“You want to what?” Alexei said.
Bethany put a foaming mug of beer down in front of him. “I want to bring my father out on the boat tomorrow,” she said, giving him a funny look. “Is there a problem with that?”
A number of them, including the fact that he was going to be trying to talk to sharks. Plus, you know, man (and probably woman) killing kraken on the loose.
“Uh, I just, you know, thought you’d want to stay home on your day off.”
She shrugged. “In a perfect world, I’d spend my day off sitting in front of the television watching Robert Downey Jr. and eating chocolate. But in case you haven’t noticed, I don’t exactly live in a perfect world. Hell, if I did, I’d be watching Robert and eating the chocolates while sitting in my old apartment in Boston and studying for the bar.”
Alexei stared at the wooden surface in between them. “Why would you need to study a bar? You work at one every day.”
He heard what might have been the sound of teeth grinding. “Different bar,” Bethany said. “The one I’m talking about is the test that says whether or not you are qualified to be a lawyer. That’s what I was doing before my father got hurt and I had to get home.”
Huh. That was a surprise. Or maybe not. Bethany was clearly smarter than your average whiskey slinger, and she’d said something when he first met her about coming back to take care of her dad.
“So, you want to be a lawyer. Interesting.” Okay, it kind of was, but also, maybe he could distract her from talking about going out on the boat tomorrow.
“Not really,” she said. “I’d already started to have doubts about whether or not I wanted to get caught up in a system that doesn’t work for most people. Now that I’ve been back here for a while, the idea is even less appealing, although god knows I spent enough time and money trying to achieve it. Although I had pretty good reasons for studying it when I started out, or so I thought.”
“What kind of reasons?” Now he was actually curious. It was hard to envision the Bethany he knew in a suit and carrying a briefcase, living in a city and working in an office. Somehow he doubted that her motivation had anything to do with money or prestige.
Bethany tucked a stray piece of red hair behind her ear. “My mom was sick for a long time,” she said, finally. “She died in misery after spending years being denied the disability and medical benefits she deserved. I thought I’d get a law degree and fight for people like her, but sometimes it seems like tilting at windmills. I’m just not sure I’m up for the fight. Some days I feel like I’d do more good just pouring drinks and easing pain that way.”
Alexei winced. He hated to hear her sound so discouraged, although at least he’d succeeded in distracting her.
She turned away to pour a drink for a customer and then turned back. “About tomorrow…”
Or maybe not.
“Beka and I already had plans for the boat,” Alexei said apologetically. “And your father did say we could use it. How about next Sunday? Maybe.”
“Look, Alexei. Going out the last time really cheered my dad up, and he’s been in a terrible funk since he found out about his friend Henry. I think it would make him feel better, and tomorrow is supposed to be a really nice day.” Bethany polished the already clean bar. “Unless, you know, you and Beka have something romantic going on. I mean, I know she said she’s married, but it’s none of my business if she and her husband have some kind of understanding.”
Alexei almost choked on his beer. “No! Ew. I practically helped raise Beka. I look at her like a daughter. Or a niece or something. And she and Marcus are madly in love with each other. So no, yuck. Nothing like that.”
Was it his imagination, or did Bethany actually look relieved?
“Well then, why shouldn’t my father and I come along wherever you’re going tomorrow? He won’t care where it is, as long as he’s out on the water.” Now she looked puzzled. With maybe a hint of annoyed thrown in for good measure.
“Don’t you think it is a little too dangerous?” Alexei thought he’d try a different tact. “What with Henry’s boat disappearing and the other odd incidents the local fishermen have been reporting?”
Bethany narrowed her eyes. “If you think it is so dangerous, then why are you and Beka still taking the boat out? Wouldn’t it be just as dangerous for you as it would be for us?”
Alexei had never missed his brothers so much. If they were here, Gregori would think of something clever to say or Mikhail would dazzle her with his charm. Alexei couldn’t do either, so he resorted to desperate measures: the truth.
“Well, maybe, but we’re going out to look for the monster. You don’t want to be along for that.”
