Page 19 of Crimson Oath (The Firebird and the Wolf #2)

“And very vulnerable,” she added. “No light. Forced to drink a single food source or I’ll shrivel up. Forced to sleep during daylight. I only have half the time I did as a mortal.”

“True.” Kato lifted his chin. “That is the bargain of immortality and elemental power.”

“And I am forced to abide by that bargain.”

For as long as her mother was still living.

Tatyana put both her hands on the surface of the pool and felt the water swirl around her fingers, comforting her with its energy.

At least the water loved her. It filled the air around her and caressed her skin. While her amnis might feel like a barely restrained puppy at times, the element it controlled was a sinuous and delighted cat.

“It is worth it?” She looked up at Kato. “Waiting out the centuries for my power to grow before I feel safe?”

Kato smiled. “You could always find a shortcut. Mate and exchange blood with an old and powerful vampire.”

She felt the memory of Oleg’s fangs at her neck and the corresponding surge of arousal she quickly tried to tamp down. “That will not be happening.”

“Your body reacted just now,” Kato said. “Were you remembering Oleg?”

“Do you have to ask?” She’d confided in Kato months ago when she’d been feeling particularly vulnerable and desperate.

The craving for Oleg was a stubborn glitch in her mind, and her emotions ping-ponged between anger and longing. She was convinced that he was doing something to her, even across the miles that separated them.

“How many times did he take your blood?”

She shook her head. “I don’t remember.” She still craved his fangs in her neck. She wanted them. She yearned for his bite.

The bastard.

“When you were a vampire, yes?”

“Yes.” Why was he asking about this? It was like talking about sex with her father.

If she had a father.

Kato frowned. “And you never took his?”

“What?” Her eyes went wide. “No.”

“Didn’t you want to?” Kato leaned along the edge of the pool, and the water danced around him. He glanced at Alexander across the room. “I don’t think Alexander would mind you knowing that I take his blood.”

She had to smile. “I assumed that you did.”

“If he were immortal…” Were Kato’s cheeks a little red? Could vampires blush, or was it her imagination? “I would want him to bite me in return. That is all I’m saying.”

Tatyana sat in the corner near to Kato, but not too close. This conversation was awkward enough. “Oleg and I were lovers, but we were not like you and Alexander. The two of you love each other. You have mutual respect. It’s very obvious.”

“When my lovers have been human,” Kato said, “taking their blood was an enjoyable part of sex. But a blood exchange between vampires is a much more intimate thing. I have told you about this.”

“It creates a tie.” Tatyana understood that now even though she hadn’t when Oleg had bitten her.

“I know your feelings about Oleg are complicated now,” Kato said, “and I will do nothing to defend his actions. You were too young and vulnerable to understand what was happening with that exchange.”

“It wasn’t an exchange,” Tatyana said. “That’s the point. He took my blood to control me. I never took his.”

The corner of Kato’s mouth inched up. “Ironically, he’s probably feeling the loss quite keenly. Your amnis will take years to leave his blood, but his amnis never touched your system. If it had, it would have been much harder for you to leave.”

Tatyana blinked. “What?”

“That’s why I would never take the blood of a vampire now without asking for their own bite in return,” Kato said. “It was wise of you to keep your distance, Tatyana. If you’d given him your fangs, it would have been much harder for you to leave.”

If you’d given him your fangs, it would have been much harder for you to leave.

The words kept bouncing around her mind as she walked back to her rooms in the compound after leaving Kato.

If you’d given him your fangs…

Tatyana unlocked the door to her windowless room and locked it behind her. The scent of Oleg filled her senses.

Damn that vampire. He was everywhere. Absolutely everywhere.

She walked to the coat hanging in the closet, the one she’d worn two nights before in Gori, the night that she’d seen him again, and somehow he’d embedded his scent in her clothes, on her skin, and even done something to her mind that made her dreams about him even more vivid.

She couldn’t join the Poshani kamvasa fast enough. Now that she’d told Kato, she was itching to leave.

Tatyana had put the call in to the number Sibella had given her, requested passage, and had been quoted a price, but she hadn’t heard anything that confirmed her place with the Poshani safe house. Would Saba’s court end up being her only option?

Either way, she knew her days in Arosh’s court were numbered.

She opened her closet and hung up the thick robe she’d donned when she left Kato’s quarters.

She glared at her coat she’d worn in Gori the night Oleg found her.

It smelled like warm cedar and frankincense and a little bit of leather.

She hadn’t touched it since she returned, but every time she opened her closet, it was like Oleg burst out and kissed her.

Fuck.

Maybe she should put that damn coat out of its misery and burn it, but her mother had given her the warm wool garment when she’d moved away for university, and she loved it even though it was a little too big.

It was just her luck that she’d been turned at a point in her life when she was underweight from stress. She would now be bony for eternity.

Tatyana dressed in a court-appropriate pair of pants and a warm wool tunic that Kato had given her in his signature blue color. She would fill the rest of her night sitting in Arosh’s court and listening to him as Kato’s pupil.

Maybe that would feed the Fire King’s ego enough to leave her alone until the Poshani decided to return her call.

At the back of her mind, she worried that they would not return her call at all. Sibella had warned her that not all who applied for passage in the kamvasa were granted a place, and Kato had warned her that the Poshani were aligned with Oleg, though they remained an independent clan.

Would Oleg sabotage her place in the vampire safe house? The longer she went without a message from the strange vampire clan, the more worried she became.

Someone rapped on her door. “Tatyana Vorona,” a voice called. “The Fire King requests your presence in the throne room.”

Damn.

