Chapter 3

Chapter Three

“ D id you have to completely knock her out with your amnis?” Mika Arakis, Oleg’s head of security, liaison to the Sokolov crime family, and chief boyar of Oleg’s druzhina was bitching about carrying a woman who probably weighed less than an average steamer trunk.

“Relax, Mika.” Oleg held the heavy wooden door as Mika walked the small human woman out to the waiting car in the courtyard. “I tried to use a nudge, but she resisted my influence.”

The elemental energy that fed his fire and had kept him alive for eleven centuries was commonly called amnis. It ran like an electric current under the skin and was the reason Oleg could manipulate fire, thrive on blood, and influence the cerebral cortex of ordinary humans.

Of course, different humans had different natural shields.

“She resisted your amnis, so you used a hammer instead?” Mika grunted as he put the woman in the back of the car. “Bodies aren’t heavy—they’re just awkward to carry.”

“You’ve gotten soft,” Oleg muttered. “Too many minions jumping to do your bidding. I’m going to tell Ludmila to stop coddling you.”

Mika snorted.

The Estonian water vampire was more than an employee to Oleg. He was the spear tip of Oleg’s druzhina, the collection of his oldest friends and most trusted warriors, vampires who had been with him for centuries. They were comrades-in-arms—brothers and sisters by oath—and Oleg trusted them more than his own blood.

And Ludmila—one of the oldest members and Mika’s most trusted sniper—was about as nurturing as a wolverine.

“Fuck off.” Mika straightened and looked at Oleg. “Why did you use your influence at all? I was watching, and she agreed to your terms.”

Unfortunately, amnis didn’t work on other vampires, which was why Mika was such a pain in his ass.

“She could tell something was different about me.”

Mika lowered his voice and stepped close. “Tatyana Vorona suspected… that you are a moody bitch who needs to get laid?”

Oleg smirked and patted Mika’s cheek. “It’s good that you amuse me.” He walked to the other side of the antique Mercedes where one of Mika’s men was holding the door. “The Admiral Hotel.”

“Right away, Mr. Sokolov.”

The man closed the door after Oleg slipped inside, glancing at the unconscious human before Mika joined them in the front passenger seat.

“She’s going to be a problem,” Mika said.

“She’s going to be a solution.” Oleg examined Tatyana Vorona’s sleeping face. “She’s going to find thirty million dollars for me.”

“Thirty million,” Mika muttered. “You spent that last year on good caviar.”

“The money isn’t the point, and I don’t think that’s correct. You like caviar, not me.”

“Like I said,” Mika repeated, “you spent thirty million on good caviar last year.”

“I’ll probably kill you.” Oleg stretched out his legs, grateful that he had a fleet of antique vehicles to enjoy rather than the cramped, modern cars that humans used. “One of these nights I’ll probably decide to kill you.”

Vampire amnis acted like an electrical current to modern technology. That meant nothing digital and no computers. There were companies who had adapted modern technology for immortal hands, but Oleg didn’t use it. He hired humans to use technology for him, humans like Tatyana Vorona.

“Even if she can find the money, she’s going to be a problem,” Mika said. “She’s seen your face.”

“And?” He waved a hand over Tatyana’s pretty blond head. “I can make her forget me.”

“But will you?” Mika turned around and switched from Russian—which their driver spoke—to his own native Estonian. “Don’t think I missed the resemblance. She could be Luana’s sister.”

Oleg glanced at the woman. “The resemblance is only passing when she’s awake. Plus this woman was born twenty-seven years ago in a government hospital in Kerch, not to a wealthy merchant in Vienna.”

“Details.”

“Details matter.”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t notice.”

Oleg glanced at the limp woman beside him. In repose, she looked younger and the lines around her eyes had relaxed. Her hair had come loose from the neat bun at the base of her neck, and the vivid blue eyes that had captured him during their meeting were closed; light brown lashes rested against her cheeks.

“I noticed.” He looked away. Resemblance to his dead mate or not, he would use Tatyana Vorona to claw back what Zara had stolen from him, and then he would wipe her memory and let her resume her simple human life, richer by several million dollars. “Make sure she gets the money Zara owed her.”

“I’m sure Elene will take care of it.”

“See to it personally,” he snapped. “Elene has enough to do.”

“And I don’t?” Mika’s eyes were stormy. “You think it’s easy dealing with all the shit your daughter left in her wake? I’m still sorting out allies in the east whom Zara fucked over when she left Sevastopol for Laskaris’s mansion in Istanbul.”

“How much last week?”

“She increased the tariffs again.” He snapped his fingers. “No, sorry. Laskaris increased the tariffs through the Bosporus. It’s definitely not your daughter.”

As irritated as Oleg was about the extra money Zara was leaching from his businesses, he had to admire her cunning. He’d left his own sire once, and it had been just as brutal to create his own reputation in the vampire world.

If she weren’t a sociopath, he’d be proud of her.

“I have an idea,” Mika said.

They were pulling up to the luxury hotel where Oleg kept a dedicated suite of rooms for humans who worked for him.