“Wait, you’re what?” Bethany stared at him. “You mean you’re going out searching for a giant squid? Why the hell would you do that?” She lowered her voice when a few heads swiveled in their direction. “Please don’t tell me that you actually believe it’s a kraken, like you told Duke. I figured you were just looking for an excuse to get into a fight.”
She wasn’t wrong there. Too bad she was wrong about the kraken. A giant squid would have been a piece of cake, comparatively speaking. Or a piece of sushi.
“Beka is kind of a monster hunter,” he said more or less honestly, avoiding the second part of Bethany’s question. “I’m just helping her out. That’s why she came here from California.”
“And you two think you’re going to find some mythological sea creature that eats ships?” Bethany shook her head. “The insurance company told Robbie they had documented one other case of an attack from a giant squid, off the coast of Japan, so they paid on his claim. It’s pretty freaky, but they think it must have been attracted by something on the boat that reminded it of prey. The oceanographers from Woods Hole are having a field day, but neither they nor anyone else has caught a glimpse of the thing. It has probably headed back out to deeper waters.”
“So you’re not worried about being out there? Bringing your poor defenseless father?” Alexei was running out of ways to talk her out of it. Crap.
“Oh, please,” Bethany said. “I’d like to see a giant squid try and take on my father, wheelchair or not. We’re coming out with you tomorrow, and that’s all there is to it. If it is safe enough for your friend Beka, it is safe enough for us. Monsters. Ha.” She went down to the other end of the bar to fill a drink order for three craggy old men sitting together and playing cards.
Well, SHIT. That was going to pose a bit of a problem, wasn’t it?
* * *
“I can’t believe you let them come along,” Beka said out of the corner of her mouth as she guided the boat out to sea. Bethany and her father were sitting toward the front of the boat, and Alexei and Beka were in the small cabin, but Beka still kept her voice down, just in case. The ocean breeze could play funny tricks with sound, snatching it away and carrying it where you least expected it. “What were you thinking?”
Alexei scowled at her. He’d been in a crabby mood since they’d all arrived at the docks that morning. Probably because he’d lost an argument. He hated that.
“I was thinking it is their boat and I couldn’t exactly keep them from coming if they wanted to,” he said, glaring out at the innocent waves. “Besides, I tried to talk her out of it. She wouldn’t listen to me.”
“No wonder you’re so grumpy,” Beka said with a grin. “You always used to pout like this when one of your brothers got the better of you.”
“I am not pouting,” Alexei muttered. “Grown men do not pout.”
“Could have fooled me,” Beka said. “Are you really worried we’ll run into the kraken while they’re onboard?” She fingered the spell pouch she’d tucked into her waterproof jacket. In theory, the magic she’d worked up would pack enough of a punch to scare off a kraken, although she doubted it would kill one. And she’d just as soon not have to test the theory out one way or the other, thank you very much. Besides, it was her job to protect Paranormal creatures, not kill them, if at all possible.
Alexei shook his head. He’d pulled his shoulder-length hair back with a leather strip so the wind wouldn’t constantly blow it in his face. Beka thought it was a good look for him, and she was pretty sure Bethany thought so too, from the glances she kept sneaking at Alexei when she thought no one was watching. But there didn’t seem to be much point in mentioning it, since they were both so set on ignoring their obvious attraction to each other. Idiots.
“I doubt it. We probably won’t get that lucky.”
Beka shuddered, but he sounded quite cheerful about the prospect of encountering a gigantic legendary monster. The Riders had always been a little more adventurous than was probably wise, but that was when they were immortal. She wasn’t sure if Alexei had really processed what a difference this meant to how he should approach risk. Or maybe the problem was that he had, and didn’t care.
“I know we need to track it down,” she said. “But I don’t really want to do it with innocent bystanders around. Especially ones who don’t know about magic and the paranormal.”
“It’s not exactly optimum for my plan of trying to talk to the sharks that were at the site of Henry’s wreck, either. Assuming we can even find them,” he added glumly.
