Page 13 of Crimson Oath (The Firebird and the Wolf #2)

Oleg

“ T rack the wind vampire,” Oleg told Mika. “That is how she’s moving around Arosh’s and Alina’s territory. If we find him, we find her.”

“But don’t kill him?” Mika asked.

Oleg wanted to say yes. He still remembered the image of Tatyana’s delicate hand being held by the other man.

But that was an irrational and jealous reaction. It was beneath him.

“Do not kill him. It would create an international incident,” Oleg said. “But he should understand that Tatyana is mine.”

“He’s Arosh’s favorite,” Mika said. “If we offend him, it will create an international incident.”

“We don’t need to offend him, we just need to find him.” Oleg pointed at the computer on Mika’s desk and snapped. “Make it happen.”

“Make it happen,” Mika muttered. “As if I snap my fingers and produce vampires out of thin air.”

“He’s a wind vampire, but he’s keeping to Alina’s territory,” Oleg said. “Probably because he doesn’t want to skirt too close to my territory north of the Caucasus.”

“We have more spies there.”

“Exactly.” Oleg stared at the pictures someone had printed off of the profile of Arosh’s son and Tatyana in the club.

Once he saw her, he went back and watched every moment of her time in that bar, watched every movement. Tried to read her lips.

She was very good at concealment. How irritating.

Oleg lifted his chin. “Get the plane ready. I want to visit the mother.”

Mika walked out, muttering in Estonian, but Oleg didn’t care.

If he couldn’t have Tatyana under his control, he’d at least go reassure himself that her mother was firmly in his territory and under his aegis.

“And Mika!” he shouted at his boyar’s retreating back. “Order her a cake.”

Anna Asanova narrowed her eyes as she watched him eat a piece of the apple tart he’d brought from the baker at his mansion in Sevastopol. She was in a housecoat and wearing a sleeping cap on her head.

There was something still oddly menacing about her.

“What’s wrong with my daughter?” She glared at him.

“Nothing.” He set his fork down. “Why do you think something is wrong?”

“Because you show up out of nowhere at” —she glanced at the clock on the wall— “three in the morning. And now you’re eating an apple tart in my kitchen.”

Oleg heard Anna’s carrier pigeons softly shuffling in their cote outside. “How are your birds? ”

“You know they’re fine. Answer the question.”

“I can’t find her,” Oleg admitted. “I am worried.”

“You told me you knew where she was.”

“I do. Roughly.”

He’d never personally been to Arosh’s compound in the Caucasus Mountains, but he knew approximately where it was. Unfortunately it seemed that access to the compound was only via wind vampire, and the Fire King was unlikely to allow him to fly up for a friendly chat with Tatyana.

Anna shook her head. “You don’t like when you’re not in control of things, do you?”

“Of course not.” He jabbed a fork at the apple tart. “No one likes being out of control.”

“Most humans live long enough to learn that control is an illusion.”

“I’m far older than you,” Oleg said. “Far, far older.”

“Yes, but you became an immortal young, like my Tanya.” Anna waved a hand at him as if brushing off an annoying insect.

“So you don’t know everything, Vampire Man.

You were young and powerful, and then you became a vampire and became even more powerful.

So when I say that all control is an illusion, you don’t really believe me even though you know I’m right. ”

Oleg set down his fork. “What is your point, Anna Asanova?”

“You think you control your world?” Anna leaned forward.

“You control nothing. Governments turn on their people. Relationships fail. People die . And you don’t always get a warning that it’s going to happen.

” She snapped her fingers. “All your plans can be gone in the time it takes for a bus to drive around a corner.”

Oleg frowned. “Not having a plan is unacceptable when others depend on you.”

“You were turned before you understood what it means to be weak.” Anna shrugged. “So in this, I’m wiser than you.”

“I have people who depend on me,” Oleg said. “I have to maintain control to keep them safe. And your daughter needs my protection.”

“She was still alive two nights ago,” Anna said. “So that’s been… over a year and a half now?” Anna pursed her lips. “It seems like she’s staying alive on her own.”

