Page 36 of The Rusalka and Mr. Right

Marina cuts me off with a sharp swipe of her hand slicing through the air. “Kevin! He is starving the women to death by taking all they earn so that he... So that he can come to America and take me back with him to his homeland. He wants... He wants heirs. Daughters. So that he can use them. Sell them? Take what they earn. Like he’s done to all the others before them.” Marina spreads her hands after her stumbling speech, palms up and open, empty, like she’s got nothing. “Like he used to do with me.”

I need a forklift to pick my jaw up off the ground. “Excuse me? He’s a pimp who wants to breed daughters so he can turn them out, too?”

“Yes.”

One word.

“That is some of the most seriously fucked up shit I have ever heard in my entire existence, and I’m in the medical profession, which is where all the fucked up shit ends up!” I shout, rising with my hands clasped to my head. “Well... Tell him no!”

“I will. It’s just... He’ll kill me. He’s killing the others. The woman who came tonight was my sister. Once.”

My ass hits the floor. You know when they say someone’s knees gave out? I get that now. “Your own sister tried to kill you?” I ask, trying to get back up.

“Yes. And she told me how she and my other sisters killed Gregor so that I would return to Koshchei. So I attacked her. She died.”

“Oh. Ohhh, man. I... Baby, this is a lot to process. Uh. You need a priest? Maybe a therapist? Your mom?”

Marina shakes her head, expression bleak and bereft. “She is gone. I never met her.”

I need answers. I always have the answers. I fix things. I need to fixthis. “What do I do?” I don’t know how to help, and it’s gutting me.

“You can shower with me. Or maybe I will have a bath.”

“I’ll get you a bath with lots of bubbles.” That’s something practical I can do. I race to start filling the tub, and then I race to put on a pot of boiling water for tea before realizing that I don’t own any tea.

Well, I can make hot water with lemon and honey. That’ll have to work. Chocolate. I have chocolate. Stressed people need chocolate.I break the bar of Hershey’s in half and stuff one chunk in my mouth and give the rest to Marina.

What? I’m stressed, too!

Marina takes the chocolate but doesn’t eat it yet. “This is very bad.”

My girl just won first prize for understatement of the year.

“The press will probably be all over this, huh?”

“Not so much. Not here,” Marina nibbles the chocolate and smiles. “Thank you, Kevin.”

“Sure. Of course. Let’s get you in that tub.” I help her up, and when I see that she is hobbling along, trying not to let her right foot touch the ground, I scoop her up. “Just remember, no matter what, I love you.”

Marina goes stiff in my arms, turning wide, startled eyes to me. “What?”

“Oh. I...”You don’t tell a girl that you love her after two weeks, idiot.

But I ain’t taking it back, either.“I just want you to remember that I’m on your side. I love you.”

There’s a long, long pause (several eternities, honestly) while Marina looks at me, stroking fingers across my cheek, her smile finally spreading up to her eyes. “I love you.”

Her head flops on my shoulder, and I squeeze her tight, not caring if sticky yellow sap-like stuff is all over my chest now. “Want me to come in and scrub your back? Give you a massage?” I wiggle my fingers in front of her nose. “These babies are certified healers.”

“Hmm hmm.” Marina laughs, lips pressed shut, eyes shining up at me. “No. Not just yet. I think I need to be alone.”

I TOLD KEV I NEEDEDto be alone, but what nonsense. I will never be alone again. I will be haunted by Darya’s screams and Todd’s once-handsome face with its dead, staring eyes, by Gregor’s still, soaking form...

My mind replays the night's events in slow, tortuous detail.

When everything happened, Ardy, the local policeman who is also a Pooka, came to deal with the situation. Todd’s death will make the news. The Night Watch failed to keep someone safe for the first time in months, and it’s all my fault. Fortunately, the wounds look like a wild animal attack, and people will avoid the woods for a while. Good.

My statement of self-defense was recorded by Ardy, but Jakob knows why I stopped trying to reason with my attacker and ended her fading life instead. Leo, Robbie, and Ardy dealt with the “crime,” and I was whisked away in Minegold’s arms, up to his big house to the north of the river. The whole time he was fussing like a mother hen over my wounds and wrappingme in towels, he was also pulling out books from his impressive collection.

---