Page 171 of Blood Mosaic

She grabbed her phone, quickly turned it on and looked at the map, searching for a road that might lead away from civilization. The truck would drive over rough terrain. If she could find a place to cross the river, she could probably make it into Georgia and then contact Grimace.

Or maybe she would simply lose herself in the mountains for a while. She could find a cave. Hunt animals for blood. She knew animals were an option. She couldn’t die from exposure unless it was the sun. If she could find a cave, she might be safe.

There were lots of caves in the mountains, right?

She just needed to get far enough away from Oleg that she could make a plan.

But right now she needed to get away from this border crossing because Oleg might have come back to the house before dawn. And if he came back before dawn? All bets were off.

She saw a road on the map that ran parallel to the river, weaving through warehouses and residential areas. She turned off her phone and decided to follow it.

It was four in the morning and she had just over two hours to find some kind of shelter before dawn. She had the case of blood-wine and a duffel bag of gold and jewels. She already knew she’d need help to sell any of the jewelry, but she could deal with that later.

Later?

She nearly laughed at her own foolishness.

This was the stupidest thing she’d ever done in her life save for the time she’d walked into a vampire’s office building in Odesa, thinking she had leverage.

Why hadn’t she just taken the loss? Forgotten her back wages?

She could be back in Sevastopol right now, listening to her mother complain about life, chatting with friends online whom she would never meet in person, and looking for work to supplement her mother’s meager pension.

Instead, she was running from a possessive vampire lord after she stole his treasure, hoping that she’d find shelter before the sun burned her alive.

“Tatyana, you’re an idiot.” Okay, yes. She was an idiot. But she was her own idiot. That was something.

Right?

She maneuvered through the border town, avoiding the glances of any passing cars as she drove like she knew where she was going.

She had no idea where she was going.

A rush of panic nearly choked her.

She couldn’t turn back now. Oleg was going to be furious. She’d stolen from him and taken off, risking exposure and maybe embarrassing him in front of his druzhina.

She had to keep going.

Tatyana wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and turned left, still heading north though the road twisted and turned.

She missed him already. He was like an addiction in her veins, a longing hunger she wanted to sate even more than her thirst.

She couldn’t do it.

Tatyana could see the river on the other side of a barbed wire fence. It snaked across a shallow riverbed under the moonlight, a threaded channel of rocks, water, and mud.

She turned right onto a gravel road, heading into a dark stand of trees.

A pair of lights appeared behind her.

Fuck.

She pushed down on the accelerator, willing the car to go faster. If there were humans in the car, she was a danger to them, and she hadn’t forgotten Lazlo’s warning.

Kill a human in my territory and I’ll kill you.

She knew he wasn’t joking. Not even a little bit. This was still Oleg’s territory, right? And Oleg’s territory meant Lazlo’s territory.

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