Page 42 of Dead Heat

“Good thing I am home to help you, little one.” Raina stood, sprouted a gorgeous pair of white feathered wings, and flew up to retrieve the creature. Her wings retracted the moment the soles of her feet hit the floor. “My apologies. The wings are instinctive.”

“You’re not a fairy.” My mind was already busy sifting through the other possibilities.

Her chin jerked up. “No. I am often mistaken for one, but my skills are far superior.” She set Chessa on the floor and the creature scurried to hide under the sofa.

“What is she?” I asked.

“A kikimora.”

That wasn’t even on my list. “Aren’t they hideous hunchbacks with malevolent tendencies?”

She beamed with pride. “Not my Chessa. She is nothing like the others of her kind.”

“That’s a relief.” Hideousness aside, kikimoras were known to drown travelers and kidnap children.

She looked at me with renewed interest. “You know of them?”

“My grandfather was very invested in my education.” Andif Chessa was a kikimora … Ding, ding, ding. I had a winner. “You’re a vila, right?”

Raina’s shoulders squared with pride. “I am. Good that your grandfather covered the Slavs. We are not as popular here as the Greeks and Celts. Americans seem to have their favorites.”

I decided to nudge the conversation back toward my intended topic. “I don’t know about that. I’m confident you’d be very popular at the Devil’s Playground.”

She gestured to herself. “In this form, yes. I am much desired.”

Something in her tone gave me pause. “But this isn’t your desired form.”

Her stormy eyes met mine. “No. Part of my strangeness, I suppose. I feel my best in a different body.”

“What other forms can you take?”

She counted them off on her fingers. “Swan, horse, snake, wolf, and falcon.”

Raina didn’t have a team of furry friends because shewasthe team.

“Which one do you prefer?” Although I was fairly certain I already knew the answer.

“The swan.” Her fingers skimmed her neck. “There is no creature more elegant or graceful. I am never more beautiful than when I am covered in white feathers with a long, curved neck.”

Alessandro’s story suddenly made sense. When he’d rejected her overture, Raina felt as though he’d rejected her at her most beautiful as well as her most vulnerable. No wonder she’d reacted poorly.

Her moving revelation also moved her to the top of my suspect list. As a vila, Raina didn’t have magic per se, but she had impressive supernatural abilities. It was time to probe a little deeper.

“Do you ever shift into the other animals or is it only the swan?”

“The horse when I want to blow off steam. I love to gallop through the forest.” Her grey eyes burst with light. “I avoid my wolf form here.”

“Because of the local pack?”

She nodded. “I prefer feathers to fur anyway.” She ran a hand down her opposite arm. “There’s nothing like the soft, silky feeling of plumes all over your body.”

“I wouldn’t know.” The closest I’d gotten to that was an escaped feather from my down pillow.

“I rarely talk like this with strangers, yet I have been talking about myself nonstop, and I still don’t know the reason for your visit.” She leaned forward. “Is that one of your skills? Undue influence?”

“Trust me. My skills aren’t subtle. If I’m influencing you, it will be glaringly obvious.”

She cocked her head. “And now I am intrigued.”

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