Page 112 of Crimson Oath
How… odd.
Rumi shrugged. “I know that probably seems strange, but they’re vampires.”
“Yes, vampire relationships can be very… complicated.”
Oleg and Luana.
Luana and Zara.
Oleg and Tatyana.
She was exchanging blood with a man who was well over a thousand years her senior. Who was she to judge?
“If they’re mated vampires, why do they have differenttrailers?” Desiree frowned as she chopped another pile of onions. “That is unusual, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know. You can be mated to someone and still not trust them, I suppose.” Rumi looked at Tatyana. “What do you think?”
“You’re asking me?” Tatyana shrugged. “You’ve known about vampires longer than I have. I’m a baby in this world.”
“You have a certain… glow about you though.” Rumi winked at her. “So I think that you’re learning more every night.”
“I am not talking about this with you.” The last thing she wanted was for her human friends to know or even suspect that she had a lover, especially one who was sneaking into the kamvasa under the Hazars’ nose.
“Only three weeks more until the Vashana Zata,” Desiree said. “Do you think that’s why these new vampires have arrived?”
“I doubt it,” Rumi said. “It’s not like a former assassin or a vampire prince would be chosen by our people to take over as terrin.”
“You never know,” Desiree said. “There have been stranger vampires chosen to lead the clan.”
“But not outsiders!”
Tatyana walked over to Rumi’s table to help chop the onions. “What’s the Vashana Zata?”
Rumi frowned. “You mean Radu and Kezia didn’t tell you?”
Desiree waved at Tatyana to take over stirring the pot of paprikash and picked up the knife Tatyana had been using.
“They did not.” Tatyana started stirring the cooking pot as the pungent smell of chopped onions filled the air.
“Vashana happens every year,” Rumi said. “It’s like… the general meeting. You’ll see more Poshani come in—usually every family sends a representative—and disputes are settled, business is discussed, that sort of thing.”
“So what’s a VashanaZata?” Tatyana asked.
Desiree shoved a pile of onions into a bowl and started chopping more. “That’s where the terrin are chosen. It only happens every hundred years, so it’s a very big deal. Sometimes a vampire will retire—I’ve heard some people say Radu is ready to do something else—so if there’s a vacancy, someone new will be chosen. It’s a big honor but a big responsibility too.”
“So there might be a new leader this year?” For some reason, that disoriented Tatyana.
“It’s possible.” Rumi muttered, “If there is, I pray to Sara-la-Kâli they take the ruby goblet.”
Tatyana looked at Desiree.
The older woman smiled. “The terrin carry three goblets that were gifts of the Persian emperor at the beginning of our people’s journey. One made of ruby, one of citrine, and one of emerald. Kezia carries the citrine, Radu the emerald, and the ruby one is Vano’s.”
Desiree whispered, “We’re not big fans of Vano.”
“I see.” She wanted to ask if anyone was a fan of Vano, but that would probably be rude. It wasn’t her place to say such things. She wasn’t Poshani.
Tatyana’s mind was whirling. She’d been halfway hoping until she met Vano that she might find some kind of job with the Poshani business even though she was an outsider.
