Page 29 of Bishop's Flight
“My fingers are too big for the little keyboard.” He snapped the cover back on the phone and walked back to Bernard. “Did they give you anything else?”
“They knew the name of the man Justine mentioned, the soldier from the Sokholov clan.” Bernard looked angry.
“That’s excellent.” That was a lead. “Who was it?”
“His name is Mika Arakas, and I know him because he’s Oleg Sokolov’s enforcer. He always brings Mika when he’s in town.”
Carwyn cocked his head. “Is Oleg in town right now?”
“He got in a week ago.” Bernard’s face was stony. “And Mika was definitely with him.”
Ten
Brigid fought against the dawn, but it was inevitable. Whether she wanted it or not, she and Carwyn were in their day chamber when the sun rose and still had two leads to follow at nightfall.
She fell asleep in Carwyn’s arms and woke at dusk knowing that their first night was gone.
One down. Three left.
“What do we know about Oleg Sokolov?” Brigid asked. “I know Murphy hates him, but that’s ’cause Anne and Oleg are friends and get together a couple of times a year.”
Anne O’Dea was the mate of Brigid’s old boss and the only vampire therapist that Brigid knew of. She’d always wondered if Oleg was a friend or a client, but Anne was tight-lipped about the Russian.
“Well, he’s not a sociopath, because Anne wouldn’t be friends with a sociopath,” Carwyn said. “He’s a complicated figure who lives in a brutal world. His sire was a madman, and the scattered remnants of his extended family tend to feed into the worst stereotypes about Russian vampires, so you can imagine he’s cranky about Zasha.”
Oleg Sokolov.
The difference in spelling was intentional. Oleg had spent centuries distancing himself from the more brutal family he shared a sire with.
That sire was dead, and rumors said that Oleg had been the one to finally kill the old man.
“Two fire vampires from the same sire?” Brigid said. “That’s unusual.”
“I’ve heard Russians say something along the lines of ‘The smoke of hate hides the fire of fear.’” Carwyn’s arm came around Brigid. “Old Sokholov’s children were sired in fear. He cultivated it among his offspring. It’s no wonder that two of his children were sired to fire.”
“Could Oleg have anything to do with this?” Brigid asked. “Do ya think he knows what shite Zasha is up to?”
“I doubt it, but there’s only one way to find out.” He kissed her forehead. “Time to go ask for an audience with the Russian.”
But before they met with the Russian, they needed to update Agnes and Rose and find out what Lee had discovered about Alina during the day.
They dressed in haste, both wearing black to blend in with the Las Vegas crowds. As much as Carwyn could ever blend in.
“Tell me something good,” Brigid said to Lee when they exited their day chamber.
“Alina Oorzhak, and you’re welcome.” He pulled up a file with a picture, a birth certificate, and a passport. “Born in 1997, she’s twenty-six years old, and she was surrendered to the state when she was seven. Parents both died in a car accident.”
“Horrible,” Brigid muttered. “She’s young. When does she pop up again?”
“No school records that I could find, but she applied for a passport when she turned eighteen, and since then she’s traveled pretty extensively. No employment on record, so someone else is paying the bills.”
“Zasha?”
“Definitely could be.” Lee turned his chair toward them. “She entered the US for the first time three years ago on a tourist visa and has been hopping in and out of the country since.”
“Interesting.”
“She got an ID in Dallas using a forged birth certificate, uses that for getting around in the States.”
