Henchgirl (Dakota Kekoa Book 1) (40 page)

“Dakota,” a voice woke me from my reverie. When I turned, I saw the Cordeliajezebel that did not try to stab me with her eyes. She was the one who had the pretty heart-shaped face and girly voice.

“Hi,” I said, not really wanting whatever she had come over to dish out.

“I owe you an apology,” she said. “I was rather offensive the last time I was at your grandfather’s house. I had misjudged the situation. I was judging what was happening between you and Wyvern on his past and not on observation.”

“It’s fine,” I said, really not wanting to have this conversation.

“You don’t think I like you, do you?” she asked.

“I don’t mean this rudely, but honestly, I don’t really care.” I gave her an apologetic smile.

“I care if you think I don’t like you,” she said. “I do like you quite a bit, or at least I like the idea of you.”

“Thank you, I think,” I said. “You know, no one ever introduced us; I’m still not sure if you are Cordelia or Jezebel.” Look at me, caring enough to ask.

“I am Jezebel,” she said. “I am sorry, I should have introduced myself; I approached this place like I do with society at home. I realize now that it is different here.”

“How did you approach it?”

“Like a battle,” she said.

“Not so different then,” I said.

She smiled, “You would make a very interesting Wyvern Regina.”

I stared at her in confusion, my brow furrowing and lips falling open.

“Surely you’re not looking to be a second wife?” she asked.

I glared at her.

“The idea hasn’t even occurred to you, has it?” she asked, like she already knew the answer was no. “Has Wyvern talked to you about his title, about his life as the Rex?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think he has to.”

She sighed, looking a bit disappointed. “That’s what I thought,” she said, looking down. “What you have to understand is that I don’t think that Wyvern could even conceive of the idea of a girl wanting to be with him but at the same time wanting nothing to do with his title. His life just hasn’t worked that way. Every girl that has ever showed interest in him has at the same time been auditioning for Regina.”

“You’re saying that he just assumes I’m after being some kind of queen?” I said, a little offended.

“Not exactly, I’m saying that it would just never occur to him that you would not want to be the Regina, that you would like him completely separate from his life and title. That is the danger of being on vacation, he can be completely himself with you and you have no idea about his real life as the Rex.”

“What’s so bad about that?”

“Because he’s giving you his heart, and you have no interest in being part of his life,” she said.

Whoa, Nelly.

“I think you’re speaking a little fast,” I said.

“I don’t think so,” she responded.

“Really fast, we’ve only known each other a couple of days.” Talking about marriage and who was going to be queen after a couple days was like eight shades of crazy.

“I’ve known him his whole life, he’s never acted like this with a girl or with anyone,” she said.

“I don’t know what to say to that.” I said.

“Seeing the way he looks at you, I want to tell you that if you rip his heart out, I’ll rip out yours; but I’m not going to, I’m afraid it might already be inevitable and I don’t want to get my hands dirty.”

That painted a lovely image in my head. “Thanks?” I said, because really, what did you say to that? I put a hand out in a conciliatory gesture. “Look, I’m not trying to hurt him, or lead him on or anything if that’s what you’re saying.”

“No,” she said giving me a smile, “He is pursuing you. When Wyvern really wants something he pursues it until he has it, by any means necessary. He’s even made powerful enemies by stealing what he wants. What he is doing is so obvious that the only reason I did not recognize it at first was because he had only ever pursued ‘something’s before with this type of intensity, never
someone
. It is just hard for me to watch my dear friend fall for a girl he can’t really have.”

“Are you sure you’re not just misjudging the situation?” I said, though her description of Wyvern sounded pretty scarily accurate.

“Yes. But, I don’t mean to be intrusive,” she said, “Wyvern has always been very like a brother to me.”

“Were you the friend that agreed to do the contract with him?” I asked.

“Yes. He told you about that?” She smiled fondly.

“He said that you did him a favor,” I said.

“Well, my sister offered and I realized it would be a very volatile situation if I did not offer myself as a replacement,” she said. “So, what song do you plan to sing?”

She said loudly, probably thinking this was safe small-talk.

“Jezebel,” said a voice from behind me.

