Chapter 48

Chapter Forty-Eight

T atyana lay in a windowless room, staring at the clock on the wall.

Midnight. It had only been five hours since she’d woken to humans outside her room, been in the middle of a vampire battle, and made love to Oleg in a shower after he killed Zara in front of her.

It had felt like making love. He’d been tender and loving. He’d washed her hair and examined every scratch on her body before he lifted her, covered her with his electric energy, and slowly made love to her.

And for a moment she forgot everything but the safety she felt in his arms.

“You are mine. I am patient. But you are mine. And when you are ready, you will give me your fangs.”

She closed her eyes and wiped away the tears that seeped from the corners. Oleg was power and possession. He was a lord accustomed to worship, and she could not give him her adoration without hating herself.

And if she hated herself, eventually she would hate him.

“Stay in this chamber until we repair your room.”

Oleg had shown her to this small room in the basement of the house.

“We’re going to search the perimeter and make sure there are no soldiers left, then check in town to see what we can find out about the men she sent. I’ll leave Lazlo to guard the house, but I’ll be back before dawn.”

Back before dawn meant that she had six hours.

Six hours to get away. Six hours to message her mother. Six hours to find some place to hide from Oleg. Hide from the magnetic force of his presence, which would break down every boundary she’d erected and roll over Tatyana until she had no idea who she was.

She could not stay.

Tatyana sat up, swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and started to move.

She could drive one of the old trucks in the garage. They were manual transmission, but that was good, right? Less chance of breaking down. She’d learned to drive on a manual transmission on her grandparents’ farm.

She dressed in jeans that rasped against her sensitive skin but would be sturdy if she had to walk far and a silk sweater Oleg had bought for her.

She could not think about Oleg.

Tatyana grabbed a notebook from her bag, scrawled out a message to her mother with the arrangements she’d made with Grimace two weeks before.

If her calculations were correct, at least one of the birds would reach Anna by dawn, hopefully not enough time for Oleg’s people to move but enough time for her mother to escape.

Tatyana tore the paper into small pieces, rolling each one into a tiny cylinder before she got on her phone and sent a text to a number Grimace had given her.

Rex.

Grimace would understand the message. Tatyana stuffed the rest of her belongings into a duffel bag but left the computer and threw her backpack over her shoulders. She grabbed the phone because she couldn’t abandon it yet. It was her only tie to information. Then she left her room.

She waited in the hallway, listening for any movement, but there was nothing. Creeping along the corridor and up the stairs, she paused again, but the house was deadly quiet.

She ran to the garden and the aviary, marveling at the beautiful cage that Oleg had built for her birds in only two nights.

Oh yes. Her lover was skilled at building beautiful cages. Tatyana looked at the mansion behind the garden and realized the massive birdcage Oleg had built mimicked the lines of the house.

Beautiful. And no less a prison.

“Shhhh.” She eased open the door of the aviary and woke the six birds nestled into their roosts. “How are you tonight, Rex Harrison?” She opened the first cylinder, latching it onto Rex’s left leg as the bird woke and began to hop around, cooing happily when he knew he had a message to deliver. “I have a job for you and Brigitte, sir.”

As soon as Rex Harrison woke, the other birds roused themselves, flapping around the aviary with excitement. Her mother’s birds loved to fly, and that night they would be going home.

One by one, Tatyana affixed the messenger cylinders to each bird’s leg, and then she lifted Rex first and walked outside, leaving the door open behind her.

She held the precious bird in her hands, whispering into his ear, “Fly quickly, Rex. Fly home.”

Then she threw the messenger pigeon into the air and watched him soar.

Tatyana quickly launched the other five birds, but when she went to shut the gate, she saw Lazlo standing on the edge of the garden.

Her heart gave a fast thump, but she lifted her chin. “I’m leaving.”

The old vampire lifted one eyebrow. “Are you?”

She gripped her duffel bag in her hand. “Yes.”

“Hmm.” There was something behind his bushy beard. Was it a smile? Maybe a hint of one. “He won’t be happy.”

“He has plenty of vampires around him who want nothing less than to make him happy.”

“But that’s not you.” Lazlo narrowed his eyes. “I’m not my brother’s enforcer. You want to go? Go. But be careful of your thirst. If I hear about dead humans cropping up, I will come after you.”

Tatyana had thought about that. “I stopped. When I was feeding from that man earlier? I stopped.”

Lazlo smirked. “The arrogance of the newborn.” He shrugged. “Kill a human in my territory and I’ll kill you. You want to take a chance? That’s up to you.” He turned and started walking into the forest.

She stared at him in a moment of panic, realizing that she’d been half hoping Lazlo would stop her. The dark road before her was unknown, and she had nothing.

She had nothing.

Or did she?

