Page 38 of Crimson Oath (The Firebird and the Wolf #2)
Tatyana
“ T atyana Vorona!”
She turned when she heard Kezia’s voice in the meadow. They’d moved during the day, and Tatyana wondered if the Hazar suspected someone had intruded in the camp.
She saw Kezia walking toward her with a vampire behind her who had the bearing of a Hazar with his fitted black T-shirt and dark wrap sunglasses. He had sandy-brown hair cut military short and a square jaw.
From Tatyana’s observation, wind vampires wore sunglasses when they flew, which made sense to guard against irritation of the eyes. And some vampires wore glasses when they looked at screens or bright lights.
But to walk through the camp wearing them looked ridiculous.
“Tatyana.” Kezia called her name again and waved. “I’m so glad I found you.”
Tatyana rose and walked to Kezia, greeting the woman with a light press of her cheek to Kezia’s on one side, then the other, as the Poshani women had started greeting her .
“I am happy to be found,” Tatyana said. “What a beautiful new spot the darigan have found for us tonight.”
“Isn’t it?” Kezia turned to the water. “This location is one of my favorites.”
They were parked on the edge of a very large pond fed by a gently flowing stream, and instead of the kamvasa spreading in concentric circles, in this location it wrapped around the shore.
Many of the human wagons and trailers were opposite the central campsite, and the smell of cooking fires drifted across the water along with the sound of happy conversation and quiet music.
“Vano, you must meet our new surati, Tatyana Vorona.” Kezia held Tatyana’s hand and motioned to the man behind her whom Tatyana had thought was a guard.
Despite Kezia’s warm introduction, Tatyana got nothing from Vano. Not warmth and not distance. The man’s energy felt like a void.
Vano greeted her in Russian. “Welcome to the Dawn Caravan, Miss Vorona.”
“The Dawn what?” She looked at Kezia.
“That’s what many foreigners call the kamvasa.” Kezia smiled. “Vano is our businessman. He’s in charge of the money, so he talks with more foreigners than Poshani most nights. She speaks Poshani, brother. She picked it up surprisingly quickly.”
Vano nodded a little bit. “You honor us.”
“It’s a beautiful and fascinating language.”
“Some find it difficult to learn.”
“I enjoyed the challenge. It’s very nice to meet you.”
“You are most welcome to our wandering home.” Vano smirked a little bit. “Kezia and Radu say you have been a delightful addition to our traveling season this year. They sing your praises.”
“They’re very kind.”
“It’s good to get new blood into the caravan.”
“The season is coming to an end too quickly,” Tatyana said. “I love being here. ”
“Perhaps you will visit us again when you have the time.” Vano’s tone of voice didn’t match his words. “I wish I could pull myself away from the office for a full season.”
“You could,” Kezia said. “But you love your accounts, brother.”
Tatyana smiled. “You know, my background is in accounting.”
“So I’ve heard.” A smile touched his lips. “Oleg’s clever bookkeeper.”
“I did work for Oleg for a time.” Tatyana kept her smile on like a mask. “I enjoy numbers, and he had an interesting job for me. I’m independent now.”
If Tatyana wanted to keep in touch with her new friends in the Poshani, she might be looking to Vano for a job.
He cocked his head. “So you’re independent of Oleg?”
Maybe not as much as I was before we fucked last night.
“We parted on good terms” —and we were naked at the time— “but yes, I’m independent of his aegis. I consult on a variety of bookkeeping and technology projects.”
Vano seemed to understand what she was getting at. “So if I needed an outside expert to wrangle our finances into the modern world, you’d be the person to hire?”
“Possibly.” She cocked her head. “I have a background in technology, and I’m a vampire. It can be a complicated transition for our kind.”
Our kind. She was talking like she’d been working with vampires for decades. “I think it’s helpful to have someone with experience in both modern human business and immortal corporate structures to bridge that gap.”
Dear God, was she talking herself into a deal with a vampire again?
At least this time she wasn’t immediately drawn to the monster on the other side of the figurative bargaining table. Vano was about as charismatic as a roll of aluminum foil.
“An interesting thought.” Kezia exchanged a look with Vano. “Something we might bring up with Radu before the Vashana. ”
Vano shrugged. “It’s only three weeks away.”
“But that is enough about work.” Tatyana quickly caught on that Kezia wanted to change the subject. “Did I see them setting up the stage earlier?”
“Yes, the players have adapted The Captain’s Daughter for the stage,” Kezia said. “I am quite looking forward to it. They are performing tomorrow night, but they’re doing a public rehearsal later if you want to watch.”
“I look forward to it.” Tatyana turned to Vano. “Do you enjoy theater?”
