Page 35 of Tin God

Oleg grimaced. “The bullet will suffice.”

“You sawthe chaos that Zasha is playing with along the coast.” Oleg sat back in a massive chair near the fire, his hand stirring the flames every time they died down. “I have been more than patient with the blood of our sire. They are working with the Grigorieva now and must be eliminated.”

“Katya?” Brigid asked. “You think Zasha is workin’ with Katya?”

“I heard the large one surmise it,” Tenzin said. “I thought he was being foolish.” She turned to Oleg. “Now you are being foolish.”

Mika shrugged. “Katya wants us out. And all we want to do is use the property we have enjoyed peacefully for so many years.”

“Yes,” Oleg said. “The fishing in the summer is superb. Worth the short nights.”

Lies. Brigid didn’t seem to suspect anything, but Tenzin met Oleg’s eyes and saw the calculation behind the facade. He was planning to take this territory back, and he was annoyed that Zasha might muck up his plans.

“Why not eliminate Zasha yourself?” Tenzin asked. “Why is this Brigid’s problem?”

“Zasha is blood of my blood,” Oleg said. “I have had to kill more than one of my sire’s more… feral children, and my brothers in Moscow enjoy Zasha’s antics. If I eliminate them…” He curled his lip.

“Awkward holiday dinners?” Tenzin asked.

Oleg muttered, “They will be unbearable.”

“But if the results of Zasha’s own antagonism caught up with them?” Mika spoke to Brigid. “That would be Zasha’s own fault.”

“Your brothers won’t question why you didn’t defend them?” Brigid asked. “Or why you won’t avenge their death?”

“No,” Oleg said. “They all know Zasha is a problem, but they all feel guilty.”

“Why?” Brigid asked.

Oleg turned to Tenzin and met her silent gaze.

Zasha was different. The vampire was not like their brothers.

When Tenzin had first met Zasha, they were living as a woman. She could easily imagine what life had been like for Zasha in a warrior’s compound because Tenzin had known that horror herself.

“Oleg’s brothers are guilty because they are the ones who turned Zasha into what they are,” Tenzin said.

“It was not a gentle house,” Oleg muttered. “That’s why I killed my father. That’s why my brothers hate me even though they all know it was the right thing.”

“And Zasha?”

“The only thing I could do for Zasha was kill our sire. I did that, and Zasha fled.” He shrugged. “I let anyone who wanted to leave go. I am not my sire.”

Mika muttered something in Russian that Tenzin couldn’t hear, and Oleg snapped at him.

“Mika says I should have killed Zasha.” He spoke to Brigid. “Perhaps he is correct, but we cannot see the future. I wanted to give them a chance.”

“It’s not your fault,” Brigid said.

No, it’s mine.Tenzin stayed quiet, watching the civilized vampires speak about plans and strategy, listening to them talk of traps and lures as if Zasha Sokholov was a particularly clever wolf they could trap.

Not a wolf. Not a wolf.

Zasha was a wolverine.

Ferocious, stubborn, opportunistic, and able to take out prey far larger than one would expect. After all, Zasha was only one vampire.

One vampire to cause this much mayhem.

---