Dangerously Fierce

by Deborah Blake

  “Hmm,” Alexei said. “Three hundred years ago would have been about the time that the high queen decreed that all Paranormals return to the Otherworld to live, excepting than those like the Selkies and the Mer who could not leave their oceans, or the tree sprites who could not abandon their trees. Did the tales you heard ever suggest that this pirate was anything other than Human?”

  Niall and his companions all looked shocked.

  “No, that is impossible,” Niall stuttered. “How could that be? It was a story, nothing more. Surely we would have known if it was so.”

  Beka narrowed her eyes, looking pensive. “Still, that was the last time this kraken was heard of, right? That would be an interesting coincidence.”

  Anna shook her head. “But that doesn’t make any sense. If, perchance, this so-called pirate really existed, and if he could actually call up and control a kraken - which seems unlikely in the extreme - and if he was a Paranormal, who was forced to retreat to the Otherworld, then why would he have suddenly reappeared now? Those who live in the Otherworld have little to do with the lands of the Humans.”

  “There is that,” Beka said. “It was just a thought. Anyway, sometimes there is a grain of truth in these old stories, so perhaps you could ask some of your elders if any of them remember any other appearances of a kraken, or something that might have been mistaken for one?”

  “Of course, Baba Yaga,” Niall said, and they all bowed again. “In the meanwhile, we are all grateful that you and the Black Rider are here to help.”

  “I am not the Black Rider anymore,” Alexei growled. But if he was being honest, he hadn’t felt this alive since the incident with Brenna. Perhaps it would not be so bad to assist a Baba Yaga one more time. Just for the heck of it.

  Beka simply ignored him. “We are happy to do what we can. We will investigate, and meet you back here in two days time, to see what information we might all have gathered.”

  The Selkies and the Mer walked up and over a dune, and vanished into the trees like smoke.

  “Well, this sounds a lot more interesting than cleaning up an oil spill or tracking an odd algae overgrowth back to its source,” Beka said, rubbing her hands together in satisfaction. “A possible kraken sighting after all these years, mysterious pirates, disappearing sea life - Barbara is going to be so sorry she didn’t come handle this one herself.” She chuckled. “And that’s before she finds out you’re here. Ha! I can’t wait to call her and gloat.”

  Alexei rolled his eyes. “You know, it might be best to hold off on the gloating until we have actually solved the problem and discovered whether or not the vanishing sea life has anything to do with krakens, pirates, or you know, something completely innocuous, like global warming.”

  “There is nothing innocuous about global warming,” Beka said with a scowl, but then heaved a sigh. “Still, you might have a point there. Let’s go see if we can find out anything from the other locals.”

  “The fishermen, you mean?” Alexei said.

  Beka laughed. “No, silly, the folks who actually live in the seas where this is all taking place. Fire up the boat, big boy. We’re off to talk to some dolphins. Maybe even a whale, if we get lucky.”

  Oh, goody. Call me Ishmael.

  * * *

  They steered The Flora MacDonald out into deeper waters, heading into the ocean off Chatham. They sailed for two hours in ever widening circles until finally Chewie barked at something off the port bow, pointing one paw toward a distant shape. Dragon-dogs had remarkable vision, as he never tired of explaining to Beka.

  When they approached the pod of dolphins, they were greeted by eager squeaking and whistling. There were about a dozen dolphins, although it was hard to get an exact count as they swam in circles around the boat, leaping and diving in an intricate water ballet.

  “Hello, my friends!” Beka yelled to the dolphins.

  More excited clicks and whistles emanated from the group, although one large scarred old male came up close to the side of the boat and seemed to be directing his clicking vocalizations directly toward Beka.

  “How do they know you’re the Baba Yaga?” Alexei asked her without thinking. “You didn’t even introduce yourself yet.”

  Beka’s eyes widened. “A better question might be, how do you know they know? Since when do you speak dolphin?”