Just then, a gust of wind batted the back of her legs and tossed her hair into her face before swinging around and blowing toward Vano and Kezia.
Vano—who had been staring across the meadow—whipped his head back to Tatyana with a sudden and intense interest. His eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry, what did you ask me?”
“Theater.” She held her breath in her lungs, freezing in place. “Do you enjoy the theater?”
She’d taken two showers that evening in addition to the dousing she’d shared with Oleg last night. The man couldn’t possibly be embedded in her skin.
What was Vano smelling?
Vano blinked. “Theater? I enjoy it as much as anyone, I suppose.” He nodded at Kezia. “I have a meeting with the darigan tonight. It was nice to meet you, Miss Vorona; I hope you enjoy the play.”
Vano nodded slightly, turned, and walked away.
Tatyana still felt a knot of nerves in her belly, but Kezia didn’t seem to be aware of any tension between her and Vano. “I can tell your brother is the life of the party, isn’t he?”
Kezia burst out laughing. “Too true! He’s the worst, but we love him.” She shrugged. “We can’t complain because he makes us too much money, and none of us like looking at contracts, do we?” She hooked her arm in Tatyana’s. “Come. I heard through the rumor mill that you’ve taken a lover. ”
“This kamvasa is worse than an old people’s home for gossip,” Tatyana muttered.
“That means you must tell me all about it, or I’ll make up my own stories.”
“Absolutely not.”
It was after midnight, and Tatyana hadn’t seen Rumi, Katrina, or Desiree at the play rehearsal that night, which was far better than she’d anticipated.
It had a straightforward plot, a courageous hero, and a sympathetic heroine.
Along with a happy ending, it was exactly the kind of entertainment that Rumi would love.
Tatyana walked to the cooking wagons on the other side of the pond, wondering if there had been extra work she didn’t know about.
“Rumi?” She called for her friends. “Desiree?”
If she’d been sitting in front of a play while her friends worked extra hard on some kind of project, she was going to feel guilty.
She slowed when she heard harsh voices in the distance.
“…this kind of waste.” The voice was full of derision. “Do you think the clan has endless coffers?”
“So we need to stop giving the children snacks?”
Tatyana froze when she heard Rumi’s voice.
“Are the small humans starving? No. They get enough food. They don’t need cakes and treats all day. They should be working with their parents anyway, not playing in the forest like wild animals.”
She crept forward, keeping to the shadows as she slipped around the corner silently.
In the distance, hidden between two old-fashioned vardos, Rumi and Katrina were standing across from Vano and a Hazar Tatyana didn’t recognize .
“So is this how it is now?” Rumi asked. “You’ve seeded informers within the caravan to report back to you about every piece of coin?”
“Do you have any idea how much this operation costs?”
“I know how much some of the vampires are paying to be here.” Rumi didn’t back down. “And I know how hard my brothers are working in Minsk and Budapest building houses and stacking bricks so their families are provided for.”
“It is not your role to question your terrin about how our labor is divided.” Vano’s voice rose. “Who do you think you are?”
Rumi lifted her chin. “It’s not the role of the kitchen or even the terrin to tell Poshani parents how to raise their children. If they’re hungry, we feed them.” She slapped one hand in the other. “That is our only role.”
“You waste our hard-earned money.” Vano spat out his words. “Ungrateful?—”
“Who is earning the money?” Katrina cut into his tirade. “Because I don’t see you packing up trailer lines or hauling wagons, Vano.” She sneered at him and said something low in Poshani that Tatyana didn’t catch. “Don’t you lecture us about work when you?—”
Vano lifted his hand to strike the woman, and Rumi lifted her hands and shouted, “No!”
Tatyana nearly lunged forward, the air around her vibrating with evening mist, but Vano froze, and the Hazar with him leaned over and whispered something in his ear.
Vano’s open hand turned into a pointing finger that he placed under Katrina’s chin. Tilting her head up, he hissed, “Know your place, whore.”
“Vano, this is unacceptable.” Rumi straightened her shoulders and stepped between Vano and Katrina. “Not even a terrin may address the cooks of the kamvasa in this way. I will be speaking to Radu about this.”
“You do that.” Vano stepped back and straightened his shirt. “And stop feeding the children cakes.”
Tatyana felt frozen. The idea of any of the vampires committing violence on the humans of the kamvasa felt like a slap across her own cheek.
Was this the dark side of the Poshani clan? She knew it had to be too good to be true. There was no community of humans or immortals where mutual respect was truly honored. That was a pipe dream, an ideal that she’d built up in her own mind because she liked it here and it felt safe.