Page 73 of Blood Mosaic

In Sevastopol, her only comfort in leaving her old life was being back near the water after the urban sprawl of Kyiv. She loved the ocean and was always happier when it was in her sight.

But now when she looked at the depths spreading out before her, she wondered what was below the surface. The glistening waves danced in the sunlight, but beneath that light were vast depths she had never seen.

Water vampires.

Wind vampires.

Earth vampires.

And of course fire.

She thought she’d known about the world around her just like she’d known about the sea. But what she had known was only a thin skin along the surface of a depth so vast and dark she was beginning to think there was no way not to drown.

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.

She was losing it, because a week ago, those words would have set off every alarm in her mind. Now? They seemed reassuring.

There was a friendly knock at her door, and she threw on a robe before she went to answer it, unsurprised to see a uniformed waiter rolling a breakfast cart into the room.

“Good morning, Miss Vorona,” the waiter said in English. “I’ve brought your usual breakfast, but is there anything else you’d like this morning?”

He set out trays of steaming eggs and sausages, a basket of French-style pastries, and a bowl of fruit.

She looked at the small mountain of food on the table, all of it for one person. “Does everyone eat in their room here?”

“Not at all, miss.” He glanced up. “There are two eating establishments at the Admiral—a restaurant on the mezzanine and a steak house on the fourteenth floor. And there is an excellent and exclusive nightclub on the roof. As a guest at the Admiral, your name will be on the list every night you stay here.”

“Huh.” She watched him clear the table and organize everything on the rolling cart. “And everyone here knows about vampires, right?”

The server blinked. “I… Well, it’s not something we speak about openly. We’re welcoming to all guests, Miss Vorona.”

“Right.” That was a yes, but keep your mouth shut, thank you. “I think I’ll take my meals at the restaurant starting tomorrow. Can you let Marina know?”

“Of course, Miss Vorona.” He looked slightly uncomfortable. “I will pass that along.”

“Thank you.” With that small step into independence—such as it was—Tatyana felt good enough to get up and face the day.

Elene was standingover her shoulder, looking at the computer screen where Tatyana and Grimace were typing. “And you trust this person named after a blue cartoon character?”

Tatyana pressed her lips together. “He’s actually named after a purple hamburger mascot, but yes.”

“Why is your online name Pigeon?”

“Because no one would guess it.” She really hated that Elene was standing over her, but she understood that she was goingoutside the secure and background-checked employee pool at SMO and Elene had reservations. “I promise he doesn’t know where I’m working or who I’m working with, but he’s the best at getting into secure servers, and that’s what we need to do. We need to access the account information and reset the access codes and passwords so we can?—”

“None of that will make any sense to me.” Elene cut her off. “I simply need to know that this purple person is not going to be able to get into our servers while he’s working on this project.”

“He won’t.” Tatyana couldn’t say he wouldn’t be able to. Grimace could get nearly anywhere, but she trusted that if she threw enough red meat at the boy, he wouldn’t be interested in a boring shipping conglomerate like SMO. “I’m giving him something far more fun with this project.”

She tapped out a message in the online shorthand that she suspected was completely foreign to Elene. “I’ve got the account numbers for three different banks where Zara moved money, backtracked from the mortgage payments for the London and New York properties. Now all Grimace has to do is hack in and reset those passwords and we’ll have access.”

“Good.” Elene patted the top of Tatyana’s chair. “But don’t think I didn’t notice that you didn’t answer the question.”

She looked up, her eyes wide and innocent. “What question?”

“Can this man get into our servers?”

Tatyana opened her mouth and hummed a little bit. “He can. I can’t think of a server he wouldn’t be able to access with enough time and attention. If he wanted to, but he won’t. It’s not enough of a challenge for him.”

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