Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga, #1)(22)
She tapped the photo of Mary Elizabeth Shields, clearly visible in the article posted by the local newspaper. Sometimes Baba thought the Internet was more amazing than magic; or at least more mystifying. As much as she disliked and distrusted modern technology, computers had proven to be more enticement than she could resist. The ability to do research wherever she was had won her over, although the rest of the time the laptop lived in a cabinet with some old books and Chudo-Yudo’s spare water bowl.
“This child is the one we are specifically looking for. Her grandmother is from the Old Country and knew enough to call me in. And her mother asked nicely and agreed to my terms; the bargain is made with her. But if you see any of the other missing children in your travels, I want to know immediately.” Her full lips drew together in a thin line.
Gregori shrugged. “I suspect that if we find them at all, it will be together. It would be too much of a coincidence for three children to disappear at the same time. Unless the first one gave someone else ideas, I suppose.”
“Yes, but that person may have split the kids up and sent them elsewhere,” Alexei disagreed, his voice a low rumble that made the windows rattle. “Or disposed of their bodies, I suppose.”
Under her hand, Chudo-Yudo stiffened, and Baba patted his head with tense fingers. “That is, of course, a possibility. But for now, I am assuming they are still alive and in need of rescue. I want you three to go out into the local area—and as far afield as you think reasonable—and look for them.”
“If the children are anywhere to be found, we will find them,” Gregori said with finality. “This Maya woman is using enchantments of some kind; are you assuming she is somehow connected to the Otherworld? Or could she just be a local witch who is using them for dark rituals? Such people do exist, after all.”
Baba’s stomach clenched, the stone that had taken up residence within growing larger by the minute. “I’m going to have a little talk with her,” she said through gritted teeth. “We’ll see what she has to say about all of this. But the magic felt like ours, not something Human, as much as I could tell across the room. And she felt like . . . more, somehow.”
“If she’s using them to fuel evil, the process might change them beyond recognition, if they even survive at all,” Alexei added, his gray eyes fixed meaningfully on Baba. He’d been around when she was growing up; he’d watched the old Baba raise her, and seen her move further and further from her human roots as the magic she learned changed and twisted her body and spirit in ways that were no less powerful for being invisible.
Baba shook herself like Chudo-Yudo after a bath, throwing off the gathering gloom that threatened to cloak her in despair. “Well, we can only do what we can do. You boys go have a look and see if you can spot anything the sheriff missed. I’ll tackle pretty Miss Maya tomorrow. Check in if you find anything.”
“I might keep an eye on our mysterious lady myself,” Gregori said, quiet menace emanating from his slender form. “See if I can spot her doing something incriminating.”
Baba nodded, but said, “Keep out of sight, Gregori. You were all seen with me at the tavern, unfortunately, so she’ll know who you are. And keep away from the locals—I’ve already had people down at the local diner ask me if I was related to the Ivanovs, because we all have Russian accents.” She frowned at this, since she’d been certain hers was so faint as to be nearly undetectable. Apparently not. “The last thing we need is a bunch of people wondering why the place has suddenly been overrun with foreigners.”
He blinked at her, unspoken reproach in the tiny movement.
“Right, sorry. What was I thinking?” She grinned. “If you don’t want her to see you, she won’t.”
“And I have no desire to mingle with the peasants,” Gregori said. “We leave such things to you, dearest Baba.”
“About that sheriff,” Mikhail winked at her as he got up from the table. “You know he likes you, right?”
She would have said she didn’t remember how to blush. She would have been wrong. Heat flooded her checks as she shook her head. “Don’t be absurd. I’m his biggest suspect.”
Laughter rumbled its way out of Alexei’s huge chest. “Doesn’t mean he doesn’t like you, Baba.” He chucked her under the chin like he used to when she was only as tall as his knees. “You grew up to be a beautiful woman. Men are attracted to you all the time; you just don’t notice.”
“She noticed this time,” Mikhail teased, and Chudo-Yudo let out a barking laugh.
“Oh, get out of here,” Baba said with asperity. “Go do your jobs and stop trying to provoke me. Just because you’re immortal doesn’t mean I can’t turn you into toads and lock you in a golden cage for a decade or two.”
“You only did that once,” Gregori pointed out. “And the guy was trying to kill you at the time.”
“So maybe I need more practice,” Baba snapped. “Who wants to go first?”
The three Riders all left in a hurry, the sound of their engines lingering in the air like a symphony of metal, magic, and mayhem waiting to happen.
SEVEN
BABA CHANGED INTO a short red silk chemise and settled into a tapestry-covered chair, trying to calm her frazzled nerves with a good book and a glass of merlot from a winery in the Napa Valley whose vineyards she’d saved from a pixy infestation. The owners, a pair of old hippies whose years of acid use allowed them to see things most people didn’t, gratefully sent her a few of their best bottles every year.