“Later. Let’s get this one situated.” He snapped his fingers and touched a spark to Tatyana’s cheek. “Miss Vorona.”

At his touch, the woman’s eyes flickered open, but they were confused. “Where?—”

“We’re at the hotel, Miss Vorona. You passed out in the conference room, and we’re making sure you’re delivered safely to a hotel.”

“No I want…” She sounded exhausted. “My bag.” Her voice grew in strength. “My bag is?—”

“Right next to you.” He patted the shabby messenger bag. “We have a deal now, Miss Vorona. We’re partners, and I don’t steal from my business partners.”

Her fingers closed around the handle of the bag, and he saw her trying to sit up.

“Relax.” He touched her hand, and the natural shields that had been so strong before were weak and soft against his touch. He saw her hand relax and ignored the quick burst of pleasure it gave him to see her surrender. “Relax, Tatyana.”

Her blue eyes flickered open and found his own. “Who are you?”

“Oleg.” He used the Russian pronunciation, so it sounded more like Alec.

Mika opened the passenger door and held Tatyana’s back so she didn’t fall out. “The concierge is bringing a chair over.”

“Excellent.” He kept his eyes on Tatyana’s. “My assistant has called for the concierge. She’s a lovely woman named Marina, and she’ll see you to your room and make sure you have everything you need.”

“I don’t know…” She closed her eyes. “I’m tired. Why am I so tired?”

“It’s late and you had a stressful day.” He touched her hand again. “Sleep, volchitsa. I’m sure your fangs will be back when I see you tomorrow night.”

He smiled and allowed a hint of his own fangs to peek out, but Tatyana’s eyes were already closed.

“I still have my doubts whether this woman can find the money Zara stole,” Mika said, taking Tatyana’s seat in the back of the Mercedes as they headed toward Oleg’s private penthouse near the city center.

Oleg had a large compound in Odesa, but he kept a secure apartment near SMO’s offices for the times Elene needed him to work. Mika had a room in the same complex, as did Elene for the times she didn’t want to make the commute from her house outside the city.

There was no sea view as there was at his larger compound, but Oleg wasn’t a water vampire who needed to see the ocean every five minutes or he would expire.

“You have doubts,” Oleg said. “I have doubts. Elene has fewer doubts, and she’s the only who’s been trying to figure out how Zara did it, so why don’t we trust the smartest woman we know, huh?”

“Not as smart as Tatyana, according to your little wolf.”

Oleg chuckled. “You caught that.”

“I like a woman with ego, but this feels more like bravado.” Mika shrugged. “Still, I have an idea.”

“Which is?” Oleg made a habit of hiring smart people and then listening to them. It had helped him build an empire, and it was the only way he kept it.

“The human finds the money or she doesn’t find the money. Either way, we can use her to draw Zara out.”

“Use her as bait?” Oleg was intrigued.

Zara taking up with Laskaris meant his own child was out of his aegis because the old Greek was wealthy, influential, and powerful with the old guard in Athens and Rome. And since vampires were slow to come into the modern world, the Athenian immortal court still held an enormous amount of sway among vampires.

“As long as she stays in Istanbul, we can’t touch her, but the moment she steps back into your territory…” Mika shrugged. “Laskaris might complain, but there would be nothing he could do.”

“Zara’s left the woman alone this long. Why do you think she’d bother to come after her now?”

“Before now, Tatyana Vorona wasn’t revealing all her secrets to you.”

“I like your thinking.” Oleg nodded. “Instead of keeping Tatyana’s identity a secret, we make it known that she’s working with us. That Zara’s secret bookkeeper came to us and is helping us track her money.”

“She has her financial settlement from you, but she knows she can’t touch it.”

Oleg smiled. It was one of his finer ideas. No sire in the immortal world would send their progeny off without some kind of financial settlement, usually something around five percent of their wealth, which in Oleg’s case was a treasure gathered over a millennium of conquest along the richest river cities in Europe.

And five percent of that immense wealth was sitting in several nondescript trunks in his mansion in Saint Petersburg, the heart of Oleg’s business empire.

All Zara had to do to claim her inheritance was return to Oleg’s territory.

Mika continued, “With your permission, Oksana and I will put the word out among the immortal gossips of the world that Tatyana is our new favorite human and she has all the information we need. Whether it’s true or not, it will draw Zara out.”

“It could put the human at risk.”

Mika frowned. “Do you care?”

“An excellent question.”

Oleg kept strict standards on who could be subjected to harm in his world. Mundane humans simply living their lives were a resource. They created the economies that fed his wealth and produced the blood he needed to live. To harm them was as foolish as salting his own fields.

Humans who willingly entered into the vampire world were another matter, which made Tatyana a bit of a conundrum. She had been working with vampires, but he was fairly sure she had no idea what Zara was, which should have made her immune to immortal violence by his own rules.

But…

“Put her name out,” Oleg said. “We’ll keep an eye on Miss Vorona, but getting Zara away from Laskaris is more important. Once she’s not whispering in his ear, we’ll be able to negotiate more reasonable tariffs for our shipping partners.”

