Glacier’s van. She tugged a strand of my wet hair.

“Shoot,” I said, staring down at Bobby’s text, “They figured out the login code but all the files are encrypted and the video log is locked.”

“Is there a firewall installed?” Glacier asked from the driver seat.

I texted Glacier’s question then after a second received a response from Bobby and read, “Yes.”

“Have him disable it, then he can connect to your wireless network and Carol can decrypt and copy the files remotely,” Glacier said.

I texted the message: ‘firewall, wireless, Aunt Carol.’

‘Aye, Aye,’ he texted back.

“Maybe I could put your hair up so you stop dripping on your dress,” Clara said.

“Who cares,” I said, “I still don’t get why I’m wearing a dress to go eat dinner with grandfather at his house.”

I stared down at my phone waiting for Bobby to report in that he connected to my Aunt Carol. If my Aunt Carol, my grandfather’s head of technology and security, was helping she would have the files not only decrypted, but probably organized in the order of most interesting by the time we returned from dinner.

“We’re not just eating with grandfather,” Clara said, “We’re eating with his guests too.”

I almost dropped my phone. “What?” I said too loudly in the minivan’s confined space. “Why did no one tell me? We’re eating with the dragon?”

“No,” Glacier said, “He’s in the Waibibi volcano.”

Meaning he was re-heating and he had not taken the portal home yet.

“I’m sorry,” Clara said, “I tried to tell you, but I could not get you away from the humans.”

“Give your sister a break, she convinced you to shower, I’m sure that wasn’t easy,” Glacier said very seriously though his soul was sparking with amusement.

“Oh wow, Glacier, you made a funny,” I said, determinedly staring at my phone. “Well, this sucks.” I guess Wyvern was not just being annoying when he told me he would see me in a couple of hours.

“It’ll be fine, sweetheart, just put your hair up, I can do it in a twist if you like,” Clara said.

Because Clara was Clara, I said, “Thanks that would help a lot.” I paused, “Glacier can I ask you something? Have you ever heard of a half-dragon infecting someone?”

“That’s impossible,” he said with authority.

“That’s what I thought,” I said, “But Mele was doused in Wyvern’s blood and she was rejected by two different water wards, even fourteen hours later and after she showered.”

Glacier said nothing, but his soul buzzed with tension.

“You know there are a lot of things about Wyvern that are… too powerful,” I said, “He changed into a full-dragon, and oh, my gods, the shape and size of his soul when he was not containing it—”

“Drop it, that’s an order,” Glacier said.

I was momentarily so stunned I said nothing. After a few long seconds where Glacier’s tension continued to rise, I said, “Drop what?”

“You’re line of thinking,” he responded.

“You’re ordering me not to think?” I said, half-laughing with disbelief.

“About this, yes, I am. If I could, I would order you to avoid anything to do with Wyvern Manderson, thinking included, but father says that’s impossible now after your escapade.”

“Maybe, if you guys had kept me in the loop instead of making me feel like you were all turning your backs on me, I wouldn’t have gone on my little
escapade.”

I felt a strong pulse of guilt and hurt emit from Glacier’s soul and I immediately felt like a jerk; I would have gone on the escapade regardless, I might have gone about it a little differently, but I would have still left to find Honua.

The rest of the ride was spent in a tense silence. The entire time I was kicking myself for letting the subject of Wyvern’s quantity of power drop. Glacier knew something, had practically told me there was something to know, something big. Bringing the subject back up, though, would only cement him in his silence. He ordered me not to think about it, the idea made me want to laugh again; that was the stupidest order he had ever given me, by far.

Clara, never one to rock the boat, honored the tension and stayed silent all the way up to our grandfather’s estate.

Glacier punched in his code and waved to the outer gate guard.

I waved as well, because I was sure I knew the guard but I did not feel like making the effort of finding out which one he was. The concrete wall slid open smoothly for all its weight, and we started up the driveway.

My grandfather had spared every expense on the aesthetics in his home. Long six-inch wide, windows spaced every few feet apart were the only feature that prevented his home from looking like a six story concrete block.

