Page 5 of Crimson Oath (The Firebird and the Wolf #2)

Oleg

Minsk, Belarus

O leg strode through the darkened factory, his footsteps echoing in the hollow air. He glanced at the large four-wheeled tractors in the process of final assembly.

“The upgrades Polina did last year appear to have increased production,” he muttered to Mika, who was walking beside him. “This facility has moved from ten thousand units per year to being on track to produce over fifteen annually.”

“She was right to ask for the funds.” Mika Arakis, Oleg’s chief boyar, head spy, and personal enforcer, scanned the massive factory as they walked. “Humans will always need to eat. Can you believe these machines?” Mika pointed to one. “Imagine how quickly you could plow a field with these.”

Oleg nodded. “Their ingenuity amazes me.”

“Very clever humans,” Mika said.

When Oleg and Mika had been human, it would have taken ten strong men over a week to do the work that one of these machines could do in a day .

Oleg shook his head. “Truly remarkable.”

His commercial and political interests in Minsk were overseen by his daughter Polina, who had been running this area of his empire for nearly two hundred years.

A father wasn’t supposed to have favorite children, but Polina might have been his. She was steady as a rock and had been at his side for over four hundred years. Her mind was a thing of beauty, and she enjoyed the logistics of empire.

If Oleg had an heir, it could very well be Polina.

She knew when an embrace was needed and when a slap was more appropriate.

The metallic aroma of vampire blood hit Oleg as soon as he reached the darkened corner where the factory’s safety showers were located.

Instead of a worker washing off chemicals, the spare white stall was occupied by a battered vampire with dark hair, pale skin, and a sour expression. He was tied to a chair with twisted barbed wire, his feet were on concrete, and his eyes burned holes in Oleg as he approached.

“Polya.” Oleg stopped at the edge of the area lit by searing white floodlights. “What did you find for me, my daughter?”

Polina rose from the chair opposite the bloody vampire and walked to Oleg, lifting her face to his and smiling. “Papa.”

He kissed her forehead and both cheeks before he pinched her chin affectionately. “This is the driver of the truck that hijacked ours?”

“No, the driver is dead. He was human.” She nodded toward the vampire in the chair. “This is the one who killed the driver before I could get my hands on him.”

The vile criminals had beaten Polina’s employee nearly to death, then hijacked a shipment of electronics that had been headed for Brest to be distributed to their Polish partners.

Polina’s people had tracked the truck to a warehouse in Baranavichy and quickly dispatched the humans and vampires guarding it before bringing what appeared to be the ringleader back to Minsk.

“He’s the last one,” she said quietly. “There were no humans left by the time we got inside. Three dead ones though. I believe they killed them as soon as they realized we’d found them.”

Humans had minds that could be bent with amnis. Humans could tell secrets even if they were trusted.

“And how many vampires?”

“Four.”

Whoever was targeting Oleg’s shipments was devoting resources to the job. This had gone beyond regional friction. “Did you lose anyone?”

“In this hijacking? One vampire. His people were skilled fighters, but the moment I grabbed this one, they all reacted. They were looking at him for cues.”

“So he was in charge.” Oleg glanced at the glaring vampire. “Language?”

“None that we heard. No names. No documents.”

So not only good fighters but disciplined.

Oleg looked at the half dozen other vampires hanging around the periphery. Polina’s staff. Let them witness an interrogation? Or would it be better for them to only hear the screams?

The vampire would be more likely to talk with a smaller audience.

“Tell your people they can wait outside,” he muttered.

Polina barked at them and the waiting vampires scattered, leaving Oleg, Mika, and Polina alone with the vampire who had stolen their truck.

Polina nodded at Mika. “Mika, nice to see you.”

“Polina.” Mika was examining the beaten vampire with narrowed eyes. “This seems to keep happening.”

“Yes, quite annoying.” Polina tossed her long dark hair over her shoulder and stared at the man. “He gives me nothing. Perhaps he might speak to you, Mika. I hear you’re very skilled with matters such as this.”

Mika looked at the man and smiled, baring his fangs. “Ah, but do we have the time for my methods?”

The vampire didn’t even flinch. Whoever he was, he was tough.

Or stupid. Perhaps both.

Oleg’s factories in Minsk were the backbone of his legal manufacturing business, and usually the excellent roads that crisscrossed the country were perfectly safe.

But this had been the fifth hijacking in six months. Someone was targeting his businesses. No human companies had seen an increase in theft, so it wasn’t a general crime wave.

