Chapter 4 Tatyana
Tatyana
“The rest of you may have options for your exports, but my markets have been cut in half because of all this shit.” Kezia wasn’t pleased. “And my people are the ones suffering. The human sanctions are bad enough, but if I have to cut my grey market shipments to Moscow—”
“No one is saying you have to cut them entirely.” Radu was quick to jump in via the video conference.
“She’s saying it!” Kezia was fuming. “I don’t have fucking tobacco and wheat that I can foist off on—”
“Eastern Poshani markets are even more dependent on Ivan’s distribution network than yours are.” Tatyana forced herself to keep her voice even. “But we’re managing. I’m not asking your people to make any sacrifice my own are not making.”
“Is this because you hate Oleg? You have a fight with an old lover and now you want payback? Get over it! You’re trying to cut him out because he didn’t prostrate himself? He’s not going to do that, Tanya, no matter how much you may deserve an apology. You can’t expect him to publicly—”
“This has nothing to do with Oleg,” Tatyana said. “Radu and I had a productive meeting with him, but if we cannot depend on Ivan for security when we’re shipping into Russia, we’re asking for trouble every time we send a truck east.”
“I haven’t lost any trucks.”
“Yet,” Radu said. “Yet, sister.”
“If you read the report I sent you,” Tatyana continued, “I’ve identified at least four other distributors in Western Europe who are looking for computer components and high-end manufactured goods. Your prices are competitive. If you want me to reach out to them—”
“I can strike my own deals.” Kezia’s voice was biting. “I don’t need your help with that.”
Radu held up both his hands. “This is not business we should be conducting on the computer. I think we should table all this until Budapest. I have been able to carve out time to attend, so I will meet with Oleg when I am there, and perhaps Tatyana will be able to attend for a day or two so we can—”
“Radu, you attended the Báthory Summit two years ago,” Kezia said. “Tatyana should go this time.”
The vampire summit drew leaders from all over the region, which meant a rich opportunity for collaboration and an equal opportunity for sabotage and insurgence in volatile immortal territories.
Because of that, it was Poshani tradition for only two of the three terrin to attend. Kezia always hosted events since it was in her home city, but Tatyana had never attended.
Radu raised an eyebrow. “You think Tatyana should go to Budapest and meet with Oleg?”
Kezia pursed her lips. “You think she should not?”
Tatyana plastered a neutral expression on her face before she spoke. “It makes the most sense, brother. If I do not attend this year, it may appear that I am avoiding public events.”
“It will look like she’s avoiding Oleg,” Kezia said. “And no Poshani terrin bows to the Russian.”
It was a challenge, and Tatyana accepted it gladly. “She’s correct. I don’t want anyone to think I am afraid of Oleg Sokolov or anyone under his aegis. I will go in your place.”
Radu frowned. “Do you have time?”
“I will make the time.” She glanced at Kezia. “I assume there will be room in your castle for my people?”
“Of course,” Kezia said. “And don’t worry, brother.” She smiled a little bit. “Tanya and I may bicker in private, but we will present a united front in Budapest, have no fear.”
Tatyana did not doubt it. While all three of them could get heated when they met alone, in public, they stood together, and Kezia was Tatyana’s fiercest defender in social situations that often rendered the younger vampire leader unbalanced.
She had not anticipated how much of leadership was theater. In addition to a rigorous schedule of business meetings, there were constant events.
Parties. Receptions. Dances. Art openings and social events that bore the face of society frivolity but were actually where the real negotiations for power went forward.
Unity among the three-headed leadership of the Poshani was vital.
After the tumult of Vano’s betrayal and the public wounds to clan governance, unity of the terrin was a must if they wanted to retain the trust of the Poshani people, both human and vampire.
“All that aside,” Kezia continued, “right now I have people who need to be paid and merchandise sitting on trucks with nowhere to go if we’re cutting Ivan out.” She threw up her hands. “Are you two going to give me the funds?”
Tatyana closed her folder. She’d included alternate vendors Kezia could contact, but her Poshani sister hated reading business reports and dealing with any business with numbers involved. If Kezia’s assistant Lisa had been available for this meeting, it would have gone much differently.
“There will be time to negotiate contracts at the summit,” Tatyana said. “I agree with Radu. It’s less than a month away. Until then—”
“What do I do with the damn truckloads of…” Kezia flipped through her papers. “Microprocessors, whatever those are.”
