Page 33 of Crimson Oath
“He’s Arosh’s favorite,” Mika said. “If we offend him, itwillcreate an international incident.”
“We don’t need to offend him, we just need to find him.” Oleg pointed at the computer on Mika’s desk and snapped. “Make it happen.”
“Make it happen,” Mika muttered. “As if I snap my fingers and produce vampires out of thin air.”
“He’s a wind vampire, but he’s keeping to Alina’s territory,” Olegsaid. “Probably because he doesn’t want to skirt too close to my territory north of the Caucasus.”
“We have more spies there.”
“Exactly.” Oleg stared at the pictures someone had printed off of the profile of Arosh’s son and Tatyana in the club.
Once he saw her, he went back and watched every moment of her time in that bar, watched every movement. Tried to read her lips.
She was very good at concealment. How irritating.
Oleg lifted his chin. “Get the plane ready. I want to visit the mother.”
Mika walked out, muttering in Estonian, but Oleg didn’t care.
If he couldn’t have Tatyana under his control, he’d at least go reassure himself that her mother was firmly in his territory and under his aegis.
“And Mika!” he shouted at his boyar’s retreating back. “Order her a cake.”
Anna Asanova narrowedher eyes as she watched him eat a piece of the apple tart he’d brought from the baker at his mansion in Sevastopol. She was in a housecoat and wearing a sleeping cap on her head.
There was something still oddly menacing about her.
“What’s wrong with my daughter?” She glared at him.
“Nothing.” He set his fork down. “Why do you think something is wrong?”
“Because you show up out of nowhere at” —she glanced at the clock on the wall— “three in the morning. And now you’re eating an apple tart in my kitchen.”
Oleg heard Anna’s carrier pigeons softly shuffling in their cote outside. “How are your birds?”
“You know they’re fine. Answer the question.”
“I can’t find her,” Oleg admitted. “I am worried.”
“You told me you knew where she was.”
“I do. Roughly.”
He’d never personally been to Arosh’s compound in the Caucasus Mountains, but he knew approximately where it was. Unfortunately it seemed that access to the compound was only via wind vampire, and the Fire King was unlikely to allow him to fly up for a friendly chat with Tatyana.
Anna shook her head. “You don’t like when you’re not in control of things, do you?”
“Of course not.” He jabbed a fork at the apple tart. “No one likes being out of control.”
“Most humans live long enough to learn that control is an illusion.”
“I’m far older than you,” Oleg said. “Far,farolder.”
“Yes, but you became an immortal young, like my Tanya.” Anna waved a hand at him as if brushing off an annoying insect. “So you don’t know everything, Vampire Man. You were young and powerful, and then you became a vampire and became even more powerful. So when I say that all control is an illusion, you don’t really believe me even though you know I’m right.”
Oleg set down his fork. “What is your point, Anna Asanova?”
“You think you control your world?” Anna leaned forward. “You control nothing. Governments turn on their people. Relationships fail. Peopledie. And you don’t always get a warning that it’s going to happen.” She snapped her fingers. “All your plans can be gone in the time it takes for a bus to drive around a corner.”
