Wickedly Dangerous (17 page)

“Barbara?” Liam's slightly impatient voice called her back to reality. “Or should I call you Baba?”

She sighed. “Sorry, it's been a rough night. I was . . . daydreaming . . . there for a moment. Sorry.” She took another bite of pie, chewed, and swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Yes, you might as well call me Baba. My real name is Baba Yaga, although in this world, most know me as Barbara Yager.”

He raised a dubious eyebrow. “
This
world?”

“Yes,” Baba said. “There is this, what some call the mundane or Human plane, and the Otherworld. The Otherworld is a place where magic exists, and it is home to creatures out of legend, many of which you might recognize and some which are beyond your comprehension.” Tired, she rubbed a hand across her face, wishing she could have had this conversation some other time. Sometime when her head was clearer, or her heart less muddled. Or never.
Never
would have worked for her.

Liam's hazel eyes stared at her as though wondering if she was making fun of him, or merely out of her mind.

“And you're dressed like something out of a Renaissance Faire because that's how everyone dresses in this Otherworld of yours?” he asked, pointing at the jewels in the net restraining her usually unruly hair. “It must be a pretty fancy place.”

“You have no idea,” Mikhail said, pushing Baba out of the way so he could get another piece of pie. “She's actually somewhat underdressed. But she doesn't like to stand out, our Baba.”

“I don't know how she could avoid it,” Liam muttered, the sideways compliment making her heart skip a beat. But then he shook the stray thought out of his head and added, “So you're trying to tell me that you just went through your closet to visit a magical land, like Alice through the looking glass?”

“More like the kids going through the wardrobe into Narnia,” Baba replied, hoping that they'd at least read some of the same books, even if she hadn't seen his
movies
. “But yes, something like that.”

Liam was abruptly on his feet, moving past Mikhail and yanking the closet door open. He stared at black leather and red silk, his face an almost comic mix of satisfaction and disappointment, like a kid who finally proves to himself that Santa doesn't exist.

“Uh-huh,” he snarled. “Pull the other one.” He walked back over to stand in front of Baba, arms crossed over his chest, muscles tight. “How about now you tell me what is
really
going on?”

Baba ran out of reasonable, which was bound to happen eventually. It was never her best thing anyway. “Fine,” she snarled back at him. She rose from her seat and said to the others, “Better make room.” Three sets of faces looked alarmed and tucked themselves into the corners of the trailer the best they could.

Liam just looked confused. “Make room for what?”

“Chudo-Yudo,” she said, and gestured at the dog.

As Liam turned to see what she was talking about, Chudo-Yudo moved into the middle of the lounge area, which was as close to a clear space as the Airstream allowed, and shook himself, as if shedding water. Instead, he was enveloped in a greenish-purple mist that sparked and glowed, letting off an odor like charred meat, cold starlight, and eternity. When the mist cleared, the dog was gone, and instead there was a large dragon with scalloped iridescent black scales and blazing red eyes curling in on himself to take up as little room as possible. Still, his tail rolled out onto the tiled kitchen floor, and one leathery wing poked Alexei in the stomach until the burly biker moved a little to the left with an
oof.

“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.”

“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.”

“Oho!” Alexei shouted. “I told you I felt hands grabbing me in that weird flood that almost wiped me off the road. A Rusalka, it figures.”

That did make sense, Baba thought. “Anyway, I believe that Maya is trying to discredit me with the locals, so they won't trust me to help them. Maybe even convince people that I am somehow responsible for the disappearance of the children, to shift any possible suspicion away from her.”

“That's ridiculous,” Mikhail said, staunchly loyal as always. “You only just got here, and she's been in the area for months. No one is going to believe you had anything to do with this.”

“Folks are pretty irrational when their families are threatened,” Liam said, face grim. “That sort of rumor is already being whispered in corners. I heard it myself, although no one came right out and said anything. That's why I came out here to talk to Barbara and try and convince her to leave the area until things cooled down.”

“Fat chance of that happening,” Chudo-Yudo said from near Liam's feet. His new bone was already half gone, but he happily resumed chewing on what was left, slobbering a little on Liam's boots.

