Bethany stared up at the dragon groggily. Hayreddin had hit her pretty hard, but she was pretty sure she wasn’t hallucinating. In which case there was a huge dragon standing over her and she was about to be eaten…or maybe fried. On the whole, she thought she preferred the concussion option. That would explain why she could swear she heard Alexei say he loved her. Either way, she wasn’t going down without a fight. She staggered to her feet, the hooked end of the broken gaff clenched in between her hands.
“How about me? I set your boat on fire. I’m pretty sure that means I’ve pissed you off the worst,” she shouted. “You big, overgrown lizard.”
Alexei gave a huge, bellowing laugh, whirling his sword in the air. “No, no, that won’t do at all. I insist on going first. I’m the largest. And the oldest, come to think of it. Kill me first.”
The dragon’s massive head swung back and forth between the two of them as if confused.
“I’m the blondest - kill me first!” Beka yelled. When Bethany and Alexei stared at her, she shrugged. “Hey, that should count for something, right?” She did a fancy figure eight move in the air with her own, narrower sword, and then bowed gallantly in the dragon’s direction.
“Or you could try fighting someone a little closer to your own size,” a deep, melodious voice said from above as a shadow fell over the ship. “Why don’t you try and kill me first and see how that goes for you?”
Bethany looked up and had to suppress a squeak as another dragon swooped down, so close to her head she could feel the breeze from its passage ruffle her hair.
The second dragon was smaller than the first, but still impressively large. His wedge-shaped head was a vivid royal blue that shaded down his body into an iridescent aqua and then deep green. It dove at the dragon that had been masquerading as Human, causing it to take to the sky in evasive maneuvers. Bethany held her breath as the blue and green shape ducked and wove through the clouds, shooting flames at its black and yellow adversary. It was though some primal battle raged for possession of the earth itself.
“Bethany!” Alexei said as he ran over and grabbed her up in a huge bear hug. “You’re alive.”
“OW,” she said as his welcome but over-exuberant embrace practically crushed her. “I’m happy to see you too, you big oaf, but you’re bruising my bruises.”
“Oh, sorry,” he said, dropping her.
“Ow again,” she said with a sigh from the wooden deck. “How about you help me up - gently - and untie my hands? We can congratulate each other for being alive later, you know, if we still are.”
Alexei glanced around at the flaming ship and at the conflict being waged overhead and gave her a crooked smile as he eased her to her feet. “You have a point. It’s just I thought, well, I’m glad you’re okay. When I saw you lying there…”
“Yeah, well, Hayreddin hit me pretty hard. I nearly passed out. I thought he was going to kill me, but then you and Beka arrived and started poking at him with pointy swords. Nice timing.” She rubbed her wrists.
Beka came running up. “Not to ruin the party, but I think we’d better get out of here. I’m not sure how long Chewie can hold Hayreddin off.”
Bethany peered up at the sky. “Chewie? Like your dog, Chewie?”
“Dragon-dog,” Beka explained. “One and the same. But he’s really outclassed. The only reason he’s lasted this long is because he is smaller and more agile. If Hayreddin can get close enough to do some real damage, Chewie is toast.” Her normally cheerful face was etched with worry, her blue eyes clouded. “He’s buying us time, so we’d better make the most of it. Besides,” she gestured around them, “if we don’t get off this ship, we’re going to be toast too. Literally.”
Alexei handed a still shaky Bethany off to Beka. “I’ll be right back,” he said, and ran toward the flames. Bethany saw him reach down to scoop something up and then he raced back. “Here,” he said, thrusting the amulet into Beka’s hands. “If we get out alive, I suspect the queen is going to want to take a look at this.”
Bethany looked around. “I don’t see a lifeboat or a dingy. Any suggestions?”
“We swim for it,” Alexei said grimly. He pointed at a ship hovering at a safe distance from the inferno the one they were currently on had become. “That’s your father’s boat. Do you think you can make it that far?”
Bethany shuddered at the thought of how cold the ocean water was going to be at this time of the year, but she hadn’t grown up as a fisherman’s daughter for nothing. “Race you,” she said, and dived off the side of the boat. Beka dove in gracefully to join her, and a moment later, Alexei yelled “Geronimo!” and cannonballed into the ocean with a huge splash that almost swamped the two women.
“You’re an idiot,” Beka said in a fond tone. Then they all swam like hell.
