Page 88 of Blood Mosaic

Mika shrugged. “He is. Zara is reactionary. Oleg plans.”

“And he has me for bait.”

“You came to him.”

To get paid!She didn’t say it. Getting into an argument with Oleg’s boyar was as pointless as being annoyed at the server who was literally dangling her breasts in Oleg’s face as she placed a bottle of vodka on the table.

She turned her flushed cheeks away from his table. “You didn’t answer my question before: how long have you been Oleg’s boyar?”

“Long enough to know when he’s distracted.”

She looked at Mika. “Distracted?”

“Yes. You distract him. You should make your intentions more clear. If you’re interested in being his mistress, he will be very good to you. But if that is the case, I should kill Zara before she can kill you.”

“Wait, he’s really going to kill her?” Tatyana blinked. “You don’t kill someone for stealing.”

Mika looked amused. “What do you think she would do to someone who stole from her?”

Kill them. Knowing how unpredictable Zara could be, imagining her murdering someone for stealing anything was not a stretch.

“There are neutral spaces for vampires, aren’t there? Places like the Admiral?”

Mika cocked his head. “What are you getting at?”

“Aren’t there…” She tried to think of a better word but couldn’t. “Aren’t there vampire prisons? Of some kind? I mean, Oleg has basically trapped me. Couldn’t he do the same thing to Zara?”

“Oleg has allowed you a surprising amount of access and freedom. Too much freedom if you ask me, which he rarely does when it comes to women.” Mika lowered his voice. “And no. There are no vampire prisons.”

“So you’re just going to kill her?”

He was looking over her shoulder again. “She’s near.”

Tatyana’s heart leaped to her throat. “Zara?”

“Saba.” Mika narrowed his eyes. “Don’t say her name in front of her. Maybe don’t even think it.”

Tatyana whispered, “She can’t read my mind, can she?”

“I don’t know what this vampire can do.” He glanced at the door, then looked away and sucked in a breath. “Tatyana, don’t look.”

“Why?” She felt a tug of energy like a hand in her chest, wrapping around her lungs and drawing her attention to the woman in a black overcoat who was walking through the door. “Oh…” Her lungs heaved, and she closed her eyes. “Who is that?”

Whoever she was, she wasn’t human.

“It’sher,” Mika whispered. “Don’t look.”

Tatyana didn’t look at Saba, but she did look at Oksana, who was frozen with her eyes locked on the woman walking toward Oleg.

Even the humans around the bar had fallen silent to observe the woman with a giant at her side.

She was small, shorter than Tatyana even, but her presence was massive.

Her skin was the color of ebony wood, and her large eyes took in everything around her as she scanned the tavern. Her lipswere full and wide, her cheekbones set at a sharp angle drawn up from a pointed chin.

The man at her side—an immortal if Tatyana had ever seen one—looked like a statue of Poseidon, russet hair falling over his shoulders, and a heavy beard. He walked in long strides, but there was something soft about his energy that the woman didn’t have.

Saba’s energy was rumbling and precarious. Tatyana had the sensation of the earth moving beneath them as the woman walked across the room and sat across from Oleg with the giant at her side.

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