Oleg sat in the lobby of a hotel in Sochi as Mika interrogated a confused human who didn’t realize that the busload of men from Moscow was not, in fact, a hunting party at all.

Moscow.

Ivan.

His fucking brother was involved in this. Somehow Ivan was involved.

“Mr. Arakis, I am so sorry. I can give you keys to all their rooms so that you may examine them yourself if you would like.”

“Thank you,” Mika said. “That would be helpful.”

The bus driver was long gone. The cars the men had hired had already been returned to the rental agency, the blood cleaned off.

Oleg had lost a dozen human employees that night but no vampires. The cracks within his empire were growing, and he could not ignore them anymore.

Luana’s death had opened that crack. Zara’s defiance had widened it. It was going to take a firm hand to shore up his sprawling empire, and he wasn’t looking forward to another century of fighting.

At least he would have Tatyana to comfort him. In time, he knew she would be one of his wisest advisers. She had a keen mind and a head for business that would help his shipping company recover from Elene’s loss.

“Oleg?”

He looked up to see Mika trying to grab his attention. “Hmm?”

“I’m going to stay here with Ludmila and Dalan to go through the rooms. Do you want to go back to the house with Oksana? There’s not much else to do here.”

“Yes.” He rose. He wanted to feed on blood that wasn’t tainted by adrenaline. He wanted to prepare his daughter’s body to be buried. He wanted to hold Tatyana and feel something clean and whole. “See you at dawn.”

Oksana drove the old Land Cruiser back up the hill to the mansion, dropping Oleg at the front of the house while she returned the old truck to the garage.

He walked through the front doors and realized immediately that she was gone.

Oleg froze.

He could feel the absence of her blood in his veins, the nascent tie he’d built with her thready but aware.

He had taken her blood again that night. Their bond had formed even though it was only on his side. He could feel her distance, and if he concentrated hard enough… a hint of fear.

Had she been taken? Who would take her? Was it Ivan?

Oleg stormed down to the basement only to see Tatyana’s room empty, her backpack gone along with some of her clothing.

Her precious computer was left on the bed, but her phone was gone.

“Lazlo!” He roared his brother’s name into the air as he marched upstairs and into the forest. “Lazlo!”

His brother sauntered out from between the trees as Oleg stared at the empty dovecote.

Not doves. Pigeons. Messenger pigeons.

If he weren’t so angry, he would admire her.

“Yes, brother?” The bushy-haired barbarian looked amused, and Oleg resisted the urge to punch him.

“Where is she?”

“She took one of the trucks and left.”

“You were told?—”

“You told me to keep threats out of the house” —Lazlo lifted a finger— “not to keep pretty young vampires in.”

“She’s a newborn,” he hissed. “What were you thinking?”

“I warned her that if she kills anyone, I’ll hunt her down.” Lazlo shrugged. “More than that? I am not her keeper.”

“Fuck you.” Oleg was seething. “She was alone?”

“She had a bit of luggage with her, but I couldn’t see anyone else.”

No one else meant that she had a plan. Tatyana was too cautious to take off into the night without having a plan. He marched back into the house and yelled for help. “Druzhina!”

Moments later, Oksana and another one of his men appeared in the entryway.

“Boss,” Oksana said, “one of the trucks is missing.”

“I know,” he said. “Tatyana took it. Someone call Mika and have him track her phone. I think she still has it.” The phone had not been on the bed in her room. The phone could be traced.

“She left?” Oksana’s eyes went wide. “She’s a newborn.”

“You think I don’t know that?” And she had nothing. She had money in the bank, but did she have any idea how to use gold exchanges? Did she even have any…?

Oleg blinked.

Gold.

He walked upstairs, then down the hallway where he’d once carried her when she had wanted to die.

The Amber Room.

When Oleg opened the door, the chest was still sitting there, but the lid was open and the mahogany box containing all the jewels was gone along with a row of gold bars, probably all she could carry in a duffel bag.

“Clever girl.” The giant chest of gold was far too heavy to carry even for a vampire, but a box of priceless jewelry and loose stones?

Oh yes. That could get her quite far in the world if she were smart. And his little wolf was very smart.

He closed the top of the chest and looked around the room, remembering the first time he’d taken her against the wall, the taste of her blood, the gasping hitches in her breath when pleasure overtook her.

“My clever Tatyana,” he muttered. “Do you really think this makes you any less mine?”

Oleg’s anger cooled to resolve.

She was his. She could run, but he would find her.

He simply hoped she wouldn’t leave a trail of dead humans in her wake.

Oleg shut the Amber Room and locked the door behind him, then walked downstairs to see Mika already in the foyer.

“I ran back as soon as I heard. She’s on the main road heading east.”

Oleg snapped at Oksana. “Start the Land Cruiser. We’re going after her.”

East meant Adler and the airport.

East also meant the river.

East meant… Arosh’s territory.