Page 51 of Crimson Oath (The Firebird and the Wolf #2)

Rumi smiled and reached for a bottle of beer. “You don’t.” She waved at Tatyana. “Walk with me.”

They moved from Rumi’s trailer through the circles of Poshani wagons and trailers, and Tatyana felt her tension start to drain away.

Rumi kept her voice low. “I understand that Oleg is arriving tomorrow night.”

And the tension was back. “Oh?”

“I didn’t want you to be shocked when he arrived,” Rumi said. “I know that you have your issues with him.”

“Thank you.” She glanced at Rumi. “Do you truly think he would win a vote for terrin if one of them steps down?”

Rumi waved a hand. “No. I don’t think he would even put his name forward, because he has a huge empire to run, doesn’t he? That would be like asking a prime minister to sit on a school council.”

“He would be lucky to lead the Poshani,” Tatyana snapped.

“Ha!” Rumi threw an arm around Tatyana’s shoulders.

“I love that you think so, but truly, he is a host to us and that is all. Most of our roaming areas overlap with his territory, and he has always been fair with us, which is not like his sire.” She patted Tatyana’s shoulder.

“Still, I can tell that things are not easy between you.”

“We’re not…” How was she supposed to explain? “Anytime I was around Oleg, I always felt like he was keeping secrets from me, that he had an ulterior motive.”

Rumi nodded. “That seems accurate for most vampires, don’t you think?”

Her shoulders slumped. “How am I supposed to live with people like that for centuries? It’s so much… bullshit, Rumi.” Tatyana snapped, “I am surrounded by bullshit.”

Rumi laughed. “So don’t put up with it. Just be yourself and make the rest of them change if they want to be around you.”

“I might have a very short life,” Tatyana muttered.

“But it will be your life,” Rumi said. “Yours and no one else’s. That is all we can do, my friend. Human or vampire, we must live the life…” Rumi’s eyes locked on something in the distance, and she curled her lip.

Tatyana knew before she even turned to look. “Vano.”

“He’s been lurking around the kitchen trailers all week.” Rumi kept her voice to a murmur. “I don’t trust him.”

“How was he elected terrin when so many of the Poshani seem to dislike him?”

“He put on a good face for decades,” Rumi said. “But now? Everyone is hoping he will give up the ruby goblet. He’s greedy. There are rumors that the two vampires who left paid him off to let them out of their contract.”

“It would have to be a lot, correct?”

Rumi nodded and started walking again. “Even for emergencies, there is a penalty because it disrupts everything about the planning. But we adjust.”

“Did you report his attack on Katrina to Radu or Kezia?”

Rumi turned to her. “How did you know about that?”

“I saw it,” Tatyana admitted. “I was coming to meet you, and I saw him threaten you.”

Rumi’s voice was fierce. “Did you say anything?”

“No, but Vano knows that I saw. He… he wasn’t happy.”

Rumi’s hand tightened on her arm. “You must be careful, Tanya.”

“I’m a guest here. Are you telling me I may not be safe?” She was curious what Rumi would think of Vano’s threats, but she didn’t want to put the woman at risk. “I thought the safety of the guests was the first priority of the kamvasa.”

“The kamvasa doesn’t last forever,” Rumi whispered. “And you don’t have an aegis. Vano could hurt you. He knows horrible people.”

She lowered her voice. “What kind of horrible people?”

Rumi shook her head. “Just don’t cross him, and forget what you saw.”

The night after her meeting with Kezia, Tatyana heard a polite knock on her door. When she opened it, Oleg Sokolov, high lord of the Kievan Rus, was standing at her doorstep, wearing a formal grey suit with an intricately embroidered cape over his shoulders.

She stared at him, and he took her breath away. She felt the idiotic urge to swoon, so she quickly snapped, “So where is your crown?”

The corner of his mouth turned up. “I left it at the castle. It’s quite heavy.”

She kept her face pointed toward him, but her eyes darted around and she saw the humans and vampires watching them. “Is this a formal… something?”

