Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga, #1)(53)

“Hey, man,” the dragon said. “Thanks for the bone.”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Baba had to choke back a laugh at the expression on Liam’s rugged face. His jaw had dropped open and his hazel eyes were wide. She was pretty sure he’d forgotten to breathe. He bent down slowly to touch the knobby end of tail that rested on his booted feet.

“Yes, it’s real,” she said. “Sorry for the shock, but I thought it would save us a lot of useless argument. It’s late, and I’m tired. I just didn’t have it in me.”

“Uh, right.” Liam dropped back onto the banquette bench with a thud. “So, your dog is a dragon and you just came back from a visit to a place called the Otherworld. The entrance to which is in your closet.” He shook his head ruefully. “Anything else I need to know?”

“Lots, unfortunately,” Baba said. A nod at Chudo-Yudo had him changing back into his pit bull form, at which everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“You know, I always forget how big he is, until he does that,” Alexei said, rubbing his stomach.

Liam glanced around the room at the Riders. “You guys aren’t all dragons too, are you?” he asked, almost despairingly.

Mikhail chuckled. “Not most of the time, no.” Alexei grinned and Gregori’s lips edged up into a small, compassionate smile that lightened his stern face.

Baba stiffened as Liam’s gaze swung around to her.

“And you? What are you?” he asked in a low voice, as if afraid to hear the answer.

She slid back in across from him and took his large hands in her somewhat smaller ones, running a thumb lightly across the slightly raised and reddened lines left by the kitten.

“I’m a Baba Yaga,” she said. “I was born as human as you, but I’ve lived with magic a long time, and it has changed me. I don’t really know what I am anymore.”

Where her touch ran, the little scratches healed and disappeared. She hung on for a moment or two longer than was necessary, or probably wise, sending him energy and healing she didn’t really have to spare, simply enjoying the temporary pleasure of the warmth of his hands in hers. But the sight of his shoulders loosening imperceptibly and the grooves next to his mouth growing slightly less deep made the sacrifice worth the doing. And it was little enough, considering what they had to look forward to next.

When she let go, he lifted the once damaged hand and pondered it with wonder. She could see in the warmth of his smile the exact moment when he chose to believe.

“Wow,” he said. “So you really are a witch.”





SIXTEEN


“WHAT?” BABA SAID. Then realized what his words meant, and had to consciously unclench her fists. “Oh, let me guess. That’s what they’re saying at Bertie’s.”

Liam nodded, guilt shadowing the movement. “I came out here to warn you, but I guess you already knew.”

She shook her head, feeling sadness welling up like blood from a fresh wound. “No, not exactly. But I’d already discovered that someone—one of Maya’s little friends, or maybe Maya herself—had been going about town contaminating and changing my herbal medicines so they harmed instead of healed. I’ve been around long enough to know what happens next.”

They all glanced in the direction of the road, as if expecting to see villagers with pitchforks and torches marching toward the Airstream. For the moment, thankfully, there were only a few fireflies, flitting to and fro in the slowly drying summer air.

“Why would Maya do that?” Liam asked. “And how? A few people complained to me about your remedies, but it’s not like Maya could have broken into all those folks’ houses and done something to your . . .”

“What?” Gregori asked, leaning forward over the counter. “You’ve thought of something?”

Liam shoved his still-too-long dark-blond hair out of his face. “I keep getting called out to people’s houses because they’re hearing strange noises, or think their homes have been broken into. But I haven’t seen any signs of anything. I’d just been chalking it up to the general tension in the area.”

Alexei grimaced. “More accurate, perhaps, to chalk it up to brownies and goblins.” He spat on the floor. “Sneaky little things, goblins. Always getting into places they shouldn’t.” If any of the creatures he mentioned could have seen his face, they would have run back home and hidden under a rock for a century or two.

Baba thought about it. If Maya had a number of small beasties under her control, she could certainly be using them to sneak in through bathroom and kitchen windows to mess with her clients’ treatments. If Liam hadn’t been sitting across from her, she might have spat on the floor too.

“As to why,” she said instead, answering Liam’s first question. “Maya is from the Otherworld herself. From what I’ve discovered, it looks like she is a being called a Rusalka.” The Riders all wore startled expressions at the mention of Maya’s probable identity, but Baba held up a slim hand to hold off their questions until she could finish explaining to Liam.

“Rusalkas are a kind of water nymph,” she said. “In the Old Country, before the supernatural races were sent back to live in the Otherworld, the Rusalkas were known for disguising themselves as beautiful women to lure young men to their deaths by drowning. They don’t have much power these days, now that the pollution of the water here has drained the waters of the Otherworld of much of their essence.”