Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

T he warehouse lay on a deserted street on the edge of the waterfront, surrounded by barbed wire and a guard shack where two guards stood holding machine guns that were typical for private security.

Oleg and Mika waited in the shadows across the street. In a few more minutes, a dozen of Oleg’s druzhina would be gathered—all the ones in the immediate area—and they would take the warehouse, the humans and vampires inside, and any information they had about Oleg’s missing women.

It had been three hours since Tatyana and Elene had been taken.

“Remember,” Mika murmured, “we need the leaders alive.”

His boyar had identified the warehouse as the temporary headquarters of a faction of the Albanian vampire mafia that Zara had hired to abduct Elene and Tatyana.

“Waiting for Karl and Oksana.” Mika signed across the dark street where Ludmila was waiting in the shadows. “They’re almost here.”

Ludmila and Oksana were mated. The sniper would feel her mate as she approached.

Oleg was wearing a pair of black canvas pants and nothing else. His amnis was frantic and furious. He felt a muscle in his cheek twitch, and his fangs were long and aching in his mouth. He gripped the leather-wrapped handle of his favorite axe. He hadn’t used it in a decade, but he kept the edge sharp, and he would feed his old friend blood that night.

He forced himself to be patient.

Zara wouldn’t kill them immediately. She would want information from Tatyana. She would want to use Elene for trade because she knew the woman was valuable to Oleg.

He blanked out what they must be suffering at that very moment and hoped that wherever Zara’s people had taken them, his daughter was not yet present.

She was… unpredictable.

Oleg was doing everything possible to dampen his own energy, so he couldn’t reach out and sense how many immortals were in the building, but Mika’s spies said that roughly a dozen vampires and twenty or so humans were hiding out, waiting for a boat back to Sarand?. They had been hired the week before, transported by Greek freighter, and were now stranded in Odesa.

They were at Oleg’s mercy, but he had none.

“They’re here,” Mika said. “Wind first?”

“With Rudov.”

One of the few blood siblings in Oleg’s druzhina, his brother was a powerful and silent earth vampire with an affinity for metal.

Mika signed across the street, and four wind vampires took to the air, shooting into the darkness and alighting on the roof of the warehouse with silent feet, Rudov carried by the largest flyer.

Oleg met his brother’s eyes across the darkness and nodded. “Now.”

Pouring from the shadows, Oleg’s people sped across the street. Two cracks rang in the darkness—probably from Ludmila—and one armed guard’s head exploded. Then the next.

Rudov gripped the metal roof in his hands, and Oleg could feel his amnis flex as the vampire tore open the roof of the warehouse before he dropped inside, followed by the four wind vampires.

Shouts came from inside the warehouse just as half a dozen water vampires scrambled easily over the gate and the barbed wire. As they passed, they scraped their flesh and the scent of blood filled the air.

Oleg’s people did not stop.

Mika ran forward—Oksana emerging from the shadows to join him—and in a singular movement, the two soldiers tore open the gates and tossed the twisted metal across the road.

Oleg waited for the sound of chaos to reach his waiting ears. He walked deliberately across the street, his axe lifted to his shoulder, and let his fire come alive.

He stepped over four human bodies in the yard—several of their limbs had been ripped from their bodies.

The Albanians wouldn’t have crossed into his territory without tacit permission of the Greeks. Oleg had a message to send.

Double doors were open, but no light came from the shadowy death trap where the Albanian vampire mob was caught.

He brought a ball of fire to his hands, tossing flames at the trucks sitting parked in the yard. One burst into flame, and a few moments later the second caught on fire.

There were shouts and screams from inside the warehouse as Oleg crossed the threshold, the fire burning along his arms the only light other than the occasional muzzle flash and a burning trash can.

He stepped over two twitching vampire bodies with their heads detached.

A foolish human shot at Oleg from the shadows, hitting him in the shoulder, and he charged.

He moved in the blink of an eye, grabbing the human from behind a pillar with inhuman speed. The man screamed as Oleg grabbed him, pulled his head to the side, and sank his teeth into the man’s neck before he twisted it, waiting for the neck to snap before he let the body drop to the ground.

Just in time for a water vampire to come at him from the shadows, pulling a cloud over Oleg’s fire in an attempt to douse his flames.

But the immortal only had the damp night air to work with, and when Oleg let his flames loose, his older amnis easily overpowered the misty element of the water vampire, who abandoned elemental attack to charge Oleg with a curved, short saber aimed at his neck.

Oleg lifted his axe, relaxed his fire, and swung, rage-filled adrenaline powering his oldest weapon as it arced toward the vampire’s neck.

Sword met axe, and the ancient clang of metal rang through the dark warehouse, adding to the screams and cries of the humans and vampires fighting.

Oleg stomped his foot, bent his knee, and wrenched his axe handle, pulling the curved edge of the other vampire’s saber close, slicing his own arm open as he grabbed at the sword hand of the vampire he was fighting with his flaming left hand.

Oleg’s fire rushed to heal the open wound on his arm as he yanked the sword away from his opponent. Then he swung his axe down, slicing off the man’s leg below the knee.

The man screamed, and Oleg had every intention of taking off his head when Mika yelled, “Wait!”

He snarled at the intrusion into his bloodlust but pulled back. Instead of his neck, Oleg sliced off his right arm and let the vampire drop to the floor, crippled but alive.

Oleg turned and surveyed the wreckage his men had left. The scent of human blood was heavy in the air, and the floor was black-red with the excess of battle.

His people were flush with the blood of their enemies, and the thrilling rush of battle permeated the air.

Oleg raised his axe and held it over his head. “Druzhina!” he shouted with a guttural roar.

“Krov!”

“Druzhina!”

“Zapal!”

“DRUZHINA!”

Oleg’s warriors answered back with a satisfied roar.

Blood and fire. His people had fought with blood, fire, and vengeance for the humans under his aegis who had been taken by these intruders.

Now to get the information they needed from those who survived.

Mika had four vampires tied up along one wall, and Oleg grabbed the one he’d maimed, gripping his hair and pulling him to the lineup.

“Dry them.” Oleg pointed at the vampire who felt the oldest and the strongest. “Start with him.”

Mika and Oksana put their hands on the vampire and started pulling the water from his body until the immortal began to scream in pain.

Oleg snapped his fingers and brought the fire to his hands. Then he crouched down and looked the vampire in the eye as he placed the fire on the stump of his severed leg. “They will pull the water from your body, and then my fire will crawl through your veins, eating what’s left of your blood from the inside out.”

The vampires on either side of the man began to whimper and shake, but the old one stayed strong.

Until Oleg forced a thread of fire into his body.

He let out a strangled scream and his face collapsed in agony, but there were no tears to shed. It wasn’t possible with his body shrinking and drying before Oleg’s eyes.

“Your death can be swift,” Oleg said quietly. “Or it can be prolonged, but you will tell me what I need to know before you die. Where did you take the women?”