Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
O leg smelled them before he opened his eyes, and without a word, he rose from bed, swiftly dressed in heavy black canvas pants and nothing else. He walked barefoot to the door and searched for any scent that resembled a familiar human, but none of the men outside the door were his or Mika’s.
Without waiting a second, he wrenched open the heavy walnut door, snapped his fingers, and brought the fire to his palm, throwing a swirling ball of flame into the silly, navy-clad soldiers who had gathered in his sitting room.
“What the?—”
It was the only utterance that escaped them before the screaming started.
The ball of fire exploded in the center of the men, who immediately lifted their weapons and commenced firing at him even though his upper body was already engulfed in flames.
Oleg’s fire wasn’t hot enough to melt the bullets, but the heat warped their trajectory, sending them far over his head. Only one shot hit, glancing along his thigh, and that came from a man who had already fallen to the ground to escape the fire that filled the room.
Oleg lifted his arm and sent a wave of flames across the room, lighting up every man who wore a black fabric mask.
The scent of melting polyester brought a smile to his lips.
The bravest of them rushed him with a hunting knife, but Oleg reached out, twisting his wrist and plucking the knife from his hand.
He dropped the blade, spun the man around, and gripped him from behind, pulling the burning mask from his head and yanking it to the side before he sank his fangs into the man’s neck, drinking deeply from fresh blood as the room around him burned.
When he’d had his fill, he dropped the man, picked up the hunting knife, and waded through the writhing bodies on the floor as he made his way out to the hallway where a battle had already commenced.
Where had Zara collected so many soldiers? Who had given her money?
These were questions to ask after he’d rid his house of his daughter’s infestation.
He heard a bullet coming toward his head and ducked out of the way before he raced toward the gunman, tackling him from behind and twisting his neck to kill him before he stabbed the hunting knife through the human’s eye.
Oleg continued down the hallway and toward the stairs, hearing commotion in the entryway along with Mika’s skeleton crew.
In retrospect, they probably should have had more people stationed around the house. It looked like all the soldiers Mika had hired had been eliminated by the navy-clad mercenaries Zara brought.
Where had she gotten the money?
Oleg leaped from the landing to the marble-tiled entryway, walking toward Oksana, who had a human solder in one arm while she battled a wind vampire who was trying to throw her off-balance.
“The ballroom!” Oleg shouted. “Go. There’s water.”
“For this?” She grinned through bloody lips. “He’s a lamb.” She tossed the human toward Oleg and he caught the man in his arms, twisted his neck, and sent a ball of flame toward the wind vampire, who shrieked and immediately flew toward the windows, shattering the glass, which rained down on the humans and vampires battling below.
“Get to the ballroom and gather the rest of the druzhina there,” Oleg snarled. “I’ll take care of these ants.”
“áno, Knyaz!”
Oksana and the other two vampires who’d been holding the entryway raced toward the ballroom while Oleg brought the flames to his arms, coaxing his fire like a man teasing a woman.
Come now. You can feel it, can’t you? He fed the flames his amnis and felt them curl around his body, teasing his skin and leaping toward anyone who threatened him. I’ll give you want you want, my darling.
Bullets went wild. Humans screamed, and Oleg’s fire gleefully danced through dry air of the entry hall, wrapping around humans who twisted and cried out as their bodies charred like so much meat.
The sound of weapons dropping to the marble was delightful. Oleg had never cared for guns.
“Oleg!” Mika shouted from the second floor, and Oleg looked up to see his second with a red gash across his neck. The gash was healing, but his face was grim.
Oleg lifted his chin as his fire smoldered around him. “Tatyana’s room?”
“The door was broken,” Mika said. “She’s gone. Two men in her day chamber. Both dead. She fed from them.”
Good. If she was feeding, she was alive. “And Zara?”
Mika shook his head. “She knows this house as well as I do. She could be hiding anywhere.”
A low growl rumbled in his chest. The question was, was she hiding with Tatyana? And had the young vampire succumbed to her sire’s influence? Did his little wolf still want her sire dead? Or was her ire now turned toward Oleg?
“Where would she go?” Mika asked. “She wants her gold.”
“I moved it.” Damn his sentimentality. He’d had visions of draping Tatyana in jewels and showering her with gold necklaces, diadems, and nothing else. “My office and Luana’s day chamber. Let’s start there.”
“I’ll take the office,” Mika said. “The others?”
“I told them to gather in the ballroom.”
Oleg ran to Luana’s day chamber, and he knew before he entered that Zara was already there. He walked through the open doorway to see his daughter standing in the center of the room, staring at the empty bed where his mate had once slept.
Finally.
Seeing her was still a punch to the chest. Oleg didn’t have many children, but most of them he treasured. He’d protected them and taught them. They were scattered across his territory, guarding his people and upholding his rule.
Except for Zara.
She was wearing a gold dress that looked like the traditional garb of the Athenian court, and her arms were bare. Her hair was long and loose, a coronet of golden brown curls that Luana had adored.
“Do you think she was happy here?” Zara knew Oleg was there, but she didn’t take her eyes from Luana’s bed.
He couldn’t stop smoke from leaching through the air. The emotions she evoked were always so complicated. She could be as mad and as tender as Luana had been.
“She was happy for a time,” Oleg said. “Like you.”
Zara turned to him and smiled sadly. “We were never a very healthy family, were we?”
“I shouldn’t have let her take you the way I did,” Oleg said. “That was my mistake.”
“It was what we both wanted.” Zara shrugged. “But you shouldn’t have interfered.”
Oleg took a deep breath. “She was going insane. She had to be stopped.”
Zara’s expression transformed like a switch flipping on. “She was a goddess, and you are a barbarian!” She drew a curved sword from her dress, swinging it wildly at Oleg before she charged.
“Zara!” He batted her back but didn’t release his fire even though the element tugged at his skin and his amnis went wild at Zara’s assault. “Stop this. I don’t want to kill you.”
She laughed in his face and kept swinging the sword. “I know you don’t. You could have killed me a hundred times and you didn’t.” She laughed again, the sound growing maniacal. “So what are you going to do, Papa? Keep me in your dungeon until I’m a good daughter?” Her eyes were lit with amusement. “Do you really think that’s going to happen?”
“Zara, stop.” He backed out of Luana’s day chamber and into the hall. “What do you want?”
“Where are her jewels?” Zara screamed. “That gold and Luana’s jewels are mine, and I want them.”
“And what about Tatyana?” Oleg saw Zara’s eye twitch. “Do you want Tatyana too?”
“Yes!” She shook her head. “No, I don’t care about that bitch. She’s your slut, not mine.”
Oleg drew Zara toward the landing, knowing that though his druzhina might observe, none of them would harm Oleg’s daughter without his permission.
“We need to talk,” Oleg said. “And I would like an apology for Elene’s death.”
At the mention of Elene, Zara hissed. “Where is Mika? I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to kill me yet.”
“I have more control than you.” Mika’s voice came from the bottom of the stairs. He was staring at Zara with blood in his eyes and Ludmila was standing next to him with a rifle pointed at Zara’s neck.
“Give me a single word,” the woman said calmly. “Her spine will be severed.”
Oleg lifted a hand. “Hold.”
Zara danced down the stairs, staring at Mika and Ludmila with a defiant expression. “It’s so hard to find good help when you’re immortal.”
Mika’s expression didn’t change. “Keep tempting me, and the respect I have for your sire might just crack.”
Oleg held his arms out, backing toward the ballroom with Zara following him. “Come now, daughter. We have things to discuss.”