“A formal greeting, of course.” His voice was low and smooth. “After all, you are a vampire of my extended clan and a former employee, so it’s only proper that I greet you on my arrival.”

“Right.” So this entire meeting was for show. “Give me a minute to grab a jacket.”

Oleg nodded deeply. “Miss Vorona, I wait on you.”

She was only wearing a simple dress and sandals, but she grabbed a silk jacket that Rumi had helped her buy, then fixed her hair before she returned to the door.

Oleg’s eyes were warm as she walked down the steps of the trailer. “You look more Poshani than Russian now.”

“Do I?” Good. That had been her intention. There weren’t many blond-haired, blue-eyed Poshani, but she had tried to blend in. She switched to speaking in Poshani as they walked. “How was your journey, Lord Oleg?”

“Oh, I do like it when you call me lord.” His voice was as seductive as ever. “I’ve missed our chats, Miss Vorona. You’ve picked up the language quite well.”

“I’m not fluent yet.” She nodded at a human server she recognized. “Where are we going?”

“We are taking a public walk around the camp to show the world that we’re good friends now.” Oleg nodded at Darius as they walked past him.

“You want them to think I’m working for you again?”

“Oh no.” Oleg saw another vampire across the meadow and nodded at that one too. “You have made it very clear that you are not working for me again. That’s not what this is about.”

“What is this about then?”

“It is showing that we are friends,” Oleg said. “Polite allies if nothing else. If there is going to be any conflict in the kamvasa, I want it known that Tatyana Vorona has my protection whether she is under my aegis or not. ”

She felt her heart move. “Oleg?—”

“This is not a time to argue with me. Now— Forgive me.” Oleg walked over to exchange polite words with Madina before he rejoined her. “Now is a time to project strength and unity between us. Do you understand?”

He was protecting her. Always protecting her. Maybe it was hard to recognize it because she had always been the one holding everything together, but no matter how she pushed him or how much she antagonized him, he was protecting her.

He was conniving, manipulative, and brutal.

Overbearing, bossy, and arrogant.

And Tatyana was falling in love with him.

What are we?

Us. Just us.

Oleg repeated the question. “Do you understand me, Tatyana?”

She kept her hands held behind her as they walked, resisting the ache in her blood. “I understand.”

His amnis was in her veins, whispering to her and wrapping around her young and erratic energy. Oleg’s energy was fire. It could burn her; it would hurt.

It could also keep her warm and safe and alive.

In the darkness that was her new eternity, Oleg’s fire would never let her feel cold or alone. “I feel your blood in me,” she murmured. “It’s very hard to walk next to you and not react.”

His steps didn’t slow, but his voice got even softer. “Now you know how I feel, volchitsa.” His voice was delicately scornful. “Do you think I want this? To walk beside you as if we are mere friends?”

Are you saying you like this? Hiding our connection? Sneaking in the shadows? I would be proud to have you stand at my side.

Tatyana’s throat burned. “Oleg. ”

He smiled at someone across the meadow and raised a hand. “There will be more immortals showing up tonight. A few trusted dignitaries and friends who were invited to witness the ceremony. There will be a formal ceremony of greeting in a few?—”

“I want to bite you again.”

Oleg didn’t speak for many minutes.

Tatyana felt the admission soft and lush in her mouth. “I want to bite you again.”

“I heard you.” His voice was a low growl.

“You have meetings tonight?”

They reached a stand of trees that cast a heavy shadow between two wagons, and before she could blink, Oleg had her in the shadows, pressing her body to his and claiming her mouth with his own.

Tatyana’s blood leaped in her veins. She gripped the back of his neck and felt every molecule of her body reach for him. She wanted his fangs in her neck. She wanted to taste his blood on her tongue and feel his cock between her legs; she wanted to lose herself in the fire that was Oleg Sokolov.

He ripped his mouth from hers. “I will meet you before dawn.”

“I’ll be waiting.” She needed him desperately, but if they were gone another moment, the others would notice.

