Wickedly Wonderful (Baba Yaga, #2)(92)
“Hello, Kesh,” the Baba Yaga said calmly, as if she didn’t have blood slowly trickling from a cut above her brow. “So nice to see you again. Sorry about the duct tape.” White teeth showed in a smile that held nothing of apology.
“Ah, he’s awake,” a deeper voice said, and the Human mate she had chosen over him appeared to gaze down at Kesh over her shoulder. Kesh took some satisfaction from the battered look of the man. He would have taken more had their positions been reversed.
“Should we kill him quickly, or carve off one piece at a time?” the man called Marcus asked, not seeming to have a preference either way. “I’m still kind of pissed about the way he poisoned you with those fancy picnics. I say we kill him slowly. I learned some stuff in Afghanistan you wouldn’t believe. I can make it last for weeks.”
Kesh swiveled his head toward Beka in alarm. Surely she would not allow this barbarian to harm him. They had been friends, after all. And she had always had a soft heart.
Beka reached out and patted him gently on the cheek with the hand not holding the knife. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said.
There. He knew she would not allow him to be killed. Now he just had to find a way to speak to her alone, and surely he could persuade her to let him go.
She grinned at Marcus, wincing a little when the motion made a crack in her bottom lip open up again. “It would take way too much time and trouble to torture him, and we still need to figure out where he hid the Water of Life and Death. I say we just slice a few more holes in him and set him out where the sharks will find him.”
Kesh’s eye opened wide and he could feel his mouth gaping and closing like a fish out of water. “But . . . but . . . you can’t do that!”
Beka raised one eyebrow. “Why not? You tried to kill a Baba Yaga, not to mention your own people. I don’t think anyone is going to get too upset if we take justice into our own hands.” She tossed the knife into the air and then caught it a mere inch above his nose, making him twitch.
“But Beka, darling—”
Marcus’s face loomed close. “Call her darling one more time and I will rip out your tongue and feed it to the fish while you watch, you sonofabitch.” Kesh tried to edge away from him on the sand.
Beka snorted. “I don’t think your charm is going to work on anyone here, Kesh. You might as well save your breath. You know, for the screaming.”
Kesh could feel his heart start to race as it finally dawned on him that she meant what she said. They were going to kill him. All his plans, all his scheming and hard work, all brought to naught by an untried Baba Yaga and a Human fisherman. The disgrace of it was almost enough to make him willing to accept death. Almost. But he reminded himself that as long as he lived, there was always a chance to start again.
“Wait!” he said. “I can help you!”
Marcus looked at him with disgust. “Don’t listen to him, Beka. He’ll say anything to keep us from killing him. Let’s just get this over with.” He grabbed Kesh by his bound legs and started hauling him toward the road, none too gently.
Kesh winced as a shell cut into his face, scrabbling with the hands tied behind his back to try and grab the shifting sands and slow his forward movement.
“No, Baba, you need me,” he said in a rush. “I can lead you to the Water of Life and Death. You need it to cure your illness.”
“You mean the radiation poisoning you gave me?” she asked, her expression cold. “That illness?”
He swallowed hard as he realized she’d somehow learned exactly what he had done. There was no way he would be able to convince her that he hadn’t intended to kill her. Kesh looked from Beka to Marcus, taking in their matching hard stares and the grim set of their jaws.
He had lost, well and truly. The universe was cruel and unfair, to reward ones such as these over someone like him. But someday they would learn. If not at his hands, then at the hands of another.
“I will take you to the Water of Life and Death,” he said, drooping. “Just let me live.”
Beka sighed and stuck the knife through her belt. “Oh, okay. But you’d better lead us directly to it and fast. I’ve had a really rough week and I’m running out of patience.”
“And I never had any to start with,” the fisherman added. “And I really, really don’t like you.”
Kesh closed his good eye as the Human hauled him off the ground and threw him over one large shoulder, no doubt heading back toward their vehicle. The feeling is quite mutual, fisherman. But even he was not foolish enough to say it out loud.
*
WITH KESH FIRMLY trussed up and tossed in the back of the Jeep, and the Water of Life and Death safely retrieved, its decorative box held securely in both hands on her lap, Beka finally felt like she could take a breath. Everything on her hurt, but she was more worried about Marcus, who was clearly favoring his ribs, as well as dripping blood all over the driver’s seat of the Jeep.
They were headed down Highway One, almost to the beach where she’d told Chewie to gather the sick Mer and Selkies. She worried that either one or both of Chewie’s assignments hadn’t gone as planned; that the Queen had said no, or that the water folk hadn’t listened, or both. But there was nothing she could do about that now.
The fancy silver Camaro they’d been following for the last mile suddenly made a left turn into a parking lot, causing Marcus to jam on the brakes and throwing them forward against restraining seat belts. Beka clutched the box even tighter and listened to Marcus curse out everyone who ever got a license to drive without being instructed on the use of turn signals.