Liam jumped. “Jeez—you can talk!”

Chudo-Yudo rolled his eyes. “Right. So a talking dragon is okay, but a talking dog freaks you out? Dude, you're going to have to adjust to this crap a lot faster than that if you're going to be any help.”

Clutching his coffee cup like it was a lifeline to reality, Liam stared beseechingly at Baba. “I promise I'll try to catch up on believing the impossible. But I really think you should consider leaving—or at least lying low for a little while until things calm down.”

Baba shook her head hard, causing half the pins that held the gossamer net over her hair to tinkle musically down to land on the table and floor. Annoyed, she tugged the fragile bejeweled web the rest of the way out so the long masses of her hair came tumbling down. Liam's fingers reached out as if against his will, then reluctantly returned to the safety of his mug.

“I can't leave,” Baba said. “Or lie low either.” She could feel a headache forming behind her skull, as if all her bones were suddenly too tight. “I went through to the Otherworld tonight to tell the queen we were fairly certain Maya had discovered an unguarded door between the two worlds.”

“That's bad,” she explained to Liam, “because too much use of the doorways, especially to bring things back and forth as Maya seems to be doing, can upset the delicate balance between the Otherworld and here. The effect of that can eventually be devastating, especially on the other side, where the energy flow has been limited since they withdrew from regular contact with the Human world.”

She shook her head. “And the pollution of the water and air here leaks through at places where the worlds meet, causing damage to the sensitive Otherworld environment.”

“Bringing things back and forth,” Liam repeated, his voice dropping to a register that made him suddenly sound like a dangerous man. “Things like these creatures you're talking about. And three missing children.” He stared at Baba, as if daring her to deny it.

She didn't bother. “That's what we think. It would explain why you haven't been able to find any trace of them here. And if she's using her glamour to lure them away and cloak them from sight as soon as she's grabbed them, it also explains why the children seemed to vanish in a moment's time.”

“But why would she take them at all?” he asked, a question that had clearly been tormenting him since the disappearances started. “Is she . . . are they dead?”

“We don't believe so,” Gregori said, laying a comforting hand on the other man's shoulder. He turned to Baba. “Did you get any clue as to what she was doing with them while you were there?”

Baba bit her lip. “Of a sort. If I'm right, she's bartering them to Otherworld folk in exchange for some of their power and magic.”

“Which means that whoever has the children on the other side is someone with lots of extra power, which means they are likely to be high up in the court,” Mikhail said, his usually pleasant visage set and harsh.

“I don't understand,” Liam said. “Why do they need our kids? Don't they have their own?”

Baba shook her head. “Otherworld folks are very long-lived, but they rarely reproduce. Part of the trade-off, I suppose, but tough on those who want to be parents. Because of their rarity, children are valued beyond almost anything else there.”

“So they steal ours,” Liam said bitterly. “That's rather ironic.”

“I know,” Baba said. “If it is any consolation, stealing Human children was outlawed centuries ago, at the same time the worlds separated. Anyone who is involved with Maya's scheme will be severely punished if they are caught.”

Liam pushed his hair out of his eyes again. “
If
they are caught. How the hell are we supposed to catch some woman who can use magic, has a veritable army of mythological creatures at her beck and call, and could steal another child right out from underneath our noses at any time?” A muscle pulsed along his jaw.

“I don't honestly know,” Baba answered. “But we're going to have to do it. The queen has given me strict orders to find the door, track down the children, and bring Maya to her. Soon. Or else.” She drew a hand across her throat in the classic gesture.

“Or else?” Alexei didn't seem overly concerned. Of course, he hadn't been there. “Maybe she didn't mean that kind of or else.”

Baba grimaced. “She was so angry, she blew up a moon.”

“Oh,” Alexei blinked. “Then I guess we'd better find Maya.” His face brightened as he had a thought. “Did the queen say we had to bring her in
alive
? Because if not, then I vote for dead. Really, seriously, extremely dead.”

*   *   *

LIAM WONDERED IF
Bertie had started baking hallucinogenics into her pies. That made a lot more sense than this conversation. But he was nothing if not practical, and he had seen too much to be able to deny the new reality he had to cope with. The missing children didn't have time to spare for him to come to terms with it gradually, protesting all the way. Some things, however, hadn't changed.