This could not be good.

“Your actions put our entire race at risk,” Arosh said. “There was video taken and posted on your computers and on the human television channels.”

It had taken a few nights, but apparently the news of Oleg and Samson’s fight had made it to Arosh’s ears.

Fantastic.

Samson stood with a blank face on Arosh’s right side, staring at the ground.

Tatyana stood in the middle of the audience chamber with Kato standing beside her. She said nothing. Correcting Arosh’s understanding of the internet and social media seemed like a poor use of words when he was this angry.

She kept her voice soft and placating. “My lord Arosh?—”

“Don’t you think your anger would be better directed at the Varangian?

” Kato interrupted her, glancing to his right where the oily representatives from the Georgian vampire queen were standing.

“Granted, Samson might have overreacted to Oleg’s intrusion, but he’s not the one who started a forest fire.

Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for Alina to speak to Oleg about this? ”

The two Georgian vampires whispered to each other, and Arosh glared at Kato.

“Brother, your student has caused her last problem in my court. She will leave, or she will be confined to your quarters.”

“I understand,” Kato said. “She is already in the process of moving, but if you desire that she live with me until she’s ready to leave, I have no objection.”

“The Varangian’s interest in her is causing problems.”

Tatyana couldn’t take it anymore. She blurted, “This is bullshit!”

“Tatyana.” Kato put a hand on her shoulder. “Not right now.”

Arosh looked amused. “Oh no. Let her continue, brother.”

“It is complete bullshit .” She enunciated carefully in Farsi so there would be no mistaking her meaning.

“It’s not my fault that Oleg keeps tracking me.

And it’s definitely not Samson’s fault. He was protecting me from two vampires who were not even supposed to be in Alina’s territory.

” She looked at the two reps from Alina’s court.

“I don’t understand why you are here. Go talk to Oleg if you want to know why he started a fire in Gori. ”

“You are his bookkeeper,” one of them said quietly. “Everyone knows this. You should return to him.”

“I’m not his anything.” Kato’s hand tightened on her shoulder, but she ignored it. “My sire is dead. I am under no aegis. I am Kato’s student, and that is all I am.”

That was all.

Because Kato had no empire. He had no territory. He had no aegis to offer her.

Tatyana felt the hollow in her chest. Even though her teacher stood behind her, a pillar of strength, she was still alone. Utterly and completely alone. She had no people. No sire.

She had no one.

Tears threatened her eyes, but she refused to cry.

She met Arosh’s eyes. “I will be gone in one week.”

One week fit the timeline Grimace had given her for getting a hidden computer to her. She still hadn’t heard from the Poshani, so maybe that wasn’t going to happen after all.

But one week gave her enough time to get her equipment, get her things together, and find a new place to hide. She wasn’t a newborn anymore. She could be around humans.

Her year in Arosh’s court hadn’t been wasted. She would learn how to hide.

“I will take you at your word, Tatyana Vorona.” Arosh looked at the Georgian vampires from Alina’s court. “Kato’s student is correct. If Alina has more complaints, let her take it up with the Varangian who attacked my son. As far as I am concerned, this matter is settled.”

Kato whispered, “Tatyana, return to your room now.”

She spun around and marched out of Arosh’s audience chamber, feeling every vampire eye on her as she walked.

Alone, alone, alone. She was utterly alone.

She had a mother to protect, and she was utterly alone.

She felt a shivery sensation crawling over her skin, and she had the urge to run.

Run, run, run.

I’m still going to take care of your mother. She’s in my territory.

For once, Oleg’s promise didn’t make her angry; Tatyana was relieved. She was pissing off vampires left and right, but at least Anna and the farm would be safe.

She trusted Oleg would keep his word because he was old-fashioned and, for some reason, her mother amused him.

At least there was that.

She made it back to her room without running into anyone who tried to talk with her, and nearly as soon as she locked the chamber door behind her, the phone on her desk started to buzz.

She looked at the screen, but the number wasn’t familiar. Nevertheless, she touched the green icon to answer it. “Hello?”

“Tatyana Vorona?” a strange voice said in Russian. The accent wasn’t familiar.

“Who is this? ”

There was a low murmur in the background of the call.

“The Poshani approve of your caution. You have requested passage in the kamvasa.”

Tatyana’s heart leaped in her chest. Relief!

But her head was still in charge, and she no longer trusted anyone. “You have not answered my question. Who is this?”

More murmuring in the background. “You are speaking to a Hazar of the kamvasa. You are speaking to Sibella’s uncle.”

Tatyana let out a breath. “Okay.” This wasn’t a trick. “Yes, I have requested passage in the kamvasa.”

“And you agree to our price?”

“Yes.” The price quoted over the phone was a small fortune, but Sibella had warned her about that. “I agree to your price for a full season of shelter.”

“Pack your things. Two suitcases only. No electronics or tracking devices. We will text you a bank account number tonight. On receipt of payment, a location will be sent to you. In two nights, you will be there.”

Two nights? No! Her computer from Grimace wouldn’t be ready.

She shook her head. “I need more time.”

“You do not have more time. If you no longer want passage?—”

“Wait.”

She’d have to manage. It was six months.

Six months. She’d be able to call her mother, but she’d be cut off from everything else.

For six months.

Tatyana felt like she was stumbling around in the dark, but she was out of options unless she wanted to return to Oleg’s territory.

And they were promising her six months of safety.

“I’ll be there,” she said. “Text me the location and I’ll be there.”

“Very well,” the voice said. “Welcome to the protection of the Poshani, Tatyana Vorona. We will meet you in two nights.”