“A kraken?” Gregori repeated. “Have you - no, of course you haven’t.”
There was a moment of silence when they both thought about the days when it would have been automatic to contact one of the Baba Yagas if they ran into something odd and paranormal. Those days were over now, blown away like so much dust in the wind.
“Not my business,” Alexei growled. “Besides, I haven’t seen it. Just heard a story and saw a giant sucker mark on a dead fish. Might be nothing.”
“Uh huh.” Gregori sighed. “Leave it to you to stumble across trouble even at the ends of the world, wherever that is.”
“Cape Cod,” Alexei said, not sure why he was so reluctant to tell his brother where he was. After all, it wasn’t as though he was staying. “But I’m leaving soon.”
Another pause while his brother - always the smartest of them all - processed what he’d heard, and what he hadn’t heard. “You don’t sound all that happy about it,” Gregori said finally. “Are you finally getting tired of traveling from place to place? Nothing wrong with that, if you are. Mikhail and I are both finding it surprisingly pleasant to finally set down roots. Endlessly moving isn’t quite as attractive as it used to be when we had forever to do it in. And the Baba Yagas to do it for.”
Alexei sighed. “Maybe. A little bit. There’s this woman. Well, and the dog, and the woman’s father, and a bar…” His voice trailed off when he thought about the bar. Damn it.
“This woman, you like her?” Gregori sounded torn between amusement and concern. “She’s a Human?”
“Bah,” Alexei said. “I wouldn’t say I like her. She drives me nuts. I’m helping to take care of her father, who also drives me nuts. The dog is nice. I like the dog.” Lulu reached up and licked his face. “Aw, cut it out, Lulu. That’s disgusting.”
“Is Lulu the woman?” Gregori asked. “In which case, should you be on the phone right now? It sounds like you’re busy.”
Alexei rolled his eyes. “Lulu is the dog, and she just gave me a stinky dog kiss. Bethany is the woman, and she runs her father’s bar for him, since he broke his back. I’m um, kind of helping out with him. Just for now, because she’d giving me a place to stay for free. Besides, he’s a stubborn old man, and you know how I like a challenge.”
This time the silence on the other end of the phone went on a little longer.
“Let me get this straight,” his brother said finally. “You found yourself a woman who runs a bar. That sounds pretty perfect for you. And you’re taking care of her disabled father, which sounds slightly out of character, but I’ve seen you do odder things. So what’s the problem?”
“How do you know there is one?” More silence, flavored this time with the air of a knowing older brother. “Fine, fine, you win. There might be a small problem. I might have kind of trashed the bar tonight.”
“Alexei!”
“Hey, we used to wreck bars all the time. And the other guy started it.” Alexei kicked a pebble with the toe of his boot. “But Bethany is furious with me, and I don’t blame her. She told me the first night I got here not to get into any fights in her place, and I just kind of forgot. You know, for a second, it felt like old times.” Except that you weren’t there. But he couldn’t say that.
“So what are you going to do?” Gregori asked, more gently than Alexei felt like he deserved.
He shrugged, even though his brother couldn’t see it. “Leave, I guess. She’s probably going to kick me out as soon as she gets home anyway.”
“I thought you were helping with her father. Doesn’t she need you?”
“She needs me not to wreck her damned bar, that’s what she needs,” Alexei said, wishing he could kick himself instead of the stupid pebble.
“Do you want to stay?” Gregori asked. “Because it kind of sounds to me like you do.”
Alexei mumbled something that might have been an assent.
“Then maybe you should offer to fix the things you broke,” his brother suggested. “You screwed up, then stay and fix it. You always were good with your hands. Apologize to the woman, make it better, and don’t do it again. Maybe do something symbolic to show how sorry you are.”
Huh. Gregori always managed to make things sound so simple and reasonable. That used to aggravate the crap out of Alexei, but this time he was kind of grateful. Assuming, of course, that he could find some tools, and that Bethany would listen to him long enough to let him make the offer. He thought it was more likely that she’d throw things at him until he was bleeding and lying on the ground. Well, he was tough. He could take it.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll give that a try, I guess. Thanks.”
