Page 12 of Crimson Oath
Oleg looked at the half dozen other vampires hanging around the periphery. Polina’s staff. Let them witness an interrogation? Or would it be better for them to only hear the screams?
The vampire would be more likely to talk with a smaller audience.
“Tell your people they can wait outside,” he muttered.
Polina barked at them and the waiting vampires scattered, leaving Oleg, Mika, and Polina alone with the vampire who had stolen their truck.
Polina nodded at Mika. “Mika, nice to see you.”
“Polina.” Mika was examining the beaten vampire with narrowed eyes. “This seems to keep happening.”
“Yes, quite annoying.” Polina tossed her long dark hair over her shoulder and stared at the man. “He gives me nothing. Perhaps hemight speak to you, Mika. I hear you’re very skilled with matters such as this.”
Mika looked at the man and smiled, baring his fangs. “Ah, but do we have the time for my methods?”
The vampire didn’t even flinch. Whoever he was, he was tough.
Or stupid. Perhaps both.
Oleg’s factories in Minsk were the backbone of his legal manufacturing business, and usually the excellent roads that crisscrossed the country were perfectly safe.
But this had been the fifth hijacking in six months. Someone was targeting his businesses. No human companies had seen an increase in theft, so it wasn’t a general crime wave.
This was an attack on Oleg.
He circled the man in the chair. “And no documents on him?”
“I looked for a wallet but he had nothing.” She held up a phone. “Nocht compatible, and his case wasn’t waterproof.”
Water vampires always had waterproof cases on their phones, and the man wasn’t floating away, which meant he was either an earth vampire like Polina or a young wind vampire who couldn’t fly yet.
Oleg bent down, sniffing the blood that lingered on the man’s collar. The cuts on his face had already healed. The man hissed but said nothing.
“I don’t recognize his scent.” He turned to Mika. “You?”
Mika walked over and sniffed the man’s blood, then shook his head.
Oleg sat in the chair opposite the beaten vampire, where Polina had been sitting when they came in. “You know who I am?”
The silent vampire nodded.
“So you know you have a choice,” Oleg said quietly. “You can tell us who hired you and she will kill you.” He nodded toward Polina. “She’s my daughter. I trained her on the sword myself. She will be quick. It would be painless.”
The vampire might have glanced at Polina, but he still said nothing.
“Or you can stay silent, and I will burn you from the inside out,” Oleg said quietly. “Do you know how that works?”
Nothing from the nameless one.
“First I’ll cut off a hand.” He shrugged. “Probably a hand. Then I force my fire into your veins.”
The man’s eyes ticked. It wasn’t quite a flinch, but it was something.
Oleg continued quietly. “I don’t know why my amnis loves blood so much, but it seems to follow the veins. Runs under the skin.” He snapped his fingers and brought the soothing red-and-orange fire to his fingertips.
The liquid flames ran over Oleg’s skin like mercury, slipping between his fingers, crawling up his arms, and moving from the palm of one hand to the other.
The vampire’s eyes locked on Oleg’s fire.
