Page 34 of Blood Mosaic

Oh God.

Oh no.

No one knew about this hiding place, and nothing in the rest of her office was out of place, but her backup computer, an external hard drive, and all her micro USB drives were gone.

Chapter Nine

Oleg’s larger compound in Odesa was an expanse of modern construction northeast of the historic center, stretched over a coastal property that was walled off from the city and the tourists who flooded to the Black Sea for holidays.

He’d built it for two reasons: his younger brother who oversaw Odesa in his absence was mated to a water vampire who wanted to be near her element, and Oleg usually didn’t spend much time there.

He’d built four houses on the property, one for himself, another for his brother Klaus, one for Mika and any of the druzhina who happened to be in the area, and the last for his human staff who ran the compound. There was a private dock and a high wall around the entire compound; golf carts for the security staff; cameras, surveillance equipment, and many, many weapons.

Klaus’s house was gaudy and modern in the way that many vampires enjoyed with large windows that could be blocked off with metal shades during the day, large stretches of marble, and lavish modern luxuries.

Oleg’s was nearly empty. There were too many windows, too much concrete for his liking, and too many bare walls.

He was trying to remedy the last problem by working on a mosaic in his living room that overlooked the water. There was a modern fireplace that ran on natural gas and a massive balcony that wrapped around the seaside portion of the house. He’d decided to cover the fireplace wall with a mosaic that brought the marine sunset into the house.

Oleg was using a combination of angular and round tesserae on the project in oceanic colors like blue and green but adding in accents the color of his element. Blood-red, vibrant orange, and rich golden yellows all in transparent glass tiles.

When it was finished, it would flicker and come alive in the light of his fire. It was a moody project, one that he’d been working on for roughly five years.

That night Oleg stood shirtless in the living room, enjoying the cooling marine layer that washed in on the evening wind and working on an icy blue curl of waves hitting a grouping of rocks he’d created from stones his servants had gathered from the beach.

He was also trying not to think about how much the light blue glass he was using reminded him of Tatyana Vorona’s eyes.

Why did the damn woman have to be so perceptive?

He spread a thin layer of concrete on the wall and placed the pale blue tiles around the circular center of the wave. He picked up his tile nippers and adjusted the angle on one tile, then set the pieces to dry, heating his fingers to speed up the process.

He pulled his hand away and frowned at the wall. No, that wouldn’t do. Using fire to speed up drying always resulted in a weaker set.

Patience. The old human who had taught him how to create this art had admonished him for decades.Patience. Waiting hadvalue. Suffering had value. The hawk that waited would end the night with a full belly.

Oleg pulled his warm hand away from the glass tiles and reached for the next grouping on his worktable.

The old human’s wisdom had served him well for centuries. Oleg had waited for the right time to surpass his sire. He had waited for the right moment to strike out at his enemies and take their territories. He had waited until others saw him as a banked fire before he chose to ignite. Now his immortal territory stretched from Saint Petersburg to Sochi and all the way across to North America.

Oleg believed in patience because patience had served him well. So what did patience teach him about the little wolf nipping at his mind?

Tatyana Vorona had folded in seconds when he flooded her mind with amnis. She would wake up for the second time in two days to hazy memories and confusion. If he wanted to keep her innocent about the vampire world, he needed to keep his distance.

Most humans interacted with immortals without suspecting a thing. Zara was far more inhuman than Oleg, and Tatyana had worked with Zara for two years.

Then again, perhaps Zara had wiped the woman’s mind as well. There could be a reason that she perceived something different about Oleg.

Tatyana’s mind could be fighting back against too much intrusion. Amnis could work to wipe human memory, but the mind was sharp and adaptable. Given too much vampire influence, it would learn to work around their usual tricks.

Which was probably what had happened with Tatyana and Zara.

Once again proving that the ways that his daughter could fuck him over were nearly endless.

She will have to die.

The sinister little voice whispered in the back of his mind, but he tried to ignore it.

She will have to die, and you will have to do it.

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