Page 80 of Blood Mosaic

Tatyana didn’t seem to notice, but her eyes weren’t as sharp as his. She probably couldn’t see.

“There.” He stroked her cheek. “No one will bother you now.”

“Good.” She sat up straight and angled her body away from his, picking up her wineglass with trembling fingers. “I like to come up here to read at night. I don’t want anyone talking to me.”

What a good actress you are, little wolf.

“They won’t.” He picked up his glass of blood-wine and adjusted the hard cock in his pants. “I’ll finish this glass of wine, and then I have another meeting tonight.”

“About… her?”

“Don’t worry.” He touched her chin again. “I’m very good at cleaning up messes.”

A haughty Greekwater vampire named Kastor sat across from Oleg in the luxury of Oleg’s suite at the Admiral, his legs spread wide and his arms stretched across the back of the velvet sofa, taking up as much space as possible.

How utterly common.

Oleg glanced at Mika and Ludmila in the corner and saw his two boyars heroically suppressing their smiles.

If Kastor had lifted his leg and pissed on the coffee table, his need to assert dominance might have been more subtle.

“Tea?” The hotel server held out a delicate cup she’d prepared from the brightly painted samovar on the side table. They were enjoying a full tea with all the accompanying sweets prepared by the excellent bakery at the Admiral.

Kastor was unimpressed, but he took the tea and sipped it before he set it down on the table between them. “Just because Zara is gone doesn’t mean anything will change. Your tariffs to Alitea remain unchanged.”

Alitea was the hidden island fortress in the middle of the Aegean Sea where Laskaris and a council of ancient vampires ruled. They had dominated shipping traffic in the Mediterranean for centuries, growing lazy and greedy under Laskaris’s leadership.

“Is this because I killed his newest plaything?” Oleg sipped his tea, eyeing Kastor’s abandoned cup on the table. To not partake in this hospitality told Oleg all he needed to know about the grating immortal. “It was a family matter. Nothing personal.”

Kastor shrugged. “Laskaris enjoyed your daughter’s company, but this has nothing to do with Zara or your” —he curled his lip— “barbaric discipline.”

He glanced at Mika, who raised a single eyebrow and shrugged as if to say,I told you so.

Oleg smiled at Kastor. “Consider it a favor to all our kind. She was probably stealing from your boss just as she stole from me.”

The slight twitch in Kastor’s expression told Oleg that Zara had definitely been stealing from Laskaris, and they’d probably only found out when she fled.

“If she was stealing from us, even more reason to keep your tariffs as they are.” The vampire leaned forward. “Or perhaps we will raise them to compensate for the loss.”

“Tell Laskaris to keep pushing and see what happens. A hungry wolf is stronger than a well-fed dog.”

“Are you calling yourself a dog?”

“I’m calling myself a businessman who has ports in three oceans while Laskaris rules one.” Oleg smiled a little bit. “Tell him to think twice about what will happen if I divert my business. I have my own resources, and I don’t need to ruminate for a decade with an ancient council to make decisions.”

Kastor’s fangs dropped in his mouth. “Are you threatening Alitea?”

“I am simply reminding you that once, my sire ruled the rivers of this continent, and while I choose to conduct my business with more” —Oleg sipped his tea— “modern practices, I am not without the people and the resources necessary to control and exploit my territory.” He finished his tea and set down his cup before he looked the Greek emissary dead in the eye. “The Bosporus is one strait. Istanbul is one city. A far eastern outpost for your master, is it not?”

Kastor’s eyes narrowed. “Youarethreatening us.”

“I am suggesting that you return to Alitea with a proposal to ease the tariffs through the Turkish Straits for all the immortal organizations who must use them as a shipping channel. Not only me. Everyone. Consider it a gesture of goodwill. After all, it’s only with cooperation andpeacethat all of us can prosper.”

“Barbarian.” Kastor curled his lip and stood up. “I see that you’re as unreasonable as the Poshani bastard and the Georgian bitch.”

“Please keep complimenting my allies, Kastor. I’ll be sure to pass your praises to all the vampires of the Pontos Axeinos. Let Laskaris continue insulting our people and he will discover just how inhospitable we can be.”

Kastor turned his nose up and stormed out of the hotel suite, no doubt retreating to his own accommodations at the hotel before he returned to Athens the following night. Or maybe he would go jump in the ocean.

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