Page 7 of Crimson Oath
Calculating all of her sire’s treasure along with the money Oleg had paid her after she found Zara’s loot made Tatyana realize that she was well and truly rich.
As long as Oleg didn’t try to get Zara’s gold back.
“So Oleg is going back to Odesa.” Tatyana nodded. “Good. That’s good.” Odesa was farther from her than Sevastopol.
“How does he move so easily everywhere? Is it all by boat?” Anna had left Sevastopol by boat, so she assumed anyone fleeing without government permission had to go by boat.
“No, he’s just rich.” And he had human authorities in his pocket and specially built planes. “Rich people can do anything whether they’re human or… not human.”
The first thing Tatyana had learned after becoming a vampire was that human borders meant little to vampires unless they became a hindrance to movement. And even then, with enough bribery or violence, those hindrances often disappeared.
Okay, the first thing she’d actually learned was how miserable and overwhelming bloodlust was, but that was quickly followed by the territorial thing.
She glanced at Samson, but he was sitting in a booth and drinking a beer, ignoring the women who were hitting on him while he read a book.
For some reason, Samson liked Tatyana enough that he was willing to fly her to Kutaisi once a month to call her mother. It wasn’t strictly in Arosh’s territory, where she officially had safe haven, but it wasn’t exactly out of it either.
Tatyana asked, “You didn’t tell him we had a regular call time, did you?”
“No, but he knows I’ve talked to you.”
“Did you tell him that?”
“No, he knew already!” Anna twisted her mouth into a scowl. “You think I would snitch on you?”
“I know you wouldn’t mean to.” But she had.
Oleg probablysuspectedthat Tatyana called her mother, andAnna had confirmed it. Which meant she would need to stop coming to the same comfortable spot and look for something new, because now she knew Oleg was watching her mother.
Her mentor Kato had told her she would need to vary her movements, but Tatyana had become comfortable with the same quiet bar where no one seemed to pay her much attention.
Damn it.
“We’ll need to change the time for next month,” Tatyana said. “Just in case.”
Anna sighed. “I was finally able to remember this time, and now you want to change it. And you don’t want me to write anything down. I don’t have your vampire brain, you know.”
“I know, but tell me…” Tatyana racked her brain. “Who is someone famous who has a birthday in March?” Her mother loved old movie stars and had a trivia-like knowledge of their lives.
“Liza Minnelli has a birthday on March twelfth.” Anna pursed her lips. “I can’t remember the year.”
“Okay, that’s perfect. Three and twelve.” It was near the beginning of the month. “I’ll call you on March twelfth at twelve in the evening. Midnight. Can you remember that? I’ll call you on Liza Minnelli’s birthday.”
Anna nodded. “I can remember that.”
“Good.” She waved at her mother. “I love you. Be careful.”
Anna muttered, “Becoming a monster has made you very sentimental.”
No, it had made her very conscious that everyone she knew was probably in danger of early death. “I should go.”
“Wait!” Anna raised her hand like she was still in school. “Your boss said to give you a message.”
“He’s not my boss anymore.”
“I mean…” Anna shrugged. “You’re still afraid of him, so he’s kind of still your boss.”
“I’m not afraid of him.” She wassoafraid of him. But probablynot for the reasons her mother thought. “What did he want me to know?”
