Page 110 of Tin God

Tenzin opened her mouth, took a breath, then shut it, pursing her lips and letting out a soft “Hmmm.”

Ben glanced at his mate. “I’m not answering for her.”

Brigid raised her voice. “Smuggler or not—and all of us have known a few smugglers, hardly uncommon in our world.”

Carwyn nearly laughed. Brigid would know. She’d worked for one.

“Paulson seems to be somethin’ different,” Brigid continued. “And thanks to Carwyn, we now know he’s a conspiracy theorist who is attracting other immortals to his vision for a new world. Ablue havenon the ocean so they don’t have to be accountable to any vampire or human government.”

Carwyn said, “Paulson has quietly amassed a shadow fleet of ships captained by humans and immortals who are only loyal to him, and he’s hiding them along the Alaskan coast.”

Jennie still wasn’t convinced. “Katya’s still in charge of this territory.”

“But does Paulson recognize that?” Ben asked quietly. “You know where these facts are pointing.” He looked at Jennie’s husband. “Buck?”

Buck took a deep breath and watched his wife, but he kept his mouth shut.

Carwyn was watching Jennie herself. She was Katya’s lieutenant. She was the one responsible for the vampires in this area.

And Paulson had floated under her radar.

“But it’s not only the vampire boats.” Carwyn kept his eyes steady on Katya’s woman. “The Northwest Passage is no longer a rumor. It’sgoingto be a reality in the next fifty years, and Paulson has money, power, and a fleet of ships in Katya’s territory primed to take advantage of a new shipping lane.”

“But he’s a greedy fucker,” Brigid said. “Oleg on one side of the Bering Strait, Katya on the other. He might not want to pay the tariffs they’d both charge to keep his fleet movin’.”

Buck finally spoke. “Okay, so you’re saying that Zasha is the one attacking these villages, but Paulson is the one pulling the strings?”

“It’s exactly the kind of job Zasha would revel in. Maximum chaos. Very little risk for themself. Zasha doesn’t want to be an emperor, but Paulson’s been dreamin’ about it for centuries I’d bet. I guarantee Paulson thinks he’s too brilliant to answer to any authority other than himself.”

“So Zasha is Paulson’s attack dog.” Tenzin’s eyes lit. “He’s trying to start a war between Katya and Oleg. Then, when they are weakened from fighting each other, Paulson will be well-positioned to make Alaska his vampire kingdom with all the rich vampires he has persuaded to join him.”

Carwyn sighed. “Please don’t sound impressed.”

Ben put a hand on Tenzin’s. “We are definitelynotimpressed, because Paulson’s plan would be horrible and not desirable at all. But it would be clever.”

“That’s all I was saying,” Tenzin muttered.

“It’s also a real big stretch.” Jennie leaned on the table. “Olegis a Sokholov. If there’s a vampire pulling Zasha’s strings, doesn’t it make more sense that it’s someone from their own clan? I’m telling you, Oleg is behind these attacks, Katya’s missing ships. All of it.”

Brigid shook her head. “Oleg hasn’t had anythin’ to do with Zasha in years. And Tenzin and I saw the attacks in the north firsthand. Oleg’s people didn’t cause them. They think Katya is responsible.”

Jennie rose to her feet and slammed a hand on the table so hard it cracked. “That’s bullshit. Why would Katya attack her own people? Oleg may think he’s got a foothold in Kenai, but those humans and vampires were under our aegis, not his! She would never attack humans or vampires she was responsible for.”

“We agree,” Carwyn said. “But the two of you have been blaming each other for months now, and Brigid and I needed both of you to hear each other before we could move forward and cooperate against a common enemy.”

Jennie blinked. “What are you talking about?”

Carwyn looked at his wife, who nodded.

He flipped his tablet around to reveal Katya Grigorieva’s face on the screen.

Then Brigid flipped her tablet around to reveal Oleg Sokolov’s face on the other screen.

Jennie looked between the two vampire rulers. “Katya, give me the word. We have a perimeter.”

ChapterTwenty-Six

Ben had felt the gathering of vampires—air and water mostly—the moment they stepped inside the meetinghouse, so he knew that Carwyn, Brigid, and Tenzin felt them too.

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