Page 130 of Crimson Oath
“You can take any role you would like. I would value your counsel on any?—”
“If I started working for you again” —she could not let him run her over— “then all this?” She motioned between the two of them. “It changes. Youhaveto realize that.”
“Why?” He leaned down until their eyes were level. “Are you saying you like this?” He pointed to the door. “Hiding our connection? Sneaking in the shadows? I would beproudto have you stand at my side, Tatyana Vorona.”
“I like being at peace.”
He took a step back as if she’d struck him. “And I do not give you peace?”
“I want to be with you.” She stepped toward him. “But who you are to the world and who you are to me?” She put her hand over her heart and shook her head. “They are not the same.”
“This place is an escape for you.” His jaw tightened. “And yet I cannot escape the world. Not even here. Not even with you.”
“What are you talking about?”
Chapter 29
Oleg
He could lie. It would be so easy to lie to her.
But she was leaving him again. Running away like a frightened rabbit, and in his anger, Oleg didn’t think. “You think you are the only reason I am here?”
Her chin lifted, and she stepped away from him. The amnis that had been roused and hungry for him stilled. It watched. It waited. He could feel her blood in his body chill.
“Of course not.” Her voice was mechanical. “Because this year the Vashana Zata is happening. Power is changing hands, isn’t it?” She pushed a finger into his chest. “Andnothingthat important happens in your territory without your having a say in it.”
She grasped the connection immediately.
Of course she did. His future mate had a brilliant mind, but Oleg would not be dissuaded.
“Milaya—”
“Don’t call me that.” She shook her head. “Don’t use sweet words when this is just another… maneuver. I’m such a fool!” She reached down and swept the tiny pieces of the puzzle off the table, scattering them to the ground in a sudden and unexpected burst of anger. “We never stopped playing chess, did we?”
Oleg stared at the scattered pieces of the game. He had sent Mika to the nearest town to find the elaborate wooden picture, and his boyar had come back with five choices. Oleg had picked the lavender field because he was hoping it would remind her of home.
Now the broken picture mocked him.
Foolish. The voice in his mind had the insidious whisper of his sire.Foolish vampire.
Perhaps hewasfoolish.
But was Oleg foolish to want her or foolish to have hidden the truth?
“You didn’t come here to find me, did you?” Tatyana asked. “You came here because you know that something is happening with Vano, Radu, and Kezia. You know that something strange is happening with those new vampires who showed up.”
“Thieves.” He kept his voice soft and his eyes on the purple and green pieces on the floor. “Radu invited three thieves to the kamvasa. And I don’t know why.”
“The Frenchman. He’s the other thief.”
“Very good, volchitsa.” Oleg walked to the desk, pulled out a chair, and dragged it across from the sofa. He snapped at it. “Sit.”
“Fuck you,” she spat out. “I am not your dog.”
“No, you are myheadache,” he hissed. Oleg pointed to the chair with gritted teeth and fangs that wanted to punch through his jaw. “You want to know why I am here? Then sit.”
She kept her eyes narrowed, and her energy was as cold as the Baltic Sea, but she sat.
