Page 13 of Tin God

“She’s trying to shield everyone, not just you. So far over a dozen people that she interacted with personally have been killed by Zasha Sokholov. More injured. Dozens, maybe hundreds, traumatized. Everyone Brigid knows could be a target because for some reason this vampire has fixated on her. Why the hell do you think she went to the frozen north?”

“Because that’s where Zasha is, according to rumors.”

“Yes. And while normally one vampire killing another in my territory would be very much my business, I looked the other way when she went to Anchorage because I want Zasha dead, and I think she can kill them.”

“…I need her to kill Zasha Sokholov. And maybe Oleg too.”

Carwyn looked at Katya through narrowed eyes. “What’s your conflict with Oleg?”

Katya pursed her lips. “How much do you know about Alaska?”

“Not much. I don’t like the cold. I know that it’s your territory.”

“Yes. I acquired it about a hundred years ago. Before that, it was Oleg’s.”

“Why did it change hands?”

“He got distracted.”

Fair enough. Carwyn only nodded.

Katya took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t spend much time in Alaska, but maybe that’s been a mistake. The people who live there, mortal and immortal, they’re… a different kind. Have you ever visited?”

“The only time the weather is tolerable in that place, the sun is out for twenty hours a day. What do you think?”

“I think that’s the reason I don’t go there much either.”

“You’d think an environment like that would be a vampire wasteland.”

“But it’s not a vampire wasteland at all. This time of year, the place is practically crawling with our kind.” She shrugged. “The lure of long nights, I suppose.”

“And Oleg keeps men there. Even though it’s your territory.”

“He has several compounds that remain.Supposedlyfor his men. He calls them his fishing camps, and I let him keep them as a gesture of goodwill. It wasn’t a violent handover.”

“But you think they’re outposts? Incursions?”

“Alaska may be a remote territory” —Katya’s lips firmed into a line— “but it’s a very profitable one.”

“Is Oleg interfering in that profit?”

She leaned forward and refilled her coffee cup. “There have been some strange things going on. And Brigid may think Zasha is the root of all evil, but Zasha is a Sokholov. Just like Oleg.”

Carwyn read between the lines immediately. “You think Oleg is working withZasha?”

Katya shrugged.

“Why are you so suspicious of Oleg after a century of coexistence?”

“Because two of my fishing vessels and a private yacht owned by a very important vampire in my territory went missing in the Inside Passage this fall. That’s the territory around Juneau that’s a whole network of islands and inlets. Deepwater channels.”

“Boats go missing sometimes.” Carwyn shrugged. “Anything else?”

“Two immortal compounds have been attacked by unknown enemies—dozens of humans and vampire missing or dead.”

That wasn’t a missing boat. He could see Katya’s barely hidden rage.

“And now Zasha Sokholov is rumored to be in the same territory as those thefts. I don’t think this is a coincidence.”

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