He ran a shaking hand over her head to smooth her hair, then angled his shoulders toward the meadow again.

In seconds, they were walking as if nothing had happened.

Tatyana kept her hands behind her back again. This time they were trembling, and she gripped them hard to stop. “What do you want me to do?”

“Be safe, be smart, and be quiet,” Oleg said. “I’m meeting formally with the terrin in an hour, then with Radu privately to tell him about Vano.”

“There is tension among the humans. I noticed it when I was talking with Rumi earlier.”

“I feel it. ”

A few minutes later, they had made a full circle and were back at her trailer.

Oleg nodded. “Miss Vorona.”

She let her voice drop to a breathy whisper. “Lord Oleg.”

The corner of his mouth turned up. “Save that for later. Right now give me a bit of your sharp tongue to bring down the mountain between my legs.”

“That cape makes you look like you’re going to a wizard convention.” She loved the cape, but if he asked for insults, he would get them. “Shall I find a stick in the forest so you can pretend to have a wand?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m quite certain I have all the wood I need. That’s not working, and I can’t go to the terrin’s tent with a cock hard as a tentpole.”

“You like it when I’m rude to you.” She sighed. “Fine. When Satoshi Nakamoto published his white paper in 2008 and the concept of cryptocurrency was first introduced to the world?—”

“What are you talking about?” Oleg scowled.

“I was going to explain the history of Bitcoin to you.”

“There.” He nodded. “Well done. That completely killed my arousal.”

“It always does.”

She was standing near the cooking wagons, sipping wine and trying to kill empty hours until Oleg was finished with his meetings, when she heard someone whisper her name.

“Tatyana.”

She looked up at the last person she expected to see. “Benjamin Vecchio?” She looked around, but no one else seemed to have noticed the black-clad vampire wearing an odd cap and lurking in the shadows.

What the hell was going on?

“I am surprised to see you here,” she said to the shadows, “where you definitely should not be .”

He had left the kamvasa. He shouldn’t even know where it was, but he was a wind vampire.

He kept his voice low. “Did Radu… make my excuses for me?”

His voice was wavering. Something was very wrong.

“He told us nothing.” Tatyana shook her head. “Only that you and Tenzin had chosen to leave the caravan. Is everything well with your family?”

“Yeah. I don’t know if Radu knows what’s going on.”

Oleg had implied the same thing, but Tatyana didn’t want to mention Oleg to this stranger even if everything about his demeanor was setting off her protective instincts.

Vecchio turned his head, and when Tatyana followed his eyes, she saw Vano speaking with a group of the Hazar and darigan guards.

“Stay away from Vano,” Vecchio said. “He’s dangerous.”

“You tell me things I already know. That man makes my skin crawl.”

“Tomorrow night.” He seemed to struggle with his words. “Anything you can’t live without, keep it with you. If you need to run, be light.”

Another vampire implying that something bad was going to happen at the Vashana. “What do you know?”

“Enough to know that something is coming and it could be violent.”

“This is the kamvasa. Radu would never?—”

“Radu would not.” His voice was low and urgent. “Others might.”

So something bad was going to happen at the Vashana. She had felt it. Oleg had implied it. Now this stranger was confirming it. Tatyana nodded.

“I like you,” Vecchio said. “Take care.”

The wind shifted, and she smelled him. His energy had changed, and his skin held the faint scent of cardamom and incense.

“You smell like her now,” Tatyana said. Vecchio smelled like his mate. The combined scent was lovely in an entirely unexpected way. “Did you resolve your dispute?”

Would her scent change when she took Oleg’s blood again? Would his? There was something intensely satisfying about the idea of leaving her mark on him at the cellular level.

Vecchio smiled. “You’re very observant. You know that, right?”

She shrugged. “It usually gets me into trouble.”

“Good luck.” He tipped his hat and then casually walked to the edge of the forest.

In seconds, he had melted into the darkness.

When she turned back to the wagons, Vano was nowhere in sight.