  Chapter 10

  “I don’t speak dolphin,” Alexei said automatically. Then he thought about it for a minute, listening to all the chaotic noise. Besides the shouts of “Baba Yaga, it is the Baba Yaga!” he heard the words “boat,” “big man,” and something about fish.

  He blinked. “Oh,” he said. “Maybe I do speak dolphin. Huh. I guess I wasn’t going crazy after all when I thought I was hearing Lulu tell me she wanted to go outside and dig in the dirt.”

  “Well, this is an interesting development,” Beka said. “I can speak dolphin, but only because I did a spell for it, and it works a lot better when I am actually in the water with them. I was going to go in, but the water on this side of the country is damned cold and I’d just as soon not get into my wetsuit if I don’t have to.”

  Alexei gave her a look.

  “Hey, there’s surfing on Cape Cod. Did you think I wasn’t going to bring my wetsuit along? What’s the point in living in a magical traveling hut turned painted school bus if you can’t use it to tote along all your stuff?” She grinned at him. “We’ll have to go out later. We haven’t surfed together in ages, and I do so enjoy watching you fall off a board. But in the meanwhile, why don’t you ask our new friends if they have seen any sign of a sea monster, or anything else unusual?”

  “Um, how?” Alexei asked. “I mean, I can make out some of what they’re saying, but I don’t exactly speak dolphin.” There was no way he was going to start making random clicking and whistling sounds. With his luck, he’d probably say something rude or obscene by accident.

  Beka laughed, tossing her long hair back out of her face as the wind picked up. “When you talk to Lulu the dog, do you bark at her, or just speak normally?”

  “I do not go around barking,” Alexei said, scowling at her. As usual, the look that would have made a grown man quake just bounced off the blonde woman. The Riders had helped raise Beka and the other Baba Yagas from the time they’d each been adopted by their mentor Babas, usually around four or five years of age. Despite his strength and ferocity, they all tended to view him as a quirky kindly uncle who happened to be good in a fight. It was annoying.

  “Then clearly part of your new gift, if that’s what this is, makes it work both ways. You can understand animals - at least dogs and dolphins so far - and they can understand you. It seems to have worked with your pal Lulu. Go ahead, try it.”

  Alexei rolled his eyes, but figured if he failed, the worst that would happen was he’d get to laugh at her when she had to get into the bitter Atlantic waters and freeze her skinny butt off.

  “Uh, hello,” he said, gazing down over the side of the boat. “I am Alexei, friend to the Baba Yaga. We have some questions for you, if you don’t mind.”

  The large male looked at him, his scarred nose bobbing up and down in the water as he worked to stay in one place. “Ask questions, friend of Baba. We will try to answer, if we can.” The other dolphins whistled their agreement.

  “Cool,” Alexei said, mostly to himself. Then thought, wait until I tell Gregori and Mikhail, forgetting that they weren’t all together anymore, and for a moment the darkness threatened to overwhelm him again, like waves from the bottom of the sea. He pulled himself together with an effort.

  “What do you want me to ask them?” This was Beka’s gig - he was only along for the ride. Let her figure out what she wanted to know.

  He guessed he’d spoken a little more harshly than he’d intended to when she raised both eyebrows and stared at him, but too bad. This wasn’t his job anymore, and he suddenly didn’t feel like being out here, trying to pretend to be useful.

  Beka bit her lip, but said, “I
guess you can start by asking them if they’ve seen any monsters.”

  “How the hell do you say ‘monster’ in dolphin?” Alexei muttered. Then said more loudly, “The Baba Yaga would like to know if you have seen any monsters.”

  As he’d suspected, this just got him some confused sounding whistling and nothing else.

  “What is monster?” the scarred dolphin asked eventually. Alexei heard the word repeated back to him as something that translated more closely into “big not real creature.”

  “Oh, ah, something very large that doesn’t belong in your water?” Alexei said, trying to think like a dolphin. “Scary big creature that hurts dolphins and attacks ships?”