Radu held up a finger. “Perhaps Arturo can meet tomorrow with Lisa and Darek. This sounds like a matter where human insight might benefit our bottom line.” Radu looked in the camera, and Tatyana absorbed the message he was trying to send.
“That’s fine,” Tatyana said. “You’re right, brother. We’ll leave the electronic markets to the humans. I’m sure Darek will have insights I haven’t considered.”
Her assistant would have exactly the insights that Tatyana supplied him with, but bumping the current problem down to human assistants was a smooth way to take this matter off Kezia’s plate and put it on Lisa’s.
Because Lisa did not hate details.
“Besides the economic problems with Ivan, things in the Kievan Rus are somewhat volatile at the moment,” Radu said. “We don’t need to insert ourselves into a situation that might prove tricky if powers shift.”
Tatyana remained silent as Kezia perked up. As much as her sister hated accounting, she adored rumors and twisted immortal politics.
“You think Ivan would challenge Oleg?” Kezia asked.
Radu shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know. I think someone is trying to make trouble, and it could be directed at Oleg with Ivan in the cross fire. We all know that Arosh chafes against Oleg sitting on his western border.”
Kezia pursed her lips. “Arosh has been cozy with Alina in Georgia for some time. If they cut Oleg off from his Black Sea ports, they would neuter him.”
“It wouldn’t work,” Tatyana said quietly.
Kezia quickly challenged her. “Why not? Do you underestimate an ancient like Arosh?”
“No.” Tatyana lifted her chin. “You know Oleg’s and my history, but the fact is, he has numbers.
Oleg is a warrior at heart, and those who fight for him love battle as much as he does.
He commands massive numbers of vampire soldiers that Alina and Arosh do not.
It would be a numbers game in the end. Oleg has them. Arosh does not.”
Kezia nodded with a slight smile. “Now that is a useful calculation, little sister.”
There was a surge of happy satisfaction that Tatyana tried to hide. Would she never grow out of her need for approval?
Twenty-seven years of human life and nearly seven years of vampire life, and she still sat up straighter when the teacher gave her a gold star.
“A good insight,” Radu said. “I agree with both of you: Arosh may chafe, but I don’t think he has any interest in the administration of an empire as vast as Oleg’s, especially when you have personalities like Ivan to manage.”
“Ivan.” Kezia grimaced. “Someone needs to kill him. Can I do it?”
“No.” Tatyana and Radu spoke at the same time, and Kezia laughed.
“You’ve both thought about it,” she said. “Don’t lie. Especially after Vano.”
“Why don’t you fill us in on the events you’re planning for the summit?” Radu very obviously was changing the subject.
Tatyana smiled with total sincerity. “I’m very much looking forward to attending the traditional dance. I’ve heard a lot about it.”
“I see what you’re doing, brother, but that’s fine.” Kezia reached for a massive binder.
Tatyana’s anticipation was genuine. Kezia was a brilliant hostess, and any event she planned made Tatyana feel like a movie star.
When it came to that kind of planning, Kezia didn’t mind details at all.
In fact, she reveled in them. She flipped through the binder and settled on a page, spreading her hands dramatically before she spoke.
“There will be a series of events at the house in town. Small receptions—invite only—we want to create a sense of exclusivity, much like the kamvasa.”
“You will piss some people off,” Radu said.
Tatyana added, “Perhaps many people.”
Kezia smiled wickedly. “I know. Let me tell you about the art and jewelry exhibits first, then the dance and musical presentation at the end of the week before the grand ball. And Tatyana?”
“Hmm?” Tatyana looked up. She’d been organizing the files she wanted to hand to Darek so he could continue the meeting with Radu’s and Kezia’s assistants in the morning.
“Make sure your stylist contacts me so you’ll be dressed appropriately. Oleg is invited to every single one of these events, and I am going to make it my personal mission that he will rue the day he let you slip from his aegis.”
You have no idea.
Tatyana nodded slowly. “Thank you, Kezia. I’ll make sure Diana gets in touch with your people.”
“We’re going this year?” Diana clasped her hands together the following night. “We’re going to Budapest? Really and truly?”
Tatyana had called her three closest staff members into her office in Warsaw. There was Diana, the dramatically enthusiastic stylist; Rumi, her right hand; and Sándor, her chief Hazar.
Sándor was standing at ease in her office in his usual posture, hands clasped behind his back, dressed entirely in trim black clothing most suitable for night flight.
“I’ll begin preparations for your security immediately,” he said. “I would have liked to have more time to prepare.”