Page 35 of Crimson Oath
He saw Mika strolling toward the side gate where the entrance to the beer garden was located and the wind vampire’s head go up.
Spotted.
The vampire whipped his head around and hit something on the table that made a clanging noise.
Tatyana’s head darted up.
Mika walked into the bar.
Tatyana was already on the move.
She slipped her backpack over her shoulders and ducked into a hallway where Oleg could no longer see her. A snarl ripped from his throat, and he walked out of the shadows toward the beer garden, but the silver-haired vampire was already gone.
He’d either taken to the air or he’d walked so fast that Oleg’s eyes hadn’t caught him because he was distracted by watching Tatyana.
Mika was already headed back to the shadows of the trees across the street where Oleg was waiting.
As Oleg stepped across the gravel-strewn road, a wall of air slammed into him from the front, knocking him off his feet and knocking him into a stand of cedar trees.
He fell to the ground, bracing his hands on the needle-strewn ground, and smoke simmered from under his heated palms.
The fucking wind vampire had broken his line of sight, and he’d lost Tatyana.
“Look for her!” he shouted at Mika.
Another wall of air, but this time Oleg caught a glimpse of his attacker, who was perched in the top of a nearby tree like a white-headed raptor. His body was cloaked in black, so the only visible part of him was his pale hair and face.
Oleg kept his eyes on him, stalking toward him with flames licking at his collar. “You.”
The pale one sneered and flicked his fingers, which sentanother stream of air whipping around Oleg, wrapping around his legs and nearly knocking him over as the press of wind constricted his feet.
He snapped his fingers, lobbing a ball of fire up and into the tree.
Despite the damp spring night, Oleg’s fire was so intense that it caught in the branches of the cedar tree and burst to hungry life, eating away toward the peak of the evergreen and making the pale vampire fly into the night.
“What are you doing?” Mika ran back and nearly shouted at him. “You can’t start a forest fire in Alina’s territory.” He lifted a hand and threw a cooling mist over the tree, dousing the fire just as the humans in the bar noticed the flames. “I know you can feel the woman, soyoufollow her. Ignore the other one.”
Oleg turned and slipped back into the shadows, stalking toward the front of the restaurant and the double doors that opened inward.
He ignored the hubbub of the patrons as they ran to the windows to see the smoldering cedar tree and reached for the thread of connection that linked his blood to Tatyana’s.
There was a pulse in his blood and an elemental nudge that sent him toward the back of the restaurant where an archway led to a dark hallway.
He could scent her as soon as he stepped inside.
There was the sound of a crashing door and a quick flash of moonlight before the hallway was dark again, then another slam of wind.
This time Oleg was expecting it. He felt the pale vampire’s amnis before it hit him, and he braced himself as he shoved forward, snapping his fingers and bringing a handful of fire to his palm.
The dark figure pulled the hallway door open again and the silver-haired vampire reached for her, wrapping his arm around her waist, prepared to take to the air as soon as the door opened.
Before they could move, Oleg struck, sending his fire down the center of the hallway.
It collared the silver-haired vampire in a living torque of blue flame.
Arosh’s son froze. If he moved an inch, the flames would engulf his face.
The door outside closed softly, and the dark figure stepped forward, pulling down the hood of her sweatshirt as she walked toward him. “Oleg, stop.”