Three concrete walls circled the house, but only the first one had been closed. The interior of the house was as cold and functional. Once, when I told my grandfather that he should fire his decorator, he responded with, “Decorations and baubles are only worthwhile when they earn me money.”

It was not that he did not use his fortress-looking home to earn him money; he just invited clients or guests here strategically. It told me a lot about his feelings toward his ‘guests’ that he would host them at his house.

When we parked in the lot on the side of the house, Clara climbed in the back with me quickly twisting up my hair. She pulled what seemed like a hundred hairpins out of her purse, and stuck them in my hair.

The worst part of this whole situation was I had information to share with both my grandfather and Wyvern, but I would not be able to because they would be there together. It would be so much easier if I could just let my grandfather in on my investigation. I thought again about Glacier’s orders not to question Wyvern’s immense power level. If my grandfather knew I was getting involved in Wyvern’s life, he would likely lock me up in his jail in the basement. And that was not an exaggeration, my grandfather had cells in his basement for exactly that type of use, he just rarely needed to use them.

“Beautiful,” Clara said, separating a few strands to fall around my face.

“We need to go,” Glacier said, waiting by the minivan door.

My phone beeped and I read the text which showed a smiling face emoticon followed by, ‘Keanu leaving now with computers, too bad, there was nothing I could do to decrypt them, oh well. He says he needs to return them before anyone notices.’

I stared at my phone, hopefully that stupid smiley face was code for Aunt Carol had access to the files; for some reason Bobby wanted Keanu to think that we could not decrypt the files before he returned the computers.

I wrote: ‘text when you can tell me what happened?’

“Turn your phone off,” Glacier said.

“What, why?” I said.

Glacier did not answer, just stared at me expectantly. The tension was so high in his soul, it made me feel edgy.

I did as he said, turning my phone on silent and then off, silent, so I could turn it back on without it beeping. Sighing, I climbed out of the van after Clara.

Clara, as always, looked breathtaking. We were both dressed in knee-length cocktail dresses that my mother had bought us without my knowledge, likely out of our rent money. Mine was green and Clara’s gold, hopefully not real gold, knowing my mother, it was a possibility.

“Why are we going in this way?” I asked, confused.

Glacier did not answer, just punched his code into the security pad and we entered through the side entrances of my grandfather’s house.

The side entrance was only used by staff and was one of two entrances that connected to the first floor. Technically, according to my grandfather’s rules, we were not allowed on the first floor, which was for house-staff use only.

We walked up the staff stairway and came into the main part of the house through an inner hallway used by the cleaning and security staff to get around without being seen.

The main area of my grandfather’s house was made up of three enormous rooms; we had entered the hearth room. It was the size of a gymnasium and filled with identical black leather couches that clustered in threes evenly spaced throughout the room. The room connected through huge doorways on one side to the reception area, and on the other side to a dining area that was large enough to hold my entire family.

Everything in the hearth room’s design was utilitarian and functional; the ceilings were forty-feet high but only to accommodate the scalier forms of his full-dragon guests. The gems from his hoard, displayed in recesses along the walls, were of sufficient quality to be respectable, yet not ostentatious enough to inspire theft; though my grandfather might have to watch his gems around Wyvern’s sticky fingers.

The only art displayed on the clean metallic walls was a giant portrait of my great-grandfather Pax in dragon form.

“Hey big guy,” I said, patting the frame as we passed.

My great-grandfather’s brown scales and eyes gleamed with a reddish light as he smiled at the artist. The gleam in his eye and his calculating and mischievous smile made it easy to believe that this dragon was the one named the ‘King of Trickery.’

Though he was lesser royalty, his head crest was painted with great detail and his head was bent to clearly display the full crest.

When I thought about it, my great-grandfather’s head crest had nothing on Wyvern’s; Wyvern’s dragon form had had a very distinct and large bone-crown.

We walked down the length of the hall to the room’s other aesthetically pleasing feature, though truly it was as functional as everything else. On one side of the hall was a fireplace the size of my room that was always lit. Right now it had a bonfire going.

