Page 108 of Crimson Oath
“I keep trying to figure out how that water vampire blows the snow across the stage.” Her face was glowing as she moved a pawn to take his knight. “I want to try it, but no matter how much I concentrate, I can’t get my breath cold enough to freeze water. Even when it’s a very fine mist.” She looked up with a slight frown. “Can you freeze water?”
“Freeze?” He smiled as he shook his head. “Definitely not. Heat is easier than cold, I think.”
“Obviously for you.” She sat back and waited for him to move. “Your turn.”
“Is it?” Oleg didn’t care about the chess game, but he very much cared about watching her delight as she took advantage of his distraction. He leaned forward, considering her queen’s position on the board before he moved a bishop.
She rolled her eyes. “Are you trying to lose?” She moved her rook. “Check.”
“Don’t speak too soon.” Oleg swiftly moved the previously positioned bishop to take her rook.
He wanted the game over, but not too quickly.
“Heat is easy because our amnis lives for vibration and vibration produces heat,” he said. “It’s a little more accessible for me because of my element, but any vampire can produce heat. That’s how we keep our skin from being ice-cold around the humans.”
“That makes sense.” She cocked her head to the side. “But I cannot figure out the snow.”
She was darling when she pursed her lips like that.
Oleg asked, “Was Vano at the play?”
Tatyana shook her head. “I didn’t see him, and Rumi didn’t mention him.”
“Good. Did she report the altercation with Vano to Radu?”
“If she did, she didn’t tell me, but she wouldn’t because she doesn’t know that I saw their fight.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t tell her?”
Tatyana shrugged. “I didn’t want it to change anything.”
“Why would anything change?”
“Because then I would be a vampire when she is in conflict with another vampire.” She reached forward and repositioned her knight.
She was stringently independent, and he didn’t approve of that streak in her. Self-sufficiency was a good trait for anyone, but vampires who isolated themselves and refused help usually didn’t live long in his world.
“Your human friends know you are a vampire, Tatyana. If they are your friends, that will not matter.” He reached for the glass of blood-wine she had poured for him.
“It does though. The Poshani say that vampires and humans are equal within the clan, but that’s not true.” She sat back and crossed her hands over her waist. “Surely you’ve noticed this.”
“I have noticed that… I do not see Poshani vampires cooking goulash or building houses in Minsk.” He smiled. “So yes. I see what you mean.”
“Exactly.”
“It is better than most organizations though.”
She pursed her lips as she stared at the chessboard. “I will have to take your word for it, but it doesn’t seem very equal to me.”
“You still think like a human.”
“I know, and I don’t want that to change.” She stood, walked to the sofa, and nudged his arms to the side so she could straddle his lap.
Oleg sat back and tried to ignore his cock, which had very definite opinions about Tatyana moving onto his lap. “You in this position tells me that you know you’re losing this chess match.”
“I acknowledge nothing of the sort.” She leaned forward and put her face in the crook of his neck, inhaling deeply.
Oleg smiled and angled his head to the side. “You sniffed me.”