“Ah, that I think I can help with,” Beka said, a little smug at finally being able to do something. “This isn’t the time of year when there are many sharks in the area. They mostly show up in the summer when the seal population is larger. So I got one of my Selkie scouts to ask our dolphin friends from the other day to meet us out here. If anyone knows where the sharks are, it is them. If only so they can avoid that area, if nothing else.”
“Great,” Alexei said. “Now all we have to do is figure out how I’m going to talk to them without Bethany and her father figuring out there is something strange going on. Hopefully they will stay at the front of the ship. I’ve got Calum set up with a fishing pole and bait, so with any luck that will keep both of them occupied.”
“I guess we’re going to find out,” Beka said, spotting something off the port side. “Because I think we’ve got company.”
She slowed down to a crawl and put the ship on autopilot after double checking that there were no other vessels in the area, and the two of them hurried down to the stern. The scar-faced dolphin Alexei had talked to the other day waited for them impatiently, whistling a rapid series of tones when they finally came into view over the edge of the boat.
“He doesn’t like being out here,” Alexei said, although she didn’t really need the translation. The dolphin swam back and forth restlessly, occasionally peering back over its shoulder. “His pod is staying in closer to land than usual as long as the big scary thing is out here. But they’re hungry, because the fish are gone.”
Alexei’s brows drew together, concern written across his open face. “He says they’re afraid of Humans, but more afraid of the big scary thing. Their little ones are starving. We need to find the big scary soon and kill it.” He shook his head. “Sorry, I added that last bit myself.”
“Oh, I don’t disagree,” Beka said. “Ask him if he knows how to find the sharks that were nearby when the fisherman’s boat got attacked.”
Alexei relayed her question and got more agitated whistles in return. “He thinks we’re crazy for wanting to talk to sharks, but they were spotted not long ago off an island to our south. So I guess we head there.” He hesitated. “Do you think there is anything we can do to help his pod in the meanwhile?”
Beka thought about it. “Tell him to meet us with his family tomorrow. Um, at sunset, I guess.” She tried to pick a time the dolphin would understand, since they didn’t exactly wear watches. “If you can’t get off Calum duty by then, I can come out on my own and bring a few barrels of fish.”
“Great,” Alexei said. “I’m sure one of the guys I’ve met at the bar will be able to sell us some, or we can get them at the fish market.” He swiveled around suddenly. “Did you hear something?”
Beka had been focused on the dolphin. “No, I don’t think so. Look, I’d better get back up to the cabin and start steering us in the right direction. Tell our friend that the Baba Yaga says thank you, okay?”
“Will do. I’ll be back up to join you in a minute.”
* * *
Bethany found the sight of multiple sharks circling the boat highly disconcerting. In theory, they were perfectly safe, but that didn’t stop the hair from standing up on the back of her neck at the sight of the triangular gray fins cutting through the water.
Only slightly less disturbing was watching Alexei and his friend Beka trying to act as though they weren’t trying to get Bethany and her father out of the way. She might have been amused by their antics if she hadn’t already been so freaked out.
“Why would I want to go take a nap?” Calum was saying. “It’s a boat, not a hotel. And I’m not tired.” He glared at Alexei. “Not to mention that there are sharks swimming around The Flora MacDonald. That hardly makes me want to go take a nice little snooze. In all my years at sea, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Maybe they’re attracted to the fish guts,” Beka suggested.
Calum snorted. “I caught one fish worth keeping, and its guts are still inside its belly. I’m telling you, there’s nothing to make the sharks that interested in us. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Bethany cleared her throat, so the other three turned their heads to look at her.
“Maybe they’re waiting for Alexei to talk to them, like he did to the dolphins earlier,” she said in an even tone.
Beka and Alexei exchanged worried glances.
“What’s that now, girlie?” Calum said. “You think Alexei talks to dolphins? Maybe you should put on a hat. The sun seems to be getting to you.”
Bethany just stared at Alexei. “Dolphins, and maybe dogs. Seems to me that you and Lulu have a lot of pretty intense conversations. I heard you talking to the dolphins before. What are you, so kind of animal whisperer? Is this a new scientific breakthrough you don’t want to make public yet?”