Turning, I jumped a little to find Wyvern directly beside me. I must be out of it, that or he moves like some kind of ghost.

“Hello Wyvern,” Jezebel said.

He stepped up next to me. “Did you really have to do that Jezebel?” he said, looking irritated.

“Do what?” she asked, giving him a level look.

“When I left my date was smiling,” he said.

“Let the girl have a conversation, Wyvern,” she said, rolling her eyes, “You can’t fight every battle for her. She won’t thank you for it if you try.” She patted him on the shoulder, shook her head and walked over to where her sister and Lorelei looked to be having a rather tense conversation.

Meeting his gaze I saw that he was examining my expression.

Jezebel could be just trying to manipulate me. Wyvern definitely seemed to be attracted to me and want to kiss me. There was that amazing zing feeling between us whenever he touched me. But there was no way that he was
falling
for me so soon.

I still held to the idea that at least part of his motivation to trick me into a contract was because my grandfather challenged him.

It was very likely that Jezebel was just trying to scare me away by exaggerating Wyvern’s feelings for me. She saw that I was skittish and independent-minded and she was using that to get rid of me.

But if it was something else, if it was because of what I did…If sharing our souls was somehow making him fall for me… I did it because he was a dragon and he was berserk. He would have killed me. Can I really be blamed for something I did in self-defense? And if I did it to him, I did it to me as well.

“What did she say to you?” he asked.

“She told me she liked me,” I said.

“What else?” he brushed my cheek with his thumb.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, “it was just a protective sister type speech, kind of what Lorelei did for me. I can handle it.”

“I know you can,” he said, “Unfortunately, you might have to handle a lot of petty speeches when we get back to New Anglo next Monday.”

My eyes widened.

Across the room Jezebel snagged my gaze and gave me a sad smile, then she turned back to her conversation.

The worst thing about all of this was that even though my head said, ‘back up there, buddy,’ just like when he said he wanted to make me happy, I felt a zing deep in me. And some part of me wanted to move closer to him and say, ‘okay, bring it all.’ But saying ‘okay’ just would never be an option for me, I had a job and a life and my sisters to take care of. More than that, I was a whole person here in Mabi; I had work to do and a couple very concrete reasons to exist. Leaving would make me not ‘
me’
anymore, it would make me just ‘
his
.’

But then again, would it be so selfish to enjoy this attraction between us in the time I have him, knowing that I’ll have to walk away in the end? Probably, but I had always been a little selfish.

I took his hand. “I had no trip to New Anglo planned for next Monday,” I said, raising my eyebrows.

He spun me so that somehow I was wrapped in his arm, and he hugged me from behind, both of us facing the fire. It was strange, the fire was rejuvenating me, but at the same time, all the points where Wyvern’s skin touched mine felt just as rejuvenating, if not more.

“We’ll talk about it later,” he said. He smelled like cigar smoke, but surprisingly it smelled nice on him. “My father likes you. He said he thinks you’re very dangerous for me,” he whispered.

“You’re even more dangerous for me,” I whispered back, almost inaudibly.

“Girls,” Wyvern Sr said, from one of the chairs, “I am ready for your performance.”

Wyvern squeezed me then let go. “I want to get a good seat.”

I growled at him, which only made him laugh as he went to sit beside his father.

As everyone took their seat, Lorelei stormed over to me her soul crackling with anger. There was something else that was going on with her soul as well. Lorelei’s soul had always been noticeably denser than our cousins, which was why when Wyvern said he thought she would be powerful than them I had not been surprised. But at this moment her soul looked almost to be sparking with energy yet at the same time roiling with movement.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she snapped, “We are going to rock this if it’s the last thing we do. Stupid, ugly, whiney, ho…thinks I’m too stupid to know she’s calling me a useless dud. She doesn’t even—”

“Ignore them, they’re not worth it,” I said, feeling very concerned now. This was so not like my sister; Lorelei was typically cool and collected. Usually she did not care what people thought about her, or at least never showed that she did. I grabbed her hand but it shocked me and I jumped back.

We weren’t just making a scene; the whole crowd was literally sitting in the chairs watching us.