“Alive and hiding.”

“So?”

Oleg leaned forward, frustrated and wanting to smash something, but it wouldn’t be Anna. Not if he wanted Tatyana back. “She shouldn’t have to hide.”

“So who is scaring her into hiding?” Anna raised an eyebrow. “It’s you, isn’t it?”

“She has no reason to fear me.”

“That I do not believe.” Anna lifted a finger. “No matter how kind and considerate you have been to me. Tatyana is a smart girl. A practical girl. If she is afraid of you, she has her reasons.”

Oleg said nothing, but he sipped the tea she’d brewed for him in the middle of the night. Perhaps the woman had some wisdom. She knew nothing about the vampire world, of course, but she might have some insight into her daughter.

“If my daughter is afraid of you,” Anna said, “then you need to ask yourself why.”

One month later

Why are you afraid of me, little wolf?

Oleg had found her.

It had been nearly a month of carefully listening to whispers and watching patterns—as well as paying off a few of Alina’s people—but he had found her .

He peered over the wall of the quiet pub in Gori, a small city in a river valley. The bar was attached to a pub with excellent Wi-Fi and a thriving community of young people who sat in groups around firepits, talking and laughing as they enjoyed their beers and cocktails.

The moment he’d reached the perimeter of the city, he’d felt the blood he’d taken from her burst to vibrant, violent life. It took every degree of Oleg’s self-control not to storm into the bar, throw her over his shoulder, and march out like a Viking raiding a village.

The simmering desire to possess this woman who tormented his mind gnawed at his gut.

The pub was on the edge of town, and the outdoor beer garden where Tatyana was sitting glowed under the gentle light of a half-moon and soft yellow string lights that hung overhead. The sky was a deep, vibrant azure, and the breeze was warm and fragrant with the scent of a nearby orange grove.

She sat in the corner. Alone, always alone, while the silver-haired vampire watched the door.

Mine .

Oleg waited in the darkness, drinking in the sight of her after so many months. The elemental torment he felt was one-sided. She had never taken his blood, and if she felt anything from him, she wasn’t showing it.

“You think I’m a bully?”

“No. I said you pretend to be a bully.”

“You’re not afraid of me.”

“Sometimes I am, a little bit.”

But why did she fear him? Did she fear his fire? Did she fear for her control when he tempted her to give him everything?

“You think I’m lying?”

“Maybe you’re telling the truth. But remember Ivan and the firebird. Even when you start with the best of intentions, things will go wrong.”

He saw Mika strolling toward the side gate where the entrance to the beer garden was located and the wind vampire’s head go up.

Spotted.

The vampire whipped his head around and hit something on the table that made a clanging noise.

Tatyana’s head darted up.

Mika walked into the bar.

Tatyana was already on the move.

She slipped her backpack over her shoulders and ducked into a hallway where Oleg could no longer see her. A snarl ripped from his throat, and he walked out of the shadows toward the beer garden, but the silver-haired vampire was already gone.

He’d either taken to the air or he’d walked so fast that Oleg’s eyes hadn’t caught him because he was distracted by watching Tatyana.

Mika was already headed back to the shadows of the trees across the street where Oleg was waiting.

As Oleg stepped across the gravel-strewn road, a wall of air slammed into him from the front, knocking him off his feet and knocking him into a stand of cedar trees.

He fell to the ground, bracing his hands on the needle-strewn ground, and smoke simmered from under his heated palms.

The fucking wind vampire had broken his line of sight, and he’d lost Tatyana.

“Look for her!” he shouted at Mika.

Another wall of air, but this time Oleg caught a glimpse of his attacker, who was perched in the top of a nearby tree like a white-headed raptor. His body was cloaked in black, so the only visible part of him was his pale hair and face.

Oleg kept his eyes on him, stalking toward him with flames licking at his collar. “You.”

The pale one sneered and flicked his fingers, which sent another stream of air whipping around Oleg, wrapping around his legs and nearly knocking him over as the press of wind constricted his feet.

He snapped his fingers, lobbing a ball of fire up and into the tree.