Beka choked back a laugh, covering her mouth with her hand. “Does Alexei look like a scientist to you?” She snorted, then shrugged apologetically in Alexei’s direction. He shrugged back.
“Well, then what is it? I know what I heard. Alexei was talking to that dolphin. I mean, he was speaking English, but he clearly understood what the dolphin said, and the dolphin understood him. You even had him ask the dolphin questions, so you know he can do it. If it isn’t a technical gizmo, then what is it?”
Alexei and Beka looked at each other, then at her and Calum. They had a moment of silent communication, the kind that only happens when people have known each other a very long time. Then Beka raised one shoulder in a “what the hell” motion.
“It’s not science,” she said. “It’s magic.”
* * *
“Right,” Bethany said. “Magic. Ha.” Then she looked at the expressionless faces around her. “Oh, come on. You don’t seriously expect me to believe you can do magic, do you?”
Alexei cleared his throat. “If you want to get technical, only Beka does magic. What I do is more of an innate gift of paranormal origins. You know, technically.”
“Right. Technically,” Bethany repeated. “You do realize you’re not making any sense. Technically.”
Beka smothered a laugh with one slim hand. “Sorry,” she choked out. “But you have to admit this is a pretty funny conversation.”
When Bethany continued to glare at them, the blonde woman shook her head. “Okay, it probably isn’t all that amusing from your end. This isn’t something we tell people about often, so we aren’t either of us very good at explaining it.”
“Why don’t you start at the beginning and speak in small words so I can understand it,” Bethany said through gritted teeth. She didn’t enjoy feeling like the only one in the room who didn’t get a joke, and for some reason, her father didn’t look nearly as confused as she felt.
She swung around to focus her glare on him instead, which had about as much effect as it usually did. Which is to say, none whatsoever.
“Why aren’t you jumping in here?” she asked him. “You don’t like unanswered questions any more than I do.”
Calum flashed her one of his rare smiles, one of the kind that made his eyes twinkle. As a little girl, she’d lived for those smiles. After her mother had died, she couldn’t remember ever seeing one again. “Probably because I believe in magic.”
“You what?” she said, wondering if her head was going to actually swing around on her neck like that girl in The Exorcist. “Has everyone on this boat lost their minds except me?”
Her father chuckled. “Not at all. But you grew up here in the New World, where everyone is obsessed with facts and science. I grew up in Scotland, where my grandmother took me out into her garden on my fifth birthday and introduced me to the little sprites that lived in the old apple tree. I never saw them, mind you, but she believed they were there, and so did I.”
He turned to Beka. “So what kind of magic are you? A mermaid?”
Beka laughed. “Well, I am a very good swimmer, but not a mermaid. More of a surfer, really.”
“A witch, then?”
Bethany would have thought he was kidding around, except he was more animated than she’d seen him in months. What the hell was going on here?
“More like the witch,” Alexei said with a grin. “Well, one of the witches. She’s a Baba Yaga.”
“Pull the other one,” Calum said, his eyes wide. “She never is.”
“What’s a Baba Yaga?” Bethany asked. Besides blonde, pretty, and a pain in her ass.
“Don’t you remember the books your mother used to read you?” Calum asked. “Her mother loved the fairy tales, she did,” he explained to Beka and Alexei. “She had that whole series of books by Lang: The Red Fairy Tale Book, The Blue Fairy Tale Book, The Yellow Fairy Tale Book. I’m pretty sure there was a tale or two about the Baba Yaga in one of those.”
He turned back to Bethany. “Remember? The Russian witch who lived in a wooden hut that traveled around on chicken legs through the forest?”
This time it was Bethany’s time to laugh. “You mean the ugly old crone with the iron teeth that rode around in a mortar steered by a pestle? That Baba Yaga?” She pointed at Beka. “She doesn’t look much like the witch in those stories. Really, Dad. You’re going to have to do better than that. Did the three of you all get together and decide to play a joke on me? That’s what this is, isn’t it? Alexei can no more talk to animals than I can.”