“What are older brothers for?” Gregori said lightly. “And keep me posted on the talking dog thing, will you? It doesn’t sound as perilous as what Mikhail and I went through, but you want to be careful nonetheless.”
“Huh.” Alexei glanced down at Lulu, lying at his feet and panting, her swollen belly making her look ungainly and uncomfortable. “Somehow I don’t think I’m in any danger from a pregnant Great Dane, but I’ll try and stay alert.”
Gregori chuckled. “You do that. And Alexei?”
“Yes?”
“It was nice to talk to you. Try not to make it so long the next time, please.”
“Maybe,” Alexei said. “And Gregori, I, um, I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” his brother asked, sounding genuinely baffled. “For not calling? We’ve all had to deal with this change in our own way.”
“No, not for that. For not protecting you and Mikhail from Brenna, when we were all trapped in the cave. I let you both down, and I’m sorry.” Alexei rubbed one hand over his eyes, which prickled strangely. Must be some strange side effect from the sea air.
“You did not let us down,” Gregori said. “Why would you think that?”
“I’m the strongest,” Alexei said simply. “I should have been able to break us out. I should have been able to beat one small, aged witch. But I didn’t. I wasn’t strong enough. And so you and Mikhail had to endure unending torture. It was my fault.”
“Oh, Alexei. Is this why you have been avoiding us all?” Gregori’s voice sounded immeasurably sad. “You were tortured just as much. I still remember when you held on to those magically reinforced bars to distract Brenna, even though your fingers burned and your skin melted. If strength alone could have gotten us out, you would certainly have done it, my large brother. Don’t you think that Mikhail blamed himself for being tricked by Brenna and get us all caught in the first place? Or that I felt as though I should have been able to outsmart her?”
Alexei had never considered that his brothers might feel as guilty, as responsible as he did. “But, it wasn’t your fault. Not either of you. The witch was just too powerful. And too evil.”
“Exactly,” Gregori said. “Too much for even your immense strength to overcome. Please do not blame yourself. We all survived - and now we are both less and yet somehow more than what we once were. It is what it is. The only thing left is to figure out what you want to be now that you cannot be who you were.”
“What if I have no idea what that is?” Alexei asked.
“Perhaps it might be good to start with the woman who drives you nuts. At the very least, it sounds like it should be entertaining.”
Alexei was fairly certain that was laughter he heard in his brother’s voice.
“I’ll think about it,” he said.
“Perhaps you might also think about contacting Mikhail and the Baba Yagas,” Gregori said. “They all miss you too.”
Alexei sighed. “Not yet, Gregori. I’m just not ready.”
“Very well,” his brother said. “Then I hope you will call me again. If nothing else, I am curious to hear whether or not you can talk to animals now.”
“He can,” Lulu barked.
“Not helping,” Alexei muttered. “We’ll see,” he said to Gregori. “But thanks for the advice.” He ended the call and sat there for a minute, then heaved himself
up and went into the house to ask Calum if he happened to have any woodworking tools lying around. You know, just in case Bethany didn’t kick him out the minute she came home.
Plus, he needed a pair of scissors. He was going to do something symbolic. It remained to be seen if Bethany would understand just how deeply symbolic it was.
Chapter 7
In the end, she let him stay. The apology helped, but in truth, Bethany didn’t have much choice. The agency said the earliest they could sent someone new would be the beginning of the following week - if they could find anyone willing to work with Calum at all. She tried convincing the manager that Calum was being a lot better, but in her heart, she knew that was mostly because of Alexei’s combination of sneakiness and sheer brute force, and not an indication that Calum was likely to be more cooperative with anyone else.
