Page 116 of Crimson Oath
“Clearly you’re a big fan.”
And she was falling for him, which made her a new breed of idiot.
“He’s a… manipulative son of a bitch.” There. Maybe the man would stop asking about Oleg now. She could feel Rumi’s and Desiree’s eyes on her.
Vecchio’s voice was soft and sad. “Aren’t they all?”
Huh. She hadn’t expected that from someone who was raised in the court of a vampire assassin. “You tell me. You’ve known them longer than I have.”
He was staring at the pot when he spoke in a quiet voice. “You’ll find your people. Eventually you’ll find them.”
Now Tatyana felt like she’d stepped on a kitten who was following her around. The man didn’t look arrogant anymore—he looked sad.
She wanted to warn him about wearing his expressions on his face so everyone could see them, but she wasn’t his mother. “Yes, I hope so.”
“So what brings you to the Dawn Caravan?”
“What brings anyone? I heard about it. I needed to get away.”
They chatted back and forth a little longer, and Tatyana had to admit: he was an unusual vampire, and not only because of his abnormally strong amnis.
She wanted to ask Oleg about him. She wanted to know about Oleg’s involvement with the Vashana Zata.
And she wanted to know why the energy in the camp had changed so abruptly the moment these two new vampires showed up.
The place that had been her peaceful sanctuary was off-balance.
Something was very, very wrong.
Chapter 27
Oleg
Oleg waited four nights to visit Tatyana. He figured that would give her enough time to rebuild the walls that had come crashing down when she’d taken his blood.
It was an experience he’d relived in his mind approximately a dozen times since it had happened.
Tatyana splayed over him, her elemental power misting over his skin like a kiss of fog as she rode him. The power on her face as she eyed his neck. The tentative touch of her fangs giving way to rampant, bloody desire.
Caution giving way to power giving way to desire. Then the near-instant rise of wariness again as the walls between them dissolved in a wave of joined pleasure. Utterly unexpected and completely novel.
Tatyana taking his blood was the singularly most erotic experience Oleg had ever had.
His amnis was alive in her body now, so even when she was distant from him, he felt a sense of her. She’d been vulnerable that night, bordering on afraid.
“You’re not afraid of me.”
“Sometimes I am, a little bit.”
Now he understood her fear because a level of it had entered his own blood.
He didn’t know what they were building or what path this bond would lead them toward, but Oleg was more sure than ever that Tatyana belonged to him.
After over a thousand years of life, discovering the unexpected was intoxicating.
“Boss.” Mika’s voice broke into his mental distraction.
“Hmm.”