* * *
Alexei let Beka climb the ladder up the side of The Flora MacDonald first, then boosted Bethany a little more forcefully than he intended (“again, OW”) before heaving his own chilled wet body onto the deck. Damn, that water was cold. Teeth chattering, Bethany grabbed them all some blankets from a metal locker and slung hers over her shoulders.
“Is that my father?” she asked, looking up at the sound of cheering from the cabin. “What the hell is he doing here?”
“His daughter, his boat,” Alexei said with a shrug. “Where else would he be?” He fought the impulse to enfold Bethany’s shivering body in his own, rapidly warming one. He might not be a Rider anymore, but he still had the metabolism of one. It should be good for something besides drinking massive quantities of beer. But he didn’t want to hurt her. Again. And he wasn’t sure he could let go of her once he got his arms around her for real.
“Besides, he earned the right. He actually got himself into his wheelchair and came charging in to join us when we were planning your rescue. The only way we could have left him behind was if we had tied him down.” Alexei glanced at Bethany’s bloody wrists and cursed himself for his choice of words. He was an idiot, as usual.
But she didn’t seem to notice as she gave him a huge grin and ran up to see her father.
Beka gave him an affectionate smack on the shoulder. “Dude, I didn’t think you could be any more socially awkward than you were already, but it turns out I was wrong. You’re cute when you’re in love.”
“Oh, shush,” Alexei said, feeling his face heat. “Anyway, we have bigger problems.” He pointed at the sky, where Chewie was clearly beginning to lose the battle. Hayreddin’s larger size and sheer power were starting to wear down the smaller dragon. Burn marks marred the aqua blue wing on Chewie’s right side, and his swooping dives were becoming slightly off-kilter.
Beka clenched her fingers into Alexei’s arm. “Hang on, Chewie,” she whispered. “Hang on.” Tears mixed with seawater on her face.
“It’s not going well, is it?” Bethany said quietly as she rejoined them, moving to stand on Alexei’s other side.
He just shook his head, peering up into the clouds as he tried to make out the two opponents as they flew intricate maneuvers around one another.
“What happens if your dragon loses?’ she asked Beka.
Beka drew her blanket more tightly around her shoulders. “I try and remember all the anti-fire spells I know while Hayreddin does his best to burn us to a cinder.” Her normally cheerful attitude seemed to have been washed away by their swim, or the circumstances, or both.
But Alexei spotted something he was pretty sure would bring it back. “Hey, look! I think your help arrived just in time.”
Bethany’s mouth gaped open as she saw yet a third dragon flying overhead, this one a vivid ruby red creature so large, he dwarfed even Hayreddin. The new arrival arrowed in from the direction of the Cape, then dive-bombed the black and yellow dragon, hitting it so hard it pin-wheeled through the sky.
“Who the hell is that?” Bethany said. “He’s…glorious.”
“Koshei,” Beka and Alexei said in unison. Beka sounded positively gleeful.
“He’s an old friend of my sister Baba Yaga, Barbara,” Beka explained. “I knew he’d come if I asked him to; I just wasn’t sure he’d get the word in time.”
“Friend,” Alexei said with a wink. “And occasional lover, until Barbara met her husband Liam. He’s always had a soft spot for the Baba Yagas.”
There was a thud and the boat shook as a blue and green dragon half-flew, half-fell out of the air. Its shape shimmered and flowed until a large, somewhat battered black Newfoundland dog stood in its place.
“Crap,” he said. “Do you think he could have cut it any closer?” But his mouth lolled open in a doggy grin, and he reached up to lick Beka’s face when she ran over to check him out. “I’m fine, I’m fine. Honestly, it’s the most fun I’ve had in a century.” He winced as her hand found a sore spot. “You know, now that it’s over.”
And it was definitely over. Chewie had already done a good job of wearing Hayreddin out; Koshei pressed his opponent relentlessly, pursuing him with claws and teeth and sheer overwhelming mass until finally the crimson dragon bore the black and yellow one down to hover helplessly over the deck of The Flora MacDonald.
“Change,” Beka demanded, her long blonde hair whipping back and forth in the wind created by the wings of two dragons. She suddenly sounded like the powerful witch she actually was, her voice resonant with threat. “Change into your Human form, Hayreddin, or I will let Koshei tear your throat out.”
