Come to Me (Song of the Water Nymph)

Like a siren to the sailor moribund

Her song of love will drag you ever down

Her kiss will take you to a fabled sacred land

Her lips will break you and lead you to the dance

Come to me, she's calling you

Come to me, come to me

Come to me, I'll break your heart

Come to me, come to me

- Inkubus Sukkubus, Come to Me (Song of the Water Nymph)

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Ten tense, confusing minutes later, Tooth was seething, Jack was oblivious, North and Sandy were far too amused, and Bunny looked like he was wishing for a drink. A strong one.

Meanwhile, the rusalka that was the cause of all of it kept giving Jack sidelong glances and batting her eyes flirtatiously, playing with her hair and shifting from foot to foot.

She wasn't jealous, Tooth knew, she just had to keep an eye on that woman for Jack's sake. Rusalka were created out of the spirits of women who had been betrayed by their lovers and had killed themselves in despair, cursed to spend their afterlives drowning young men in revenge, and Jack had, by his own admission, already died once, and by drowning at that, so he shouldn't have to go through it again, even if he would wake back up eventually. That was the only reason she was glaring, really.

Meanwhile Jack, the oblivious traitor, was leaning on his staff, earnestly trying to convince the rusalka to leave the kids alone, negotiating for scaring the people who came too close to her lake without actually killing any, to try and prevent more tragedies like the ones that created rusalka in the first place. Apparently, he'd been negotiating with her before they got there, and Baby Tooth had jumped the gun a little on running for backup.

Not that Tooth blamed her, Baby Tooth wasn't used to judging danger yet.

Tooth had to admit, while she didn't like the idea of scaring anyone, it was a good idea Jack was proposing. Scare the young men or boys who were likeliest to grow up to use and discard women so they would think twice, and scare the young women and girls with the reality of being a rusalka as opposed to the myth, so they wouldn't think drowning themselves over a man was somehow romantic.

If any of them had tried it they would probably have already been in the lake or fighting her, but she was listening to Jack – or at least, was pretending to so she could get him close enough to drown him. Tooth didn't trust her not to try and pull that.

The rusalka giggled again, agreeing to Jack's proposal but demanding a kiss in exchange and holding out a hand expectantly. Jack's cheeks frosted over and he shot Bunny a glare promising blizzards in the Warren if the Pooka gave him a hard time about this, which the rabbit missed, refusing to look as he was.

Giving the rusalka one of his blinding smiles, Jack kissed her hand as demanded. The rusalka shot Tooth a faintly smug and victorious look before nodding at the others and sliding back into her lake.

Still white with frost, Jack shot into the sleigh and huddled in the back, drawing his hood up over his head as the others joined him, Sandy and North laughing as Tooth seethed and Bunny groaned. The rusalka had been very against tunnels near her lake, so unless he wanted a several mile hike out of his way through snow and rocky ground, the sleigh it was.

"Anyone else noticing a lot more dark spirits around lately?" Jack asked suddenly from the back of the sleigh, breaking the slightly awkward silence that had fallen over it since takeoff. "I mean, that's the fifth rusalka I've seen this year, and I've seen at least three wendigo. It's been a good fifty years since I've seen a wendigo."

Bunny frowned, ears flattening as he glanced over at their newest member. "You take care of them, Snowflake?" Jack nodded absently and Tooth fluttered over to him, reaching out to touch his face gently while Bunny eyed Jack speculatively, his opinion of Jack's fighting skills obviously going up a few notches.

"You didn't have to face them by yourself, Jack," she said quietly. He shrugged and grinned sheepishly.

"Guess I kinda forget, used to doing it on my own. There wasn't much time. I'll try to remember next time, if there is one. I hope not. But anyway…"

"Saw some kelpie out in the open awhile back," Bunny said contemplatively. "Couple bunyips, too. And more than a few dark fae."

Tooth settled back to the sleigh's seats as Sandy nodded, sand images showing the different dark spirits he'd been encountering lately. "They've been active all over," she said in surprise. "My girls mentioned seeing them, I just didn't realize how widespread it was."

"Come from being cooped up," North noted. "Is good that you joined us, Jack. You get us out more often, we see this before it becomes a big problem."

"Still hard to believe they're being this open about it," Bunny said. "Wonder what's got them all riled up."

"Time to start asking questions. Everyone start keeping your ears open," North said. Bunny rolled his eyes and Jack snickered. Bunny glanced back before smirking.

"Hey, Jackie, when'd you get so popular with the sheilas, eh?" Jack's flush returned with a vengeance and Tooth was interested to note it went down his neck to vanish under his hoodie, and she wondered for a moment just how far down it went as he retreated into his hood. "Heard the ladies talkin' at the party, and now that rusalka. Got something we oughta know, Snowflake?"

Up front, North boomed out a laugh. "That's my boy!" Tooth thought she saw Jack grinning from inside the depths of his hood even as he huddled into a smaller ball of embarrassment.

A/N: Confession time: I'm at the end of my buffer. D: This is why I usually don't start posting things until they're done. Going to do my best to keep up with regular updates, however.

Also, rusalka, wendigo, kelpie, and bunyips are nasty business, seriously.