Page 32 of Bishop's Flight
“And a boat for the boathouse.” Oleg smiled. “I confess I do not use it much, but visitors seem to enjoy this little… body of water.” He waved at the lake. “It’s man-made, but it’s suitable for a holiday home.”
“I imagine you have much bigger lakes in your home region.”
“We do.” He smiled a secret smile. “There is no place as beautiful as my home. I freely admit that I miss the stars there, but Las Vegas is an excellent place to do business, especially due to the current political situation.” Oleg glanced at Bernard. “Your mistresses run the city well. I give them my thanks.”
“I will be glad to share that with them.”
“Please do.” His expression was solemn. “When I got your message, Brigid, it was vague but it mentioned my associate Mika. I do hope there has been no trouble. He’s typically a very disciplined employee.”
“No trouble at all,” Brigid said. “We were actually hoping to speak to him about someone he met at a bar in town about a week ago.”
Oleg raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps it is someone I know as well?”
“Do you know a young woman named Alina Oorzhak? She may be working for a very distant family member of your clan.”
Oleg’s eye twitched. It was barely perceptible, but she caught it. “You’re speaking of Zasha.”
“I am.”
“Has there been some trouble?” Oleg looked at Brigid and narrowed his gaze as if he knew she wouldn’t have been in the city if everything was A-OK. “If Alina is around, so is Zasha. She’s their pet.”
Brigid looked at Bernard. It was up to him how much he wanted to share.
“There is an isolated situation that has come up regarding Zasha Sokholov,” Bernard said. “We understand that you and Zasha have different organizations. We would not want to trouble you with the details, but we were hoping to locate Alina and wondered if Mr. Arakas might know her whereabouts.”
“Of course.” Oleg waved someone over and muttered something low in Russian. “We will fetch him, but I hope you have time to join me for tea.”
“Of course,” Brigid said. “We would love that.”
Within seconds, an elaborately decorated samovar was brought out along with a steaming pot of tea and plate after plate of sweets and pastries, among them the petits fours that the baker at the Del Marco had made.
“Tell me, Brigid, what kind of trouble has Zasha been making?” Oleg snapped his fingers, barked something in Russian, and as fast as the servants and guards had appeared, they disappeared, leaving Oleg, Brigid, and Bernard alone. “I have called for Mika, but please, you must tell me. What has Zasha done?”
Brigid glanced at Bernard.
“I trust your judgment,” he murmured.
How could she make Oleg understand the seriousness of the situation without revealing the threat against Agnes and Rose?
Brigid turned to Oleg. “A couple of years ago, my husband and I were part of a team that Katya Grigorieva sent to the forest in Mendocino County. She’d discovered that Ivan Sokholov had been holding unauthorized hunts in the region and needed to be dealt with.”
Oleg poured dark tea concentrate into a teacup, added water, and handed the delicate cup to Brigid. “I see. You and Carwyn were part of this… team.”
Brigid heard the unspoken question. Did she and Carwyn have political aspirations in California? “One of the humans taken was related to Carwyn’s clan.”
“An understandable intervention then.” He poured another cup of tea for Bernard. “Continue.”
“Ivan was killed, and though Carwyn and I were not directly responsible for the death, we encountered Zasha during the battle.”
“Ivan’s loving sire.” Oleg’s smile was humorless. “Zasha has always taken after our late sire. Both the cunning and the cruelty.”
“They’ve become fixated on me,” Brigid said. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m a fellow fire vampire or if it’s because I was involved in Ivan’s death—”
“Zasha had no real paternal feelings for Ivan, just like most of my extended family has only a loose connection to their kin. It wasn’t a value we were taught.”
“Then I have no idea why they have become obsessed, but they have stalked Carwyn and me across the country, going so far as to try to undermine Marie-Hélène Charmont in New Orleans.”
Oleg poured his own cup of tea and sat with it for a moment, adding some sugar after he’d taken the first sip. “I see and I do not.”
