Page 24 of Crimson Oath (The Firebird and the Wolf #2)

Oleg

O leg sat in front of the pale computer programmer, keeping his gaze steady on the man even as the human perspired.

The thin man was shockingly pale for someone who was physically able to access sunlight. From the smell of his body, he ate too many fried foods.

They were sitting in a conference room, and Mika had sent this man to him to explain why Tatyana’s phone was no longer working.

Apparently his yelling at Mika wasn’t getting results, so his chief boyar threw a human computer programmer at him, probably guessing that Oleg would be more polite to loyal human staff than he would be to his old friend.

Mika was correct, but this sweaty man was testing Oleg’s patience.

Oleg frowned. “Are we working you too many hours?”

The man blinked, clearly surprised by the turn of conversation. “Wh-what? No, Mr. Sokolov. Not at all.”

“What did Elene put in place two years ago? Something to do with health?”

The man frowned. “The employee wellness program? ”

“Yes, that.” Oleg flicked his fingers. “Do you have need of it? Do you have need of a doctor?”

The young man shook his head. “I don’t think so?” His face grew even paler. “Do I have cancer?”

“Why would I know this?” Oleg asked. “I am not a physician.”

“Did you… did you smell something? Vampires can smell cancer, can’t they?”

“Do I look like a beagle?”

His eyes went wide. “No, sir.”

Did beagles smell cancer? No, they were the dogs that sniffed for food at the airport.

Humans were so strange and limited.

“I did smell something,” Oleg said.

The man’s eyes grew glassy. “I knew it. What will I tell my mother?”

“I smelled your sweat. You smell like fried potatoes and plastic.”

The young man’s face froze. There was a flash of relief and then an abashed expression as his cheeks grew red. “Oh.”

“Of course, you might have cancer, but I’m only smelling the fried potatoes.” Oleg picked up a cup of black coffee that his secretary brought for him. “You should go to the doctor,” he said. “Maybe go for more walks. Get a dog. Leave the house.”

“Yes, Mr. Sokolov,” the man whispered. “I will take better care of my health. I promise.”

“You are capable of being in the sun,” Oleg said. “This is a privilege that only humans have. Do not waste it. What is your name?”

“Grisha… Grigori, Mr. Sokolov.”

“A good, strong name,” Oleg said. “So you should take care of your health, Grigori. Enjoy the outdoors more.”

“Yes, sir.” He pointed at his computer. “Mr. Arakis said you wanted me to explain something to you?”

“Yes, but I want you to remember that I was concerned about your health,” Oleg said. “Because the Sokolov group believes in… human-employee wellness. ”

Grisha nodded. “I’ve been thinking about going to the gym.”

“Is the gymnasium indoors?”

“Yes.”

“Then don’t go there.” Oleg waved a hand over his face and frowned. “You’re as pale as a vampire. That is not good.”

“This conversation is not going the way that I thought it would,” Grisha muttered.

“No, because I was distracted by your smell of plastic and fried potatoes.” Oleg folded his hands on the table. “I gave someone a phone to track where she was, and my personal secretary who oversees these things says she can no longer see the location.”

It had been in Arosh’s fortress for several nights, then it was in a parking garage, then it had simply disappeared.

“Oh.” Grisha opened his laptop and began typing. “Have you tried calling it?”

“No.”

“Okay.” The human frowned before his eyes went wide. “Does this person know she has the phone?”

“I expect yes. By now she would.”

“But she hasn’t called you.”

“No.”

“Does she have your phone number?” He frowned. “Do you have a phone number?”

“I do.” Oleg pulled the slim electronic device from his pocket.

It was the first phone he’d ever had, and there was only one number programmed in.

The device was in a thick plastic case, and he handed it to his secretary every morning to take care of it while he slept.

“I programmed that number into the phone.”

“But you haven’t called her?”

“No.” It was up to Tatyana to call him. He wasn’t going to chase her anymore.

Well, he was, but he wanted to give her the feeling that she was reaching out to him, not being tracked. “Is there a way to discover where the phone is right now? ”

Grisha folded his hands and leaned forward. “So if the phone’s battery has died, we cannot find it.”

“Why not?”

“You gave her a phone,” Grisha said. “Not a chip or a tracker of some kind? Like… a tag?”

Oleg scowled. “She is also not a beagle.”

The human lifted both hands. “Of course not, but the most likely thing that happened is that she didn’t know she had the phone, so the battery died. And once the battery dies, a phone is essentially dead.”

“I see.” Oleg hadn’t thought about batteries. He turned over the black plastic thing in his hand. His phone was always charged. He’d assumed they were self-powering. “Interesting.”