“And Zara will finally be under your control.”

“Exactly.” He glanced at Mika again. “Hang Tatyana Vorona out the window and let’s see who comes after her.”

“Done.” Mika smiled. “I’ll start making calls tonight.”

He called Elene on the video chat system built into his office at the penthouse. She must have already arrived at her residence, because he could see her husband in the background mixing a drink and she was dressed in a blue housecoat.

A maid was hanging his coat and then gathered the papers Mika had handed her, stacking them silently on the console table.

“Thank you for calling Marina and filling her in,” Oleg said. “I told her to put the woman in the employee’s suite.”

“I’ve already sent a note over so she won’t be confused when she wakes up.”

“She’ll be confused, but I don’t think she’ll run.” Oleg remembered the firm handshake the woman had offered before she was triggered by his use of amnis.

Elene said, “I have a good feeling about Miss Vorona.”

“You think she can find the accounts?”

Mika lifted a hand to wave goodbye before he departed the room.

Oleg nodded at him, then returned to Elene.

Elene continued. “I think she’s a meticulous record keeper—from what I could see of her paperwork—and with the reports she has and the reports Zara submitted from ZOL, we should be able to figure out not only how much money was actually taken but how Zara was doing it.”

“I know that’s been bothering you.” He snapped at the maid who was just about to leave the room and motioned her over. “I haven’t fed,” he said to Elene. “Do you mind?”

“As long as you don’t.” She reached for the glass of red wine her husband handed to her.

The maid began to unbutton her collar, but Oleg shook his head and pointed to her wrist.

“I had a conversation with Mika on the way home,” Oleg said.

The woman pushed up the sleeve that covered her left wrist and wound a kitchen towel around her arm. Then she held it out to Oleg, who grasped it in his left hand.

Elene sipped her wine. “What did Mika think of Tatyana Vorona?”

“He thinks we should put her name out.” Oleg licked along the maid’s wrist, squeezing the flesh and plumping the blue vein visible under her pale skin.

“Do you think that’s wise? This early, I mean. We don’t have all her records yet.”

“It will take time for word to spread.” Oleg brushed his lips along the maid’s arm and felt her body relax as his amnis took hold. His fangs grew long in his mouth, and his breath heated the woman’s skin. “How much are we losing every month in bribes to Laskaris?”

Putting his lips to the woman’s wrist, he bit down and felt her flesh give way. Her iron-rich blood poured into his mouth and sang for his senses, flooding his body with pleasure as he tried to concentrate on Elene’s side of the conversation.

Elene sighed. “The taxes are the same, but the bribes are double what we used to pay before Zara moved in. I spoke with Radu the other day, and he claims she’s taking three times as much as Laskaris did.”

Oleg took four strong pulls on the woman’s wrist before he stroked her arm in appreciation and pierced his tongue to heal the small wounds he’d made in her flesh.

“Now, Radu loves to exaggerate,” Elene continued, “but it’s not out of the question that she could be bumping the price for our allies even more than she’s gouging us.”

Oleg glanced up to see the woman’s mouth flushed and parted. Her eyes were fixed on his fangs, but he placed a light kiss on her wrist before he used the towel to wipe his lips and then wrap her arm.

“Find Mika if you like,” he murmured. “I’m finished.”

Sexual arousal was a common response to feeding, and if he weren’t on a call with Elene, he might have offered the young woman some release, but his mind was occupied with other matters.

“Radu exaggerates, but he’s not the only one complaining.” Oleg felt the living blood flood his system. He was alert. Primed for action he couldn’t take.

At least not at that moment.

“We put Tatyana Vorona’s name out,” he said. “We use her as bait to draw Zara out, and then we take control of the situation. Laskaris is an ancient, but he’s not a god.”

“You don’t want to go to war with Athens,” Elene said. “That won’t end well for anyone.”

“We shall see,” he said. “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve fought an ancient. Water vampires have their vulnerabilities.”

“As do you.”

“Nonsense.” He smiled a little bit. “Don’t you remember, Elene? I’m the monster in the night.”

“You’re going to be a monster to Tatyana if she gets hurt.”

“If she had come to you asking for her pay and nothing else, I wouldn’t have even noticed her. She’s hunting now, and she knows there are other predators in the forest.”

“You know she has no idea what she’s getting into.”

“She struck a bargain, Elene.” His mind flashed to the clear blue eyes and the direct challenge on the young woman’s face.

Bold. Tatyana was bold, and he admired those who took chances. “If this all works out the way I want it to, Zara will be neutralized, you and the bookkeeper will recover my money, and Laskaris will be forced to back down.”

“And Tatyana?”

Oleg shrugged. “She’ll walk away with what I promised her. Ten percent of anything she can recover. I told her earlier tonight: I don’t steal from my business partners.”

“She’s human.”

“So are you.” Oleg brought his hands together, steepling his fingers and resting them against his chin. “I’ve learned more than a little over a thousand years, Elene. Never underestimate a human.”