Alexei sent the neighbor lady home early, got Calum comfortably ensconced in front of the television in his pajamas watching one of his favorite crime dramas, and then went outside to sit on the back steps with Lulu. He left the door open a crack so he could hear if Calum yelled for him, even though he was pretty sure that the old man’s bellow was audible three houses away.
“I really screwed things up this time, Lulu,” Alexei said, giving her an illicit treat. Bethany said the dog was supposed to be on a very specific diet until the puppies were born - which ought to be any day now - but Alexei figured that all pregnant women deserved a little treat now and then.
The Great Dane mouthed the biscuit daintily then lowered herself to the ground with a sigh, large paws resting on Alexei’s similarly oversized motorcycle boots. He rubbed her ears absently, still brooding.
He didn’t know what he was more upset about; that he’d wrecked the bar, or that he really hadn’t had fun doing it. In a way, both issues were equally upsetting.
The truth of the matter was, in all the years that he and his brothers had spent brawling and fighting, he’d never really considered the damage they’d left behind. Never really thought about Human lives at all, except in the context of whatever job the Baba Yagas had them doing. They’d always been on the move and he’d never had time to get attached to any one place or any one Human. Not that he was attached now. Not really. No, not at all. He barely knew Bethany. And she was a Human, for heaven’s sake. But still. At least this time he was able to see the after effects of what he’d done, and he didn’t much like it. Didn’t much like himself right this very minute, and it wasn’t his nature to think about things that way.
He felt terrible about wrecking Bethany’s place when she’d been nothing but good to him. But that was only part of the problem. Because if drinking and fighting didn’t make him happy anymore, he had no idea what to do with the rest of his life.
Alexei groaned, resting his head in his hands. This was why he’d never wanted to think about things too much. It made his skull pound, and put a funny hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“What did you do now?” a deep growly voice asked. A rough tongue swiped across his cheek.
Alexei sighed. He hadn’t made up his mind if he believed the dog was actually talking to him, or if it was just a symptom of his new mortality, a sign that he was, as the Humans said, “losing it.” Of course, considering that after they were changed by Brenna’s evil magic, his brother Mikhail became a shapeshifter and Gregori developed powerful psychic abilities inherited from his shamaness mother, Alexei supposed anything was possible.
“I made a mess at the bar and Bethany is mad at me,” he explained to Lulu. “Hell, I don’t blame her. I’m mad at myself.”
Another lick followed by a huge, stinky dog-breath yawn. “When I make a mess, I just look sad and she forgives me. You look sad. Girl forgive you too?”
“I don’t think it’s going to be that simple, Lulu.” Alexei fished another treat out of his pocket.
The smart thing to do would be to just move on. This was only ever supposed to be temporary anyway. Bethany would find someone else to deal with the cantankerous old man - although maybe not someone who could get him to eat right or do his exercises. Still, that wasn’t Alexei’s problem. He was just passing through on the way to someplace better. Someplace without a feisty flame-haired dynamo who could stand toe to toe with him. He’d find someone else to watch across the room when she wasn’t looking, just to catch a glimpse of that dimpled smile. And as for Lulu…he didn’t care if he never saw her puppies born.
Okay, that one was definitely a lie.
“I don’t suppose you could have your babies tonight, before I go?” he said to the Great Dane.
Lulu gave him a sad-eyed look. “Man go?” She whined, resting her head heavily on top of her paws. “No. No go.”
“I wish I knew if you were really talking to me,” Alexei said. He could call one of the Baba Yagas and ask for their opinion, but he wasn’t ready to face them yet. Not when he’d let them down so badly. Because of him, they had to fight all their battles alone now, with no Riders at their sides.
No, he couldn’t call any of them, not tough and cranky Barbara, who would probably tell him he was crazy and it served him right. Or sweet Beka, who would say something New Age about the universe speaking to him through nature’s creatures, or Bella, whose red hair and fiery temper just made him think of Bethany.
That only left two people he could ask. The two he had let down the most. The two he couldn’t imagine ever being able to look in the eye again, but didn’t know how to live without.
“I miss my brothers,” he admitted to Lulu. The hollow feeling in his stomach moved up into his chest, settling there like a stone. A boulder, more like.
She whined again. “Call?” she said. “Talk?”
Alexei fingered the cell phone in the inside pocket of his leather jacket. The Riders had never used such things, and Barbara hated them. But when the evil former Baba Yaga Brenna had stolen the Riders’ immortality, rendering them Riders no more, it had also broken the bond that had allowed the Baba Yagas to communicate with the brothers through the symbols permanently attached to their bodies. His dragon tattoo was nothing more than decorative now.
While they were still all healing in the Otherworld, Beka had created a mix of technology and magic; as the youngest and newest of the Babas, this was something that came much more naturally to her than to the others. Messengers had delivered the cell phones to each of the broken Riders, with all of their numbers and those of the Baba Yagas already programmed in, and the information that the spell that powered them meant they would work anywhere and never need to be recharged.
Alexei had never even turned his on. He had nothing to say to anyone. Nothing except “I’m sorry I failed you,” and that seemed inadequate under the circumstances.
Now he took it out and stared at it. He’d meant to throw it away a million times. Had even tossed it into the ocean once, back when he was on the west coast. But the waves had brought it back to his feet, and the magic apparently meant it was waterproof as well, which made sense since Beka was a surfer and spent so much time at the shore.
But maybe it was time to finally put it to use. And under the circumstances, there was only one clear choice for who to call. After patting Lulu on the head one more time for moral support, he powered it up and then touched the icon that said “Gregori.”
*