Page 58 of Blood Mosaic

He walked calmly to a wooden gate set into a stacked stone wall, noting the bowls of water set on either side.

Consecrated water did nothing to Oleg. In fact, he used it to cool his fire when he worked on mosaic pieces in churches.

He cleared his throat and made sure to step loudly when he opened the gate. He could smell the faint scent of gunpowder nearby and suspected that an old farm like this would have at least a shotgun or a rifle on hand.

A gun wouldn’t kill him unless it managed to precisely sever his spinal cord at the neck, effectively decapitating him, but gunshot wounds were painful and took elemental energy to heal. He’d just burned up one favorite sweater and didn’t want to wreck this one as well.

“Tatyana Vorona.”

The faint sound of a shotgun racking.

Oleg smiled and raised both hands. “You can’t kill me with a shotgun, and I’m not here to harm you.”

“Why are you here?” she yelled through the closed door.

“I can hear you very well,” Oleg said. “You don’t have to yell. My hearing is excellent.”

The door to the old farmhouse swung open slowly, and Tatyana appeared in the doorway.

“Why are you here?”

Oleg was momentarily speechless. Gone was her professional armor of poorly fitting business clothes and fashionable new suits. She was dressed in a plain white T-shirt, a black hoodie, and a pair of worn jeans. Her golden hair glowed in the yellow electric lights, and her blue eyes were fixed on him.

She looked younger. And she looked fierce.

Oh, I will have you, my little wolf. You will most definitely be mine.

“Are you here to kill me?” Her voice was flat and emotionless.

“Why would I kill you? You work for me. Have you betrayed me?”

“No.”

“Good. So whatever you think you saw?—”

“I saw you bare your fangs, rip out the throats of nine men, and set them on fire with flames you pulled from nowhere,” Tatyana said. “Tell me I was imagining it.”

She might smell afraid, but she wasn’t showing it. He liked her bravado, and it was a little bit disturbing how attractive shewas carrying a weapon. He glanced at her feet to see a pile of freshly hewn wooden stakes piled near the door.

They couldn’t kill him, but he was impressed by her effort.

“You weren’t imagining anything.” Oleg opened his jaw, rubbing his beard as he let his fangs grow long. He tilted his head back so she couldn’t miss his extended canines in the darkness. “Your mind wasn’t tricking you, Tatyana Vorona. But you knew that already.”

She gulped, but her gaze never wavered. “I want out.”

“Out of what?”

“Out of our contract. Out of SMO. I don’t care about the money; I’ll return it. I want nothing to do with you.”

“It’s a little bit late for that,” Oleg said. “Zara already knows you’re working with me.”

Her face grew pale. “How? Was she watching my house? Did she steal my backup computer?”

It would have been easy for Oleg to let her believe that. He could be the protector then. He could trick her into thinking that all this was for her own good and that despite his monstrous nature, she could trust him.

“No.” Oleg decided that she’d be more persuaded by the truth. “Mika put the word out days ago that you were working with us to find the money Zara stole. I’m sure that’s why someone broke into your house.”

The barrel of the shotgun rose, and Tatyana’s face grew red. “You were going to use me as bait.”

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