Page 16 of Crimson Oath (The Firebird and the Wolf #2)

Oleg

T he night following his pleasant dinner with Tatyana, Oleg was mulling over their conversation in his mind.

Revelations had been made. This was progress.

“How can I trust you when you told me yourself that you wanted me to give you the fangs out of my own mouth?”

It was an interesting and unexpected thing to have such a moment misunderstood so thoroughly. What Oleg had actually said was that he wanted Tatyana to give him her fangs. What he’d meant as a passionate declaration had been understood as a threat.

Interesting.

“What has you smiling?” Mika scowled at him. “You instigated a minor international incident between you and one of the Fire King’s favorites in Alina Machabeli’s territory, and humans witnessed people flying and setting trees on fire. I’m surprised you’re not already trending on social media.”

Oleg chuckled a little bit.

“You think this is funny?” Mika held up a phone. “I’ve already had her security chief making snide remarks in my ear this evening, and I haven’t even heard from Daria or Morella or Angel or one of the other Amazons Arosh has working for him.”

“Does he employ any males at all?” Oleg mused.

“Only a few,” Mika muttered. “I’ve heard that he trusts women in security positions more than men.”

Oleg pursed his lips. “An argument could be made for it.”

Mika flipped him off. “I’m not retiring, so don’t get any ideas.

” The water vampire sat back in his seat.

“Or maybe I should, considering I’m sick of all of this.

We should be dealing with Ivan’s links to rogue Poshani soldiers and random vampires showing up in Polina’s territory.

Instead, I’m chasing after a woman who has made it clear she doesn’t want you. ”

He raised a finger. “She very much wants me.”

Mika rolled his eyes. “Yes, of course she does. That’s why she flew back to Arosh.”

Oleg smirked. “A little bit of pursuit is good for the soul, Mika. Things that come to you easily are not as treasured as those you must fight for.”

“So philosophical for someone chasing after sex.”

Oleg reached over and slammed his palm against Mika’s chest, driving the wind from the vampire’s body before he gripped his lieutenant’s throat.

Oleg bared his fangs, and Mika froze. “Enough.” The growl came from his chest. “You think I’m chasing a woman like a horny schoolboy? You think I only want her sex?”

Mika narrowed his eyes and pushed Oleg’s arm away. “Clearly I underestimated the hold Tatyana Vorona has on you. Should I be concerned?”

“She will be in our organization,” Oleg said. “Elene saw her potential, and so do I. And that was before she became a vampire mentored by an ancient.”

Mika wasn’t convinced. “She doesn’t want anything to do with us because we’re the ones who got her killed. ”

“Don’t talk to me about life, because no matter what gifts you give my mother or what promises you make to me, you and I both know that you are the reason that I no longer have mine.”

It was very irritating when Mika had a point.

“You are not entirely wrong.” Oleg stretched his neck to one side, then the other. He didn’t like disciplining Mika, but sometimes his chief boyar became a little too confident in his position. “I will convince her. It may take some time, but she is mine.”

Mika said nothing for an hour, but Oleg could hear all but hear the silent Estonian curses battering his mind as he read a report that his human assistant had already sent from Polina.

“Mika.”

Mika looked up from his book. “Yes, Knyaz?”

So someone was feeling a little irritated. That was fine.

“Set up a conference call with Polina when we arrive in Odesa,” Oleg said. “I want to fill her in on what Radu and I spoke about.”

“Of course.” He reached for the small notebook he kept in his jacket pocket and made a note. “Did you have notes for me about your meeting with Alina?”

“It was mostly a catching-up meeting. I wanted to reassure her that Lazlo would remain in charge of our neighboring territory.”

“And ask about Tatyana.”

Oleg looked up, stared into Mika’s eyes, and the vampire lost his snappish tone.

“She gave you the video footage of Tatyana,” Mika said. “That footage that led us to a minor international incident in Gori. Alina won’t be pleased if she thinks Arosh will point the finger at her.”

“Did she give us the footage?” He paged through Polina’s report. “Or did someone else? We have so many sources, it’s impossible to say. It might have been anonymous.”

“Very well.” Mika nodded slowly. “Arosh’s people will want to know why we were tracking his son. ”

“If they ask, tell them I had an important computer security question for Tatyana and I know she’s an expert.”

Mika frowned. “That might work as long as Tatyana doesn’t say why you actually wanted to meet with her.”

Tatyana admit that she took Zara’s gold, Oleg’s jewelry, and was running from her own feelings for him?

“She won’t say anything.” Oleg glanced at Mika. “Trust me.”

