“Zapal!”
“DRUZHINA!”
Oleg’s warriors answered back with a satisfied roar.
Blood and fire.His people had fought with blood, fire, and vengeance for the humans under his aegis who had been taken by these intruders.
Now to get the information they needed from those who survived.
Mika had four vampires tied up along one wall, and Oleg grabbed the one he’d maimed, gripping his hair and pulling him to the lineup.
“Dry them.” Oleg pointed at the vampire who felt the oldest and the strongest. “Start with him.”
Mika and Oksana put their hands on the vampire and started pulling the water from his body until the immortal began to scream in pain.
Oleg snapped his fingers and brought the fire to his hands. Then he crouched down and looked the vampire in the eye as he placed the fire on the stump of his severed leg. “They will pull the water from your body, and then my fire will crawl through your veins, eating what’s left of your blood from the inside out.”
The vampires on either side of the man began to whimper and shake, but the old one stayed strong.
Until Oleg forced a thread of fire into his body.
He let out a strangled scream and his face collapsed in agony, but there were no tears to shed. It wasn’t possible with his body shrinking and drying before Oleg’s eyes.
“Your death can be swift,” Oleg said quietly. “Or it can be prolonged, but you will tell me what I need to know before you die. Where did you take the women?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The next time Tatyana woke, her head was clearer and someone was screaming.
She froze when she realized that she’d been moved again. She was lying on the ground, and the dripping sound was back.
The screaming was Zara.
“Give! Me!” She paused and took a breath. “My money!”
There was a heavy thud, and something large clattered to the floor.
Tatyana looked over and saw that her old boss was standing over her new boss, who was tied to a steel chair that was lying on its side.
Elene’s face was battered, and blood streamed down her head and oozed from her mouth, but despite that, she was trying to calm Zara down.
“Zara, please. I want to get you your money.”
“Bitch, you’re the one who took it!” The irate vampire snapped at the men standing behind Elene. “Get her up.”
The two men lifted Elene’s chair back up, and the older woman slumped to the side. “I can’t access that money rightnow, but I can tell you where your gold is. Do you want to know where your gold is?”
“It’s in his fucking house!” Zara, who was dressed in an incongruous designer dress, bent over and shouted in Elene’s face. “You think I don’t know where it is?”
“Then you know he just did this to provoke you.” Elene’s voice was calm and reasonable despite her face looking like someone had beat it with a mallet.
Tatyana’s hands were zip-tied behind her body, she couldn’t move, and when she started crying, hot tears stung the cuts on her face.
She was beyond pain now, but she still tried to stop Zara from beating Elene to a pulp. “I can get the money.”
“You.” Zara turned to Tatyana, and for the first time, Tatyana saw her true fangs. The woman Tatyana had once thought was so beautiful and intriguing walked over, her platform heels making heavy clunks on the hollow steel floor. “Can you?” She crouched down. “Huh? Can you get me my money? Can you get mygold?”
“Uh…” She frowned. “I don’t know about your gold, but I know the passwords.”