Page 72 of Blood Mosaic

Her eyes went wide. “My mother?—”

“I have already contacted her bodyguard, and Mika called in reinforcements in Sevastopol. It’s a precaution. Zara still has allies in the region, but your mother should not be a target. Her people already have the computer” —he waved a hand— “things that you stored there.”

“Files. A backup hard drive. A laptop and USB?—”

“Yes, all those things. Your mother knows nothing, and Mika has already spread the word thatyouare here. So your mother will be safe.”

“But not me.” Her smile was bitter. “Because I’m the bait, right?”

“The bait that is under my protection,” Oleg said. “I have no plans to let Zara get her hands on you, Miss Vorona. You belong to me now, and I’m a very possessive vampire.”

Chapter Sixteen

Hours later, Tatyana made it back to the hotel and stumbled into her room. She was exhausted and keyed up with numbers and spreadsheets dancing in her mind, but she dragged her pillows and blankets to the bay windows and curled in front of them, eager for sunlight even though the morning light would make it harder to sleep.

She dreamed about Oleg, and in her dream, fire danced over his naked flesh. He held her against a wall, licking down her body as her back arched in pleasure.

He was whispering things in a language she didn’t understand, and when he knelt in front of her and looked up, blood was dripping from his lips. Instead of making her afraid, it only aroused her more.

When Tatyana woke, she was sweaty and her hair was tangled.

What was happening to her?

“Vampire glamour,” she muttered.

Not for a second did she believe that Oleg wasn’t using his influence over her mind to seduce her.

She grabbed her phone from the charger and quickly navigated to the internet.

She searched “vampire glamour” and got various links to websites for popular shows, book series, and online games. She even got an ad for something called a “vampire glamour facial” and really didn’t want to know what that was.

Tatyana sighed. The problem with finding information about vampires was that they were fiction.

Except that they weren’t.

What was the other word Oleg had used?

Amnis.

She searched for “vampire amnis” and got absolutely nothing but random fan art, pop-culture wikis, and a few miscellaneous blog posts.

Whoever was doing online scrubbing for the vampire world, they were earning their money. There was very little information about any of it online, not even on conspiracy sites.

She searched “Wallace Conglomerate” and only got listings for a few Scottish tourism companies and one events company in New York. SMO’s listings she was intimately aware of because she’d searched it out when she was trying to get paid and there was nothing suspicious about it.

Fascinating.

So vampires like Oleg couldn’t use technology because they would short it out, but they clearly had people who knew how technology worked.

Yes, Tanya, like you.

What was she except an extension of Oleg now? She was finding his money for him and dangling herself as bait for him to catch his vampire daughter.

“What is my life now?” Tatyana stared out the window at the deep blue waters of the Black Sea.

The sea had always brought her comfort.

When she was a child, it was the place where she was happiest. She would run down the hill to the seaside everymorning at her grandparents’ farm, spend all day with the kids from town, and hike back home when the sun went down, exhausted and grubby from a full day of sunshine and salty water.

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