I should just fucking walk back to Moscow.
Instead, Shay headed for the only café in town and took a seat at the counter. She chowed down on a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. No one paid her much attention, but she also didn’t know if they were talking about her at all.
A beautiful redhead stepped into the café as the other patrons and the owner looked her way and tensed.
What do we have here? Local queen bee?
The woman was several years younger than Shay with a pale complexion and slender build. Elaborate floral patterns covered her maxi dress. She glided over toward Shay and sat next to her without a word.
“Can I help you?” Shay kept both her hands above the table in case she needed to go for a weapon.
“No, but I can help you. I’m Irina.” Her accent was Russian but with an odd inflection.
“Unless you have a car you can give me, you can’t help me.”
“Oh, but I do have a car I can give you, and I’m aware of your trouble with your rental vehicle.”
Shay raised an eyebrow and took another bite of her sandwich, letting the time tick by. “In some postage-stamp-sized town like this, I can’t be surprised that everyone knows my business. Why do you want to help me?”
“Because it’ll annoy certain people I don’t like.”
Shay laughed. “What? Your townies don’t appreciate a tourist?”
“Something like that. I find them backward and short-sighted.” Irina sighed and shook her head. “The world has moved on, but they still cling to old traditions.”
“Look, I can pay if you have a car I can rent.”
“You don’t need to pay. Not with money.”
Shay narrowed her eyes. “You can’t want to fuck with these people that much.”
“We all have those that annoy us.” The woman folded her hands in front of her on the counter.
Shay dipped her gaze for a moment. The woman’s dress remained dry, but water leaked from her hands, and a small pool was forming on the table. Further inspection of her legs and feet showed water under her as well. The woman was like a leaky faucet.
Shay considered going for her weapon, but if she gunned down a woman in the middle of a café, everyone in town could descend on her. It was too close to call.
She could take them, but massacring an entire village seemed excessive, even for her.
Killing a woman for being wet probably wouldn’t work as a justification.
“What the fuck are you?” Shay muttered. “You the Queen of the Frogmen or something?”
Irina scowled. “Don’t ever compare me to those disgusting vodyanoy. This country would be better off without their kind, even if they do have their uses on occasion.”
“Okay, sorry. If it makes you feel any better, I took out a batch near the old church ruins.”
At least I think I did.
The watery woman responded with a scoff. “You shot them?”
“Yeah. They went down. They bled.”
Then they disappeared.
Irina sighed. “They’ve already healed. They can’t come into the village because they fear me, but if you leave in my vehicle, they can’t hunt you. And they’ll return in far greater numbers than you faced before.”
Fucking wonderful. I didn’t actually kill any of them.
Shay shook her head. “I still don’t understand who you are.”
“Some might refer me to me as a rusalka. Some would say I’m an evil spirit. Some would say I’m a ghost, but the truth is, I’m a woman who carries an ancient grudge. I was wronged in an old life, and I was given a chance at another. This village is mine and I intend to improve it.”
“Okay, so how do I fit into all of this?”
“You came to recover that wretched locket, I presume, and you have it. The vodyanoy wouldn’t be after you otherwise.”
Shay wondered if she should lie but decided against it. Pissing off some strange Russian water spirit wasn’t high on her list of survivable encounters. “The frogmen killed the rest of the people who have gone after it?”
“I’ve lost count over the last couple of centuries how many fools have come for it. The vodyanoy take them to the river as sacrifices to me.” Irina laughed softly. “It’s a quaint gesture and unnecessary anymore. I’ve found better ways to gain my power.”
“But you want to help me escape?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Irina’s eyes gleamed with curiosity. “Because you’re the first woman to come for the locket, and there’s something I sense in you. A destiny, perhaps. Something great or something horrible, but still grandiose. I want to see where that goes, and I don’t think it ends with you being drowned in our local river.”
Shay blinked. “I don’t have a special destiny. I’m just a tomb raider.”
Sure, I used to be a hitman, but it’s not like those are rare in this world.
“And I just used to be nothing more than a farmer’s daughter.” The woman put out her palm. A single key lay there in a pool of water.
Shay pushed her plate away. “There’s something else. Something you’re not telling me.”
Irina tilted her head. “Does it matter as long as you get what you want?”
“It does not.” Is this the part where I lose my soul?
“Go now,” Irina said. “Take the locket. They’ll wander away from the area once it’s gone.” The rusalka nodded to a blue Marussia sitting outside. The sports car was wildly out of place in the modest and small village.
Shay snatched up the key. No one got something for nothing. Irina was using Shay to get rid of the frogmen.
Works for me.
Shay didn’t plan to return to this village ever. She didn’t care if she was changing some sort of local balance of supernatural power. All she cared about was doing her job and getting paid. She doubted