My grandfather stood a few feet away from it, silhouetted by the fire.

I paused, blinking my eyes, taking a second to let my gaze adjust to the light and my senses adjust to my grandfather’s soul. I let the group meet him without me.

“Bradson, Clara, Dakota, thank you for coming,” my grandfather said formally to Glacier, Clara and me. Thank the Gods his looks had returned to normal and he had digested all of the rage that I had force fed him.

“Thank you for inviting us to dinner, grandfather,” Clara said.

“You look very beautiful tonight, Clara. I want to let you know that I invited Ashley, your half-sister, to dine with us tonight.”

“Great,” I said under my breath as I walked up to meet the group standing around the fire.

“Is Ashley here?” Clara said, her voice only showing the faintest trace of anxiety.

“Her and her adopted mother, your aunt Glenda should be arriving any minute,” my grandfather said.

“Glenda and Ashley?” I said, and then started choking on my own spit. I did not mean to, but I ended up hacking and coughing uncontrollably into my arm.

My grandfather patted my back.

Other than coughing my throat out, I felt wonderful standing there next to the fireplace. Being close to a fire for a dracon, was like hooking up to an IV when you’re dangerously dehydrated.

My grandfather’s arm wrapped around my shoulders as he said, “Glenda keeps asking about training you, Dakota; how does that sound to you?”

I leaned into his embrace. “Like a fate worse than death,” I said.

He squeezed my shoulder. “Perhaps…” he said while giving me a meaningful look, “…I can talk her out of it. However, your repeated disobedience is freeing up so much of your time and she is determined to make a lady out of you.”

Glacier’s soul crackled with amusement.

“Why is that so funny?” I asked Glacier, indignant.

To my amazement, Clara started to giggle as well with a hand covering her mouth.

“Really?” I said. “
Really
?”

“This is what I was referring to, father,” A high-pitched voice said from far behind us. “Coddling Dakota is only making her manner rougher and less attractive than it already is.”

Turning, I saw Glenda and Ashley approaching briskly, but not so fast as to be unladylike. A few people insist that my cousin Ashley was as stunning as my sister Clara, I never saw it. Yes, I’m incredibly biased, but Ashley’s face always seemed too perfect to me, almost sterile, like a doll, nice enough, but uninteresting. The salmon-colored dress she wore showcased her perfect figure while at the same time it was modest and conservative.

Glenda’s spindly soul wound its way into our little pow-wow. Glenda smiled around at each of us in turn. “Father, Bradson, Clara, Dakota.”

“Grandfather, Uncle, Clara, Dakota,” Ashley said, preening like knowing her own family members’ names was something special.

I never understood this formal thing we did in our family. I had known these people since birth; did we all really need to go around saying each other’s names formally?

“Daughter, Ashley,” grandfather acknowledged with a nod.

“Glenda, Ashley,” Glacier said.

“Aunt Glenda, Ashley,” Clara said.

“Heya Aunt, cuz,” I said with a salute.

My grandfather gave my shoulder a tighter squeeze and shook his head, though a small smile played at the corner of his mouth.

Clearing my throat, I said, “I mean, Aunt Glenda, Ashley.”

“What three beautiful granddaughters I have,” grandfather said, “It is no surprise, though, since you three share the same father, my son Lorien.”

I blinked furiously and both Clara and Ashley’s gaze skipped to me for a second, but none of us gave any other sign that grandfather had just given me a new father.

“If questions about your father arises, please just say that Lorien is a highly valued member of our family and is often away on business.”

Yeah, sure, half my aunts across the island chains were foster-parenting Lorien’s ‘business.’

All three of us nodded our understanding.

“Then we will wait for our guests in the reception hall.” My grandfather guided me along with him. The moment we stepped from the flames, I felt the fire’s loss.

My grandfather dropped his arm from around my back but offered it to me in the old fashioned gentleman way; when I looped my arm through his, he led me ahead of the crowd. “Bobby called to say you had an update for me; did you succeed with Keanu Hale now that you had more access?” he asked.