Despite the damp spring night, Oleg’s fire was so intense that it caught in the branches of the cedar tree and burst to hungry life, eating away toward the peak of the evergreen and making the pale vampire fly into the night.

“What are you doing?” Mika ran back and nearly shouted at him.

“You can’t start a forest fire in Alina’s territory.

” He lifted a hand and threw a cooling mist over the tree, dousing the fire just as the humans in the bar noticed the flames.

“I know you can feel the woman, so you follow her. Ignore the other one.”

Oleg turned and slipped back into the shadows, stalking toward the front of the restaurant and the double doors that opened inward.

He ignored the hubbub of the patrons as they ran to the windows to see the smoldering cedar tree and reached for the thread of connection that linked his blood to Tatyana’s.

There was a pulse in his blood and an elemental nudge that sent him toward the back of the restaurant where an archway led to a dark hallway.

He could scent her as soon as he stepped inside.

There was the sound of a crashing door and a quick flash of moonlight before the hallway was dark again, then another slam of wind.

This time Oleg was expecting it. He felt the pale vampire’s amnis before it hit him, and he braced himself as he shoved forward, snapping his fingers and bringing a handful of fire to his palm.

The dark figure pulled the hallway door open again and the silver-haired vampire reached for her, wrapping his arm around her waist, prepared to take to the air as soon as the door opened.

Before they could move, Oleg struck, sending his fire down the center of the hallway.

It collared the silver-haired vampire in a living torque of blue flame .

Arosh’s son froze. If he moved an inch, the flames would engulf his face.

The door outside closed softly, and the dark figure stepped forward, pulling down the hood of her sweatshirt as she walked toward him. “Oleg, stop.”

The sound of her voice stirred something in his chest.

Rage and delight.

She was calm. So calm. Like a doe skirting the attention of a hungry bear.

Oleg didn’t want her to be a doe. He wanted her to be a wolf. Her wary voice made him irrationally angry. He bared his fangs at the wind vampire, who watched Oleg’s flames encircling his face.

“Oleg.” She repeated his name. “Take it away. Please.”

The silver-haired vampire was frozen, his eyes glaring at Oleg, but he could do nothing without burning his face.

“You found me. I’m here.” Tatyana raised her hands and took another step toward him. “Let him go. You want me, not Samson.”

Oleg reveled in his power, making the flames dance and hop around the vampire with gleeful abandon. He smelled a hint of singed hair.

Tatyana saw what he was doing and snapped at him. “Oleg, stop this now!”

There you are.

Oleg kept his hand up, continuing to collar the silver-haired vampire with his flames, but he turned his attention to the woman who had plagued his mind since the moment she’d flown away from him.

“Hello, little wolf.”

She was even more beautiful than his memory had created. Her hair was a smidge longer, and the sun-touched blond had given way to a richer honey gold.

Her skin was paler than he remembered, which made her sky-blue eyes even more vibrant.

Her blood leaped in his veins, urging him closer .

Tatyana closed her eyes. “What are you doing to me?”

“I told you,” Oleg said carefully. “You are mine.” He turned his eyes back to the wind vampire. “Now take a breath, calm your friend, and let’s sit and talk in a civilized manner. If he doesn’t attack me, I won’t attack him. Does he understand?”

“Yes, he understands you,” Tatyana said scornfully. “What do you want? You want to have a nice, friendly drink?”

“Dinner,” Oleg said. “Not here. Sit down for dinner with me. Mika and your friend can wait here to give us some privacy.” He pulled his fire back to his palm, and the silent vampire’s shoulders relaxed. “I also think it’s important to note that your friend attacked me first.”

The pale one shrugged one shoulder.

“I’m not arguing about this with either of you,” Tatyana said through clenched teeth. “Samson, please wait here with Mika.” She put a soft hand on the vampire’s shoulder, and they exchanged an incomprehensible look and some signs to communicate.

Then Tatyana turned to Oleg with narrowed eyes. “You.” She marched out of the hallway, brushing past Oleg and sending his amnis into a frenzy. “Follow me.”