This was an attack on Oleg.

He circled the man in the chair. “And no documents on him?”

“I looked for a wallet but he had nothing.” She held up a phone. “Nocht compatible, and his case wasn’t waterproof.”

Water vampires always had waterproof cases on their phones, and the man wasn’t floating away, which meant he was either an earth vampire like Polina or a young wind vampire who couldn’t fly yet.

Oleg bent down, sniffing the blood that lingered on the man’s collar. The cuts on his face had already healed. The man hissed but said nothing.

“I don’t recognize his scent.” He turned to Mika. “You?”

Mika walked over and sniffed the man’s blood, then shook his head.

Oleg sat in the chair opposite the beaten vampire, where Polina had been sitting when they came in. “You know who I am?”

The silent vampire nodded.

“So you know you have a choice,” Oleg said quietly. “You can tell us who hired you and she will kill you.” He nodded toward Polina. “She’s my daughter. I trained her on the sword myself. She will be quick. It would be painless. ”

The vampire might have glanced at Polina, but he still said nothing.

“Or you can stay silent, and I will burn you from the inside out,” Oleg said quietly. “Do you know how that works?”

Nothing from the nameless one.

“First I’ll cut off a hand.” He shrugged. “Probably a hand. Then I force my fire into your veins.”

The man’s eyes ticked. It wasn’t quite a flinch, but it was something.

Oleg continued quietly. “I don’t know why my amnis loves blood so much, but it seems to follow the veins. Runs under the skin.” He snapped his fingers and brought the soothing red-and-orange fire to his fingertips.

The liquid flames ran over Oleg’s skin like mercury, slipping between his fingers, crawling up his arms, and moving from the palm of one hand to the other.

The vampire’s eyes locked on Oleg’s fire.

“Once my flames get inside, you won’t die right away.

It will take a long time for you to die.

But you will feel every moment of it,” Oleg said.

“Or you can tell us who hired you to steal this truck.” He shrugged.

“Either way, you are dead, so being loyal to whoever paid your people is useless. They are dead. You will be dead. Your silence doesn’t matter anymore. ”

“My silence keeps the others safe,” the man blurted. “So kill me however you like.” His eyes rose to Oleg’s. “But I won’t talk.”

“Well.” Oleg wiped his hands on a cool towel that Polina handed him back in the factory manager’s office. “He was correct. He didn’t talk.”

“That was frustrating and satisfying at the same time,” Polina muttered. “At least I can tell Mr. Goretski’s family that the men who nearly killed him have been taken care of.” She curled her lip. “Unless Ivan tells them first.”

Oleg tossed the ash-stained towel on the counter before he leaned against it and crossed his arms over his chest. “What does that mean? Has my favorite brother in Moscow involved himself in this?”

“Didn’t you hear?” Polina was clearly annoyed. “Our driver was receiving medical treatment here in Minsk, and the doctors said he was recovering very well. And then Ivan sent a private plane for the entire family so he could see a neurological specialist in Moscow.”

What are you doing, Ivan?

“Did the man need a neurological specialist in Moscow?”

“According to the neurologist here in Minsk? No. He was receiving the same care as he would receive in any hospital. We pay for private doctors, Oleg. This has always been company policy. You know this.”

Working for vampires could be dangerous, which was why Oleg was quick to offer benefits to his many employees, and one of them was excellent medical care if they were ever injured on the job. He had a reputation for being generous with his humans, but it was mostly out of self-interest.

Happy humans made for loyal workers who were less easily turned.

Now his brother was stepping on his daughter’s toes.

Mika offered a thoughtful “hmmm” but nothing else.

Oleg sat on the edge of the metal desk in the factory office. “Who contacted the family initially?”

“The manager of the shipping company. He called as soon as we realized Goretski had been hurt. We quickly moved him to a private hospital; then I called the man’s wife as soon as I woke that night and got the report.”

“How many days later did Ivan send the plane?”

“Two nights later. Goretski was out of the coma, but Ivan’s men showed up at the hospital from ‘company headquarters’ in Moscow.

” Polina snarled when she used air quotes.

“The boys from Moscow had the woman on the phone with Ivan himself, reassuring the family there was an apartment in Moscow near the rehab facility waiting for them. All expenses paid.”

Polina knew as well as Oleg did that it wasn’t necessarily who caused the problems but who showed up fix them.

Humans were easily swayed.

Mika asked, “So are we all thinking that Ivan could be involved in this?”