  This was met with lots of loud, high-pitched whistling and rapid clicking. Even without his newfound talent, he would have recognized agitation when he heard it.

  “I’m guessing that’s a ‘yes,’” Beka said dryly.

  Alexei hung even further over the side of the boat and held up his hand. “Slow down,” he begged. “One at a time, please. It is hard for me to understand you when you all talk at once.”

  He was pretty sure he heard a teen-sized dolphin say something to a companion about stupid Humans. Alexei didn’t bother to correct him.

  “Big scary thing, yes,” the large dolphin said. “Eats all that swim in ocean.”

  “Eats whales!” another member of the pod said.

  “Pulls ships under the water!” added another. “With many long ugly flippers.”

  “Long ugly flippers?” Alexei repeated that, and the rest, to Beka.

  “Hmmm,” she said. “Maybe they don’t have a word for tentacle in their language.” She waved her arms at the dolphins. “Ask if these are flippers.”

  “Yes, flippers. Two little flippers,” the dolphin who had mentioned the ships said, bobbing his head. “Big thing has many many flippers. Very long, very large, very ugly. Bad. Bad thing.”

  “You can say that again,” Beka said in a grim tone. “It sounds like a bad, bad thing indeed.”

  * * *

  Hayreddin stared into the bottom of his glass so he wouldn’t reach across the table and tear out the throat of the frustrating Human sitting opposite him. Red wasn’t sure if it was the long years since he’d last visited on this side of the doorway, or simply that this particular male was even more obtuse than usual, but it seemed as though they were speaking two different languages.

  He cleared his throat and tried again. “If we are to be successful pirates, we must have a larger ship and many more men. Your boat is too small for our needs. You will get us a bigger ship. What is the problem?”

  Len drank from the beer bottle he held, then wiped his full lips with the back of a slightly grubby hand. Under a black cap, his hair was overlong and stringy, and his face was narrow, with deep set dark brown eyes and a scruffy beard. Hayreddin thought Len was an unimpressive specimen, even for a Human, but this what Red had to work with, so he would simply have to make the best of it.

  “I’ve tried to tell you,” Len said. “There are no pirates anymore. Only a few Somalis in speedboats. I’m a smuggler, but it isn’t the same thing at all. I told you what happened on my last trip. Until I raise the cash to pay back the Russian mob, I can’t be spending money on a big ship or more men. We’re just going to have to manage with what we’ve got.”

  Red held back a sigh. “And I have told you - with the help of the talisman and the kraken it controls - we can not only find my lost treasure, but also capture the boats of the wealthy and take the riches they hold. There will be plenty of money for a larger ship and more men, and without them, we will not be able to haul away our booty, or search for the treasure.”

  He did not believe this Human when he said there were no more pirates. There were always pirates, although perhaps these days they went by some other name. But whenever there were those who had much, there were others who would willingly relieve them of it. It was the nature of men, as much as it was the nature of dragons to collect shiny precious objects.

  It had taken more effort than it should have, but Red had finally convinced Len that yes, the talisman really was magic, and yes, Red could show him how to work it, but the stupid Human still seemed to be having trouble grasping the rest of the plan. (And of course, Red could not exactly tell Len that he needed to be the one to activate the talisman, because if Red did it, there would be Consequences.)

  “We will take your small boat out today,” Red finally said in a decisive tone that made it clear he would accept no more argument. “We will find a likely target and you will summon up the kraken to attack it. If we cannot find such a ship, we will send the kraken in search of treasure on the bottom of the sea. Even if it cannot find my own great plunder at first, there must be other lost ships resting on the ocean floor. We will get the money we need for a larger boat and more men. And then we will show the world that there are indeed still pirates, and ones with a fearsome secret weapon at that.”

  Len drank the rest of his beer in one long swallow. “Sure,” he said, not sounding at all suitably excited by the prospect. “Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.”

  The man was an idiot. Hayreddin was definitely going to eat him as soon as he no longer needed a Human partner.