Besides - when she’d gotten home, he’d gone and cut his beard. He didn’t say a word, just left the braided end sitting on the table, like a note from Samson to Delilah, and shown up at breakfast the next day with it shorter and more neatly trimmed. A little less wild man, a little more civilized. Not subtle, but then neither was Alexei.
So she gritted her teeth and told him he could stay for another week. But he was banned from the bar, and at the first sign of trouble, he was out. Alexei didn’t argue. Didn’t even balk at her cool tone and the distance she kept. Just took her father’s woodworking tools, left over from the days he did repairs on his boat, and set to work fixing the worst of the wrecked furniture that she had hauled home in her truck.
The tables, when she got them back, were a revelation. She’d seen him working on them in the evenings when she’d gotten home from the bar, his huge form bent over in the dim light of a hanging lantern in the back yard, wood shavings littering the ground at his feet like late snow. But when she took them back to The Hook and Anchor and really looked at them, she was taken by surprise. Stunned, even.
The broken pine legs had been replaced with sturdy pieces of oak, adorned by fanciful carvings. Mermaids danced up one set of legs, frolicking amidst the seaweed and chests spilling over with treasure. On another table, dolphins swam in pursuit of schools of fish, the details so clear that the regulars chortled and pointed, recognizing the different types they caught so often. A third table featured fierce pirates, battling with each other or sailing the sea through shark-infested waters. The tops of each table had been stripped of their worn varnish and refinished, so they glowed in the soft lights of the bar. Here and there small scenes were etched into the surface - shallow enough so they wouldn’t interfere with the function, but matching the more intricate carvings down below. The damn things weren’t just repaired. They were works of art.
The customers were fascinated and word of mouth brought in the curious to see them, all of them staying to drink a beer or two. Bethany made enough from the extra business the first few days to more than make up for whatever she’d lost in cheap broken glassware.
At the end of the week, she came home from work, slammed the door, and glared at Alexei, who was putting together a picture puzzle with her father in the kitchen.
“Fine,” she said. “Come back to the damned bar. You might as well fix the rest of the chairs there; I’m tired of hauling them back and forth. But no drinking. And if you so much as chip a coffee mug, I’m going to kill you and bury you in the back yard, even if I have to hire three guys to carry you there for me. Got it?”
The two men stared at her.
Alexei nodded slowly. “Got it,” he said. “It was okay, what I did with the tables? Not too fancy? I can do them again if you don’t like them.” His accent was stronger than usual, which Bethany had found usually indicated some strong emotion. This time, it probably just meant he was tired or something. Not much to get emotional about when you were talking about furniture.
“They are…nice. People like them. They’re a conversation piece,” Bethany said. “You’re very talented.”
Alexei blushed, something she would have guessed was impossible. “Bah,” he said, ducking his head. “Just an old hobby. Something I used to do to pass the time by the campfire. I started out carving little wooden toys for…for some little girls I knew. I’ve just had a long time to practice, that is all.”
“Well, whatever. They’re okay. People like being able to keep finding new little details whenever they look at them. I keep getting requests.”
“Like what?” Calum asked. “Naked ladies?”
Bethany rolled her eyes. The mermaids had been bad enough. “No, more like favorite sea birds, or whales. One guy even asked for dragons. Who knew our customers had such vivid imaginations?”
Calum snorted. “There’s a lot of time to daydream on a boat, in between the hours of backbreaking work and the long trips in and out of port.” He got a distant look in his eyes, and he rubbed his stubbly chin, his whole body drooping a little.
“Time for bed,” Alexei said, his sharp eyes picking up on the signs. He looked at Bethany. “You’re sure it is okay I come back? I promise this time I’ll remember. And I’ll carve you some dragons. I like dragons.”
“Fine,” Bethany said. The truth was, she’d kind of missed having him hanging around the place. It had been oddly quiet, and there always seemed to be a giant, Alexei-shaped hole at one end of the bar. “Just until the agency finds a new aide to send.”
Calum made a rude gesture and wheeled his chair toward the bedroom.
“Good night to you too, dad,” Bethany said with a sigh, and went to go walk the dog.