One ruby-tipped silver claw set itself not-quite-gently in the black dragon’s thorax, in case it hadn’t gotten the message.
The dragon shimmered, its outline wavering and blurring until the mythical beast disappeared and the man with the uneven gray hair and golden earring stood in its place, one arm still held in the grip of the red dragon’s talons, and blood dripping from a dozen small wounds.
“Curse you, Baba Yaga,” the pirate said with a grimace. “You damn witches are always interfering.”
“Well, that’s kind of in our job description,” Beka said in a milder tone. But she pulled a set of handcuffs out of her the bag she’d brought on board and snapped them around Hayreddin’s wrists with a decisive click that belied her calm exterior.
“What good is that going to do?” Bethany asked. “Can’t he just turn back into a dragon and break them?”
“Not these handcuffs,” Beka said triumphantly. “They used to belong to Barbara’s husband, who is a sheriff, but I put a spell on them that would force anyone wearing them to stay in the form he or she was in when I put them on. I thought they might come in handy in this particular situation. Should make it a lot easier to get this guy back to the queen without a fuss.”
As soon as he heard her, Hayreddin started to struggle in earnest, but Alexei reached out and whacked him upside the head, and the erstwhile pirate fell to the deck with a thud.
“Feel better?” Bethany asked, eyebrow raised.
“I do,” Alexei said. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do that.”
“Well, it looks like my work here is done,” the red dragon said, and landed lightly on the boat to become a devilishly handsome man with curly dark hair, a close-cropped beard, and light blue eyes.
“Baba Yaga, you are as ravishing as always.” He bowed in her direction, then leaned in and kissed her lightly on the cheek. “Black Rider, it is good to see you looking so well.”
His eyes glowed as he examined Bethany. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I am Koshei. A friend of the family, you might say. And you are?”
“Off limits,” Alexei said with a growl.
Koshei blinked. “I see. Indeed. So that’s how things are. Lovely.” He bowed at Bethany too. “A pleasure to not meet you, my lady. Now, if you would be so kind as to steer this vessel back in the direction of Beka’s hut - I mean, school bus - she and I can take this miscreant back to the Otherworld to face the queen’s justice. That should prove to be an entertaining afternoon.”
“You’re going to drive Beka’s school bus to the Otherworld?” Bethany said, her face scrunched up in a way Alexei found irresistibly adorable as she tried to envision it.
Beka smiled. “Not at all. There is a magical doorway inside my bus. I assume that’s how you got here in the first place,” she said with a nod toward Koshei.
“Naturally. Kind of you to leave it unlocked for me,” he said. “I came through in Human guise, since my dragon self is not only too large to fit through the door but also would undoubtedly have caused something of a stir if it had been spotted. Once I was out of sight of any innocent bystanders, I changed forms and flew to you as quickly as possible.”
“But how did you know where we were?” Bethany asked.
Koshei gave a wicked grin. “I can always sense a Baba Yaga. As I said, something of a member of the family. Besides, dragons are very territorial; we can perceive each other from miles away.”
He glared down at the seeming Human at his feet. “Mind you, most of us have better manners than this one seems to have displayed. I knew him in the Otherworld, of course, but we dragons rarely socialize with others of our own kind, so I can’t say I could have predicted his bad behavior.” Koshei scowled. “Greedy fools like this give dragons a bad name. It will be a pleasure to watch the queen make an example of him.”
Koshei turned to Alexei, a wicked glint in his light blue eyes. “Perhaps her majesty would like to meet your lady. I’m sure she would be interested in your testimony as well. You have been much missed at court.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Alexei growled. “The word of the Baba Yaga should be more than enough. I am not ready to return to the Otherworld. You two can take Hayreddin back without me. Bethany still needs me to help with her father.”
Bethany gave him a look he couldn’t quite decipher. “Once you get us back to the truck, I’m sure I can manage,” she said. “If you want to go back.”
Alexei glared at her. Was she trying to get rid of him? Maybe this whole adventure - dragons and all - had been too much for her. He couldn’t blame her if she just wanted to go back home and forget all about the Paranormal. Or maybe she was just sick of having him around.
“You got kidnapped and knocked out,” he said. “I can stick around for another couple of days.” And he stomped off to the cabin to check on Calum, before anyone else tried to make him do something he didn’t want to do.