  * * *

  The man was an idiot, Len thought to himself. Or delusional. Or both. Definitely dangerous as hell, and as far as Len could tell, perfectly serious about the two of them becoming pirates on the high seas with a crew of toughs at their command. Admittedly, this was Len’s childhood dream, and if anyone could pull it off, it was probably his new pal Red.

  But still, it was as though the guy had never heard of the Coast Guard, or sending money by wire transfers to a bank in the Caymans instead of putting it on a ship in the form of gold coins and precious jewels. It was as if he’d slept through the last couple of centuries, for god’s sake. Crazy as a bag full of badgers, as Len’s grandmother used to say. He’d never known what the hell that was supposed to mean. Until now. Mean and dangerous and completely irrational.

  Unfortunately, Len needed him, crazy or not. He had to get that money for the Russians soon, or it wasn’t going to matter that he’d hooked up with a guy who was just as likely to get him killed as he was to make him rich. And Len was out of any other, less insane, options.

  Plus, there was that gold coin. That was real. And that huge octopus-squid thing that Red called a kraken, that had been real too. So now they were taking Len’s boat (which was not too small, damn it) out so Red could prove to Len that he really did know how to make the talisman work, and hopefully get them enough money to rent a bigger ship and pay some lowlifes to crew it for them. Oh, yay.

  Len had considered the possibility that Red would just slit his throat and steal the talisman, but he kind of figured that if the big guy was going to do that, he would have done it already. For some reason, Red insisted that Len had to be the one to do the calling - sorry, “summoning” - of the mythological beast. He’d given Len some kind of convoluted story about only the true owner being able to use the magic or something. To be honest, Len hadn’t really been listening; he was just glad the large crazy man thought he needed Len as much as Len needed him. That would have to be enough, for now.

  Either it was all a load of crap, and Red wouldn’t be able to show him how to work the damn thing, and Len would be right back where he started (screwed and desperate), or it would turn out that all his grandfather’s stories had really been true, and Len was living in some kind of freaking fairy tale. As long as it got him his money and saved his skin, he guessed he could learn to live with that.

  Luckily, Len had one advantage that would work in their favor for playing pirate while they searched for Red’s huge stash. As a smuggler, Len knew lots of other smugglers, and had some idea of who used which routes to carry valuable goods, drugs, or even illegal immigrants. (They definitely didn’t want one of those ships. Hell no.)

  Sure, in theory they all stayed out of each other’s business, be
cause not doing so could get you killed. But hey, he was going to get killed anyway, if he didn’t fix his little two million dollar Russian problem, and he kind of figured that Red would have a lot fewer qualms than Len did about taking out whoever was on the ships they stopped, if that was the only way to keep their secret.

  Hell, if Red was right about the kraken pulling the ships down to the bottom of the ocean and then bringing up the valuables, he and Red would never have to get their hands dirty at all. Plus any evidence would be deep underwater. Ships disappear; it happens. So maybe this wasn’t such a crazy plan after all. If they could really get the talisman to work.

  * * *

  Right before dusk, they found a likely spot. Len had heard through the grapevine that one of his dubious acquaintances (smugglers didn’t have friends) was going to be heading this way tonight with a load of cash and guns being smuggled out of the country. Probably for the Mexican cartel, which wasn’t any healthier to mess with than the Russian mob, but hell, what choice did he have?

  It probably would have been simpler to find a ship smuggling drugs - there were plenty of those. But not only did Len not have the connections to move large amounts of cocaine or marijuana, but if the mob got word of him doing so, they might decide he’d made up the story about the Coast Guard and figure he’d just stolen their drugs. That would be bad. Very, very bad.

  They might be willing to let him try and come up with the money to replace their lost merchandise, but if they thought he’d stolen it, they would hunt him down and kill him slowly and gruesomely to serve as an example to anyone else who might be stupid enough to try the same thing. No thank you.