* * *
It was Monday and Alexei was back at the bar and something was wrong.
Bethany couldn’t quite put her finger on it. He was behaving. Which, let’s face it, maybe was part of what felt off, but it was more than that. He’d come in at ten in the evening, gotten a cup of coffee without a protest, and sat in the corner using some hand tools to mend a chair that had seen better days even before it had been whacked across someone’s shoulders.
This was the third night since she’d allowed him back in, and he’d mended a few more pieces of furniture, along with a few other things around the place that her father had let go. Occasionally he’d joined in on a game of darts or pool, but his heart hadn’t seemed in it. In fact, if she had to pinpoint what was wrong, she would have said that something inside him seemed as broken as the chairs, but she didn’t know what, or how to fix it.
She’d had to remind herself that Alexei Knight wasn’t her problem. It wasn’t her job to fix him, or anyone else, except maybe her father, who she was pretty sure was beyond help. Alexei was just passing through and would be gone in a week or two. It was a waste of her extremely limited time and energy to worry about him.
Needless to say, that didn’t stop her. She wasn’t even sure why she bothered to talk to herself if she wasn’t going to listen. She was almost relieved when, later that night, his interest was caught by a conversation between her and two men sitting at the bar.
“So what is it you do, exactly?” Bethany asked the tall, quiet one wearing glasses and carrying a bag bulging with files, a small laptop, and a stuffed parrot, of all things.
“I’m an oceanographer,” he explained. “I work out of Woods Hole. I’m supposed to be researching changing ocean currents, but we’ve had so many reports lately of disappearing fish and sea mammals, I was assigned to look into it.”
“Sea mammals,” the fisherman sitting next to him said in a disparaging tone. “He means whales and dolphins. I don’t know why you science geeks can’t just say what you mean.” He drank down a huge gulp of his beer. “Every damn thing in the ocean is disappearing. Might as well say so.”
The oceanographer shook his head, but drank down his own beer faster than usual.
“You mean because of global warming and such?” Bethany asked. There was always an ongoing debate among the locals as to whether or not climate change was to blame for the worsening fishing.
“Well, that too,” the oceanographer said. �
��But in this particular case, there seems to have been a dramatic change in the last week or two. We can’t find anything to explain it. The water temps have stayed more or less steady, there are no unexplained shifts in the current patterns, salinity is unchanged. But the fishermen who called us are right. The fish aren’t where they should be, and there aren’t nearly as many whales or dolphins as there normally are. Frankly, we’re baffled.”
Bethany noticed Alexei listening intently to the conversation, so when she brought his a refill for his coffee, she asked, “Do you think what they’re talking about has anything to do with your hypothetical kraken?”
Interest sparked in his eyes for the first time since the night of the bar fight. “I wouldn’t be surprised. After all, think about how big a kraken is. It has to eat something, right? Probably a lot of somethings.”
Bethany shuddered, envisioning a great monster lurking under the ocean’s surface, just waiting to grab a passing dolphin. Or maybe one of the fishermen who went out every morning, no matter what the weather, trying to keep their families fed.
“Should we tell the scientist from Woods Hole?” she asked. The research institute was widely respected locally, even by people who usually had little patience with what the other man had called “science geeks.”
“Or warn the fishermen?” Although what they’d warn them about, she wasn’t quite sure. She’d seen the sucker marks on the cod Alexei had found, and against her will she believed there was something large and dangerous in the waters off the Cape. She doubted it was a kraken, or anything else mythological. Still, even a real life giant squid could clearly take out a sizeable boat.
Of course, there was probably no need to spread the word among the locals. The fisherman’s grapevine had probably already done that. Nonetheless, the ships still set out every morning. They had to make a living, no matter what.
The light went out in Alexei’s eyes again. “There is nothing to do,” he said, sounding unusually bleak. “It’s not my job anymore.”
Dangerously Fierce (The Broken Riders Book 3) Page 7