“How very entertaining,” Cordelia drawled.

Lorelei whirled on Cordelia and started singing opera.

Opera
.

Not only was she singing opera, she was singing it in Mabiian. It wasn’t any of the Mabiian songs I had learned in school, it was much more intense than anything I had learned for school assemblies. I did not even try to join in.

And her voice was beautiful, incredible. We all stared at her, open jawed. Her voice rose and rose.

The words roughly translated to, ‘come to me, come to me my darling, rest in my arms, I will sing you to sleep…

While she sang, something streamed into her, wisps of colored smoke sinking into her soul. I blinked in confusion and growing horror. Then I turned, my mouth falling open.

Still sitting in the chair, Cordelia sat petrified, her eyes wide in terror as her soul streamed out of her and into Lorelei. It was a slow stream, then Lorelei hit a high note and there was a pulse in her soul and suddenly the stream was a torrent.

“Stop!” I shouted, “Lorelei, stop!” I grabbed her, but she did not take her eyes off Cordelia, as if she too was caught in the exchange, as caught as Cordelia. “Stop!” I yelled, trying to shake Lorelei, but her body wouldn’t move.

“What is happening?” Jezebel asked, staring at her sister and sounding unsure and concerned.

Everyone else looked between my sister and me confused, oblivious to what only I could see.

“Lorelei just inherited her aspect,” Wyvern said, standing and walking toward us, “It’s…” he made eye contact with me, eyes widening in concern, but he did not finish what he was saying.

I needed to fix this and now. Cordelia had a lot of soul to lose and it kept streaming between them.

Aside from what happened with Wyvern, I had never kept pieces of other people’s true souls; I had coiled other’s true soul into me, but I always gave it back. I’ve pulled the surface, deeper and memory emotions into me and fed them to my grandfather, yes, but Lorelei wasn’t stopping with those three layers. Lorelei was pulling large sections of Cordelia’s true soul into her. Cordelia was a half-dragon, she had an incredible quantity of soul; if Lorelei kept going she would kill herself.

I grabbed Lorelei’s arm but it did not yield to my pulling, it was if they had both been paralyzed; I reached toward Cordelia but there was still about two feet distance.

“Help me!” I shouted to the crowd.

Braiden, Jezebel and Wyvern, who had all already stood up ran to me.

“You won’t be able to move Cordelia, move her chair!” I shouted, “I need to be able to touch her.”

Though the chair was made of marble, the three of them all pushed it from behind sliding it across the floor. It moved one foot, two feet, a little more, then my hand was able to wrap around Cordelia’s wrist.

Delving into my sister was like diving into a stream of electricity, she was over-full, pushing at her own limits. Because I would know my sister’s soul anywhere, it was easy to sense the difference between Cordelia’s soul and hers. My sister had a grip on Cordelia’s soul, it was as though she had a hundred suction cups and I had to peel each one away.

The moment I separated a coil of Cordelia from my sister, I sent it through me and back into Cordelia. Soon, Cordelia’s true soul was coursing through me, into her and at the same time I had to concentrate on prying the coils away from Lorelei.

Lorelei’s song just kept lifting and soon she was tearing out Cordelia’s soul quicker than I could take it back. Lorelei was filling up like a sink with a water faucet on high and a drain that can’t keep up with the flow. Then Lorelei’s song came to its crescendo and I knew that I was failing, that Lorelei was bursting and I wouldn’t be able to prevent it.

A scream tore from me as I ripped Cordelia’s soul from Lorelei and slammed it into Cordelia.

Lorelei sang the last note. Immediately the connection between them broke. They both swayed forward.

For a second we all just stayed still together in place, breathing heavy, connected by my arms reaching between them.

Then Cordelia’s gaze fixed on Lorelei, her pupils turned bright yellow. The second soul, the wolf soul, the only part of Cordelia that had not fed through our little circle grew as rage fed through our still-open connection. The features of Cordelia’s face sharpened as her teeth elongated in her mouth.

Lorelei fell back, her arm ripping from my grasp as she collapsed in exhaustion.

Still holding onto Cordelia, I moved between her and where Lorelei was lying on the floor.