Page 52 of Crimson Oath
Tatyana had put the call in to the number Sibella had given her, requested passage, and had been quoted a price, but she hadn’t heard anything that confirmed her place with the Poshani safe house. Would Saba’s court end up being her only option?
Either way, she knew her days in Arosh’s court were numbered.
She opened her closet and hung up the thick robe she’d donned when she left Kato’s quarters. She glared at her coat she’d worn in Gori the night Oleg found her. It smelled like warm cedar and frankincense and a little bit of leather. She hadn’t touched it since she returned, but every time she opened her closet, it was like Oleg burst out and kissed her.
Fuck.
Maybe she should put that damn coat out of its misery and burn it, but her mother had given her the warm wool garment when she’d moved away for university, and she loved it even though it was a little too big.
It was just her luck that she’d been turned at a point in her life when she was underweight from stress. She would now be bony for eternity.
Tatyana dressed in a court-appropriate pair of pants and a warm wool tunic that Kato had given her in his signature blue color. She would fill the rest of her night sitting in Arosh’s court and listening to him as Kato’s pupil.
Maybe that would feed the Fire King’s ego enough to leave her alone until the Poshani decided to return her call.
At the back of her mind, she worried that they would not return her call at all. Sibella had warned her that not all who applied for passage in the kamvasa were granted a place, and Kato had warnedher that the Poshani were aligned with Oleg, though they remained an independent clan.
Would Oleg sabotage her place in the vampire safe house? The longer she went without a message from the strange vampire clan, the more worried she became.
Someone rapped on her door. “Tatyana Vorona,” a voice called. “The Fire King requests your presence in the throne room.”
Damn.
This could not be good.
“Your actions putour entire race at risk,” Arosh said. “There was video taken and posted on your computers and on the human television channels.”
It had taken a few nights, but apparently the news of Oleg and Samson’s fight had made it to Arosh’s ears.
Fantastic.
Samson stood with a blank face on Arosh’s right side, staring at the ground.
Tatyana stood in the middle of the audience chamber with Kato standing beside her. She said nothing. Correcting Arosh’s understanding of the internet and social media seemed like a poor use of words when he was this angry.
She kept her voice soft and placating. “My lord Arosh?—”
“Don’t you think your anger would be better directed at the Varangian?” Kato interrupted her, glancing to his right where the oily representatives from the Georgian vampire queen were standing. “Granted, Samson might have overreacted to Oleg’s intrusion, but he’s not the one who started a forest fire. Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for Alina to speak to Oleg about this?”
The two Georgian vampires whispered to each other, and Arosh glared at Kato.
“Brother, your student has caused her last problem in my court. She will leave, or she will be confined to your quarters.”
“I understand,” Kato said. “She is already in the process of moving, but if you desire that she live with me until she’s ready to leave, I have no objection.”
“The Varangian’s interest in her is causing problems.”
Tatyana couldn’t take it anymore. She blurted, “This is bullshit!”
“Tatyana.” Kato put a hand on her shoulder. “Not right now.”
Arosh looked amused. “Oh no. Let her continue, brother.”
“It is completebullshit.” She enunciated carefully in Farsi so there would be no mistaking her meaning. “It’s not my fault that Oleg keeps tracking me. And it’s definitely not Samson’s fault. He was protecting me from two vampires who were not even supposed to be in Alina’s territory.” She looked at the two reps from Alina’s court. “I don’t understand why you are here. Go talk to Oleg if you want to know why he started a fire in Gori.”
“You are his bookkeeper,” one of them said quietly. “Everyone knows this. You should return to him.”
“I’m not his anything.” Kato’s hand tightened on her shoulder, but she ignored it. “My sire is dead. I am under no aegis. I am Kato’s student, and that is all I am.”