“But if she turns the phone on, I can track it,” Grisha said. “If you give me the number, I can put an alert on it so if the phone is turned on and pings a tower, I can triangulate it and find a location. If that happens, I can let you know. Or your secretary.”

Very little of that made sense to Oleg, but he nodded anyway. Mika said the young man was one of their most competent computer employees.

“Yes,” Oleg snapped at him. “Do that.”

“Of course.” Grisha started typing again. “Tell me the number please?”

Oleg rattled it off, then pushed back from the table. “Good. You must send a message to Mika or my secretary when you find it.”

“If.” The man sounded a little panicked. “If I find it. If she doesn’t charge the phone?—”

“Yes, yes.” Oleg waved a hand as he stood. “She will charge it.”

His little wolf would be too curious where the phone came from. Or she would know where the phone came from and she would want to berate him for being pushy or overbearing or something like that.

Mika walked into the room just as Oleg was standing up. “Are you finished?”

“Yes, my young friend is going to track Tatyana’s phone and tell me when it turns on again. ”

“If she hasn’t thrown it away or shorted it out,” Mika said.

“She won’t do that.” Oleg lifted his chin. “What do you want?”

“We encountered someone who may have information about the matter in Minsk.”

“Excellent.” Oleg turned to look at Grisha. “Keep me updated. And please go outside.”

“Y-yes, Mr. Sokolov.”

Mika kept his voice low. “I have news from Polina.”

They walked through the offices of SMO International where humans tapped on computers and spoke into headsets in a myriad of languages, ushering the flow of goods around world shipping lanes.

“And what has my daughter found?”

He’d told Polina that Ivan might be working with Vano and his clan. The head of the Eastern Poshani had his headquarters near the border of Polina’s territory, so it made the most sense for her to follow up the lead.

“Polina has found a ghost,” Mika said quietly.

Oleg stopped in the middle of the hallway, nearly knocking over a short secretary who was carrying two cups of coffee.

“Who?” he growled.

The wide-eyed secretary scuttled off.

Mika waited for the hallway to clear. “Danior Kosinski is not dead.”

“That’s one of Sami Novak’s frequent roommates, correct?”

“Yes.”

So this was another vampire who had attacked his people.

“It would be more correct to say that Danior is not dead yet .” Oleg thought about Mr. Goretski using a walker at the age of forty-two.

“Her people stopped a truck at the Polish border trying to cross into Belarus with a load of stolen liquor,” Mika said. “One of her men recognized the name and the face from a briefing a few weeks ago. She’s holding the humans the vampire had with him, but she sent Danior to the citadel. ”

“Excellent.” An excellent excuse to go to his favorite home. “Call Cesar and get the plane ready.”

Oleg was going home.

The wind vampire was buried in one of Oleg’s dungeons, his neck broken and his body encased in the earth. Oleg sat in a chair on the other side of the dungeon and watched him.

“You risk the ire of the Poshani.” Danior sneered. “When my people find out you have taken me?—”

“Your people already think that you are dead.” Oleg sipped a cup of black Ceylon tea flavored with orange peel. It was excellent. “I’ve already paid the blood price to Vano’s people through Radu. You do work for Vano, correct?”

The man shut his mouth and stared at the wall.

Oleg set the cup on the round table his servants had brought into the dungeon and brushed a flaming hand over his chest.

He was shirtless, not because of the warm spring night but because occasionally letting his fire creep out and cover his body seemed to terrify the wind vampire currently buried up to his neck.

Mika was sitting backward on a chair and looking down at Danior. “You’re in Vano’s family, aren’t you?”

Danior said nothing.

“We can keep you here for quite long like this,” Mika said. “I’ve heard that the worst thing you can do to a Poshani vampire is contain them. It poisons your blood.”

Danior was admirably silent, but his eyes flicked to Oleg as the fire vampire stood and walked over to the buried vampire.

Oleg crouched down and allowed the flames to ripple over his chest, covering his body like living armor. “You stole from me, hurt my people.” He shrugged. “Sometimes business is business. But I have no patience for betrayal.”

“How can I betray you?” Danior said. “You are nothing to me.”

“Do the Poshani not roam through my territory?” Oleg said. “Do the laws of hospitality mean nothing to you? I am your host , Danior. Your kamvasa exists in my lands because of the safe passage I provide.”

The vampire curled his lip. “The Poshani do not need your safety.”

“Because Vano has made a deal with Ivan?”

There wasn’t much. Just a flicker in the corner of Danior’s eye. Nothing certain.

Oleg smiled. “Is that his little scheme? Ivan thinks he’s the lord of his own territory to make agreements with Poshani terrin?”