“And I’m assuming you want me to continue keeping tabs on her and Arosh’s son?”

“No.”

Mika put his notebook down. “No?”

“No.” Oleg glanced up. “I slipped a phone into her pocket. We’ll be able to find her anywhere now.”

“When she finds it, she’ll destroy it.”

Oleg shrugged. “Check the signal when we get back to Odesa. She’ll keep the phone.”

His daughter’s face filled the screen that hung over his mantel in his personal office in Odesa. She was holding one of the twins, the ornery little mite named Natalya who loved to stay up at all hours with her mama.

It was convenient for Polina, but it annoyed her partner Alexi and the nanny.

“Look at her.” Oleg’s heart warmed when he saw the little one sitting in Polina’s lap. “She’s growing very fast.”

“Yes, she’s trying to climb up and down the stairs by herself now.” Polina smiled. “She drives Alexi mad.”

“He loves it.” Oleg had been suspicious of the man, but ten years into his relationship with Polina, the pair seemed settled despite Polina’s unwillingness to marry .

“He does.” Polina tapped Natalya’s cheek. “Tati, don’t you want to say hello to dedushka?”

“Absolutely not.” His children having children was not a common occurrence, so though Oleg was overjoyed by the delightful little humans in his clan, he was nobody’s grandfather. “Tati, can you wave at Papa Oleg?”

The little girl lifted her hand and curled her fingers in a wave.

“See? She’ll call me Oleg. That is enough.”

Natalya’s blinks were getting longer and longer, and she was starting to curl into Polina’s chest, so his daughter picked up a manila folder on her desk as she rocked the baby to sleep. “So after Radu told you the vampire’s name was Sami, my people were able to dig a little more.”

“And?” Oleg glanced at the little one, but the toddler was falling asleep.

“Sami Novak was his government name,” Polina said, “but once we tracked his credit card, we found rental records online that listed him with a few others.”

“He had rental records?”

“Short term only,” Polina said. “He used an online placement service that caters to businesspeople who do remote work. And more than once he listed two other men with him—Manfred Novak and Danior Kosinski. Sometimes Danior had a different last name, but it was almost always Sami with Manfred and Danior.”

“Do we think they were two of the others at the scene?” Radu had told him that Sami was the only Poshani vampire killed, but Manfred could easily be a Westernized version of Manfri, and Danior was a common men’s name among the Poshani. “Radu said that only one of theirs had been involved.”

Polina lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug. “It’s possible Radu was misinformed. Or maybe someone didn’t want to admit that a few Poshani vampires went rogue. No one wants to look like they’re not in control of their people.”

Possible. Likely even. Poshani justice was swift within the clan. They were free spirits in the vampire world, but adherence to cultural norms within the clan was a necessity. A rebellious Poshani put the entire community at risk.

“If these other two were also Poshani and involved with the truck robberies,” Oleg said, “this problem could be bigger than we anticipated.”

“There is no way of confirming it at this point. We’ve put alerts on their known credit cards, but so far none of them have been used.” Polina set the folder down. “What are you going to tell Radu?”

“Nothing right now. We don’t know anything definite, and if I ask him, I’m casting doubt on what he’s already shared with me.”

“He won’t want to lose face,” Polina said. “He’ll shut you down.”

And no one could keep a secret like the Poshani.

“He invited me to the Vashana at the end of the season,” Oleg said.

“That’s months away.” Someone had come into Polina’s office, because she held up a finger when Oleg started to speak. “One moment, Papa.”

A human nanny walked over and took the sleeping girl from Polina’s arms, not sparing a glance at the video screen in the room.

Polina trained her people well.

After the nanny left and closed the door, Polina spoke again. “The Vashana is at the end of the season, but there have been four truck robberies in six months, and this last one nearly killed our driver. We need to shut this down and make a statement.”

“I agree.” Oleg mulled over his options. “I’m going to fly to Moscow to see the driver. I need to give him some cash from Radu’s people anyway. I told Radu I’d deliver it personally.”

Polina made a face. “Say hello to Ivan.”

“I’m not going tonight. I’ll give it a few days.” He closed the file on Sami Novak because there was nothing else to do at the moment. “Sami Novak is dead. All his conspirators are dead. Maybe this was an isolated string of robberies, but only time will tell.”

She sighed. “You’re right. ”

“And you’re impatient.” Oleg smiled. “I want you on a video call tomorrow night.”

“Why?”

“I’m calling a meeting of the governors. We need to put a permanent replacement for Elene in place.”

Polina’s jaw tightened. “Elene is not replaceable.”