“We are
not
killing anyone,” he said flatly. “I'm the damned sheriff, for god's sake. It's my job to uphold the law. No matter what she's done, or what she is,” he swallowed hard, trying to get that one out without twitching, “Maya Freeman will be arrested and tried, like anyone else guilty of a crime.”

Baba had the nerve to roll her striking amber eyes at him. “Good luck finding a jury of her peers,
Sheriff
. Or holding her in a cell, for that matter, even if you could somehow prove she was responsible for the children's disappearances.”

Liam opened his mouth to argue, and she put up one slim hand to stop him. “I agree, however, that we can't kill her. She's our best chance to find the children, for one thing. And for another, I think the queen is looking forward to punishing the woman herself. We
do not
want to get in the way of the queen's vengeance.”

He watched as Baba shuddered, clearly remembering something that had happened while she was away. Whatever the experience had been, it had etched new lines next to her mouth and cast a shadow over those wondrous eyes. For the first time since Liam had met her, she actually looked tired, and less than iron-tough.

“So what do we do, then?” Mikhail asked in a reasonable voice. “The Otherworld is too big to search, and the children will be well hidden by whoever she's given them to, since they wouldn't want to risk the queen discovering their involvement.”

“I still think our best bet is waiting for her to grab the next one, and following her,” Alexei rumbled. “She'll have to lead us to the door then.”

“I am not purposely allowing her to take another child,” Liam said through gritted teeth. “We are not going to put some other poor parent through hell if there is any way to avoid it. All these children are very much loved, and their parents are suffering horribly, waiting around to find out if their babies are even still alive, and envisioning every horrible scenario in the book.” He knew that for a fact, since he too had been living out every nightmarish possibility day and night since the first kid vanished.

Gregori got a thoughtful look. “They
are
all valued, aren't they?” he said, tapping one finger against his lips. “So why pick these particular children in the first place? After all, there are always plenty of Human children who are unwanted, and won't be missed. Even in this small place, there must be scores of them.” His dark eyes were sad. “There always are.”

Liam wished he could disagree, but of course, it was true. Poor folks with more mouths than they could feed, wealthy folks with better things to do than pay attention to their offspring, the unexpected and undesired infant, the neglected children of drug addicts and abusers—there were at least twenty kids he could think of off the top of his head that had parents who would be happier without them, and that wasn't counting the ones already in the foster care system.

“So how is she finding these particular children?” Mikhail asked. “Do they have anything in common? Something to do with their parents, maybe?”

“Not that we've been able to find,” Liam answered, bitterness oozing out of his pores like sap from a lightning-struck tree. “But that doesn't mean there isn't a link—just that the incompetent sheriff hasn't been able to uncover it yet.”

Baba patted his hand, a butterfly touch that almost undid him. Rudeness he could handle; sympathy might unman him completely.

“There has to be something we're missing,” he said, frustrated. “But what?”

A frown creased Baba's forehead. “Maybe we're asking the wrong question,” she said. “Instead of ‘why these children?' maybe we should be asking why Maya is working for Peter Callahan?”

“What? What the hell does that have to do with anything?” Alexei said, snagging the last piece of pie. Liam thought briefly that if he'd known there would be such a crowd, he would have brought two. Or maybe, considering Alexei's size, three.

“Maybe the job is just part of her cover,” Mikhail suggested. “A reason to explain why she is around so much.”

“That's my point,” Baba said, drumming her fingers on the table in front of her restlessly. “Why is she hanging around at all? She could spend most of her time in the Otherworld, come through this damned doorway none of us can find, snatch the kids, and go back. But instead, she's worked for Peter Callahan for six months, establishing herself in his office, becoming his trusted associate.
Why?
”

“Well, it's not for the pleasure of his company,” Liam said in a wry tone. “The man's a slime bucket. A smooth and polished one, maybe, but still a slime bucket.”

“Maybe that makes him her type,” Alexei suggested with a leer. “Rusalkas aren't known for their kindly personalities.”