“Well, my mentor had no such rule. I don’t think she even knows how many she has killed.”
“Si, wasn’t she a hitwoman for most of her time in the dark life.” He nodded at me.
“So what about the second man?”
“He’s a tracker. He can track anyone or anything.” Carlos nodded. “And yes, he has a legend too.”
I sat back in my chair and raised a brow at him. “Should I even ask?”
“He is not as complicated as far as a code goes. He is Russian and he’s very good at what he does. But mainly, he’s just a pain in the ass at times.”
I smirked at him. “You mean like you?”
“Ha-ha.” Carlos scoffed. “Youknow thatyou love me.” He smirked back at me now.
“So what makes the Russian guy annoying?”
“He fucking knows everything as in he is like a god damned scholarly type.”
“So? That can come in handy sometimes.”
“Not to me.” Carlos chuckled as he raised the phone again. “But he can kick ass so you think first before you tell him to shut the hell up.” He tapped in the number and set it to speaker.
“Hello?” an accented voice answered.
“Is this Prince Ivan?” Carlos asked.
“Da. Do you seek the rain?”
“I do,” Carlos stated. “I wish to vanquish the Firebird.
“Bylat! Is that all?” the man on the other end quipped sarcastically as he laughed. “Blin Carlos, it has been a couple of years!”
“I know.”
“So the roses bloomed, da?” Again, the man’s accent could be heard in his voice.
“They have. The time has finally come,” Carlos replied. Then he gave the man the same information as the other guy about the hotel and the town.
They both ended the call.
Carlos handed the phone to me.
I shook my head. “You need to keep it with you.”
“Yes, I’d better for when they call back. But do you trust me with a phone?”
I smiled at him and folded my hands into my lap. “Si, it is a little late to be asking that, isn’t it?”
He nodded at me as he agreed. “Yeah, we have exchanged phones and you have even seen me in my boxers—”
I raised my hand up, cutting him off. “So what’s with the Firebird thing?” I asked him.
“It’s another legend.”
“And this one involves a bird?”
He smirked. “A sort of Phoenix, yes. It’s some old Russian story. Let me look it up on Google. “I can’t remember all of it.” He typed on the phone screen then read it aloud,“Ivan Tsarevich’s quest to capture the Firebird or what they call zhar-ptitsa, a magical glowing bird from a faraway land. The quest for the Firebird typically is initiated by the hero finding one of the bird’s tail feathers. The feather portending a hard journey. The secret to subduing this bird and its fiery powers was simple, though no one but Ivan ever figured it out…it is rain.” Carlos looked up at me and added, “Hence, why he calls himself the Rainmaker.”