“This is always so much easier when Chewie is around,” Beka said to Alexei rather mournfully. “A dragon is instantly convincing.”
“Still,” he said. “It will save a lot of time if you just show her, don’t you think?”
Bethany was starting to get mad. She opened her mouth to tell them all off when Beka’s outline began to waver oddly. Bethany blinked rapidly, wondering if the sun really was starting to get to her. When she opened her eyes again, Beka was gone, and an old woman stood in her place, her hair gray and wild, her nose long and crooked, her back bent. Only the laughing blue eyes remained the same, gazing back at her with benign good humor.
“What the everlasting hell?” Bethany gasped.
The old woman wavered again, as if surrounded by fog, and then she was young and blonde again, albeit with a more serious expression than before.
“Sorry,” Beka said. “I know it is kind of startling the first time you see it, but we could have talked forever and you would never have believed us.”
Bethany turned to her father. “Did you see that?”
“Told you so,” he said smugly. “I knew I should have brought you home to the Old Country more often, but there was never enough money, and then your mom got sick. There are tales of the Baba Yagas in Scotland, although they’re not as common as some other stories. Never thought I’d get to see one in person, though.”
Bethany’s head was spinning. “But…I thought the Baba Yaga was a Russian fairy tale.” She was still trying to grasp that it wasn’t a fairy tale at all. Or that fairy tales were real. She wasn’t sure which one was worse. Or better. Argh, she was so confused!
“Oh, it is,” Beka said. “But we’re everywhere, really. We just take other names in some countries. There’s a Baba Yaga who is in charge of all of the British Isles, including England, Ireland, and Scotland, and three for the Unites States, of which I am one. The youngest,” she added wryly. “You should see Barbara’s crone. It’s way more convincing than mine.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Bethany said in a faint tone. “I thought yours was plenty realistic.” She gazed at Alexei. “Are you a Baba Yaga too?” If so, his disguise was insanely good. And she was about to be really depressed. Leave it to her to develop a crush on a witch masquerading as an incredibly attractive man.
He guffawed, a low deep sound that bounced out over the waves. “Goddess, no. Can you imagine me traveling around the country righting the balance of nature and helping worthy seekers?”
Beka rolled her eyes.
“I know!” Calum said, his face alight. “In the stories my grandmother told me, the Baba Yagas had three companions called The Riders, who helped them with their tasks. Especially when they needed a strong arm or someone to have their backs in a fight. That makes perfect sense. You’re a Rider, aren’t you?”
Alexei’s smile slid away like the sun going behind a cloud and he regained that distant, shuttered look he’d worn when he’d first walked into the bar. Even the normally cheerful Beka got quiet, a strangely haunted expression flitting across her face almost too fast to see.
“Not anymore,” Alexei said. “I was once, but not these days, no.”
“Then what are you now?” Calum asked, for a change sounding as puzzled as Bethany felt.
“Nothing,” Alexei muttered, at the same time Beka said, “My friend.”
Bethany swung her head from one to the other, her heart hurting at the aura of pain emanating from Alexei. “You’re still helping her, though,” she said quietly. “What does it matter what you call it?”
Alexei just grunted. “I’m not helping much standing here talking to you when I’m supposed to be talking to these sharks, am I?” He gestured at the gray shapes still circling the boat. “So now that we’ve gotten the whole ‘magic is real, not everyone is who they seem’ conversation out of the way, maybe I can get down to work?”
He turned his back on her and leaned over the side. “Yo, sharks! What can you tell me about a boat that got wrecked near here a few days ago?”
Beka gave her a sympathetic look, patting her on the shoulder as she went to stand next to Alexei.
Calum, on the other hand, pulled out a stub of cigar he wasn’t allowed to smoke anymore and stuck it in the corner of his mouth to get even more noxious than it was already.
“How about that, girl? We’ve got a real life Baba Yaga on our boat. And the guy who has been taking me to the bathroom can talk to dogs and sharks and who knows what else. How about that.”
Bethany’s knees suddenly felt like they were made out of rubber. How about that indeed.